Guild Wars 2

excerpt from the Massively article on the Lost Shores event:

“Low-level characters and friends recruited for the free trial weekend will be able to take advantage of side-kicking to play level 80 content for the course of the weekend, since the whole goal is to allow them to see all the cool stuff. Side-kicking is not one of the things that will be lingering on after the weekend is over, so be sure to take advantage of it while you can.”

excerpt from the MMORPG.com’s article on the Lost Shores event:

“The island itself will be a level 80 zone, but ArenaNet will have a system in place to sidekick lower leveled players up so they can take part in the event. However, it’s important to note that the Lost Shores island will remain as a level 80 zone once the weekend event is completed but players will no longer be sidekicked up after this point.”

the Massively article suggests that the side-kicking system will persist in the open world, outside the event. which for a weekend event involving a friends free trial sounds like a great thing. But I’m not sure if thats really the plan, the MMORPG.com article labels it only to the Lost Shore event, so which is it? anyone know?

they’re original plan for side kicking was to allow a lower level to be leveled to the level of their group mate, this would be great for a preview, you get to show off the real good stuff to your friends your trying to get into the game, like the dragon events!!

A related question about terminology. Is Massively and MMORPG.com using “side-kicking” as a synonym for “up-leveling”? As with the Halloween content, I could take my level 60-ish character in and she would be up-leveled to 80. Is this going to be the case for The Lost Shores? Using the term “side-kicking”, to me, implies having to team up with someone that is level 80 in order to participate. I could understand this, perhaps, for your free-invite friend, but for full-blown players, having to find someone to hold their hands seems a bit… off.

“side-kicking” was the original term for “up-leveling” before it was removed from the game, excluding the special events, then it was required to have a higher level groupmate to use.