I've been a Guild Wars fan ever since Prophecies came out April 2005. I bought it a few months later, after reading some reviews etc., and while it isn't the MMO experience everyone was hoping for, it was an enourmous masterpiece that by now has come very close to the success of WoW.

There's one big difference between the two, except for the story and the fact that Guild Wars focuses on a more modern fantasy style.

There is no persistent world.

The instanced world of GW makes the regions feel "separated" from the rest of the world. While this has its advantages, it was IMO the only mistake the developers made. But no longer.

Guild Wars 2 will be the game all MMO gamers have been waiting for. It's a Guild-Wars-meets-WoW-game. A persistent world, with an instanced storyline running through it, so new players won't see an already changed world as another player plays through the story. It's perfect.

The closed beta is said to be released somewhere this year, while the game itself will be released in the 2009-2010 range.