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Players of developer ArenaNet's Guild Wars game have been racking up achievements in the games since the first title was released many years ago. Now ArenaNet has revealed that those achievements will figure into the game's MMO sequel Guild Wars 2. In fact you can go ahead and find out about what kinds of Guild Wars 2 rewards you can gain right now.

Today ArenaNet launched a Hall of Monuments Reward Calculator web page. All you have to do is put in your character's name from the original Guild Wars and the calulator will figure out the rewards that will await you when Guild Wars 2 is released. There's more info on this feature on a FAQ page and more info on the feature can be found on this news posts. You might be able to gain access to things like in-game pets, special weapons and armor pieces and more. You can even let other people see what kinds of rewards you get via social networking pages like Facebook.

Guild Wars shook up the MMO scene with a radically different business plan, where game development would be funded with box sales instead of subscription fees. It also stood out as one of the best examples of PvP design, since players were allowed to create top level characters dedicated to competitive gameplay. The game was later followed by two campaigns that added new classes, new PvP modes and a slew of different skills. Factions introduced Faction Points and Alliance Battles, while Nightfall brought in computer controlled Heroes to assist in all areas of combat. Although certain aspects overlap between PvE and PvP game types, Guild Wars has a "separate but equal" way of dealing with the two. Competitors have dedicated arenas, away from the story based areas, where they can quickly jump right into a battle. As a result, strong communities have grown around both PvP and PvE gameplay, and fans eagerly await news about Guild Wars 2. We speak with game designer Isaiah Cartwright from ArenaNet, who specializes in PvP, skill balance and most other combat-related design to find out what it takes to maintain the balance between PvP and PvE gameplay. Read the interview after the jump.