The "Platinum
Edition" package of Guild Wars includes both the "Game of the Year"
edition of the original Guild Wars and its high-level add-on expansion,
Guild Wars: Eye of the North. Guild Wars players go online to
take the roles of wizards and warriors in a medieval fantasy world,
where they battle and adventure on their own, cooperatively, or -- as
the title suggests -- in guild warfare against teams of other players.
The game world is home to a once-proud kingdom, which has recently been
overrun by the forces of evil and chaos. Available player professions
include warriors, rangers, monks, mesmers, elementalists, and
necromancers, and players are encouraged to choose a combination of any
two professions for each character they play. Guild Wars
features common world areas, such as towns and outposts, where all
players can gather and meet, but the game is particularly mission-based.
When players embark on a quest, alone or in a small party, an
"instanced" private area of the game world is created for them, and
nearly all of the real adventuring takes place in these exclusive
territories. More similar to the multiplayer structure of games like
Diablo or Dungeon Siege than conventional "massively multiplayer online
role-playing games" (or "MMORPGs"), the developers refer to Guild Wars
as a "competitive online role-playing game" (or "CORPG"). Guild
Wars: Eye of the North (or "GWEN," as it is unofficially known to some
players who remember the little girl featured in the original game's
very first quest) is an expansion pack for level-capped characters
seeking new player-versus-environment (PvE) challenges. Level 20
characters return to the game's starting continent to face a new series
of quests, involving new races and an old enemy -- the Charr. The
expansion adds no new classes or character types, but it does include
150 new skills, 50 of which are intended for PvE adventure exclusively.