Guild Wars

Guild Wars is a competitive online role-playing game series developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSOFT. Because it deviated from traditional MMORPG norms in a number of areas, like instancing all the gameplay areas, and that it focused more on player vs. player (PvP) than most online RPGs, it was marketed as competitive online role-playing game. It provides two main modes of gameplay—a cooperative role-playing component and a competitive PvP component—both of which are hosted on ArenaNet's servers. Three stand-alone episodes, one major expansion pack, and several "mini"-expansions were released in the series from April 2005 to April 2013. The games depict the history of the fictional fantasy world of Tyria; each campaign focuses on events in disjointed sections of the world at roughly the same time. A player creates an avatar to play through the cooperative storyline of a campaign, taking on the role of a hero who must save Tyria from episode-specific antagonists. Players can group with other players and non-player characters, known as henchmen and heroes, to perform missions and quests found throughout the game-world. PvP combat is consensual, team based, and limited to areas designed for such combat. Players are allowed to create characters at maximum level and with the best equipment specifically for PvP play, which is unusual for MMORPGs. ArenaNet hosts official Guild Wars tournaments where the most successful players and guilds may compete for the chance to play live at gaming conventions and win prizes up to US$100,000.

Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSOFT. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons, a Lovecraftian species that has seized control of Tyria in the time since the original Guild Wars. The game takes place in a persistent world with a story that progresses in instanced environments.

Guild Wars 2 claims to be unique in the genre by featuring a storyline that is responsive to player actions, something which is common in single player role-playing games but rarely seen in multiplayer ones. A dynamic event system replaces traditional questing, utilising the ripple effect to allow players to approach quests in different ways as part of a persistent world. Also of note is the combat system, which aims to be more dynamic than its predecessor by promoting synergy between professions and using the environment as a weapon, as well as reducing the complexity of the Magic-style skill system of the original game.

GW2

GW2 may refer to:

Path of Fire

Path of Fire is the third studio album by the Swedish band Aeon. It was released on May 21/24 in Europe and May 25 in the U.S. via Metal Blade Records.

Background

As former bassist Max Carlberg had left Aeon at the time of the album recording and studio sessions had already been booked, preventing replacement bassist Victor Brandt from learning the songs in time, the bass on Path of Fire is handled by Aeon's guitarists Zeb Nilsson and Daniel Dlimi.

Guitarist and the graphic artist of Aeon, Daniel Dlimi, commented the cover art: "I created this symbol/badge that for me reflects life, death and the path you have chosen to live your life by. It's about whatever you want to chain yourself to 10 commandments or live free after your own conscience and will."

On April 19, Aeon posted "Kill Them All" for streaming online and Nilsson commented: "This is kind of funny, 'cause I actually dreamt that we were performing this song live and it sounded so cool that I had to start working on it the day after I had the dream. Of course, all the details in it were not in my dream, but the whole concept and idea behind how it was gonna sound was all very realistic. This is a very fast song and it is easy to catch I think. It has some really heavy parts too, and the leads on it ended up really cool too. I think this song will be a good first sample of this album!"

Guild

A guild /ɡɪld/ is an association of artisans or merchants who control the practice of their craft in a particular town. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of tradesmen. They were organized in a manner something between a professional association, trade union, a cartel, and a secret society. They often depended on grants of letters patent by a monarch or other authority to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials. A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the guildhalls constructed and used as meeting places.

An important result of the guild framework was the emergence of universities at Bologna, Paris, and Oxford around the year 1200; they originated as guilds of students as at Bologna, or of masters as at Paris.

Early guildlike associations

In medieval cities, craftsmen tended to form associations based on their trades, confraternities of textile workers, masons, carpenters, carvers, glass workers, each of whom controlled secrets of traditionally imparted technology, the "arts" or "mysteries" of their crafts. Usually the founders were free independent master craftsmen who hired apprentices.