Guild Wars came out last year to almost instant acclaim - but it was no big deal for Arena.net founders Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain. The three were seasoned veterans, having created other popular MMO's: Warcraft III, Diablo and StarCraft. All three games - like GW - can be played free over Battle.net.

Unlike most MMO's, the only fees associated with Guild Wars were for extra content, which Arena.net planned to release on a bi-yearly basis. Six months later, Guild Wars Factions has arrived. Jeff Strain doesn't call it an expansion, though... just a "resounding success."

Would gamers pay $50 for Guild Wars Factions? After all, the competition in the MMO industry is savage. Nonetheless, GWF  topped the sales charts the week of its release and is still in the top five three weeks later. NCSoft's European CEO Geoff Heath said, "What has become increasingly obvious over the past year is that our policy of exploring new business models and pricing structures in the MMO space has proved to be a big hit with our player base, who have put the Guild Wars series at the top of the charts for the second year."

Acoording to industry analyst Anita Frazier, the popularity of MMO's is on the rise. "From 2004 to 2005, usage of MMOGs grew nearly 29 percent, and that combined with the significant increase of sales at retail for these products illustrates the growing importance of this genre," she says.

How does all of this bode for GWF? Jeff Strain's not worried. "We're not prepared to talk numbers yet, comparing the two releases," he says. "We'll just say that we feel that, as a brand-new studio, with a brand-new franchise, we think we performed well with the original Guild Wars. That game picked up steam after its release, making it the success it was. With the fanbase built up there was a lot of hype for Factions, and the game came out with a bang. At this point, I'd say that Factions is stronger out of the gate than Guild Wars."

The new content for GW, as well as the continent of Cantha, has a strong Asian look to it. This seems to be a hit all around - Western players love the exotic setting, while players in Korea and Japan (rabid MMO gamers) find it comfortably familiar.

"Factions is all about new mechanics. This includes entirely new ways to play the game, like factions and alliances. Factions and every new campaign released will have new mechanics like this and bring fresh experiences with every new release," says Strain. "We view Factions as a standalone game, a full game and not an expansion. All the original professions from the first game, Prophecies, are in Factions. Overall, it's more comparable to a full game because you can buy it, bring it home and play it without the first game."