To say that Guild Wars 2 is in a bad place right now would be a colossal understatement, as its upcoming End of Dragons expansion could quite literally mean the end of the game. It's pretty hard for an MMO to survive forever, but a successful game like Guild Wars 2 should be able to last for a very long time in today's age of live service games.
The situation over at Arena Net is pretty dire. After recovering from the failure of its Heart of Thorns expansion, Guild Wars 2 had as much momentum as it ever has when its Path of Fire expansion released, but it did not take long for fervor to begin to fade away. The game started to see slower-paced content releases which lacked replayability and other times didn't feel remotely close to being finished. As personnel were shifted to other projects at the studio that ultimately failed, Arena Net was hit with massive layoffs. With the studio in disarray, it felt to many players like NC Soft ordered the creation of a third expansion, as one did not appear to originally be a part of any plans at Arena Net.
The End of Dragons expansion, due for release sometime in 2021, is the last hope for Guild Wars 2 as a giant in the MMO industry. With Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft doing well after recent expansions, Guild Wars 2 has fallen too far behind. While introducing the continent of Cantha is a great start; a few new areas, a new campaign, and a new set of elite specializations is not going to be enough to save this game. The introduction of the Tengu as a playable race and major additions to current game modes is borderline necessary at this stage, as many of the game's hardcore players have been driven away for a list of reasons that continues to grow.
The Guild Wars 2 Player Base Is At A Breaking Point
The Guild Wars 2 community is angry, and it's hard to blame them. Many of the hardcore players have been driven away from the game as their favorite game modes are discontinued or ignored entirely. Dungeons were replaced with Fractals of the Mist, which just finally received a new release after 21 months. There hasn't been a new MMO raid introduced in 18 months, having been replaced with Strikes, which are little more than watered-down raids, as the game's casual audience has been heavily resistant to what they perceive to be a toxic and elitist game mode.
World vs. World players have effectively been playing the exact same Guild Wars 2 content since launch, with no updates on the Alliance feature that was announced almost three years ago. PvP players have had ongoing issues with the way the format has been handled since launch. And all of this is happening while the game's Icebrood Saga campaign continues to disappoint and significant efforts are made towards the in-game cash shop with each update.
At this stage, anyone who isn't just a casual open world player feels like they are being actively driven away by Arena Net. Guild Wars 2 is a fantastic game with some of the best gameplay of any MMO on the market, but that gameplay can't shine without quality content. Some of these players have been actively involved with the franchise since its inception over 15 years ago, and they don't want to stop playing. But if Arena Net doesn't make serious strides towards solving these problems with this upcoming expansion, Guild Wars 2 is probably done for, because the players won't come back if it fails.