OK, so we have two things to consider here. Let me start with the easier one first.
To put it bluntly, a petition of this nature doesn't really mean Jack Squat. It doesn't matter if you have 1000 signatures at the end, or 10,000. It is nothing more than a bunch of names on a virtual piece of paper. Arenanet already knows there is keen interest from the dedicated GW1 playerbase for seeing new content in the game. They have known that for years. Nothing will be done unless it is approved and has the backing of NCSoft. I don't think I need to remind anyone that petitions (and a whole lot more) did nothing to save City of Heroes. Regardless, if we want to see hope of new content being produced for GW1, it is going to require convincing NCSoft that it is the profitable thing to do. Your best bet is to get in contact with them and find out exactly what it would take for them to provide the go ahead for ANet to dedicate time, manpower, money, and resources into developing new content for GW1. However, I don't think for a minute you would get your foot in the door without something to bring to the table aside from a petition with a bunch of names on it. Let me explain why.
Back during the turn of the Century, I was a manager at a bowling center that also had an attached bar and grille. We were planning a huge celebration for the New Year (2001 of course!). People could reserve packages that included bowling, food, and drink, and party the night away in style. However, during the planning stages, a lot of our regulars started in inquire about merchandise - hats in particular. They suggested we get hats made up for the event. Myself and the center owner considered the proposition and thought it might be a good thing to do since there seemed to be interest in it. However, that would require a big up front cost on our parts to get the hats produced. So I created a petition for people sign asking if they would be interested in purchasing one of these hats for a nominal cost (they would have been priced just above our cost to have them produced, so we wouldn't really be making a whole lot on the sale). We ended up with over 200 people signing the petition saying they would be interested in buying the hats if they were available. Now, again, since this would be a big out of pocket expense for us to get these things produced, we decided to do a trial run first, and only ordered a batch of 50 hats. If they sold well, we would get the rest of them produced. As it turns out, despite all those names committing to buying one of the hats, we sold a total whopping of 13. One of which I purchased for myself.
NCSoft won't give you the time of day if all you can bring to the table is a petition and a Guild Wars 1 fanboy smile. To have any hope of getting them the least bit interested in this project, it would require an investment group coming to the table with a good looking bank statement and a business plan for how this content is going to be produced, and the long term plans and goals for the team and the game. Maybe Stephen and Bill can help get the ball rolling on ANet's side of things and bring this petition and proposal to Mike O'Brien, who can then broach the subject with his NCSoft contacts, but I really don't see this getting anywhere with NCSoft without a big fat check to back it up.
Now remember, I said that was the easy part of this equation. The tough part is the creative aspect of the project. For that, let me highlight some things from your post above:
It is well known that the second generation of anything is always better than the first.
This is just me nitpicking, but I couldn't resist: this statement couldn't be further from the truth. There are myriads of examples where a follow-up product was vastly inferior to its predecessor. Heck most of us here think that with Guild Wars 2.
Also from a artistic prespective, why would we not want new ones? We do not want another NF/Fac or EOTN but new works of art. Sometimes, the previous artists are very versatile and imagine new things and make them completely different from the previous ones. So if we get the old artists of GW1 who want and can contribute towards this, well and good and if not, new ones can be hired.
We're not talking about artistic style here. Of course we would want any new content to have a look unique to that content, but still be the familiar Guild Wars that we all know and love. Each of the three campaigns and expansion have that, so that's not the issue. The real issue here is one of design and mechanics.
We had new people coming to ANet with new ideas and talent from 2006 to 2012. What we got as a result of that is Guild Wars 2. Why would we not want new people to come in and work on the new GW1 content - that's your answer. It's true that we don't need one single person from the ANet of 2000-2006, but unless we get people who are going to hold true to the designs and ideas of that original team, what we will get will be no different (and perhaps no better) than what the team brought to us with Guild Wars 2.
I feel the same way about the Star Trek movie reboots and the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise. For me, the movies produced by JJ and Rian are absolutely terrible when compared to the core products that spawned them. Why? Because for me, they hold nothing of what made the originals great and spawned such a massive following. The Trek reboots and Last Jedi are nothing more than a generic sci-fi product with a famous IP attached to it. They may be entertaining movies in their own right, but they are soulless husks when it comes to the IP they are supposed to represent.
EXAMPLE: Do not view this as a task where the original person is no more so it cant be done again. This is not a painting made by Pablo Picasso. It was a collective effort of many individuals working as a team which was never static. Dynamic team is always way better than a static one in any case. If you are made to believe that this simply not possible because the original team is no longer their, then that is simply not true and nothing more than a distracting comment. These are just generic replies that any one would make in this case.
In all reality, we really are talking about a Picasso. or a Van Gogh, a Da Vinci, or a Monet, or a Rembrandt. Games are in all reality a work of art. As such, the enjoyment one receives from a game is going to be varied and a purely individual thing. There can be no doubt that the people I just mentioned are considered greats in the world of Art. But that doesn't mean that their artwork is universally liked or appreciated. Each individual person is going to have their own likes and dislikes regarding a work of art. Games are no different. For me Guild Wars 2 is not a bad game. It's pretty solid and a very good effort put forth from a talented developer. However, in the context of a Guild Wars game, it is nothing that I have any interest in playing whatsoever, and find the original a much superior and enjoyable product.
We will never see another original Picasso made. There can be some artist out there who can mimic Picasso's style and produce a lovely piece of art in its own right, but any fan of Picasso will always see it as a cheap knock-off that is inferior to any work produced by the original master. This is what many people here are talking about when there are hesitations made about having anyone on the current ANet team produce new content for our game, and even if we bring in yet more people, those fears can still be justified. Any new team may be able to reproduce the look and feel of the Guild Wars we all know and love, but at the end of the day, if it just turns out to be a soulless clone, what good is it?
This is not a distracting or generic comment, but it is the very core of the issue we are talking about. That's why this part is vastly more difficult to address than the financial one with NCSoft. Money and numbers are easy. Getting people to do right by Guild Wars 1 and us fans is going to be an infinitely more difficult process, and one that cannot be understated or underestimated.
As a certified PC technician, I can guarantee that there are a bunch of people at ANet that would jump at the chance to play around with the old code, just like I enjoy playing around with old PC's and Apple machines from the 80's and Operating Systems going all the way back to the DOS days. It's just plain fun to muck around with the classic stuff. That's not going to be the issue. Getting them, or someone new up to speed and really understanding what the code of GW1 is like and all the nuances and limitations in the code is going to be a time-consuming process. But at the end of the day, no matter how talented they are, or the talent of any new people that might be brought into the project, it doesn't mean Jack Squat if they don't understand what makes GW1 the Guild Wars we love.
