On Jul 17, 2025,Guild Warsbecame the latest title to join the MMORPG golden age of the 2000s. Some of these games, likeEVE OnlineandWorld of Warcraft, are still being actively developed, while others, likeStar Wars GalaxiesandCity of Heroes, are no longer officially available, even if they are still playable via fan-run private servers.Guild Warsfound itself somewhere in the middle; while it is no longer receiving updates, as focus has shifted to its sequel, the MMO is still alive and well.
However, something aboutGuild Warssets it apart from its competition: it, and subsequently its sequel, have had almost no downtime in over two decades. While most MMO servers occasionally go down for maintenance, ArenaNet’s twin Tyrian titles simply stay running, even with the release of major updates or expansion packs. This promise of uninterrupted access kept overGuild Wars' 20 years of live serviceis a major achievement that also contributed to its success.
Guild Wars Server Infrastructure is its Secret Weapon
Server maintenance is not a rare thing to encounter in the live service game industry. Executing software updates is not typically possible while players are connected to servers, let alone improvements to actual hardware. The impossible balance between keeping a game live and implementing updates eventually caused occasional server maintenance to become normalized.
MMORPGs likeEVE Onlinetackle this problem with daily maintenance; by bringing the game down for 15 minutes every day at the same time, it can perform small updates on a predictable schedule. Other games, likeWorld of Warcraft, have occasional brief periods of downtime on weekly resets, combined with longer outages to prepare for major releases. Indeed,updates for MMOs likeFinal Fantasy 14can sometimes have maintenance periods of up to 24 hours.
ArenaNet co-founder and server architect Patrick Wyatt was previously employed by Blizzard Entertainment, where he did programming work on games likeWarcraft 1,2, and3,Diablo 1and2, andStarCraft. After he left ArenaNet in 2008, he went on to help releaseAionandTERA.
On the contrary,Guild Warshas almost no downtime whatsoever. It accomplishes this primarily through its server design, which utilizes sharded “microservers.” Each individual map fromeveryGuild Warsexpansionessentially acts as its own server, meaning individual instances can be updated, shut down, or isolated without impacting the rest of the game.
Of course, this method is not perfect. Over the years,Guild Warshas still experienced occasional downtime, usually due to unexpected circumstances like power outages, inclement weather, and damage to equipment – like when an ArenaNet server in Frankfurt, Germany, suddenly exploded. Even so,Guild Warsprides itself on minimal downtime– it confirmed six years of uninterrupted service on August 01, 2025, which is a record that has ostensibly been maintained in the year since the announcement.
There are several reasons few MMOs have been able to match theGuild Warsserver paradigm. Most notably, the technological innovations were initially created by ArenaNet founders Patrick Wyatt, Mike O’Brien, and William Strain. The effort, technology, and resources put into creating this server stability were steps other MMOs were unable or unwilling to take, settingGuild Warsapart from its competitors.
Some games have come pretty close to theGuild Warsstandard over the years. Maintenance formajorWarframeupdates and expansionsusually only takes a few minutes at most, and bothDiablo 3andDiablo 4adopted technology inspired by Wyatt’s work to minimize server downtime. Even so,Guild Warshas still been doing it longer than anyone else.
Guild Wars 2followed in the footsteps of its predecessor with even more secure server stability – and ifGuild Wars 3is ever officially announced, it ostensibly will as well. Either way, as long as ArenaNet is around,Guild Warsfans can rest assured that the original game will always be available to play.
