MMO Betas are like your way to apply to be in the "cool club."  Today is the day you put on your fancy pants, pop your collar, and attempt to understand what the hell a Ke$ha is.  Guild Wars 2 is having an open call for beta participants, the game is attempting to redefine what it means to be an MMO.  Instead of grinding and meaningless kill 10 rat quests, the game promises a strong focus on story and character development.

We continue our new format of MMO Co-Opportunities (focusing on updates, announcements, and first impressions) for July. This time we have some first impressions for F2P MMOs Forsaken World and Eden Eternal as well as some news about dungeons and underwater combat in upcoming Guild Wars 2.

This edition of MMOCO introduces a new structure for the column. The old structure will still make an appearance from time to time, but we'll mostly be focusing on updates to existing MMOs that improve upon or provide more co-opportunities and news about upcoming MMOs that hint at co-opportunities.

Earlier this week, ArenaNet announced the seventh profession (out of eight total) for Guild Wars 2: the Engineer. The last profession announcement (the Thief) was at PAX East, over two months back, so we're certainly excited to finally get a new reveal. Engineers will use offensive turrets, bombs, mines, flamethrowers (yes, flamethrowers!) and the like to wound their foes, but will also have the ability to drop healing turrets and throw around beneficial elixirs to support their allies. Their unique profession mechanic (besides turrets) will be Kits (in Weapon and Backpack varieites) which allow them to greatly customize their playstyle and can be swapped in and out as the situation warrants.

It's hard to believe that PAX East 2011 is already a week gone. The Co-Opticrew got some great hands on time with a ton of awesome games and are more excited than ever about the upcoming year of co-op titles. Here's the round-up of coverage.

I would be a bloody liar if I said that Guild Wars 2 wasn’t one of my major reasons for going to PAX East. I’ve been playing the original Guild Wars since the launch of GW: Factions back on April, 2006. Guild Wars is the game I always fall back on when I’m in-between games, and as a result, I’ve logged over 2,000 hours in the game. It’s safe to say I’m pretty darn excited about the sequel. That may or may not have come across in the preview I wrote up last fall. Mike and I had the opportunity to have an interview/demonstration with the developers and Mike, Nick, and I all had a chance at other times during the event to try out the game for ourselves.

Since this is the first MMO Co-Opportunities of the new year, we'll be looking at some of the anticipated MMOs of 2011 as well as their potential co-opportunities.

We've rounded up many of the exciting details that have been released regarding Guild Wars 2, the sequel to the popular multiplayer/MMO by ArenaNet. What professions are being offered? What charges are they making to the game? Answers to these questions and more can be found within.