Events. Where? Guild Wars of course..

A particularly fun thing about Guild Wars is the occasionally events that Arena Net programs into the game. There is a wide range of things, from Halloween, to the Chinese New Year, to Saint Patrick's Day even. Different events provide for different things, and the significance of the real-world event directly correlates to the in game event. (Chinese New Year is bigger than St. Patty's day.) What they do is usually introduce a few new temporary drops, usually some manner of alcohol or sweets, sometimes something that will boost your attributes / statistics. Everyone looks forward to these events and spend hours on end farming the special goodies. Some events provide hats during the ending ceremony. Yes, hats. People love hats. I have a yule cap, a jesters hat, some antlers, and many more. Hats can help determine a person's life in Guild Wars. (Yule caps were from Wintersday 2005, in 2006, there was a modified version of this hat, and in 2007 some kind of crazy snowman skull. I'm rambling aren't I? My apologies. The events can provide quests which are almost always fun, and usually insane. (at least on the developer's part) A reindeer named Rudi and his nose can glow red? I love it! Sometimes there is even a new type of PvP that players can enter (such as the Dragon Arena or Snowball Fight) These make for great fun and provide a change of pace from your usual high-end, make you feel like a noob PvP that most PvPers are involved in.
Many a weekend has been lost to these wonderful events (sometimes even a week) for thousands of people across the world.

It does not stop there though! On every single weekend, there is a small, tiny event.. its not really an event in the typical sense of the word, but there is something special happening. It normally involves doubling or tripling some aspect of the game (such as faction points, experience, gold, what have you..) To name a few, there are: Double Alliance Battle Faction weekends (one of my favorites.. and it is this weekend, explaining why this post is being written now and not at some sensible hour), double experience and gold for vanquishing weekends, 2x unique/rare drops weekends, double hero battle's points weekends. If I were to list them all, I'm afraid the internet would run out of space.
Depending on what you like, you'll be a slave to the GW machine for a weekend or two every month or so. I spent my time wisely and earned tier 8 of the friends title, making me a Warden of the Kurzicks. When I say wisely, I am lying terribly. But I can not help it and I do not mind. Though I think my laptop does.. it'll learn though.
And they let you (they being ANet) know whats up through the message box at the log-in screen. It was difficult to read in German though. Perhaps I'll talk about that next week..