Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire™ is the upcoming second expansion for Guild Wars 2, set for release September 22, 2017, five years after the vanilla game launch in 2012. It aims to be the single largest bulk addition of content that Guild Wars 2 has yet seen, including the newly explorable and enormous Crystal Desert, Mounts, a compliment of nine new Elite Specialisations and more.
To pick up a copy for yourself or anyone else, click here:
Or, to learn more, check out some videos about the game of today that were made in association with the competition: Entries
The Prizes
Looking to win? Wondering what's up for grabs?
I've made every effort possible to make this the absolute largest Guild Wars 2 giveaway that I can. With a total prizepool value of nearly 90,000 gold, 32,000 gems on top, and guaranteed prizes for the top 25 entries, I think I can safely say we have some extremely cool stuff to win! Your chances may be higher than you think.
1ST place:
All core Legendary weapons!
At the very top is the ultimate prize: Every single core legendary in the game sent directly to your account. This alone is a truly ludicrous prize unmatched by - as far as I know - any other Guild Wars 2 competition before. Yet it doesn't stop there as there is much more in store...
Total Prize Value (Buy-Orders):
Total Prize Value (Sell-Orders):
2ND place:
All Permanent Contracts!
If you've never heard of these ultra rare items, these Black Lion Contract items offer the ability for a player to complete a variety of utility tasks at any time. Access to merchants, the trading post, repairing armour or even going back to character customisation to change your hair-style. All of these become free to do wherever you are in the world, forever! These lucrative items are particularly awesome to use in Account-bound inventory slots. Also bundled as a prize is the "Mystic Forge Conduit," granting access to the Mystic Forge from anywhere in the world, too.
Total Prize Value (Buy-Orders):
Total Prize Value (Sell-Orders):
3RD place:
All core Legendary precursors!
If you can't quite make it to first place, third place still serves as a huge help to help any player on their quest to get all the Legendaries, or just a lot of money. The complete Precursor collection is just that: Every tradeable Precursor in the game. After winning, you can either craft these weapons into their final form or sell them for heaps of raw gold. It's up to you.
Total Prize Value (Buy-Orders):
Total Prize Value (Sell-Orders):
4TH place:
Aura Collection!
Coming below the complete precursor collection is still no small feat and with no small prize! In Guild Wars 2 of today there exist Auras. They're a form of cosmetic that coat your character in some form of fancy effect, like snowflakes and a chilling mist hanging in the air around you, or vampire bats that accompany you on your adventures. Some auras even come with death effects, like the "Preserved Queen Bee", that splats golden honey on the floor once you are defeated. Most auras are extremely rare, and not all of them are available for direct trading. Many of them are, though, and for fourth place you'll win an exceptional collection of them.
Total Prize Value (Buy-Orders):
Total Prize Value (Sell-Orders):
5TH place:
Ghastly Grinning Shield & Greatsaw Skins!
Fifth place prize winner earns the iconic "Ghastly Grinning Shield" and "Greatsaw". These 2012 Halloween weapons are well established as some of Guild Wars 2's rarest skins and thus fantastic items to either keep and show off with or sell for a massive chunk of money.
Total Prize Value (Buy-Orders):
Total Prize Value (Sell-Orders):
6TH place:
Mini Pets!
Minipets are a mainstay item most Guild Wars 2 players are likely to explore the world with. There are hundreds available to choose from, and coming in fifth place will net you the five current most expensive and rare of them in the game.
Total Prize Value (Buy-Orders):
Total Prize Value (Sell-Orders):
7TH Place to 25TH
While the top six prizes are the coolest things to go for, there is plenty more in store for the next best entries. If you find yourself not quite reaching the Halloween skins, but are still top ten, you'll still be winning $50 worth of Gems and a random minipet, where you can get luckier still.
Places 11th to 19th will win a considerable sum of gems, also, as will everyone else that makes it to the top 25.
7TH to 10TH place:
4,000 + Mini Egg
11TH to 19TH place:
1,200
20TH to 25TH place:
800
31,600 are being given away for places 7TH to 25TH
Welcome to the WoodenPotatoes Path of Fire Competition page! If you're here because you heard somewhere that there was a competition going on where you can win every single legendary weapon in the game then well done, you're in the right place.
So what exactly is this all about?
To coincide with the release of Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire™, I, WoodenPotatoes, am hosting a YouTube competiton to spread word about the game. The goal is simple: Get people making videos and talking about Path of Fire. After five years of massive content updates and sweeping feature updates, Guild Wars 2 is a completely different and much improved MMO to what it once was. Sadly, however, it can be hard to make people reassess a many year old opinion, and the reality is that many ultimately good products don't get the recognition they deserve. Guild Wars 2 is unquestionably in the strongest state it has been in years and. With that in mind, and a new expansion presenting a brilliant opportunity for people to pick it up again, I'm hosting this competition to get people talking about it and sharing their thoughts.
But this is more than just a page for contest entrants: To anyone looking to learn about the MMO in 2017, feel free to check out the video entries on the website, which talk about the various aspects of the game and expansion from regular players active in the community. I'm hoping for this page to be a place for legitimate and real online testimony about Guild Wars 2 in 2017, and perhaps, therefore, a little different from what you'll see from official ArenaNet marketing campaigns. Feel free to share this competition website, or any of it's videos, with whoever you like: Ultimately that's what it's all about! Checking out that game we once played and then quit, maybe even never had the time to play at all, and telling friends about it.
You love the game: then get the word out. Not just today, with the release of episode five, but whenever there are things to talk about.
I know many of you look to us to keep the game’s player base strong through paid advertising, but there’s only so much that paid advertising can do for GW2 in 2017 when most people made their buy-or-don’t-buy decision back in 2012.
What brings new players to an older game isn’t the advertising but the buzz, excitement, press coverage, word-of-mouth.
Mike Obrien (Game Director) in Episode 5 Reddit AMA
This quote is from earlier in the year, around the "Flashpoint" release of Living World Season 3, and it's really stuck with me. Most people made their decision to buy or not buy Guild Wars 2 a long time ago. And it's unfortunate because as an MMO with so many updates as this one, even opinions and ideas one year out of date are pretty inaccurate, let alone from half a decade earlier. The truth is that Guild Wars 2 has changed a lot, and in many aspects for the better. But that word isn't going to get out there on it's own. It's something we, as a community, need to take some initiative on. And as a fairly prominent voice in the community I think it's time I do my part.
Back in 2010 ArenaNet offered their own YouTube competition to the community. Perhaps you remember it. Make some kind of video talking about Guild Wars 2, they said, keep it short, and the winners were showered with awesome prizes. I myself took part in the competition and, even though I didn't win a thing, it was a lot of fun! In many ways it helped me become the YouTuber I am today. It brought the game to a lot of peoples attention that otherwise may never have discovered it, and built many content creators for the time, giving those people followings they couldn't otherwise have hoped to get on their own.
So I figure why not do that now, using my own influence as best I can to help other people out?
And that's exactly what I want this to be. A competition to spread the word. To get those old friends and guild members back, to encourage family members, real life friends, or anyone else, to see what Guild Wars 2 of today is like with fresh eyes.
All you have to do to participate is make a video talking about the game that can be shared with people outside of the already established audience. And the prizes for the winner and runner-ups are the best things I can possibly imagine giving people, which have taken months of work from hundreds of people in the community to provide.
If you're interested in getting involved there is absolutely still time. The competition will be running up until the launch of Season 4 of the living world, in a few short months. This gives contestant entrants the time and opportunity to make pre-release videos, post-release reviews, or whatever they feel most strongly about. This way contestants will be able sample cutscenes, music and footage from the entirety of the expansion and it's demos for their video entries, should they wish. It's up to competitors to judge what kind of video, released at what time, might be most helpful to the Guild Wars 2 scene. When Season Four starts new entries.
If you feel you have some talent, lots of talent, or none whatsoever, all are welcome. Your objective is simple: Make a YouTube video that contributes to growing the Guild Wars 2 scene in some way. A video that shares the excitement of how far the game has come, the upcoming expansion, and basically gets that word of mouth buzz out there that the game director spoke of above. Perhaps that is spreading news of the expansion, showing a timelapse of an art piece you've made, a series of discussion podcasts, a new player guide, a let's play with BDO, WoW or FF14 noobs, sitting your 50 year-old mother down to play despite the fact she has never touched a video game, or any number of other things. The simple fact of having a new YouTuber in the scene making, say, Guild Wars 2 cheffing videos, is an already expansion of our community and a viable contest entry. Talent will help, but what matters most is the spirit of the competition: Sharing, discussing, and presenting Guild Wars 2 as it is in 2017.
Aim to make a video that will get views, that reaches out, and share it far and wide, but aim to make a video that is real and fair and sincere. All these things are what I'm looking for, the specifics are totally up to you.
Entering the competition is very simple and done in three steps:
1. Make your video and upload it as "Public" to YouTube.com.
2. Paste this block of text clearly at the TOP of the description, which will link back to this page:
"Pick up Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire™ and find out more information here: http://WoodenPotatoes.com/GetPoF"
3. Send both your YouTube video URL and ALSO your in-game account name (for example: Barradin.3164) by using the form below:
And you'll be entered! As long as that block of text is clearly at the TOP of the description, and you've sent me a valid Guild Wars 2 Account, you're in!
For the 25 winners at the end of the competition, you'll be asked to send me a YouTube message from the account with the posted video as well. This is to verify that you are exactly who you say you are. It's simple to do and is a measure in place to prevent people stealing your content.
Frankly I'm one man running this competition from his living room, and it's a scary prospect. People will likely spend huge amounts of time on their submissions, people will have weird fringe issues, people will try to cheat the system, and all sorts of other unpredictable stuff is going to happen that could get me egg on my face. Please remember that I have other jobs to do over the weeks, am acting alone, and ultimately am just trying to help the community out. I won't have much tolerance for cheaters or people giving me too much hassle or aggression for whatever reason. And I do sincerely apologise if there are any issues as I run this. That said, I'll be doing my best, and here are the nitty gritty rules and clarifications:
1. I will stop accepting submissions for the competition on the HOUR that season four launches, and no later.
2. Only one submission per person is allowed. If your account name appears in multiple submissions for multiple videos, only the LAST submission sent will be accepted. This allows you to make last minute revisions, but remember that previous entries will be discarded.
3. A submission can be either a single video OR a collection of videos. For example, a multi-part New Player Guide is permissable. In this event, make sure to email a link to a PLAYLIST of your videos, rather than a link to a single video. If you fail to link the playlist URL, and instead just link a "Part 1", then only part one will be judged for the competition.
4. Videos of any length are allowed, but I do not guarantee I will be able to watch long submissions in their entirety.)
5. Videos made before the competition began CAN be submitted, as long as they have the block of text at the top of their descriptions and are submitted properly. A warning though, these submissions are less likely to win as they are low-effort.
6. Unlisted or Private videos will be disqualified.
7. Participants unable to send me YouTube messages, or recieve them from me, because of privacy settings or being blocked, will be disqualified.
8. Yes, I reserve the right to block anyone I like. If you submit to the competition then act like an arse and get yourself blocked or shadowbanned on my channel before drawing day, you're disqualified. But don't worry, I very rarely do that.
9. Other members of the Guild Wars 2 partner program are welcome to enter as long as they are happy to follow the rules. But I will be judging new talent more sympathetically so they can compete! Any partner who has their own referal link can feel free to use that at the top of their description and still enter the contest, if they feel the competition will be losing them money via indirectly linking to a different one.
10. There is no hard and fast date for when winners will be announced, as I do not know how many entries I'll have to look through, nor how long those entries will be. I'm aiming for winners to be announced and prizes to be given as soon as possible, however.
11. I will likely wish to share winning entires, runners up, or interesting submissions on my own YouTube channel during the competition or at the end to show off the victors. Proper credit will be given and links to the entrants, but if you do not like the sound of this publicity please request to be exempt via a message to me on YouTube or elsewhere
12. Prize winners who are expecting a lot of items (over five) will have them delivered in multiple in-game mails, so be prepared for a bit of spam.
13. Entries not in the spirit of the competition, entries with hate-speech, entries aggressive towards myself or other competitors will be discarded without hesitation.
14. Feel free, obviously, to do whatever you like with your videos after the competition is over, as anything and everything you make for this competition is solely your content and you are free to do what you like with.
So as you may have gathered for this competition it is I, WoodenPotatoes, that will be the sole judge of who is the winner. It's not going up to a community vote, it's not going to a commitee, it's coming to me. The spirit of the competition should be clear by now: The people who make the best videos at encouraging people to join the game and it's community are the winners. How well you and your submission accomplishes this is subjective, of course, but perhaps I can offer some further advice or guidance for those who want to get a step ahead.
1. Don't focus on the competition too much! This should probably go without saying, but if you title your video on YouTube "WoodenPotatoes Competition entry" and then spend the first thirty seconds talking about how much you'd love to win some legendaries, before finally making your case for why people might like Path of Fire and the game today, you're not going to look very authentic. It's going to be transparent that you don't really care about any of that stuff, but you're just in it for prizes. Not good. If I can notice a lack of sincerity, the potential people we're trying to reach will be able to, too.
2. Engage with your comments! This is, after all, a YouTube competition - not just a video competition. If you're linking people to the video, answering their questions, getting likes, views and so on, these are all massive bonuses to me. This competition isn't just in the spirit of growing the Guild Wars 2 playerbase, I want to see the Gw2-YouTube scene grow too! Those who are sincerely enjoying themselves and are engaging with their audience will be more deserving of a winning spot than others in my eyes.
3. Perhaps keep it short. As any fans of mine might know, this is something I'm awful at. But it's no secret that most people on YouTube have a very short attention span. Don't be scared to make your point and make it fast if you have to. It's not a requirement, of course, and some kind of super long-high effort explanation of how the game has changed over the years might just be the winning submission in the end. But the more super long entries I may have to sit through, the more tired of them I may become, and keeping it short will likely never work against you.
4. Be different, be creative, don't just add to the pile. Perhaps the more outlandish the idea the better. Don't be scared to collaborate, either: These prizes are positively enormous, you could easily split the winnings amongst multiple people and still come away ridiculously rich.
And that's about it!
I'll leave you with one final note: While it may help, this competition isn't just about raw video making talent or creativity. It's not just about views, and certainly not clickbaiting your way to thousands of video hits, it's not necessarily about being a great player or an incredible artist. It's not about appealing to my personal sensibilities and values as the judge. While all of those thing are definitely to think about and can get you a leg up, they are not the be all and end all. They can't be traded for sincerity.
And what's the harm in trying, right?
A heartfelt and well articulated simple vlog from a person in front of a camera might be far better at convincing people to join in on Gw2 in 2017 than any number of flashy trailers, and in that situation it might be your simple and easy submission that wins you the grand prize of every legendary in the game. Or fifty bucks worth of gems.