Once again, it's time to celebrate the season in true Guild Wars fashion! This year's annual Wintersday festival is bigger and better than ever, with new NPCs, quests, rewards, and even holiday-themed PvP tournaments. You'll also get another chance at the best prizes and quests from previous Wintersday festivities, including the traditional snowball fight between the followers of Grenth and those of Dwayna. Plus, for the first time ever, you get to see the Eye of the North all decked out in its best holiday finery!

Clear your schedule from December 19th through January 5th, and make plans to join Lt. Thackeray of the Ebon Vanguard as he oversees and coordinates the most spectacular Wintersday festival ever!

In November tournament news, September's champion, Whats Going On [sup], emerged victorious over Dangerous and Moving [DM]. For Hero Battles, I Smurf I defeated Dual Meld Tanker to claim victory for November. We extend our congratulations to all competitors! You can find this month's skill usage charts, GvG results, and 1v1 results here.

Also, we are adding November prediction points to the Xunlai Agent and updating the tonic in the Zaishen Chest. If you made November predictions in the Xunlai Tournament House, check your neighborhood Xunlai Agent to claim your Tournament Reward Points.

To find out the tonic flavor for December, check the Zaishen Rewards Calendar.

"Play! A Video Game Symphony" is returning to North America. Join special guest and Guild Wars composer Jeremy Soule at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton on January 9, 2009 to hear music from Guild Wars performed live by a full orchestra!

The holidays are upon us and it's time for the official Guild Wars Wintersday Art Contest! We're looking for creative endeavors that evoke the spirit of the season with a Guild Wars theme, and we'll take submissions in any artistic medium: photos, illustrations, costumes, or even ice sculptures. Scan or snap a picture of your holiday masterpiece and email it in…even if you don't win a prize, you'll be contributing to the Wintersday festivities!

Amazon.com is offering gift bundles featuring every Guild Wars release to date, for one low price! Each bundle contains all three Guild Wars campaigns and Guild Wars: Eye of the North, plus a limited edition art print. Choose one of the three gorgeous iconic images, make your purchase, and you're ready to go with all the Guild Wars there is!

Don't miss the Penny Arcade online store's holiday sale on select Guild Wars merchandise! From November 26 through January 5, score any or all of Penny Arcade's Guild Wars t-shirts and art prints for 15% off.

SteelSeries is offering deep discounts on special Guild Wars items! Buy from the SteelSeries online store from November 26, 2008 through January 5, 2009, and you'll get 40% off the Guild Wars Keyset for Zboard, the Guild Wars: Factions Keyset for Zboard, and the Guild Wars: Eye of the North FragMat Mousepad!

Giving the gift of Guild Wars has never been easier! The original Guild Wars is now available at North American 7-Eleven stores as a $20 game card. Slap it in a Holiday greeting card and you're done!

To find a participating 7-Eleven, check out their store locator.

For a limited time, buy any Guild Wars campaign via PlayNC.com or the Guild Wars in-game store, and get a second campaign for half-off! This is your chance to catch up on any Guild Wars campaigns you might have missed, and to access to the golem hero M.O.X. (who is only available to players with all three campaigns active on their accounts). Check out the full details and complete your campaign collection today!

Interested in a behind-the-scenes peek at the creative storytelling process that brought you Guild Wars (and is currently hard at work bringing you Guild Wars 2)? Surf on over to Ten Ton Hammer's exclusive interview with ArenaNet Writing Team Lead Bobby Stein. Bobby has a wealth of experience as a gaming industry writer, and he's up to his elbows in the intimate details of the Guild Wars storyline. He's also got strong opinions about the right way to develop and present a great story, and he's not shy about sharing them. Check it out today!

MMO Portal has put together its 3rd annual one-of-a-kind calendar, featuring autographed artwork from the hottest released and upcoming MMO's—including Guild Wars! As always, 100% of the proceeds go directly to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to help in the fight for children's lives.

Head over to http://www.mmocalendar.com and order yours today!

In October tournament news, We Want Cookies [NOW] defeated The Cape Is A Lie [Trim] to become the new champions. For Hero Battles, May's second place competitor Vi Ru edged out Scoutmaster Sihoe to claim the winner's seat for October. We extend our congratulations to all competitors! You can find this month's skill usage charts, GvG results, and 1v1 results here.

We will be updating the tonic in the Zaishen Chest today. To find out the tonic flavor for November, check the Zaishen Rewards Calendar.

For those who have placed their bets in the Xunlai Tournament House, tournament reward points will NOT be distributed at this time. Instead, points will be available after the November 13th live update.

If you've recently purchased a Guild Wars game card, welcome! If you haven't already, please activate your account at PlayNC.com. To download the Guild Wars client, click here.

We're proud to announce the winners of our annual Guild Wars Halloween Art Contest! It wasn't an easy choice—we received a ton of great submissions in a wide range of creative media, from ink and paint illustrations to photographs of homemade costumes to pumpkin sculptures—but in the end we narrowed the list down to these ten talented individuals. Congratulations to our prize-winning finalists, and on behalf of the Guild Wars Team and Mad King Thorn, thanks to everyone who participated. Happy Halloween!

Halloween is coming, and Mad King Thorn is back to spread his own malevolent brand of lunatic fun with ten days of mayhem. Decorations go up on October 23 and the ghoul-apalooza begins the next day. Find all the gory details on this year's Halloween event page.

See developers share their stories and behind-the-scenes secrets from years of Guild Wars development. The "Three Years of Guild Wars" panel from PAX is now available for download here, or streaming on YouTube .

Continuing the European trend of winners, Whats Going On [sup] placed eighth in the Swiss rounds but placed first in single elimination, defeating The Cape Is A Lie [Trim] in the final round. In Hero Battles, The Lucky Pig skillfully took first place, defeating Squirrel in the final round. Congratulations to all September guilds and players! Skill usage charts, GvG results, and 1v1 results are here.

Also, we are adding September prediction points to the Xunlai Agent and updating the tonic in the Zaishen Chest. If you made September predictions in the Xunlai Tournament House, check your neighborhood Xunlai Agent to claim your Tournament Reward Points.

To find out the tonic flavor for October, check the Zaishen Rewards Calendar.

We could scare you with our ghoulish puns, but we'll let Mad King Thorn take care of that. In the meantime, we're accepting submissions for the 2008 Guild Wars Halloween Art Contest. We've got fantastic prizes for the top winners, and we'll showcase their creations right here on the official website. You have until October 27th to get your entry in to us, so get cracking!

The Last Pride [EvIL] is a fearsome and familiar name in the PvP world. After dominating the GvG scene for an extensive period of time, EvIL retired. But now, EvIL is back with some of its original members in a new guild called The Return. This newly formed guild is just as competitive as the old school EvIL, and has their sights set on GvG domination.

To learn more about the history of the guild and their new face in the world, check out this article.

In this State of the Game article, Billiard writes about his experiences in helping to plan and organize the Guild Wars Guru Challenge, with helpful tips for players who may want to host their own tournaments. You can read it here.