Guild Wars 2

Many people don’t know this, but before launch their were “activities” planned. They’re part of the reason why ArenaNet made their capital cities so incredibly awesome and rich in detail; they wanted players to treat the cities as a social hub to hang out with friends and foster social communities therein. While they appeared to have put those plans on hold, we can see a lot of the activities in game already. They’re just not active.

I encourage anyone who’s interested to do some serious exploration of the cities themselves and speculate what kind of activities might be there and what we can expect.

To elaborate; there are supposed to be 4 or 5 activities in each one of the racial capital cities. I’m pretty sure they’re all supposed to be completely unique unto themselves and are only available inside that capital city. So things like the Lion’s Arch diving board and the Metrica Province golem chess are NOT considered to be activities.

Here is a list of all the activities I could find by myself searching through the capital cities.

DIVINITY’S REACH

UPDATED: Jousting Event: In the northern section of the “Eastern Commons”, east of [Minister’s Waypoint] is a half built structure. Apparently some sort of jousting will take place, as alluded to by a antsy carnival worker.

The Busted Flagon: It’s the point of interest between “Western Commons” and “Plaza of Dwayna” on the map. If this is the bar brawl mentioned in interviews, supposedly this will be a perpetual activity where players can jump in and out as they please to fight in an epic bar brawl. However, when you talk to “Ingolf Roadson”, the norn inside, he mentions “Toss The Axe” which could be the actual activity instead. Description: “Y’know, everyone gets in a circle and tosses an axe to the right. Or is it left? Anyway, you get hit, you take a drink. All I remember from my last game was that the little sylvari who won. She had quite an arm.” He explains only reason they’re not doing it is because his brother “Uwe” isn’t there yet. “He should of been here ages ago.” Note: the Carnival Worker who sends you to this place refers to it as a bar brawl. On the support beam there are 4 signs (which look to be standard bar signs instead of specific to this one building) that read in New Krytan:

IF YOU ARE STILL STANDING YOU NEED MORE DWARVEN ALE

DONT DRINK AND QUEST

PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY

EVERYONE STOP SHOUTING

UPDATE: Bar Brawl achievements have been added to the activity list. Bar Brawl, however, remains inactive.

Haidryn’s Menagerie: It’s the Point of Interest by Plaza of Melandru, by the vista. For now, it’s just a bunch of animals in cages. Like a “Golden Moa” and the “Cavern Scutter”. Description: “Welcome to Haidryn’s Menagerie. Haidryn is out on an expedition right now, but I’d be happy to show you around.” I don’t know what might happen if and when this is active, but there’s a beautiful area right next to it which the Animals might be allowed to roam under supervision and has a beautiful fountain with a statue and an interactable tree that reads: “Two names have been carved into the tree together: Mikal and Evkina.”

Uzolan’s Mechanical Orchestra: I think it’s supposed to work like a jukebox maybe, or some sort of collaborative instrument where you can make songs with other players for the rest of the area to hear. I can’t find any worthy description, just keep getting reminded that this is all paid for and organized by Minister Caudecus.

Carnival “Thump-Em Ups”: <—The title of the game is what is written on the sign in New Krytan. The Carnival Worker standing there only has a little bit to say. “Welcome. I guess you’re wondering what’s going on with the big tent here? Well, when Thump-Em-Ups is ready to open, people will really have something to talk about.” I don’t really know what a thump em up is, but I assume it’s just some sort of brawling arena for people that wanna wrestle and stuffs? lol, idk.

Mina’s Target Shootout: Description: “Three participants enter, each one with one of our custom bows. Hit the moving targets to earn points. Whoever has the most points at the end of each round wins.” To get here, travel down Dwayna’s Road from the main entrance and turn left at the District Promenade. It’s easily reachable by using the “Commons Waypoint”.

BLACK CITADEL

Circus Charricus: Some sort of steam powered car racing described with “Lightning speed, deafening roar, dizzying rush of victory and metallic crush of defeat.” with those giant vehicles built by the Charr. Speak to Harran Ashtar in the War Wagon Prep Deck, by the road. The reason for delay: “Closed Arena… no spectators.” Seriously, Charr car racing arena ftw! Vroom vroom
Since Black Citadel is the second highest detailed racial city, I’ll give it another thorough look through and talk to every NPC I can, but for now that is all I could find.

THE GROVE

I couldn’t find anything. Will update if I do.

RATA SUM

Polymock: Clicky . If you go to Accountancy Waypoint, and then go east into the statics union, there’s a opening to the outside that has an Asura Gate. It has a lone engineer named “Regg” who’s perpetually hammering away at it. When you talk to him, he says “If you’re attempting to get through this gate, it’ll be a short trip to a long fall. It’s not fully functional yet.” So then you ask: When will it be up and running? He says: “Soon as I get the parts I need. Say, you don’t happen to have an extra spacial discombobulator on hand, do you?” No, Regg. No I don’t… ._.

HOELBRAK

Keg Brawl: If you don’t already know about Keg Brawl, shame on you and your whole family. After your shame, you should play it and then when you find out how magically fantastic it is, the only logical conclusion is to join my keg brawl guild .
Other than Keg Brawl, which is already in the game and working (Also got a couple updates too…) I haven’t been able to find anymore activities.

Lion’s Arch

Moa Racing: Repeating for emphasis. Moa racing. You can see the setup in the eastern part of Lion’s Arch with no real descriptions available but again, they’re fasirly obvious. One of the moa’s target descriptions says “Speed: Average. Special Ability: Screech” but the rest of the one’s standing around that aren’t racers just say Daze. There’s a u-turn wooden ramp at the bottom of the track too which is interesting and it looks like there’s still miners working on it or maybe they’re just general LA builders. Idk, but chocobos excite me greatly…

UPDATE: Moa Racing is available during the Dragon Bash festival

Mini Pet Battle Arena: You reach this from Bloodcoast Ward Waypoint, in the south part of Lion’s Arch east of Fort Marriner. It’s at Tenanera’s Point of Interest. No one tells you why it’s there or what’s going on but it’s pretty self explanatory and fairly obvious…

I’ll add more if and when I find them. If you find any that I missed, feel free to post about it and I’ll update the OP. I want more people to know about these things so more people can be excited about these things because these things are awesome!

http://www.arena.net/blog/activities-games-within-the-game

I was actually thinking about these activities and/or minigames on Monday. I’ve been assuming the rest just haven’t been finished yet and will make it in eventually. I’m starting to wonder though if they’ve been scrapped since nothing has been mentioned recently. These things were something I was highly looking forward to because I’ve been disappointed with most games having very little to do other than combat.

not many players want to “keg brawl”.

that kind of stuff is really meant for people who live in gw2.

eventually if anet throw in a monthly or daily shinny for it, then youll see some people.

Avatar.1923:

not many players want to “keg brawl”.

that kind of stuff is really meant for people who live in gw2.

eventually if anet throw in a monthly or daily shinny for it, then youll see some people.

I don’t understand your post. o.o

My post isn’t just to bump Keg Brawl… there were 29 MORE activities planned other than Keg Brawl, ranging from target shootout to Charr Racing Arenas with steam powered cars…

But yeah, I also feel a ton of people don’t know about Keg Brawl either because they don’t know that there are supposed to be things to do inside Capital Cities. :/

Clobimon.9652:

http://www.arena.net/blog/activities-games-within-the-game

I was actually thinking about these activities and/or minigames on Monday. I’ve been assuming the rest just haven’t been finished yet and will make it in eventually. I’m starting to wonder though if they’ve been scrapped since nothing has been mentioned recently. These things were something I was highly looking forward to because I’ve been disappointed with most games having very little to do other than combat.

Yeah, I feel you. I’ve occupied more than 50 hours playing keg brawl and even started a guild to get more people into it with weekly events and such, but I’m one of a small few. I bet there’s a LOT of people who would’ve liked mini pet battles or a Charr racing arena. Or playing for a crowd of players at the mechanical orchestra… :x

dude.
its a game about slashing baddies and getting loot in a beautiful environement.

mini games wont stand a chance unless they give loot or if playing it is required for map completion.

Avatar.1923:

dude.
its a game about slashing baddies and getting loot in a beautiful environement.

mini games wont stand a chance unless they give loot or if playing it is required for map completion.

You’re entitled to your opinion but that’s not the case. Also, loot WAS supposed to be available in the game. Weapon and armor skins EXCLUSIVE to those activities. For example, in the bar brawl, they said that a possible way to get rewards was that maybe there was a local dentist around and if you collected players teeth that you could knock out during the bar brawl, you’d be given exclusive items that were aesthetic only because you were bringing the dentist business the more you brawled.

There is no reason they couldn’t give loot.

Although I’d go for moa racing for no other reason than it’s racing moas. As soon as I saw that track it was obvious what it was for and I’ve been hoping they’d add it properly ever since.

There’s also the giant targets out in the bay in Lions Arch. No idea what they could be for but there’s got to be some reason for them.

Danikat.8537:

There is no reason they couldn’t give loot.

Although I’d go for moa racing for no other reason than it’s racing moas. As soon as I saw that track it was obvious what it was for and I’ve been hoping they’d add it properly ever since.

There’s also the giant targets out in the bay in Lions Arch. No idea what they could be for but there’s got to be some reason for them.

You’re right, it is curious what they could be saving those for.

I hope Toymaker Tixx will bring goodies for me in the form of all these activities. I could probably entertain myself for the rest of forever if they’re half as good as Keg brawl even.

It’s a fairly simple matter to make activities like Keg Brawl popular. ANet just needs to give it Karma and Glory as a reward, making it an alternative for PvP’ers or and PvE’ers alike to gain a currency they want.

I hadn’t noticed a lot of those activities the OP found though, only the major ones like the Busted Flagon bar brawl, the Shooting Range, Polymock and the Moa Races and Pet Arena in LA.

Zaxares.5419:

It’s a fairly simple matter to make activities like Keg Brawl popular. ANet just needs to give it Karma and Glory as a reward, making it an alternative for PvP’ers or and PvE’ers alike to gain a currency they want.

I hadn’t noticed a lot of those activities the OP found though, only the major ones like the Busted Flagon bar brawl, the Shooting Range, Polymock and the Moa Races and Pet Arena in LA.

Idk, I disagree. Mainly on the glory part because that allows them access to PvP armor without actually PvP’ing.

They should be able to get exclusive aesthetic skins and items for playing and excelling at these games as well as host leaderboards for these things liek bonus missions in GW1.

See, now if there’s a reason to be mad about ascended gear – it’s because it takes time away from that shooting gallery and the orchestra!

Serelisk.6573:

Zaxares.5419:

It’s a fairly simple matter to make activities like Keg Brawl popular. ANet just needs to give it Karma and Glory as a reward, making it an alternative for PvP’ers or and PvE’ers alike to gain a currency they want.

I hadn’t noticed a lot of those activities the OP found though, only the major ones like the Busted Flagon bar brawl, the Shooting Range, Polymock and the Moa Races and Pet Arena in LA.

Idk, I disagree. Mainly on the glory part because that allows them access to PvP armor without actually PvP’ing.

They should be able to get exclusive aesthetic skins and items for playing and excelling at these games as well as host leaderboards for these things liek bonus missions in GW1.

Keg Brawl is PvP – you fight other players for the kegs. Keg Brawl specific skins would be cool too though.

The thing is, I think ANet took all the gather/craft/explore people at their word, and made a world where gathering, crafting and exploring are half of the game. Then people got irritated, so ANet added in a dungeon and more gear ASAP. Now people are irritated because of that. With the Toymaker, hopefully we get more mini-games. Or more ways to use crafting.

The more mini games Areananet adds, the better. Players need fun activities other then farming events.

Not all players sit in one area and farm… some of us enjoy the game
I would love to see mini games added, with rewards or not.

Cosmetic rewards could be easilly added, Target Shootout for example earn tokens, buy town clothes only available from there.

I have found some if not all of these events, and although they all sound good all we have currently is the keg brawl. I would like to see more social interaction of this sort, but with them being on the back burner I can only hope we get to see them before we lose all the social aspects of this game to the ascended grind in the FotM or elsewhere.

They need to let you join keg brawl as groups. That said, they could have town clothes or mini pets or silly titles as rewards for mini games. I like the mini games and would play them without rewards (I play keg brawl). I do wish they would hurry up with more!

They do need to add more Mini games. One of the main things I did in FF11 was Pankration (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Pankration). Had you running all over the world taking pictures of interesting and rare monsters to upgrade your dude for Pit Fights. A bunch of fun and gave you a good reason to explore.
AN really needs to add less classic content like zones and more interesting random things like Pankration and such that give you extra things to do and reasons to wonder around.
FF11 is a good example of a GW2 style game, you mostly just do whatever you want and set your own goals. I know a huge chunk of the FF11 population came over to this game (as FF11 is kind of a dying game now) and we all mostly agree we want to see more of this kind of content.

HAHA! You should get a jewel studded golden tooth for the event where you turn in teeth with maybe some very slight stat boosts and some kind of off the wall proc like 3% chance “you deliver a back hand with your ring hand for XX amount of damage” LOL!

Well, if this is to be the game that still intends on building primarily horizontal progression in content then this is definitely a way to do so. I thought the part of the community that was chewing through content as fast as humanly possible like it was their job only so they could come to post “So Where is the End Game?!?!” threads and demand more and better “shinies” was counter to the majority’s hopes of a horizontal progression that just keeps feeding us more to do rather than new content that’s gated by “teh phat lewtz lulz”.

I like it, hope they do something cool with it too. Definitely lends it’s self to greater “immersion” without having to “live in” Tyria (so to speak).

Kitten, sorry if this doesn’t make much sense. I’m a tad jet lagged (well car-lagged? in the sense that I drove forever with like no sleep) and trying to push through so I’ll be on a normal sleep schedule again tomorrow…

Meh, still sounds like tons of potential for fun though.

Avatar.1923:

dude.
its a game about slashing baddies and getting loot in a beautiful environement.

mini games wont stand a chance unless they give loot or if playing it is required for map completion.

I don’t think this is true in the slightest. It would be fantastic if GW2 had some additional things to do that are just for fun. Besides, I’m sure there are achievement points to be gained in these activities.

there is also a dredge mine in the charr lands, where you can play wack-a-mole with spawning dredge at the entrance, complete with shovels for “hammers”.

I would absolutely love to have more minigames.

Social events in cities. Auto townclothes that grant special social city skills. Social city hearts. Instanced city dungeons.

Would love mini pet battles!
Yes!, please more mini games for social interaction + Cosmetic rewards . Also do not make them instanced.. way better to have an audience/crowd watching for these!!

Am certain this aspects will be implemented to the game soon, am also sure they weren’t scrapped, the infrastructure for them already exists, its just a matter of time before they become reality via some massive patch, Anet keeps saying they got great things planned and I for one believe them. Just be patient you’ll see:)

Would be awesome to have more to do in the racial cities period, town quests/hearts/minigames/dungeons etc. (overall it could be something very casual) they could expand on the entire town clothes idea at the same time, making them a big part of it all, and town clothes could also be what you’re rewarded with (along with other things).

but really tho, the rewards for things like that are the biggest thing, it doesnt matter how awesome the minigames are, no worthwhile rewards = they wont catch on

also, i noticed one thing in divinity’s reach, in one of the districts, a woman comes running out of her house yelling for a guard to help her because her son is missing etc, then they both walk into the house and its over lol, so maybe thats another type of city thing that’ll be expanded on later, small quests like that

all i want is shiny, some people says
we don’t want power creeps, same people says

awesome post OP i only knew about the keg brawler since i have 2 Norn and still on 33% map completion.

Yeah, I remember being pretty bummed out that the shooting gallery and bar brawl weren’t ready to go on release. After hearing all the NPCs talk up these two activities all over Divinity’s reach I was really excited to try them.

Ska.7943:

See, now if there’s a reason to be mad about ascended gear – it’s because it takes time away from that shooting gallery and the orchestra!

Esp. with the RNG we have atm! You could probably win a precursor in the shooting gallery!

This is what the MMORPGa genre needs…while its not an entirely new concept (FF races). They could take this to a whole new level even set new precedents for the genre. Can’t wait to participate!

I have to say that if they’re just going to be PvP-esque stuff similar to Keg Brawl I’d prefer them not to bother. I already barely touch the main PvP content, and that’s all way better implemented than Keg Brawl.

But they could certainly explore some other types of gameplay. Collaborative music making sounds awesome, Polymock could be kinda fun if it works off our existing mini collections rather than requiring us to collect something new. Other types of non PvP group play could really be exciting.

I doubt Bar Brawl’s still in the works, though. It sounds like they took the basic mechanics of the concept and turned it into Costume Brawl, which was a better idea anyway as it adds functionality to existing content, and you can play it anywhere.

GregT.4702:

I have to say that if they’re just going to be PvP-esque stuff similar to Keg Brawl I’d prefer them not to bother. I already barely touch the main PvP content, and that’s all way better implemented than Keg Brawl.

But they could certainly explore some other types of gameplay. Collaborative music making sounds awesome, Polymock could be kinda fun if it works off our existing mini collections rather than requiring us to collect something new. Other types of non PvP group play could really be exciting.

I doubt Bar Brawl’s still in the works, though. It sounds like they took the basic mechanics of the concept and turned it into Costume Brawl, which was a better idea anyway as it adds functionality to existing content, and you can play it anywhere.

Idk, Bar Brawl would add a lot of personal flavor to Divinity’s Reach. It’s less about brawling and more about being a bar brawl where you’re using tables, chairs and ale mugs to bash over people’s heads and drinking different beverages for buffs, etc. It’s supposed to help foster social communities in the game.

Imagine groups of players hanging out daily outside the flagon actually treating it like a rambunctious pub just talking and making new friends. I think that’s the kind of stuff ArenaNet intended for their cities. There’s nothing wrong with occasionally using MMO’s for a tricked out chat room. :-)

Yes, they need more of this kind of stuff in game. Games like TERA lack this kind of stuff and I think it’s what hurts MMO’s more than anything (Gw2 at least has some additional stuff to do so far, and the seasonal events have always been entertaining).

This kind of stuff allows your character to really become part of the world, part of the events, part of the community.

Another element in game that seems to have been lost in the rising dust of combat are the Charm, Dignity, and Ferocity stats. I think they could do a lot with these in game to keep players entertained too.

MMORPGs are supposed to be online worlds, where there is a plethora of things to do and act on; combat is just one element of them. I think that this idea gets lost in the development process all too often.

This is probably the most ingenious and awesome guild recruitment post ever!

But seriously, I’ve always enjoyed those small little details that the devs of different games put there for our enjoyment. Can’t wait to duke it our with my minis. :P

I’d love to here when these games might be added.

Minigames got tons of action in GW1 holidays. Throw a title up there for them and watch people flock to them.

Of course they’d have to be more than ideas yet to be implemented.

Clobimon.9652:

http://www.arena.net/blog/activities-games-within-the-game

That reads as if they had these things ready to go, but clearly that must not be the case.

It’s good this game is very fun to play, what with all the bugs and missing stuff still hanging out.

There’s an RC Golem Chess activity in Metrica Province. It’s pretty lame though – I was expecting a GW2 variation on Chess

Snowball mini-game going in at Wintersday. I really hope they keep it afterwards but they probably won’t v.v

Maybe some of the toys Tixx drops off will be the activities though

As an update to the thread: Bar Brawl achievements have been added to the activity list. bar Brawl, however, remains inactive.

I think polymock may actually be the minipet battle arena.

From Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/17co08/sneak_peak_at_the_new_daily_achievements/

The game came out with some major things to DEVs look into first, that’s why activities soo much delayed….

Also, as Keg Brawl it would be much more fun, with Leaderboards, rankings, an way to Invite friends to join your team, etc… It’s too basic and random at this momment, it could be expanded.

Avatar.1923:

dude.
its a game about slashing baddies and getting loot in a beautiful environement.

mini games wont stand a chance unless they give loot or if playing it is required for map completion.

You are the Epitome of what’s wrong with the current MMO genre. You’re the reason they have taken the RP out of MMORPG.

I hope some day I wake up and you and your kind are all back to playing CoD and MOBAs for the rest of your days and leave our games alone.

where is poker? all i want is play poker and not a sloppy one but something like in RDR.

Mini games will Have Some sort of reward system for participating.
Also there most likely be a wearable title/s attached to them.
Token Rewards for these type of event are the norm witch will allow you to trade in for Items of worth to the player.

Tho in GW1 is was all about raising tiers on wearable titles such a Lucky/Unlucky in witch you would buy stacks of tokens to be able to participate in mini games such as (9 Rings) http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Nine_Rings

Edit:
Thinking about it some mini games could even plot Worlds/Servers against each other earning Points for WvW titles your all complaining about being impossible to acquire, No seriously look at Lucky & Unlucky titles in GW1 and how time consuming tho’s were to max.

I wonder if we see a lot people in the world once we have more minigames (they talked about 30, currently we have 1 (?))

I really love Kegbrawl, I’m curious what will happen.

I wonder if we will get all the stuff they talked about in the years before release, like minigames and npc acting different depending on your charakters charme, dignity, feriocity.
I realy do hope so, because the minigames were quite fun in GW 1 and there always were a lot of people participating in it. Would love to get that feeling again and see the mayor cities populated again. It’s just so lonely in there…
Just a small idea: One thing you could do to let people at least know that there is a minigame in a town is to add one of the orange circles to it like with events.
So people would at least take a look at what this could be.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

I wonder if we see a lot people in the world once we have more minigames (they talked about 30, currently we have 1 (?))

I really love Kegbrawl, I’m curious what will happen.

People love mini games, it is a nice way to get together and just chill and take a break from killing.
I see so many spontaneous costume brawls, dance parties breaking out that I have no doubt they will be wildly popular when they do get added.

Just look at wintersday and the magic snow patches- I don’t think I saw one person walking past with out tossing at least one snow ball. I know I stayed and played with snowballs for 30 min once just because it was hilarious

^with world I meant in PvE, Minigames are instanced (just like the fractals) and this would mean tons of people in cities playing those games and much less people doing events. I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do, still I love Minigames and want more of them.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

^with world I meant in PvE, Minigames are instanced (just like the fractals) and this would mean tons of people in cities playing those games and much less people doing events. I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do, still I love Minigames and want more of them.

Ahh I see.
Do they have to be instanced though?
I don’t remember Kegbrawl being instanced but it has been awhile.

It would be much more fun if you could just randomly stroll into a pub and join a bar fight.
If it was not instanced I do think it will make the cities at least much more fun and alive.
That we watch even if we do not play

yeah, those are instanced. It wouldn’t work otherwise since tons of people play matches at the same time.

I agree, cities will get even more crowded, as each city has it’s distinct activities it isn’t only Lions Arch where people are… but this also means that less people do events, dungeons, WvW – the big things where a lot of people are required.

The only solution I can think of at the moment would be bigger servers, which won’t work since much more people who want to join WvW would spend in queues :-/

edit: well there could be a solution to that: a fifth WvW-map. So servers could have much more people (which would mean they’d have to merge some servers)