In his latest Guild Wars 2 column, MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller reveals himself to be a betting man. His wager with you, our faithful readers, is the likelihood (or not) that Guild Wars 2 will actually see the light of day in 2011. Read Garrett's thoughts on the wager and then give your virtual betting handshake in the comments beneath.

Betting is fun. It has been going on for thousands of years. I have always said that if you put a group of guys in a room with booze, within about thirty minutes some form of game starts. About ten minutes later someone will be say the phrase “let’s bet on it.” That is kind of how the world goes. So I was thinking today on something to bet on for 2011. It’s not weight loss or some dumb reality show. It is whether or not Guild Wars 2 will launch in 2011. The game that was announced three years ago, that shook the very foundations of MMOs this past season, will it see the launch before the end of the year?

Read more Guild Wars 2: 2011 - For Amusement Purposes Only.

My bet goes on NO, not even close

*Called Vegas...but they didn't say*

Under / October /12th /..is my bet..

I'm going with over, reasons?

Based on the info that is known, they haven't given much.  I haven't looked at the sheet but they are till revealing classes. 

Unless i'm unaware, beta testing hasn't really started.  Whereas ToR has already been doing it for 6 months.

Also they don't have a release date and usually a big company gives a release date for an MMO about a year ahead.

People are speculating the end of the year but there are always delays, so i think they want it to be nov but they aren't sure enough to say for certain thus the it's ready when it's ready.

Thus i'm going with it will be 2012 before we see it.

Gonna bet on October 27th, 5 years after Nightfall

Under.

Anet has a trend for releasing games in mid April, but given the limited info we have so far, I would put money on the 6th anniversary in April being the date they announce the release--a release in late August/ early September--their other traditional release window.

1 july 2011. 1 month after the last novel , since each novel got 5 month between them and they said its will come out after the 3 novel are out. :)

Not going to start guessing specific dates or even months but I cast my vote on end of the year or within first half of 2012. Assuming everything goes well in the development and testing.

- B

Originally posted by sk8chalif

1 july 2011. 1 month after the last novel , since each novel got 5 month between them and they said its will come out after the 3 novel are out. :)

 I really hope it doesn't come out right exactly when ToR is suppose to come out.  That wouldn't be a good marketing decision.

I think the end of 2011 would be a bad time to launch the game. Right on top of TES V, Mass Effect 3 and Diablo 3 it would be hard to stand out to the wider gaming crowd. Launch at the end of summer or wait till 2012.

Im currently going to guess over in first quarter 2012

My reasoning, is they said at least not till November themselves

2 gamestop has the date released at 2012 in their stores. While they are not 100% right on we all know this, it is a fair guess.

I'm thinking it will be a 2011 release and I'm hoping that it will be a fairly early release.

Late 2012 will be my guess, as they will choose to delay when TOR goes at the start of Q2 2012

over !

the 4 last classes revealed during the next 1/2 year, then beta in oktober , a few things redone based on feedback. And they are set for a spring release

Over . . . 2nd quarter 2012

End of Q3.

I bet my interwebz points in 2012. Closed/Open betas and stuff.

One factor I am looking at is that they have only released 4 (officially on there gw2 website) out of the eight pros (classes). I think they greatest factor of time here is going to be how they release there other classes if they are going to do them one at a time then my bet is going to be on late 2012 at best. If they suprise us with a few packed bundles (like 2 releases of two classes each) then we may see it late this year (very unlikely) or within the first half of next year. So only time will tell, but I predict we still have a long ways to go.

I bet on Friday.  No, not this Friday.  Just some Friday.  Guild Wars 2 will not launch on a Tuesday, even if it is ready.

There are not going to be any betas that comparable to what most games do. That was already stated, so the people mentioning they needs months for betas, that theory is already out of the window. Betas were stated to work similarly to Guild Wars' original betas, which were small events for people to test the game out, that was it. Further, it was mentioned that these betas were going to happen around the time the game is set to launch, rather than ahead of time. I don't know their reason for this, they didn't say, just that the public betas would be happening closer to release. You can read about this right on the GW2's FAQ page:

"

When will there be a beta?

Although we publicly beta-tested the original Guild Wars® while it was still in early development, with Guild Wars 2 we will commence beta testing closer to the game's release. Guild Wars 2 is a very large and ambitious game, and Guild Wars players rightfully have very high expectations. We want players to be absolutely blown away by the game the first time they experience it."

There are some developer interviews that go into more detail about it, but nothing really concrete. So we can probably take those several month-long betas games like Rift and DCUO have been giving out, right off the table. That's not how it'll work, which shortens the timeline a bit.