This game needs an update .

update would be nice...like them fixing things they said they would or perhaps the Elona part of the 'war in'.....but and update for the sake of it, rather they fix stuff instead--that list is already long enough for them to spend tons of time finishing.

It's a bit double: GW2 is an entirely different game that has different monetization. You get "some" free stuff, while all stuff in GW1, with the exception of costumes, is free.

There are multiple ways in going with a game: either you earn income through box sales (like GW1 did), you earn income through a monthly subscription (like World of Warcraft does) or you earn income through a F2P cash shop.

Each of these has it's own drawbacks: for Guild Wars 1, it meant that they always would need to work on the next big thing and come out with bigger and better features, more classes and skills, which increased the difficulty of both the game as well as keeping the balance. Since they only earn money when they actually sell a expansion/campaign, they are forced to expand the world, spreading the players more and more. This however, had one benefit back in the day, in that all rewards were included in the game and microtransactions only landed later in Guild Wars 1 with mainly customes as well as account upgrades.

If you go with a monthly subscription, your main goal is not to make a fun game, but to keep players playing: so you introduce grind, or artificial limits. You create new systems every expansion so that players will need to work hard to finish them, only to abandon them in the next expansion and introduce other systems and so on. Since you want your players to stay subscribed, you introduce FOMO and you can't really afford not to play, since you will get behind very quickly and this will, in turn, make it a lot harder for you to catch up.

Because you have a subscription fee, however, you already have a steady stream of income and you can give away nice loot for free, give away really nice skins. Some of the monthly subscription games (actually, almost all of them) nowadays have a cash shop as well, but you can actually earn a lot of nice rewards in the game itself.

Finally, the F2P cash shop model that Guild Wars 2 has is quite fair, but it has many drawbacks: it actually forces the best skins and rewards to the cash shop. They don't need you to play, so they can just focus on making the gameplay fun. However, their main income (and probably only income, except for the expansion packs) comes from mainly cosmetics. That means that those cosmetics need to be above the ones that you can get for free in game, since you do want to earn money. So, you limit a range of cosmetics to only be available in the cash shop (in GW2, that means that mount skins and glider skins are virtually only available in the cash shop, with some exceptions. Skiffs and fishing poles follow the same example).

Since every skin is potential revenue, the best looking skins will land in the cash shop. This has led to a lot of flashy, particle-heavy skins being introduced in GW2.

So having said all that, in order to make Guild Wars 1 free to play, the entire game would need to change business model and get a rework to be suitable for a cash shop: because, let's be honest, there is barely anything that you can buy that most players will want to buy.

In essence that would mean that if new content were to drop, chances are that good looking skins would only be available from the cash shop - since Guild Wars 1 lacks transmutation, that would likely mean that a transmutation system would be coming. This will likely destroy the economy which is currently based around the rarity of drops and combination of stats/skins. That would mean that you'd only need 1 great item drop and you could make it look like whatever.

Next to that, new ways to monetize would be required: that could be DLC, imagine content drops like the War in Kryta or Winds of Change locked behind a purchase.

It would likely mean that a lootbox system would be added as well, since that generates quite a lot of profit - however, what kind of things would work in a lootbox? Rare weapon drops, rare armor pieces, rare dyes, new runes and insignia's?

In order to make GW1 a free to play game, the game would need a huge overhaul in order to make it financially sound and I don't think that is what we as players would want to see happen. While I would love a transmutation system to be added, it would be a disaster for the economy. I'd love more dyes to be added in the game, but those would likely be a cash shop item. An achievement overhaul would be really fun too as an addition to the quest system. More replayable content would be fun.

There are many positive things that can be added to the game, but with a change of business model, a change of what content lands and what it needs to be changes.

That is mainly why I don't see Guild Wars 1 turning to a free to play model, and is mainly why the game is so expensive to get into these days: the game was simply made to contain a lot and is barely monetized. Imagine buying a complete game for 40 euros in 2022, that contains many hundreds hours of gameplay with no monetization at all (or barely any). Getting into GW2 itself has a base price of 30 euro's for either one or a pack with 2 expansions, but more realistically you'd be in 100 euros for all living story content at minimum.

So, would it be healthy for Guild Wars 1 to turn into a free to play game? I highly doubt it would, since our expectations of what the game needs to be would be very out of sync with what ArenaNet would need it to be.

For the future of the game, should they ever decide to come back at it, I'd hope they would introduce new things but keep the boxed entry price and add in new, fair ways of monetization:

- I'd love an achievement overhaul and achievement rewards like in Guild Wars 2.

- I would love to have Legendary Weapons in Guild Wars 1 as well, but in a Guild Wars 1 way - that means, you should not be required to pump a ton of materials in, but gain it by doing the games content and earn it (by completing, for example, collections or achievements). Legendary weapons should also be grounded in visual style to match the rest of the game, but how cool would it be to wield a Balthazar inspired greatsword that you could gain for Fissure of Woe (I'm aware of the Balthazar set :P) or a Grenth-based staff or scythe from Fissure of Woe (again, I am aware of the Scythe of Dhuum - but it should be something in terms of that).

- I'd love a quest menu overhaul just to make it a bit easier to browse, as well as making it easier to track which quests you haven't completed yet.

- In the same spirit, I would introduce a new dailies interface in the quest menu.

- I'd love for new content and DLC to land in the game, that wouldn't need to be huge at all - a new dungeon, for example, with unique rewards. Or story content like the Winds of Change (I'd easily pay 10-15 euro for that content personally), again, with unique rewards.

- Since the economy hasn't got enough sinks and there are tons of materials in the game, new materials would need to be introduced (probably timegated) for new rewards and new sinks for older materials would need to be introduced (again, probably best to timegate these).

- A meta shakeup would be nice with new balance and some profession overhauls, but these are more work to do.

- New festival quests and new rewards.

- It would destroy the current economy, but a transmutation system would be really cool so you would be able to more easily mix and match armor and weapon skins. Transmutation charges should be earnable in game or buyable in shop.

- That would mean introducing a wardrobe like Guild Wars 2 has, where you can unlock skins and unlock rewards when you, for example, unlock all of the skins of one set.

- New hard mode quests would be appreciated.

- Newly added content should always have replayability, like for example the War in Kryta finale should be a "regular" mission with a hard mode and map marker, and should be replayable.

- Replaying missions should reward a mission token for exclusive rewards for that mission or region - for example, the Ascalonian region could reward Charrslayer weapons. Kryta could give you White Mantle rewards. The Maguuma Jungle could give you some Druid-inspired weaponry, the Ring of Fire could give you the Magma-weapons (but more extended), perhaps with some visual changes or a special look.

- You should be able to earn all of the weapons of the end-game weapon sets (for completing Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, Eye of the North etc). Perhaps with mission tokens, or by playing the Glint quests for Prophecies (and for example, when clearing afflicted from areas in Factions).

- Overhaul the title book system, keep them in the game, but perhaps a completed book can be used to get special rewards if you have maxed a title - for example, a special Kurzick rune, a new Kurzick weapon set (perhaps just a reskinned one), minipets, tonics...

There would be plenty of things that can be added and changed, and I truly think this game still has potential (in fact, I think it could have been going strong if the development continued alongside GW2) and it could still flourish. I know that many of my ideas are simply impossible as it stands right now, and I am still glad that I can still play the game that had such a profound impact on my life and enjoy it. I hesitate to complete some goals, even, to keep having a reason to play (I haven't completed the Kurzick title track or the Luxon one, for that example).

Guild Wars has been a part of my life through the best and worst moments of my life and it has always been there for me - there were years that the only thing I could talk about, was Guild Wars (I think I had to be 15 or 16 back in the day and it honestly was the only thing I spoke about).

I realize that I was quite a bad player back then and just mashed together skills (still proud of the Sever Artery, Gash, Sun and Moon Slash, Dragon Slash combination I thought of back in the day), before we had things like PvX or Metabattle. I remember being stuck at Zen Daijun for literally months, ragequit at Gyala Hatchery and then just decided to go Kurzick (best choice of my life - but I still hate the Eternal Grove ;)).

I love this game with every little fiber of my being and I'm really thankful that I can still play it - I'm a noble unknown in the community and when Guild Wars Legacy launched, I simply used my real name as nickname here. Why did I do that? Was it because I was ashamed of how bad a player I was, or because I'm just humble (I highly doubt that), or was it because I was afraid I wasn't good enough and thought I wouldn't be able to get the support behind me that I needed? I think it's mainly the last one and I just want to end my enormous post here as a big thank you for all of you who made Legacy the success it has become (for me, but also for the community). My heart is in this game and the great community, and I'll forever be here for anyone who loves the game and I'll do anything I can do to make the game even better (once, I dreamed of moving to America and trying to get a job at ArenaNet, only to not believe in my skills and pursue the easiest road ahead of me - something I still regret, but I am thankful of all the chances I have gotten so far.

So, thank you all for being here, for being the most amazing community I have ever been a part of. Thank you ArenaNet for creating the game that formed me into who I am, that gave me the stories and characters that I hold so very dear to my heart. Thank you Jeremy Soule for creating the sound track of my youth (even though he really isn't the best person around). Thank you Gaile Gray for believing in me and Legacy when we just started and for letting me attend 2 Gamescom parties in the Haxenhaus in Germany (the last time I went there, was extra magical and important to me. I brought a friend of mine with me, who could speak/translate German, and by the end of the evening she was my girlfriend (and still is!), so even for that I have to thank Guild Wars!). Finally, thank you, Stephen Clarke-Willson, for keeping the lights on for the Guild Wars servers as the Guild Wars 1 Game Director.

You are all amazing (and this has gone on way too long, so I'll stop here). I can't thank all of you enough.

- A strangely emotional Kevin