ArenaNet and NCSoft announce that the MMO added an additional 1 million sales

Colin Johanson, Guild Wars 2 Game Director, released a new blog post today announcing that ArenaNet's game has grown nicely since launch.

Just two weeks after launch, Guild Wars 2 had reached 2 million sales and the total now stands at 3 million. That's a lot of boxes and a lot of folks who could be buying gems in-game. Or drooling softly in a quiet place looking at someone carrying Twilight.

Not content with sitting around patting each other on the back, Johanson spoke of how the dev team is looking to change the game and build further in the coming months.

A Living World

Johanson spoke of the lessons learned by the Halloween, Lost Shores and WintersDay events and how much potential there is to be explored:

"We’ve shown some of the promise of a truly living world, but we still have so many ideas on how to take this to the next level. Put simply we’ve barely scratched the surface.

We will accomplish this is by building a world that has truly unique storylines and event experiences that play out over extended periods of time, that shape the future and world of Tyria, creating stories for everyone to tell about the game for years to come."

These "living storylines" are meant to add strength to the persistent content and allure of current zones, enriching Tyria as it stands before expanding upon it.

As part of that a new reward system is on the drawing board with some fascinating additions to the game. It appears that there will be gear tailored to a character's profession which is great news for those looking for further flavor to their favorite class.

The achievement system will be used as a path to grabbing the new gear, as finally those numbers will be translated into being able to get new cosmetic items and more. The tokens from achievements will also be used to get ascended gear and infusions, fulfilling the promise that multiple content streams would be available to get ascended items.

Could Legendary precursors be on the table? A straight token grind for a precursor seems unlikely.

Also you will eventually be able to choose which elements you want to take  in order to complete the daily, so instead of doing all of the requisites, you can select a lesser number and do it your way. This is a welcome addition and makes the achievement system more involving and interactive.

DUB v DUBS

WvW is very popular in concept and for many in execution, but there's no doubt it needs some love for its long term sustainability. Johanson addresses that by speaking of the new systems that will be coming to the mass PvP combat:

"We’ll introduce a system of prestige and advancement specifically designed for WvW. This will give players a progression path where they earn new WvW-only abilities and bonuses, and with them gain prestige and visible titles/recognition"

Johanson also promises a new short-term incentive -- in contrast to the overall fight for points -- to make WvW more inviting to players on a moment-to-moment basis.

The paid transfer system with a WvW lock out period will be brought in to prevent people cherry picking their server switches based on WvW success -- a problem which has disrupted the competitiveness of a number of realms.

With the promised improvements for culling -- the act of deciding how many players on screen are rendered, which has led to a lot of invisible enemies chewing through the unaware -- there are a lot of changes for WvW that look to be for the better.

SPvP

Structured PvP fans have been hurting, there's no doubt of that, but the plans Johanson announced should be cause for celebration.

It looks like spectator mode is on its way.

"For those more interested in competitive PvP, we’ll be adding the core features required to truly make Guild Wars 2 shine as a competitive game—things like being able to watch other competitors and see major ranked matches to learn how to play better, the ability to host your own custom arenas to setup your own rules and host your own team practices, and visible places for everyone to see rankings of the best teams/players in the world."

With the addition of new PvP rewards -- speculation on that begins now, XP for the casuals perhaps? -- and prize rich tournaments promised down the line, the next six months could see a real revival for SPvP through adopting the eSport model more robustly.

Oh Sweet Hallelujah

On a personal note, the section that made me most excited was that of new tools and content for guilds. Guild missions could be something as simple as capture points across Orr -- or even ArenaNet's answer to raids? -- but being able to group up with more than four of your fellow guildies and go do things that matter is not only exciting, it's a relief.

As I've stated on previous occasions, the lack of community building content through guilds is a sore point in Guild Wars 2 and filling that void will lengthen the game's vitality through social stickiness as well as adding a depth of experience.

Guesting

Yes, guesting was mentioned, but I don't want to type it more than three times in case it appears in my computer and tries to kill me.

What excited you most about Johanson's revelations for the next six months of Guild Wars 2? Let us know below.

                                              Scott "Jarimor" Hawkes, Editor in Chief