Guild Wars 2

So I am watching AngryJoe’s interview with Colin, and it just kinda made my heart sink, cause I’m pretty worried that we will only get like 3 zones with this expansion (I am throwing the number 3 out there, I know there’s nothing suggesting more or less at the moment) cause when AngryJoe asked Colin, “Hey, how big is this expansion going to be?” referring to zones and such, Colin just danced around the question and answered with, “Well, features are the biggest part of this expansion.”

So are we getting a feature pack? Or an expansion? Idk, it just worries me that everytime the amount of zones are brought up, they just flit around the answer by saying something safe like, “We’re more about content dense zones than a lot of zones.” or what Colin said, “Well, the features are the biggest part.”

Now I’m not saying I don’t love absolutely everything I’ve seen with this expansion, but I love Tyria, as I think all of you do, and it’s not that I want a TON of new zones, but I want to explore as much as I possibly can of this beautiful world, and if we’re only gonna get 3 maybe 4 new zones with this expansion, well, I think it’s a bit of a travesty.

So am I the only one worried about this? Or is this completely unfounded?

Yeah, I became a little wary at that answer too. I was expecting it to fill up the entirety of that area of the map, but I’m not feeling as hopeful now.

In the finite amount of time each day I’m will to sit around worrying… Guild Wars 2 gets pretty close to ZERO seconds assigned to it.

If you’re having fun with the game now, you will probably continue to have fun with the game when HoT hits. But the difference between it giving 15 hours of exploration vs 60 hours is still pretty meaningless after the third week or so.

Yeah, I’m a bit concerned with the issue of mileage myself. Not a lot of though, since new content is new content. But I’d love to be able to get a meaty piece of new content.

webtoehobbit.4201:

So am I the only one worried about this? Or is this completely unfounded?

Southsun, Labyrinthine Cliffs, EotM, Dry Top, and The Silverwastes.

They can, and will, add in more areas later. It’s one of the whole points of the LS. Plus, we still don’t know the large the new areas are, or how they compare to the other areas. On top of that, each area will be split into the three biomes. So even if each new areas would be the same size as the older ones, the sheer height of them would make them much larger than they actually are.

even if we only get 3-4 zones it will be 3 layers (above jungle, jungle floor and under it at the roots) so thats 9-12 zones not to bad imo
its 1/3 to half the world since we got 25 zones at release not counting citys

We already have two zones confirmed. Verdant Brink and the Golden City. Unless the Golden City is connected directly to Verdant Brink there will be at the very least another zone there.

lordkrall.7241:

We already have two zones confirmed. Verdant Brink and the Golden City. Unless the Golden City is connected directly to Verdant Brink there will be at the very least another zone there.

Where was the Golden City confirmed as a zone? Are you sure it’s not just a region within a zone?

Here’s an indication for the size of verdant brink: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2xsq76/map_size_of_verdant_brink/. It seems to me that Verdant Brink is actually bigger than any zone in the game right now, considering it’s verticality.

Diovid.9506:

Where was the Golden City confirmed as a zone? Are you sure it’s not just a region within a zone?

Well it is a city. So far not a single city have been in another zone but rather zones themselves.

lordkrall.7241:

Diovid.9506:

Where was the Golden City confirmed as a zone? Are you sure it’s not just a region within a zone?

Well it is a city. So far not a single city have been in another zone but rather zones themselves.

Ebonhawke says hello.

Ebonhawke is an outpost, not a city. But yeah, point.

Diovid.9506:

lordkrall.7241:

We already have two zones confirmed. Verdant Brink and the Golden City. Unless the Golden City is connected directly to Verdant Brink there will be at the very least another zone there.

Where was the Golden City confirmed as a zone? Are you sure it’s not just a region within a zone?

Here’s an indication for the size of verdant brink: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2xsq76/map_size_of_verdant_brink/. It seems to me that Verdant Brink is actually bigger than any zone in the game right now, considering it’s verticality.

Mate you see a small part of it and name to the left no indication at all how big the zone is really.

Zone names & levels are always in the dead centre on the map, you can also see a clear line where the top border of the map is and the right border is obvious. From that you can work out a fairly accurate guess as to the size (which is exactly what this person did in the image).

Edit: from the same reddit there’s this http://i.imgur.com/olGfJfu.jpg (I personally think they’ve got the top border a bit too high but it might be a visual thing that’s causing the line I mentioned).

Kaiden Valor.7163:

Zone names & levels are always in the dead centre on the map, you can also see a clear line where the top border of the map is and the right border is obvious. From that you can work out a fairly accurate guess as to the size (which is exactly what this person did in the image).

Edit: from the same reddit there’s this http://i.imgur.com/olGfJfu.jpg (I personally think they’ve got the top border a bit too high but it might be a visual thing that’s causing the line I mentioned).

Then this is probabely more like it and wer looking at a drytop with 3 layers for one of the maps.

As you said we can’t know for sure, but I think I would go with your image as the safer guess at this stage. They have already effectively confirmed the new zones will take up less space on the map, but they say the vertical layers & amount of content in the space will make up for it. (Edit: I don’t think they’ve officially said the zones are smaller, but their answers when asked seem to imply it.)

We also still don’t know how many zones we’re getting.

ARENANET PLZ READ. I will hate everything if you can’t make sylvaris anymore lol. plz prevent this crisis by not removing ability to make sylvari instead use if they trust pact or not ok ty u guys aweshum

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. And you know, I’m not caring about the number of zones, per se.

I’m actually more interested in the amount of playability and replayability.

Face it…Factions had a lot of zones, but people did finish it in a couple of weeks. In fact, I recently ran through all four Guild Wars 1 games in a week (skipping most of Prophecies through a run). It’s possible.

A lot of zones doesn’t mean a lot to do. A lot of times in games you finish a zone and never go back to it.

Anet seems to be implying there’ll be a lot to do in these zones. I’m thinking sections of zones are actually off limits until you open them through game play. With the way the mastery system is shaping up, and the nature of the zones, I’m not sure that getting a few zones instead of a bunch of zones is necessarily a bad thing.

If they give my guild a ton of stuff to do, that would be worth a whole lot more to me than more zones. But of course that’s just me personally.

Sounds like we get very little in matters of new playfields.

They try to avoid answering this question like snails a pile of salt.

On the one hand, they give us a very traditional expansion, they even return to the Personal Story concept, some horizontal progression (like AoC has done too years ago) some new PvP and WvW. A new profession to toy around with.

On the other hand they call it all new and exiting as if they have invented “endgame” expansions and give this as an excuse that the new landmass will be fairly small (at least this is what I get out of the interviews).

Saying that other games have fire and forget zones you leave behind after leveling through and using them as an excuse to produce less zones because you know, reasons, is incredibly irritating.

So ANet only has to produce the small amount of endgame zones other expansions also have and skip the leveling zones because you know, no leveling? What will the players gain from that? If you want to impress players you have to give at least the same amount of zones as the other MMOs and make them endgame, otherwise there is a LOSS for them.

If the new landmass feels any smaller than what other games with a similar approach have done (no leveling, just endgame – like in Rise of the Godslayer for AoC) I will be thoroughly disappointed.

ANet is not the first company to release an expansion with only endgame stuff. HoT will be judged in regard of what people have experienced before.

And I actually like leveling and working my way through zones, so something has to replace that experience anyway. I hope it is not endlessly replaying a zone, to actually level you character (masteries) to replay the zone and see a tiny bit more of it.
Sounds like a chore to me.

I’m not as worried as you. Personally, I feel like even if we got “only” 3-5 zones, those zones would be filled with enough stuff to do to keep us occupied for a while. Not to mention all of the stuff we can do in the vanilla game still with our new specializations, our new class, etc.

Holy Cow, it came out yesterday & there’s already 41k views..
I’m thinking that’s it’s arena net that needs to be worried if they do not delivered to there promises :S gulp!

I’m surprised anyone is surprised by this. Yeah, two years in the making my kitten. I know Living Story and Feature Update content when I see it.

For me, a lot depends on the price point. If it’s only going to be a couple of zones, it better not cost as much as the original game, even with the interesting new features.

I could swing $20 for two or three zones with three layers a piece, a new profession, and some specializations. But it better not be $60.

WoodenPatatoe vid is up & ouff seems there is reason to be worried.

Linken.6345:

Diovid.9506:

lordkrall.7241:

We already have two zones confirmed. Verdant Brink and the Golden City. Unless the Golden City is connected directly to Verdant Brink there will be at the very least another zone there.

Where was the Golden City confirmed as a zone? Are you sure it’s not just a region within a zone?

Here’s an indication for the size of verdant brink: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2xsq76/map_size_of_verdant_brink/. It seems to me that Verdant Brink is actually bigger than any zone in the game right now, considering it’s verticality.

Mate you see a small part of it and name to the left no indication at all how big the zone is really.

This might be of interest to you: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2xwgfa/updated_verdant_brink_maps/

It may not be released WITH the expansion,but by the logic,every Maguuma Jungle area/map released after HoT WILL require HoT,so…

The expansion may be released with only 3~4 maps,but every new map (from Maguuma jungle) after that will require the expansion,thus expanding the expansion (huh)

Am I worried?

No, not really. I’m only expecting between 4 to 6 maps in the new region, and if they are as content dense as (or more so than) DT/SW, that should keep me entertained for quite some time.

I have the distinct impression we’re no where close to release, so they might not have the number finalized yet. Content development (hell, devleopment in general) takes a lot of time and effort, lots of iterating and testing. That’s perfectly ok with me. When they figure it out, they’ll let us know. In the mean time, I’m not going to get my panties in a bunch over it.

The core game spoiled us for maps. Whatever we get will always seem low in comparison.

Expansions vary considerably in size. Lotro usually gives one zone per expansion – it just sub divides them cleverly to market a zone as more. TSW has gone the DLC route and has added 2/3 map since launch. Whereas Rift I think added a massive landmass.

The initial reaction is naturally to want as many maps as possible. That is entirely understandeable, but ultimately it will be down to what is them that define the replayability. Silverwastes and Dry Top are pretty good examples of that.

Randulf.7614:

The core game spoiled us for maps. Whatever we get will always seem low in comparison.

True.
I think we all should accept it,no expansion will ever have that many maps like the core game have.

Unless they release a HYPER MEGA ULTRA Expansion like Nightfall and Factions,which were stand alone games,not actually an expansion.

It would basically be Guild Wars 2.1. – Elona / Cantha Version

Remember,GW:EN was an Expansion,and to be honest it didn’t have 1/3 of the maps released in Nightfall and Factions,which I repeat,they were not expansions,but basically a stand alone games ,so the need of having a whole new continent and not just 5~8 maps

I’ve been worried about this too. Them saying that there will be very few zones sounds really bad to me. Them completely avoiding any talk(unless something was said in the last little while) about dungeons has me completely blown away. I can’t imagine they release an “expansion” with a couple zones and no new dungeons etc. It’s starting to sound like a big feature pack with a DLC.

Low amount of zones can work assuming they have a high replay value. As it stands, the new zones we’ve received since the launch of the game has had some of the worst replay value for me, so I can only hope they are vastly different from those.

Sorean.5379:

Randulf.7614:

The core game spoiled us for maps. Whatever we get will always seem low in comparison.

True.
I think we all should accept it,no expansion will ever have that many maps like the core game have.

Unless they release a HYPER MEGA ULTRA Expansion like Nightfall and Factions,which were stand alone games,not actually an expansion.

It would basically be Guild Wars 2.1. – Elona / Cantha Version

Remember,GW:EN was an Expansion,and to be honest it didn’t have 1/3 of the maps released in Nightfall and Factions,which I repat,they were not expansions,but basically a stand alone games ,so the need of having a whole new continent and not just 5~8 maps

Correct, and yet I found more replayability from GW:EN than Factions and even NF. That said, festivals occured in the core hubs, new things still popped up in old lands. I don’t think “vanilla” Tyria will be forgotten about. They’d be foolish to do such a thing

lordkrall.7241:

Diovid.9506:

Where was the Golden City confirmed as a zone? Are you sure it’s not just a region within a zone?

Well it is a city. So far not a single city have been in another zone but rather zones themselves.

Ebonhawke, Skrittsburg, Thaumanova, Ascalon City, and Zintl Holy Ground are all cities. The three sanctuaries – which all fit within Frostgorge Sound – are also cities. Fields of Ruin has a second city, a charr one, that I can’t recall the name of atm.

There are many cities aside from the six grand cities that are their own zones (or Arah, which is its own zone-sized dungeon).

lordkrall.7241:

Ebonhawke is an outpost, not a city. But yeah, point.

Ebonhawke is a city, actually. It is often called the last human city.

In terms of lore, that is. Not mechanics. But nothing says that the Golden City is a city in terms of mechanics – just lore.

Kaiden Valor.7163:

Zone names & levels are always in the dead centre on the map, you can also see a clear line where the top border of the map is and the right border is obvious. From that you can work out a fairly accurate guess as to the size (which is exactly what this person did in the image).

Edit: from the same reddit there’s this http://i.imgur.com/olGfJfu.jpg (I personally think they’ve got the top border a bit too high but it might be a visual thing that’s causing the line I mentioned).

The video only shows how wide (vertical aka east/west aka right/left) the zone is, but speaks nothing for how long (horizontal aka north/south aka top/bottom) it is. Best you can figure for the horizontal length is the edge of the explored map to top of name to equal distance under bottom of the number (the name and number together mark the very center of the map).

So the horizontal (E to W) is right, give or take. But the vertical (N to S) is a pure guess.

http://i.imgur.com/ZvF88up.jpg from that Reddit link

Note the area to the north, with a wp, some pois, a likely adventure(?) — a little domed ruin icon with a lock — and highly interesting, an icon of a caped figure with a staff or spear, looking very much like the watcher we saw in the Pact destruction video.

I wonder what that’s about?

If you’re going to buy this expansion, buy it. Otherwise don’t. It’s a really simple problem, and for some reason, people love to come on here and overthink the hell out of kitten like this, I guess because they have yet to encounter things in life that are actually important.

Test.8734:

Indeed. The usual fanboys will scream that ArenaNet has been working on this since the day GW2 was released. But it’s obvious the result of a far more recent start, I would guess less than one year ago.

Seems like some of the tech used in HoT has been in development since launch. However I think a good estimate would be that they started working (in earnest) after the Chinese launch (which had taken up several months of development time). So yeah a year sounds about right. Possibly design and prototyping work could have gone into it, but judging by the content drought we got before the Chinese launch it seems like it was all hands on deck so there wasn’t a lot of additional capacity to work on expansion content.

webtoehobbit.4201:

So I am watching AngryJoe’s interview with Colin, and it just kinda made my heart sink, cause I’m pretty worried that we will only get like 3 zones with this expansion (I am throwing the number 3 out there, I know there’s nothing suggesting more or less at the moment) cause when AngryJoe asked Colin, “Hey, how big is this expansion going to be?” referring to zones and such, Colin just danced around the question and answered with, “Well, features are the biggest part of this expansion.”

So are we getting a feature pack? Or an expansion? Idk, it just worries me that everytime the amount of zones are brought up, they just flit around the answer by saying something safe like, “We’re more about content dense zones than a lot of zones.” or what Colin said, “Well, the features are the biggest part.”

Now I’m not saying I don’t love absolutely everything I’ve seen with this expansion, but I love Tyria, as I think all of you do, and it’s not that I want a TON of new zones, but I want to explore as much as I possibly can of this beautiful world, and if we’re only gonna get 3 maybe 4 new zones with this expansion, well, I think it’s a bit of a travesty.

So am I the only one worried about this? Or is this completely unfounded?

Keep in mind, that GW2 doesn’t have a population like WoW. So making a massive new area would break up the population even more, and basically kill the vanilla zones. That’s not cool.

Knighthonor.4061:

webtoehobbit.4201:

So I am watching AngryJoe’s interview with Colin, and it just kinda made my heart sink, cause I’m pretty worried that we will only get like 3 zones with this expansion (I am throwing the number 3 out there, I know there’s nothing suggesting more or less at the moment) cause when AngryJoe asked Colin, “Hey, how big is this expansion going to be?” referring to zones and such, Colin just danced around the question and answered with, “Well, features are the biggest part of this expansion.”

So are we getting a feature pack? Or an expansion? Idk, it just worries me that everytime the amount of zones are brought up, they just flit around the answer by saying something safe like, “We’re more about content dense zones than a lot of zones.” or what Colin said, “Well, the features are the biggest part.”

Now I’m not saying I don’t love absolutely everything I’ve seen with this expansion, but I love Tyria, as I think all of you do, and it’s not that I want a TON of new zones, but I want to explore as much as I possibly can of this beautiful world, and if we’re only gonna get 3 maybe 4 new zones with this expansion, well, I think it’s a bit of a travesty.

So am I the only one worried about this? Or is this completely unfounded?

Keep in mind, that GW2 doesn’t have a population like WoW. So making a massive new area would break up the population even more, and basically kill the vanilla zones. That’s not cool.

But we are tired of the vanilla zones. We have been through them for too many reasons.

Leveling, personal story, map completion, living story, achievements, traits etc.
There must be a point when ANet accepts that the zones, no matter how beautiful they are, have been overused.

Many zones have reached this status, it is time for something new.

They talk about 3 vertical biomes in every maps. Also there were already some interview when they confirm there will be definetly more then 3 maps.

The map I linked above is from WoodenPotatoes’ video. At one point he mouses over the little cloaked figure and gets a tooltip “Collect bugs until time runs out.” I’d screenshot it but YouTube insists on shrinking down from full screen when I try. It’s around 20 minutes in to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEh_LowtX5E

I envision this to be something similar to Orr (perhaps in size as well). A straightforward progression that lets you get deeper into their new zone as you improve your masteries. Once you unlock the waypoints though, it’s just a matter of deciding which content you want to partake in. I think the experience is going to be very similar to Silverwastes and Dry Top. New twists on game play to change the way we progress. Lots of people are likely going to be rushing and farming certain things to progress to the next stage. Once that’s expired, it will boil down to resuming temple / world boss type fights to keep people returning, or some sort of special zone farming. Basing this of course on the current trend in GW2.

Overall though, I welcome this paid expansion. I’ve clocked 2K hours in the current game and all for the admission of a single price. There’s nothing from their own store that I couldn’t buy with gold earned from regular play. I see this expansion as a valid excuse to help fund Anet and hopefully see more expansions and content in the future, especially since GW2 is a fun game and worth the continued development. Notwithstanding they’re going to continue development post ship, so it’s a win-win.

An “area” is just a logical level design unit, they can be very big or very small. I haven’t played it that far but IIRC SW:tOR’s first expansion was just one planet (Makeb) but it was a very very big one.

And Arenanet said that the new areas were very vertical. If the maps are taller than they are wide it could make for much bigger zones than any other map in the game.

Since they’re not raising the level cap they don’t need 10 zones for different level brackets. They can put just 3 but make them very big.

Don’t get me wrong I’d still prefer 10 smaller zones because that allows more varied themes (art assets, soundtrack, etc.) but I don’t see that as a deal breaker if the 3 new zones are as vertical as they said.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Knighthonor.4061:

webtoehobbit.4201:

So I am watching AngryJoe’s interview with Colin, and it just kinda made my heart sink, cause I’m pretty worried that we will only get like 3 zones with this expansion (I am throwing the number 3 out there, I know there’s nothing suggesting more or less at the moment) cause when AngryJoe asked Colin, “Hey, how big is this expansion going to be?” referring to zones and such, Colin just danced around the question and answered with, “Well, features are the biggest part of this expansion.”

So are we getting a feature pack? Or an expansion? Idk, it just worries me that everytime the amount of zones are brought up, they just flit around the answer by saying something safe like, “We’re more about content dense zones than a lot of zones.” or what Colin said, “Well, the features are the biggest part.”

Now I’m not saying I don’t love absolutely everything I’ve seen with this expansion, but I love Tyria, as I think all of you do, and it’s not that I want a TON of new zones, but I want to explore as much as I possibly can of this beautiful world, and if we’re only gonna get 3 maybe 4 new zones with this expansion, well, I think it’s a bit of a travesty.

So am I the only one worried about this? Or is this completely unfounded?

Keep in mind, that GW2 doesn’t have a population like WoW. So making a massive new area would break up the population even more, and basically kill the vanilla zones. That’s not cool.

But we are tired of the vanilla zones. We have been through them for too many reasons.

Leveling, personal story, map completion, living story, achievements, traits etc.
There must be a point when ANet accepts that the zones, no matter how beautiful they are, have been overused.

Many zones have reached this status, it is time for something new.

Kaiyanwan.8521 is pretty much right. Expansion cannot feel just like a patch from living story. They got to up there game & have it’s player base go WoW! Witch a few known reviewers did’nt go. For almost for sure i’ll buy the game, but will i do what others have done? Who got bored & felt the game kinda stale? & left. Despite it’s graphic & other features? Yes Arena Net you need to up your game. Plz do!!!! We beg of you.

Ive gotten 3000 hours off enjoyment out of 40 bucks willing to pay 40 more for better boss fights alone :p

I think we will see 3 – at most 4 – new maps as part of Heart of Thorns, but that doesnt really bother me.

I see Heart of Thorns as a foundational expansion. The focus is on implementing extremely flexible systems into the game that make it easier for them to add in free living story and feature content (hopefully bi-weekly) moving forward.

Examples include pretty much everything we’ve seen, including specializations (making it easier for them to add in new skills and traits without breaking balance), masteries (to add new progression when the gameplay starts to feel dated/repetitive), wvw map rotations (making it easier to add new maps to wvw) and activities (giving them a stage for new minigame styple content).

Finally, since the start of Season Two, weve seen two mid sized maps added to the game (drytop and silverwastes). I expect them to keep that pace post expansion, meaning that what we see when the expansion actually drops is just part of the playable area picture.

TL;DR – yes, we will get fun things to do day one, but I see HOT as more of a foundation allowing for faster implementation of future (and potentially free) content.

I have said this before, and I will say it again:

HoT will be just Living Story season 3 + couple feature packs + one profession behind of pay wall. It’s going to be one bigger map with 3 layers.

So if you are waiting for something extraordinary-cool-fantastic-huge expansion, you will be really dissapointed.

How did I came in this conclusion? Well Anet is testing different kind of Living Story types.

• Living Story 1 was available only short time of period. It was like Be there or you will miss it all type test. People didn’t like it, many miss it and they were complaining about it.
• Living Story 2 was permanent and free in short time of period. It was like Login and you will get it free type test. People liked it, because it was free, except those who didn’t log in that free time period. Those people started to complain because others got it free and they didn’t. Now they need to pay for it and it felt unfair to them and price didn’t felt good either.
• Living Story 3 a.k.a HoT, is next stage of test. It will be like Wrap Living Story episode 3 in Expansion paper. Everybody who wants next living story need to pay for it.

After this release, Anet will look statistics and see what was most profitable way to make living story and continue to do that way all next living story episodes. (Yes a lot of expansios will come in future )

If we don’t get at least the entire Maguuma jungle released in this expansion, I will be angry. Cause after we kill Mordy, what reason will we have to revisit the jungle? And more than anything, I would like to see Tyria be fully explorable in time, unlike GW1 (meaning the entire map of Tyria is someday uncovered, and no blurry areas that we can’t explore)

I think it will be 3-4 maps 3 layers on each so 12 maps totaly then 2-3 (1 maybe 2 layers) more maps during the living world building up to the next expansion.

Linken.6345:

I think it will be 3-4 maps 3 layers on each so 12 maps totaly then 2-3 (1 maybe 2 layers) more maps during the living world building up to the next expansion.

I think you might want to rein in your expectations just a little.

That they aren’t crowing the size of new real estate to the four corners of the gaming world is a pretty good sign that while they may be satisfied with it internally its not the makings of a good sales bullet point.

Givin how everything Anet is doing lately regarding anything (Patches, Updates, News, Content etc etc.) I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually release a VERY small zone, and then, over a few months, give us access to the rest of the “HoT” related zones.. Kinda like how they did Silverwaste and Dry Top.. just.. larger scale and… behind a paywall…

I don’t mind having “only” a few zones to explore, as long as it’s not “it” for the 3 years to come.

There’s a huge potential to fill holes and create new story path: if the xpac is actually the new playstyle, I assume further additions will require less work (I mean: not creating new system but rather adding things to them) and thus more time and resources will be spent on maps. I suppose the pace of these 3 years is nothing compared to what’s coming now. Of course, I might be wrong, but I try to see the glass half full.

C’mon ANet, bring on HoT!

I’ve been worried for 3 years now. They still refuse to talk about the future of WvW whilst they can see players leaving everyday.

There used to be queues on all 4 maps once, now you are lucky to get more than 2 queued; and the only reason for that is because players are zerging, everyone trying to get onto one map, with a skeleton crew left on the others.

But because anet cant talk much about it, we cannot really say what we will get. You cannot explore an entire region in 30 mins, which is what the demo is limited to from what ive seen.

What as said above what players really want to know is how big is the expansion, how much will it cost and when is it out. Not a lot of players are going to spend £30+ on a feature pack with living story, but anet need the income.
Some of us hope spring/summer, but there’s still a chance of a autumn/winter release…..