ArenaNet says Guild Wars 3 will make you “fall in love with MMOs.” Here is why I believe it might

Printed: September 3, 2026

“The MMO house is desperately crying for somebody to do one thing new; one thing progressive,” ArenaNet studio head, Colin Johansen says throughout our reside Guild Wars 3 Gamescom demo. “There’s not been quite a bit within the final decade that is meaningfully moved the style ahead,” he continues. “There weren’t quite a lot of new concepts; it felt prefer it had stagnated quite a bit.”

Johansen is not incorrect. We have seen numerous MMOs come and go prior to now few years – first it was Amazon’s New World, then the explosive collapse of Ashes of Creation. Riot Video games’ mysterious League of Legends-inspired MMO stays locked behind closed doorways; Greg Avenue’s Improbable Pixel Fortress has bit the mud. MMOs are costly, however maybe extra importantly, they require time to create – time that, in at this time’s fashionable videogame period, merely does not exist.

And but, gamers need a new MMO. World of Warcraft, RuneScape, Closing Fantasy 14, and Guild Wars 2 stay staples of the style, however past that, there’s not a lot to select from. They every do issues properly – FF14 enables you to fluidly change lessons, whereas World of Warcraft’s status and storytelling attracts gamers again with every new growth. These are on no account ‘dangerous’ video games, however they do really feel considerably drained, and in some ways impenetrable to new gamers.

Guild Wars 3 hopes to resolve all of those points. Johanson says that the workforce requested itself “what are the participant frustrations with the style? What are the weaknesses? What are the alternatives?” then spent “two years simply taking part in and looking for options.” He claims Guild Wars 3 is that answer; that “modernization” of the MMO. And, after watching a half-hour of gameplay, I imagine him.

At Gamescom 2026, I caught a glimpse behind the Guild Wars 3 curtain, with Johansen and Lead Fight Designer Kevin Stocker showcasing gameplay motion and fight. First off, I used to be comparatively shocked by simply how ‘clear’ the UI was – MMOs are synonymous with colossal capacity bars and myriad harm trackers; Guild Wars 3, by comparability, has little or no of that. Johansen notes that, given GW3 may also be launching on console, the workforce needed to accommodate for the “lean in expertise on a monitor and the lean again expertise on a tv.” It is one thing that I believe will divide quite a lot of MMO veterans straight off the bat, however as somebody who suffers from each a tremor and self-induced selection paralysis, I am very okay with it.

The core focus of the presentation was the sport’s ‘Momentum’ methods. In MMOs you are comparatively used to clicking to make your character transfer. They get to their location, cease for a second, then transfer to the subsequent one. It is maybe not as start-stop as I’ve stated right here, however there is a basic sense that, once you’re combating mobs or firing off assaults, you stay within the one place, or just rotate round a central focus. That is not the case in Guild Wars 3.

Momentum does precisely what it says it does: it provides pace and fluidity. You possibly can wallrun, scale timber and sheer rock faces; you may dive down from above to extend your velocity and, subsequently, your harm. In fight, you may push enemies in the event you’re going quick sufficient, or launch them into partitions and stun them. It is dynamic – in some methods paying homage to the way in which that League of Legends makes its terrain reactive. It feels very motion recreation, however in the absolute best approach – it is explosive, and genuinely thrilling.

Mounts have additionally been utterly reworked. Much like floor motion, in different MMOs it looks like your mount arrives, you get on it, it flies, you land, you get off of it, all in that order. Guild Wars 3’s mounting is fluid, and leans into the Momentum system by letting you bomb down in your foes for further harm. It is the smoothest MMO traversal has appeared, and maybe the most important deviation from the style’s present method.

Johanson persistently says that Momentum is a “first” for the MMO style, so I ask the straightforward query: why? “It is an extremely exhausting downside to resolve,” he replies. “That is a giant a part of why we have not seen it as a lot.” “It is a actually large technical downside to get motion fight feeling actually good in multiplayer,” Stocker agrees.

“We wished to make a extra 3D world,” Johanson continues. “MMOs are historically laid out like field and canyon worlds – despite the fact that it is 3D, it’s totally 2D in degree design. We wished to interrupt out of that, so we began out early on experimenting with stuff like climbing and wallrunning, and the way we might have extra playable 3D house.”

The duo have interaction in fight towards a troop of spiders which, as anticipated, have spun a collection of webs all through numerous caves, making them impenetrable. Lobbing a fireball at them or, on this case, setting your weapon on hearth, will ignite the webs, setting your complete space ablaze. Once more, it is apparent that quite a lot of thought has been put into how greatest to really make the most of the setting and that aforementioned 3D house, versus simply having it as a fairly set piece.

Momentum, and ArenaNet’s extra action-esque method extra usually, is one thing that I believe may also divide gamers. On one hand, the sluggish, methodical method to MMO fight does really feel prefer it’s grow to be a core a part of the style. However, it is not essentially the most dynamic system – the beginning and the stopping does appear and feel dated. For longtime MMO gamers, GW3 will possible be a shock to the system, and maybe somewhat too actiony for his or her liking. For me, nevertheless, I just like the pace and the texture of Momentum – it is a systemic overhaul and modernization that I believe MMOs sorely want.

Momentum is equally as essential in fight. Guild Wars 3 continues to champion teamplay (as nearly each MMO does), however in different, at the moment energetic titles, it typically feels such as you’re a solo, damage-dealing cog in a wider boss-killing machine. ArenaNet has labored extremely exhausting to enhance the interactivity of battle conditions with Guild Wars 3: you will now have the ability to chain collectively totally different combos, both by your self, or as a bunch. Within the instance we’re given, you may bounce off of a personality’s protect and crash down in your foes, utilizing Momentum each to get you into the air, and to extend the harm of your meteor-style crash touchdown. It is spectacular however, most significantly, it seems enjoyable.

You possibly can pull your mount in right here, too. Have them drop you on the protect to, as soon as once more, improve your peak and the related harm upon affect. It ties what typically looks like disparate MMO methods collectively to create a very cool, flowing chain that I can not fairly say I’ve seen in different video games. Positive, there’ll all the time be skills that, if solid collectively on the proper time, can dish out enormous harm or stunlock foes, however there’s nonetheless that sense of being one participant casting a spell on the proper time, versus actively working with different gamers and their fashions in actual time.

It isn’t an enormous change to how MMO fight works on paper – it is acquainted sufficient to not be terrifying, however progressive sufficient to really feel new. I might argue it is simply a step up for the style, and one which I hope will enhance workforce synergy quite than confuse it. It additionally opens up lots of of recent construct pathways and probably damaged mixtures which, let’s be actual, is any hardcore MMO fanatic’s dream come true.

Guild Wars 3 has one, clear aim: “modernize” the MMO. From what I’ve seen, albeit simply temporary chunks of gameplay and fight, I believe it is properly primed to take action. Whereas there are quite a lot of motion parts right here, the sport nonetheless feels shut sufficient to the core MMO fantasy to really feel like, properly, an MMO, simply leveled up. It is genuinely thrilling and does really feel just like the innovation that the style sorely wants.

“We have 20 million plus Guild Wars followers – they’re a very powerful group [to us],” Johanson says. “Initially, [Guild Wars 3] is for our Guild Wars followers. However, simply as essential, it is for MMO followers which are in search of one thing new. There is a heck of quite a lot of them on the market who’ve performed MMOs over the past 20 years – some won’t have performed them for a very long time, some may nonetheless be taking part in them at this time. However we would love all of them to return and see: this is a brand new tackle an MMO, come and be a part of it.

“We’re actually hoping that it additionally speaks to individuals who have stated, up till now, that ‘I will not play MMOs and I do not need something to do with that.’ We would like them to say ‘that is the sport that made me fall in love with MMOs.'” Based mostly on what I’ve seen, I believe Guild Wars 3 has the capability to do exactly that.