Guild Wars 2 Standard Edition

For generations, war and chaos raged across the land of Tyria. Five great races competed and warred against each other, struggling to tip the balance of power in their favor.

Then the dragons woke.

The all-powerful beasts stirred from their millennial sleep under earth and sea. With their magical breath the dragons spread destruction and created legions of twisted slaves. A deathless dragon named Zhaitan raised the sunken nation of Orr, triggering earthquakes and tidal waves that destroyed entire cities across the Sea of Sorrows.

Zhaitan’s undead armies surged from the sea, hungry for the destruction of the five races of Tyria: the charr, a ferocious race of feline warriors; the asura, magical inventors of small size and great intellect; the norn, towering shapeshifters from the frigid northern lands; the sylvari, a mysterious young race of visionary plant folk; and the humans, an embattled but resilient people.

Now heroes from the five races must set aside ancient rivalries and stand together against their common enemies.
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Magic, technology, and cold steel will determine the ultimate fate of the world.

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Living World in Guild Wars 2

by Colin Johanson on July 2, 2013

“How do we craft an online world that feels like it is a truly living world?”

For years, MMO developers have been chasing the answer to this question; it’s one of the holy grails of MMO development.

By our definition, the answer to this question is to create a world that feels like it can change and evolve, a place where you can have unique experiences each time you log in, where you feel like the world is changing around you.

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On the release of Guild Wars 2, we managed to accomplish this feeling across shorter time elements through our dynamic event system. You could visit a town, and later come back to find it under attack, or under control of an enemy (enter centaurs stage left) and in need of liberation. The centaurs who hold your friendly village will stay there until players drive them out, the enemy camp you control will stay that way until enemies win it back from you.