Guild Wars Factions is the follow-up to last year's popular online role-playing game Guild Wars, which let you team up with other players to form a guild in order to explore a fantasy world or battle other guilds. Factions isn't an expansion pack, which means that you don't need to own the original Guild Wars to enjoy it. Rather, it's a stand-alone game that introduces a whole new setting to explore, as well as new features, new classes, new types of missions, and new skills to play with. And, like the original game, Factions won't require a monthly subscription fee in order to play it. With Factions due out in stores next week, creator ArenaNet is now revealing some cool, never-before-seen features that will be in the game, and we got the first details from designers James Phinney and Eric Flannum.

Guild Wars Factions is the latest chapter in the Guild Wars saga, but you don't need to own the original game to enjoy it.

GameSpot: We hear that Guild Wars Factions will include an all-new feature that will let players earn titles for their characters, such as "hero," "gladiator," and "champion." Tell us about these titles and how players will go about earning them.

James Phinney: Titles are intended to give players recognition for extraordinary achievements. Some titles are associated with a player's account, such as "champion," which recognizes your achievements in guild-versus-guild combat. Some titles are associated with individual characters, such as "Tyrian Explorer," which recognizes your persistence and ingenuity in visiting every possible nook and cranny in the continent of Tyria.

Many titles have multiple levels. For example, the first level of "skill hunter" requires that you capture 90 elite skills with a single character. You become an "adept skill hunter" when you reach a total of 135 elite skills. Capturing that many skills is an incredible accomplishment.

You can choose only one title to display at a time, but a single character can have multiple titles. Whenever you uncover a new part of the world map of Tyria, for example, you make progress toward a "Tyrian Explorer" title. This does not diminish or alter any progress you've made toward a "gladiator" title, which is earned through victories in the random arenas.

GS: Will all titles be permanent, or will you have to defend certain titles? In other words, will there be tittles that only one person at a time can have?

JP: Right now, there are no unique titles, but this is something we will consider as we move forward. We definitely think it's great for players to have a chance to become famous within the Guild Wars community.

GS: The new persistent war mode that will be introduced in Factions sounds interesting, as it's supposed to tie together competitive fans of arena combat with role-playing fans who like to pursue quests. Could you briefly describe how it works, and how it's designed to appeal to both player-versus-player fans and player-versus-environment fans?

Factions will introduce in-game character titles, so you can let the world know just what kind of hero you are.

Eric Flannum: The basics of the system work like this: Guild alliances declare their allegiance to either the Kurzick or Luxon nations, and alliances on each side are ranked according to how many faction points members of that alliance have "cashed in." Faction points can be gained in many different ways, from completing quests and missions to engaging in PVP combat. Depending on how high an alliance is ranked within its faction, it will control a different piece of territory. Working in tandem with this system is a new special type of PVP combat called alliance battles. Alliance battles will determine exactly how much territory is available for each side to control.

We designed this system to cater to as many different play styles as possible. Players who enjoy questing are capable of earning faction points at a rate similar to players who enjoy PVP combat. In this way, we hope that alliances will often be formed between guilds that enjoy different styles of play to maximize and diversify the ways in which they gain faction points.

GS: Aside from the new war mode, what are some of the other new things that you will be able to do in Factions? We understand that there are multiteam cooperative missions, as well as new challenge missions. Then there are guild scrimmages, as well?

EF: Yes, we added guild scrimmages, which can be initiated by any member of a guild when they are in their guild hall. This gives guilds the ability to practice one-on-one, eight-on-eight, or even one-on-eight combat if they choose. This is also a pretty good example of the sort of upgrades that affect all chapters of the game. Anyone playing Guild Wars whose guild has a guild hall will be able to take advantage of guild scrimmages regardless of whether they buy Factions.

In order to play the other new mission types you mentioned, players will need to own Factions. Multiteam cooperative missions are very story driven and provide players with an opportunity to coordinate with another team of eight players to accomplish a goal, such as defeating a particularly nasty dragon. Challenge missions are designed to be repeatable. You can think of them as sort of like arcade games, where there really isn't an end to them but you are trying to achieve the highest score possible. For example, one of the missions has you trying to exterminate as many monsters as possible within a time limit. Players will be able to compete with each other to see who can get the best daily, monthly, and all-time scores.

GS: What's the deal with the new guild alliances? We know that multiple guilds will be able to ally together for the persistent war, but it sounds like the alliance will be useful for other things, as well.

The assassin is one of the two new character classes that you can play.

JP: First and foremost, alliances exist as a way to promote community building among players. Players within an alliance may use alliance chat to communicate with one another and may freely visit the guild halls of other guilds in the alliance. (Currently, in order to visit a friend's guild hall, you must be issued a guest invitation by a member of that guild.)

Visiting an ally's guild hall will be especially useful in Factions because we are providing that guild scrimmage feature that allows you to arrange a test battle in that guild hall. You can use this option for practicing guild-versus-guild strategies, trying out skill combinations, or just to have some fun, informal combat.