Yesterday, ArenaNet released a cool video for Shadow of the Mad King, the Halloween event heading our way on October 22nd. It’s worth watching for the baby costumed quaggans alone.

We also found out a little more about the event. Shadow of the Mad King will be a four-act event, with the first act starting on October 22nd, the second on October 26th, the third on October 28th and the final act on October 31st. We don’t know the details of what will change between each of the acts, but it’s safe to say it’s probably worth checking out each of them.

More information on the new event items being added to the Black Lion Trading Company was also revealed:

All kinds of tricks and treats are coming to the Gem Store this Halloween. Costumes that grant spooky skills, tonics that transform you into ghouls and ghosts, creepy crawly minis to follow you around. And don’t forget to pick up your free devil horns before they disappear!

The Black Lion Chest is getting a spooky upgrade for Halloween. Between October 23 and November 5 each Black Lion Chest you open has a chance to give you one of six exclusive Halloween-themed weapon skins!

Free devil horns? Those will look rather silly on my charr main– in other words, a must have!

ArenaNet also released a wallpaper of one of the awesome artwork designs for Shadow of the Mad King. To check out the wallpaper, video, and all the details, head on over to the event’s official page.

That’s right– Guild Wars 2 players will be getting a Halloween event! Not only that, but our first major content update as well:

Halloween has a long history in Tyria, and in times past was always marked by the spirit of Mad King Thorn cavorting among the people unleashing his own brand of insanity. However, it’s been over 250 years since he was last seen, and for most people he is merely a figure of folklore. Despite this, rumors persist among the populace that something wicked this way comes.

Shadow of the Mad King is the first major game release for Guild Wars 2 and will go live on October 22. This new game update will include a number of new features for all of our players to enjoy, new content to explore and see, and a week-long Halloween event.

The Halloween event will begin October 22nd and end October 31st, bringing with it festive decorations, mini-games, dynamic events, and new goodies available at the Black Lion Trading Company.

The content update will also be bringing paid PvP tournaments to the game, which are a more competitive option for PvP teams. Paid tournaments offer players better prizes and cost a ticket to enter, which are available at the Gem Store and through winning regular tournaments. Tyria will also be seeing a bit of an upgrade, and new jumping puzzles, events, bosses, achievements, and mini-dungeons will spring up on multiple maps.

Check out all the details for Shadow of the Mad King, including some very cool artwork images, on ArenaNet’s official announcement page.

Originally posted by Colin Johanson (Source)

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Just wanted to pop in and clarify a little bit:

There are:

Renown Hearts (by Anthony Ordon on KillTenRats)

http://www.killtenrats.com/2012/01/20/gw2-just-play/

Meta-Events: (See halfway down by Devon Carver)

http://www.arena.net/blog/beta-development-update

Dynamic Events, Personal Story, Dungeons, etc.

You know that stuff!

In the beta weekend, there were generally 2 or more large meta dynamic event chains in each of the maps available. These meta event chains are made up of usually in the ballpark of 5-20+ events chaining and branching in various different directions. They stand out because even if no events are currently running, you’ll see unique UI for them that tells you the state of the world as a result of the events that occurred in the area.

Meta events generally have the largest amount of world impact of any event chains, making large sweeping changes to huge chunks of a map in the world. Dynamic events have varying impact from small (new merchant who sells stuff) to massive (explosions!!) depending on the scope and important of the event.

You’ll find the early part of the game tends to be a bit easier to help guide people into the game and not overwhelm them at first. There are optional much harder areas available in those maps for folks looking for larger challenges, and group events even in the starter maps as well designed to be a larger challenge. As you progress through the game, you’ll encounter more and more meta events, group events, and the difficulty ramps up. Along the way, you’ll encounter more events that have larger branches along their failure chains as well.

Also a bonus tip, after any dynamic event (or event chain) it’s always a good idea to follow the key NPC’s or investigate the area after the event has been completed. If you don’t run off, you’ll often times find they build new buildings, setup stores, build defenses, kick off new events (after some dialogue), repair broken things, build siege weapons, change the weather, have new spawns appear/change, and more as a result of dynamic events concluding.

The range of affect on each events varies on a case by case basis, if you get the rabbits out of the melon field the farmers daughter opens a store and sells watermelon and lucky rabbits feet. If you participate in the meta event chain to drive into centaur lands near Beetletun, you open up merchants who find centaur weapons and sell them, conquer centaur lands causing centaurs to stop spawning in the area, open up safe paths for caravans to travel to Beetletun and more!

It’s always good to look around after an event and see what happened, there is often more than on first glance you’d think.

Hope that helps a bit,

Colin