The Fear Balloon Cometh: GW2's Winter Event Detailed
A couple weeks ago, Jim brought attention to the fact that holiday cheer in Tyria is often eclipsed by the scariest parade float balloon any world has ever known. And when I say "eclipsed," I mean it. Guild Wars 2's toymaker workshop is quite capable of blotting out the sun. But what purpose does such a titanic sky nightmare actually serve? Well, it belches out toys for children, naturally. And occasionally, those toys come to life in a frenzied bid to commandeer the massive humanoid airship and take over the world. But it sounds like things will be quite pleasant otherwise. Discover what exactly an "arsenal of gaiety" entails after the break.
See? Never before has something ominously loomed with such joyously festive fervor.
As has become tradition, ArenaNet's also released an elaborate schedule of events for Wintersday's week-long run. Among other things, it'll kick off with a new jumping puzzle and a snowball fight. The main event, however, is the toy colossus slowly casting its shadow across all of Tyria, moving to a new location each day and producing new, area-specific events.
December 20th, then, will see it heave its tremendous bulk over Lion's Arch, at which point the not-exactly-intimidatingly named Toypocalypse will kick off. Here's the gist of it:
"The toys in Tixx’s workshop have gone haywire! They’re trying to take over the gigantic toymaking machine in the center of the workshop, and if they succeed, Wintersday will be ruined! Defend Tixx’s present-delivering dolyaks and the gigantic toy-making machine from waves of maniacal toys in these challenging and fun events."
So yeah, on the whole, Wintersday sounds a bit more lightweight than previous Guild Wars 2 events, but I don't think it's intended to be quite on that level anyway. Plus, there's cheer and merriment and the looming threat of the end of the entire world as we know it. And in the game.