If you didn't already know, EA's business model is to buy a company, gut it of the top 5% of their talent and copyrights, then leave the dessicated corpse around while they take all the stolen talent and shift them to their primary games that are pushed out on yearly schedules.

You seem to have missed a couple of points. First, as I recall, EU players were encouraged to transfer to Ywain. I'm guessing not all of them did, but there are still some who are active. Plus, shutting those servers down probably saves a good chunk of money in infrastructure costs. On top of that, earlier this year Mythic hired some new people to the team who ended up working on 1.110. That seems like a strange move for a game about to be shut down.

The recent surge in attention toward DAoC has actually been rather encouraging. If anything, someone over in EA/Bioware/Mythic-land realizes this old game still has some potential and is either trying to keep it afloat or is positioning it to go F2P. (For the record, I don't see it going F2P, but people do keep wondering about it.) I expect that DAoC will live on for quite a while yet and will get some more love, including bringing us a new Realm War site.

GW2 may take some players temporarily or permanently, but no game will measure up to DAoC for us veterans. We play the newer stuff to try it out, but our soul is still logged out at Druim Ligen or whatever your usual spot was. Hell, I came back after a several-year hiatus, and this very forum has posts of returning players nearly daily. DAoC endured WoW, GW, tons of other MMOs, and its own issues for 10 years, and it's still going strong. I can't imagine that GW2 will be the final nail.

 

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A game like the original Guild Wars, which has been highly successful for over 6 years with no monthly fee makes me question every other game out there with a subscription based model. Guild Wars is NOT free-to-play, it is buy-to-play and the difference is huge. There is no item shop selling equipment upgrades that are anything other than cosmetic and Guild Wars 2 will follow the same model. ANET developers have explained how outdated the P2P model is and why they do not need it to make more enough cash to support their game & 250+ employees and still have lots of leftovers to make NCSOFT a happy publisher and fatcat shareholders so don't base any worries about Guild Wars 2 on their pricing model.





I totally get this reason and for the longest time it was the same one that kept me playing DAoC long after I was still having more fun than frustration. I am not a hardcore player and I have even less time to invest in games these days as I did when starting out in Dark Age 10 years ago where it took me nearly a year to get a max level character. My casual play style is exactly why Guild Wars 2 is the game I've been waiting for with their no grind basically flat leveling curve and WvWvW/PvP options from level one (all characters joining in player combat are auto scaled to max level & stats). For some this approach might actually sound too casual friendly and kill the ability of the game to form tight-knit communities but I think WvWvW competition and crafting will do a lot to bridge that gap. Just don't sell the game short of being a place to enjoy gaming instead a job to reach long range goals.

My dream is that there will be a server in Guild Wars 2 full of former DAoC players who know how RvR works ready to take over the WvWvW ladder from day one. I hope to see a lot of familiar names come launch day (likely spring 2012).

But in answer to the original question; no, GW2 wont kill off DAoC anymore than any other game before it since Shadowbane. DAoC was a great game for about 2 years and then after that just a game we got stuck in without better options. For those who still play, they have their reasons and new games wont do much to sway them. I think how things go for EA has a lot more to do with the future of DAoC than any competing game that comes along.

 

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