Guild Wars 2

I believe that the reason there is a one time event “that will change Tyria forever!” is because they’re going to revamp orr, and other parts of the game/new zone(s) that need adjusting (mob density, ect)…because they realized they screwed up sort of (for example different mob hp scales/amount of health)

Or it could be that they have a new way they are going to do dungeons from here on out as advertised.

Personal I think the Island we’ll be going to in the update will be the Battle Isles/Isle of the Nameless from gw1.

Nothing to base that theory on but wouldn’t it be interesting?

It’s a 1 time event because the Lost Shores only come out of the water once?

Don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Orr’s fine. It’s just going to be a small content addition, with some nice introductory events. Maybe you have to “unlock” access to the new island through an instance, there’s a thousand ways they could go with this, but using content addition under the guise of changing areas of the game people are unwilling to get used to is most probably not the main reason behind it.

I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that the “Reason” for the one time event is because it was planned that way loooong before people started giving opinions of orr.

The island in question is already on the overhead map. It’s below Lions Arch in the Sea of Sorrows. You can try to swim there but you’ll be blocked… A portal will be opened in Lions Arch once it’s available.

As for the “why”. I don’t think this is in response to balancing issues, etc… ArenaNet has said from day one that they plan to make the world dynamic… Colin Johansen strongly hinted last week in his interview that their plan is to provide new content every month. So after the Wintersday Holiday events in December we can expect some new content in January as well.

Having signifigant content updates only months after release is simply doing it right. Other MMO vendors seem to launch thinking their launch content will hold firm for a good six months or so and that never works. I think ArenaNet understands the importance of this. Another very promising comment by Johansen

We want the community to look back and be able to say “they gave us an entire expansion worth of content for free”

Balancing, bug fixing is separate from new content. I doubt they will change Orr that much. not until a major expansion hits.