Forbes gives us their impression of the last Beta Weekend Event, check it out:

The remarkable thing about this is that none of this gameplay was forced. I could follow the plot, ignore it, or catch up to it later, and I didn’t have to coordinate with other players. What I liked even better: Everyone who takes part in completing an objective gets some credit proportional to how much they contributed. Do well, and you’re rewarded with a gold medal when it’s all over; turn up halfway through, and you might get a bronze or nothing at all.

Those NPCs I mentioned above? They’re quest givers, sort of—except it turns out GW2 doesn’t roll that way. You can participate in an activity just by turning up in the area it’s located and throwing in with whomever happens to be there. The NPC is there to give the activity a purpose (usually, the objective is to help the NPC), and to give the player extra information and background if they want it—but you can also just ignore them. No need to talk to them to start a quest, no need to talk to them later to end it.

Source: Guild Wars 2: First Impressions of the Beta

PCGamer has published an article where their writers answer questions and discuss the good and bad things about their experience with GW2′s Beta weekend.

On World Events:

Josh: I was really surprised by how few of the events had branching points or consequences in them. From the content I’ve played at earlier events and ArenaNet’s focus on their dynamic events system, I expected the vast majority of events to change the world as I completed them. That wasn’t the case in the parts of Shiverpeak Mountains that I played through on my Norn character. A lot of quests have multiple stages (i.e., steal food from nearby tribe for questgiver and then defend them when raiding party attacks), but I only found two that actually had a real effect on the world–one of them being that centaur castle siege in the human starting zone that ArenaNet’s been showing off forever.

On the Event System vs. Quest Leveling:

Gavin: Absolutely. I leveled up by trying to explore and discover new things happening around Kryta. The map system does a fantastic job of showing you hints about where you can get things done. My first fifteen levels were spent moving from point to point on the map to figure out what adventure could be found at this marker or rising up to a skill point challenge at another. I also never felt punished for showing up and helping other would-be heroes already there. If I help kill anything, I get credit. Gone are the days of kill-stealing jack holes.

Make sure you read the full article.