Guild Wars: Factions

Removed/changed animal companions.

Guild Wars allows the ranger class to charm an animal companion, which will then fight on the side of it's master. The animal companion is a normal team member in the mechanics of the game, which means it attacks the enemy, it gets injured, it can be poisoned, it can die and it can be resurrected by it's master or through a global resurrection at a team wipe-out.

Factions was supposed to ship with those new animal companions: Black Moa, Crane, Lurker, Panda, Phoenix, Reef Lurker, Tiger and White Tiger.

However, as it is illegal to depict the death of an endangered species in China, the Panda - which could die in combat - needed to be removed from the game. And since Guild Wars is played globally, it had to be removed entirely.

The Crane was in the final version, but it had a red crest and black neck, which was found out to look like another Chinese endangered species and required a re-texture. It now has a blue crest and a white neck.

The full size Panda could be seen at the Farewell to Gaile event, where it was a NPC. Furthermore, there is also a miniature Panda available. Miniatures are designed to just follow the player and neither participate in battle nor can they be harmed or even die.

However there was a quite amusing bug in the game at some time. Huge snow boulders, which kill any creature they over-roll, we able to "kill" even the invulnerable miniatures - even with a proper death sequence (as they are just downscaled versions of the normal creatures/NPCs). So it was possible to kill Pandas in the game. ;)

The Day of the Tengu

The official release date of Factions was April 28, 2006. Yet on the day before, Factions was already available for those that pre-ordered the game or bought the pre-order box.

To celebrate this Pre-Starter-Event, ArenaNet added a special gimmick, The Day of the Tengu.

The players were invited to obtain 250 Naga Poison Teeth, either from quests or by normally killing Nagas. And then, in regular intervals of three hours starting from the Event beginning, the Canthan Emperor visited the monastery on the tutorial island to exchange those 250 Teeth with the Tengu Mask, which is a non-tradable item.

The Emperor visited the monastery just eight times, then the quests and Event were removed. All what remains are the Tengu Masks in the possession of those players who have participated in this Tengu Event.

Awards

• 4Players
  • 2006 – #2 Best Online Role-Playing Game of the Year
• GameSpy
  • 2006 – #5 Online Multiplayer Game of the Year
• GameStar (Germany)
  • February 01, 2007 - "Best PC Online Game in 2006 (together with Guild Wars: Nightfall) (Readers' Vote)
• PC Powerplay (Germany)
  • Issue 02/2007 – #3 Best RPG/Adventure in 2006