GuildWars was first introduced in April of 2005 by ArenaNet a subsidiary of game publisher NCsoft. It was unique in that it was a critically acclaimed MMORPG that offered on-line play with no subscription fees.  What this meant was that NCsoft would have to generate the necessary capital for continued support for GuildWars through the introduction of expansion packs to extend the viable economic life of the series, with new additions available at the rate of at least one per year. Subscription games (like World of Warcraft) use the revenue generated monthly for things like sever maintenance and expansion, debugging and new product development.

The initial offering, ‘Prophecies’, introduced the player to a rather large on-line world, complete with an abundance of main missions and almost too many sub-missions to count.  With both a solid story line and PVP components, the game was a hit.  NCsoft quickly followed up with its first expansion:  GuildWars Factions.

While introducing a new gaming mechanic for the series, Factions, met with mixed reviews but ultimately it gained acceptance as NCsoft added a few features and tweaks (like increased storage for crafting items) to make it more attractive. 

The second expansion, Nightfall, was better received and generally considered a worthwhile addition the franchise.  The storyline was solid, and the new classes seemed more useful than those of Factions, and the game play was again fluid, generating a sense of a believable extension of the GuildWars environment.  I cannot say the same for this latest attempt by NCsoft.  The Eye of the North is more like an add-on, rather than a true expansion. 

Basically you are sent to discover what had happened to the characters of the original Prophecies story line.  You were supposed to ‘discover’ new lands to explore, new creatures to fight, and new skills and items to develop and collect.  But in point of fact: the ‘new’ lands look pretty much like the old ones, the new creatures (with a very few exceptions) fight like the old ones, and the new skills and items only add to the clutter of your skill list and storage.

In the previous two expansions you at least got to play as new character types, in this ‘expansion’ you don’t even get an additional character slot (you still have to buy an extra one online).  Its not that this expansion is bad, it’s just that it is insufficient for a full priced (which it basically is) expansion. 

If you want a player to plunk down the full price then up the character cap from 20 to 30 or increase my spell slots or at least increase my storage for crying out loud.  If you aren’t going to do any of that, then make it more attractive by knocking the price down to a reasonable $15.