Guild Wars stormed out in 2005 with a new business model and PvP to burn. The game's ex-Blizzard developers planned to keep it all free on a monthly basis with two big retail expansion packs a year. After a launch year that saw Guild Wars capping a million players, inspiring fans like the Korean playoff champions War Machine who practice "all day everyday, except the time needed for eating and sleeping," and numerous gameplay tweaks and upgrades, Guild Wars is ready to take the next step. Guild Wars: Factions is coming and it looks like NCSoft and ArenaNet are ready to expand their CORPG (Competitive Online Role-Playing Game) with a new continent, two new classes, and a meta-game of territorial conquest. We played some PvP with the new classes, got to see the new PvP area, and did some grinding during the Guild Wars: Factions Global Free-For-All this past weekend, and Factions definitely looks poised for further greatness.

Factions is a standalone expansion so new players can get on-board with either the six original "core" classes or the two new classes, Assassin and Ritualist, without buying the core game. Each expansion will bring two more classes to the game as well as the six core classes so a new player can always start with just an expansion. The Assassin is wonderfully assassin-like with duel-wielding, teleportation, and stealth, while the Ritualist allows the player to summon spirit minions to perform a variety of roles. New classes, new skills, and new items to play with let players explore the new continent of Cantha and its three nations -- including the two titular factions. Guild Wars is useful about leveling