One of the main reasons why I had even bothered with Guild Wars 1 in the first place was that it was free to play. Before I even knew about Guild Wars I had my eyes on World of Warcraft. However I just couldn't get myself to dish out the subscription fee. Once I buy a game I don't want to continue to pay for it just to keep playing it.  So there I was in Guild Wars 1 and I got more than my moneys worth out of that game and all of the expansions. I still feel the same with Guild Wars 2 on the horizon. I'm not really worried about what is going to happen in the long term. Again look at Guild Wars 1, the servers are still live and people still continue to play it.

I hate it when people say just play a FPS. If I want to play a shooter I will. That doesn't mean I don't have a craving to play something like oh that's say Shadowbane. When it comes to PVP I believe they had it at least close to right. I would say the main problem I saw with that game was the lowbie camping. Fun and entertaining for high levels to show off their power, yet at the same time it would often chase away the new player especially with full loot drop and equipment damage. What made that game fun was the GvG. Politics, mine fights and town battles. The drama alone at times would make the game entertaining especially when guilds that used to be allies would turn on each other. "Happened to the guild I was in". :P

I would have to agree that pre determined factions can ruin pvp in a game because most players opt to roll a character on the side that wins the most. Look at Guild Wars: Factions. Anybody that's ever spent enough time doing the alliance battles saw that exact same thing happen to the point where you would spend most of your time waiting to fight because the other side had a very low population.
 

I've been looking for a decent pvp game in the f2p market and so far it all seems the same. Pre determined factions, over powered item mall users, constant struggles with skill/class balancing, lowbie ganking, people calling other classes over powered every time they lose a fight, and so on.

Can there be a successful pvp slanted game? I think so, but with the current formula a lot of developers seem to be using right now, I don't think there will be.
*Wishes for a Shadowbane 2*

1. Guild Wars "Plus expansions"

2. Shadow Bane "Had tech issues and was old, but it was one of the most fun pvp games ever"

3. DDO "Now if it would have more of a reason to endgame besides for better gear then this game would be great. What's the point of having the best gear when there is nothing to use it for?"

Downloaded this game and have been working on a character. I don't see anything beyond very basic pve right now. So does this game just all the sudden get fun at some point or what? I haven't really found a decent f2p pvp game since shadowbane.

I like the change. I was getting tired of the typical cookie cutter who's tank, who's healer set up in just about every mmo i've ever played. Now when i'm on my character in GW2, i'll be able to tell people i'm perkisizing!

Honestly I don't really see a downside. I'm not saying it will be perfect, but I've been impressed with everything I've read and watched about it so far. I still play Guild Wars 1 off and on. It's been one of my favorite MMOs to date and after everything I've seen going on with GW2 I think I will be far from disappointed.

I disagree with the fact that there is no subscription fee being the downside. It's far from it. It's not like any f2p game where you create an account and later on figure out you are most likely going to have to depend on the item mall for access to more content, or items that will allow you to be a good contender in pvp. If you take a look at the store for Guild Wars1 it's things like character slots, costumes, and the ability to buy a digital version of Guild Wars 1, and all of the expansions. You can also at times upgrade your game to a game of the year edition. See the difference?

Just about every negative thing I've heard seems to be from people that probably have not even bothered to read up on it or even watch a few videos. I've heard things like,

"Oh it's just a WoW clone."

to,

"It's nothing but graphics the gameplay is just like any other f2p grinder that's out right now."

Guild Wars 2 is a step in the right direction for MMOs in my opinion. Some of the things they are doing are pretty ground breaking. I know there are probably other game developers that claim or have claimed to have a lot of the features Guild Wars 2 will have, but were they done well? I'm willing to bet not.