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Following the reception of the finale of the Icebrood Saga, and especially exacerbated by some louder voices in the community and on YT, some players are understandably uncertain of the long term future of GW2.
While "game is dying" has been said since roughly launch in 2012, we've had notable moments of this feeling perpetuating the playerbase a little more strongly - the last major one being just after the announcement of the Icebrood Saga itself. (In fact, I took a long break from the game after that for that very reason, and didn't return seriously until EoD was announced).
Though it's obviously still some idle speculation, I believe (as I think many do) that the call to create EoD came from above ArenaNet, with NCSoft looking at the bottom line and dropping the ultimatum - we need expansion level cash or we can't keep things going. That's not unusual or weird, every MMO needs to keep bringing in money and IBS just didn't land as well as ArenaNet had hoped, which I think is fairly obvious given the reception to the "show" they tried to put on about it in its live announcement.
Does that mean the End of Dragons is the End of the Game as well? Not at all. If EoD brings in sufficient cash, the studio likely will be able to keep going as they always have. But therein lies the dilemma: If they want the most players to buy into it, the element they need to land in their presentation is that this is not the end and there's plenty of reason to invest your time and money once again. The more faith people have in the game and its future, the more excited they will be to invest and tell their friends to jump in, and thus the more promising the future is.
So one very important box that ArenaNet failed to check in the IBS announcement, and will need to check in this one: To announce, even vaguely, the intentions for the future. "In the months that follow the launch of End of Dragons, we will launch the next season of Living World." That's good. Even better? Add on: "And, of course, a portion of our team will get back to work to bring you the next great Expansion for GW2."
That's all that needs to be said. I'll take either - I just hope this is one mistake that ArenaNet will actually learn from. I love GW2 and want to continue to play it excitedly, so let's all hope the message to them is clear and they give the players what they need to hear.
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