Disclaimer: review is based on beta experience from 3 "beta weekend events" and a couple of "stress tests".
Things I hate in MMORPGs and how GW2 addresses it:
*** Problem 1: Too much "single player" experience. The "MM" is for "massively multiplayer" and in many other games, I might as well be playing by myself offline.
Solution: Virtually everything you do in this game is an "event". You run into a small village and it's under attack by bandits. Some players are already there fighting the bandits and you'll see a progress meter for how the fight is going (the bandits may have their own goal, and they may be winning). You don't have to find a "quest giver" or join anyone's group or anything like that -- just start fighting bandits. The goal is shared by everyone in the area. Everywhere you go, you'll find this sort of thing going on so you're constantly around other people who are sharing a progress meter with you. (Rewards are contribution based, similar to 'rift events' in Rift or 'public quests' in Warhammer, so you aren't directly competing with anyone. It doesn't matter who hit the bandit first or who got the finishing blow, so long as you did something...hit the bandits, heal other players, throw buffs around, whatever.)
There are still true soloable (instanced) storyline quests specific for your race/class and there are single-group (instanced) dungeons but the bulk of the PvE game is built around these open world, open participation events.
*** Problem 2: I can't play with my friends because we aren't the same level.
Solution: If I'm level 60 and you're level 15, I can go back into your area and play with you. I will get temporarily de-leveled so that the area is still a challenge for me.
*** Problem 3: "The Quest Sync Game" / I still can't play with my friends. I have quests F,G,H and I. You have quests A,H and J. I can't share quest F with you because you have to complete A-E first, which I already did and can't do again. We can do H together but I can't do J with you until I finish quest I. We get in sync and now you need to log off for a while and my other friend logs on and "The Quest Sync Game" starts all over again. It's ridiculous.
Solution: The game being built around "events" rather than quest lines solved this problem too. You actually don't have a quest log. You sort of get something like that but it's really just telling you where to GO. You don't need to complete A in order to do B. You can always do B. You can complete B and go back later and do it again if you really want to. You can skip B and go straight to H if you want. You can't skip forward beyond your level (as far as I know) but you don't need to follow some linear quest system, either. Therefore there is no "quest sync game". I log in, I ask where you are, I go there, I join in, no problem.
*** Problem 4: "LFM, need tank". No tank? Well you can't play the game then. You're a healer? Sorry, we're full up on healers and can't use you and in fact you'd ruin the group. (I *still* can't play with my friends! Oh wait and now the group is full.)
Solution: Some games address this by letting you switch roles to one degree or another. GW2 solves it by simply destroying the entire concept of the "holy trinity" -- tank/healer/dps. The first big thing they did to destroy it was they removed "taunting". You CAN spec your character to be tank-like, able to take a beating, but there is no taunt mechanic so you can't simply stand there and get beat on. The other big thing they did was to remove the concept of the "dedicated healer". You can spec your character to be more heal-like, but you'll never come close to what the dedicated single-target healers of other games can do.
The result is a far more dynamic combat system. No more eating chips and watching TV while mashing "3" over and over during a dungeon fight. You need to be focused on the battle because nobody can hold agro, you are responsible for your own survival and while every class has options for defense and self-healing, you need to pay attention to do it. Some people may actually not like this (many bad gamers will feel disenfranchised) but to me this makes it more of a "fun action game" and less of a "mild distraction while watching TV".
*** Problem 5: "The wolves! They are attacking! We shall all die if you do not slay 20 of them!" (Player looks around, there are 8 wolves standing around doing nothing, which is all they ever do. After slaying 20 of them, there are still 8 wolves, still standing around doing nothing. And every quest is a slight variation of this, until you get the idea that the game world's inhabitants are just paranoid crazy people because there's never any actual, apparent threat to any of them. Even the "vile orcs" just sit around in their camps and do nothing until you attack them, apparently for no reason.)
Solution: Events, which, again, is this game's version of questing, are dynamic -- if the guy says wolves are going to attack and kill everyone, they really are going to attack and kill everyone. You can fail events because the wolves might actually win. The wolves, may in fact, stick around afterwards, spawning a new event to "clear out the wolves that ate all those nice people". The game feels much more realistic and alive when you aren't just killing idle things standing in a field apparently minding their own business.
*** Problem 6: "...and enter ye into this land of war and strife where you will, um, play mostly by yourself and actually the war ended right before the year that this game is set in." (Two different MMORPGs with "Star Wars" in the name, neither of them actually included a "war". They might as well have been called "Star Big Game Hunter" because you kill more wildlife than enemies.)
Solution: "World vs World vs World", usually just called "WvW". This is similar to the "RvR" of Dark Age of Camelot fame. There's a big war going on. You don't have to participate in it but you really should give it a shot. There are castles to be attacked and defended. Siege engines to build, operate and destroy. Items of power to be stolen and defended. It's big, it's epic, it's basically everything we thought Warhammer was going to be. And WvW was 100% operational in beta so this isn't more smoke and mirrors. It's there. It works. It's pretty awesome. You should try it. (Be sure to figure out how to buy, build and use an arrow cart or ballista too. Protip.)
*** Problem 7: I want to PvP (possibly with my friends...you know, THAT old problem) but I can't because I'm not the right level / don't have the right gear.
Solution: WvW solves this problem by letting you in as soon as you finish the tutorial, if you want, and temporarily boosting your level to 80. You won't get free skills or gear or anything, you still need to level up (which you can do in WvW itself), but what skills you DO have will hit as if you were level 80 and you'll have level 80 hit points too. It works well and I spent most of my time in WvW, enjoying it even when I rolled a new character and went back in at level 2.
"Structured PvP" ("sPvP", aka "battlegrounds", instanced PvP, which is totally separate from WvW) goes a step further by temporarily boosting you to level 80, giving you all skills, talents AND gear. You can focus on your build and on your teamwork and combat technique rather than fussing over who-has-the-bigger-sword. There are tournaments and you can earn items that have the same stats as the regular stuff, but with unique appearances. It's all about the fun of combat rather than the grind of leveling. Some may not like this, but I think most PvP players are pleasantly surprised at how little they miss "the grind" portion of PvP.
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Sorry for the long review, I guess, but I really wanted to spell out why GW2 is not like other MMORPGs, "and this time we mean it". As for my post title, let me break down my opinion of MMORPG "generations".
* Generation 1: MUDs and Compuserv games. They were the first, nuff said.
* Generation 2: Ultima Online. MMORPG goes wider-appeal with a nice, modern graphics interface and a flat monthly fee.
* Generation 3: Everquest / Asheron's Call. MMORPG goes 3-D. Alright so maybe going 3-D shouldn't be a generational jump but it was a big deal at the time.
* Generation 4: WOW and everything that came after it. WOW didn't really re-invent the wheel so much as they greatly refined it. WOW set the new standard and every game after them, with only a few tweaks here and there, emulated WOW.
* Generation 5: GW2. The break from WOW-like gaming is pretty substantial. There's a whole new way of questing. There's a whole new way of fighting, particularly in groups. There's a war again. "The grind" is not a barrier to tournament level PvP anymore. There's no monthly fee anymore, either.
Guild Wars 2 is the first real, new MMORPG we've had since WOW came out. STO, SWTOR, WAR, Rift, AOC, LOTRO, etc, were all "generation 4", being basically copies of WOW in a new setting.
GW2 is the next generation, and from what I've seen so far, my conclusion is "it's about time".
P.S.
There is no subscription fee. GW2's financial model is based on selling you expansions later, plus a cash store that sells various unnecessary frills (additional character slots, tophats, uniforms, additional bag slots, etc).
