Guild Wars has developed a reputation for its firm emphasis on strategic combat, in both Player vs. Player and co-operative play. NCsoft has now confirmed that ArenaNet, the creators of Guild Wars, has announced plans to refine the reward system further, allowing players the freedom to unlock the tools they need in whichever style of play they enjoy the most, be it the PvP arenas or the co-operative role-play areas.
A new points-based reward system known as Faction will be introduced. Faction, which represents a player's standing with particular gods, will be accessible to all characters in a person's Guild Wars account. Faction with Balthazar, the god of war, will be rewarded exclusively in PvP combat in place of experience points and can be spent on unlocking weapons and armour that are available to purpose-built PvP characters. Previously these unlocks could only be earned in co-operative play.
Guild Wars has always aimed to provide an equal footing for the PvP action and the co-operative role-playing action, says Stephen Reid, Content and Community Manager, NCsoft Europe. Including the option to start a PvP-only character at the maximum level has proven to be an excellent way to circumvent many of the issues that prevent casual players from even taking part in a fight against a dedicated player. The new faction system evolves this PvP/Role Play balance a step further and gives players more freedom than ever to enjoy Guild Wars in the fashion that they like best.
ArenaNet has created a unique, global game world that invites players from around the world to play together seamlessly. There are no sharded servers, no language-specific versions of the game and nothing to keep players from exploring the game world with friends from other countries.
