Chris Whiteside on the Lost Shores and Beyond

Last weekend we released our free Lost Shores mini-expansion, which introduced a new level 80 map, a brand new PvP map, over 400 new items and rewards,  as well as The Fractals of the Mists—an infinite dungeon that increases in difficulty the deeper you progress.

We’re very excited about the new content, and from the reactions we have seen, so are many of you. Players have already spent an incredible amount of time in the new Fractals dungeon, and their reaction to it has been phenomenal. A lot of players really enjoyed the trailblazing aspect of unveiling the new Southsun Cove map, specifically the feeling of discovery and being part of the land grab.

Having said that, we’re also aware that there were certain aspects of the event that could have worked better than they did, and thanks to your excellent feedback we’ll be working toward strengthening this type of content moving forward. At ArenaNet, we always try to push the boundaries of how we build online worlds, and we thank you for your patience and collaboration as we pioneer into unknown territories. We’ve seen people saying that they really liked the principle of using events to unveil new content, but we need to tighten up the methods by which they are deployed. We take these comments to heart, as it is our goal to always deliver content of the highest quality.

We want to extend a huge “thank you” to all of the players who attended the Lost Shores event over the weekend. We really enjoyed playing with you all and we learned a great deal about the broad spectrum of content we offered. Our sincere thanks for all your feedback and for being part of the journey as we continue to build upon the world of Guild Wars 2.

We also want take the opportunity to talk a little bit about what we have coming into the game soon from a high-level standpoint, an aperitif if you like before our Thanksgiving celebrations. After the holiday we’ll be doing a number of community Q&As and live community conferences where you can ask us questions and get the down-low on how we are evolving the world of Tyria.

Here’s a general rundown of what we are working towards over the upcoming months:

• Revamping all of our existing dungeons (Story and Explorable versions) through rebalance and overhauled encounters.
• Adding new dungeons to the Fractal of the Mists.
• Adding more variation to creatures, enhancing our open world scaling system, as well as evolving many events and experiences across Tyria.
• Fixing and improving existing content throughout the game, and better tying it into the overall sense of player progression within Guild Wars 2.
• Building on the Southsun Cove’s persistent content.
• Adding new Guild content and Guild progression features.
• Adding brand new content to World vs. World as well as adding new reward progression.
• Continuing to build upon the story and adventures of Guild Wars 2.

So from all of us here at ArenaNet, we hope you have a fantastic holiday and we look forward to seeing and speaking to you all next week—that is if we don’t see you in-game first!