Guild Wars Eye of the North



Guild Wars: Eye of the North (commonly abbreviated as GW:EN [as on the official site], GWEN, or EotN) is an upcoming product of the Guild Wars game series. It is an expansion to all of the first three campaigns. Unlike the previous three Guild Wars products, Eye of the North is not a standalone campaign: it is an expansion pack.

Eye of the North will require at least one of the Guild Wars campaigns to play, and focuses on high-level content for existing characters.

Content
The May edition of PC Gamer has announced Eye of the North, with a 15-page cover article on it, containing official information from ArenaNet. The magazine shipped on Thursday, March 15th to subscribers. It was not available on newsstands until after April 3rd.

Eye of the North will not include any new professions. James Phinney has stated that Eye of the North will involve character development beyond level 20, however Gaile Gray has clarified that this extended character development will not increase the actual level cap.

Features:
 * 40 new armor styles (4 per profession)
 * 100 new profession-specific skills
 * 50 new PvE-only skills (none of which are profession-specific)
 * 10 new heroes, including one Asura hero, one Dwarf hero and one Norn hero (Jora)
 * New minigames
 * Dwarven boxing
 * Polymock
 * Three or more new titles corresponding to reputation with the Asura, Deldrimor and Norn.

Eye of the North's story is divided into three sections:
 * The first takes place in the Depths of Tyria (which are revealed when earthquakes rip through the 3 continents), which contains 18 dungeons and involves helping the Dwarves fight against the Great Destroyer.
 * The second will involve three separate arcs involving the Asura on the Tarnished Coast near the Maguuma Jungle, the Norns in the Far Shiverpeaks and the Charr homeland north of Ascalon.
 * The third will involve fighting the Great Destroyer.

Bridging the Divide
Through the story line, Eye of the North will introduce Guild Wars players to some of the races that will be playable in the planned sequel: Guild Wars 2. It will serve another important function for players who have invested much time and effort into developing their characters... a measure of continuity will be made possible through a Hall of Monuments. Players will construct these monuments through Quests in GW:EN and may then record some of their achievements (titles) and even items, which will bestow some benefit in GW2.

Release Date
Eye of the North will be on sale during the Third Quarter of 2007. Although some retailers have provided estimated release dates, no precise date has been officially announced by ArenaNet or NCSoft, however Gaile Grey has recently stated that a release date is likely to be announced soon.

Only dates that are officially announced by ArenaNet will be posted here!

However, for personal estimation of the release date, the following facts may provide some starting points:
 * During E3 2006 ArenaNet confirmed that development on Campaign 4 was well underway, however the May 2007 issue of PC Gamer revealed that Campaign 4 developed into Guild Wars 2 and Eye of the North was started later, so work on Eye of the North likely began at some point after E3 2006.
 * ArenaNet sent out the first wave of alpha test invitation emails on January 9th . On December 12th Gaile Gray stated that testing (from the context, implicitly out of house testing) for campaign 4 has not started.
 * An NCSoft press release from February 7th, 2007 states that "... the company anticipates the launching of Tabula Rasa and a new major update to the Guild Wars franchise in the later half of 2007", which refers to the next campaign.
 * An NCSoft press release from March 27, 2007 states that Eye of the North is "Due to hit store shelves during the 2007 holiday season"
 * According to the official European site's version of the Eye of the North FAQ, the release date will be August 31st. Date was later removed.

Trivia

 * Guild Wars: Eye of the North is often abbreviated GW:EN. Some players believe that this is an intentional reference to Gwen, while others believe it is a coincidence.
 * Guild Wars: Eye of the North plays 6 years after The Searing, 1076 AE, which means it plays one year after the events of Guild Wars Nightfall.

From official sites

 * Guild Wars Official Site: Guild Wars 2, Guild Wars Expansion Announced
 * Guild Wars Official Site: Official Eye of the North Announcement

From other sites

 * IGN: A Conversation With ArenaNet
 * Gamespy: Guild Wars: Eye of the North preview
 * Games Radar - Guild Wars: Eye of the North - interview
 * Gamespot - Guild Wars Eye of the North Developer Diary #2
 * GamingNexus Exclusive: Guild Wars: Eye of the North - A preview of the new monsters.
 * IGN - Dungeon Montage. A movie showing the dungeons.
 * IGN - Guild Wars: Eye of the North Dungeon Crawl
 * Gamespy preview article
 * Gamespot: Guild Wars: Eye of the North Q&A - Introduction to the First Guild Wars Expansion
 * Eurogamer - Interview - The best things in life are free
 * gamona.de - PC-Interview: Guild Wars 2 - English interview with arena.net (also briefly covers Eye of the North)
 * Kotaku - Feature: Guild Wars 2, GW Expansion Unveiled
 * Kotaku - Eye of the North logo
 * Kotaku - Eye of the North and Guild Wars 2 image gallery
 * Guild Wars Guru: forum thread on the PC Gamer article
 * Guild Wars Guru: Official PCG Article Thread