Guild Wars 2

Just curious, will there be Thanksgiving in Tyria? It wasn’t big in GW1, but there were treats and small things, which would be nice if it crossed over to GW2.

I love how Halloween has it’s own traditions and lore in Tyria with the Mad King and all, and hopefully every yearly event in GW follows. Perhaps Thanksgiving can revolve around the unification of the races, or even commemorate the incident at Ebonhawke when charr and humans first stood shoulder to shoulder.

I’m curious, does Tyria magically have the same holidays at the same time the country known as the United States does?

CelticWish.2314:

I’m curious, does Tyria magically have the same holidays at the same time the country known as the United States does?

Since the company that developed the game is located in the U.S., very possibly.

Though doubtful it would be called Thanksgiving. Maybe a Sylvari festival of goodwill for all races.

I hope they do some kind of tie in with meatober fest, i know it’s not october but it seems oddly appropriate.

I don’t know why MMOs replicate our holidays. It would perhaps be more interesting if they just created their own and went with it.

I guess people enjoy familiarity above all else. Celebrating a festive time outside the game and then have that same feeling reoccur inside the virtual environment they know and love adapts the same sense of enjoyment from one side to the other. I do think that an MMO should still have its own holidays, like say a large in game event happens and then year after year celebrate that day.

What I do like about GW’s method though is where their own lore is painted over our lore, as with the Mad King, for instance. The names shouldn’t be the same though. As Christmas is called Wintersday in Tyria, perhaps Halloween should be called something else as well.

I doubt they’ll call it Thanksgiving, but nearly every culture/region has a harvest festival, so it seems likely they’d have one in Tyria as well.

next event is called Wintersday in Tyria, and it’s a Christmas Themed holiday

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Wintersday

Lorana.2468:

next event is called Wintersday in Tyria, and it’s a Christmas Themed holiday

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Wintersday

That is the next event for GW1, and it’s possibly the next event in GW2.

However we know we’re getting a mini event in November, and it very possibly could be a harvest festival of some sort. GW1 only had Human-centric holidays, so they might fit in a few other the other race’s holidays here and there.

the November update is a general content update, nothing to do with a holiday.

remember that the teams who create new content and split up from the Holiday team, do people honestly think they are working on a new event only days after the 1 they just created?

Lorana.2468:

next event is called Wintersday in Tyria, and it’s a Christmas Themed holiday

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Wintersday

It’s true, Wintersday, the Grenth vs Dwayna themed holiday, is the next big holiday event. However, like I said, there’s a small Thanksgiving ‘weekend’ in GW1.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Thanksgiving_2007

so is ArenaNet planning a thanksgiving event? are they not US based?

I believe that thanksgiving is a primaryly North American holiday, so we wont be seeing a event

Grazingcattle.1627:

I believe that thanksgiving is a primaryly North American holiday, so we wont be seeing a event

Actually, the coming date of the US thanksgiving differs from the Canadian thanksgiving so rather its a US based holiday :P

From the new November Achievements, I’d say “yes”. For those not in-game, they added two unknown (or “???”) achievements. They did this for October’s Halloween one, so I’d expect the same this time around (and for December too).

Pennry.9215:

From the new November Achievements, I’d say “yes”. For those not in-game, they added two unknown (or “???”) achievements. They did this for October’s Halloween one, so I’d expect the same this time around (and for December too).

awesome thanks

The two unknowns are more likely for the November 15th content patch than they are for thanksgiving.

BUT the original GW did have a treat weekend the coincided with Thanksgiving. Monsters dropped pie and apple cider. There was also a Sweet treat weekend that coincided with Easter that had chocolate bunny and egg drops. Oh, and lucky weekend around St. Patrick’s day.

These weren’t events with giant patches and activities on the scale of say Halloween, Wintersday or the Chinese New Year. No real decorations. Just a few themed consumables that provided temporary buffs and gave a nod to the holidays.

I don’t know… One tier each for a mere four points total? Sure seems like a better “eat X” than the Halloween one, especially on such a smaller scale as described. But they are driving people in to dungeons, so they could be after the “new content”. Either way, I’m sure there will be some nod to the holiday.

one way or another, i’m frigging excited. i love new patches!DD
and excited to see what the new ???’s are gonna be. i have a feelin one might be dungeon related as well, so you can KIND of get two birds with one stone. but who knows. : )))

Yes, the two update will be separate, since there are two different teams creating the each event, so the design teams wont clash. I still hope they have something interesting planned for the end of November, just before they throw the large Winter update on us.

From a dev in the Halloween Event forum:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Yes, Halloween should be over tomorrow in it’s entirely. No Thanksgiving or anything like that. As for what’s next, you’ll have to wait and see.

So, no Thanksgiving event, but it looks like something is planned for November.

Why would EU servers get thanksgiving, makes no sense at all.

I get that the Mad King lore is sort of painted over the idea of Halloween but I really don’t like the idea of real holidays in a fantasy setting.
Tyria is Tyria not the US.
Where I live we are not even celebrating Halloween now but Beltane, which is a fertility festival.
I didn’t realize how much it bothered me until this festival rolled round- I was all excited and it was really well done, but in the end I gave it a skip because I just felt that a mainstream human holiday is forced on my character. So for the duration I avoided LA and just went on with my game. I would be even more upset if they gave us Thanksgiving.- A US holiday that has nothing to do with the rest of the world let alone Tyria.

I would dearly love if we could have holidays/festivals unique to Tyria and the different races that have no relation whatsoever to RL

Zeke Minus.5720:

From a dev in the Halloween Event forum:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Yes, Halloween should be over tomorrow in it’s entirely. No Thanksgiving or anything like that. As for what’s next, you’ll have to wait and see.

So, no Thanksgiving event, but it looks like something is planned for November.

So that clears it up then. The next big event is Wintersday. I do hope they add the November Thanksgiving treat festival in next year, in fact, I wonder if GW2 will eventually have weekend events just like GW1.

To anyone going on that Thanksgiving has no place in Tyria.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Special_Treats_Weekend
Well, an event around the same time is already in Tyria.

@ Azjenco- Thanks for the link
That makes it a bit more sense.
I would still love unique holidays though. Halloween is Halloween

Morrigan.2809:

@ Azjenco- Thanks for the link
That makes it a bit more sense.
I would still love unique holidays though. Halloween is Halloween

Yes, I know what you mean. I do appreciate it that they try to “Tyria-ify” the holidays, but Tyria driven holidays would have been something great though. Like say, during the span of GW1 festivals were created and that would then have passed over to GW2.

For example:
Festival of Night – A week long festival (coinciding with Nightfall’s release date) to celebrate the day the heroes of Tyria battled and stopped Abaddon.
The festivities could be monster/corruption inspired, where the theme of conquering the ‘night’ would be celebrated.

Day(s) of the Dragon – A five day event that recounts when the Great Destroyer first caused trouble in Tyria. The five days could each be themed after one of the Dragons.

Some could even be culture related:
The Unification – A weekend event commemorating the events at Ebonhawke where charr and humans stood together, and would eventually lead to an alliance.

Spring of Life – A celebration for when the firstborn sylvari first set foot on Tyria.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Azjenco.9425:

Morrigan.2809:

@ Azjenco- Thanks for the link
That makes it a bit more sense.
I would still love unique holidays though. Halloween is Halloween

Yes, I know what you mean. I do appreciate it that they try to “Tyria-ify” the holidays, but Tyria driven holidays would have been something great though. Like say, during the span of GW1 festivals were created and that would then have passed over to GW2.

For example:
Festival of Night – A week long festival (coinciding with Nightfall’s release date) to celebrate the day the heroes of Tyria battled and stopped Abaddon.
The festivities could be monster/corruption inspired, where the theme of conquering the ‘night’ would be celebrated.

Day(s) of the Dragon – A five day event that recounts when the Great Destroyer first caused trouble in Tyria. The five days could each be themed after one of the Dragons.

Some could even be culture related:
The Unification – A weekend event commemorating the events at Ebonhawke where charr and humans stood together, and would eventually lead to an alliance.

Spring of Life – A celebration for when the firstborn sylvari first set foot on Tyria.

I really like all your suggestions
It would be fun and meaningful in a way that is unique to Tyria.
Here is hoping that they bring us some of these in the future.

No it won’t be thanksgiving. Coming up to Halloween they stated they were going to make a new zone that would stay around after halloween. My thoughts are that they couldn’t get it done in time so it got pushed to this November publish time.

This is just additional content (which is good) but does not mean it’s a holiday event. It is simply an event.

The fact that I have two sections in my monthly that are just labeled “???” makes me think there may be some merit to your claim.

So is it a no to a Voting Day event?

CelticWish.2314:

So is it a no to a Voting Day event?

Really? Voting Day? I guess you’re trying to be funny here, don’t get why.

At the end of November GW1 had a Special Treats Weekend, so I don’t get the point of your snide comments.

In hindsight, I should not have used Thanksgiving in the title, rather Special Treats Weekend, because for some reason it’s causing a lot of lame comments…

What is thanksgiving about?

The mysterious ?? achievements do make it seem like there will be some kind of event. It could easily be a harvest-day celebration, many cultures have that kind of thing in autumn.

Stratzvyda.3921:

I hope they do some kind of tie in with meatober fest, i know it’s not october but it seems oddly appropriate.

Meatober sounds like it would be a cool holiday to celebrate!

BBQ eating contests. Cow catapulting for distance. There are possibilities there

why can’t they expand on in game holidays or create ones that actually make sense with the situation instead of shoehorning in holidays that make no sense. there’s so many things they could do. have a festival for each race, remember a big battle with things you can pin to your character etc…

would it be so hard to create a holiday around the six gods instead of forcing in a christian holiday that makes no sense like they did with halloween?

Cancer.9065:

What is thanksgiving about?

Eating stuffed turkey, I think.

GW1 had a thanksgiving event. It was usually just thanksgiving weekend. But things like pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies dropped as loot. Nothing big and special. But I’d be upset if they didn’t do this.

I can’t find the post but a red already stated there wouldn’t be anything for thanksgiving, Christmas is the next holiday event.

What is thanksgiving about?

It’s about covering up the truth that Christopher Columbus was a murderous maniac.

I’d rather our holiday be devoted to the Aki sisters. The worst they’d do is step on your potato field.

vespers.1759:

why can’t they expand on in game holidays or create ones that actually make sense with the situation instead of shoehorning in holidays that make no sense. there’s so many things they could do. have a festival for each race, remember a big battle with things you can pin to your character etc…

would it be so hard to create a holiday around the six gods instead of forcing in a christian holiday that makes no sense like they did with halloween?

Both Halloween and Christmas are pagan holidays. Celebrated by various cultures. If anything the Halloween we all know is an American holiday. And Christmas is just a borrowed pagan holiday. In any case, stop whining about the holidays. There is plenty of lore in game to accommodate them.

Rei.2610:

What is thanksgiving about?

It’s about covering up the truth that Christopher Columbus was a murderous maniac.

I’d rather our holiday be devoted to the Aki sisters. The worst they’d do is step on your potato field.

So, by your logic, Rudolf Hurtz should be blamed for Nuclear Warfare because he discovered radiation?

To be frank, I’ve never been too keen on real world Holiday events in MMOs at all. Regardless how they do it, it still feels like the real world holiday, which is really immersion-breaking. Plus, they are mostly just really cheesy and boring.

I know I’m in the minority, and there’s no way these things are going anywhere, but I just felt like venting a little. Carry on.

Tallenn.9218:

To be frank, I’ve never been too keen on real world Holiday events in MMOs at all. Regardless how they do it, it still feels like the real world holiday, which is really immersion-breaking. Plus, they are mostly just really cheesy and boring.

I know I’m in the minority, and there’s no way these things are going anywhere, but I just felt like venting a little. Carry on.

Immersion-breaking? Like a UI on your screen? Or magical banks that hold the exact items the bank in the other town holds? Or delivery pigeons that can track you down instantly and get to you in under a second to drop off mail(while potentially carrying heavy pieces of armor)? Or carrying bags with “slots”? Or any of another thousand potential immersion breaking things that make no sense to worry about?

I hope not because these types of events go on for too long and are generally annoying. Says someone who usually doesn’t care but got every holiday achiement for the current event. I still find it mostly annoying, it was just something to do.

The costume brawling was the most annoying of it but I guess it kind of fits since most players seem to have a preschooler mentality and that activity was perfect for them.

It’ll be extra annoying if it’s the exact same thing every year, like it always is in the game which shall not be named.

I’m curious, does Tyria magically have the same holidays at the same time the country known as the United States does

Dunno why people freak out over what AMERICAN developers do with their games, like events, release dates, etc. If it bothers you so much, stick to playing games made in your own country.

That said, it is kind of goofy to think that in-game holidays coincide with RL holidays, even if that’s probably the best way to do it so that the feeble minded average player doesn’t burst a synapse.

@Azjenco Most holidays are reduplication of older holidays most that are off of the changing of the weather. Now that for most of history these changes are at a set time (mind you things are changing sadly) so its not odd for MMORPGs to do something during these same times. Thanksgiving is a fall fest one last event before winter.

Voqar.2349:

I hope not because these types of events go on for too long and are generally annoying. Says someone who usually doesn’t care but got every holiday achiement for the current event. I still find it mostly annoying, it was just something to do.

The costume brawling was the most annoying of it but I guess it kind of fits since most players seem to have a preschooler mentality and that activity was perfect for them.

It’ll be extra annoying if it’s the exact same thing every year, like it always is in the game which shall not be named.

I’m curious, does Tyria magically have the same holidays at the same time the country known as the United States does

Dunno why people freak out over what AMERICAN developers do with their games, like events, release dates, etc. If it bothers you so much, stick to playing games made in your own country.

That said, it is kind of goofy to think that in-game holidays coincide with RL holidays, even if that’s probably the best way to do it so that the feeble minded average player doesn’t burst a synapse.

Costume brawl was just as optional as the rest of the event. Just because you don’t enjoy them doesn’t mean others don’t.

“Both Halloween and Christmas are pagan holidays. Celebrated by various cultures. If anything the Halloween we all know is an American holiday. And Christmas is just a borrowed pagan holiday. In any case, stop whining about the holidays. There is plenty of lore in game to accommodate them.”

used to be pagan but were adopted and changed by christians to facilitate the assimilation of conquered peoples. just like christmas and nearly every other christian holiday. point is, they are christian now.

then of course there’s the whole thing about thanksgiving being to celebrate the return of soldiers after they went and slaughtered a bunch of native americans but i won’t get into that.

regardless of what the religions are, i don’t see why they should be in this game when there’s perfectly good backstories that could be used to create holidays that are actually relevant to the game.

vespers.1759:

“Both Halloween and Christmas are pagan holidays. Celebrated by various cultures. If anything the Halloween we all know is an American holiday. And Christmas is just a borrowed pagan holiday. In any case, stop whining about the holidays. There is plenty of lore in game to accommodate them.”

used to be pagan but were adopted and changed by christians to facilitate the assimilation of conquered peoples. just like christmas and nearly every other christian holiday. point is, they are christian now.

then of course there’s the whole thing about thanksgiving being to celebrate the return of soldiers after they went and slaughtered a bunch of native americans but i won’t get into that.

regardless of what the religions are, i don’t see why they should be in this game when there’s perfectly good backstories that could be used to create holidays that are actually relevant to the game.

It is easier to get people to celebrate holidays they’re already familiar with. Also, Wintersday is actually the celebration of the New Year.