The GW2 B2P (Buy to Play) model works. We have 4 teams alone ( 46 people) dedicated to a living story which comes out every 2 weeks. That doesn't count for all the other Anet employees that work on other features of the game. GW2 does has an item store but it's not the Pay to Win like some F2P games. You can buy gems from any store ( like Best-buy as an example), or trade your gold for the going rate of gems. You can buy items like, armor skins, weapon skins, mini pets and upgrades to your game like extra character slots.
We are on or first year anniversary and getting ready to expand into China. We have our personal story, living story, dynamic events, you are evenly scaled down in lower areas ( meaning if you are lvl 80 and go back to a level 15 zone you are back to level 15), fun and exceptional holiday events, new cocntent and items regulary, great support from our dev team, and no monthly subscription fee just to name a few. PvP actually works in this game because it benefits the PvE players with bonuses on their server like crafting bonus, resource bonus, mob damage bonus ect ect ect. Server versus Server and can't trash talk the enemy.
What you see in GW2 videos is actually in the game and what the agme really looks like.is large. Dragons are huge and other mobs as well.
GW2 awards and achievements. so far
Figures:
• Copies Sold: 3 Million Copies Sold. (As of the first 4 months.)
• Weekly Active Users: 2.5 Million Active Users per week.
• Rating by Game Authority IGN (luls): 9/10
• Average total hours played per day: 508,428 total hours per day.
• Daily Page Views of Official US GW2 Website: 3 Million Page Views/Day.
This is our new trailer for the Chinese players who will be joining us.
[ChinaJoy 2013] Guild Wars 2 - Official trailer