It's been three years since ArenaNet announced Guild Wars 2, the sequel to the classic, free-to-play original. But in all that time, we've only just begun to learn about the ambitious MMO in recent months.

Unless you're a hardcore fan, sometimes it's easy to forget the substantial impact that Guild Wars had on the MMORPG community half a decade ago. It wasn't the first "free-to-play" MMO when it launched in 2005, although it helped pioneer the concept in the West and paved the way for new revenue models that would become standard practice in today's market. In its prime, Guild Wars was second only to World of Warcraft, with 3 million units sold by the end of 2006 and more than 6 million today. It was only a matter of time before the developers at ArenaNet announced a sequel to the original Guild Wars; NCSoft published several campaigns and one expansion pack throughout the years, but players were anxious for more—and they weren't alone.

When Guild Wars 2 was announced in 2007, ArenaNet admitted that the original game client had run its course; the developers couldn't take the franchise in the direction they wanted without creating a brand-new MMO. It's now been three years since the sequel was announced, yet the first teaser trailer didn't surface until last summer (without live-action) and the bulk of game details only began unraveling earlier this year. We still have a few more months to wait for Guild Wars 2, but this is what we know so far…

Last year, at PAX, ArenaNet founder and president Mike O'Brien (formerly of Blizzard Entertainment) explained why the development team decided to halt the production of new Guild Wars campaign packs and focus solely on the upcoming  sequel instead.

"Guild Wars far exceeded our expectations for its success, and we supported it through follow-up campaigns and an expansion pack," O'Brien said, in an earlier interview with ZAM. "In 2007, we announced that we wanted to stop making follow-up campaigns for Guild Wars I and, instead, focus on a sequel for the game. And the reason that we decided to that was because we wanted to be ambitious and do things in the game that we couldn't do with the existing engine, or with the existing infrastructure of the game."

It's been three years since Guild Wars 2 was announced, but there's a disparity in that time frame; the fan community barely received any news at all about the game's development until mid- to late-2009, almost two years later. It's not unusual for a developer to keep a tight lid on production details, but most teams wait a little longer throughout the development schedule before going public. However, ArenaNet didn't have the luxury to wait.

"With Guild Wars I, we had been releasing content regularly, [so] we had to tell our fans we're going to stop working on new campaigns for Guild Wars I and do Guild Wars 2 instead now," O'Brien admitted. "So we announced it before we even started working on it. It killed us to have to be developing in the dark, because obviously we're making cool stuff and we want people to see what we're working on. But we wanted to get the game to the point where it really shows what it is."

During the same interview at PAX, ArenaNet unveiled the first Guild Wars 2 teaser video, showcasing the enhanced graphics capability of the new engine with fly-by landscape shots and production stills. Unlike its predecessor, Guild Wars 2 features a persistent and fully-3D world, as opposed to what O'Brien calls the "2 1/2-D" environment in the original MMO. In our round-table Q&A with ArenaNet after watching the video at PAX, the developers explain the new engine (built with Havok) in more detail.

As we learned last fall, Guild Wars 2 is set in Tyria, 250 years after the events of Eye of the North (the first and only GW expansion pack, following the three previous campaigns). In our round-table discussion, game designer Jeff Grubb explained the heavy "dragon" influence that carries over into the sequel's main story.

"[Since the events in Eye of the North], the dragons have awakened," Grubb said. "But these dragons are just like shadows, echoes, you know, mere sparks compared to the elder dragons. The elder dragons—which you saw in the video—are these powerful, titanic, elemental forces."

Grubb offered "Zhaitan" as one example of these elder dragons that weave Guild Wars 2's underlying story together, describing the plight that will face players of all factions. Grubb told ZAM that the story elements in Guild Wars 2 are significantly more prominent and diverse than in the original; in addition to the "meta-story" of the five living races banding together to subdue the dragon threat, each race has its own story for players to follow, including "the story of you," which runs throughout the entirety.

In an interview with the German gaming Web site OnlineWelten, game designer Eric Flannum offers more story details and game-related mechanic information. Flannum identifies dragons like Zhaitan and Jormag as "powerful and inscrutable like forces of nature—and completely uncontrollable, even by one another," when asked about the hierarchy among the elder dragons. He also said that the story in Guild Wars 2 was designed accessible without restricting factions, "so that two friends could always be assured of being able to play with each other no matter which races they wanted to play."

Last fall, ArenaNet still remained silent when asked about anything regarding gameplay mechanics, class skills and abilities and even PvP (one of the defining aspects of the original MMO). In December, ArenaNet's released its second Guild Wars 2 video, "The Races of Tyria," announcing the five playable races (along with a new "Races" section on its Web site). Players will be able to choose from Sylvari, Norn, Charr, Asura and Humans, as explained on the official site.

We also received a brief trailer Q&A from NCSoft with Ree Soesbee, a GW2 world designer and writer. Soesbee offers a background description of each character featured in the video, which are "members of the famous adventuring group, Destiny’s Edge." Guild Wars fans immediately took note of the locations shown in the trailer, which include The Black Citadel ("a massive charr war-keep was built on the ruins of the conquered human kingdom of Ascalon") and The Grove (a "mystical settlement [that] has grown around the Pale Tree, the birthplace of all sylvari"), among others.

The video ends with the question, "What's your story?"—echoing to the hype about personal stories that ArenaNet has pitched for months. "From the moment you choose your character’s race, you’re taking your first step down a road that only you can travel," Soesbee said, explaining the significance. "You’ll explore a vast, living world where your actions have real consequences. You’ll immerse yourself in a rich, powerful narrative that is personalized to and influenced by your character."