Guild Wars 2 advert pokes fun at WoW's dragonriding–'Why wait to ride a dragon?'
ArenaNet is trying something to entice people into its MMO: dragons. Specifically, jokingly telling you that Guild War 2's dragons are superior to World of Warcraft's with a cheeky new advert.
While World of Warcraft isn't specifically mentioned, it's pretty obvious that the advert is winking at expansion Dragonflight. The short 30-second clip shows off the skyscale mount in a myriad of different skins, along with a griffon, the game's other mount type, prompting the question: "Why wait to ride a dragon?" A bit of a cocky question, considering the time-gating on actually unlocking the skyscale. It's a pretty long quest, taking a minimum of four days to complete. Very little in MMO time, but still requires a decent amount of dedication and materials. Then again, that's even if you meet the prerequisites of hitting max level and unlocking all of Living World Season 4. It's a lot of work.
Ironically, as many pointed out in a post on the subreddit, your chances of getting a dragon-themed mount in World of Warcraft before Guild Wars 2 are substantially higher. The game has a handful of dragon mounts you can use as soon as you unlock flying at level 30. These regular flying mounts are distinct from Dragonflight's drake, but still very much dragons.
I don't think it's ArenaNet's intention to draw people in on the basis of dragons alone though—it's just a bit of fun. The advert is a lighthearted way to poke fun at a competitor by honing in on a shared feature. It is the first time the developer has noted the similarity in style between its dragons and the ones coming to World of Warcraft, but our editor-in-chief Phil Savage noticed them when he wrote about Dragonlfight's new mounts earlier this year. He did point out, however, that while there's a lot of mechanical overlap, they aren't identical.