Guild Wars 2

Regardless of whether you completed it or not, this man deserves a medal for raising our blood pressure.

To which I say to Mr Foreman; is that all you’ve got? Make me a puzzle so kitten devious I’ll ignore my Christmas dinner to complete it.

The clocktower was extremely fun and challenging. PLEASE put more like this in the future. If you don’t want it to be during a temporary event, thats fine I guess… but my entire guild is talking about how bummed we are that people are making you feel bad about this thing and we all agree that this was the best part of the halloween update.

Remember, the forum crowd is a small minority.

I absolutely enjoyed the puzzle. I never expected such a challenge from a Halloween event and I hope there will be more like it on the next holidays.

I agree. I personally felt it was too easy for me lol. Fifteen minutes for my first time atop the tower, another half hour of optimizing my route, and hours of consistently beating the clocktower.

100% agreed! Don’t be sorry! The clock tower was by far my favorite piece of the Halloween event and I feel Josh went above and beyond with this one.

I saw the outcries on the forums before my first attempt and since I’m not exactly the best at jumping puzzles, was mentally prepared to not have the achievement by the end of the Halloween event. But I still wanted to at least give it the ol’ college try! I started around 8:30pm Pacific Friday and kept trying and trying, failing miserably time and time again. And I amazingly didn’t get too terribly frustrated (probably because I already set myself up for the worst-case scenario of not finishing it). But little by little, I learned the nuances got farther and farther. 4 hours later, I finally made it to the top and scored my slippers and achievement! Probably my proudest moment and greatest sense of accomplishment that I’ve felt in this game yet!

I could have just walked away slippers and achievement in hand…but a funny thing happened. I tried it AGAIN! I kept going, trying to perfect my technique and to see if I could do it a second time. And hour after my first completion, I scored my second completion. Ankittenpt going and going and going! And completed the puzzle again and again and again. I’m completely addicted!

I spent the majority of the Halloween event doing this puzzle because I so incredibly enjoyed it and wanted to get as much in as possible before it goes away. I lost count how many times I actually completed the puzzle, but I’d estimate I made it to the top WELL over 100 times over the course of the event based on my trick-or-treat bag count. This puzzle even compelled me to record my gameplay for the first time ever to commemorate that I was able to master this most difficult content (http://youtu.be/ymjSyh7o_EA).

Long story short, I LOVE this puzzle and it’s among my favorite content in the game. Keep up the good work Mr. Foreman! I look forward to what you have in store for us in the future!

Sent people here to this thread from mine;

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/halloween/My-ONLY-issue-with-the-Clocktower-and-it-isn-t-horrible/first#post595052

I to wish to extend my appreciation for the quality of this jump puzzle. I did have an issue with it, as I was never able to complete it from just not being able to see the landing platforms… but I STILL LOVED IT!!!

Keep up the good work Josh.

I loved the jump puzzle.

For many the Mad King’s ClockTower was a stressful puzzle with various complications, but I myself enjoyed it completing it 6 times, I’d love to see further challenging puzzles implemented into the game.

Frankly I hated it, but don’t want to discourage the making of others since some people like it. I just wish it wasn’t a requirement to complete the Halloween Special Event Achievements. That is what really causes my distress as I completed everything else and had fun doing it, but the Clock Tower just isn’t fun (for me) and the fact that it was even mentioned that it was only really for about 5% of the population makes it that much more frustrating.

Make more, but don’t make them a requirement for other achievements (or if you do, put them into the Jumping Puzzle achievement line)

Please make more like it! Just let us spend the entire year getting frustrated on them and hurling mice at monitors, not several days!

please add more like the Clock Tower challenge, I thought it was great fun!

Honestly , the CT is by far the best part of the halloween event.

To me this jumping puzzle was perfect. It had an awesome design, theme and difficulty level. The issue of different sized characters overlapping needs to be resolved, but in terms of the level design, I’d love to see more like it in the future.

I agree….clock tower was awesome. It was frustrating but I enjoy a good challenge and I do hope they put more challenging content into the game like this.

I’d just like to jump in and make my first post here in support of Josh. I’m new to the game, but not at all new to MMO’s, and personally I am a little sick and tired of the crowd that feels that a holiday event is supposed to hand them loot and achievements on a silver freakin platter!

Like many others I was unable to complete the Clock Tower this year, but personally I think it’s AWESOME that in the post-WoW market somebody still believes in creating unique and fun content that is NOT dumbed down for an ever growing casual crowd. There is still a whole lot to do during the holiday for those of you that couldn’t complete it, and who knows maybe this will motivate you to try it again next year. Hell, it’s not like we have to pay $15 a month for the privelage!

So please Josh, continue making unique content like this and don’t cater to a vocal minority that insists that you give away achievements for breathing while not tripping over the keyboard at the same time! I’ll be looking forward to an even more challenging series of jumps for Christmas, and I know I won’t be the only one!

This is probably the most satisfying puzzle I have ever completely so pleeeeeeeeease don’t change anything that you are doing! It may have been frustrating at times but that is a given for all good platform games like Mario. Never had so much fun.

First of all, I couldn’t complete the clocktower this go around, maybe next time who knows. I’m not at all mad about it, it beat me fair and square, and I smiled all the way into the green stuff. Don’t be sorry for this one, it was awesome.

I never finished the clock tower either, but I had fun trying to do it with my friends. It turned more into a “let’s see which of us can get the furthest before we hit the fog of doom” since none of us really could get to the top lol. We’re mostly just bum we don’t have more time to keep trying it.

It was a real challenge and I don’t mind it at all to see more jumping “challenges” on occasion in the future.

I honestly loved this JP. Though I know it’s not for everyone, there was just something about being able to beat something that most people consider difficult that made me really proud of myself.

I support this thread 110%! I spent hours trying to complete this. Sure it was hard, required patience and some persistence, but even when failing it was a great social experience with everyone else around me failing too! Having a laugh, /cry about it

The Clock Tower was the best part of Halloween for me. I did complete it after a few hours and then many times after that as I was able to loot the chests for the trick or treat bags on the way.

I love that Anet were able to provide a challenge that didn’t involve raiding. This was a lot of fun, extremely rewarding and challenging and I look forward to more just like it!

Oh and pretty much everything “nightangelbeta.7851” a few posts above me said (forum isn’t letting me quote?). Not everything should be handed on a silver platter. You don’t see people here complaining that Anet should change all puzzles to be like the clocktower for a real challenge! A lot of people would be mad about that. So why not let those of us who enjoy a real challenge, actually have one?

Besides its not like it was ever needed for The Emissary title.

TLDR – Great job! Loved the difficulty of this platform puzzle! I’d love to see more of it and not everything should be spoon fed to people, some of us like a good challenge.

The difficulty helps to make it memorable It keeps people talking and the game needs more content like this not less. don’t trivialize your content Josh Foreman.

Much like the people Kitten about the parts were they need to drop down in the MK dungeon, MMO’s NEEDS VARYING LEVELS of DI FACULTY IN THERE CONTENT both during events and year round

I may have cussed and moaned the hole time i atempted it but my god when i finaly made it to the top it was such a good feeling, my adrenalin was going my hands were shacking and i had to text my guild leader. YOU DONT GET MOMENTS LIKE THAT FROM EASY CONTENT

Clock tower = best part of this event

also we need more Boss fights with environments like that of the MK!!!!!

Because of the clock tower i will never forget this halloween and this will go down in my book of one of my fav MMO events ever!!!!!!

I think that the clock tower was a masterpiece, 10/10. It’s one of the funnest and memorable things I’ve ever experienced in Guild Wars 2.

It reminds me much of Mario 64 with that clock level! It’s a race against the clock. It’s survival of the fittest, the challenge of it was immensely enjoyable, it required nerves, and you could see the progress of yourself. Every time you did your personal best, you knew you were 1 jump closer to the top! When you overcame certain hurdles, you learned from it and knew how to approach it correctly next time. It took me ~90 minutes of failures to finally reach the top and it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve experienced from gaming in a long time.

Lots of other people I’ve talked to have loved it as well. Having 10 or so people with you compete in the challenge enhances it greatly, you see the familiar faces around you drop 1 by 1, you see their progress and who the most likely people to finish are, as you get closer and closer to the summit you all get more excited. The repetition of having the same people over and over also made people interact with each other, joke and laugh about the whole thing. I also made some friends out of it, even though I was in the overflow.

It’s very challenging and rewarding, 10/10

I guess the only criticism that I could have of it is that it was a halloween achievement, that said for scaling something that challenging, we deserve an achievement! Maybe have a bonus section of the event achievements or something, so that those who can’t scale the clock, know that they haven’t missed out on anything major and won’t feel left out.

Really really encouraged by the nature and quality of some of the content in this special event esp MK and the clock tower – both big steps up on some of the content in the game as it shipped. As long as the super hard stuff is fun and totally opt in as far as achievements and completion is concerned the more of it the better. Bring on the expansions!

For some reason I loved the Clock Tower more than any other jump puzzle. The time limit which makes us have to keep moving and jumping is what keeps it exciting.

I’m no expert at jump puzzle either. It took me 2 days of practice to finally get to the top, and that’s why I find it rewarding. If it easy, then its not rewarding, its not memorable. People would do it and forget it.

I should also add, there is nothing wrong with the clock tower only being for a short time every year, it give’s us Platform Fanatics something to look forward to

“so you like the hard jumping puzzles and your new to the game…? wate untell Halloween”

Also loved it!A bit of challenge is always fun!

And the Mad King’s clocktower really did make so many people lose their mind over it, it was fantastic!

Im gonna do other jumping puzzles after this one :p

I say give us a hard jumping puzzle for every haliday event, Wintersday can have somthing with ice you slide on O_O and and poler bares trying to eat you!!! and rock slides

JOSH! Here’s my two cents:

First of all, that tower was some of the coolest feelings I’ve ever had from a video game. The anticipation of waiting, the thrill as the fog is rising and your heart is pounding. Absolutely awesome.

I don’t care what anyone says, I did eventually complete it, but it took a long time and lots of practice. Just like anything in life, anyone can learn any skill, it just takes time. Trying 10 – 20 times and giving up doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It might take someone 1000 times to do it, and granted there wouldn’t be enough time for that (which is the only possible issue I see here) if you commit enough you can do it.

Last night (Oct 30th, I’m in BC) at 10:30PM, I was on my 20th or so run. I was getting very very close, and very very frustrated. It’s one of those things that you want to do so bad, but get mad because you can’t. I love getting that from a video game. It’s why I loved Dark Souls, and why I loved this.

I don’t care about the quest rewards or the achievements (I mean, I do :P) but they are somewhat of a back seat to the sheer thrill of the event. You can’t get thrills like that from most games. You have some how managed to make a halloween themed event that MADE you want to push yourself further – just to see whether or not you could master it.

I did want that achievement for sure, but even before I completed it and could see myself getting better it was an absolute joy. After completion, I told myself I would never set foot in there again :P and was SO happy. Like jumping up and down happy. It’s very hard to get me to jump up and down from a video game (28 years old, raised on NES/Atari) I’ve played my fair share of games, and let me tell you that feeling I felt was rare.

I understand people’s frustration, really I do. Some don’t have time, some think they can’t do it, but that’s all irrelevant. It should be looked at for not only the thought that was put into it, but the THRILL of it. Not the difficulty, the thrill you feel in your heart as you ascend that bloody tower. I mean my hands would sweat, my wrist would cramp, I TORTURED myself because I knew if I stopped to adjust or took too long my run was over.

It was absolutely 100% masterfully done, and you shouldn’t feel anything less than fu<king proud for making it. Honestly, well done.

In 40 years when I am old and grey, I’ll probably forget my first girl friend, or the first time I did WvWvW, the first time I ate fast food, the first alcohol I consumed, etc

But trust me when I tell you, I will never ever forget the thrill of that jumping puzzle. I went in an apprentice, and I came out a master, and for this, I thank you.

Don’t ever feel bad for anything. You can never please everyone, but you pleased the hell out of me.

And though I may be a bit biased, in all honesty if I never solved the puzzle last night or today, I would tell you the same kitten thing. My heart hasn’t beaten that hard in YEARS.

Well done.

/cheer

The clock tower was amazing! After spending quite a bit of time practicing and practicing, when I finally reached the top I was ecstatic. I hadn’t felt reward like that in a game since my earliest years on Ultima Online. Absolutely wonderful. Thank you for the fun.

Aww we all love care bears

“It was absolutely 100% masterfully done, and you shouldn’t feel anything less than kittening proud for making it. Honestly, well done.
In 40 years when I am old and grey, I’ll probably forget my first girl friend, or the first time I did WvWvW, the first time I ate fast food, the first alcohol I consumed, etc
But trust me when I tell you, I will never ever forget the thrill of that jumping puzzle. I went in an apprentice, and I came out a master, and for this, I thank you.”

This so much this exactly my feelings HyDraLiNsK

The jump puzzle reminds me a lot of ps2 (and earlier) platform games, unforgiving, uncompromising, one tiny mistake and you start all the way from the beginning. I think it’s nice that an MMO can attempt to incorporate this type of game play for those that love it, and it’s a shame that the entitled complainers feel the need to try to ruin it for everyone because it’s too difficult for them.

I don’t think that every player needs to complete 100% of all content offered in an MMO, I think it’s great that there is at least one challenge that people really had to work for.

It really bothered me to read that in the other thread. I guess the player’s moaning finally beat him down. I really thought Anet was intentionally taking the gameplay away from grind by implementing a challenging albeit time-consuming jumping puzzle. But to hear that things will be dumbed down YET AGAIN in this game just bothers me.

No, I do not want to go farm the Labyrinth. No, MK was not fun after my 10th run. No, I do not want to go run dungeon after dungeon hoping for good loot. No, I do not want to run around carving pumpkins for over 5 hours. Sure, I don’t mind doing those things (and I did) but I didn’t complain—nor did anyone else for that matter. We just did it, because that’s what an MMORPG is. It’s a grind.

And yet, The Mad King’s Clock Tower is really all I had that I found challenging and just pure fun other than the PVP style mini-games, which were pretty fun but not exactly addicting the way I found the Mad Clock Tower. But hey, people want to be able to jump up a few blocks and get an achievement so we better give it to them before they complain that GAMEZ 2 HARD!!1

the clock tower is awesome!

sure i felt extremely frustrated at first but the next morning i calmed down and gone it done.

so just “keep calm and keep on jumping!”

haters gonna hate anyway.

Personally, my hands were sweating so much the entire time (they are prone to overperspiration) that my mouse pad kept getting wet, causing the optical mouse to bug out after 2 attempts or so. Accordingly, I could only stomach two attempts at the time before it bugged out too much.

I didn’t make it this year, but I am going to get some talcum powder/surgical gloves for next year!

Love your woik!

i fricking loved the jumping puzzle!!!
despite the many many tries (not TOO bad from hindsight actually), the hate from non-Norn or Charr characters.. because there was MORE good than bad.DDDDDD

- i thoroughly enjoyed the challenge! it was fun, exhilarating and when you finally make it up top it’s liek WOOOOOOSAAAAAAAAAAA. or, even when you make a personal best! the first time i made it up to the top of the stairs (even though i missed the jump i nto the clock tower itself lol), my heart was racing and hand semi-shaking
- the more worse the situation, the more you see people for who and what they can be —> when i was on the receiving end of many insults, etc, more players would stand up for me, or the situation. so thank you to those who did. i appreciate it.
- one of the BIGGEST takeaways from this event though, i would have to say, is that it’s REALLY honed in my jumping skills. or rather, to help me truly understand how jumping needs to be done in gw2. when i first did the WvW BL JP’s, i’d fall alot unneccesarily and felt that i MUST have a speed boost for it to work. now? i can do them wihout speed boosts, and run them without having to pause and adjust after each jump. can’t wait to try out all the other jumping puzzles now!

thanks again.

dear Josh Foreman,

u did an excellent work with the mad king clock tower.
please remember that it is impossible to satisfy everyone.

make it challenging, then ppl will complain too hard.
make it not-challenging, then ppl will complain too easy.

keep up the good work!

Agreed, more like this please! It was the best part of the Halloween event and it’s something I will remember for a long time. Not many games make me say that. In fact, none has.

No, it was not fun. This is ur personal opinion, OP. Clocktower was awful design and a bad idea for a jumping “puzzle” in a holiday event. Worst idea ever.

As I can see every1 is adressing their messages to this guy Josh, yes, Josh, please make more jumping “puzzles”, they are so fun and chalenging, I can play MMO full of only jumping “puzzles”, omg so much fun…I recomend ur next expansion to be The Madness of Josh: Jumping Puzzles. Make a whole continent only with jumping puzzles.

A guy with a nickname like Funset clearly has a better understanding of what fun is. I guess it makes sense.

The clock tower was absolutely wonderful. Please make more like it. It’s a truly unique experience that hasn’t been done in a MMO before. Fetch quests? Done to death. Special holiday boss encounter? Done to death. Timed platforming jumping puzzles with rewards? Now THAT is something new.

Pay no attention to the people who feel that every single portion of the game has to be personally designed for them. Guild Wars 2 is exceptional in that it really has something for everyone. Please continue to deliver exciting platforming like this for those of us who love it.

Funset, if it makes you QQ more, then I’m all for it.

Throwing in my support here for Josh. Took me a fair while to get it down but once I had, it was a great feeling of accomplishment (probably rusty as it’s been soooooo long since my old platformer days).

More puzzles like this, please – it’s even got me more interested in doing the rest of the jumping puzzles…..until the Wintersday one comes out! (there is one for Wintersday, right?!)

And yes, I did rage hard when I failed countless times – but I stuck at it, improved little by little, made adjustments for the dodgy camera and big characters and won!

I would like to know if Josh can give us a figure on whether his estimated 5% completion rate was accurate or not. Any chance of that Josh?

Oh and PS – coming from that other game (cough wow cough) this halloween was done infinitely better (with the exception of the RNG on the skins – that was just plain wrong and greedy, imo).

The only issue I have with the jumping puzzle is that it’s only available for a limited time.

If this puzzle could be completed year round then there would be a lot less complaining.

A Puzzle that takes 4 hours to complete, but is only up for under a week is frustrating.

Especially when there are other cool Halloween events to complete in that time span.

People with a more packed schedule simply do not have the time to complete this.

Funset.7893:

Make a whole continent only with jumping puzzles.

Josh, Please make this a reality. I’d love to fight enemies in three dimensions.

Viserion.5130:

A guy with a nickname like Funset clearly has a better understanding of what fun is. I guess it makes sense.

I guess my ID has nothing to do with the topic. Can u come with some better comment?

Anyone who has seen me flailing around to get to a Vista that’s even slightly above waist high knows that a hard kitten timed jumping puzzle was probably the last thing I should have attempted.

But I did. Over and over and over and over and over again. I spent hours, an embarrassing number of them, and I crashed more times than I could possibly count. It was hard, unfair, impossible, infuriating, and addictive. I made so little progress for so long that I was starting to question my mental health.

Then I realized how much fun I was having. Yeah, the puzzle was hard, but I loved being in the lobby and anticipating what I could do the next time, could I get a good start off the pause? Would I make it over the cog this time, and maybe to the little block before it’s covered? And when I wasn’t anticipating, I was looking at the other players in the room, checking out their character designs and armor, chatting with them sometimes or sometimes just silently sympathizing with their expressed pain and frustration.

And it was awesome. Aside from a few tiffs, and some rampant Norn racism, everyone was so supportive. We cheered for people when the timer ran close, we cheered for people who were cheering for themselves. We were genuinely happy for those who made it, and when I finally made it, the people in the lobby were happy for me.

I was, to be honest, ecstatic. I am horrible at these things, but I wanted to beat this one puzzle. Not only did I achieve that, admittedly sadistic, goal, but I did it with all of my characters and then came back for more. My bank now has a neat row of Mad King Slippers and I am weirdly proud of my little collection. I don’t really go out of my way to challenge myself in these games, and I am an MMO hermit most of the time, but the Mad King’s Clocktower pushed me out of my comfort zone and kitten it, every stupid hour and faceplant was worth it. So…thanks, Josh.

CT was only fun thing in all this Halloween lol . I hope they make more of it and harder. This game srsly need some hard but rewording content.