ANet Announces Their First Guild Wars 2 Holiday Event: SHADOW OF THE MAD KING

It is indeed the month to celebrate all things ghoulish and ghastly , as we enter into the midst of Autumn, and with it brings a lot of Holiday madness. I was just inside of a drugstore not too long ago and saw that they had already begun shilling their X-Mas garbage. We aren’t EVEN INTO NOVEMBER YET!!!

But I’m not here to rant about that. Nope. Instead I’m focusing on October, the one month out of the year where scaring small children is an acceptable practice, and of course, ‘tis the season to celebrate the strange and wonderful time that is Halloween. ArenaNet knows this all too well, and so, they’ve decided to announce that they’ll be sprucing up the place with festive décor, as well as fun little additions to the game proper, as a part of an event called Shadow of the Mad King.

Now I wasn’t really a part of any of the original Guild Wars events, so forgive me if I miss some very important points. The story revolving around this event centers around King Thorn, a tyrannical leader of the country of Kryta who was slain by his own people, chopped up into pieces, and had his soul cast into the Underworld, some 500 years ago. It is said that he may rise only once a year, during one particular day: Halloween. It has been 250 years since the Mad King’s spirit was seen, and so the legend has remained so… that is, until recently, when strange energies began to permeate the air and lead to strange events that might prove the legend to be more than that.

While this event will unfold as usual within the original game, Guild Wars 2 will have added bonuses which include costumes with their own special themed skill sets, transformation tonics to turn you into the appropriate Halloween-type creatures, holiday minis that follow you around, and a pair of complimentary devil horns (for a limited time, only, of course), all available through the Gem Store. Also, as a part of the holiday, you will be able to unlock one of 5 weapon skins within each Black Lion Chest you open, of which will be made available from October 23^rd to November 5^th. It is also said to have new minigames, dungeons, and even a Costume Brawl arena where people dress up in Halloween outfits and duke it out in an arena.

There will be a 4-stage story event, separated into acts, and ran from the 22^nd of October, all the way to 31^st.

No details of what each event will be like, or what they will entail, has yet risen, but I’m sure those of us who play Guild Wars 2 will be ready to find out once things get underway.

In short, hope to see you all inside…

.. and, of course, I wish you a Happy Halloween!