Guild Wars 2

I had very little time to actually enjoy the event, as my university exams have been taking place for the entirety of it, but I spent a lot of my spare time trying to conquer the Clock Tower, and it was great. Except for the weird lag issues that would make me have to jump up to 5 seconds late to actually get through the face of the clock tower at the end, or when it would randomly ‘kill’ me when there was absolutely no way i’d fallen.

Since i’ve hardly had any time to play, I didn’t get to see a lot of the content in detail (never finished the PvP events, just went there to see what they were about and then left).

My biggest gripe was the dungeon. I can’t understand why it finished early. As I mentioned, i’ve been very busy for this whole thing, I haven’t been able to read news about a game, and the precious spare time I made for myself, I wanted to actually PLAY a game, not read about it – so I had absolutely no idea the dungeon was finishing early, and just assumed that I would have until the end of the event to do it. It’s my fault for thinking that, I know. I’m not blaming Anet for that. I just can’t see any decent explanation of why they would end the dungeon early (move the entrance from Lions Arch to the charr that takes you to the Clock Tower and stuff, sure.. But no reason to actually remove the content altogether). All I had to do to finish the Halloween achievements was GO to the dungeon. That’s it. Almost managed to get them all :P

It was an excellent event & I loved the nods towards Halloween events of Guild Wars 1. Mad King Thorn is a great character (with a fantastic voice actor) and I’m looking forward to seeing him again next October. I’m kind of hoping his old rivalry with Palawa Joko might resurface in some more fun events.

I loved the scavenger hunt & how it went into the story behind Thorn & the reward is a really nice piece of equipment. My only small gripe is that the book is soulbound & not account bound. I can’t wear both, so it would be great if I could pass the other book to one of my lower level alts.

The minigames were fun, the one-time event was a fun experience with everyone in Lion’s Arch & the opening of Act IV, especially all the jokes, was so funny.

Suggestions for next time:-
- more King Thorn
- more quaggans in Halloween costumes
- events in the racial capitals – it was kind of sad to see Divinity’s Reach devoid of Halloween items.
- reward items that are account bound & items which can be worn in combat, like the GW1 masks & hats.

I’ve been playing WoW/MoP a lot recently, so I didn’t have time to really experience the whole event. But coming back, I had high expectations, only to find major parts which just didn’t seem to be tested/thought out well.

I’ve got a very long post(s) about problems with the Mad King Memories quest (see Feedback on Mad King Memories), but in short, it just didn’t seem to be well tested for how it worked in a group environment, nor did the scanner work well, nor was enough info given.

Clock Tower: The problems w that have been discussed at length. Again I was very surprised to find an event which just didn’t seem to take group interaction into account. (Large Norn/Charr blocking smaller characters — how do you not think about that ahead of time? And what happened to ‘being glad to see other players’??)

The decision to include such a challenging JP in a limited time event was also surprising/disappointing. Aside from the grouping issues, the JP itself sounds very cool — but making things like this a limited time event forces the player to play by the events schedule rather than their own.

Costumes: Cool, but I was annoyed that my human has this freaky smile frozen on her face while on the broom. Not a big deal, but again, it seems like something that should have been fixed in testing.

Costume Brawl: Very cool idea, but forum complaints covered issues w some costumes being OP. Yes, brawl is supposed to be fun, but they should still be balanced. Again, this seems like something that should have been caught in design or testing.

Having been playing MoP, I was looking forward to coming back to GW2 for the Halloween event and seeing the game with a fresh eye. I was disappointed enough that I went back to WoW for most of the rest of the event.

I’ve long had an very positive view of ANet and GW, and have been very happy with GW2 (really an awesome game is so many ways). But it’s lost a bit of its luster now. I sincerely hope that there won’t be similar issues for the next holiday event.

Its disappointing because the Halloween even has so much cool well done stuff (e.g. costumes look great, the wicked looking moon, etc).

This whole event has me split two ways. For the event itself, you had some cool stuff, like the jumping puzzle, ghost hunt (despite it being horribly hard to find stuff) and the reaper’s rumble pvp activity – really fun events. Then you had some less fun ones, like the lunatic court activity and spending way too much time for pumpkins and trick-and-treat bags. Story-wise you had some cool lore…

but, and this is a big gripe I have with GW2 in general – there is so little information given. I started out playing catch-up in Act 3 because I didn’t even know about the event before a friend told me – no problem, I can accept that.. but I had literally no clue about what to do or where to go until I started googling GW2 halloween guides.. and I hate having to look up external information when it should be simple enough to put it into the game.

Then there is the fact you closed off the Act 3 dungeon on freakin halloween, which makes no sense for me.. I had it saved for last because I thought it would be like any other GW2 dungeon in that it required 5 people and lots of time.. which I found out was not the case after reading the forums here AFTER it closed down… but that isn’t the worst part.. the worst part is you give ample time to explain it here on the forums and such.. BUT NOT A F-ING SINGLE CLUE IN-GAME! People on the forums here saying there was plenty of warning – WRONG, there was NOTHING in-game saying that it would go away, nor the fact certain achievements even required the dungeon.

This is a big issue for me, and it doesn’t stop with this event. GW2 is riddled with lack of information, from legendary item crafting information to events taking place to the where-abouts of things.. even the personal quest has this where you start building up a story, and just stop it mid-story to build up a new one with no information about why or what to do next.. You rely on people discovering things and telling about it on reddit and forums, which a large part of us don’t even frequent.

So if I have to sum up the event: Good content, horrible execution. Give us some kittening information about this stuff IN-GAME!

@Yhumana about lack of info – absolutely agree. I think that in moving away from the quest model, Anet has gone a little too far in not giving enough information that the player needs for background. More info should be available in game, either from NPCS or from a World Event dialog like Rift has.

Gotta say, I love the Mad King’s voice actor. Just waiting for the opportunity to quickly spout off “IDIDNOTSAYMADKINGSAYS”. >.> <.<

The Labyrinth was kinda cool. I did like the big Candy guy at the end… er, center. I think I would have enjoyed some candy buckets around the cities that give you cheap little buffs or something. And Lion’s Arch looked pretty snazzy.

About the Halloween achievement rewards, people finished whole special events achievement get nothing but a title. I suggest that people get achievement should get MK Gifts from Anet, which can be used to exchange those amazing Halloween weapons. What do u say?

Oh yeah, wanted to add my admiration for the VA who does Thorn! Helluva voice, stentorious and full of character! Would love to know who it is!

I liked the event very much BUT I wish it was more tied to WvW. At this point I still need about 100 pumpkins because I spend most of my time on WvW and there are none of those on the maps. The event also dragged lots of people off the fight, making our server take a harsh beating. So, please consider making the future events more strongly linked to WvW!

Event overall was great fun. I love Halloween, its my favorite holiday, so having all the festive Halloween stuff in-game was great, and most of the events were enjoyable (Especially the Clock Tower, I LOVE the clock tower).

A few criticisms, though.

The main one being randomness. I really, really hate it, especially for a limited-time event. Having to grind forever hoping that 1% chance of a drop pops for you is not enjoyable as it is, but its even worse when that 1% chance will disappear altogether after a few days, because it means “hardcore” grinding is practically a requirement rather than allowing you to at least spread it out over time. I ran the Mad King dungeon pretty much non-stop for the 3 days it was available (at least non-stop as far as my game playtime goes, obviously I couldn’t play the game 24 hours a day or anything) just hoping for one single Halloween Weapon drop or even a recipe for one of the gifts to craft one. I just wanted one. I got nothing. A bunch of green items, 4 exotics including one Mad King item (which would be nice if it was actually unique and thus worth even near what the weapons are, could have at least traded it for one maybe, but since its a generic model its lackluster), and crafting materials.

Doing the dungeon over and over again isn’t fun after the first few times, and for all the tedium I have nothing to show for it except for time used grinding when I could have been doing something actually enjoayble. I would have much rather done the book quest on a few other characters, done some more in the labyrinth, run the Clock Tower a bit more, whatever. But I wanted the items, tried my hardest to get them, and left empty-handed. If it was spread out over a few months it wouldn’t be quite so bad, but again, limited time so you gotta grind like a beast.

Why not a “token” system like the normal dungeons (in addition to random drops). The prices would no doubt have to be adjusted to fit a limited-time event, but still. That way you’re at least guaranteed something for your time, and with random drops maybe you’ll get more, rather than just “hope you’re lucky or you get nothing!”. If the items becomming too common is a problem, just make the token reward a 1-time thing, get your tokens and you can get 1 item of your choice and only 1.

The other criticism I mentioned up a bit, but Mad King armor. What could possibly be considered the penultimate halloween trophy item. And it uses a generic model, really? Its rare loot thats not fitting at all of the rarity of it because the only thing thats unique about it is the rune (and I believe you can craft those anyway if you get insanely lucky to get the recipe). If its going to be generic, make it more common or a guaranteed drop (we got a guaranteed boot item, why not the rest of it?). If its going to be super rare, make it fitting of that. That way people like me who only get “lucky” enough to get a Mad King item or two can at least use those to trade for other rare things.

I thought the Halloween event as rubbish personally. Limited special events, those special events that were on were focused only on the US player base. They should have repeated these events at other times.

Way to much candy corn, and limited uses for it. Limited enhancements to the BLC that did nothing except drive gem prices to stupid levels.

I am looking forward to playing again now that this event is over.

If aNet want to take anything from my comments, don’t just have the “major world event” for Nov at a time that only suits the yanks. Give everyone else a go.

Diggin.8921:

I thought the Halloween event as rubbish personally. Limited special events, those special events that were on were focused only on the US player base. They should have repeated these events at other times.

Way to much candy corn, and limited uses for it. Limited enhancements to the BLC that did nothing except drive gem prices to stupid levels.

I am looking forward to playing again now that this event is over.

If aNet want to take anything from my comments, don’t just have the “major world event” for Nov at a time that only suits the yanks. Give everyone else a go.

Every single event was repeated many times except for the single one-time event on Sunday at 12 PST. And that “event” was nothing more than seeing the Mad King break the statue in Lion’s Arch, it lasted all of 20 seconds and could easily be watched on YouTube or whatever if you want to see it (or you could have seen the Mad King himself in-game reaching out of the portal occassionally, the statue breaking and cinematic camera angles would be the only things missing).

I thought the Halloween event was handled and executed very poorly, tremendous amount of bugs right from the start. BLC // Mad Chests was more or less a scam in-disguise and zero support for people suffering through the Hurricane who wanted to take part and finish some of these events, and for the most part felt like a slap in the face to many players who have already suffered a significant ‘event’

Please, for future events ~ it should be about having fun and entertaining the players. Do not make ‘time-limited/one shot’ events which require the player to be online at a very specific time. Also, extend the length of events in general – example, GW2 Halloween events started 22nd October, however WoW Halloween events started 18th.

Also, please do not go down the gambling path for items – if you want to give out items for events, either give them in FREE boxes, gem store one time purchases or by completing specific events. Finally, if you want to have very very difficult events (clocktower), then these should be added first and should be fully tested to minimise problems that could/would cause player frustration/griefing.

I have some thoughts I wanted to share about the event, but first, I want to thank ArenaNet for the great attention to detail and creativity shown for my favorite holiday.

• On the Gem Store additions: I hope that there will be less of this going forward. Key-based RNG to obtain skins wasn’t fun; the odds were so low that it felt more like a money/coin grab more than a game of chance. Liked the Minis; didn’t like the double dipping required for Chainsaw the Skeleton. Loved the Mad King’s Outfit; hated the male witch costume.

• Mad Memories: Was a neat little trek to learn some backstory on the Mad King and had a nice upgrade to the back slot. There were some problems with finding the ghosts (the sparkle discovery spots were difficult to locate at times).

• Pumpkin Carving: Cute idea, but definitely could’ve been toned down. Maybe 75 or 100 total.

• Haunted Doors: I loved the concept, but the execution was riddled with bugs like persistently-open doors and jack-o-lantern icons on the mini map missing for days.

• And finally, the Clock Tower: This jumping puzzle (or rather, headless chicken scramble) has been such a headache for many people — myself included. It makes me rather sad to read people screaming at others for wanting its difficulty eased up a bit. It’s as though they can’t see past their own noses and realize that not everyone has the time (7-12 hours from what some have reported) to dedicate to ONE thing in this game. Games are meant to be fun, and, sadly, this one aspect of it was anything but fun to me. I love platformers, honestly, but this was definitely a bit much.

I read something that another poster wrote in the other mega thread that seemed like a nice compromise: make more than one difficulty level. Give the people who enjoy sadism (my apologies to the designer) this unchanged puzzle, and those who choose it a less frustrating option.

But please consider not over-rewarding the original version. I’ve read some very disheartening things by those who mock others for their desire to have fun with a puzzle they can actually accomplish in a reasonable time frame. While I’m happy that they seem to enjoy such a ‘challenge’, they are far too aggressive to lord it over the rest of the community, and rewarding them too much would only feed in to that mindset.

Thanks for reading my ramblings! And thanks again for the event. The details all around Lion’s Arch were fantastic.

99% great fun! Suggestions:

- Better bug checks. That was my nr 1 complaint. Most bugs were solved within hours, which says on one hand that Anet has the skills, and on the other, that they weren’t used in time.
- Greatly decrease RNG (in general) influence. Drop rates around 1% are terrible, you feel entitled and often have nothing to see your progress. Replacing that with a 20% chance, but requiring 20 drops to craft the item, should enormously reduce frustration. In addition you could let the full item drop say 0.01% chance, so that nobody can feel entitled or farm for it. Outright using tokens or crafting materials would also work (for events like this, I’d say use Halloween Crafting Mats and common materials only). The recipes could be tied to finishing a certain event like clocktower.
Of course, simply awarding all pieces of the MK set, one piece for each challenge, would be nice as well.

My favs: lunatic court and the clocktower.
Lunatic had a nice grizzly feeling; suggestions: 1) Give Villagers a buff (say speed buff) as their numers go down, so that they can at least run. Their only chance to survive, as it was, was that the ghosts didn’t know what to do (aside from bugs). 2) Minor rewards encouraging active play and risk taking. Say, a ptot bag for finishing first in a category, or scaling rewards with your score. Reward skill and activity. 3) Minor issue: black goo seemed to need a buff. 4) Remove any class specific buffs (traits seemed to work).

Clocktower: I love it as it was, and I want more challenges like that! Suggestions: 1) allow players to take a standard human model (not mandatory) to solve vision issues. 2) Allow all classes to take the 25% “one with air” speedbuff if they wish; remove banners. 3) Slightly raise the first chest’s content to match the risk it poses. 4) Do not make it easier, however, as a compromise, make a “hard mode” with slightly higher rewards on reruns. The harder part is simply that better players will do it, thus, longer waiting time if you fail.

Please do not make future puzzles easier. The sheer sense of achievement upon reaching the top was one of the best GW2 moments so far. This challenge, more than anything I’ve seen so far, was that neat combination of skill and perseverance. You won’t win by just grinding it, you have to learn the jumps. Nor will mere skill tend to be enough, almost anyone would have taken quite a while. And luck, while present, is a very minor factor.
Sure, some people can’t complete it. So? I couldn’t do the Elite areas in GW1. Tough luck, plenty other things to do. The word “achievement” should reflect something difficult. Something you can take some pride in. Something that many players may not be able to do, and many more give up even though they could. Challenge. If anything, GW2 needs more of that.

More Feedback on Lunatic’s Inquisition:

I mentioned on another thread that one reason I enjoyed this so much was because of the social elements (e.g., downtime to chat/text). I also think this mini-game has some good commonalities with the casual pvp in Guild Wars 1, which sPvP lacks.

Anyways, I think one other reason some of the moments in this game is fun/thrilling is that certain events are only likely to happen at most once per round/match. For example, a villager can only die once or a villager is only likely to escape and lose chasing ghosts once or a couple of times max in a round. As such, it makes these moments more significant and thrilling. It also contributes to social communication, because it gives something to talk about. (Again, sPvp lacks any such elements. Yes, there’s some elements like the FoeFire map with the Lord, but there’s rarely any thrilling moments, because the outcome of the situations are too predictable).

Bugs:
When I jump as a ghost and a villager throws the torch at me, a vast majority of the time the fire animation shows up, but nothing happens to me (i.e., I don’t fall down and roll around screaming for the ~3 sec. that I’m supposed to).

I, personally, think that the Halloween event was generally well done (I loved the Clock Tower – the most delightfully cruel JP I’ve done yet), but there was one very major thing that I believe soured the whole event, and kept it from being an excellently fun experience – the rewards. I love Guild Wars 2 and Anet to death, but I firmly believe that whoever was in charge of rewards for this event should not be for any further events.

A holiday event’s rewards should be reasonably accessible to all players – It is not the place for new ‘legendary’ weapons. If you desire a reward to be rare, make it a challenge to obtain, such as making it a first-time completion reward for the Clock Tower. That would make it reasonably rare, while still keeping it accessible to a decent portion of the players. (The addition of the three weapons as a drop from the MK dungeon was simply a failed effort to ‘make things better’ – all it did was anger those who had paid the 200+ gold to craft them, while still keeping the drop rate extremely low.) Rewards should be available to any player, within the duration of the event, as long as they take part in the event. As a side note, I doubt there would be any players clamoring that the reward weapons should have required similar effort to legendaries to obtain had they not been introduced as such.

Regarding the Gem Store rewards, I see no problem with offering rewards on the Gem Store in and of itself. However, this event’s implementation of such was a major example of the issues with accessibility that I mentioned before. I believe that community research led to the conclusion that the BLC drop rate for any skin was about 2%. I also read, earlier in this thread, I think, that were one to buy gems and convert them to the amount of gold required to buy one -just one- skin from the Trading Post, it would amount to over $100. That is simply ridiculous. If you wish to offer a special skin on the Gem Store, just put it straight on the gem store for a reasonable amount. 500-700 gems seems fair, given that they are always visible, unlike town clothes. If the market values or rarity of these items is a concern, simply make them account bound, such as skins one can find in the Hall of Monuments.

I would estimate that the only reward that 95%, or more, of players could obtain was the Mad Memoires tome. (Which, I might add, is an example of good difficulty balance, due tho the Complete Edition being a level-less back slot item with the exact same stats as a level 80 back slot item.) As another note, I do not count the recipes or Mad King’s armor set into this because they do not qualify as permanent rewards. The recipes still require Candy Corn, which will run out, and the only special thing about the MK set is the name – it looks exactly the same as other level 70 exotics. (Another poor decision.) With such abysmal chances of getting any further rewards, what, then, would the point be in continuing to participate in the event further? I sincerely hope that the rewards are more accessible for Wintersday and any further events, with this Halloween being taken as an opportunity to learn from failures.

-Ghost Hunt- 5/10
It was nice exploring some unexplored parts of the game and the story was interesting, but it felt really bland somehow. There simply wasn’t enough action.

-Clock Tower- 7/10
A fun challenge for the most dedicated players. It’s a fun jumping puzzle BECAUSE the rewards do not force you to do it! There for the incentive is simply the achievement from completing it. I really like that about Clock tower. It’s something you try three times, have fun, and then try again the next day, eventually clearing it. I really love it. My only complaints with clock tower are the bad camera collision (sometimes going first-person after the first part), and the fact that Charr and Norn can get in the way.

-Mad King Labyrinth- 8/10
This would have been 10/10 had you not nerfed chests. The Mad King Labyrinth is the pure example of a great level 80 zone for farming. It’s built so that teams travel in a zerg due to the terrain design and density of foes. Due to the nature of this design, players needn’t worry about bots due to the difficulty of botting such a zone. My only complaint was that the chests were nerfed, which made it kinda pointless to do the champion events… Please put it back to the way it was in its introduction!

-Mad King boss fight- 9/10
A memorable boss fight with multiple stages and pleasant rewards! And being so easy to farm, it’s no wonder why everyone loves this pumpkin-headed pinata so much! But in all seriousness, he was an excellent boss fight and I LOVED the platforming involved! My complaints are that he wasn’t hard enough, and although farming him was pleasant, he simply wasn’t difficult enough! Make him deal more damage next Halloween, and make his fear last a bit longer to make it more risky fighting near the edges. Also, please fix the camera bug after fighting him where it zooms out unless you restart the GW client.

Overall though, this was an excellent event, and I want to thank ANET for the great fun!

I really enjoyed the Halloween events. All of them, even the Tower. I wish it lasted longer especially the lunatic pvp map. I do have some suggestions/comments.

The pvp zones where fun and I spent a lot of time (after I completed the Halloween achievements) doing them. But I do think that it lacked in a reward. What I would suggest is that there would be more public recognition as the reward. A leader-board or “winner” at the end of the event. So there is something to work towards. I understand that spvp plans to have a leader-board (?????) but for a pvp event it seems even more important to have some thing maybe a little more simple, to show who can climb to the top during this event. Or just have an achievement that gave you something worth it. I know that the point is it is fun but people play sports and games like capture the flag in the real world with friends for just fun, but they want a winner at the end of it.

The lion stature, I know a lot of people miss it and don’t like the bare square now. But I think it would be silly if that it just popped back like nothing happen. I do think that there should be a “construction zone” there with maybe a couple npcs talking about fixing it. And I would like the stature back or some thing else… like DE killing a dragon? But it is a great spot of holiday stuff.

Although I personally did not have trouble being aware of the events and their deadlines it did seem that there was a problem with people missing things or not knowing where to go. Minutes after act 4 happen (and like the whole time I was on) it seem people were asking about mk dungeon and were to go, it was just sad.

Idea for another pvp event: something where the environment gets darker or lighter through out the match. It would add a confusion and time element. For winter it could go into or from a white-out environment.

costumes, I got the witch outfit ONLY because it had the broom. I would most likely not buy outfits unless it had a cool toy with it. It would also be neat if the broom or toy was purchasable separately.

The whole Halloween event was wonderful. Seriously amazing. So amazing that my original post is too long. P1

Perspective: While I’m not bad at PvP, a PvP’er I am not; PvE is my preference. While I generally despise Jumping Puzzle games (aka Jett Rocket) I’m good at them; for some reason GW2 Jumping Puzzles are fantastic and I very much enjoy them. Halloween is something I really enjoy, therefore I was bound to be essentially happy with the Mad King events. Prior to the start I had zero expectations, high hopes.

What I loved (in no particular order):

1. The Book Item: The wonderful, beautiful book I received in phase one; my elementalist loves the flaming one she achieved, but my mesmer isn’t generally into fire armor and is very happy with her book.
2. The Music: The Mad King theme and the Clocktower; I wish I could buy them on iTunes.
3. The Clocktower: I dearly loved the Clocktower, even though I didn’t get far (this year).
4. Free and Easily Attainable: The Witch Hat and Devil Horns.
5. Voice Acting: The Mad King’s voice was wonderful; also the guy and the girl were wonderful at delivering really good bad jokes.
6. The 10 Slot Trick-or-Treat Bag (MK Dungeon): Really? I’m buying an extra character inventory slot and using this bag forever.

Mad King Dungeon:
Although I was happy to see a dungeon because it really meant content for everyone, I knew I wouldn’t complete this event. I noticed the five people were a recommendation and not a requirement, and my friend I decided to at least have a look. I was thrilled when simply entering completed this in my Special Events list; it was fun from then on. We gave it a try…and almost completed this but became disconnected (everyone did, so this was fine as it wasn’t my fault). Tried again, and inevitably my computer did something and I disconnected (my HP has a personality of its own). My friend was going to try finishing it alone, and I logged on to do something else…and a popup asked if I wanted to re-join my party in the dungeon, and I’m lucky I didn’t pass out. Disconnecting happened again (for me only), and a few times the dungeon slowed to a stop (for me only) so I shut down the client and logged in again…and every time I was asked if I wanted to re-join my party in the dungeon. When can this be added in GW1? I’ve been avoiding all dungeons everywhere until I figure out why my computer is occasionally disconnecting.

Whether or not other dungeons are like this, I don’t know. However, I am now willing to try the dungeons because of the Mad King dungeon. It would be nice though when armor breaks if I could set something to show my town clothes instead of my underwear. At least the second set of lower level armor I had with me came in handy; the Mad King’s realm is a bit chilly.

While I can appreciate people wanting a twelve person dungeon, I can also appreciate a one person dungeon. Not everyone can find someone to team up with, and not everyone wants to find a team. I have one GW2 example which happened to me. At the CM dungeon many people were forming groups. Being in the area because I followed an NPC, someone invited me to their team. Thinking I really should pass, I decided to give it a try as long as no one requested to value my worth based on my skill/weapon choices. Once in the group someone said, “We need a Guardian healer.” I was promptly dropped. I thought to myself, “That’s about right.” On say I stated the fact I wasn’t a guardian was obvious before the invite, and to please not invite someone only to drop them. It was a wonderful experience, and I have not joined a dungeon group since. Thank you for designing the Mad King dungeon so only two, or even one, can complete the dungeon.
…/P2

P2

The Clocktower:
It’s beautiful. It was the best amusement ride, yet in my home.
When the ooze came up and the skeletal hands reached, I burst out laughing. After the first few tries, I almost cried because it was so wonderful. And the NPC’s in the waiting room didn’t lie or mislead me. I loved the theme, the clock, the gears, the height, the spiral, the gate, and the colours.

There are, I believe, only two issues with the Clocktower.

1. Speed: The speed was a touch too fast, by three seconds (debatable length). This is only true because a number of people got stuck at the start with a movie icon above their heads, could watch yet not move – this happened to me several times and I saw it happen to others. Seeing as the second level made players wait a long time before the gears assembled., the speed early on didn’t seem necessary. Players with fast internet speeds were fine, players with lag were swamped.
2. Lack of Reward (compared to other events): Jumping Puzzles by their nature do not reward progress. Seconds into the the Labyrinth I mined Candy Corn, I collected Candy Corn during the Scavenger Hunt, Treat bags dropped fighting creatures out of the Haunted Doors plus event completion rewards, and simply entering the Mad King dungeon completed the requirement (thank you). Attempting the Clocktower provides nothing. All the Mad King events provide an armload of treats/rewards one way or another; only the Clocktower did not. Ironically, time was more productive being spent on even attempting other Mad King events, no matter how much I dearly loved the Clocktower.

(Personally, I didn’t find the camera to be an issue or other players in my way. Ultimately the reason I didn’t get very far was because of me; I was tired from all the fun. I know this because I was a klutz when I repeated the Sharkmaw Cavern puzzle to see what might be wrong. However, at the Clocktower there was an issue with some people asking/demanding everyone to get naked – it was like jumping in an underwear catalogue.)

As it is, I know people who want to finish this seasonal Clocktower but can’t. It was suggested that perhaps a much slower (a non Jumping Puzzle friend said 30 seconds slower) optional version with a different reward could be a warm up. Those who complete a slower version could then try the full version. (At least they would get to see the rest of the beautiful Clocktower.) Or perhaps a smaller Jumping Puzzle in a similar style to warm up on next year.

The Clocktower jumping puzzle is an equivalent opposite to sPvP; it’s really not for everyone. I don’t know if there was an additional reward for completing all the Mad King events including the Clocktower, but this would be wrong. The Clocktower should be purely optional. I don’t know if the Mad King slippers were a fair reward either; anyone who wanted the full set would have to complete the Clocktower (I’m guessing, but I don’t know for certain if this is the only event which supplied the Slippers, and the Slippers could be purchased in the TP I think). If equipment/skins can be obtained in a Jumping Puzzle, the rest of the set should be in Jumping Puzzles (I wish there were such armor). Dungeon armor exists and many people will not touch dungeons, and there is PvP armor, but neither are mixed.
…/P3

P3
Monthly Rewards vs Mad King Event:
Monthly rewards include WvW PvP. In my opinion, PvP and Jumping Puzzles should be optional, not required for just about anything. A tiny jumping puzzle is fine, brawling is also fine. The Clocktower was not required to get the Emissary of the Mad King title; this was perfect. The requirement of WvW in monthly rewards should be either replaced with something else, or X# of Jumping Puzzles should also be required to complete the monthly; either option is fair, as it is the Monthly seems in my view to be in favour of PvP players over the Jumping Puzzle players. I have not completed a monthly yet because of the WvW requirement, and I’m not planning to complete one. The Mad King event was designed better than the Monthly reward.

PvP:
The Mad King PvP events were much fun. Although I don’t play much PvP, I dabble once in a while and I had a great time. While not…intense PvP, the brawling was also entertaining.

Confusion:
There was a sense of confusion at the start of the Mad King events. Later, the in game mail which I received at the start of each phase solved this for me. I solved the clues on the pages for book 1 on my own, but I couldn’t solve the clues for book 2 because I had not been to those locations yet; my friend who had been to those locations was able to solve those clues and we found the pages…with a little bit of “Hey, follow that player!”.

Unique Rewards:
Some players forgot to open or didn’t notice a chest. Unique one-time items can’t be obtained once the opportunity is lost. Perhaps these items, achieved but not taken, should be mailed? The same way the two books were delivered.

Bugs:
In my experience, the bugs I did find didn’t prevent me from continuing. There were so many doors that when one broke there were always others. When I found a way off the game grid, I was able to get back to the world one way or another. I experienced no serious issues; strange fun issues, but not serious (for me) ones. Of course, I reported what I did find, and found the issues to be very much in the spirit of the Mad King’s sense of humour.

Gems:
How much do gems cost when bought with real money? Is it a fixed price or does the price fluctuate? Either way I couldn’t figure out how many gems $10 would buy. Between the fact I bought a costume in GW1 for this season years ago yet not for Wintersday, and the $79 I paid for GW2, I purchased a few treats with in game gold-to-gems. If I can learn at Wintersday the price for gems, I will likely spend a few real dollars on Wintersday.

Next Year, Mad King 2013:
Hopefully all the events return, even if the storyline is a little tweaked; I expect the Mad King will try to escape his curse every year. More Jumping Puzzles, but smaller ones; the position of mega has been filled. A new, additional scavenger hunt would be awesome as well.

tl;dr: 98% fun, 2% issues = 100% wonderful event.

(3 parts, though after writing this all in notepad tonight I didn’t have the heart to edit for length.)

So inasmuch as the whiole thing was AWESOME, the soulbound books are TERRIBLE.

I haven’t even taken them out of my mail since I’m seriously hoping that they become account bound.

I’d completely wear the books on my ele, guardian, necro or mesmer. Unfortunately my main is my ranger and I did this stuff all on him without realizing that the rewards would look a little silly on him.

Is there some reason they’re not account bound?

Everything was a ton of fun and there was plenty to do for everyone. MK’s voice was simply brilliant, placing emphasis at all the right parts, I loved every word. I think it was a very memorable Halloween.

I did run into a lot of people that seemed confused on what to do, the little Halloween mail helped a lot with this already but some people still struggled to figure out how some of the mini games work and such, so perhaps slightly more detailed instructions?

The only thing I would really like to add is the possibility to wear the town clothes over your normal armor or transmute them or something, although I guess this is not strictly limited to this event alone.

Overall the event was awesome!

i’m not sure what the halloween event was, to be honest. i got the first day, so i umm mined candy. happily bought the staff thing from vendor then cried to realise i’d spent hours only for it to be a 4hr thing. lesson learnt: read the fine print before getting excited.

then umm, the next day into the doors and joined a zerg for an hour or so. we killed some stuff. not sure why.

tracked down some ghosts, always behind someone so didn’t have to do anything. got a trinket. was told there was a better trinket, but didn’t have those areas of the map and would need to level to see them.

tried to do a jump puzzle in lion’s arch, but kept getting knocked off by other players. gave up. heard the clock tower was worse so nearly didn’t bother. gave it a go. couldn’t see for charr. fell off. gave that up easily, thinking to go back when it was quieter.

ported all over the place slashing pumpkins.

got in today to find i’d missed the dungeon crawl to see the mad king. i hear he looked cool. wasn’t too worried. i don’t much like dungeons anyway. but would have been nice to see the mad king outside of youtube.

got excited to hear there were shoulder skins and more permanent skins for weapons. didn’t have ingredients to make. saw the gold cost and shrivelled up a little inside.

everything’s quiet and looks over now. i seem to have missed the interesting bits.

to be honest, i’m scratching my head.

lion’s arch looked good, though. very tim burton. i approve.

edit: umm, no complaints there, by the way. just sayin’.

I personally loved it, so much stuff to do, at one point (Act 2) it got a bit overwhelming. I’d love to see the PvP modes implemented into the sPvP.

I just loved the Mad King’s jokes. Overall, awesome event and content patch!

The best halloween event ever. That was really the best halloween event in the history of MMO. I think you did awesome job, anet! Keep it up!
P.S.: really loved the mad king clock tower

Great fun! However, I think it would have been better to be held in Divinity’s Reach. LA is a major hub anyway, and the other cities are devoid of people. Holding the events in racial capitals would give some variety to things.

Clocktower was absolutely fun, even with 10 other people. Finally some good challenge! The PvP events were fun (Especially lunatic inquisition, which I hope will return in some form as a normal gamemode) Bugs could have been handled better and earlier, but it didn’t hinder my game too much. Mad King as boss was fairly pitiful (Although I liked the instance, because of the verticality) and boring and people just kept farming it over and over for little loot.

All in all, I’d give it 8.5/10

My favourite part was the Labyrinth. Would love to see similar style group events like this for future special updates.

Overall I thought it was a ton of fun! Loved farming/collecting Candy Corn, playing Mad King Says, knocking on doors… I never got anything more rare than a Nougat Centre but I still thoroughly enjoyed the event.

Electro.4173:

Diggin.8921:

I thought the Halloween event as rubbish personally. Limited special events, those special events that were on were focused only on the US player base. They should have repeated these events at other times.

Way to much candy corn, and limited uses for it. Limited enhancements to the BLC that did nothing except drive gem prices to stupid levels.

I am looking forward to playing again now that this event is over.

If aNet want to take anything from my comments, don’t just have the “major world event” for Nov at a time that only suits the yanks. Give everyone else a go.

Every single event was repeated many times except for the single one-time event on Sunday at 12 PST. And that “event” was nothing more than seeing the Mad King break the statue in Lion’s Arch, it lasted all of 20 seconds and could easily be watched on YouTube or whatever if you want to see it (or you could have seen the Mad King himself in-game reaching out of the portal occassionally, the statue breaking and cinematic camera angles would be the only things missing).

I wasn’t going to say anymore, but the sheer stupidity of your answer has promtpted me otherwise. So let me ask you this, you find it acceptable to BUY a game and then watch the special event on youtube???? I’m sure there must be a valid reason for your comment, but short of the answer being I slipped on a banana skin, fell and hit my head, I cant even begin to fathom how you consider this acceptable. I do not for one minute find watching a special event for a game I bought acceptable.

I’ll take a punt and say your one of our yankie friends who thinks PST is an acceptable timezone. Personally, I think you need to consult a map and find out just how many timezones there are on the planet.

Rhone.2649:

I, for one, greatly enjoyed the event but I initially found it very confusing. I had no idea where to go, what to do, or what kind of rewards were available to me.

Agree!

Wasn’t sure if it wasn’t explained well, me being under the influence or the fact that i never read any instructions… wait what we talking about… lol

Seriously… I was frustrated at the beginning.

Diggin.8921:

Electro.4173:

Diggin.8921:

I thought the Halloween event as rubbish personally. Limited special events, those special events that were on were focused only on the US player base…If aNet want to take anything from my comments, don’t just have the “major world event” for Nov at a time that only suits the yanks. Give everyone else a go.

Every single event was repeated many times except for the single one-time event on Sunday at 12 PST. And that “event” was nothing more than seeing the Mad King break the statue in Lion’s Arch…the statue breaking and cinematic camera angles would be the only things missing).

I wasn’t going to say anymore, but the sheer stupidity of your answer has promtpted me otherwise. …you need to consult a map and find out just how many timezones there are on the planet.

I know, right? Sure the entire holiday event happened non-stop throughout with the only exception being that cutscene…but that cutscene was AMAZING! I work nights here so noon PDT is past my betime but I stayed up for that and it was completely worth it.

If I had missed it I would think the entire week of activities that were constantly available were crap too. It’s also definitely worth personal attacks on anyone with the SHEER STUPIDITY to explain that the only thing not available throughout the week was a 20-second cutscene.

I mean really. Who does that? Using facts to debunk a troll’s rant..Unbelievable.

Mockingbird posted more or less all that I was going to say. I loved the event, save for one thing… You din’t give me enough reason to give you my money, Anet. I got the witch’s costume, and then i had some gems left over so i got 5 keys. If instead I could have bought all the skins, for say 700 gems each, I would have dropped at least another 20€.

Hello Hello ANet

Act1:
My first ever MMO Event started and I was really excited.
The problem was: I had literally no idea what to do. I guessed I have to start in LA but there I saw nothing else but Pumkin carving and the Book-Thingy (which was both a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong).
But My expectation was a HUGE event with a lot of different stuff to do, more quests to solve etc. etc.
Hunting those doors, collecting candy corn and other stuff, ok. I had no idea why I actually did this, but I wanted all the achievments – there was nothing else that made me feel like “ kitten that Mad King really is mad, I need to fight that freaks creatures!”
And again, to call it “Act 1” there was to little new features and again not enough different stuff to do. I wanted to get some nice rewards for doing Events. The events were just repeating and nothing special at all. I felt bored, but still wanted that achievment. nothing more.
Act 1 was kind of dissapointing.

Act2
Muahahahahahahahahah the event finally started for me!
Beat the clocktower, so kitten hard but so rewarding. And I really felt like “Yeah dude, you just managed to beat that f#ckers mad Clocktower!” Not only the feeling of achievment, but also some nice exotic foot gear for my yet-to-turn-80-ranger!
The other parts of the Mad Kings Realm where not as fun, since now I expected to be able to get a whole set of exotic gear for beating the hell out of that Mad Kings Minions and doing the stuff he prepared, but … nah. 2/4 Parts didn’t reward anything and people just did it to get the achievment (again). There was no reason to constantly do those pvp like events for me. It was fun the first time, but I didn’t see any reason to do it a second time. Kind of dissapointing to me.
The labyrinth on the other hand was so good! Pumpkins to carve, Candy Corny to gather and events events events, and than even some Champions with a good chance to drop exotics. No halloween set exotics, but still, exotics. Remember, I am leveling a ranger and she propably want’s somethign fancy to wear after turning 80!
So I did this events quite often and leveled there from ~40-50 (which didn’t feel too boring, although it was kind of grinding) I left when the chest got optainable only once per day – I could have more fun leveling and seeing the world.
Act 2 was good and brought a lot of fun, but dissapointing for people who thought they could get a full set of Mad King Armor.

Act3
The so called “one time event” was a mere joke. Sorry, but you could have done so much better. When I saw the cutscene I was so excited to beat this guy make into the dirty hole he was trying to come from. I expected a huge group fight with a nice reward.
“Nopes, you got that all wrong, we just fooled you! Cutscene, awesome isn’t it? HUGE one time Event cutscenve thing! all hail arena net”
The Mad King could have made all the people change into halloween creatures (same HP, different abilities) to bring chaos to our world. But not with us, the brave people of insert your origin here We would have fought back and made that king leave our world and escape to the Mad Realm – to deliver the deathblow there!
I got fooled, but I wasn’t angry since I could start beating the Mad King in his realm – fine for me if it where somehow with a better reward (Mad King Armor, you remember?) I never saw any of those armor or weapon skins. As reward I got nothing but Candy Corn or Trick-or-Treat bags. Thats just dissapointing!
Nevertheless it was a lot of fun! I liked the dungeon a lot and I did it several times (never gave up the hope to achieve something usefull). In 20 runs I got like 2 or 3 exotics I can’t use anyways since they were not made for my class.

Act4
Shame on you for calling it an “Act” there was like NOTHING to do except that one stupid Mad King says game. People kept asking “where is the party?” in the chat…
There wasn’t even a place with party like decoration!
The Witch hat was nice though, I like that one

Conclusion
You did a great job making a fun event EVERYBODY could take part in, and I really enjoyed it. Although you could have done better at some parts it was still fun to take part.
Best act was act2 by far.
And please don’t fool us with future “one time events”. You know, we don’t like to get fooled ;-)

Overall, I like to thank the Anet guys for doing a wonderful job of entertaining us for Halloween! Keep up the good work, guys! Am looking forward to the Winter holidays event…

Just a few comments below:
- Act 1 and 2 event – Loved the scavenger hunt feel of this and how they took place in low-level areas. Also enjoyed the fact that I got a nice back brace souvenir (the book) out of this event (and might I add, a very lovely flaming skin).
- Clock Tower jumping puzzle – I’m not a big fan of jumping puzzles. In fact, I am terrible at it. It’s not my cup of tea; however, a fair number of people enjoyed it so I don’t mind seeing something similar in future events, as long as it be made OPTIONAL.
- Emissary of the Mad King achievement title – I love how you don’t need to complete the jumping puzzle to get this title. I hope in the future, it will be like this.
- Special Events achievement – I like how you put a entirely new category in the Achievements tab. I do hope you are able to re-name this to “Halloween Event” so we can sort of keep this since I love to keep track of all the achievements I have completed.
- Trick or Treat bags – For the crafting materials, I do hope that there will be more recipes in the future since it didn’t feel like I could use those for a variety of things. I wished I could use them more, or to discover new recipes without having to purchase a recipe myself.
- Mad King Thorn – I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE VOICE ACTOR WHO DID HIS VOICE! IT WAS PERFECT!!!!! PLEASE BRING HIM BACK FOR FUTURE HALLOWEEN EVENTS!!! And add new jokes while you’re at it. (Also, I literally cracked up at some jokes, they are surprisingly actually funny! Kudos who the person who wrote those jokes!).
- Voice actors – I was pleasantly surprised that you guys took the time to get those npcs to talk (including the kid trick-or-treaters)!!! I laughed every time I heard the “ghost” quaggan speak, it never got old, teehee!!! I think it was perfect!!! I also loved those costume brawl announcers! I don’t know how you guys do it, but you hit all the right notes!!
- Mad King dungeon – Loved how it was all-levels, there was a chest in the end, and that you didn’t need to be level 80 to enter. It was quick and easy, and the dungeon was small enough you didn’t get lost.
- Mad King Thorn (Act 4) – I liked how he would warp back and forth during the event; however, there was a delayed time when he’d actually show up on my screen. Because of this, I can’t always tell where he is (he is invisible on my screen even though he was actually standing in front of me). I don’t know how you’ll be able to fix this (if at all), but if this is a common problem for a lot of us, perhaps you could make him walk back and forth instead next time.

Suggestions for future Halloween events:
- Halloween masks and costumes – I wonder if we will be able to use a combination of Halloween-related crafting materials and regular crafting materials, and make our own costume or mask! That would be very neat!!! Like for example, a leatherworker or tailor can make a witch’s costume, but to make a broom, you’d need a huntsman to make the wooden broom. Something like that.
- Emissary of the Mad King achievement title – I would love to see a cute pumpkin icon next to the title, so when people click on a person with the title, they see the pumpkin next to the text.
- 10-slot ToT bag – It should be account-bound. I had to sadly destroy mine since I have 12-slot ones and didn’t need this one (although the skin was cute).
- Mad King Thorn – I liked how he’d warp next to you, transform you, then disappear. I would like to see more variety in the transformations in the future – for example, temporarily transforming into fun things: quaggans, kraits, Logan Thackeray, hairy ettins, inanimate objects, etc.
- We need a “Ghost” and “Pirate” quaggan mini-pet (that also says those exact lines), stat!!!!! XD

Act 1 = Ok, but overall pretty boring. Farming the doors was fun.

Act 2 = Very good, loved the mad king’s realm!

Act 3 = Awesome new dungeon!

Act 4 = Um? You take the awesome new dungeon AWAY to celebrate halloween?

Seriously, Mad King Says? after all that amazing stuff on the buildup to Haloween, on the day itself we get that, and the best part of act 3 taken away?

I was looking around everywhere for the “Party”, there was none.

We should have had a “Finale Event” like we did with the Beta Weekends, the “party” could have been a massive map-wide event in LA or something…

Anyway, I enjoyed the days leading up to 31st immensely, 31st itself was meh.

I loved the event. I’m actually sad it’s over because now I log in and don’t know what to do…guess I’ll continue leveling lol. That said…

The Mad King Realm rocked. Loved all parts of it, even if the Clocktower kicked my butt. Wish I coulda done it.

Iron out the bugs for the next event. The Labrynth was my favorite place to play and at times was next to impossible to find a way in (bugged doors).

The Halloween skins were really cool (especially The Crossing!). But they were very hard to attain. I understand RNG and the developers wanting to make some money via the gem store but the prices got a bit ridiculous imo. It was neat to offer cheap temporary skins for those of us without $50 bucks and 50g to blow on bags and mats in hopes of favorable RNG. Legendaries are attainable even by casuals…eventually. But the event is temporary and thus the price of the exotic skins should reflect that.

I loved the artwork and feel of LA. Would like to see more decorating done to other cities in the future, like DR & The Grove, etc. Hoelbrek at Wintersday should be spectacular.

I loved the quests and scavenger hunts and achievements and realms. But at times I was confused about where next to go or how to find certain things without having to wiki it. Thankfully, the GW2 community is fantastic and full of helpful people. I feel like a game should be able to exist solely within itself without the need for googling things or reading the forums. Those should be bonuses, not required. The in-game mail that started coming was helpful though.

Thanks again for an amazing holiday event only 2 months into game launch. I look forward to what’s to come!

Seras.5702:

I feel like a game should be able to exist solely within itself without the need for googling things or reading the forums. Those should be bonuses, not required.

Totally disagree there. The game does not and should not exist in a vacuum.

You require an internet connection and a PC to play it, therefore you do have access to the wiki, forums and community sites. There are also other players in the game, and you can talk to them.

Most MMOs take the route of pretending those websites don’t exist, and stuff is explained in tedious NPC dialogue. I think it’s much better that the game does not spoon feed us everything. It means those community sites have to bring their ‘A’ game, and people have to interact with each other to ask stuff.

Having said that. I do think there should be a little more indication on-screen about what to do next. That personal story quest marker is all well and good, but lets have a special event quest marker, or some other markers that we can turn on and off, or appear when events start…

Thanks for the Halloween event. I thought it was an overall enjoyable experience.
There was a few things that I would recommend to be changed for next time:

1. the start of the clocktower jumpy puzzle. Due to having to wait there was too many people on waiting for the next part of the puzzle to come round and once it did it was difficult to see where your character was.

2. Black lion chest items. People opening the black lion chests had a very low chance of getting a skin for a weapon. The skins should have been one in every BL chest and some of the other items being really rare. Even with the Mad king chests the drop rate was extremely low.

One final thing which is really a request:

Could you make a mini event during a weekend where people can complete the Mad King Books.

an example of this is that the update started as I was traveling via waypoint to Lions Arch to have the book finalised however the update automatically logged me off and when I returned to Lions Arch a few minutes later all characters were gone except the person giving away the hats for people that had missed them. Whilst this person was left behind so should the Asura that was completing the books.

Overall it was an enjoyable experience and I look forward to the next celebratory event.

Thanks

Absolutely loved the event, especially the Mad Kings clock tower. Kitten awesome! Im pretty casual so I dont often get to complete all seasonal events in MMOs but this one was easily accomplished in only a few hours a night. I would still complain that the event didnt run long enough though (especially access to the MK dungeon). I thought we were getting two full weekends to play it. I feel bad for those who lost power and missed out.

Edit: Now Im really bummed lol – just realized I didnt log in last night to finish up the last of my achievements for the event!

I loved the event, just kinda disappointed about the weapons and such…

As usual, the bar is set too high, and this is not a problem with The Crossing and its kin, but all “Fashion” items are wayy too overpriced. I mean look at cultural armor? What’s the point to that? The first tier items are too expensive for their respective levels, and the third tier is way too expensive for a rare item when you can buy/craft better exotics for a fraction of their price. And seriously who gives 30 gold for a single “Skin”?

Good job all around great holiday event. The Mad Kings clock tower was too much for me to handle though. Oh well, maybe I will beat it next year.

The skins are awesome to great artwork!

- Shadow of the Mad King memories quest 1-2 (result : got fire book backpack) >> Love it
- Shadow of the Mad King Act 4 (result : got witch hat) >> it’s ok
- Shadow of the Mad King Dungeon Act 3 >> Don’t like it , I tried only once
- Halloween skins random from Black Lion Chest >> Hate this marketing plan, makes me disappointed in Arena-net
- Other jumping puzzles >> Never do it, I hate jumping things in this game
- Other achievements such as Mad king Tower, Carving, etc >> I don’t care, feel like a waste of time

Scavenger hunt: No bad, but I would have liked a few more hints. Maybe general map markers or something. I know GW2 doesn’t really work that way, but I wouldn’t have been able to do the hunt without the wiki guide. I enjoyed how the item given was a back item. Since back items are so scarce, it made the item matter.

PVP events: Seemed pointless, but after being the last villager left alive, I saw where the fun could be had. That said, I didn’t do them over and over, and was over them both by the 2nd go ’round.

Clock jumping puzzle: Not sure why this was called a puzzle and not a reflex test. There was nothing to figure out, it was just training your hand/brain to react in a certain way. I had no desire to do this just as I have no desire to play platform games.

Black Lion Chests: Items were far too rare. This bit made me downright sad. Maybe it comes from playing those other mmos, but I’m used to have a realistic shot at getting everything during holiday events.

Labyrinth: Best part of the event. I felt like I was doing/accomplishing something that had real meaning. I was able to get a lot of the daily achievements requirements, farm candy corn, and have a chance at good loot.

Mad King dungeon: Not bad. I ran through it twice and was bored with it. I can’t fathom how some people did this mini dungeon like 200 times. I’m not sure why the cut scene was considered a one time event that I didn’t want to miss. It’s easy to find in 1080p on youtube. I figured there would be a one time fight or something, so that was a bit disappointing.

Town clothes: I don’t get it, and I probably never will.

Mad King Says: Amusing. Probably the only time during the event I felt happiness. 25 trick-or-treat bags after each round was a pretty nice reward.

I enjoyed the event. But, even moreso, I want to say that extending the time for people to get achiements so that the people who missed the event due to Sandy is way classy on Arenanet’s part.

memories part 1
initially confusing, but eventually got the hang of it. loved it.

memories part 2
at level 25-29, impossible to complete without being escorted. I expect things like that in an MMO, so it’s not a complaint; just a fact. Thankfully, “I get by with a little help from my friends” (song’s in your head now, isn’t it!?)

Dungeon
Average dungeon run with a silly twist (dancing a jig while your friends are getting ganked). We all liked it, but some were tempted to grind it out for loot and eventually got bored of it. I did a few runs, got a “Mad King’s Crown”, but didn’t feel compelled to grind it out. I’m sure that future world events will offer comparable loot, so who cares. I had fun.

Black Lion Chests
having just bought the game a week prior to the event, I chose not to participate. None of the rewards ‘matter’ so I don’t feel deprived. In future events, I’d probably dump a couple of bucks into a lottery. Win or lose, it’d be my way of supporting continued development efforts. my friend had no expectations of getting anything from the chests but really wanted the grinning shield. He set himself a budget and stuck to it, didn’t win, and doesn’t care ’cause he enjoyed the content and, like me has no issues with financially supporting a actually free (non-pay-to-win) game.

Clock Tower
not sure how I feel about having charr and norn block my view, but it is what it is. doable, challenging, love it.

Lion’s Arch Bar Fight
couldn’t get the hang of it during the event; but that could be just my own problem. I’m new to the game, so jumping right into a major event while still learning about game mechanics was a little like drinking water from a fire hose. Still, I did give it a try and found it fun(ny), even though I sucked at it.

Loot bag opening, Pumpkin Carving
frivolous, effortless way to get another achievement and reward. completionists will be annoyed with ’grindy’ness of it, but I don’t have OCD, so couldn’t care less; and their not really all that difficult to grind out if so inclined. Even casual players could easily complete these ‘grindy’ parts without even trying.

Act 4
Act 4 felt like the orchestra all got up and took a pee break in the middle of playing ‘flight of the bumblebee’. After the fever-pitched crescendo of Act 3, I was hoping for something more. not sure what, exactly, but it did feel anticlimactic.

Hurricane Sandy extension
Classy. I wasn’t affected, but that just shows that they care; especially considering they have a new update coming out in two weeks. Good on you ArenaNet.

I would love to see the two PvP maps put into rotation they’re of a different calibre to the other point capture maps and would make a great change. A capture the flag level wouldn’t go amiss either btw, always fun

But back to Halloween! My gf and I loved it, lots of things going off to keep amusement going and the events were very sociable, which was good! Yeah there were bugs, and I think a few beta run-throughs might’ve been wise before release. But I can’t grumble, it was really fun!!

Clocktower, epic! I was completely rubbish at it, and when I completed it, the game glitched and I got the award without being given access to the chest room… (again bugs) but still I carried on, because it was good fun!

Keep up the good work, heed the advice of the masses and the game will go far!

I personally loved the dungeon.

It just shows dungeons dont have to be long or complicated to add some short term fun.

Little bit of a higher skill level would have been better, but overall definately fun.

I had a ton of fun with the dungeon: it was short and sweet with a novel layout. The “Mad King Says” mechanic was cute too.

I know a lot of people were disappointed with act 4, but listening to the horrible, horrible puns was actually one of my favorite parts of the event.

I never was able to finish the clock tower after hours of trying. My only complaint is that there was no indication that it wasn’t required for the title. I could have spent that time on aspects of the game I did enjoy.

Candy corn mining was the most hilarious thing ever. While I know on an intellectual level that it was no different from farming regular ore, I somehow never stopped being amused by it.

In that vein, I really liked the implementation of the labyrinth, a separate zone to farm holiday stuff for as long as you wanted whenever you felt like it. Having a separate zone also (mostly) kept normal leveling from grinding to a halt due to constantly spawning champions in the open world, which was kind of nice.

I agree with others that this content was fun and ArenaNet did a great job! Here is my short list of things I liked and would like to see improved next year(or next event)

Liked:

1. Pumpkin carving (even though I didn’t get my title)
2. Costume Brawl. Especially at the end of Mad King Says. There is something epic about 80 people suddenly being thrown in brawl mode and seeing the awesome brawl than ensued.
3. Decorations and Halloween skins were awesome
4. Candy Corn farming. I loved the fact that you would see a huge candy corn sticking out of the ground and you could hack away to get your chunks of candy corn. I also like that I never felt like I had to straight up farm for it. I did at first but quickly found that I could do it at the same time as my normal questing

Needs improvement:

1. Acts 1 and 2 were nearly impossible to figure out on my own. I could not follow the clues and having to randomly click around on the “ghost finder” made it also difficult even though I was in the right area. To be honest if people hadn’t posted the answers online, there would be no way that I could have completed it. (yes, I cheated)
2. Mad King Dungeon time span was far too short. I know that for the story it made sense to seal up the hole prior to Oct 31st, but I really thought I should have been able to do the dungeon all the way to Nov 1st. Sadly, I had a very busy work schedule for Act 3, so I missed it which makes me a sad kitten.
3. Clock Tower was nearly impossible with all the people running it at the same time. I would have like to do this in a solo instance because I could not see where I was jumping half the time given the large Norn and Char characters. Most of the time I fell off because I walked over the ledge because of the blob of people
4. Item skins from Black Lion Chests was a bad idea. Item skins should be purchasable from the gem store similar to the way you can buy costumes. If you want to keep them as rare items, then make them as rare drops from the Mad King Dungeon and keep it at that. Mixing chance with real-world money is never going to end well. There can be chance (from chests) or use real-world money(buy using gems), but don’t mix these two together.

I hope you can use this information to continue to make this game the best MMO… ever!

Thanks,
Terrell