Guild Wars 2

Meret.5943:

They probably already have all the concepts they need for Guild Wars Utopia or whatever other projects/updates they started but abandoned for GW2. They just need someone to pick up the ball and run with it.

Some of those old concepts turned into EOTN; others were discarded before work was completed. I want to see the Kickstarter happen, but new content will need to be developed basically from scratch. Even if the devs who originally made the concepts come back to working on them, it’s been years since they’ve touched the code.

What really irks me, though, is that abandoning old technology is so prevalent in gaming despite the demand for continued product support. Dungeons & Dragons has seen this happen for decades – there are always players who don’t want to “upgrade” when a new edition comes out. Even though their game of choice is not being updated, they still keep playing the version they like. When 4th edition came out, a lot of players threw their money at other publishers who promised to keep updating 3.5e with their new books. 4th edition is all but dead right now, while Pathfinder is still going strong.

On the PC gaming side, DotEmu and GOG demonstrate daily that there is a great – though niche – market for older games. Runescape has recently relaunched its old version after massive fan demand. People still play GW1, and since ANet never releases actual play numbers, this Kickstarter idea could be a very good way to gauge how much interest (and by extension money) there still is in the game.

I understand ANet has different priorities now, because GW2 is where the money’s coming from. If ANet cannot spare any of the “old crew” for GW1, maybe the best solution would be to outsource GW1 development? Kickstarter funding could be used to cover licensing fees and dev salaries, with the final product – be it another Bonus Mission Pack, an expansion, or (one can dream) a full campaign – hopefully making enough of a profit to continue the cycle.