Guild Wars 2

Simple question:

Will I need to be up all night, or wake up earlier on Monday (working day) to attend the event finale the 28th?

If the answer is yes, I think Europe had enough “short sticks” during the BWEs. Would be nice if we could experience the game in normal and reasonable hours. For example, make the event happen each hour for the entire day, or block server transfers while the event is live, but don’t ruin the game for EU.

in GW1 the final event lasted for 24 hours…i assume that is going to be the same but who knows

Short sticks during BWE’s, what are you talking about? They went on all weekend and started during US business hours, so most of us couldn’t even play until hours after it started. So I’m pretty sure we all had an equal amount of playtime.

If you want to discuss short sticks, how about the fact that every Stress Test was done during business hours in the US so we couldn’t actually play any of them? Oh you didn’t hear us complaining about that did you?

How about you tone down the QQ long enough to do research. They already stated it will be noon pacific time on the 28th (UTC -8) which means it will be done during prime time hours in the EU.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Update-Notes-October-22-2012/page/1

If anything they consider what times will be ideal for EU players more then US.

I’ve been assuming Europe was the reason North America keeps having server updates smack in the middle of NA prime-time. Seems like every time this week I finally get through the queue to enter WvW we’re getting kicked out for an update.

Where the OP says short sticks he’s talking about the BWE finale events that happened early mornings for people in Europe. Basically only the jobless could attend those in the EU.
As for the 28th. I’m reading it as the game will be patched around that time to start whatever is going to happen. Other than that nothing is known. It might simply be a whole day of specific Halloween stuff that only happens on that day. As such it would be a one time thing for the Halloween event.

The beta weekend events were after I went to sleep, as I had work the following morning (and I am pacific time Canada, I got to sleep around 11pm).

I think that most people had the problem that it was in the night/early morning.

In some ways, 7:20 am is better than what people in North America had. (11:20 pm here, but 2:20am eastern time?)

Back on topic – Let’s hope the finale event is 24 hours as someone previously said

Join us on October 28 (midday, Pacific Time), when we’ll celebrate the holiday pinnacle with a bang!

Source

The patch notes give a time for the event suggesting it will not be 24 hours. It sounds like it is a one off event. Which is an interesting choice.

I believe this is 7pm GMT and that the UK will be back on GMT then so would be 7pm. Please do correct me if that is incorrect.

Seems it’s noted here now: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/events/halloween-2012 (under act 3).

12:00 PM PT/19:00 GMT

So basically to all thos living in Central/western Europe (France, Germany, Austria, etc.) It’s going to be 9 PM

Lindetiel.4602:

So basically to all thos living in Central/western Europe (France, Germany, Austria, etc.) It’s going to be 9 PM

8PM because we change back to GMT+1 from GMT+2 this week-end :P

Is it so important for you to be online just for a big sparkle?
At least, this is what seems to be, the famous final event. It’s not gonna rain crafted halloween exotic weapons, for sure.
The only one who is gonna stay awake all the night for that final event are asians, not europeans for sure. In fact, i’ll go to sleep, not planning to ruin my daytime cycle for a sparkle

7PM GMT is Ok for EU for now. But I would like to ANet stop this “love about US only” and make US and EU events in the best hours for each soo the most players can have the fun.

Max Lexandre.6279:

7PM GMT is Ok for EU for now. But I would like to ANet stop this “love about US only” and make US and EU events in the best hours for each soo the most players can have the fun.

Guess is aks the moon, asking an event compatible worldwide, asia included.

Holska – I’m sorry but I think you’re wrong. We change time this weekend yes BUT it’s the Saturday/Sunday night So it’s still 9 PM (unless I got something wrong).

@Leiloni.7951
“If you want to discuss short sticks, how about the fact that every Stress Test was done during business hours in the US so we couldn’t actually play any of them? Oh you didn’t hear us complaining about that did you?”

Actually, facebook was full of complaints about that. Those tests were at those times for ArenaNets convenience not for European players. You didn’t miss much BTW, the servers were very unreliable because of the nature of the stress tests.

In the interest of clarity the BWEs started at 8PM GMT (when taking into account daylight savings time), 9PM CEST, the finale events for the BWEs occurred on Monday morning about 8-9 AM.

I think it’s fair to say we Europeans got less practical playing time (i.e. most of us were asleep for more time during the BWEs because of the timezones).

The BWE’s are history now of course but it looks like it’s a pattern that’s going to repeat with this and future events.

Ahh my bad it’s 8pm right… I don’t know why I was sure that it’s going to be Saturday not Sunday.

And honestly I don’t get why anyone from Europe can be upset about this hour – it’s Sunday evening. Unless you have one of the more unusual jobs – the time is perfect. (My opinion)

Pifil.5193:

@Leiloni.7951
“If you want to discuss short sticks, how about the fact that every Stress Test was done during business hours in the US so we couldn’t actually play any of them? Oh you didn’t hear us complaining about that did you?”

Actually, facebook was full of complaints about that. Those tests were at those times for ArenaNets convenience not for European players. You didn’t miss much BTW, the servers were very unreliable because of the nature of the stress tests.

In the interest of clarity the BWEs started at 8PM GMT (when taking into account daylight savings time), 9PM CEST, the finale events for the BWEs occurred on Monday morning about 8-9 AM.

I think it’s fair to say we Europeans got less practical playing time (i.e. most of us were asleep for more time during the BWEs because of the timezones).

The BWE’s are history now of course but it looks like it’s a pattern that’s going to repeat with this and future events.

Just a small fix. The BWE’s happened during summertime so they were +2 gmt for central Europe, which made the official starting time 10pm CEST. It’s +1 gmt during wintertime.

As for Act 3 we can only speculate. To me the announcement time merely reads Act 3 starts at that time. Nothing more nothing less. As to what will happen and if it is repeated during the day is left up in the air.

I hope they put a timer on the front page, the GMT always confuses me :S.

Just like to clarify some things. The Stress Tests were put when they were because it was during business hours AND it was during peak Euro play time. This is the exact response people got from Arena Net when asked. Secondly, Euro players actually had it better for BWE finales than East coast and Midwest players in America because the finale events started at 3 am and 2 am respectively. Finally, we get the short stick every day with updates happening right in the middle of prime time. This includes resets in our Daily achievements and our dungeons so lets not act like Americans are so favored as this is not the case. Instead everyone gets screwed.

be very glad its at a normal time from for europe it sucks for oceanics

Personally I don’t understand why they wouldn’t repeat the system from GW1 where event finales happened once every 3 hours for a 24 hour period.

That seemed to work for almost everyone. Sometimes there were issues, for example I never got to one of the Wintersday finale’s because they happen on New Years Day and I’m always at either my parents or in-laws house and not able to get in-game. But at least it wasn’t causing problems for everyone in a certain time zone.

If there’s concerns about people “farming” the event or whatever they could always limit any special rewards (or all the rewards) to one per character/account.

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Is it so important for you to be online just for a big sparkle?
At least, this is what seems to be, the famous final event. It’s not gonna rain crafted halloween exotic weapons, for sure.
The only one who is gonna stay awake all the night for that final event are asians, not europeans for sure. In fact, i’ll go to sleep, not planning to ruin my daytime cycle for a sparkle

All of the festival finale’s in GW1 included something special for players who attended. Usually a (cosmetic) item unique to that event that you could never get if it you missed it. (At least not until the last year or so when they allowed people to get one of the items they missed per year.) I think it’s reasonable to assume they’ll do something similar in GW2.

Why can’t they realise it at different times for EU and US and stop it at different times? So a different time zone gets and event before, big deal…

Blue, though this sounds like an awesome idea, but since there are free world transfers someone could participate in the event twice, and depending on what the potential rewards we may receive that could be very detrimental.

I can only speculate. But since we already got our free hat, I doubt we’re getting a hat this year, so the only thing people will miss is the actual event and maybe the achievement.

With that said. I am tired of Europeans complaining about getting the short stick. BWE’s ended at 2am and 3am for central and eastern time in NA respectively. Europe got all of the stress tests. Anet always times its events based on a PST time. The only people who don’t suffer for it are PST players.

Expecting Anet to wake up in the middle of the night to push an event to you so that you can have it earlier than the rest of the world is a joke. And I can’t believe you actually expect it to happen. We all have times when other people in the world have an advantage because of timezones. The event launched the other day, I had maybe 20 minutes to play because I had work the next day. Europeans were home from work enjoying the event and I was maybe a few hours into my work day depending on where you are in Europe.

blue.8629:

Why can’t they realise it at different times for EU and US and stop it at different times? So a different time zone gets and event before, big deal…

According to AnthonyOrden in the sticky:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/halloween/Special-Event-Timing/first#post545536

“For those of you wondering, having the event at separate times for separate zones is actually one of the worst options. Whatever happens is going to be on livestreams instantly and then on YouTube about five minutes later. At least this way, everyone has a chance to experience it in the game, without having it spoiled by the rapid availability of video on the Internet.”

Worst options? For who exactly? Personally, I couldn’t care less about people putting it up on YouTube: although I watch YouTube quite often I can easily avoid seeing something on YouTube. Not seeing something on YouTube is in fact a lot easier than actually seeing something on YouTube: you simply don’t watch something on YouTube.

Danikat.8537:

Personally I don’t understand why they wouldn’t repeat the system from GW1 where event finales happened once every 3 hours for a 24 hour period.

That seemed to work for almost everyone. Sometimes there were issues, for example I never got to one of the Wintersday finale’s because they happen on New Years Day and I’m always at either my parents or in-laws house and not able to get in-game. But at least it wasn’t causing problems for everyone in a certain time zone.

If there’s concerns about people “farming” the event or whatever they could always limit any special rewards (or all the rewards) to one per character/account.

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Is it so important for you to be online just for a big sparkle?
At least, this is what seems to be, the famous final event. It’s not gonna rain crafted halloween exotic weapons, for sure.
The only one who is gonna stay awake all the night for that final event are asians, not europeans for sure. In fact, i’ll go to sleep, not planning to ruin my daytime cycle for a sparkle

All of the festival finale’s in GW1 included something special for players who attended. Usually a (cosmetic) item unique to that event that you could never get if it you missed it. (At least not until the last year or so when they allowed people to get one of the items they missed per year.) I think it’s reasonable to assume they’ll do something similar in GW2.

Uhm, i didn’t see an ach related to be present on that particular event. A hat or something? I hope not using Black Lion Chests haahah
Nah, i can go to sleep. After all, it’s on youtube right?

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Danikat.8537:

Personally I don’t understand why they wouldn’t repeat the system from GW1 where event finales happened once every 3 hours for a 24 hour period.

That seemed to work for almost everyone. Sometimes there were issues, for example I never got to one of the Wintersday finale’s because they happen on New Years Day and I’m always at either my parents or in-laws house and not able to get in-game. But at least it wasn’t causing problems for everyone in a certain time zone.

If there’s concerns about people “farming” the event or whatever they could always limit any special rewards (or all the rewards) to one per character/account.

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Is it so important for you to be online just for a big sparkle?
At least, this is what seems to be, the famous final event. It’s not gonna rain crafted halloween exotic weapons, for sure.
The only one who is gonna stay awake all the night for that final event are asians, not europeans for sure. In fact, i’ll go to sleep, not planning to ruin my daytime cycle for a sparkle

All of the festival finale’s in GW1 included something special for players who attended. Usually a (cosmetic) item unique to that event that you could never get if it you missed it. (At least not until the last year or so when they allowed people to get one of the items they missed per year.) I think it’s reasonable to assume they’ll do something similar in GW2.

Uhm, i didn’t see an ach related to be present on that particular event. A hat or something? I hope not using Black Lion Chests haahah
Nah, i can go to sleep. After all, it’s on youtube right?

There is an achievement called “attended the party” or something. I assume its for that event. The hat is available in the trading post for free since day 1 of the event.

Dinks.2478:

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Danikat.8537:

Personally I don’t understand why they wouldn’t repeat the system from GW1 where event finales happened once every 3 hours for a 24 hour period.

That seemed to work for almost everyone. Sometimes there were issues, for example I never got to one of the Wintersday finale’s because they happen on New Years Day and I’m always at either my parents or in-laws house and not able to get in-game. But at least it wasn’t causing problems for everyone in a certain time zone.

If there’s concerns about people “farming” the event or whatever they could always limit any special rewards (or all the rewards) to one per character/account.

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Is it so important for you to be online just for a big sparkle?
At least, this is what seems to be, the famous final event. It’s not gonna rain crafted halloween exotic weapons, for sure.
The only one who is gonna stay awake all the night for that final event are asians, not europeans for sure. In fact, i’ll go to sleep, not planning to ruin my daytime cycle for a sparkle

All of the festival finale’s in GW1 included something special for players who attended. Usually a (cosmetic) item unique to that event that you could never get if it you missed it. (At least not until the last year or so when they allowed people to get one of the items they missed per year.) I think it’s reasonable to assume they’ll do something similar in GW2.

Uhm, i didn’t see an ach related to be present on that particular event. A hat or something? I hope not using Black Lion Chests haahah
Nah, i can go to sleep. After all, it’s on youtube right?

There is an achievement called “attended the party” or something. I assume its for that event. The hat is available in the trading post for free since day 1 of the event.

Aha! You’re right. Needed for the mad king title. Nah, i’m fine with Dungeon Master, and i can go to sleep during that event

Yeah but just don’t allow transfers between EU and US, simple!
And as far streaming, people could just not watch – and ANet could alternate it, IE EU get event, the next event US get it first?

OH NO 8pm sunday night! THAT is so hard to attend!

For real, EU people need to kitten about stuff like this. Do you see NA people complaining that its in the middle of the day? 3pm EST is a really awkward time if you planned anything for that Sunday. I would RATHER have it at 8pm when Im just relaxing waiting for work on Monday.

This is in addition to dailies resetting at 8 pm which is crazy annoying.

Pifil.5193:

blue.8629:

Why can’t they realise it at different times for EU and US and stop it at different times? So a different time zone gets and event before, big deal…

According to AnthonyOrden in the sticky:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/halloween/Special-Event-Timing/first#post545536

“For those of you wondering, having the event at separate times for separate zones is actually one of the worst options. Whatever happens is going to be on livestreams instantly and then on YouTube about five minutes later. At least this way, everyone has a chance to experience it in the game, without having it spoiled by the rapid availability of video on the Internet.”

Worst options? For who exactly? Personally, I couldn’t care less about people putting it up on YouTube: although I watch YouTube quite often I can easily avoid seeing something on YouTube. Not seeing something on YouTube is in fact a lot easier than actually seeing something on YouTube: you simply don’t watch something on YouTube.

However it’s still a prime time for EU players as well…. So I don’t get why this kittening is still going on. I’d much prefer to have evening events then mid-day events, it’s easier to attend in the evening when the day is running down, then smack dab in the middle.

Dinks.2478:

There is an achievement called “attended the party” or something. I assume its for that event. The hat is available in the trading post for free since day 1 of the event.

Not sure which thread, but Anet Game designer said there are no achievements tied to the one time opening event, so we shouldn’t have to worry about that at least.