Guild Wars, also recognized as GW, is an episodic Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) that was created by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft. The first GW campaign (episode) called Guild Wars Prophecies was released in April 2005. The second campaign, titled Guild WarsFactions, was released one year later in April 2006. The third campaign, Guild Wars Nightfall, was released in October 2006. A fourth campaign, Guild Wars: Eye of the North was scheduled for release in 2007 but was later announced that it will be the games first expansion pack instead of a fourth campaign. Unlike most MMORPGs, Guild Wars has no monthly subscription fees and is more inviting to casual players. To avoid repetitive gameplay GW offers features such as player controlled NPC henchmen which are similar to gaming bots, low maximum Guild Wars levels, and instanced game regions. The Guild Wars journey begins in the world of Tyria. Players may choose to participate in PvP (player versus player) or PvE (player versus environment) game play. In PvE gameplay, gamers explore the lands in search of Guild Wars quests and missions to complete and monsters to conquer for rewards such as gold, items, skills and skill points, and experience points. In PvP combat, teams battle it out in area called The Battle Isles that is limited to GW PvP. The reward for winning a PvP tournament includes experience points and faction points which can be exchanged for in-game awards. PvP combat is completely optional and players may use their own character or one that is created especially for PvP. There are 8 different characters classes or Guild Wars Professions: Elementalist, Mesmer, Monk, Necromancer, Ranger, Warrior, Assassin, and Ritualist. Each GW character consists of a primary and secondary profession which determines what skills and attributes the character will have. Players are able to change their character secondary profession by completing certain tasks. Players must select GW Builds for their character which is a combination of skills, attributes, and sometimes weapons. Guild Wars builds usually consist of 8 skills such as attack skills and spells. An effective combination of skills has to be selected or even the level of the characters and the equipment they carry will be void if the skills are not useful for the task the player is attempting. Although not a requirement, joining a GW guild is highly encouraged being that so much of the game is focusing around playing within a guild. By joining a guild players are able to communicate more readily and exchange Guild Wars strategies and tips. The guild leaders are usually responsible for recruiting new members and up to ten guilds may join together to form a GW alliance. Members of the alliance can visit guild halls of other guilds within their alliance and communicate with each other through a chat channel.