Anyone who's a vet of GW1 knows thatArenaNetcanthrowabombasticholidayevent, and after that game's release in 2005, Halloween was their first (often considered their best). In hopes of carrying that tradition forward into the sequel, they've just announced the first major content update for Guild Wars 2: Shadow of the Mad King.

Starting October 22nd, the following features will go live:

• Halloween, of course! Themed decorations, mini-games, new events, and "an epic adventure in four acts" that will run from the 22nd to the 31st.
• The BLTP will have new stuff for you to buy with gems, including costumes (town clothing sets, I'm assuming) and transmogrification tonics that you can use to participate in Costume Brawl.
• sPvP paid tournaments (explained here), which can earn you qualifier points for larger tournaments that will arrive later.
• New dynamic events, new jumping puzzles, new mini-dungeons, new achievements, etc.

MOTHERFUCKING MAD KING THORN.

I want my mini Mad King back!

Great! I want to experience an ANet event.

Guild Wars events were always great. Roll on Wintersday!

The big question is: will there be a new hat?

Those things were real badges of honour in the first game, I hope they continue the trend of giving out unique ones each year.

ALL HAIL THE MAD KING, LA is gonna be pimped, love to see this from on that high vista point.

Expecting big things since ANet tends to go all the way with their holiday events.

Sweet. Hopefully Team Fortress 2 will do a Halloween themed map as well, I really enjoyed their previous ones.

Guess there's my ETA for my GW2 revival after playing XCOM obessively.

Dat Lion's Arch!

*dances*

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Mining candy corn ftw!

Well, the "unique, one time only event" was a bit of a let down. It was just a short cut-scene. Pretty cool to see, but they've literally crashed the servers because of everyone not wanting to miss it. Completely unnecessary for what it was.

The new dungeon that's available is very cool though, it's exactly what the final dungeon/last boss encounter should have been.

do we get masks or costumes?

so far been getting nothing but junk for the event...hopefully the finale will give some good stuff

@Bestostero: There are costumes to buy in the gem store and there's a free pair of devil horns, which I assume has replaced the hat you'd get at the finale, but we'll see on the 31st.