Guild Wars 2

This event last until the 9th right? Burning 1 or 2 effigies a day is that hard?

But yeah, they should have put 1 in LA for easy access and for those outside they could have made them a little more engaging. For example, every time you light 1 mobs pop out. But I guess people would just activate and run. Which would cause other groups of people to complain.

Xavori.3768:

Are we droppin’ it like it was hot, only literally?

This made me lol.

I agree with your point too. Even before the effigies, half of the achievements were “run here, press F.” Which can be made fun but loses its fun when it’s overdone. After all the holo, pinata, fireworks, & taffy hunting seeking out one more thing was kinda lame. I think it should have been visit 1 effigy in each zone or visit 15 effigies total or something other than visit 20 more than the number that exist in the world.

Xavori.3768:

Galen Grey.4709:

A lot of people will start to like the game the moment they stop threating it like a checklist imho.

Its true there is nothing exiting about walking up to an effigy and hit F but there is a journey to be had between effigies. As long as you dont teleport from one to the other and allow yourself to be distracted from an effigy to the next there is a lot of fun to be had and a good reason to enjoy multiple zones.

For me Effigies are kind like hearts just a marker to give you your exploration a general direction nothing else. Do that an Effigies become just a buff between adventures in different geo locations.

I’ve done those journeys over a hundred times at this point. How is doing it one..err two since we have to visit the same effigies twice…going to be any different?

But again, you’re not defending the new ‘content’. Because you can’t. Because it’s indefensible. It’s an utter waste of time for everyone involved, including the 5 minutes it took some dev to stick the effigies on the map and write up the script to update the character variable.

Because of a nifty thing called dynamic events. For the most part it will be the same sure but there will always be that one event you missed the other 100 times (and you didn’t travel the whole world a 100 times, the same few favorite zones sure but everywhere? I find it hard to believe. Case in point you said the same journey twice cause you have to visit the same effigy twice but thats only true if you do it mechanically traveling the same most efficient straight line. If you allow yourself to be distracted it will not be the same exact journey twice. You can have many unique journeys between any two effigies if you wish.

For starters the content update wasn’t just the effigies, there was a ton more. The decorations, the dragon ball mini game, the moa race, the pinatas, the weapon skins, the dragon helm, the wings, the pola doll, the at least 4 events with voice overs, the food with the new buffs, new minis, the Marriner’s Horn, Marjory’s Journal,the firework launchers as well as the effigies. All of this content needed to be designed, modeled, animated, scripted, voice acted (in some case) and tested. It was definitely not a 5 minute job, its actually an amazing amount of work to fit in 1 month.

As for the content itself its up to you how you consume it. Dont like the effigies? skip them what will you if you do ? 10% health buff is the only thing you’ll be missing out. This month update allows you to:

1. Play the dragon ball mini game which personally I find very fun
2. Try to acquire one of the nifty skins doing more or less whatever you enjoy. You can Do DE, Story line missions, Hunt holograms, just kill everything on your way to the effigies, join zergs, farm mobs whatever.
3. Try to get more achievement points to improve your standing on the leader boards
4. Engage in the storyline of the event in LA
5. collect all the new minis
6. Get the 2 wings
7. get the extra rewards (Marjory’s Journal and the Dragon helm)
8. Ignore any activity what so ever and enjoy the change in decoration while doing whatever you feel like doing

Are you really going to claim there is a lack of content?

Should everything addition to the game be kill this and kill that? Or should they just send over skins via mail each month and not bother releasing any content at all?

At the end of the day its impossible to release content which everyone enjoys. Some of us want hard challanging content but then you’ll get people unhappy that they’re not able to complete it (Ex. Clocktower) Some of us want Easy casual content but then some people are unhappy cause its not challenging (Ex. the Effigies) Some people want to grind mobs but other people hate grinding mobs, some people want to explore and see the world but some people feel they already did that a 100 times so whats the solution? Do a variety of content that all have their own rewards.

You like combat ? You have the skins you can get by farming coffers from any mob
You like exploring around ? just go around visit the effigies
You like PvP? Dragon ball
You like Achievement? Plenty of those
You like pretty colours? Fireworks and Pinatas

So really why do feel that effigies change things so drastically that the this whole months content need defending? For you effigies dont add anything… fair enough for me they just increased the scope of my coffers harvest, instead of just going around the same zone I am now doing the same but through multiple zones. I have a price to pay for that, I farm less but on the + side I will belt another achievement and get to see more of the world. To me that simple activity made a positive effect. To people who ignore it, it will make no difference so really once again where is the problem?

Seras.5702:

Xavori.3768:

Are we droppin’ it like it was hot, only literally?

This made me lol.

I agree with your point too. Even before the effigies, half of the achievements were “run here, press F.” Which can be made fun but loses its fun when it’s overdone. After all the holo, pinata, fireworks, & taffy hunting seeking out one more thing was kinda lame. I think it should have been visit 1 effigy in each zone or visit 15 effigies total or something other than visit 20 more than the number that exist in the world.

Dont think it can be that simple. If all achievements were something you can do in 30 minutes (I am assuming 2 mins per teleport will be enough for the client to load the zone and walk the extra distance) Then the leaderboard for achievement would become a joke as everyone would have the maximum points and sit in the top spot. Achievements by their nature need to involve a little effort.

Galen Grey.4709:

Seras.5702:

Xavori.3768:

Are we droppin’ it like it was hot, only literally?

This made me lol.

I agree with your point too. Even before the effigies, half of the achievements were “run here, press F.” Which can be made fun but loses its fun when it’s overdone. After all the holo, pinata, fireworks, & taffy hunting seeking out one more thing was kinda lame. I think it should have been visit 1 effigy in each zone or visit 15 effigies total or something other than visit 20 more than the number that exist in the world.

Dont think it can be that simple. If all achievements were something you can do in 30 minutes (I am assuming 2 mins per teleport will be enough for the client to load the zone and walk the extra distance) Then the leaderboard for achievement would become a joke as everyone would have the maximum points and sit in the top spot. Achievements by their nature need to involve a little effort.

Generally, I agree. But with limited time events I think they need to be more accessible to casuals. And for the most part, they have been. I’m not trying to insinuate that achievements should be easy. But I think if we’re going to have snazzy event content then it needs to actually be snazzy. For the most part, this event is a lot of fun; I’ve been enjoying it a lot. But we only need so many “run here, hit F” tasks for achievements. We had that for pinatas, taffies, fireworks, and now effigies. I think they could have done something a little more imaginative than ask us to WP around and dance (?) in front of an effigy (or 50). I’m doing it cuz I want the achievement, not because hitting F 50 times is fun. At least with the holos I get to fight stuff. That’s fun.

Seras.5702:

Generally, I agree. But with limited time events I think they need to be more accessible to casuals. And for the most part, they have been. I’m not trying to insinuate that achievements should be easy. But I think if we’re going to have snazzy event content then it needs to actually be snazzy. For the most part, this event is a lot of fun; I’ve been enjoying it a lot. But we only need so many “run here, hit F” tasks for achievements. We had that for pinatas, taffies, fireworks, and now effigies. I think they could have done something a little more imaginative than ask us to WP around and dance (?) in front of an effigy (or 50). I’m doing it cuz I want the achievement, not because hitting F 50 times is fun. At least with the holos I get to fight stuff. That’s fun.

I agree and the solution to that is two fold.
1. Make some achievements optional
2. Make more then a single way how to achieve them

and they did all of that really.

For example you can taffies by
1. Bashing Pinatas .. run press F
2. Killing mobs and opening coffers
3. Killing holograms
4. Doing whatever activity you like and using the money to buy the sweets directly from TP

Same with the fireworks
Walking to the firework launcher and pressing F was just one way how to do that.
1. You could also kill mobs and farm coffers
2. Buy the fireworks
3. Farm the holograms

Pinatas and Effigies where they only two achievements out of 14 where the only way to get them was run to spot X and press F. Its not really that bad is it?

That being said some requirements were in fact steep for casuals. If you can only play a few hours a week it will be very very difficult to get most of the rewards (tickets, wings, even the dragon helm might be tricky) so there is some room for improvement no doubt. Not sure whats the best way to address that though because if you reduce the effort required people will then be unhappy cause there is no enough stuff to do since they’ll be done in a couple of days instead of having stuff to do the whole month which is also bad.

Galen Grey.4709:

A lot of people will start to like the game the
Because of a nifty thing called dynamic events. For the most part it will be the same sure but there will always be that one event you missed the other 100 times (and you didn’t travel the whole world a 100 times, the same few favorite zones sure but everywhere? I find it hard to believe. Case in point you said the same journey twice cause you have to visit the same effigy twice but thats only true if you do it mechanically traveling the same most efficient straight line. If you allow yourself to be distracted it will not be the same exact journey twice. You can have many unique journeys between any two effigies if you wish.

Dont like the effigies? skip them what will you if you do ? 10% health buff is the only thing you’ll be missing out. This month update allows you to:

1. Play the dragon ball mini game which personally I find very fun
2. Try to acquire one of the nifty skins doing more or less whatever you enjoy. You can Do DE, Story line missions, Hunt holograms, just kill everything on your way to the effigies, join zergs, farm mobs whatever.
3. Try to get more achievement points to improve your standing on the leader boards
4. Engage in the storyline of the event in LA
5. collect all the new minis
6. Get the 2 wings
7. get the extra rewards (Marjory’s Journal and the Dragon helm)
8. Ignore any activity what so ever and enjoy the change in decoration while doing whatever you feel like doing

Are you really going to claim there is a lack of content?

Should everything addition to the game be kill this and kill that? Or should they just send over skins via mail each month and not bother releasing any content at all?

You like combat ? You have the skins you can get by farming coffers from any mob
You like exploring around ? just go around visit the effigies
You like PvP? Dragon ball
You like Achievement? Plenty of those
You like pretty colours? Fireworks and Pinatas

“You like pretty colours? Fireworks and Pinatas” YEEEEHHHHHH I LIKE COLORS. What???

“You like PvP? Dragon ball” no PvP player plays this.

“You like Achievement? Plenty of those” Who cares since titles are useless and achievement points do nothing.

“You like exploring around ? just go around visit the effigies” like we haven’t visited those areas hundreds of times.

“You like combat ? You have the skins you can get by farming coffers from any mob” chance for skin is minimal and this game is just all about grinding atm. We haven’t done anything else.

“Should everything addition to the game be kill this and kill that?” worked in GW1.

“Or should they just send over skins via mail each month and not bother releasing any content at all?” now they are forcing us to do boring achievements and they haven’t really released anything. All new skins, super adventure box etc. are fan created.

“Dont like the effigies? skip them what will you if you do ?” this is the only new content we get.

“You can have many unique journeys between any two effigies if you wish.” if you use your imagination you can have epic hard fights against Zhaitan in LA.

This month update allows you to:

“1. Play the dragon ball mini game which personally I find very fun
2. Try to acquire one of the nifty skins doing more or less whatever you enjoy. You can Do DE, Story line missions, Hunt holograms, just kill everything on your way to the effigies, join zergs, farm mobs whatever.
3. Try to get more achievement points to improve your standing on the leader boards
4. Engage in the storyline of the event in LA
5. collect all the new minis
6. Get the 2 wings
7. get the extra rewards (Marjory’s Journal and the Dragon helm)
8. Ignore any activity what so ever and enjoy the change in decoration while doing whatever you feel like doing”

We can do that but instead of this boring “fun” we could explore new areas, encounter new foes, fight against new world bosses, have epic guild raids, explore many different dungeons, get a new race, fight new elder dragons, fight new dragon champions, have interesting story… I can’t believe how blind you are when you are not seeing this. Think about this for a while. Would you like to visit all those old areas over and over again and doing exactly same things (less content same concept) you were doing on halloween and wintersday or would you like to do all that above instead?

They are not going to expand for a while so this dragon bash kind of events are the only events that we are going to get in the future.

Whack/light/activate 100 objects is the new kill 10 rats.

foofad.5162:

Whack/light/activate 100 objects is the new kill 10 rats.

I agree.

foofad.5162:

Whack/light/activate 100 objects is the new kill 10 rats.

I’m missing the reference here?

I’m not being funny but every MMO I’ve ever played is 90% filler, as in boring repetition that we are forced to do.

This is so the game lasts a lot longer and the developers make more money. Ofc my theory holds more water in the subs model of MMO but you take my point.

The real question is why do we play MMOs? Well it’s not for the amazing storylines or unique combat at every turn. ‘Hey I swung a sword, hey I swung it again..’ It’s ironic GW2 is just the same as every other MMO in this respect but at least the PR team achknowleged the insane amount of repetition in MMOs.

So I’m curious as to what your complaining about, so they made you burn 30 effigies did they, what about the 40,000 mobs you’ve killed in the exact same way over the last 9 months? That’s ok?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Stupid game using boring mechanics like hitting buttons on the keyboard. I will only consider it content if I have to hit buttons on something else!!!

Try this. Instead of just mindlessly zerging to every WP and then complaining about how fast and boring it is, run between them and do the events in the area. I did about 50 different events, many of which I had never seen before while running around and finding them. It broke it up, made it more exciting and was fun.

This actually makes it a better experience.

The thing about the effigies is – they are getting people out doing dynamic events in these areas. After the 6-7 effigy, I stopped porting and started running. Now, I find myself stopping to do events with larger and larger groups.

The same small group of players can complain here all they like – the proof is in the game. People are out doing dynamic events in these areas, and enjoying them. I say, well done.

If the effigies were a requirement, I would see an issue with “forcing” content on people. Since they definitely arent (even for those wanting the wings), there is no issue. If you don’t want to do this kind of thing – simple – don’t do this kind of thing.

Dedlaw.9130:

foofad.5162:

Whack/light/activate 100 objects is the new kill 10 rats.

I’m missing the reference here?

Early MMOs were criticized for having the same dull, boring, quests that usually started with some guy asking you to kill ten rats.

Every MMO that’s come out recently has promised it won’t make you do this, and then turns around and makes you do exactly that. This is simply GW2’s version of it. Prior to launch they had this whole “Manifesto” about how players wouldn’t have to suffer through the exact sort of content that they’re releasing on a monthly basis now.

I’d rather not see any monthly content if it’s all going to be stuff like this and see that dev time put into making stuff that’s actually fun or, god forbid, bug fixes.

Blaeys.3102:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Stupid game using boring mechanics like hitting buttons on the keyboard. I will only consider it content if I have to hit buttons on something else!!!

Try this. Instead of just mindlessly zerging to every WP and then complaining about how fast and boring it is, run between them and do the events in the area. I did about 50 different events, many of which I had never seen before while running around and finding them. It broke it up, made it more exciting and was fun.

This actually makes it a better experience.

The thing about the effigies is – they are getting people out doing dynamic events in these areas. After the 6-7 effigy, I stopped porting and started running. Now, I find myself stopping to do events with larger and larger groups.

The same small group of players can complain here all they like – the proof is in the game. People are out doing dynamic events in these areas, and enjoying them. I say, well done.

If the effigies were a requirement, I would see an issue with “forcing” content on people. Since they definitely arent (even for those wanting the wings), there is no issue. If you don’t want to do this kind of thing – simple – don’t do this kind of thing.

That’s a good point, I was diving into a few myself.

The Ace.9105:

“You like pretty colours? Fireworks and Pinatas” YEEEEHHHHHH I LIKE COLORS. What???

“You like PvP? Dragon ball” no PvP player plays this.

(snip)

A lot of what you mention is just you projecting your personal opinion on everyone.
How can you say no PvP player plays this? an even so its pretty clear some people enjoy it else why are AFK players such a discussed issue in that mini game?

Again, maybe you dont care about achievements because in your case you dont enjoy a game play mechanic that doesnt give you tangible rewards but that doesnt mean there are not people striving to be best on their server.

As from your comments you seem to be a person who doesnt play parts of the game if they dont provide meaningful rewards (based primarily on your comment about achievements) I would imagine you most likely didnt visit the effigy in say the bottom right part of Gendarran fields 100s of times before now since there was nothing for you to be had… except for a jumping puzzle which again doesnt provide meaningful rewards anyway. So now I really doubt every player visited all the remote areas with effigies 100s of times.

Contradiction… so first you claim that the game is all about grinding because the chances for a ticket drop are so low so you have to kill a lot of mobs but then just the very next line you said “Should everything addition to the game be kill this and kill that?” worked in GW1.” How can you want to just kill stuff when you find that grinding and thus by definition not fun?

How are the effigies the only content we get? Did you client bug out and not provided you with effigy ceremony single player instance? or the dragon ball, or all the other activities I mentioned my post to Xavori 4 posts above this one?

Sorry I dont follow what you mean by “All new skins, super adventure box etc. are fan created.” can you rephrase it please?

Now this is interesting. So you call me blind because during Dragon bash I am doing the same stuff I was doing in Halloween or Wintersday… Fair enough there are certainly some similarities. Instead you suggest we could get: “new dungeon, new elder dragon, new dragon champion”… But using your same argument just like Dragon bash is just a different skin to halloween wouldnt fighting a new elder dragon be a new skin to fighting zaithan. Wouldnt fighting a new dragon champion be the same thing just with a new skin to fighting say the claw of jormag or the shatterer? I get it you prefer more epic style content, I wouldnt mind it in the least as well and do hope such content is coming just like you do but its not fair to shoot down these holiday events just cause they’re not epic enough for you is it?

Based on what do you state that holiday events are all we’re getting in the future? They did expand your type of content before at least twice.. when they introduce southsun cove and the fractal of the mists so why do you feel that will never happen again… which is funny considering there is a post on reddit a couple of dates ago suggests there might be something akin raiding in the work (from an ingame chat with a developer with screenshots included) as well as a post yesterday on this forum by colin johanson saying that future living story events will contain content that will integrated in fractals of the mists once the event concludes (so I assume more dungeons)

Genophix.3098:

I’m not being funny but every MMO I’ve ever played is 90% filler, as in boring repetition that we are forced to do.

This is so the game lasts a lot longer and the developers make more money. Ofc my theory holds more water in the subs model of MMO but you take my point.

The real question is why do we play MMOs? Well it’s not for the amazing storylines or unique combat at every turn. ‘Hey I swung a sword, hey I swung it again..’ It’s ironic GW2 is just the same as every other MMO in this respect but at least the PR team achknowleged the insane amount of repetition in MMOs.

So I’m curious as to what your complaining about, so they made you burn 30 effigies did they, what about the 40,000 mobs you’ve killed in the exact same way over the last 9 months? That’s ok?

Thats unavoidable. It takes days if not weeks to create a single dynamic event. You need to think / write a story for it. Create models, rig them, create any animations, create particle effects, script them, create the dialog and translate it to multiple languages, set them all up, test them and publish them. Players on the other hand will take 5 minutes to complete it. Its impossible for any developer to keep up with the rate of player content consumption which means you need to do fillers for people who play a lot of hours per week. If it takes say a week to create 5 minutes of engaging content how is anyone supposed to keep up with a player who plays 30 hours per week?

Xavori.3768:

So ya, I’m going to be harsh. The effigy ‘content’ was idiotic. Not one single bit of it makes any freakin’ sense. And idiotic by any other name would still smell as stupid.

I think there is a lot of unnecessary disrespectful language used on these forums, but also across the board in gaming, and its really time people started communicating like adults with the ability to express their views in a way that is constructive and purposeful.

My opinion on the effigies is that they are part of a celebration in a land that has been torn to pieces in many ways by the onslaught of dragons. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily run across miles to dance to various effigies, though maybe after a few drinks I would. My attitude would be: “Kitten those dragons, lets burn these effigies to the ground because we mean business! The dragons are going to a piece of their own medicine!” Well…..that said, it’s a festival. I honestly do not know why people cannot simply RELAX enjoy the content for what it is. It is a game….it’s not the be all and end all of life. And it surely must be FUN otherwise people wouldn’t keep getting involved in these things when they arise.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Stupid game using boring mechanics like hitting buttons on the keyboard. I will only consider it content if I have to hit buttons on something else!!!

Try this. Instead of just mindlessly zerging to every WP and then complaining about how fast and boring it is, run between them and do the events in the area. I did about 50 different events, many of which I had never seen before while running around and finding them. It broke it up, made it more exciting and was fun.

So your argument is that the new content is fun, not because the new content is fun, but because you are doing something else at the same time?

Allow me to make an analogy

Say I watch a new show and I say it is horrible, 0/10.

Then you come in and say, no that show was great, because while you were watching it you saw some really funny commercials, some for products you’ve never even heard of. You then recommend that people would enjoy the show more if they didn’t skip the commercials with their TiVo.

Does that make sense to you?

SlothBear.9846:

Early MMOs were criticized for having the same dull, boring, quests that usually started with some guy asking you to kill ten rats.

Every MMO that’s come out recently has promised it won’t make you do this, and then turns around and makes you do exactly that. This is simply GW2’s version of it. Prior to launch they had this whole “Manifesto” about how players wouldn’t have to suffer through the exact sort of content that they’re releasing on a monthly basis now.

I’d rather not see any monthly content if it’s all going to be stuff like this and see that dev time put into making stuff that’s actually fun or, god forbid, bug fixes.

Thing is fun is subjective. I assure you I found this update pretty fun.I enjoyed Dragon Ball and I love running around the world doing events, killing holograms and just enjoying the sights. Effigies with their simplicity kinda “forced me” to play in a larger area which is good.

as for the Manifesto it promised you, you can play the game the way you want. So tell me how exactly do effigies break that promise? is there anything negative you get if you just simply ignore them? remember for some and I am one such person they have a positive effect in different ways (play in multiple zone rather then farming the same zone + increase players in low to mid level zones)

I love how the mass complains about getting easy/free gifts monthly and new content(even if it leaves some things to be desired)…criticism or under-developed opinions?

Jemmi.6058:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Stupid game using boring mechanics like hitting buttons on the keyboard. I will only consider it content if I have to hit buttons on something else!!!

Try this. Instead of just mindlessly zerging to every WP and then complaining about how fast and boring it is, run between them and do the events in the area. I did about 50 different events, many of which I had never seen before while running around and finding them. It broke it up, made it more exciting and was fun.

So your argument is that the new content is fun, not because the new content is fun, but because you are doing something else at the same time?

Allow me to make an analogy

Say I watch a new show and I say it is horrible, 0/10.

Then you come in and say, no that show was great, because while you were watching it you saw some really funny commercials, some for products you’ve never even heard of. You then recommend that people would enjoy the show more if they didn’t skip the commercials with their TiVo.

Does that make sense to you?

I dont think your analogy is correct. In you case the bulk of what you experiance is the show with the commercials being a small subset. A better analogy would be say I had to go to city hall to sign something but thats okey cause I had fun along the way chatting with people, stopping at a bar, shopping etc…. If it werent for having to sign that paper at city hall I would have stayed home watching Tv. Both are fun but thanks to the not so fun activity (going to city hall to sign the paper) I got to do something different that otherwise I wouldnt have done.

Also please keep in mind this effigy thing is just 1 activity in this new content.

Thing is you’re right.. there is nothing fun with pressing F on the effigy perse. But that doesnt mean you cannot have fun while doing it. its one of those cases where the fun is in the journey not in the destination luckly you only need to spend literally 1 second at the destination so thats not a problem. (okey 5 seconds if you watch the whole dance)

Galen Grey.4709:

Jemmi.6058:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Stupid game using boring mechanics like hitting buttons on the keyboard. I will only consider it content if I have to hit buttons on something else!!!

Try this. Instead of just mindlessly zerging to every WP and then complaining about how fast and boring it is, run between them and do the events in the area. I did about 50 different events, many of which I had never seen before while running around and finding them. It broke it up, made it more exciting and was fun.

So your argument is that the new content is fun, not because the new content is fun, but because you are doing something else at the same time?

Allow me to make an analogy

Say I watch a new show and I say it is horrible, 0/10.

Then you come in and say, no that show was great, because while you were watching it you saw some really funny commercials, some for products you’ve never even heard of. You then recommend that people would enjoy the show more if they didn’t skip the commercials with their TiVo.

Does that make sense to you?

I dont think your analogy is correct. In you case the bulk of what you experiance is the show with the commercials being a small subset. A better analogy would be say I had to go to city hall to sign something but thats okey cause I had fun along the way chatting with people, stopping at a bar, shopping etc…. If it werent for having to sign that paper at city hall I would have stayed home watching Tv. Both are fun but thanks to the not so fun activity (going to city hall to sign the paper) I got to do something different that otherwise I wouldnt have done.

Also please keep in mind this effigy thing is just 1 activity in this new content.

Thing is you’re right.. there is nothing fun with pressing F on the effigy perse. But that doesnt mean you cannot have fun while doing it. its one of those cases where the fun is in the journey not in the destination luckly you only need to spend literally 1 second at the destination so thats not a problem. (okey 5 seconds if you watch the whole dance)

Your analogy is great, but the point of the analogy is that the argument that the content is fun because you are doing something else is not a positive for the content.

You could just go outside and chat to people, or you could just watch the commercials on YouTube. Why do the task that isn’t very fun to do? Why even add it in the first place. This thread is a critique on the fact that the effigies are not fun. ArenaNet has shown that they are welcome to feedback and respond accordingly. I hope they look at this thread and come up with fun ways to have us go around and do these fun events while also doing fun content.

I agree with OP 100% on how illogical and not-fun the effigies are. This is the same for Moa racing and pinata’s. Dragonball was at least something that was actually a game and was kind of fun. Not my cup of tea per se, but it was a good addition.

Fujiga.3928:

I love how the mass complains about getting easy/free gifts monthly and new content(even if it leaves some things to be desired)…criticism or under-developed opinions?

I have one. First, “easy/free” well – you get what you pay for, if you know what I mean. It’s ‘easy’ to make a million dollars: make one dollar (which is easy), now do that one million times.

The effigies are boring. The fireworks around LA you had to fire off are boring. The pinatas are boring. They are unimaginative and overly repetitive. The holograms are ok, the first 10 times, and then they are a grind, a long boring one.

Now if the numbers were cut in half (at least) it wouldn’t feel like a chore to accomplish them because, let’s face it, there is no challenge in any of the above mentioned ‘events’. The only sense of accomplishment is ’thank god that one is finally done!" That is not a good thing.

And no one is forcing me to do them but, these are still a one time event, so… I am gonna do what I want to do so I can get something I want. Thankfully I don’t want those ugly dragon wings…

I just wish they didn’t equate ‘new content’ with collecting 500 (or 100k) of something that is boring, repetitive, no challenge and just ridiculously time-consuming, oh… and not very fun.

Grinding is inherent in MMOs. You can’t escape it, you can’t run from it… so those that want to play the game grind when they need to grind. Personally, I don’t much care for it, but Ive never seen an MMO without it.

I thought the effigies were a good achievement, up until I did the first one and realized there were 3 more tiers.
That was when I put a movie (The Dictator) on, opened dulfy, and spent 2g wping around the world. I can’t help but wonder if this was intended to be approached this way.
One of these days I’ll learn better and just end this Sisyphus torment (that’s the Greek guy that was in hell and had to roll a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down, and repeat).

Galen Grey.4709:

Are you really going to claim there is a lack of content?

I don’t see how anyone could claim there’s a lack of content. It may be among the most boring, pointlessly repetitive and inane content ever devised, but it is content nonetheless. Thanks for playing!

Tachenon.5270:

Galen Grey.4709:

Are you really going to claim there is a lack of content?

I don’t see how anyone could claim there’s a lack of content. It may be among the most boring, pointlessly repetitive and inane content ever devised, but it is content nonetheless. Thanks for playing!

Yup agreed, while taking the factor of quality out and just looking at volume ArenaNet have provided an astounding amount of content in the first year. Just cast your mind back and think about it all.

Christmas,
Halloween
South Shores
Dragon Bash
Superbox
fractals (amazing)
and all this living story stuff.

Not to mention all the small updates and additions such as the WvsW progression system and fixing WvsW culling.

I’m not getting into the quality too much as someone has already said its all down to opinion but as far as I’m concerned the quality of content has been by on large excellent.

In my opinion we need a big push to add more maps and mechanics to WvsW now as that’s the ‘renewable source of fun’ in this game and its been largely unchanged since launch.

Stuff to get us back on track

I’m not criticizing the event as a whole. I’m not bashing pinatas (except that in game I did). Setting up dragon shaped pinatas around town as part of a festival and letting people bash them and having candy come out fits exactly in line with the concept of a dragon bash. Having an effigy burning ceremony where some bigwigs makes a boring speech before we have a big bonfire makes sense. Heck, you can even have your ceremony in the middle of the desert, charge insane ticket prices, set up overpriced water vendors and what not…a…Burning Man..er..Dragon if you will.

What does not make sense is telling players to burn 50 effigies when only 30 of them are actually available and are located nowhere near the celebration and that burning the effigies consists of hitting a single key that in turn makes you dance, not actually do anything that would normally be associated with starting a fire.

As for my language choice, <insert non-apology apology here: ie. I’m sorry you were offended blah blah blah>. My message was clear. To me that is more important than worrying about hurting somebodies feel-bads.

So, tl;dr
1. My original post was only about effigies, not the event as a whole.
2. That specific bit of content is idiotic.
3. I don’t care if you don’t like my word choice.

raptor.1064:

Zeivu.3615:

You get an item (Wearable in combat) for completing 10 achievements (Dragonball achievements no longer count) and you got 3 helms + an achievement for watching fireworks. Ungrateful much.

in GW1 you would have gotten as many helms as you wanted for all your characters instead of just one of each armor class

…but, this isn’t GW1 is it?

Just Saying!

Pointless? Sure.

Repetitive? Oh Yeah!

Fun? Sure when you spell “fun” backwards preceded by an “E”

All in all though. This was the fastest grind achievement in this event, and was doable for less than 10s (even using WP’s as an 80) in well under an hours time.

Does it make it okay to concentrate so heavily on this type of achievement all the time? Nope, but they are only going to be as creative as the developers creating them.

I just want those freaking wings. I’d pound my characters’s head against a wall 1000 times if Anet had an achievement for it.

Jemmi.6058:

Your analogy is great, but the point of the analogy is that the argument that the content is fun because you are doing something else is not a positive for the content.

You could just go outside and chat to people, or you could just watch the commercials on YouTube. Why do the task that isn’t very fun to do? Why even add it in the first place. This thread is a critique on the fact that the effigies are not fun. ArenaNet has shown that they are welcome to feedback and respond accordingly. I hope they look at this thread and come up with fun ways to have us go around and do these fun events while also doing fun content.

I agree with OP 100% on how illogical and not-fun the effigies are. This is the same for Moa racing and pinata’s. Dragonball was at least something that was actually a game and was kind of fun. Not my cup of tea per se, but it was a good addition.

Mind you I am not disagreeing. I said it before and I say it again the task itself isnt fun no doubt about that. That being said I do think they actually have value for the reason stated. Going back to the analogy, like you correctly said you dont need to have an errant to run at city hall to leave the house and do all the things mentioned in the analogy but that being said people often take the path of least resistance. IF they’re having fun watching tv they’ll have no motivation to go out and do all the other stuff. The errant is what tips the scales.

Going back to the land of tyria I think the idea behind the effigies is on those same lines. I am sure no game designer at Arenanet thought this would be an exciting activity that people will go crazy about. Personally I think this is just a different the holiday version of the new dailies.

Let me elaborate … One problem a lot of people complain is empty zones. We see a lot of such posts everywhere. The game is designed so that players can literally play anywhere and still progress but a large majority of players just play the most profitable content and nothing else. They got comfortable sitting home watching TV that they stopped going out and do all the other stuff. The effigies all over the place are an attempt to get people to spread out and seems to me its working. It certainly worked on me before the effigies I was mostly doing events and farming holograms in just a couple of zones. Now just this morning I have already visited 4 zones by this evening it will be twice if not more then thakittens

also the same purpose hearts have. Hearts arent really exciting content but they have a vital function. It takes people in the general area where dynamic events happens and more importantly then that it keeps them there hopefully long enough for dynamic events to start.

Bottom line I think sometimes you need to create gameplay mechanics who’s primary function isnt themselves but to facilitate other content. I bet this is one such case.