![](../../../pic/factionspreorderbox.jpg)
MMO Memory Box: Guild Wars Factions ~ Blaugust Day 23
This is part of the Blaugust series!
Let’s go back in time to 2005-2006 when a Guild Wars expansion pre-order looked like the above.
No, this wasn’t the game. It wasn’t even a special edition. It was just the basic pre-order. It came with a disc and a full color booklet, as well as the preorder key.
![](../../../pic/factionspreorderinside.jpg)
I have no idea what is actually on the disc, to be honest. But if I remember right, the key gave you access to a special preivew beta event where you could try out the new classes and got a tengu mask. For a while that was the only way to get the mask… of course, they had to give it out to players later anyhow. :/
The game box itself looked like this:
![](../../../pic/factionsbox.jpg)
I notice the art likes to highlight hot girls…
![](../../../pic/2015-08-19-19-27-23.jpg)
The expansion was actually a stand alone game. So you could buy Factions and roll a new character without needing to purchase the original Guild Wars game (which was called Prophecies from then on).
![](../../../pic/factionsfold.jpg)
Like the previous GW game, it came with a full color manual that featured an awesome cover picture of Shiro Tagachi back when he looked more like that…
![](../../../pic/factionsinside.jpg)
…rather than like this???
![](../../../pic/shiro.jpg)
Poor Shiro. I’m just not a fan of him in the GW2 style.
Anyhow, like GW: Prophecies, the guide focused a lot on setting the tone for the story’s background, culture and history. It’s one of the things that I feel GW did really well.
![](../../../pic/factionsbook.jpg)