• Alpha & Beta Tests
• Release & Beyond
• Accounts & Characters
• Game Details
• Technical & Support
• Company & General

Alpha & Beta Tests     - top -

Will you be offering a traditional beta for the next chapter of Guild Wars?

As you may be aware, monthly worldwide events replaced a traditional beta test for the first chapter of Guild Wars. For upcoming chapters, we will continue to hold a small alpha test, and the decision on beta testing will be made later this year.

What is the future of the Guild Wars Alpha Test?

Our core group of alpha testers were invaluable to the development process during the three years of the alpha test for Guild Wars' initial release. A selected number of our active testers will be invited to continue working with the team and providing feedback on the next chapter of Guild Wars.

How can I find out more about testing Guild Wars? May I join the alpha test? Can I sign up for any possible future beta tests?

Our alpha test continues, with a core group of testers assisting with tests of the rolling updates that we offer for Chapter 1, as well as well as assisting with the early development of the second chapter of the game. Participants become involved by invitation only. We are not accepting applications for testing nor do we have a waiting list. However, if we make the decision to expand testing opportunities, we will post them on our official site – www.guildwars.com – and we invite you to apply through whatever means are offered at that time.

Guild Wars Release and Beyond     - top -

Has Guild Wars been released yet?

Guild Wars was released on April 28th, 2005, in North America and Europe, and on May 25th, 2005, in Korea. Additional releases will take place over the coming months.

Is a demo of Guild Wars available?

At this time, there is no demo for Guild Wars. We offered many opportunities to play various early versions of the game during our pre-release worldwide events and Beta Weekend Events. If we decide to offer a demo of Guild Wars in the future, we will post the details on our official websites.

Where can I purchase Guild Wars?

Guild Wars is available at your favorite retail location, a list of which is available on this link. You will be able to acquire subsequent chapters for Guild Wars via retail stores or direct download.

How much does Guild Wars cost? How much will additional chapters cost?

Guild Wars is priced at a comparable cost to other first-tier PC games. The subsequent chapters of Guild Wars will be comparably priced in relation to other games.

Will there be a subscription fee for Guild Wars? Are there any other fees, such as for patches or updates?

There is no a subscription fee of any kind, anywhere in the world and there are no hidden fees. You do not have to pay for the streaming updates that will take place on a regular basis, nor for additional content that we will provide between the chapters of Guild Wars.

Will the game be released on a different OS (Macintosh, Linux, etc.), or on other video game consoles?

Guild Wars was developed and initially released on the PC. We are aware that there is an interest in having the game available on other operating systems or other platforms, and we will continue to evaluate these possibilities in the future.

Will Guild Wars be translated into other languages?

Guild Wars was localized into several languages prior to release. At release, the languages included English, French, German, Italian, Korean, and Spanish. Additional languages will be added later.

Am I required to buy the new chapters in order to continue to play Guild Wars?

No. Every purchase you make in the continuation of the Guild Wars saga will be your choice. If you purchase new chapters, you will gain access to new regions of the world, new skills and abilities, new items, new professions, and much more. And of course such a purchase will support the continued development of the game. However, if you choose not to purchase a chapter, you will still be able to play the chapters of Guild Wars that you own, and you will have common areas in which you will be able to play with and against your friends who have purchased the other chapter(s).

Will I remain competitive if I do not buy the chapters? Will I be able to compete with and against others if I have only some of the Guild Wars chapters?

Yes. Purchasing the newer chapters of Guild Wars will not make you strictly more powerful. You will have access to many more strategic options, due to the expanding nature of the skills, abilities, items and professions that you enjoy with each chapter. It would be similar to building a deck in Magic: The Gathering™: The more cards you own, the greater the number of different playing decks you can choose to play. When you buy the chapters of Guild Wars, you will acquire a larger collection of skills and abilities from which to build your skill set, but you will not gain more power. So if you purchase a chapter and your friend does not, you will still be able to play competitively against and with one another.

Accounts & Characters     - top -

How do I choose a name for my character?

Character names must include at least a first and last name with a space between, though more than two names may be chosen. The first letter of each name is automatically capitalized and the standard alphabet is used. Special characters, symbols and numbers are not allowed. It is important to note that character names must conform to the EULA and the Rules of Conduct as outlined on our Legal pages.

How long will my character name(s) be reserved?

Names that are associated with a retail game account will be permanently saved. Names that were reserved via a non-retail account such as a World Preview or Beta Weekend Event account expired on August 31, 2005. Character names that were not "claimed" through activation of a retail Guild Wars account by that date may be released for general use by Guild Wars players at any point in the future.

Are characters persistent?

Yes, your characters continue from mission to mission, acquiring levels, items, skills and abilities. In addition, every character is stored on ArenaNet's servers, so no matter whether you play single player adventures, cooperative missions, or head-to-head battles, your character will be stored in a secure environment allowing you to log online to play from anywhere in the world.

Can I customize my character's appearance?

Guild Wars allows for a wide array of character customization, including gender, skin tones, face, hair color, and height. In addition, you will be able to dye shields, armor and weapons, creating a large variety of item appearances. We will continue to expand the opportunities for character customization in the future.

How many character classes are there?

The first chapter of Guild Wars will feature six character professions: The Elementalist, Mesmer, Monk, Necromancer, Ranger, and Warrior. You can learn a little bit more about each of the Guild Wars professions here. When you create a character, you will select a primary profession, and you will be given an opportunity to acquire a secondary profession in the starting region of the game. This provides an amazing array of choices and gameplay experiences.

What playable races are there in Guild Wars?

In the first chapter you play characters from the human race. In subsequent chapters of Guild Wars, you may be able to play members of other races.

How many characters will I be able to have on my Guild Wars account?

The final number of characters per account is four. This may change in future chapters, although that has not yet been determined.

Several people in my family (or guild) intend to play Guild Wars. Do we each need to purchase a copy?

Like every other online game, anyone who wants to have a Guild Wars Game Account needs to have his/her own copy of the game. There is never a monthly fee to play Guild Wars, so you will have tremendous savings over most online games. Spawning multiple copies from a single purchase is disallowed and account sharing is a breach of the Rules of Conduct.

Game Details     - top -

What kind of game is Guild Wars?

Guild Wars is a global online roleplaying game. Players can engage in cooperative group combat, in single player adventures, or in large head-to-head guild battles. Guild Wars is a mission-based game set in a stunning 3D fantasy world that offers excellent support for guilds. Because the team that developed Guild Wars had experience creating successful online game series such as Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo, the members used their familiarity with the complex issues surrounding online games to create a game that is both easy to learn and compelling to play long term, and yet does not require players to spend hundreds of hours slogging through the preparation just to get to the fun bits.

Is Guild Wars an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)?

Guild Wars has some similarities to existing MMORPGs, but it also has some key differences. Like existing MMOs, Guild Wars is played entirely online in a secure hosted environment. Thousands of players inhabit the same virtual world. Players can meet new friends in gathering places like towns and outposts where they form parties and go questing with them. Unlike many MMOs, when players form a party and embark upon a quest in Guild Wars, they get their own private copy of the area where the quest takes place. This design eliminates some of the frustrating gameplay elements commonly associated with MMOs, such as spawn camping, loot stealing, and standing in a queue in order to complete a quest.

Guild Wars takes place in a large virtual world made up of many different zones, and players can walk from one end of the world to the other. In Guild Wars much of the tedium of traveling through the world has been eliminated. Players can instantly return to any safe area (town or outpost) that they have previously visited just by clicking on it in the world overview map.

Rather than labeling Guild Wars an MMORPG, we prefer to call it a CORPG (Competitive Online Role-Playing Game). Guild Wars was designed from the ground up to create the best possible competitive role-playing experience. Success in Guild Wars is always the result of player skill, not time spent playing or the size of one's guild. As characters progress, they acquire a diverse set of skills and items, enabling them to use new strategies in combat. Players can do battle in open arenas or compete in guild-vs-guild warfare or the international tournament. Engaging in combat is always the player's choice, however; there is no player-killing in cooperative areas of the world.

Players in Guild Wars can play with or against players from around the world in the global tournaments and arenas. And while players are initially placed in a region based on their selected language (so that there is a greater likelihood that others will be speaking their language) they can join up in the always-available International District to form parties and to play with anyone from anywhere in the world.

Can my character be killed by other players?

While Guild Wars has player vs. player combat, you are in control. You can choose to join in competitive missions and receive acclaim for winning against other gamers, or you can reap the rewards of solo adventures or cooperative team missions with an entirely different set of challenges.

Does the game have guild support? Are there ladders and tournaments?

Guild Wars, as evidenced by its name, has broad support for game guilds, including integrated support for worldwide tournaments and ladders, the ability for a guild to acquire a guild cape from a large catalogue for designs, to use private in-game guild chat, to own and operate a guildhall, and more. The list of support features for Guild Wars guilds will continue to grow in the future. You can find the current Guild Wars Ladder on this link.

Do you have to be in a guild to play Guild Wars?

Membership in a guild is not required to play Guild Wars. Although there are many positive aspects to belonging to a guild, players have access to a wide variety of solo adventuring possibilities as well as team cooperative and competitive missions that will ensure you of many of those gaming sessions that run into the wee hours, no matter your playing style. Missions will come in all sizes and difficulties and can be joined individually, as part of a one-time team or as a member of a full-fledged guild.

Is Guild Wars always played online?

Yes. Guild Wars is designed from the ground up to be an online game. This allows maximum security to prevent cheating by other players, so your gaming experience will not be diminished by others. Perhaps most importantly, our online network allows us to stream content to your computer, so you always have the most current version of the game, and play in a world that can change on a continuous basis.

Technical & Support     - top -

Is there a Support Function for Guild Wars?

If you need support, the best place to go is our Support Knowledge Base, found on this link. By inputting a few keys words, you will be given potential answers right on the spot, and these will most likely provide you all the information that you need. If you find that the Knowledge Base does not provide you the information that you require, simply use the "Ask a Question" tab within it and submit your question through the system. We will answer as promptly as we are able.

What are the system requirements for Guild Wars?

Minimum System Specs:

• WindowsŽ XP/2000/ME/98
• Intel PentiumŽ III 800 Mhz or equivalent
• 256 MB RAM
• CD-ROM Drive
• 2 GB Available HDD Space
• ATI Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 or 4 MX Series Video Card with 32MB of VRAM
• 16-bit Sound Card
• Internet connection
• Keyboard and mouse

• WindowsŽ XP/2000/ME/98
• Intel PentiumŽ III 1GHz or equivalent
• 512 MB RAM
• CD-ROM Drive
• 2 GB Available HDD Space
• ATI Radeon 9000 or GeForce 4 Ti Series Video Card with 64MB of VRAM
• 16-bit Sound Card
• Internet connection
• Keyboard and mouse

I am using a NVidia GeForce FX video card and am having trouble seeing some terrain features.

There is a known issue with NVidia GeForce FX video cards (GPUs) and driver version 61.77 when the user has changed "Image Settings" to "High performance". Some of the problems include missing terrain. The solution is to change your video settings to "High quality". To do this, follow these instructions: On Windows XP:

• Open Display Properties control panel
• Click Settings tab
• Click Advanced button
• Click GeForce "Version" tab
• Select Performance and Quality Settings in left window
• In the Global Driver Settings window select Image Settings
• Move the slider to the right to "High quality"

The video cards/GPUs that are affected by this problem are:

• GeForce FX 5200
• GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
• GeForce FX 5500
• GeForce FX 5700
• GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
• GeForce FX 5700LE
• GeForce FX 5900
• GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
• GeForce FX 5900 XT
• GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
• GeForce PCX 5300
• GeForce PCX 5750
• GeForce PCX 5900

Can I play Guild Wars on a dial-up modem?

Yes, you can. We are well aware that many users do not have broadband access, and we want the largest possible number of gamers to be able to join our game without being held back by technical issues like their Internet connection. We have designed Guild Wars to function excellently on a dial-up connection and players confirm they have no problems with their connection, even when playing on a server located in a different continent.

Are your in-game screenshots altered in any way? Do you rework them in an art program before adding them to the site?

No, our Screenshots Section includes only totally unaltered in-game images. We use a distinctive glow technology that gives a fantastical appearance to the game. All the in-game screenshots that are in our Gallery are completely unaltered, and come straight from the game to you.

Company & General     - top -

Who is ArenaNet?

ArenaNet is a wholly owned subsidiary of NCsoft Corporation, and was founded in March 2000 by some of the key members of the creative teams behind Blizzard’s game series Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, as well as the Battle.net gaming network. You can find a lot of good information about the company at our website: www.arena.net.

Does ArenaNet plan to offer Official Guild Wars Forums?

At this time, we do not have plans for an official forum. We are pleased with the support of the many fansite forums that are currently in operation, and encourage fans who would like to participate in forum discussion to visit our Community Page for a list of fansites and forums.

Do you provide fansite resources? Where can I learn about the rules and guidelines for use of your materials?

ArenaNet strongly believes in fansites and wants to support them. Our Community Section is full of information and resources for fansite webmasters and other interested parties, including a program outline, a fansite kit, a program Q&A, and a Fansite News page that is updated regularly. All fansite staff members and others who use Guild Wars materials are bound by our Terms of Use document, which contains a good deal of useful information as far as copyrights, image usage and so forth.

Where can I learn more about Guild Wars?

There are a number of articles, previews, interviews and release reviews on the 'Net, and Guild Wars has been featured in several print magazines, as well. The game has also been honored with several awards, and received many Editor's Choice awards upon its release. Visit the Press Page for a list of reading resources. For current updates and other items of interest, please visit our many Guild Wars fansites, listed here.