Can GW2 offer any MMO hope ?

I'm biased, Guild wars was my first ever foray into the world of online role playing games, because it was my first it has that something special going for it, I haven't played it in a while, I've been too busy chasing that next big thing that could suck me in the way GW did, nothing has.

I had and enjoyed a lengthy flirtation with WoW but come lvl 68 I got an overwhelming 'meh' feeling and I couldn't face any more, strangely though, some months later, I still get these inexplicable urges to play something bright and colourful..WoW almost made it back onto my machine, luckily for me Aion came along but more about that later.

I've tried a few F2P games, the endless grind coming from non reliance on shop bought items made most obsolete pretty quickly, Perfectworld had me for a month or two, I'm a social creature so having friends join in that game gave it the longevity. Runes of Magic lasted maybe 2 weeks, Atlantica Online had a retro feel that worked against it for me, Requiem:Bloodymare while being an interesting concept bored me to death with its very long 'tutorial' quests (what is it with F2P games using massive cities as a crude time sink?).

City of Heroes, Lord of the Rings Online, Spellborn, Vanguard, Everquest2 and Age of Conan are all games that made it onto my machine post GW, only LotRO and Age of Conan remain. LotRO hasn't grabbed me, I've enjoyed some time spent there but it's real charms have so far eluded me, it still seems not quite finished for some reason, I first played in the CB which may still be lingering somewhere at the back of my mind. Vanguard would have stayed on my machine if the engine had, you know, worked properly and compared to current day graphics it looked dated, shame as it held the most promise for me. Age of Conan I played from launch, rage quit 2 months in at such an abysmal excuse for a 'working game', left it alone for a couple of months and came back to something that almost worked as intended, it's got more solid since then and is a great game up until a point...aren't they all?

Which leads me to now, just closed the doors on the end of the EU/NA closed beta for Aion. I played Aion a few times before on the chinese retail client, each time a new server opened you got 15 days free on that server, servers opened frequently and usually 15 days apart. I've leveled a few characters to mid 20's now, I'm a primary PvE player who wished NCsoft had put the E in PvPvE in brackets, they say you can 'focus' purely on PvE, it's hard to focus on your quests when a rift squad is ganking you, I say you can't and you lie. I've only so far been witness to the endless cat and mouse of rift fights and abyss gate PvP so far, the organised PvP later in the game looks like it has promise though. Outside of it's unique playstyle tag of PvPvE and the ability to fly Aion really isn't anything new.

If you've managed to stick with me so far you can tell by now I'm getting increasingly disenfranchised with the world of the MMO, so wheres the hope ? Maybe it's the sign of a desperate man who can't forget his first love, maybe it's the glimmer of news on the horizon along with the new graphic on the GW2 homepage thats making me look in GW2s direction and wonder if I should have hope or learn from experience that in this day and age nobody seems to want to make something really new..