The Dragon Festival is in full-swing in Guild Wars 2, and so far, it has been a lot of fun to take part in. The festival itself seems to be in celebration of the death of Zhaitan, which in its own ways shows that the official story in the game is moving forward past the “end” of the personal storyline. There is a lot of speculation, in fact, as to what may be coming next, and it would make sense if the festival and the story events that immediately follow it are some sort of “lead in” to future content expansion from the game (be it free or in some future paid expansion).

In the meantime, the festival itself is here to enjoy, and there are plenty of achievements that you can earn while having fun. If you hang around in Lion’s Arch, you’ll see plenty of piñatas to smash, fireworks that you can launch, a moa race that you can bet on and win a fair bit of money, holographic projections of monsters in various zones that you can kill for special loot, and, as of June 18, they have begun indroducing special instanced content (the 18th’s being the lighting of the pyre in the city and some chaos that ensues). There are a bunch of neat items that you can earn, and overall, I’ve really been having fun with it.

The other day, though, I read a comment online where the poster said that he wasn’t a big fan of what he called the “achievement grind.” I admit, he did have a valid point. In GW2, there are plenty of things to work on once you reach level 80, including WvW and PvP achievements and titles, getting into the very high-level fractals for extremely rare drops, and, of course, working on your achievements. Oh, and naturally, there is gear that you can work on getting, especially now that there are multiple ways to get Ascended tier accessory pieces. But, one thing that comes to mind is that you don’t have to get any of these achievements. It is up to you whether you want to get the costume pieces or any titles associated with these special in-game events, so personally, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.

The fuss over Ascended gear, though, is another matter, although personally I’ve accepted it as something to work towards getting on various characters and haven’t let it bother me that much.

So, what about you guys?  Are any of you playing GW2 and enjoying the current in-game festivities?