Guild Wars 2

First, a quick note about me and my GW2 Toon:

I’ve been SEVERELY procrastinating on playing the GW2 PvE game… I got wrapped up in the sPvP aspect of the game and by the time the Halloween festivities kicked off, my highest level character was level 11. ELEVEN. I preface my post with this because it’s important to mention for anyone who thinks that ANet has made some of the content inaccessible to lower level players. It’s simply not true. It’s more difficult sure, but far from impossible.

Mad King’s Memoirs Part 1 and 2: Google the locations and find people to help you. I had no problems finding help. You WILL die along the way if you are low level, but with careful positioning and awareness of your surroundings you will die far less than if you just try and rush through to the next page of the book(s). Also, the person(s) helping you get there will be grateful for your cooperation.

Labyrinth and Mad King Dungeons: You get auto-leveled to 80 upon entering. You will not be AS effective as a true 80, so again… exercise caution, don’t stand in the fire, and use the best skills you have available to the best of your ability to help the group.

CLOCK TOWER: Level doesn’t matter here… time, patience and determination are the key factors to success. I wanted to give up. I was as frustrated as I have EVER been playing a video game. My computer is low end and my latency is 200+. I was ready to call it impossible and join the whine-fest on the forums about how unfair it was. But I kept at it… 8+ hours… learning every nuance… being a bit more ready for the next jump each and every time. Pretty soon it was more about making the jump instead of figuring out WHERE to jump. Finally, I did it. And it was a VERY rewarding experience despite the lackluster loot.

Note: Persons with disabilities may have a legitimate gripe with the Clock Tower. Everyone else should stop whining. My computer/connection from the hotel where I completed it is worse than yours… I guarantee it.

RNG Loot: Deal with it. I spent tons of money on gems and got NOTHING (seriously… like $100). Just like most of us. We knew they would be rare. ANet gave us a second chance with MK Chests… again, NOTHING. Try again next year or save up and buy what you want from the BLTP. I grinded candy corn for hours and hours and BOUGHT my Scythe skin. Now I’m grinding the MK Dungeon in hopes for The Crossing to drop… I doubt I will get it.

What I’m getting at here is that while a lot of the Halloween stuff may be a major pain in the butt, it is all doable. Even by a level ELEVEN toon like me (actually I’m 25 now just from rigorously grinding away on all the Halloween events and crafting… but I started this out at 11).

So hang in there… this stuff was meant to be challenging. And if you don’t get everything, there’s always next year. In fact, most MMO Holiday events are indeed not MEANT to be fully completed in a single year.

Gratz you have 8+ hours to keep at it until you learn every jump etc. Some of us do not have that time frame, and some people just stink at jumping games in video games.

I don’t mind a challenge but when you have other players in your way, depth perception issues and other issues it is really not fair. I have over the last 2 days managed to do it like 30 times and I have YET to make it past the 1st jumping part (right after you have to wait at the beginning)

I just don’t believe that achievements should be handed out based off of a skill some people JUST DO NOT HAVE

And I don’t believe there should be achievements and mini-pets exclusive to progress made in GW1… but there is.

The jumping puzzle is hard as kitten. But it’s doable. Is all I’m saying.

Nautika.5376:

Gratz you have 8+ hours to keep at it until you learn every jump etc. Some of us do not have that time frame, and some people just stink at jumping games in video games.

I don’t mind a challenge but when you have other players in your way, depth perception issues and other issues it is really not fair. I have over the last 2 days managed to do it like 30 times and I have YET to make it past the 1st jumping part (right after you have to wait at the beginning)

I just don’t believe that achievements should be handed out based off of a skill some people JUST DO NOT HAVE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achievement_
“They are effectively arbitrary challenges laid out by the developer to be met by the player.”
Should i show the definition of “Challenge” too?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge
“A challenge is a general term referring to things that are imbued with a sense of difficulty and victory.”

But in all seriousness I agree with the OP, the clock tower is a challenge, and a very difficult one at that. But it’s for an achievement, not everyone gets the trophy. Only those that can complete/achieve it get it. It is not game breaking, there is no advantage to be gained from it over any other player. It’s not even worth that many achievement points. It does not stop your progress to the main title.

I find it refreshing to find a video game that is not afraid to put content out that is difficult to accomplish, something I have not experienced since I played FFXI. And it is completely optional.

I cracked up at the “8+ hours” bit.

I can’t give you impenetrable logic as to why this just seems so crazy. It just makes me think of Angry Video Game Nerd and how every single one of his demonstrations of ludicrously difficult game design could be countered by someone coming along and saying, “Dude, it’s okay, after 8+ hours, I managed to beat it.”

In the old days, of course, that was the only way to make games last. We only had tiny amounts of space for levels, so you had to make sure that the player had to sink hours into getting past just one screen, otherwise it would be over too soon.

Focksbot.6798:

I cracked up at the “8+ hours” bit.

I can’t give you impenetrable logic as to why this just seems so crazy. It just makes me think of Angry Video Game Nerd and how every single one of his demonstrations of ludicrously difficult game design could be countered by someone coming along and saying, “Dude, it’s okay, after 8+ hours, I managed to beat it.”

In the old days, of course, that was the only way to make games last. We only had tiny amounts of space for levels, so you had to make sure that the player had to sink hours into getting past just one screen, otherwise it would be over too soon.

Thus far, the entirety of GW2; while fun; has been ridiculously easy.

It’s nice to have a challenge.

Took me roughly 50 tries on clock tower until I completed it. Now I can do it almost every time. It’s awesome, all of my alts have the slippers now.

It’s a cake walk now, but it definitely took some practice.

All achievements for the title of “Emissary Of The Mad King” is just so easy its almost ridiculous. And the fact that pumpkin carving/Clock tower are the only ones that are NOT requiered for the title is just weird since those two are the only ones that are “some-what” hard and time-consuming. I made this all in one day without any problems on my level 11, im quite dissapointed it was this easy. Only need to attend the party and its all done…

1 hour and 10 minutes before I beat the Clocktower, now I do it on mostly every try.

I dont get it, I find the people that are whining about this are a bunch of babies. Really. So what if you cant get every single event done? I think it’s great that you cant. It should be difficult, and you should’nt be able to get it all. Whats special about it, if everyone gets it? And people complain so hard about the loot. Who cares about the loot? You should be in it for the fun. Thats what i think about this.

I can at times make it to the place where you need to jump very far down,
I believe other players call it ‘the leap of faith part’, however I constantly
find myself getting their too late to jump down, and I am not sure what
I can do better to get there faster, without any kind of speed buff.
I do however believe, if you wasn’t forced to wait for parts to break of
the tower to continue (in the start), meaning they should be there to
start with, it would provide with soem extra needed time …that’s all I would like,
not the big tweaks everyone else suggest because they find it too hard.

ehi guys.. i visited or 4 MK lands.. but the archievment is stopped at 3/4.. is it a bug?? i cannot finish it.. anyone could help me??

Anyone can complete the Halloween achievements, unless the doors are bugged

Geez 8+ hours for clock tower is insane…i’m glad it took me 20 minutes :O

I read your whole post and… it sounded like it was describing a really horrible experience that you got through and now that’s the ordeal is over, you’re incredibly relaxed and happy.

“I was as frustrated as I have EVER been playing a video game.” For eight hours.

That’s where you lost me. I play games for fun. Someone who was tricked into thinking being frustrated as they ever have been playing games, for eight hours, is mistaking the pleasure/release of getting through a terrible experience and it finally being behind them and putting all that positive reflection onto the experience itself. The way you described it, the gameplay experience wasn’t fun, the fact that it was over is what you enjoy most.

No content should ever be designed to have the pay off being that you don’t have to do it any more, that it’s over. The experience, the journey should be what you play for. Guild Wars 2 was supposed to break the mold on MMOs training us to be masochists, training us to grind and play through monotonous repetitive gambling gameplay to enjoy ourselves. They’ve gone in the opposite direction.

A. You read it wrong then. The entire 8 hours was immensely enjoyable. In the end it was just me and my new Asura buddy. We’d been through hell together… HELL! He made it before I did, I was SOOO happy for him… we had both been consistently making it to about the 75% mark at that point: “Leap of Faith”. It was honestly one of the most social experiences I’ve had in this game in addition to being the most challenging. Nothing builds camaraderie like shared pain and frustration.
B. This is a tiny, instanced puzzle that is available only for the Halloween season… your claims that ANet has somehow “strayed from course” is ridiculous. This is .001% of the game right now and in a few days will be 0%.

Completed the puzzle in a relatively short time, but are you seriously equating going through hell as an immensely enjoyable experience? …

While it was social, I get the same amount of social interaction playing costume brawl in LA. I did talk to a lot of people while trying to complete the jumping puzzle, but it was all shared frustration and annoyance. After I completed, I never talked to any of those people again. Not sure what the difference is between that and playing around in LA. In addition, there is just so much hate for norn and charr flying around, that it’s clearly not about building camaderie for them. Yes, it is possible to do the jumping puzzle with norns and charrs in the group, but it is made artificially more difficult if they are present while you are attempting to memorize the jumps. All in all, I liked certain aspects of the jumping puzzle, but the social aspect was not better than any other social experience I’ve had in the game. Finally, the frustrating aspects because of the forced 15 players in my mind outweigh the “funness” of the puzzle.