Last month, Guild Wars franchise sold more than two million all over the world and was the number one selling PC game in North America for the month of May 2006. When the first installment of the Guild Wars series was launched April 2005, it revolutionized online gaming and was an instant bestseller worldwide.

This epic MMO, designed by several team members from StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo and the Battle.net gaming network, offers a unique skill-based gameplay system - a social world with each quest spawned uniquely for you and your group. The third season of Guilds of War Factions ended last July 8.

In case you missed it the official website for Guild Wars has released four match videos from the the third season playoffs and we have them here. Watch and learn how these teams made it all the way to playoffs!

Download: [Guild Wars Season 3 Playoffs Match 1: War Machine vs Treacherous Empire]
Download: [Guild Wars Season 3 Playoffs Match 2: No Clue vs Irresistible Blokes]
Download: [Guild Wars Season 3 Playoffs Match 3: The Benecia Renovatio vs Esoteric Warriors]
Download: [Guild Wars Season 3 Playoffs Match 4: Mostly Harmless vs The Last Pride]

World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.12 is still in development, but we know that this patch will feature updates to player-vs.player (PvP) gameplay, specifically in the objective-based world PvP and cross-realm battlegrounds. The developers have provided us additional info that will excite WoW stalwarts no end.

The World PvP objectives will be introduced in Silithius and the Eastern Plaguelands. Each of these zones will include non-instanced PvP objectives that players can undertake on a voluntary basis. Individual and zone-wide faction benefits and honor points await those who achieve the objectives. These two world PvP events will be active at all times.

The situation in Silithus is even more grim when Geysers of red crystalline dust start appearing in the desert. They are strange dust or spice with valuable properties. Players can collect them and return the resource to their faction's base in the area. These bases are the same locations where each faction receives field of duty quests for the Cenarion Circle. On normal PvE realms, players who collect spice from a node will become PvP-flagged. Players are not allowed to carry more than one load of spice at a given time. Turning in spice earns a player an individual buff.

Here's a caveat. If you're defeated prior to completion of the turn-in, the enemies (other players) can take the spice away from you. Needless to say, that's a bad thing as factions gain power when they collect certain amount of spice.

Across the world, the Alliance continues to expand its sphere of influence in the Eastern Kingdoms, setting its eyes on the Eastern Plaguelands. In this zone, PvP battles are based on capture-and-hold style of gameplay, focusing on the four towers in the region. Players can attempt to capture a tower by controlling the area around it. More allies mean faster conquest. Any faction that successfully controls all four towers earns a zone-wide buff that increases attack or spell power against "Undead" for all members in the region of in Stratholme.

Another exciting new feature of the next content patch is the cross-realm battlegrounds. This is a highly anticipated feature as it opens the door of opportunity for players seeking to herald their PvP skills and accomplishments beyond their own realm.

Players across different realms can compete against each other in Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley. The list of "battlegroups" will be made available in the near feature on the WoW website. Players can try out these battlegrounds ahead of time when the public test realms go live with the new patch content.

  
 

We recently reported that Korean-based game developer CR-Space Co. Ltd. is working with an Amsterdam publisher to bring Martial Heroes to the European market. They are now hoping to bring it to North American gamers as well, who seem to be as enthusiastic about martial-arts MMORPGs as those in Asia.

Alex Jones is Head of U.S. Public Relations for CR-Space. Today, he gave out some information on the role of Factions in Martial Heroes:

"The Factions play a huge role in the game and is essentially the backdrop of the game’s 'Thousand Year War' plot. Each Faction has its own unique attributes and their own ideology. The Lawful Faction thinks that the most important state of mind is that the way you get to victory is more important than victory itself. This is why the lawful side has more offensive power and more defense. However,the Evil Faction thinks that its does not matter what they do or who they betray, victory is the only acceptable result. Due to this, the Evil Faction unique attributes are speed and debuffing skills. In terms of events, an all out faction war is held once a month. This puts Lawful vs Evil on the Martial Heroes PVP map; Deadlands. In Faction War the objective is to destroy the other side’s sacred stones, so you can say that it’s a Conquest-like event. Each side has to try to destroy the others stone while trying to protect their own which usually makes for a fun but strategic battles."

In short, the Lawful Faction plays by the rules, whereas the Evil Faction believes in the old dictum, "The end justifies the means." Interesting philosophical conflict...

Whereas MH is scheduled for an August release in Europe, there was no word on when it would be available to gamers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. It will, however, be available in several languages (including French and Spanish), and (O! The Joy!) *free* to download and play.

Interested in trying out The Saga of Ryzom? Not sure where to begin? Developer Neverax has come up with an innovative and entertaining new tutorial - in the form of a comic book!

The comic gives a complete explanation of the first steps in the world of Ryzom, shown in screenshots of the beginners' island. Neophytes are taken step-by-step through the character creation process, how the windows operate, the skill system and what are entailed in quests.

It's just one more reason to give the free trial in the Ruins of Silan a go.

The Saga of Ryzom is an MMO game combining elements of science fiction and fantasy on a far-away planet called Atys in the 26th Century. Four "homin" races are struggling to rebuild a civilization destroyed after being massacred a century before by a marauding insect species. Now, as the planet's vegetation falls victim to a blight called the "Goo," two rival factions of powerful mystics - the Kami and the Karavan - are offering assistance to the homins, who must choose between them.

If this scenario intrigues you, download the tutorial here in .pdf format.

Download: [The Ruins of Silan Tutorial]

Guild Wars fans expected that when Factions was released last month, it would have long-ranging effects on the Guild vs. Guild metagame. At the moment, it hasn't changed much.

Part of the reason is a new "Guild Scrimmage Feature," which allows guilds to try out new skill combinations and builds before playing rated games. This is particularly helpful as we get to the end of the season, and will have some bearing on new ideas introduced next season.

Last season's "Dual Surge Pressure Build" is still popular and used quite a bit. Unfortunately, it's a Prophecies build, and therefore not much use to those who have only Factions. There is a slightly modified version of the DSP build that uses some of the Factions  skills, however, and some of the characters use skills available only to those who own Factions (which is a "stand-alone" game).

Some examples of the format include:

- The Warrior/Assassin: a Sword Warrior with Death's Charge, using only Factions and core skills.
- Warrior/Elementalist:  a  Hammer Warrior with Shock, using Prophecies skills
- Mesmer/Ritualist:  uses Domination skills to pressure casters using Factions and Core skills
- Mesmer/Monk: uses health degeneration to create pressure using Factions and Core skills
- Elementalist/Monk: a  Heal Party flagger using Prophecies skills
- Elementalist/Monk: a modified version of the Water Elementalist using both Factions and Prophecies skills.

Being as Factions is a stand-alone game, a potential problem lies in that some players may have access to only one of the two current campaigns, when creating builds, teams should consider this and try to make accommodations.