Guild Wars 2

For halloween. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascent_to_Madness

And replace it with lame instanced one player crap?
Seriously.. Is anet really determined to delete all enjoyable features in this game?
I never do dungeon’s and this dungeon was the only dungeon i actually enjoyed.

kittens getting more lame everyday :P

You’re actually mad they did something different in this event?

I think Merlin is mostly upset that we got less content this time around. I personally can’t find any reason for it. We really did get a lot less this year, in comparison to last year.

Rainbow Sprint.3215:

You’re actually mad they did something different in this event?

I am the Mad KIngs dungeon was many, many times better…

Honestly can’t believe they did not bring it back…

If they had updated the chest rewards, let players run it as much as they want with no decrease in rewards, it would have been a MASSIVE HIT, but no, no fun for you GW2 players. They could have just limited it to 3 days, 30th Oct – 1st November, I would have been happy…

While I disagree with the general tone of the OP, I am a bit disappointed by the removed features from this Halloween. I wasn’t necessarily expecting Ascent to Madness to return, but I was hoping for something similar, like a spin on it starring the Bloody Prince instead of the Mad King. I enjoyed the story instances we got, but there just wasn’t much to them, and it didn’t make for a very satisfying narrative conclusion.

Between Reapers Rumble, Ascent to Madness, and the Scavenger Hunt, there’s a fair bit of content missing. I wouldn’t mind if one of those latter two didn’t return, because this year’s story is different, but I would have liked to see them replaced by something similar, because they were a lot of fun. If there aren’t the resources to replace them, I’m not sure why Halloween 2013 couldn’t be largely a copy of 2012.

I wish they would take the entertaining, good content, and creatively incorporate it into each years event.

Last year there was a lot of great story and other dungeon/mini games that really could have been here this year. Why throw good stuff away?

They easily could have included all of them.

I get the impression that the goal more and more is to concentrate players into one or two activities just to have a lot of players doing the same thing at once.

That gets old after a while. The scavenger hunt story could be left in. Just be creative about how it is incorporated.

I agree with Redenaz overall sentiment on this issue. The extension of the 2013 Halloween did not build anything new or refurbished anything old to warrant it to be on more then 2 weeks. I thought some of those features Redenaz explained would have come back the following update after the initial update. My guess is they put all of their work into Nightmare Tower, and most of the other side projects they have been doing for WvW. From my prospective I have two major issues on what was not accomplished this years Halloween event.

The first issue I have is what Collin has stated repeatedly about recurring content, and how it will be used. Awhile back he had stated that recruiting content would allow the team more time to build new content without making from scratch. He was pleading this idea would bring bigger and better things, even when something like Halloween would return. Saying Halloween would set the tone for other recurring content in the future.

Unfortunately last years Halloween did feel more robust/complete then this years. The only thing that would artificially make it feel longer was jacking up the weapon recipes from last year. So the new BLC RNG tickets weapons would feel more accessible then grinding for something that is old. I could sort of understand why they did it too candy corn, but also to incur this increase to the rare Halloween materials was a bit excessive. So I might be cringing when Wintersday, and Dragon Bash rolls out again with “new content.” If it’s anything like this years Halloween.

The second issue I have is the one thing that lacked in this years Halloween was the communication. Even with their newfangled “collaborated development,” process that is going on now. Instead of explaining why the three features which Red reiterated on did not return this year; they instead opted to be silent. They even had a live stream on the lore of Guild Wars Halloween, and I know that question came up. It could have been something like: “we did not have enough time for this years Halloween to get everything we wanted out the door.” Or “there are some other bigger projects ahead that we are currently working on, and unfortunately it nixed our efforts on this years Halloween.” To a point where they would explain that this years Halloween should not be reflected on as what will happen to other recurring events. Also they could have explained why they upped the resources for the old Halloween weapon recipes for this year. It did not necessarily have to be a response here on the forums, but elsewhere informing us about the reasoning behind this years Halloween cuts.

I don’t think they even want to address all the complaints this year about Halloween. Their ideas about Halloween and the player’s are totally different. Profit is the main goal for them while ours is fun. I can’t really fault them for wanting to make profits, but increasing the total population playing the game seems to me the best way to increase profit.

Obviously, many disliked this year’s Halloween event compared to last year. Of course, many of us hadn’t even gotten the game so many didn’t even get to experience last year’s content. It really is a downer to hear how good it was, and to see so little this year. It didn’t even feel like Halloween in game unless you went to Lion’s Arch. I guess I expected there to be more skins that made it feel more Halloweiny.

Not to mention the grind or expense needed for the weapon skins such as The Crossing. Holy kitten Batman! I’m extremely disappointed with this, and I realize the game is just a game. However, I will keep playing it because nothing else has tempted me lately. It just seems they could have brought more people into the game by making more skins, repeating last years content while adding more, and increasing Halloween drops in general.

I can only guess that the changes made or the lack thereof were somehow tied to their bottom line and how much time and effort they were willing to put into Halloween. It could be even a matter of how much they’re willing to put into gw2 itself.

Tbh.. halloween this year is pale in comparison to what we get last year.. i honestly do not mind the repeat of identical content!