I’m thrilled by the announcement of Guild Wars 3, but there’s a little voice in my head that keeps whispering “you know you won’t have time for a new MMO.” It’s a fear that ArenaNet seems keenly aware of as it begins to set expectations for the sequel, which plans to begin beta testing in 2027.
In a blog post this week, ArenaNet laid out several things that it believes are the “core philosophy” of Guild Wars 3: no subscriptions, no pay-to-win, respecting your time, and evolving the MMO genre.
“Historically, MMO engagement has been viewed as an experience like a second job, where players spend large amounts of time preparing to have fun before they can actually engage in the fun parts,” ArenaNet says. “Only have thirty minutes to play? Don’t play an MMO; you’ll need that time just to organize your inventory, figure out what content you’re going to play, get your character set up, and—oh, no! Time’s up, and you haven’t even begun the gameplay yet.”
The “preparing to play” problem, specifically inventory organizing, is exactly what made me drift away from Guild Wars 2 after its Path of Fire expansion despite having thousands of hours in the original Guild Wars and probably double that in GW2. Every time I logged in I would find my bags stuffed with Halloween tonics, miscellaneous currencies, and all sorts of other consumables whose purpose I couldn’t recall. It felt like I needed to clean my room before I was allowed to have fun. Eventually I stopped logging in.
ArenaNet has gotten the message that managing a slew of currencies from the past decade of expansions and story updates is one of the biggest pain points for GW2 players, lapsed or otherwise.
“We want you to feel good about the time you invest, whether you’re playing every day, only have an hour or two every week, or are coming back after a long break from the game,” it says.
ArenaNet says it approaches MMO design by identifying a problem with MMOs as they currently exist and building a solution. It’s true that my problem with most MMO options right now is that they’re all trying to lay claim to the same precious few hours I’ve got between work and bedtime.
If ArenaNet’s answer to that really is a snappier MMO with less homework, I’ll be excited to see it. I can’t help but think of the end of new content updates for Destiny 2, sometimes affectionately called a “dad game” for its (relatively) low-stress, drop-in qualities. I wasn’t ever a Destiny gal, but I’d be psyched by the rise of a “mom MMO” equivalent.
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