SpawnPoint

NCsoft® and ArenaNet® reveal their exciting plans for the future of the hugely successful Guild Wars® franchise. The companies announced that  development already is underway on a full sequel to the original Guild  Wars games.

Guild Wars 2 will draw from the game mechanics that made the original Guild Wars one of the most popular online games ever and will add a fully persistent world.
The game will feature a new game engine, changes to character development and the PvP system.
It was also revealed that, like its predecessors, Guild Wars 2 will not have a subscription fee. No launch date has been announced, but the ArenaNet team anticipates that Guild Wars 2 will go into beta sometime in the second half of 2008.

Characters
A character can be used to play any game mode available in Guild Wars 2; PvE, Structured PvP and World PvP.
A player may still have multiple Characters.

The level cap will be raised. It has been suggested that this could be as much as 100 or even unlimited. There will be a plateau of power, where each level no longer adds as much to the power of the character. A side-kick system has been mentioned which would allow characters of a lower level to play with high level characters without disadvantage.

The skill system will be modified. There will be fewer, less complex skills which may behave differently in different situations, such as if the character is jumping or is surrounded by monsters. A system similar to the limited 8 skill system will be used.

The professions are being designed to be viable for both solo and group play. A primary and secondary profession system will be used. It is currently not known if any professions from the original Guild Wars will return, and the profession count is unknown.

Companions
The system of companions and allies is being reworked. Companions will have customization similar to Heroes. Players will be allowed to bring a single companion with them, who will not take up a party slot and are considered an extension of the character. When a player chooses not to bring a companion, their character will instead be buffed so that they will not be disadvantaged by not bringing a companion.

Races
Guild Wars 2 will introduce several new playable races. The five playable races announced so far are:

    * Asura
    * Charr
    * Human
    * Norn
    * Sylvari

Different races will have different advantages and disadvantages, for example the Norn will be able to shapeshift into a half-bear half-human, with increased health and melee damage. It is presently not known what advantages other races will have.