More and more people are flocking to the latest gaming phenonemon - massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). Titles such as World of Warcraft have captured the imaginations of players and the headlines around the world. Blizzard's all conquering title is facing new challenges from ArenaNet's Guild Wars series.

With no monthly fees, and requiring only an initial purchase of an access key, Guild Wars has a much lower entry requirement than World of Warcraft. This is good news for those hoping to get a quick start in the lands of Tyria. A thriving market for in-game gold and items has grown up, allowing seasoned players to trade their spare items and gold for real world currency.

Specialist gold and item sellers have appeared, with dedicated markets for gold and item trading. This takes away some of the risk of being scammed when dealing with other players in-game.

When buying Guild Wars gold, you will place an initial order on a seller's website. You will then recieve a message in-game, asking you to meet up with the courier. This meeting usually takes place near the Xunlai storage chests in Ascalon, in one of the Internationl Districts.

Each character can only carry 100 platinum (100,000 gold) at any one time, so these transactions need to be completed in units of 100 platinum at a time. Taking place close to the storage chests allows you to quickly place 100 platinum in storage, then recieve the next batch of Guild Wars gold.

Power levelling is where you hand over you account login and password to a third party, and they will then play as your character, using their knowledge of the game to boost you to a certain agreed level. They will then hand the character back to you, so you can continue playing.

As you have to give your login and password to a third party, they will then have acces to all your account details - not just the character you want levelled up. This makes power levelling a particularly risky activity. However, many players want to get to the harder (and therefore more enjoyable) parts of the game quickly, skipping the repetitive and easy first stages.

Unlike other games, Guild Wars allows you to enter the player versus player (PvP) arenas immediately with a maximum level character. When you first create a character, you can choose PvP or PvE (to play through the storyline). However, many in-game skills and items are denied to PvP characters until they have been 'unlocked' by playing through the story.

Despite the existence of special PvP version of Guild Wars, with all the skills and items already unlocked for PvP characters, many players still risk their accounts with power levelling services. With over 4 million copies sold, Guild Wars is steadily increasing in popularity. Whatever the risks, gold and item services, as well as power levelling, will be around for a long time.