Guild Wars 3 is Changing the MMO Genre | Ep. 1

Welcome to the very first episode of A Side Quest with Dvalin. In this new podcast series, we explore the biggest upcoming MMOs in the gaming world. For Episode 1, we are diving deep into ArenaNet's newly announced Guild Wars 3.

We cover everything you need to know from the Summer Game Fest reveal, including the massive shift to include PlayStation 5, the transition to an action-RPG combat framework, and the lore behind the Vaelwarden role set 1,200 years before the original game. We also discuss the upcoming Fall 2027 beta, the strict buy-to-play model, and why the developers are officially skipping the battle pass system.

Transcript

– Introduction: Welcome to Side Quest with Dvalin

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Are you a fan of MMO RPGs? But maybe you're a little bit bored with the MMOs we have current today, but you're looking into new MMO RPGs, which is coming maybe this year or next year. Well, in this show here, we're going to talk about all the upcoming MMOs. So in today's episode, we are going to explore a little bit about Guild Wars 3, which is an upcoming MMORPG. Let's dive into it.

– Why we’re starting with Guild Wars 3

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So in this series here, we are going to explore various MMORPGs, also other kind of games, but we're going to start with MMORPGs. And in this very first episode of Side Quest with Dwarlin, we're going to talk about Guild Wars 3, which is an upcoming MMORPG, and probably one of the most popular, most anticipated. They do have Guild Wars 1 out right now and also the Reforged version, but they also do have Guild Wars 2, which is also having a very loyal community.

– The Future of Guild Wars: What we know so far

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But what about the future of Guild Wars 3? What is this game going to look like and what will it be? We haven't seen yet any official gameplay from the game. We have only seen a few videos of different developers who have like tried to get jobs for it, where they have made some simulators and different things, but none of them is officially actually from the game. Though they have shown us a 1 minute and 34 seconds trailer where they have shown us how the you know the world is going to look like and the the fantasy and the theme of the game. But if we're asking themselves, what is Guild Wars 3 actually? So

– What is Guild Wars 3? (Genre & Setting)

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Guild Wars 3 is an action adventure MMOPG, a modern evolution of the genre that blends rich action combat character building and skill collection. Set in the enchanting frontier of ore, spelled ORR, the world brims with mystery, magic, and wonder. So you probably know Guild Wars 3 is in Turian, and like you know, it has all this magic world with dragons and such and so on. But Guild Wars 3 is actually set in a way earlier stage, like many, many, many, many years

– The Role of a "Well Warden" & World Exploration

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before. So as they also say here, become a well warden, a guardian of the land of awe, protect the people and spirits that call all home, discover untold stories and forge lasting bonds with your fellow players as you glide, leap, sprint, and ride your way across a frontier with adventure around every corner.

– Combat & Movement: A Modern Evolution

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Master a combat system where depths is achieved through strategic skill use, positioning, and movement where action RPG meets Guild Wars build making, creating a unique combat experience. Run, slide, leap, and bound across all with a one-of-a-kind movement system that transfers your movement between modes of travel, providing a free form of joy of movement through a world alive with adventure. So what they're really trying to say here is that you will still have the skill building, the skill collecting from Guild Wars 2. Basically, in Guild Wars 2, you have to acquire these skill points where you can then upgrade in a different tree or different uh path, and you will get more skills and various things. But so they're still claiming that you will have the same thing where you need to like claim abilities, but it might be even more sandboxy where we can actually get like different kinds of spells, maybe from different things, or it will be very class-based, we don't really know yet, but still, they really try to tell you that there will be some build making and you have to like you know get a unique experience and so on. So still, it it's definitely gonna be an open world that we're gonna run around in, but they really try to like make a very big attention on run, slide, leap uh across all.

– Action Adventure vs. Traditional MMOs

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So, what I think they wanna try to tell is that this is not a standard MMORPG that we're used to from like other MOS, like Wow, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, because in those games you just move like you you move like from like you go straight forward or back, like that's basically it. Like, that's the movement. Your character feels like the most stiff person in the world. You don't really have like any additionally movements, if you know what I mean. But I think what they want to true try to do here is that they it's also one of the reasons for why they call it an action adventure MMRPG, because they try to make the game feel more like it's it's an action game, like an ARPG or something like that. They they really want you to feel like that you can move as you want, you can slide, you can jump, you can glide, you can and so on. I guess close to like the Zelda games, that they are also very like you can move in the way you want. We got some for more information about the game here, so let's go down in the really details

– Release Details: Platforms (PS5 & Steam)

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of what Guild Wars 3 is. The game is officially titled Guild Wars 3, it is currently in development by Arena Net. The game will launch on PC via Steam and PlayStation 5. This is a massive shift as it marks the first time the franchise will be available on consoles. This is very interesting because why did they pick only PlayStation 5 and not an Xbox? And why Steam and not an own launcher? I kinda understand Steam because the more people you have on Steam, the people will look at the current player numbers and stuff like that, and they will predict how big it is. I think they want to be a part of that ecosystem, but it's interesting why they chose only PlayStation and not Xbox. I'm wondering if PlayStation have offered money on the table saying, hey, we want to be exclusive for you for a year, or like what is what is going on here? I want to kind of know behind the scenes why was this a decision that wasn't made? Why is it only PlayStation and not PC as well? But we will probably never know. But I'm sure it's gonna come to Xbox eventually, since you can see Final Fantasy is also on Xbox, and that was a PlayStation exclusive, so it'll probably come to Xbox one day. So, because of the console releases, the game is being tuned to natively

– Native Controller Support & Cross-Save

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support both gamepads and keyboard and mouse setups. Me personally, I'm a huge fan of this. I like to be able to grind an MMO in front of my PC when I do want to do some competitive gaming, and then when I want to like, you know, chill, put up my feet, you know, have a good time with a cup of coffee and grinding some mining notes or something like that. That's awesome to be able to grind in the same game, but go to your console with the same experience. You know what I mean? Like we can set it in front of a PC, very competitive playing, but then when we just want to do some casual grinding, it's nice to go down in your sofa and just relax and grind in the game, at the same game with the same characters and stuff like that. It's one of the things that I really like about games that has cross-save between consoles. For example, it's one of the reasons why I really like Diablo 4, because I can keep playing the same character on my PC and on my PlayStation or Xbox or even Nintendo Switch probably soon. Um but this is so cool, like all these things here. And though with Diablo, it's annoying that you have to buy the game on all the different consoles. But I understand why you had to do that because the console takes money from the game when you buy it, so I kinda understand they want to have a little bit of the money, but we shall we shall see how it's gonna work. If Guild Wars 3 is gonna be free to play, then we could probably play Crossay without having to buy it on multiple platforms. But enough of that. The game was officially announced with a trailer during the Summer Game Fest, broadcast on June the 5th of 2026. So basically, when they had this summer game fest, um, they

– Beta Testing & Launch Window Predictions

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were basically teasing the game. A beta testing phase is officially planned for fall 2027, so you can basically imagine like the last four months of 2027, there will be a beta where some people will be let in and test the game. And uh should we say realistically, if the game has a beta in the end of 2027, then I guess we could look at an officially launch at should we guess just something like the start or the mid of 2028? So it's not a game that is coming out soon, because as I just said, the beta is literally first in 2027, which is in a year. It's technically the the beta would actually be from you're listening to this podcast today, it will basically be from a year from today, which is interesting. But from a year today, we will probably be getting the the beta of Guild Wars 3, and then probably somewhere in the start, mid of 2028, I would assume we're gonna get a launch, which is still far away. I know, I know. So no no full release window has been confirmed, but an 18-month roadmap for Guild Wars 2 should just a potential launch around December 2027, does my notes say, but still, as I said to you, the start of 2028 something like that. I I think I think that would be a wise wise guess. But it's pretty cool still that we can see there's like an 18-month plan for Guild Wars 2, so I guess we shall see. Guild Wars 2 and the original Guild Wars will continue to receive updates, meaning this is an expansion of the franchise rather than a replacement for the older games. So that means in case that Guild Wars 3 is not something you like,

– The Future of Guild Wars 1 & 2

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but you actually do like Guild Wars 2 or Guild Wars 1, then you can still play those games. They will still have developers attached to the games, they will still have you know a management board who's gonna control what content is gonna release for those games, because they are they are on such different time spans, like there's 1200 years between the games, so they will still coexist. So, just so you know, a cross-account progression link between Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars 3 will exist through a whole of

– Cross-Account Progression: Hall of Momentum

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Monumentum system. So we will probably be able to I I guess unlock like cosmetics or something like that, maybe even cosmetics and mounds. For example, you can probably do a few things in Guild Wars 2, which will then unlock some cosmetics and achievements and mounds in Guild Wars 3, and maybe also unlock some stuff in Guild Wars 3, which will unlock stuff in Guild Wars 2. So they they're gonna try and have something between those games. The game continues the strict series tradition as being a buy-to-play

– Monetization: No Subscriptions or Battle Passes

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MMO with no required monthly subscription. And Studio Head Colin Johansson explicitly confirmed there will be no battle pass systems. He bluntly stated they skipped the format because we think players are sick of those too. So I saw that into you. They really want the game to be made for the gamers, they really want to be your friend, they don't want to force you to buy a lot of like DLCs or they don't want to force you to buy a lot of gacha, random loot boxes, uh game passes, stuff like that. They of course gonna have a microtransaction shop for buying mounts and stuff like that, which they already have in Guild Wars 2. But the reason why they have that is because they wanna, of course, earn money, but it's things you can buy that's not gonna make you a better player, if you know what I mean. Like it's not gonna be something like this uh this helmet gives you five more agility than any other helmet in the game. No, it will be probably cosmetics and probably some nice to have things like instead of walking five meters to a mailbox, you can open a mailbox from here, like like the same thing they have in World of Warcraft, where you can you could buy an auction house mound for $100, something like that. I'm I'm they probably gonna have something, I would guess, like that. So a little bit of the world and the core mechanics. The game is pre-cruel set in 2000-1200

– Lore: 1,200 Years Before the Original

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years before the original Guild Wars. It takes place in vast wilderness and pocket of civilization within the Turia region of all. Players take the role of the well warden operating under unified banner. Your primary narrative goal is protect and preserve nature and ancient veil spirits amid conflict between the world guild. So basically, it's gonna be a one-faction game again. We are all going to be friends, we're all gonna be in the same team. Of course, there's probably gonna be I I I would be surprised if there's no PvP at all. I'm sure there's gonna be some PvP because Guild Wars is is known for having some of the best PvP in MMO Shonga, I would say personally. Um, especially I love World Wars as well, they have on um Guild Wars 2. It's such a fun mode. But I would be surprised if there's not gonna be some kind of PvP where we're probably gonna have some red and blue and green team or something like that. But still, it seems like we're all gonna be in the same team, we're all gonna be fighting under the same banner. We basically the wallkeepers who make sure that nothing is gonna go horribly wrong. The game abandons traditional MMO tab talking for an action

– Transitioning to 100% Action Combat

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RPG framework. It heavily emphasizes travel traversal, using momentum for combat and physically scaling cliffs on food. Players will also have access to majestic wolf-like mounds. We so those wolf majestic mounds were something they showed in the trailers and some piece of arts and stuff like that. It's something we have seen for the 1 minute and 30 second trailer. So that's of course what we assume that we are going to be getting, which I guess makes sense when they show you a wolf mound in the trailer. It's probably something we will be getting. But again, as it says here is in my note here, that it will go away from the standard World of Warcraft Final Fantasy tap targeting MMO, but more into an action field. So the fun thing with Guild Wars 2 is that it kind of goes away from the standard MMO tap targeting, it goes more into a mix between tap targeting and action combat because you can still spam your skills even if you have no targets and attack in front of you. So it kind of has this mix of World of Warcraft and action combat, but it still also is tap targeting in Guild Wars 2. Where I think Guild Wars 3 is gonna be 100% action combat. If you have played a game that is currently in testing called Soul Frame, I wouldn't be surprised if Soul Frame and Guild Wars 3 is gonna be very close in combat-wise. Pretty cool game as well, Soul Frame. I I enjoyed that. I I tested it for two hours and I was like, damn, this is actually fun. So classes and multiplier content. This is very limited because again, Guild Wars 3 is one of those games that is most anticipated in the MMORPG world, but it's one of those games we almost know nothing about. Like almost nothing. So four playables uh races will be available at launch. These

– Playable Races & Future Species

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include humans, Asura, Kodan, and a fourth mysterious new species deeply connected to the past of all. So again, humans, Asura, Kodan, and a fourth one, which we still don't know what is. But a lot of images have like people have tried to speculate on different characters from P S Arts, some like from art, some from the trailer. Could it be this person, could it be this, could it be this? So I'm sure I'm sure. I mean, I guess the main reason they didn't tell us yet is of course they want to still have something we need to talk about and be anticipated about. I mean, you're probably gonna hear me talk about Guild Wars 3 in this episode today of Side Quest with Dwarlen. But after this, we're probably not gonna be talking about Guild Wars 3 for a year because there's just nothing to talk about except of this what we're talking about today. Yeah. Um, regarding group size, the announcement trailer teased that you can tackle content in Party of 4 and the future expansions. The developer intentionally designed the core technical systems, including animation and clothing rigs, with deliberate constraints that it make it easier to add new playable species in the future. Because if you know Guild Wars 2, we haven't received a new race in all the years it has been out. Yes, I'm thinking very hard right now, and I'm pretty sure yeah, they never added they added more classes, yes, but they never added more races, and I guess as this is why they're saying that in this game here they will think about making it easier for clothing to fit to other races in case they want to add something, because the game is only shipping with four races for the start. But since they do say that it makes it easier for neo-playable species in the future, hmm, we might get more races in the future. Who knows? Who knows not? But I mean, still exciting. Me personally, when they announced this game here, that it was like announced in June that it was coming. I was personally very excited. Like, I was like, damn, I was jumping, I was sharing the link with so many people in my Discord, in my Lofa Paladins community. I was jumping out of the roof, like I was so excited. But at the time they announced this game, I was I was only making content about World of Warcraft, so uh I I only talked about World of Warcraft. So, but yeah. So this was the first episode of SideQuest with Dwarin. Basically, we have now talked about Guild

– Dvalin 2.0: The New Path for the Channel

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Wars 3 for 20 minutes and what is potentially coming in as a B-10 end of next year, 2027, and probably a release in the start of 2028, or as my notes said, maybe in December 2027. So, yeah, in case you're new on this channel here, or the first time you're listening to this, so I am Dwarin, and usually I used to make World of Warcraft content, only World of Warcraft content, but I have chosen to go on another path now. I want to explore the world of gaming, upcoming games, new games, game reviews, just talking about games in general. I want to try this new style where I kind of turn it into a game show slash a podcast. So that means if you're still listening to this episode, you will be able to find this on any podcast library pretty much. If there is a podcast library where you cannot find it, please let me know on Discord, and I will make sure that it will be added as well. But you should be able to listen to this on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcast, wherever. And also there will be a video version of this also on YouTube, so you can actually watch it in case you want to see me talk and watch my face. And also, I'm like showing random gameplay clips while talking about the games. But again, this is a new adventure I have jumped into. I am trying this podcast world where it's gonna be a game show where we talk about new games, upcoming games, games that is out right now, things that is happening in the gaming industry, everything that I think is relevant about gaming. So instead of me only talking about World of Warcraft, I now want to talk about anything gaming. So, welcome to I would say Dwarlin 2.0. But basically, this was the very first episode of SideQuest with Dwarin, and I am very excited. I have been brainstorming the last two weeks, basically the last 14 days, about what I want to do with my channel, and I finally have found something that actually makes me excited and makes me want to make content again. Because when I make content about World of Warcraft, it was fun in the start when I joined a partner program and when I became like a bigger content creator and people recognized me and so on, but in the end, I I just didn't have me. Like I I just wasn't in the moment myself. I just I enjoy World of Warcraft. I'm still probably gonna play today, but I just don't want to make content about it anymore. I want to go into gaming as a gaming content creator and talk about new games, upcoming games, old games, different stories, and so on. But today I want to start the episode with talking about Guild Wars 3, which is probably my most anticipated

– Wrap Up & Teaser for the Riot MMO Episode

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MMO RPG. And next episode, which is probably gonna air soon anyway. Also, we're gonna talk about the next League of Legends MMO from Riot Games, which is probably coming sooner than we think, but who knows? So, thanks for watching. Have a great night. I really appreciate you all for listening in on my very first episode of a side quest with Dwalin. And I will see you in the next episode where we're gonna be exploring what is Riot Games working on right now when it comes to the MMO RPG genre.