Curse

Angel Netherborn · Dec 26, 2006, 01:12 AM // 01:12

Aren't you being a little too pessimistic if you're already thinking that about the end of GW?

And if they are having financial problems or it's a management decision to pull the plug, do you think they'd use that last remaining time (or even if they have the time) to do something for almost no benefit to them?

Priest Of Sin · Dec 26, 2006, 04:07 AM // 04:07

Although I don't want to think about an end to GW (they sold a bazillion copies of NF and Factions), I doubt they'd put out server data. What would it do for them? It'd infringe on copyrights i'd imagine. I'd love for them to give me the entire game-server data, with my account info loaded in, so i could play the game after it was dead, but I doubt they'd do it.

And this is a point that has been brought up many times, but the Diablo servers are still up, GW will be up for a long time I assume.

N E D M · Jan 04, 2007, 10:26 AM // 10:26

Also - Add Ability to control 7 heros with this potential update

onerabbit · Jan 04, 2007, 11:54 AM // 11:54

Hopefully this will be a long time away...
but when it does happen /signed

getalifebud · Jan 04, 2007, 12:10 PM // 12:10

I doubt it will happen, if the population gets so low, they can just cut it down to one international district, it would take barely any space, people will still buy the game every now and then, and if support is high enough then they can keep making money off new material.

Bale_Shadowscar · Jan 04, 2007, 03:44 PM // 15:44

You don't know what the technology will be like in 10 years time (or whenever GW dies out). We might not even be playing GW on PCs anymore, or over the internet.

I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Not A Fifty Five · Jan 04, 2007, 05:39 PM // 17:39

Yeah this isn't going to happen for at least 5 years. I'm sure someone will think of this again before that time, or have a better suggestion. We may as well just close this.

Enko · Jan 04, 2007, 05:41 PM // 17:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by KvanCetre

No, they're not. Next month they're releasing their first expansion pack and it would insane to drop fees when more people will be playing than ever.

WoW can't afford to drop fees - its their primary source of income. The fees for keeping their dev team as well as their huge server fees would never allow this model to work.

heh its pretty much their only source of income now. taken a look at blizzard's website recently? all other projects besides WoW are on hold . .. kind of pissed me off since they didn't release Ghost . ..

mega_jamie · Jan 05, 2007, 12:20 AM // 00:20

hopefully the only day Anet decided to shut down their servers is the day that GW is no longer profitable, so althought it would be a great service to the fans of the time to do this, it certainly wouldn't help retain any financial losses they would be suffering at this time.

Private Servers are available for many MMORPGs and online games, I'm sure a GW private server is already available at a less than EULA maintaining method, but available non the less. (just did a quick google they are)

So that is probably the way that GW players will have to go to play, or they could decide to make it a Pay to play at that time to try to keep some money comming in.

Xenex Xclame · Jan 05, 2007, 01:06 AM // 01:06

Dont you think that if they were in such a financial problem, they would change the game a bit and add a montly fee?

And yes like mega jamie said if they dont do it ( in 10 years when GW dies , if ever :P) people can just make it themselfs, if im to believe jamie they already have.

FoxBat · Jan 05, 2007, 03:25 AM // 03:25

They don't need to do monthly fees, they can just keep adding more and more things to the guild-wars store, like unique item and armor skins.

If ANet were in a position of shutting down GW and feeling generous, they'd probably release their server software rather than figuring out how to budget all the work of bundling it together. Server software that likely will be minimally documented and your average user won't be able to set up, but enough community people probably could figure out and you'd connect to their servers.

draxynnic · Jan 05, 2007, 03:38 AM // 03:38

One thing that strikes me with these discussions is...

Will they ever really need to make a GW2 rather than just adding more chapters?

Graphics updates can be introduced in new chapters - they've already updated existing character models at least once, and while old chapters may start to look progressively dated, newer ones can continue to have incrementally updated graphics as technology improves. Server and engine updates can also be progressively rolled through. While some people objected to the 'duplicate' skills introduced in Factions, I don't think anyone would really complain about a skill being brought from an old chapter into a new one as a 'multichapter' skill (have Ether Prodigy, say, as both a Prophecies skill and a Chapter 7 skill). Heck, if it wasn't possible to link Prophecies and Nightfall, one might even think Nightfall was GW2 with all the new features. Even if that isn't the case, I'm sure the point is coming.

One spot of weirdness that could arise is if the story team wants to return to an existing continent - however, a certain extent of time travel has already been incorporated into the game as it is - technically, any character who's visited Elona that then goes on the work on the Prophecies or Factions storyline has gone back in time three years. Returning to, say, Tyria could be achieved using a method similar to that used now with the Garden of Seborhin; one method of distinguishing Old and New Tyria could be to use a different port to reach New Tyria (Port Sledge, for instance, or some completely new port if the chapter is using a map that only overlaps the old Tyrian map rather than completely overlaying it).

The only real way I can see where the design team would be forced to put a stop to GW1 and introduce GW2 is if they were to make a really big change to the way characters worked - on the order of the change of the magic system from developing a spell library in Diablo to the skill trees in D2. Most other updates can probably be progressively rolled through without making previous chapters incompatible. (Obsolete, perhaps, and a character from Chapter 36 may look seriously out of place in terms of graphics quality in a Prophecies location, but not incompatible.)

So, in short: As long as the franchise remains economical, I don't think a GW2 is as inevitable as people think - we may just get a continuous stream of chapters that provide improvements equivalent to what you'd expect from such a sequel every five chapters or so.

floppinghog · Jan 05, 2007, 04:58 AM // 04:58

blahblahblahblah

anyway, regardless what the hell the future holds, you can be sure gw will be online as diablo has been for how long? and i guess a few people here have forgotten what the meaning of old school is? how bout classic? how bout retro? how bout thinking, nintendo (NES)... finally spelled it out?

NinjaKai · Jan 05, 2007, 05:05 AM // 05:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxiemonster

Diablo II servers are still up, the lag is minimum, and there's never been monthly fee. Unless ANet fails badly on their next games, Guild Wars will be playable online as long as people play it.

You beat me to it.

Kijik Oni Hanryuu · Jan 05, 2007, 05:40 AM // 05:40

well if it happens
/signed, oh and maybe you could let us establish a direct connection and play it with our buddies?

Nickhimself · Jan 05, 2007, 06:24 AM // 06:24

If that ever does happen one day, I would hope they would give us the ability to play offline.

N E D M · Jan 05, 2007, 07:36 AM // 07:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by floppinghog

blahblahblahblah

anyway, regardless what the hell the future holds, you can be sure gw will be online as diablo has been for how long? and i guess a few people here have forgotten what the meaning of old school is? how bout classic? how bout retro? how bout thinking, nintendo (NES)... finally spelled it out?

MSN dumped its online lobbies for Age of empires 1 and 2, and Age2 is still for sale in stores :S ! So dont say it can't happen.
But it is a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way off, i am just being suggestive of Best solutions

counciler132 · Jan 05, 2007, 08:17 AM // 08:17

/SIGNED

Great idea, I hope it happens to whatever extent...

Thibor · Jan 05, 2007, 03:08 PM // 15:08

/signed Man I hope this never has to happen though. GW has become my favorite game of all time (even better then atari 2600)

freekedoutfish · Jan 05, 2007, 03:30 PM // 15:30

Im filled with confidence now. I like the idea...

/signed

...the question or issue I see is how would they transfer all your account date onto your computer. I suspect that information would be huge and in excess of a few gigabites.

The game content, they could release on a cd or dvd. But they obviously couldnt put peoples accounts onto cds for security and because of the numbers.

I question if they even could do this, because Anet has said on a few occassions that its impossible to single out one account from the database and manipulate it.

For instance when people are hacked or scammed.

So I expect if this was to happen, we would loose all your accounts and have to start a fresh.