First major content update for free-to-play MMORPG rolling out today; adds four-chapter story detailing the Mad King, Halloween activities, new items.
The first major content update for Guild Wars 2 is rolling out today, publisher NCSoft has announced. The free Shadow of the Mad King adds a new four-act story, Halloween-themed activities, and nearly 80 new pieces of content in total.
The four-chapter story begins today and runs through October 31. It details the legend of the Mad King, with players able to explore the "strange energies rising under the autumn moon." Act 2 begins October 23, Act 3 launches October 28, and the final act takes place on Halloween itself October 31.
The Shadow of the Mad King also brings new Halloween-based activities including trick or treating, and new crafting recipes. Additionally, the game world of Tyria will be decorated in line with Halloween.
Lastly, the Shadow of the Mad King adds new items to the Black Lion Trading Company, including costumes that allow players to perform "spooky spells" and tonics that morph players into ghouls and ghosts. In total, NCSoft said there will be 80 new pieces of content available in the Shadow of the Mad King update.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
2 Like Best MMORPG in gaming at the moment, better then WoW in every way, I'm only level 32 so far but i'm having a ton of fun. It's the first MMO that doesn't feel like a chore to me, i hope the halloween event quests won't require having a high level character would really suck to miss out on the new quests.
2 Like Free to play? That's funny, I don't remember getting this game for free. But thanks Eddie, another Gamespot article with top notch attention to detail (note the sarcasm).
On a positive note, this game is a ton of fun. I'm enjoying every minute of it!
God, even GS screwing up calling this F2P? Idiots! It's subscription-free, not free to play, people! If this were "F2P," then basically every single other game of all time besides WoW would be F2P, from Mario Brothers to Madden. Get your freaking definitions straight. It's $60. That you pay once. To play. Not complicated. My goodness 60 days post-launch and people are still calling it f2p
love the themed update idea.. more games should release themes based on seasons and occasions more often!
2 Like LvL 64 and having a blast. This is the most fun i've had since EQ, and the best part? No monthly fee. Suck it WoW.
I was about to comment on how I've seen that exact same moon in someone else's art before and that they better have permission to use it. Then I remembered it was from Guild Wars 1.... xD
1 Like Yes, the game is very boring. Generic world along with generic MMORPG gameplay defines this overrated game.
@Curzad Me too, I'm low 30's and wish I had more time to play! Every time I log in I have a blast though.
1 Like For years we were fed the BS about subscription being required for a AAA MMO.
They lied, GW2 thrived.
Any idea is majority of this halloween stuff only for 80lvl characters, like the acts, or can everyone do them no matter the lvl?
1 Like I used to think subscription fees were required to keep high quality MMO's online and and updated with new content.
Arenanet keeps proving me wrong.
1 Like @Lattata @AlmaDanny I'm pretty sure a $60 buy in doesn't count as free to play. It just means that the game doesn't require a subscription.
2 Like @carolino @AfrosRockMan @Lattata Oh i don't know about buy to play but Guild Wars Series have never been free to play. Saying guild wars as free to play is just misleading.
@AfrosRockMan @Lattata @AlmaDanny Buy to play is somewhat recent category expression. i wouldn´t trow it back at him
@steter1985 Maybe an hour or two combined trying different classes, hoping something would be interesting.
@pinching_perry @enartloc @jinzo9988 @carolino @steter1985 Likely the smartest post I've seen on here when comparison of WoW and GW2 comes up. Not sure how others can't deduce this themselves, but.... you're absolutely right. The similarities end at the most basic of levels.
Of course there's always the sensitive WoW players that are compelled to spam "this game sucks" or "this game is so boring" in ever article related to GW2. It's rather easy to deflect these days. :)
1 Like @pinching_perry @jinzo9988 @carolino @steter1985 dude,i disagree with the guy that said the games are similar,why are you teaching me a lesson about typology of games?
5 Like @enartloc @jinzo9988 @carolino @steter1985 It's always interesting to see people draw comparisons to WoW and GW2, because ArenaNet made no claims that they were similar, and they aren't, except that they are in the same genre. It is like saying Halo and Call of Duty are similar. Why? Because they both have guns?
They are similar only on the most basic level, such as they both have classes, they both have crafting you kill things. But you do all of these things in Diablo too, so there's really not a direct line of comparison between WoW and GW2 as the gameplay is so much different than that of WoW. You are entitled to your opinion, however :)
@jinzo9988 @carolino @steter1985 while i agree the game is for casuals only,and offers no hardcore gamer appeal(other than the not laddered,not viewable,not balanced sPvP),the game is a total opposite to WoW,i don't know what makes you say that.
@carolino @steter1985 Sorry, but it's massively boring. After playing WoW for seven years, you guys can kid yourselves all you want but to me, GW2 is very much like WoW. I spent at least a month or two on TERA because it at least did something significantly different.
2 Like @jinzo9988 maybe you should do more research before you buy games. its not the games fault that you dont like the game.
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