Guild Wars II

there is no Guild Wars II so forget that.

it was officially announced some time ago that chapter 4 (four) is already 6 months underway and progressing well.

^^^ They could always do it after 4...

nope.

chapter 5 is already getting started on the release of Nightfall.

give GW II up as they can upgrade this engine at will/as needed to keep looking good.

and forget jumping already

Something I can agree on. Just because the next generation is close/already here, doesn't mean ANet should cut off the majority of its players by creating an engine on the same or a similar level of insanity as Crytek's latest.

Crytek2 engine is an advanced game engine that not only a 3D engine but also a physics engine and a physics engine is something Guild Wars doesn't need.

Now this is important...

Crytek2 is an engine so advanced, that X360 can't even run it. Not even today's most advanced PC can run it

HOORAY 2 more fastfood expansion packs that offer little-to-0 new content except more killing and more bosses. Frankly this is NOT what I want, I might as well head back to world of noobs at least they take 2 years to make an expansion pack.

The current engine is great, graphics-wise. Runs perfectly and renders the beautiful environments crafted by the art team appropriately. The only thing missing, in my opinion, is the Z axis, and then again it's far from being crucial.

I had a friend by my house this afternoon... she was bugged that she bought NWN2 and couldnt play it because of the steep requirements (her fault for not reading the box, but anyway...) I showed her NWN2 running on my PC (15fps with most graphic options maxed), and then I presented her to guild wars. She thought GW looked WAY better, which I too agree. The expansive environments, the character and world visuals and the amazing art direction make NWN2 feel simply tiny, ugly, drab, heavy and clumsy. Which isn't to say NWN2 is a bad game, but it's showing that GW beats it hands down graphically, despite being less "advanced", and it also runs on any middle-range computer perfectly. (I'm not even going to say a word about WoW's graphics, he, he, he)

But yes, I do believe they will release a followup to GW, but just not yet. And certainly not next year running on in cry-engine 2. Simply because Online RPGs are made to be as accessible as possible, since they need to reach a large audience to remain online. Few people will be able to run cry-engine 2 games until technology required reaches mainstream, which might not happen in the next two years. There's also the fact that many people are still developing characters in the GW world and it's way too soon to kill that now.

Good graphics are not so much the result of a good engine but the vision of the artists making the game, using the engine. As long as Anet's artists feel they're not being held back by the current engine too much with what they want to create, then there's no real point as far as graphics go, to change the engine.

Also, this is very important, guildwars is still being targetted for the casual gamers market, despite many of the people on this board not being casual gamers, so it might be hard to imagine, but it's still true. The low lvl cap, no monthly fee, no grinds, etc. Casual gamers aren't going to have cutting edge pc's like hardcore gamers do, so if you have the basic concept of a casual gamer semi mmorpg and you make it run on a pc far out of reach of the casual gamer's budget (or what they're prepared to spend on a game they will just play a little), they won't buy it en masse like they do now.

Besides, the current engine gets improvements too, we're seeing all kinds of neat new effects we didn't see in chapter 1. Most of the problems with guildwars have nothing to do with the engine anyway.

I don't constantly want to bring WOW up but, still wow does show how important the z-axis is. The whole world of guildwars feels so liniar and "out-planned" it simply becomes like a fast food game. If you catch my drift. I am not a WOW fanboy but I know how it is and I love playing all the games and make a self-review on them. Graphic wise guild wars is more than fine...I mean why do you need better graphics anyway. But because we don't have a z-axis, there are a lot of fun things that can't happen. Guild Wars is really meant for you too look at something and say "wow.....beautiful". Like these castle places in Instan island. But can you actually go inside it and explore??? no you cannot. It's these kinds of things that guild wars must inprove on not graphics...I want gameplay! that's the MAIN reason WOW is so succesful.

Right, not only could that improve exploration but also combat. Imagine if flying creatures could actually fly? Although I don't think the player should be able to fly.

While the Guild Wars engine might look a tad dated, I'd be surprised if Chapter 4 was actually a whole new game. I expect they'll try to milk the current setup for a couple more years before starting over from scratch with Guild Wars II (or whatever new project they decide to start on).

If they did make a GW II, it certainly should not run on the crytek engine. It should run on an upgraded version of the current one.

As KSS said, they are constently upgrading the GW engine, latly the water is at a higher resolution / reflection, and the models are more ..... polygonated.

Anyone can be right, depending on how you define the axis. I think the most used one for vertical movement is the Z-axis. Both can be right though.

* Chapter 4 is already six months ahead in progress, just delete that?

* Gameplay > Realism, Guild Wars don't need physics engine.

* ANet will NEVER raise the level cap, if you think it's a good idea, you don't understand the game philosofy.

* Guild Wars graphics is not outdated.

* Gameplay > Graphics.

* Remaking of all models, terrain, every single effect, maps?

* Don't assume everyone didn't like Nightfall, i think most people love it.

* More people isn't nessecary better. Most people are idiots, I don't want more people converting from standard MMOs to GW.

This comment reminds me of the fact that one of the reasons gamespot cited for giving Nightfall a lower score was using the same sound effects from the previous games >_<

The fools!

Ok...

An engine is just an engine. That's it. It doesn't mean squat. How a developer utilises an engine is what counts. Most of what the Crytec guys are doing can be reproduced elsewhere (though I dare say not as impressively showcased as their efforts ). Some systems use 'y' (3dsmax etc), everyone else uses 'z'(Directx, the world, etc.). There's no real difference.

From what Anet (Jeff Strain) have said, their engine is scalable. Therefore graphical upgrades will happen as time goes on. As they have already been happening (Yay! GW has normal maps. For all the good it did the game). You'll see nothing like Crysis however. That's an FPS. Those game-types are almost made to show-off hardware and software performance. Doesn't mean the visuals could be used successfully (or even be beneficial) in other game types. Theres no reason to suggest that GW couldn't benefit from some of the effects within Crytek's new toy however (The lighting model for instance.)

In all honesty, a GW 2 is far too much work for too little gain. Anet either update everything they have already done, or they create a brand new game. Both ridiculous prospects.
They either spend the next 2-3 years updating 3 games worth of content, or they start from scratch and lose more or less everything they have already established.
Who would care to start all thier accounts again? Not enough people to justify the cost.
Implementation for just the Pvp guys wouldn't be too difficult, but then competition would degrade due to the inevitable plague of hardware, and thus performance issues, while all the Pve guys bitch endlessly.
Plus the business model would take a swift kick in the face (Unless they charge 300 bucks for the game and force existing players to sign contracts to ensure they buy the thing when it arrives somwhere in the next 3-20 years).

Only fix things when they (are about to) break...

You summed up everything nicely. EXCEPT for that last point.

Traditional MMOs won't go away so don't expect many to convert over in any circumstance other than if GW was to ever to become a traditional MMO.

GW has very beautiful graphics already and don't need any better.
A new engine means more lag and then gw won't be as fun as it was..
Anet updates the graphics from time to time and that is enough for me..
But since they added that shader quality to the graphic options my gw has lagged (and i didnt notice any differences with the graphics either)

Eventually they will make gw support directX 10 and those with a new card will have nicer graphics. Like they did with directX 9.

Btw GW II FTL!!!!!!!!!!!
If you want to play GW II maybe u shouldn't play gw at all..

While I agree a GW II would be nice, I don't forsee it happening for at least another 3 years. Only when GW gets truely dated and Crytek2's engine can be "run on most machines" like GW will a.net do this. After all, a.nets main market is people who can't afford, don't have a good enough system to run, or don't want to pay monthly fees. They'd lose out a huge chuck of their market if they used a high end engine because people who would want to play GW just because it doesn't have a monthly fee (which was the original reason I bought it, but after playing it I obviously have found other reasons to stick around) wouldn't be able to play it because they often wouldn't have the system to run it.