MMOs Have “Stagnated,” Guild Wars 3 Studio Head Says

Guild Wars 3 developer ArenaNet wants to try "wild, crazy ideas" in a genre that, according to its studio head, has "stagnated" in recent years. During a hands-off demo where early Guild Wars 3 gameplay was shown to members of the press, I asked ArenaNet studio head Colin Johanson about the state of the MMO genre in 2026 and what problems Guild Wars 3 is looking to solve. He had plenty to say on the subject. Many MMO players are still playing the same games they were 10-20 years ago, Johanson said, citing decade-old (or older) examples like World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy 14, and, of course, ArenaNet's own Guild Wars 2. In that same time, "minute-to-minute gameplay in MMOs has stagnated," even as other genres have modernized and become more approachable, he said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITPzxITngqA That's "really good timing" for ArenaNet and Guild Wars 3, Johanson said, and one that presents a big opportunity for a new game to break in and shake up the scene. "There's been very little new in the last decade, and a lot of those [newer] games either don't exist anymore or were canceled in development before they made their way out," Johanson said.…