ok, we've been disappointed by mmos over and over in the last 4 years or so, everything from the mess of hellgate london through auto assault to age of conan (i admit to various degrees). according to the new Arenanet blog, GW2 seems to be the mmo that will bring something to the mmo genre that has been a long time coming. some random paragraphs:
http://www.arena.net/blog/
With traditional MMOs you can choose to solo or you can find a good guild or party to play with. With GW2 there's a third option too: you can just naturally play with all the people around you. I personally spend a big chunk of my time in traditional MMOs soloing, but when I play GW2 I always find myself naturally working with everyone around me to accomplish world objectives, and before long we find ourselves saying, "Hey, there's a bunch of us here; let's see if we can take down the swamp boss together," without ever having bothered to form a party.
GW2 shares this flexible skill system. The big difference is that now skills are much more visual in explaining what they do. The process of actually discovering combos, or understanding them when they're used against you, is a lot more clear, because you can visually see how skills combo with each other. An Elementalist can cast Fire Wall next to an opponent, and then switch to Water attunement, which freezes all enemies around him. Using the concussive force of Water Trident, he can slam his frozen enemy into the Fire Wall, leaving him to roast in the flames.
And like the original GW, in GW2 the creativity doesn't end with your own character. When you play with others, you'll find that your abilities can complement theirs, and that you can discover new skill combos and strategies between professions. So if you're playing an Elementalist, try casting a fire wall, and then see what happens when your friends shoot projectiles through it.
Of course GW2 has great support for parties, but they just don't feel as necessary as they do in other MMOs, because your interests are always aligned with all other nearby players anyway. When someone kills a monster, not just that player's party but everyone who was seriously involved in the fight gets 100% of the XP and loot for the kill. When an event is happening in the world – when the bandits are terrorizing a village – everyone in the area has the same motivation, and when the event ends, everyone gets rewarded.
We even redesigned the competitive part of the game to be friendly like this. Now worlds can compete against each other, through the mists that separate them, for scarce resources that benefit an entire world. Joining this PvP competition is completely optional, just like it was in the original GW, but if you do compete you're now going to find that your world welcomes you with open arms. You don't have to join a party to join the fight. All you have to do is get out there and start helping. Everyone has the same objective, and if your world can get 501 people working for the same goal, that's only going to be more helpful than 500 people.
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