Guild Wars is being developed by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of NCsoft. Rather than have a continuous beta ArenaNet hold Beta weekends, where pre-ordered players and invited friends are allowed to test the game. This weekend was one such event and I was lucky enough to be invited along.

The weekend's event was different from the others. How? Well, if you began a level 1, character the Kingdom of Ascalon was where you would be born and this was a brand spanking new area. Ascalon is a vast nursery for new players and it was not a small map by any means. If you want to see a glimpse of the new area and didn't play the beta have a look at this short movie. The other new feature were a tweaked UI which allowed customization and scaling features.