First let me start by saying that when I say that this is the perfect time for GW2, I mean for it's planning and development. It obviously won't be released for at least 2 years.
I have heard a lot of people saying that it is too soon for GW2, that Anet should keep GW1 going, that they feel betrayed by having GW2 being planned and developed already, that they feel like there is no reason to keep playing thier toons in GW1, and various other complaints that generaly say that this is the wrong time for GW2.
But I for one think this is the perfect time. Here are the reasons I think so:
The community: The community right now is still going strong. Any info that gets released spreads like wildfire. There are even people who frequent the fansites, and don't even play GW much anymore. If they waited until GW1 was really winding down, the community would not be able to spread the word nearly as far, and the buzz would be less than it otherwise would be.
The other thing about the community is that letting them know now that GW2 is on the horizon allows the community to give the devs input into the game. This gives the devs a great source of ideas and a great way to know what the main fanbase will be interested in for the game, and with enough time to actually include it.
It will give us a mature game at launch: GW1 was a new type of game when it was launched. Anet took a bunch of risks when it came to GW1. The business model, the game style, the community relations - there were so many things that they were doing differently, that GW was a big risk overall. It payed off in spades, and over roughly the past 2 and a half years (counting early beta) a more mature game has developed. The community has grown with it, as has the business model, and the company Anet as a whole.
So, as things like the attribute system (anyone remeber refund points?) evolved, Anet learned a lot about how the game should work. Later additions like NPCs in the GH, Observer Mode, and Templates added to a much richer game. Those kinds of things that have been added over the past 2 years can be part of the game at launch for GW2, and the lessons Anet learned can be incorporated into the game from day 1.
They will be able to include things that would be too dificult or too bulky in the current engine: There are certain things that the community has been begging for since release, and in some cases even since Beta. Player-to-player trade improvements, more character creation options (facial, etc...), and the z-axis fix (to fix the problem where someone under a bridge can "run in to" someone on top of the bridge) are just a few examples.
I am convinced that at least some things that the community has asked for push the limits of the game engine to the point that they needed to essentially re-write huge areas of the engine itself, causing a dilemna for an established game. With a new game, you can start with a new engine, and new flexibility to make changes over the next several years to make a much better game.
So these things that the community has been calling for can be integrated into GW2, where putting them into GW1 would be extremely difficult and impractical at best, if not next to impossible. One good example of this is the addition of persistable areas in GW2. I suspect that, despite the fact that a lot of fans have asked for this, that it would be next to impossible to work into the current engine. And changing the engine inside GW1 itself would be impractical at best.
The game will have strong ties to GW1: As some of the information about GWEN and GW2 has been filtering out, one of the things that has caught my attention are the ties between GW1 and GW2. The hall of monuments, and the things that you can unlock for your GW2 characters via GW1 is a huge level of interaction with the GW2 game even before it is released.
Personally I think that is a great gesture to the community, and to thier fans. The ability to unlock exclusive things in GW2 via GW1 gives GW1 players a special place in the new game. If they waited another year or 2 before starting development, they may not be able to pull as many people into GW2, and the hall of monuments wouldn't have nearly as much meaning.
Some people have complained about GW1 going away, but with the strong ties to GW1, think of GW2 as a new campaign with a really big upgrade. Yes, you can't port all your toons, but you can use the Hall of Monuments to reserve thier names, get special gear, and keep thier legend alive.
Infrastructure: In Anet's (current) unique engine, thier infrastructure is completely scalable. The infrastructure can literally grow dynamically as needed, and a shrinking base would be easy to scale back as well. While the server setup for GW2 may be different, especially with persistance and larger areas with players in them, I suspect that they will keep the scaleablity, and a similar enough engine that it can share some of the same infrastructure.
By planning and developing GW2 while GW1 is still going very strong, they will be able to take advantage of the existing servers, connections, etc..., and once GW2 is released, as GW1 winds down, the unoccupied servers can be re-tooled for use with GW2 as it expands, and it saves on the infrastructure cost for GW2. That allows Anet to spend more money on developers and other things to make an even better game.
Fixing some mis-steps: In the PCGamer article, they said that the game started to feel "bloated" to them. That is a direct result of the way that they planned and executed the system of "campaigns". Stand-alone games with add-ons to the existing game, adding professions and skills every time gets exponentially more difficult with each one. That plus the time frame for finishing development between one and the other made for a complete madhouse for development, and made for less original content than most fans would have liked.
The problem is that if all Anet did was to take a different direction, and go with expansions on a better time frame, they still have a mostly bloated game to deal with. Rather than continuing to keep going down that same track, starting from scratch makes for a much, much better game. It allows consolidation for things like the different armor systems (Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall all do armor a little different), and weapons systems (i.e. inscriptions).
Other things like unlock packs, expansion character slots, and other things that became available through the GW store well after launch can be integrated from the start, and prevent things like people having to buy seperate storage accounts, and prevent the people that said things like "What, you mean I bought that seperate account for nothing!" or "You mean I have to buy Factions for BOTH my accounts??!?"
(Last, but not least) Growth: In GW1, with Anet shifting away from campaigns to go with expansions, growing the fan base would be a tough nut too crack. While still possible, it would be hard. With going to a new game, you can structure for grwoth in different ways. For example; if your business model is to use expansions, you have to find a way to bring new players into the mix with each expansion. With GW1, the fact that they would have to choose between 3 different base games to get the expansion is daunting for a new player.
But if you plan to do expansions from the start as with GW2, they will have 1 base game to buy, and you can plan special promotions with each expansion to get new players into the mix. Plus they can plan the game for growth down a new path, whereas with GW2, they ould have to be adapting to the new growth plan.
All in all, I think this is the perfect time to start talking about (and starting development of) GW2, and I think it's release will be timely.
T
