It's been three years since ArenaNet announced Guild Wars 2, the sequel to the classic, free-to-play original. But in all that time, we've only just begun to learn about the ambitious MMO in recent months.

Many GW fans will agree that the single-player stories played out through strong narratives was a great aspect of the original MMO, but the most important questions on many fans' minds are about game mechanics and PvP in the upcoming sequel. In October, we reported a rumor from KillTenRats that Guild Wars 2 might incorporate open-world PvP strategic elements similar to "battle objectives" found in MMOs like Warhammer Online, based on a translated interview with ArenaNet in a Dutch magazine.

"The World PvP Maps bear a resemblance to RTS-maps and give you a chance to play different roles," according to the article. "You can conquer stone mines, which will then deliver stone by caravan to your catapults, you can attack and cut off caravans of the enemy, you can operate as a scout and inform the rest of hostile movement, you can man watchtowers and defend, or you can just run up to a lost PvP'er and teach him a lesson. All these actions will earn you experience."

Gameplay details and PvP-related news were scarce until earlier this spring, when IncGamers published an interview with several ArenaNet developers. "We've taken a lot of cues from the first-person shooter genre, to make Guild Wars 2 feel more like an E-sport," designer Jon Peters said, in the interview. "Public games will be hot-joinable. We will track player statistics, generate rankings to let players see how they compare to their peers, and hold a variety of tournaments, both large and small, to let the most competitive players duke it out for the bragging rights to be called the best Guild Wars 2 players in the world."

Peters also confirmed two types of PvP; "Player vs. Player" and "World vs. World," according to the interview. The "WvW" mode "pits uneven numbers of players against each other across large maps and involves level progression," while PvP "pits smaller groups of evenly matched opponents against each other," he explained. Both types will be offered in a "tournament" and "pick-up play" formats.

The official Guild Wars 2 FAQ offers a little more insight into PvP mechanics as they relate to character progression, explaining that PvE and PvP gameplay will be independent of one another.  "Players will be able to engage in organized, balanced PvP (similar to GvG in the original Guild Wars) without first leveling up characters, finding equipment, and unlocking skills," the FAQ reads. "While inside the organized PvP area, all characters will be the same power level and will have access to the same equipment."

The small amount of available information regarding PvE gameplay mechanics can also be gleaned from the official FAQ, which indicates ArenaNet's goal to "avoid forcing players into the grind-based gameplay that too often accompanies a high level cap." From an accessibility standpoint, characters of both high and low levels should be able to play together in some capacity, thanks to a "strong sidekick system, similar to that used in City of Heroes," according to the FAQ.

Beyond that, we only know a tiny bit about the skills system ArenaNet is developing for Guild Wars 2, which promises to drastically reduce the number of skills in favor of quality. "We had 1300 skills in Guild Wars I," O'Brien told ZAM in our earlier interview. "That's one reason we stopped doing campaigns; we didn't want to just add skills indefinitely to [the original game]. Guild Wars 2 has the feel of the Guild Wars I skill system, but it really focuses on the quality of the skills rather than the quantity."

ArenaNet hasn't announced a release date or beta schedule yet; according to the FAQ, it will be finished "when it's finished." Last year, the developers said that more gameplay information will be released "early next year," so we should begin to receive new details by summer. Unofficially, the community is predicting the MMO's release in late-2010 or early-2011. Check back with ZAM's Guild Wars 2 portal site for upcoming news and more information.