Just to play devils advocate m8, what about EVE online? That's an MMORPG, no holy trinity, no raids, no dungeon finder etc...
Are we to judge every release against "that game". If it doesn't have a certain feature it doesn't fit into the traditional MMORPG style.
I understand that many people have grown up with WoW being king but the king will soon be dead in a few years and the MMORPG genre will be redefined again.
Like I said, it's all about context. Nobody would ever compare EVE against GW2 and complain that EVE has no down level system or gear. So why should GW2 be compared against anything else except equals in it's MMORPG market?
WoW is going nowhere, just as most other MMOs survive today with subscription figures that were a single percentage of WoW even on launch day.
GW2 is basically taking cues from GW1 (Which was never a proper MMORPG as far as I am concerned) and adding MMORPG elements, not all of them - some of them. It will appeal to a bigger market and have better longevity as a result.
As for the definition of an MMORPG well - It cannot be anything but what the market has dictated it is. If you released a game that fulfilled it in description alone with no traditional (market dictated) MMORPG elements you would be laughed all the way out of the door. The genre will evolve, it will change but some things are here to stay and will likely never go away just because they are so integral to the genre working (whether we like it or not)
Guild Wars 2 is in it's own little market segment. It's not a full on F2P (Which as far as I am concerned are purely money driven, quickly developed and suck to play) and it's not a full on subscription based MMORPG either.
It will have PvE but not 'traditional' raid encounters or dungeons.
It will have a full PvP system, likely far more developed than the PvE orientated MMOs
It has a levelling and gearing system but it seems infant in terms of it's actual impact to gameplay and character development. It's just not going to feel the same as WoW (and comparable MMOS).
Comparing GW2 to WoW is like comparing EVE to WoW. They are so very different and having gripes about GW2 that are spawned as a result of playing EVE or WoW is silly. There are some bits and bobs that can be compared as a point of discussion but GW2 takes it's own direction. Whether what they do is better/worse or even implemented at all is totally down to the developers and nobody can really complain about it.
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. I should be on in about 2 hours again I think