Guild Wars 2

I was thinking the other day back to the days of playing through the first Guild Wars and how I always looked forward to the holiday events like Halloween and Winterday throughout the year to see what cool new holiday hat they would throw at us.

This game however, it seems they don’t do that anymore and I’m curious to know why?

I suppose this year we got the addition of the Nightfury and Winter’s Presence shoulder skins… But it’s just not the same. The main issue is that they’re not readily available for everyone to get without a ridiculous grind or money to blow and I don’t know about you guys, but I personally don’t enjoy grinding.

In the first game it was a simple ‘You participate in the event, you get the new item this year’. The way it is now is set up where some people will have to wait an unknown amount of time to get it or just forget about it. (in the case of the requirement to get the Festive Imbiber achievement and how the market for the drinks may get out of hand after the Wintersday Event ends)

The items that have been seemingly rereleased to celebrate the seasons have been added to the Gem Store for profits such as the Festive Hat (Santa Hat) and the Sinister Dragon Mask.

I know that Arenanet is a company and needs to make money, but this just hits me as greedy. They never put holiday items behind a pay wall in the first game, so why have they chosen to do so with this one?

I know originally, they started releasing holiday hats in the beginning with the Celebration Hat, Witch’s? Hat, Wizards Hat and Mask of the Night… But why did they stop?

How does everyone else who played the first game feel about how the Holiday Events are handled in this game and if they chose to bring back the tradition of giving everyone a different holiday headgear skin for holidays every year like the first game?

TL;DR Holiday Hats like the first game. Where are they? Why did they change the tradition? Do you want them back? Do the ones in the Gem Store strike you as a greedy tactic compared to them being free in the first game?

As the ‘hats’ in the Gem Store are rather on the low-side of Gem-cost, I feel it is reasonable, as we can exchange Gold to Gems and acquire them pretty easily. I.e., the Earmuffs are only 25 Gems (31 cents in cash), the Festive Hat is 150 Gems ($1.88 in cash).

I understand it was easier to acquire the Holiday ‘hats’ in GW, but we get several freebies throughout the year here in GW2, as well.

I actually prefer this system, having to earn the skins makes them more meaningful, not simply something you got for logging in that day. Plus it means they can make the same skins available in multiple years without people raging that their super-special “reward” is ruined by other people having it too.

Also, it means it’s available at any point during Wintersday. I was only able to get the hats once in GW1 because they were only available on New Years Day and I’m always away that day. This way I can work on it before and after I’m away.