Guild Wars 2

Dear Arena Net,

well I think it’s a great thing to bring in new stuff allready and I am looking forward to it.

But I think it’s not the best idea, to plan never repeating one time events. Don’t forget, it’s a game and planing real life about a game (especially a whole weekend primetime of all three days) is in most cases a bad idea, leads to prpblems with the close family and dissapoints all who can’t be there at that special moment.

I would appreciate to repeat them at least 3 times in a day oder within the following days or weekends.

You see, we MMO Players accept reincarnating boss events over and over again and take them serious and live the story in that particular moment, not thinking about how it would be possible, that he’s back again, after we killed him a few hours ago.

Maybe you can think about that.

Best regards, and please continue what you do, you do it right… well at least the most !

Björn / aka Wyglaf

With a very high degree of respect to ArenaNet for making a great game to play, I’d like to second this.

Many of us don’t really even have a viable option to plan around these events – they’re occurring when we’re working (Oceanic), or at otherwise impossible-to-play times.

I do recognise the need to start an event at some point in time, and I recognise the need to stop an event at a later point in time. It would be nice, however, if some of these events weren’t an automatic “Sorry, you can’t partake in this because of where you live”. The solution could be to design them as staged, or repeatable, or phased events – though in saying that, I will readily admit, I’m no content designer, so I’m speaking out of turn.

Would it be possible please to find out if there will be some reward or item or achievement that those absolutely unable to attend these one time events will miss out on? I do appreciate this wasn’t the case with Halloween, and that is appreciated, but the “concern” does remain that one day, this may happen.

Once again, thank you ArenaNet for making such a great game, I hope future posters in this thread can keep this constructive, voicing their concerns and feedback!

Midnight, you are not speaking out of turn. You may not be a content designer, but you are a customer. And you are a customer who just got told by the content designers that “Sorry, the one time content we design is not meant for people like you”
If Arenanet had wanted, they could have scheduled everything a day early so that the multiple hours long one time event was not on a Sunday, when it would become unplayable by many time-zones. Had they made it a Saturday evening event for the US (as noone doubts it is only the US they cater to with this), the dreg that lives in the rest of the world (in other words “us” without the capitalisation) could have snuck in and gotten some fun as well.
So while I respect your good manners, your willingness to formulate a well written and polite post to voice your disappointment, I don’t see this being a two-way thing. To them you don’t seem to exist.

Sunday 20:00 GMT – Login Wars 2

Dear Arenanet,
On the one hand, it has been great to see so many interestingly fun events and new contents added to a fantastic game. On the other hand, the implementation and timing of the events are in my personal opinion not handled on a professional level equivalent to a game that caters to players worldwide. That is to say, are players all over the world given a reasonable chance to fully enjoy the content of all the events.

Take for example, my timezone is GMT +8. Most of my guild mates have around the same time zone as me. Is Arenanet then telling us “too bad, you and almost your entire guild just have to miss all the special events in future because you are the minority and all special events are going to happen at noon PDT which happens to be your 3am when most of you should already be asleep. If you want to join all special events in future, you just have to forgo sleep.”

The question I would like to pose is how significant does ANet feel about alienating the players in the minority timezone group? Is this a professional standard a game company which produces a game meant for a global audience should be having?

First and foremost, I would not have asked the above questions for the other mmorpgs i have played. However, as I am a loyal GW1 and GW2 fan, I would like to point out that in playing GW1, I have never ever feel in the slightest way being treated unfairly because i am not staying in the same timezone as the majority. The events in GW1 are always well thought out, implemented on a recurring basis so that everyone has a chance to experience it. So is there a substantial reason why this is not the case in GW2?

I see your point OP but I would disagree, I love the idea of one time events from a gameplay point of view, world changing events give you good reason to explore more area or re explore old ones, it makes the world and the story much more interesting.

I probably won’t be able to join in on this one either despite it being good timing for me (UK) due to work commitments, but I don’t mind on on one condition:

They MUST also implement something to explain the changes from the point of view of someone like us who maybe can’t make the big event, I’m hoping they manage the best of both worlds. The worst would be to log in and find everything has changed for no apparent (to you character) reason.

I beleive the one time event will be very similar to the one time event we had during halloween. Just a cutscene introducing us to the new content.

Very disappointed that Friday event starts at 12:00pm PST, being in West Coast in all is awesome, BUT really many of us have full time jobs, and cannot get off until 5:00pm PST.

It was great that when Guild Wars 2 launched, it launched at a time when most people can play. BUT these events that occur only once… let me say again: ONLY ONCE, does not seem fair to many of the community who have work or is set at a time when it is impossible to play because it is too late.

It sucks when you have to youtube what actually happen at the event without experiencing it live with your character. I do love this game in all, but wish you can make this event at time more convenient for the rest of us. OR have it run multiple times (does not have to run every hour).

Any idea if the events are for level 80s (high levels > 60-80)? beside being a one time event, I did not appreciate Halloween’s where we had to be high levels and/or youngster with a lot of free time (Clock tower -.-) to enjoy it + lots of grind or money…I would not care if its not a one time thing. One time event with level and condition restrictions. Why all the restriction when it comes to events and new content?

I love the idea of One time Events – but they way they are currently timed, it just simply excludes COMPLETELY people like me who have it fall at an obscene time or a work day
It almost feels like automatic discrimination

This is a big downer. Dynamic one time events that change the world is one of the biggest USPs of Guild Wars that made me excited to play.
Sure you have events otherwise, but technically they repeat.
So why would you repeatedly keep the one time activity at a time where not everyone can experience it ?

Why not have the one time event Sunday Morning or even Saturday ? instead of smack bang in the middle of a workday for your fans halfway across the world ?

Sunday Morning / Saturday would still benefit USA and Europe gamers with it being on a weekend

I get that it’s symbolic to have it at NOON Sunday and that it “earmarks” the weekend for a GW event, but if ALL one time events are going to be thus timed, then coupled with the stuttering frame rates on powerful CPUs/GPUs ( Which I would hope devs are working on ) , GW2 is fast becoming a downer!

I’ll still play it, but with a bad taste in my mouth.

You guys realize that the only truly one time event is the one on the Sunday? And even that runs for multiple hours, so you have plenty of time to experience it. All the other ones are just the kick-offs for the events. The events themselves are going to be repeatable most likely for the day they’re released (or longer).

-edited for clarity

NightShadow.1429:

You guys realize that the only truly one time event is the one on the Sunday? And even that runs for multiple hours, so you have plenty of time to experience it. All the other ones are just the kick-offs for the events. The events themselves are going to be repeatable most likely for the day they’re released (or longer).

-edited for clarity

You do realize that based on the description posting, the culmination of the event is a one time event kick off on Sunday ?
And the Mad King erupting through to Lion’s Arch was also “just a kick off” but it was pretty darn cool and to miss it was tragic

Here’s the excerpt from the announcement

“The event will culminate in a big Finale on Sunday November 18, make sure you will not miss it. This will be a onetime only event chain that will run multiple hours, and it will kick off at noon PST (20:00 GMT). Again, this will only run once, so make sure you will be there! "

Tranquilnelf.1258:

NightShadow.1429:

You guys realize that the only truly one time event is the one on the Sunday? And even that runs for multiple hours, so you have plenty of time to experience it. All the other ones are just the kick-offs for the events. The events themselves are going to be repeatable most likely for the day they’re released (or longer).

-edited for clarity

You do realize that based on the description posting, the culmination of the event is a one time event kick off on Sunday ?
And the Mad King erupting through to Lion’s Arch was also “just a kick off” but it was pretty darn cool and to miss it was tragic

Here’s the excerpt from the announcement

“The event will culminate in a big Finale on Sunday November 18, make sure you will not miss it. This will be a onetime only event chain that will run multiple hours, and it will kick off at noon PST (20:00 GMT). Again, this will only run once, so make sure you will be there! "

Bolded relevent part. Yes it’s one time but it’s not like the Mad King (and even then, the Mad King still popped up periodically through the portal to do the same spiel, you just didn’t get the whole cut scene portion).

If it is anything like the Mad King “surprise” then it will just bug out anyway. I was there and still had to watch it on Youtube to actually see what was supposed to happen. So I’ll try to be there, but I’m not going to get upset if I miss it.

NightShadow.1429:

You guys realize that the only truly one time event is the one on the Sunday? And even that runs for multiple hours, so you have plenty of time to experience it.

Given that it kicks off around 3 am – 7am on a Monday for Oceanic Players, anyone who’s schooling or working would probably be able to log-in only roughly 12 hours or more after the one-time event chain begins in the U.S. . I sure hope they took that into consideration considering the amount of negative feedback they received during the Halloween Event (granted it was only a cutscene then, but who knows what this one may be?).

Draziert.9508:

NightShadow.1429:

You guys realize that the only truly one time event is the one on the Sunday? And even that runs for multiple hours, so you have plenty of time to experience it.

Given that it kicks off around 3 am – 7am on a Monday for Oceanic Players, anyone who’s schooling or working would probably be able to log-in only roughly 12 hours or more after the one-time event chain begins in the U.S. . I sure hope they took that into consideration considering the amount of negative feedback they received during the Halloween Event (granted it was only a cutscene then, but who knows what this one may be?).

Something a writer thinks is ‘epic’. Something that this writer thinks is worth permanently changing the world, even when the death of an Eldar Dragon isn’t.

In other words, bad writing.

Hullo girls and boys!

I’m an Oceanic player too.

First I’d like to thank Arena Net for making an AMAZING game, I haven’t been this excited about an online game since the first time I played one some 7-8 years ago.

I’d also like to point out that this is the first mmo I have played which launched at an awesome time for Oceanics, so try to remember that guys… this game started at 4-5pm for us, instead of every other mmo which starts before the birds are up.

I was originally concerned knowing I’d miss out on the launch of the Madking , once I found out it was only a cutscene I was happy to just watch it on YouTube.
Yes, being there and seeing it live would have been awesome, but a delayed telecast is better than nothing at all.

Now on to the heart of this thread (yeah I waffle on a bit) as a massive lover of Guild Wars 2 it does bother me when I read an official post stating that an event “should not be missed” but then goes on to inform me its starting at a time I know most of my guildies just can’t possibly be online for without forgoing sleep, or skipping study/work responsibilities. (Depending on time zone it starts between 4am-8am on a Monday)

“Several Hours” is a very vague window, does it mean 3 hours, or 6 or 12?

I don’t envy the team in charge of running these events, its an impossible task to get the times perfect for every player, many people living in areas where the event takes place during prime time will still miss out simply because they can’t play on that particular date, sometimes RL happens!

This is definitely not a reason to cease running these events entirely.

My suggestions are to;
a) Ensure “several hours” means a minimum of 12. Many people will still miss out, but more again will at least be able to attend.

b) If the event can’t run for an extended period, have an npc similar to “Mad King Thorn” and take advantage of overflow servers, if a player missed out on the event they can speak to the npc and be put in a special overflow server where the event is live.
If Arena Net don’t want people farming the event, the npc could probably ignore players who have already got the achievement (just like “Mad King Thorn” does)

I also suggest those of you who feel strongly about this write a letter to customer support/feed back in addition to posting here, and be sure to keep it constructive!

-Jamma

Another Asia-located client here. I forfeit my sleep for the Halloween event on Sunday 03.00 to experience the once in a lifetime event. I only got 2 hours sleep that day and went to work. I caught up on my sleep on Monday night after work.

In hindsight, it wasn’t worth it. Now another “not to miss” event is happening on a Sunday night at 03.00. This is rather annoying that I am having to choose between sleep or a gaming event and if this is going to be a regular thing as opposed to a once a year thing, I’m going to have to make the sensible choice and exclude myself from all events of the sort.

I know you can’t have a once-only event that accommodates everyone so I’d prefer them to find some other way around it or only have such events on Fridays or Saturdays so that those of us in Asia and Oceanic can catch up on our sleep on Sunday.

I would also like to agree with the OP.. Like Crazyjackal.6542 above the events happen at 3:00AM for me and the sunday ‘’do not miss’’ event falls on Monday morning at this time on a work day, Granted i start work early in the mornings myself so these events just mean getting up a few hours earlier and attending, then going to work afterwards.

Ideally i would like to see the events repeat every 2 / 3 hours over the course of possibly a 12 or 24 hour period to allow for all time zones, yes this takes away from it being a ‘’one time’’ thing but then it doesn’t throw out those of us who really want to attend and need to dramatically change our schedule to do so.

As much as i would like the above to happen it very well may not but i would at least like to know roughly what the events consist of rather than just ‘’get up and see what happens’‘. Although the halloween ’’event’’ was pretty cool this too fell on a work day at 3:00AM and i got up early to participate.. to find out it was for a cutscene that runs for less than a minute. if these events MUST remain as one time events i would like to see some kind of rough idea of what the event is, so i can decide if this is an event worth attending.

All this being said I’d like to say Thank you Arena net for making this game what it is and i really hope to see it going strong for years to come!

-Rskippy

Seconded. It blows that I made major plans for that weekend and now I cannot take part in this experience at all.

I agree with this. I think the idea of one time events is great in theory but horrible in practice. We might not pay a subscription fee, but I didn’t buy this game to miss out on some of the best parts of the game, and I don’t think anyone else did either. Surely there can be a way they can do these “one time” events and make them span all weekend or something, instead of having everyone “tune in” at the same time.

What if the servers act up because everyone is trying to log in?

Agreed. They need to repeat the events. Oceanic players are particularly impacted.

I absolutely love the idea of one time events – they add richness, lore and a sense of realism to the game. Creating the illusion of time passing in a game adds a new level of immersion and surprises keep the game fresh.

Personally, I would even go one step further and have some events happen unannounced.

Why is it that players are so resistant to new and slightly radical ideas? Surely the whole point of an MMO is that the game continues while you are not logged on.

Daroon.1736:

I absolutely love the idea of one time events – they add richness, lore and a sense of realism to the game. Creating the illusion of time passing in a game adds a new level of immersion and surprises keep the game fresh.

Personally, I would even go one step further and have some events happen unannounced.

Why is it that players are so resistant to new and slightly radical ideas? Surely the whole point of an MMO is that the game continues while you are not logged on.

I agree it makes the the game seem much more alive and adds something new every time you log on.

In other news the home pages does say it goes from the 16-18 so its more than just one single event but more likely a meta event made of a bunch of smaller ones that will repeat over the course of the meta event.

Daroon.1736:

I absolutely love the idea of one time events – they add richness, lore and a sense of realism to the game. Creating the illusion of time passing in a game adds a new level of immersion and surprises keep the game fresh.

Personally, I would even go one step further and have some events happen unannounced.

Why is it that players are so resistant to new and slightly radical ideas? Surely the whole point of an MMO is that the game continues while you are not logged on.

That would be great…if the world did not exist, and we could live in the MMO.

Avatara.1042:

Daroon.1736:

I absolutely love the idea of one time events – they add richness, lore and a sense of realism to the game. Creating the illusion of time passing in a game adds a new level of immersion and surprises keep the game fresh.

Personally, I would even go one step further and have some events happen unannounced.

Why is it that players are so resistant to new and slightly radical ideas? Surely the whole point of an MMO is that the game continues while you are not logged on.

That would be great…if the world did not exist, and we could live in the MMO.

Wait what?

You….

You’re not living in Tyria like the rest of us?

Well put Midnight. One-Time Events equals EXCLUSION. With out those RL jobs that people must go to during these “ONE-Time Events”, there would be no reason to design games like this. Not all jobs are M-F from 9-5. Make these so called events more like a ONE time completion for each character/account at their leisure within a reasonable time frame. Maybe 7-10 days.

There has only been a single one-time event as of yet and it was a cutscene. I doubt you’ll miss much of the action even if you miss the “event”, which is not necessarily even an event.

TheGreatA.4192:

There has only been a single one-time event as of yet and it was a cutscene. I doubt you’ll miss much of the action even if you miss the “event”, which is not necessarily even an event.

You’re right, there has only been one “One time event” so far.

Flipping the coin, this upcoming “One time event” is suggested to go for a few hours (all of which are unavoidably unattendable by certain time zones), and appear to be much more than a “Cut Scene”.

As a result, those of us who know already that this several hours of content will be something they’re unable to attend would respectfully like to know what achievements and/or items and/or content we will be missing – whilst providing hopefully constructive and polite feedback to the game publishers that having such an amount of content that particular segements of their client base are unable to attend may cause some level of disenfranchisment amongst those clients.

So I’m guessing the kick off event on Friday is a one time thing, and not continuous throughout the afternoon/evening? I unfortunately will still be working when the event kicks off and would hate to miss it!