Upcoming changes and features

“

[W]e'll no longer be releasing any new content for the live game except in support of automation. Our goal is to get the game to a place where it can continue to run and be available to all of our fans.

[W]e want the game to be in a place where it's able to take care of itself. While we will not be producing new content, the Live Team will still be around to perform critical fixes for crashes or other serious issues. We want to support the players who made us successful by ensuring the game provides the best service possible without constant supervision and attention. Reducing the need for manual intervention makes it easier for us to keep Guild Wars running in the years to come.

— GuildWars.com News archives

Automated changes

Every three hours

• The Kurzick-Luxon border is updated

00:00, 03:00, 06:00, 09:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, and 21:00 UTC

(4:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 10:00 PM, 1:00 AM, 4:00 AM, 7:00 AM, 10:00 AM, and 1:00 PM Pacific Standard Time)

Daily

• 00:00 UTC (4:00 PM PST): 10% of the total faction is deducted from each alliance.
• 07:00 UTC (11:00 PM PST): Nicholas Sandford's requested item changes.
• 15:00 UTC (7:00 AM PST):
  • The limit on the number of Zaishen Keys that can be gained from Tolkano via Balthazar faction is reset.
  • The limit on the number of Champion, Codex, Gladiator, and Hero title points that can be gained from Guild versus Guild, Codex Arena, Random Arenas, and Heroes' Ascent, respectively, is reset.
  • The limit on the number of Champion's, Gladiator's, Hero's, and Strategist's Zaishen Strongboxes that can be gained from Guild versus Guild, Random Arenas, Heroes' Ascent, and Codex Arena, respectively, is reset.
  • The limit on the amount of Imperial faction that can be gained is reset.
• 16:00 UTC (8:00 AM PST): Vanguard, Wanted by the Shining Blade, and Zaishen Challenge Quests change.

Mondays

• 15:00 UTC (7:00 AM PST): The Codex, weekly bonuses, and Nicholas the Traveler's location and requested item changes.

First day of each month

• 07:00 UTC (11:00 PM PST): The Flux effect and automated tournament map rotation changes
• Exact time unknown: Monthly tonic rotation.

Third Saturday of each month

• Monthly automated tournament

Special events and holidays

Updates

Cancelled content

Before announcing their decision to cancel plans for new content, the Live Team was working on these ideas:

• Continuation and conclusion of the Lunatic Court quest storyline.
• The story for an Elona chapter for Beyond had been written; they were working on finding enough resources to implement it.

Cancelled balance and profession ideas

Similarly, ANet expressed interest in these types of balance updates:

• In 2009, ANet announced plans to release skill balance changes every other month, usually on a Thursday. In 2010, there were 7 updates that involved balancing skills or other aspects of game play: two during each quarter of the year, except the third (which had only one).
• John Stumme said in 2011 that the Live Team would focus on "smaller balance fixes" instead of "major overhauls" in the near future, instead prioritizing unspecified non-balance changes.
• Robert Gee said in 2012 that, "[w]e had a lot of professions that we wanted to look at for the next update, including Paragons, Rangers, and Monks (specifically Smiting Monks). All of these professions updates are in varying degrees of completion."
• He also said, "I am still working on changes to [...] Paragon [...] but I have less programmer support than usual due to the shift [of resources to Guild Wars 2]."