With Guild Wars’ fourth birthday just around the corner and its six-millionth copy having just been sold, ArenaNet, the developers behind the hit MMO, certainly have a lot to celebrate. In order to add to the festivities, a massive content update has been released.<\/p>\n
More storage<\/strong><\/p>\n For starters, ArenaNet decided to address some of the smaller but important issues that the community has raised over the years. One of these gripes has been the issue of a lack of storage space. In order to solve this problem, two new features have been introduced. The first is the advent of Equipment Packs. These bags come in sizes of 5, 10, 15 and 20 and can hold either weapons or armour exclusively. A new slot is available on all characters in order to accommodate one of those packs. The second new feature is purchasable Xunlai Storage tabs. One can buy up to 4 additional storage tabs via the in-game store (using real-world currency). In celebration of Guild Wars’ fourth birthday, however, ArenaNet will be releasing details on how you can get one free Xunlai Storage tab.<\/p>\n New toys<\/strong><\/p>\n Since we now have such a multitude of storage available to us, we most naturally need items to fill it with! ArenaNet haven’t disappointed. You may remember Nicholas Sandford from Pre-Searing Ascalon…he’s back (albeit a little older) and with a new name – Nicholas the Traveler. He’s ready to hand out gifts to you should you find him in his travels in the present world and possess what he asks for in return. Another simple yet highly-welcome addition is the migration of the Hall of Heroes to an account-based system instead of a character-based system. This will ensure a whole lot less work and will allow you to focus on unlocking achievements for your account instead of all your characters.<\/p>\n Identity crysis?<\/strong><\/p>\n To wrap up the list of small additions – behold the stylist NPC and character name changes! Unfortunately, to make use of either of these you’ll have to whip out your credit card, but should that be a non-issue you can purchase tokens via the in-game store that will allow you to completely change the look of your character via the new stylist NPC in the Great Temple of Balthazar. From hair to skin tone to even gender! Should you be bored with your character name (or have made a spelling error in it like me!), you can finally get rid of it in exchange for a fresh one.<\/p>\n New Quests<\/strong><\/p>\n Lastly, and most spectacularly, is the addition of the Zaishen Menagerie and Zaishen Challenge Quests. The former introduces a whole new explorable area on the Battle Isles that can be accessed via your main map. Here you can bring your charmed pets and unlock them, as well as pet evolution tiers for other characters on your account. You’ll see charmable versions of previously-charmed pets roaming the grounds of this area that only you can exclusively access. It’s Canthan-themed and beautiful. The latter feature is basically a form of daily quests, which will send you to redo missions, kill bosses or partake in PvP in exchange for Zaishen Coins, which can be redeemed for special rewards.<\/p>\n All in all, among the various bug fixes and minor changes, this is definitely one of the larger updates we’ve seen to the game and apparently only one of a number to come. We are looking forward to seeing what the future holds in store for Guild Wars.<\/p>\n