MassivelyOP’s Weirdest MMO Stories of 2024: Touching grass with MMO seeds

January 1, 2025 4:00 PM

Today we’re kicking off our traditional countdown of MassivelyOP’s weirdest MMORPG stories of the year, that year being 2024!

Coming in at #5 on our list is…

Guild Wars 2 tells everyone to touch grass… literally

Back in April, Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet partnered with a UK gardening outlet to promote Guild Wars 2-themed plant seeds – a blooming passiflora (aka a passion flower), a crimson sunflower (aka a claret sunflower), and a flax (aka a flax) – which gamers could pick up for free (via a write-in request) and then plant in the real world. “Game, grow, and touch grass,” the promo read.

As we noted, these seeds were flagged “edition 1,” so we can presumbly expect more batches in the future? Either way, it’s definitely the first time we’ve seen this exact promotion in the MMO world. I’d love to know whether anyone actually planted anything! Bonus points if you named the plant after your Sylvari!