The Guild Wars Dragon Festival is over and the Dragon Mask is mine.
It took very little effort to earn the 250 Jade Orbs needed for the mask. My Mesmer managed to solo the four quests that award 240 orbs and obtained the rest from random drops. I had some difficulty doing the last (and most difficult) of those four quests with my low-level Assassin but managed to complete it with the help of a PUG.
The main problem I had getting the mask was waiting for the Emperor. The orbs in each player’s inventory were automatically redeemed for the Dragon Mask but players had to sit around and twiddle their thumbs until the Emperor arrived at the Shing Jea Monastery and gave a speech.
(What did he say? “Blah blah blah.” I’m paraphrasing, of course.)
The waiting was tedious primarily because I had to wait in the company of other players. Guild Wars players, like other MMORPG players, can be thoroughly annoying. There were the usual annoyances: loudmouthed jerks, the impatient (“Is the Emperor here?” “Where do I get my mask?” “Where is the Emperor?”, “Is he here yet?”) and the criminally exuberant (“Conga line!”).
I enjoyed the mini-game that followed the awarding of masks but thought the gift-giving that followed could have been done better. The Festival Prizes (which contain Jade Orbs, Rice Wice, Bean Cakes or very rarely, cash) spawned in certain spots in town. Players naturally camped these spots and things got heated at times as players accused each other of stealing their prizes.
The festival’s prizes and gifts weren’t especially useful, however. The Dragon Mask is hardly a functional item; it has zero armour and is thus useless in combat. The Bean Cakes were useful during the mini-game in town but otherwise as frivolous as Rice Wine. Disappointingly, the cash prizes were relatively rare. My characters are almost always broke and the gold would have been welcome.
I’d like to see functional armour or weapons offered for future events. These needn’t be superior to existing items; the event items just need to be functional in some way and different enough in looks to provide incentive for players to acquire them.
All in all, I was a little underwhelmed by the festival but events like these showcase ArenaNet’s strength: its streaming technology. It’s a great way to maintain player interest by making quick changes.
The ability to make changes quickly is not without its shortcomings, however. There were some major bugs during the Dragon Festival with the most notable (1, 2, 3) affecting Rangers for some reason.
