A new MMO announcement is more exciting than all the other SGF news combined

The same thing happens every summer—the jaded, cynical monster inside me mopes around and pretends he's not going to get excited about SGF (and before it, E3) announcements. There are too many of them, and I've been around too long to become a victim of hype.

And every summer, the hype starts bubbling away anyway, more and more, until it engulfs the jaded, cynical monster. There's usually one announcement that does it for me. This year, that honour went to Guild Wars 3.

MMO announcements get me buzzing with anticipation quicker than most game-related news. I love an MMO. I usually have at least two in rotation, though frequently more, which really shouldn't be the case now that I'm a middle-aged man with limited time and too many responsibilities. But I always find room for my beloved timesinks.

The excitement is even greater this time, though, because it's the latest in a string of brilliant MMOs.

Evolution and revolution

OG Guild Wars taught me to not be terrified of PvP, and instead to thrive on it, by creating structured, accessible PvP that didn't just throw you into a big mess and watch you get murdered over and over again. And it could have just been that alone, but Guild Wars also conducted some brilliant experiments in PvE, as well, and solo-PvE specifically, most notably in the form of NPC companions.

Guild Wars 2 then shed that PvP focus, but not by ignoring PvP—it was given the same attention and love that it received in the original game, but it shared the limelight with a PvE layer that still feels revolutionary today. It swapped heavily-instanced co-op PvE with traditional, text-heavy quests for a more organic structure.

A lot of MMOs like to talk up their living worlds, but Guild Wars 2 took this boast seriously, replacing quests with events and activities that were constantly popping off, ready for you and every other player to jump in. You would just encounter things happening as you explored the map, often in media res.

Maybe a farm's being plagued by pests, and you discover a dozen players furiously squashing little beasties into extinction—a noble mission you can contribute towards without even joining a party. Or maybe you wander into a dynamic warzone, with humans and centaurs locked into an endless feud, allowing you to dive into different hotzones to complete objectives that will contribute to the ongoing conflict, culminating in an epic battle.

This is not a series that rests on its laurels.

14 years on, this still feels novel. This concept that things are just happening around you, rather than waiting for you to start.

The announcement that Guild Wars 3 is coming, then, is not just exciting because it's more of this series I love. It's exciting because I have no idea what shape it's going to take. This is not a series that rests on its laurels. And what little we do know sounds markedly different from its predecessor. Guild Wars 2 now offers a vast world to play around in, and instead of initially going bigger for Guild Wars 3, ArenaNet appears to be going more specific—at least when it comes to its setting—by honing in on the frontier of Orr.

Orrible place

By the time of Guild Wars 1, Orr was a mighty kingdom, but it had an Atlantis moment and was destroyed off-screen. In Guild Wars 2, you can travel to its ruins. So we'll be witnessing the birth of this kingdom, 1,000 years prior.

We're also getting spirit companions, known as Seekers, which will serve as our mounts, and ArenaNet's already making a big deal about how it's transforming movement. "Run, slide, leap, and bound across Orr with a one-of-a-kind movement system that transfers your momentum between modes of travel, providing a free-form joy of movement through a world alive with adventure," it says.

Oh yeah, it looks like we'll be finally getting playable bears, too.

The setting, the time period, the focus on new mechanics: Yeah, this isn't just going to be Guild Wars 2 but prettier and modern. And that makes even more sense when you take into account ArenaNet's continued support for GW1. These games have entirely different vibes, so they don't get abandoned just because there's a sequel.

Beyond the specifics, there's something just innately thrilling about the promise of a big new MMO. There was a glorious period where this would not be noteworthy, when every year I'd be checking out new MMO prospects every few months. Lamentably, session-based live service games have taken over, and there are so many MMO corpses littering the annals of PC gaming history that I absolutely understand the reluctance to embark on another possible folly.

It's that shared experience that makes them special.

That's a huge loss for our hobby, though. Not just because I love me an MMO, but because few other games can replicate that feeling of countless people charging into a brand new world together—making impromptu parties to murder surprisingly tough low-level foes, delving into those first dungeons and not having a clue what's going on, figuring out the meta. It's that shared experience that makes them special. That genuine sense of discovery.

It's why, even though I knew almost immediately it wasn't going to be for me, I still got some real enjoyment out of the early days of New World. Sure, I hated the boring forests, terrible quests and uninspired monsters, but I loved discovering that I didn't like New World. I loved that sense of potential—the thought that maybe I'd actually become a New World player.

That's such a rare treat these days. New World launched five years ago, and in January 2027 it will cease to exist.

Not dead, just resting

Sure, there have been other MMOs since then. Games like Pantheon and Project: Gorgon, which attempt to tap into the nostalgia for classic MMOs. Playing them, I did experience a flicker of that old excitement—especially in Project: Gorgon, which is delightfully unhinged—but the problem with these throwback MMOs is that I already played these things back when they were novel (and also when I had more patience). They have old bones and old sensibilities, but I crave new adventures with a bit less grind and where it doesn't feel like I'm being punished for simply trying to play.

That leaves me with Dune: Awakening, which Funcom says isn't even an MMO. That's nonsense, of course; it absolutely is an MMO. Unfortunately, it's a survival and crafting MMO, which I find exhausting. When I say I love MMOs, what I really mean is that I love MMORPGs. So I played for a month and never will again. I was so busy crafting bullshit, avoiding heatstroke and trying to earn enough to pay my taxes that I didn't have time for fun.

Pantheon, Project: Gorgon and Dune: Awakening all share one thing: they're niche. Yes, survival games are niche. Sure, they're a big niche—a really, really big niche—but they are still games for a specific type of player, just like Pantheon and Project: Gorgon are for the old school MMO crowd. And that can make it tough to find your groove.

Which brings me to the other thing I love about new MMORPGs: finding your people.

In FF14, for instance, I'm just in it for the fashion. All I care about is finding new clothes—and to a slightly lesser extent new minions and mounts. In Star Trek Online, I'm just here for the cool ships and the episodic content, ensuring that even during fallow periods where there are no Trek shows, I always have some new adventures in the final frontier. In GW1 I was all about the PvP, in WoW I got super into raiding, in City of Heroes it was all about buildcrafting, and in Star Wars Galaxies (RIP) I got seriously into roleplaying.

I can't wait to see who I become in Orr.

These were the doorways into the varied communities within these MMOs. So yes, I like a good niche, but I want to be the one who picks it. I don't want to be railroaded into that niche. With hyper-specific MMOs, even when they do offer a variety of distractions, you still need to be a certain type of player already. A survivalist, for instance, or an Everquest stan.

For some people, they know who they are going to be when they dip their toes into a new MMO. But not me. It's a voyage of discovery every single time. I can't wait to see who I become in Orr. Is it time to get way too into PvP again? Or will I take a cue from my partner's obsession in GW2 and get super into cooking? I am beyond excited to leap into this endless well of potential.

That said, I do know that whatever kind of GW3 player I'll become, it will be bear-shaped.

Looking for all the announcements at this year's PC Gaming Show? Visit the show's Steam page to wishlist your most anticipated games!