Guild Wars 2

It took me three hours to finally complete it, but I don’t regret it a bit. The difficulty made the completion that much sweeter.

Seriously…do not apologize for it. You should be thinking “Good! Mission Accomplished!”

@Ryth – The section around the cog after the cog that appears out of no where. (very early in the map) I did not try for 3 days straight. I tried 3 or 4 times, went and did some other stuff, came back tried 3 or 4 more times, etc.

I would agree with not having it part of the halloween achievements. But, please make more puzzles like this so I can become yet another sir-brag-a-ton.

On the other hand… if the tower wasn’t part of the achievements, less people will attempt the jump and that means less people will fall behind me to show off my awesome skills!

Once I finally got through it, after 30-50 goes on the first character, I did find it a lot easier on the other 7 characters. At that point, I could even somewhat enjoy it. I also did it 4 times on the initial character, to see if you could repeat it for rewards right after my first go through, then again once there was a new build, and a last time after 24 hours, to see if the rewards reset/changed. In total, I did the puzzle 11 times during the event, and on all races(/professions)—it was definitely doable.

The hardest—by far—for me was on the (tallest possible) Norn character I have, which was after doing it “easily” on other races in 1-2 goes. The movement speed, while not actually slower, but due to the slow animations, really messed up my jumps, and I felt terrible for needing to do it over and over (ended up taking 10-20 goes), blocking the view for others trying to complete it.

I think it was a very well designed jumping puzzle overall, and eventually quite enjoyed it. But I think just one or two second(s) longer on the “time limit” could have helped many with completing it without as much frustration. When you get so insanely stressed for time (you can’t make any mistakes or pause your movement for a moment), combined with the myriad of other players affecting your jumps, it’s a recipe for frustration and anger. I was so angry at the game on my first character through this puzzle. On the flip-side, this did also result in a “KITTENS YES!” shout of joy when I finally did it—it did feel rewarding—but I still feel bad for those that weren’t able to complete it at all.

Also if this map is coming back next year, please have a look at the “breaking clock” transition, because I jumped into it after waiting for the rotation where it occurs, heard the crashing glass as I jumped in and was teleported back to the start of the jumping puzzle. Granted, this happened only once, but it still shouldn’t happen if I did everything right and should’ve landed in the treasure room.

PS: Very nice addition to have the 3 chests scattered about on the way up. I ended up using it as an additional challenge to grab all chests on my way to the top on my Human characters. I’d love to see stuff like this in future jumping puzzles out in the world, if there will be some more timed ones (which I hope there will be). Perhaps it could have a extra achievement tied to it, for grabbing all the chests.

Clock Tower is the ONLY Halloween event I bothered with.

If future holiday updates don’t have something like this (not jumping per say; just challenging); I wont bother participating at all.

DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING YOU ARE DOING. I loved the challenge and just the reward of beating it for the first time was an awesome feeling.

One of the funnest things to do was “killing Mad King for a chance to get phat lewt” and “trying to reach the chest in the clock tower”

Josh you did an amazing job. Running the jumping puzzle with other players wasn’t an issue, they really didn’t get in the way its just another thing for people to blame for their lack of skill.

Please do more puzzles like this in the future where we are doing it with other players.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Aurelian Omenkind.2470:

Tried 4 or 5 times, then said “nope, I’m’a farm some more candy corns.” Been happy since.

When I made this map I was HOPING that people who aren’t into jumping would do exactly this. They’d see a fun Halloween looking environment, maybe get to the first chest and snag a goodie, then be on their merry way. I see now it was a mistake to make the hardest jumping challenge in the game part of an in-your-face update like a holiday event. I’m not going to stop making difficult stuff like this, they just won’t be so prominent in the future. I honestly hate making people upset and have a very high level of empathy. So it’s been hard hearing all the people that are so angry, frustrated and sad because of something I’ve made. But it’s just another lesson learned.

The problem isn’t the difficulty – the problem is the difficulty combined with the time-limited nature of the puzzle.

If you were allowed to retry again and again at your leisure, there wouldn’t be a problem.

As is, you have everybody doing it now, getting in each other’s way, and being forced to try and complete it before it goes away.

but yinn although the tower my of had an achevment slot it was NOT part of the Emisary of the MK achevment

vonBoomslang.8296:

Josh Foreman.8250:

Aurelian Omenkind.2470:

Tried 4 or 5 times, then said “nope, I’m’a farm some more candy corns.” Been happy since.

When I made this map I was HOPING that people who aren’t into jumping would do exactly this. They’d see a fun Halloween looking environment, maybe get to the first chest and snag a goodie, then be on their merry way. I see now it was a mistake to make the hardest jumping challenge in the game part of an in-your-face update like a holiday event. I’m not going to stop making difficult stuff like this, they just won’t be so prominent in the future. I honestly hate making people upset and have a very high level of empathy. So it’s been hard hearing all the people that are so angry, frustrated and sad because of something I’ve made. But it’s just another lesson learned.

The problem isn’t the difficulty – the problem is the difficulty combined with the time-limited nature of the puzzle.

If you were allowed to retry again and again at your leisure, there wouldn’t be a problem.

As is, you have everybody doing it now, getting in each other’s way, and being forced to try and complete it before it goes away.

and that would make it a cheep experance and no one would be talking about it

like it or not this was good for the game over all

(as for other players i just played it as if i was racing them I was often the last man standing befor i would fall off)

I couldn’t do it. Tried about 12 times. Not that much.

I think it’s a good idea to have something like this in the game, though. It’s good to have things that not everyone can do. If I want to be able to beat everything, there are plenty of mmos like that out there.

Finished it, loved it, more please Arenanet.

I may be one of the few here, but I love your puzzle you made. It was fun and challenging. Maybe in the future you guys could have puzzles that are hard like this, but maybe not make them part of a Holiday achievement. That way those guys with major issues can try them all year long.

Please don’t apologize! We NEED more puzzles like this in gaming today! I loved it!

I for one, LOVED the clock tower. It was exactly what it was meant to be: a challenge with a curve.

I don’t want a jump puzzle that anyone can do because it would ruin my accomplishment.

I found it very fun and I actually hope that there will be a ton of jumping puzzles such as the clock tower in the future as well.

For those complaining about your race for being too big or too small, i really don’t get it. the only issue there was is that everyones characters were covering each other in the beginning, but that effected everyone and had nothing to do with race. after the first few seconds it didn’t matter as others fell and things started to spread out more. to solve this, there can be individual instaces, though i actually prefer being with a group of people/friends cause it makes it more fun.

The only thing that disappointed me was that there was no exclusive title for this achievement (yet there’s a silly pumpkin carving title -_-) i really wish there’d be more jump quest titles. Especially for jump quests that are out for a limited time like the clock tower, or else people would have an infinite amount of time to practice until they finally get it. jumping titles would be amazing.

I’d also like to see some more jumping puzzles with moving platforms/objects/ etc…

Please Josh Foreman, don’t let these people stop your creativity and making actual challenges.

Hell yes. I play to have fun and this wasn’t fun. No complaints from me, though: I’m glad that the game includes content aimed for all sorts of players, so obviously I have to expect some of it I’ll find fun and some I won’t.

p.s. clearly one of the skills the Clocktower tests isn’t reading comprehension: “Post here if you GAVE UP on the Clocktower!” =/= “Post here if you want to smugly gloat about completing the Clocktower”

I beat the clock tower.

There was no sense of accomplishment, just relief that I’ll never have to do it again.

It wasn’t challenging, it wasn’t even a real jump puzzle. It was a race with a laggy start where you couldn’t see anything, loaded with bugs and bits of geometry that you would catch on and not be able to see.

I seriously hope Anet stays away from artificial difficulty in the future, and actually designs real challenging content.

Banquetto.9521:

Hell yes. I play to have fun and this wasn’t fun. No complaints from me, though: I’m glad that the game includes content aimed for all sorts of players, so obviously I have to expect some of it I’ll find fun and some I won’t.

I wish the entire player population were as chill as you.

I did NOT give up on this and I am horrible at jumping puzzles. Why did I not give up? Two reasons:
- It was only available for a limited time, so I have to do it now or never. Never wasn’t a good option.
- It was so hard that when I did make progress, I jumped out of my chair with joy. This happens rarely in games anymore, so it’s a big deal. The excitement did, however, make my next few attempts absolute trash.

It took more than 10 hours, but I am proukittenpt trying and got the achievement. I wasn’t there for the loot. The first five or six hours of this puzzle were a lot of fun. It was hard, but I was making progress. But I just can’t line up the jumps fast enough to stay ahead of the goo and keep accuracy. No matter what I did, I was late or missed a jump rushing unless had a lucky run. Then I learned the next few jumps, slowly, with goo rising around me. So the last five or six hours were very frustrating. I do not have perfect timing/lining up ability/muscle memory that a lot of people running past me seemed to have.

I would have given up, but I made it to the clock face several times and mis-timed the last jump. (I’ve heard from others, this may have been lag on my part or a laggy instance.) I gave up for a while, but couldn’t not do it if I’d gotten that close. The next instance I was in, it took me two hours to get back to the top stairs and I made it into the clock face the first try.

The only thing I didn’t like about this puzzle, even with all the frustrations, was how hard the final jump was. Maybe it was lag that denied me the first few tries, maybe it was all me (I think a mix of both). But if it’s that hard to get up there, it shouldn’t take a perfectly timed jump to get in. Lag didn’t affect the rest of the puzzle, just the end.

P.S. I didn’t have an issue with the char or norn once I found a good path through the first few jumps. It was hard to find that path, but I think that was by design and part of the puzzle. I even had a char with me after the split stairs, matching me jump for jump and couldn’t see myself (a sylvari) at all. It was kind of cool, but we took different paths after the leap of faith. I wish I had taken a screen shot.

Just a little something. I don’t know if it was already said in this thread, but sure, make more difficult JPs. BUT PLEASE take into consideration the flak norns and charr got from this. It was hard enough as it was to deal with the challenge, but getting assaulted by other players made it only worse…

Josh: You should be very proud, not apologize, for designing such an awesome map & challenge.

Remember that if you as a player like something in game, you don’t really have a reason to go on the forums to express that. You rather just keep on playing. On the other hand, if you don’t like something and get frustrated by it, you do have a reason to go on the forums and say so. That’s why we’re seeing more complaints than praises.

Currently reading reddit, and seeing alot of appreciation for the clocktower, and alot of people are mentioning it as the best part of the holiday.

I would be very happy if you actually kept putting difficult stuff like this into holiday events. Some of us do want alot of difficult and challenging content.

Thanks

That sodding clocktower nearly reduced me to tears. Next year it needs to be a solo instance, because it’s the only event I’ve ever encountered in any game where failure is pretty well guaranteed for at least half the pack if more than three people are running it. It rapidly becomes impossible to see where your next jump is supposed to land if there are more than three people in there. I just spent two solid hours running up that clock, always failing at the EXACT SAME POINT because I couldn’t see around the crowd to make the jumps, and by the time they cleared so I COULD see, I was underwater (or slime).

This is the ONLY Hallowe’en achievement I’ve been unable to complete, and my highest level character is only 53. I think that says more about this event than it does about me.

I thought it was an excellent piece of the overall experience. Kudos from this player on the clock tower and the rest of the game.

Aurelian Omenkind.2470:

Tried 4 or 5 times, then said “nope, I’m’a farm some more candy corns.” Been happy since.

When I made this map I was HOPING that people who aren’t into jumping would do exactly this. -

Josh Foreman

I don’t care about the chest at the end, what annoys me is it’s part of the ‘Special Achievements’ that I won’t be able to get.
Instead of people moving on to the labyrinth or other parts of the events they hung around farming bags making it harder for people who haven’t finished the run.
Not everyone is based on the continent with the data centres with pings of <30.

I never made it but I still LOVED IT. Easily one of the top highlights of the Halloween content.

“When I made this map I was HOPING that people who aren’t into jumping would do exactly this. They’d see a fun Halloween looking environment, maybe get to the first chest and snag a goodie, then be on their merry way. I see now it was a mistake to make the hardest jumping challenge in the game part of an in-your-face update like a holiday event. I’m not going to stop making difficult stuff like this, they just won’t be so prominent in the future. I honestly hate making people upset and have a very high level of empathy. So it’s been hard hearing all the people that are so angry, frustrated and sad because of something I’ve made. But it’s just another lesson learned.”

For myself and my friends the puzzle was way too easy. It took around 10minutes to finish if you know the route… I’m hoping for harder puzzles in the future (example wintersday).

Sea of replies… here’s a couple more drops in the ocean:

I didn’t manage to get past the first part of the puzzle. I can’t really comment on the design since I didn’t get to it but the vids I saw and what I heard from my guildies, it sounds like it was incredible. I’m glad this game has such a range of types of content. Hopefully eventually people will realize that means that they should go do the things they have fun with and ignore the stuff they don’t.

I’ll say, I suck at jumping puzzles – for someone like me, the MK dungeon most certainly was a jumping NIGHTMARE. I thought that was intentional, how can you not have thought that was a jumping puzzle? I must have spent 50 or 60 silver on repairs JUST from jumping deaths and got no where near the loot to cover the costs. There’s no spots where you “just drop down;” there’s spaces between the rocks where you have to get across without missing. I thought it was hysterical that you fell out the bottom and back through the top though. Certainly not complaining about it! Though it was frustration with constantly running out of money due to repairs and spending twenty minutes trying to get to the different levels because I kept dying on jumps that made me stop running it for the day. I was THAT person who held everyone up at the end of a run for a half hour trying to get to the spot where the chest is and ending up just suicide jumping to land by the chest and have someone res me. How humiliating.

All that said, my problems in the Clocktower were not my lack of platforming skills. I might well have not gotten any farther than I did on it based on my truly terrible platforming, but for over half the times I entered it, I was dead before it finished loading. I never even SAW the tower on my first three load-ins because it literally did the “entrance” load screen replaced immediately with the “go back to the beginning because the ooze caught you” screen, with no pause between. On the few times I actually loaded before dying, it seems like where my client thought I was and where the server thought I was, were not the same space. I was running on what looked like air to me, and falling through the middle of solid objects. My husband saw me as running on stairs and falling into air (ie, I assume he was seeing the “correct” view and mine was not) — we’re on the same connection so it must be an issue on my computer. But I saw a couple other people mention that upthread and in chats in game, so I know I’m not the only one with that sort of “out-of-sync” issue.

One suggestion to account for that in future puzzles of this nature is to give a little more time before it starts. In this case, it could have been something like, loading them into the space at the bottom and waiting a few seconds before having the puzzle start moving. Or make the “waiting room” part of the overall puzzle area and have them run out instead of having to load them into another area. That way everyone at least gets a shot at the puzzle instead of spending the whole time looking at loading screens.

To be honest, I would have liked a title to show that i beat it. something along the lines of playing off a nursery rhyme “Hickory Dickory Dock”

The whole theme reminded me of the scarecrow stuff in batman arkham asylum which is cool.

Only completed the climb once, but there were a few charr and norn that annoyed me. But imo they wasn’t doing anything wrong. I changed my dye colours to something very bright and could see where i was quite easily even if I saw a glimpse of my shoulder or something.

I like jumping puzzles ALOT and it’s one thing i’m holding out on experiencing in GW2 simply because at some point i’m going to have run all the dungeons over 50 times and was some more content.

The JP was very very fun and enjoyable. I would like to see more of these in the world. I would also like to see very long JP spanning over a few mountians. to get to the top of a 3rd mountian that kicks off an event that sends the whole area into chaos from an awakened terror… so to cap a JP that very very few people can actually do (not included in achievements panel to avoid upsetting anyone) that causes a rarely seen event that causes town criers in each major city to cry about the problems that X area is having due to a disturbed and awoken terror that needs to be laid to rest…. oh also, no saves, you gotta master the jumps to do it.

Also if possible, make jumping puzzles that randomly seams 5 different jumping sections together from a pool of 20 so its next to impossible to make a guide for it.

Since I still see Josh is reading this thread, I’ll add my 2, not so important, cents.

So, after reading the thread where Josh Foreman was speaking out about the design and what not, I decided I’d come post here.

I, personally, thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle. To all the human players complaining about not being able to see, I use the shortest Asura model possible, and one of the smaller body types. I fill your pain, but I like the extra challenge it added. It took me approximately 1.5 hours to master it, and I have since completed it well over 20 times (all on my Asuran). I’m good at these puzzles, so I understand I am not the norm, but I definitely don’t believe doing it as a human was hard. It took me all of ten minutes to do it on my wife’s human (was waaaaay easier, both because of the model size and the camera (personally, though, I don’t see why people complain about the camera, I’ve never had troubles with it, so I may be missing something?)).

I’m not trying to turn this into a “I’m better than you” post, but I just want to make the point that most of the complaints, albeit semi-valid, can be overcome, and if the items that are causing the complaints weren’t there….I would have hated the puzzle, it would have simply been too easy.

Also, please don’t make them instanced. I love racing other players farming the trick or treat bags. Made a few friends this way, too (always fun to make fun of each other when we made stupid mistakes and fell to our demise ).

Anyhow, the Clock tower was by far my favorite part of the Halloween content. I hope to see more stuff like this in the future.

P.S. Josh Foreman, I think you did an excellent job with this, so please don’t discredit your design choices. There may have been slight issues, but overall it was a magnificent way for me to waste away my night

Josh Foreman.8250:

Snapdragyn.1238:

It was not fun for me. I will not do it again. I’ve not been bothered at all that jumping puzzles exist for those who enjoy them, but if this sort of mechanic becomes an integral part of the game such as it was here, I’m out.

This is very valuable feedback for me. Thanks. Since the MK boss map is required for completion I’ll go in and make the descent a lot easier for next year. (Assuming that map will even be around next year, which I do not know.) The last thing I want to do is alienate players who don’t like platforming. The point of the relatively small amount of resources we put toward JPs are meant to bring more people in, not trade one demographic for another.

Please for the love of all that exists dont listen to the complainers …seriosly… The clocktower may be deemed hard by those of the past decade of gaming ..but the fact of the matter is ..its still easy compared to the ‘good ol times’ of gaming in the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s.
We need more of this ..not less and/or watered down versions of it >.< hell if GW2 as a whole gets harder you may loose people ..but you will equaly gain people. Making things easier will just loose people. I doubt very much the age range and ability range will get worse than it already is >.< ..however it can rise.

[Edited by CC: Please don’t circumvent the swear word filter by replacing letters with a *]

I don’t understand at all why smaller races having camera trouble with one jumping puzzle is such a travasty, when the majority of the other jumping puzzles clearly were designed to be much more difficult for the char and norn in particular with all the small cramped spaces and camera hugging walls. Where’s the design philosophy in that?

And its really kinda ironic that many people take smaller races/statures to have an advantage against other players to begin with. And then this happened.

Hey, somebody up there claimed they had to repair armor from jumping deaths. That person is a liar.

vvp.8512:

Hey, somebody up there claimed they had to repair armor from jumping deaths. That person is a liar.

They meant in the Mad King Dungeon, not the Clock Tower.

I’m not a liar. I was taking falling damage. A lot of it. Every time I hit the death by the waypoint in the Mad King dungeon I got a little message saying “X piece of armor has taken damage”.

I never tried, I hate jumping! I will never complete my maps because of the difficulty in completing some of these jumps.

I gave up. Was making progress but then decided to watch a video to see what else I could expect and realized that I had only made it half way (if that) and knew I didn’t have it in me to continue.

I hope that they will continue to include features like this though. I love that there are difficult things that people can be proud of if they accomplish and that not everyone will be able to do (as long as it is an optional bit of fun and not something required to play the game).

I really enjoyed the camaraderie I felt with others in my instance who were attempting it too.

Overall I think the Halloween events were really fun and made me feel better about the game itself (which I do think has some issues). I hope ANet doesn’t let whiners and complainers force them to dumb their content down to the lowest common denominator.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Aurelian Omenkind.2470:

Tried 4 or 5 times, then said “nope, I’m’a farm some more candy corns.” Been happy since.

When I made this map I was HOPING that people who aren’t into jumping would do exactly this. They’d see a fun Halloween looking environment, maybe get to the first chest and snag a goodie, then be on their merry way. I see now it was a mistake to make the hardest jumping challenge in the game part of an in-your-face update like a holiday event. I’m not going to stop making difficult stuff like this, they just won’t be so prominent in the future. I honestly hate making people upset and have a very high level of empathy. So it’s been hard hearing all the people that are so angry, frustrated and sad because of something I’ve made. But it’s just another lesson learned.

My wife did exactly what you described. She zoned in, tried it a few times and then gave up because it wasn’t for her. But I loved it! The fact that it was timed and limited meant that there were a ton of randoms cheering each other on. Please don’t lose heart.

I think the major issue with it was that it was pretty vague whether or not it was required for the Mad King title. I had to correct most of my friends, and some of them still though it was optional but it still counted (like you could get 7/5 for the event, or skip events).

Josh Foreman.8250:

This is very valuable feedback for me. Thanks. Since the MK boss map is required for completion I’ll go in and make the descent a lot easier for next year. (Assuming that map will even be around next year, which I do not know.) The last thing I want to do is alienate players who don’t like platforming. The point of the relatively small amount of resources we put toward JPs are meant to bring more people in, not trade one demographic for another.

You know, no matter what happens, Josh, someone is going to have a tough time with it due to their own inability to complete the content. I do not think that the difficulty of the MK boss map was too harsh for players, and, indeed, I feel that it truly enhanced the experience. More maps in GW2 should really take advantage of the positive parts of the GW2 engine, including jump planning and platforming. I cannot emphasize how many dungeon bosses are unexciting because they are raw dps battles and do not incorporate all of the very exciting mechanics that GW2 has available to it. Please, do not take one person’s criticism to heart and water down your healthy improvements to the game’s content.

I agree that the arguably hardest jump puzzle in the game (clock tower) shouldn’t be a holiday event. Holidays in general should be enjoyable by everyone, and on average I would expect to be far easier than end-game content. That said, the MK boss battle was perfect even for level 2 characters scaled up to 80 and doesn’t need to be made easier. If the enemy cannot beat you no matter what, or there’s no danger present, then there is no fun at all to be had in completing it and you may as well not do it.

As an aside related to the clock tower now that I bring it up, I hope future jump puzzles are as intricate and complex as it is. It took me an hour to master, but now I can complete it without fail 10 out of 10 times. It was the most memorable and endearing experience of my GW2 career, and I had more fun achieving success there than I have had with any of the game’s dungeons or end-game content. I can only hope those teams take a lesson from you in this regard. Thanks for the experience.

No reason to. If I could do it then anyone could. Although I would approve a ban on male Char and Norn. :P

The point of the relatively small amount of resources we put toward JPs are meant to bring more people in, not trade one demographic for another.

But that’s exactly what you are doing here. You are dumbing down mechanics of the game to appease to the casual mass. And believe me, you will lose players this way too. People will be mad that you can just do events by smashing your face onto the keyboard. And then classify the event/holiday as extremely boring. I bet this holiday was special to a lot of people due to the hard to do jumping puzzle; It was truly something you could call achievement. In matter of fact, act 2 was the best part of the halloween for me.

Halloween’s events is gone. the clock tower is over. I didn’t finish it since the beginning, i tried it hundred times, couldn’t make it to the top. maybe because it’s my computer, maybe my skills aren’t good enough, i’m too slow but i tried, as hard as i could, raging but not raging because the jumping wasn’t good, raging because i did stupid mistakes. it was CHALLENGING. yes i did it for the CHALLENGE. Mr Foreman, I LOVED your jumping puzzle. PLEASE, do more. i know , you have to balance between the good and the bad (sorry for my english). it’s hard to satisfy everybody. listen for some suggestions, it is good to make a better jumping puzzle.
Personally, it was the right Challenge. unfortunately for me it was impossible to succeed it. you are the creator , you have your word on your creation.

I want to say , thank you for your first Biggest event in gw2. Happy to see our Mad King Thorn after 250 years of absence. I encourage you for the futur of gw2 and excited to wait the Next Big Thing in the world of Tyria.

Love you Arenanet

I gave up on the Clocktower map. I’m not a jumping-puzzle-fan to begin with, but I at least attempted the clocktower about a dozen times. Here are the issues that I did not like:

1) Crowd. How could I really be able to see where to jump when there were so many other characters around? It was one big clump of people, and all those people blocked the view (for me) of where to jump.

2) Camera Control. I still have issues with the camera. I like to scroll out as far as I can and sometimes the camera view changes as if it’s being bumped by some invisible wall. This gets annoying during platform jumps.

3) Boosts. I don’t know if it’s true, but I saw some people say that speed boosts would help in the Clocktower. I don’t know how crucial boosts are but I don’t see the need to buy boosts just to complete a jumping puzzle.

4) Loading Screen. I didn’t really mind the wait in the lobby (it reminded me of the wait and anticipation for some big theme park ride), but what got under my skin was the long loading screen that accompanied every failed attempt.

I know that there is a community that loves Jumping Puzzles, then there are those that love to mine resource nodes, and yet others that like the “solve” quest after visiting wikis. I think the best way to satisfy the most people at once would be to have a tiered halloween achievement system that rewarded levels of accomplishment in the subtiers, rather than the current “Emissary” title that’s one tier and includes game elements that some community members find annoying (note: game elements that were never part of the GW franchise or past Mad King events.)

Some people want it easy, others want it to be hard. How about balancing it, so everybody can be happy and stops complaining.

I didn’t try the clock tower, because I knew it wouldn’t be my thing- but I think it was an awesome experience for the people who could pull it off.

I managed the MK’s dungeon, but it took finding a group that wouldn’t give me grief about falliing behind and needing rezed (and, daaannngg, are some people nasty…)- I have trouble with jumping puzzles on the best of days, add in being freaked by bottomless drops and stuck in a wrist brace, and it was a challenge for me.

I would really like GW2 to change up what they offer as puzzles in general- the MK pages were a good example because you had riddles to solve. Not everything called a puzzle has to include jumping

I was the one who wrote a “not so nice” rant thread on Reddit about my Clock Tower experience as a Norn. I addressed my feelings on there, but I don’t think I adequately said what I needed to say. I want to start by apologizing to you Josh. You did not deserve to be called a jerk. In fact, it is your hard work, and dedication to this puzzle that gives me hope for the future of this game. Jumping Puzzles are my favorite part of the game, and I do want hard, challenging puzzles in the game. I actually really enjoyed the Clock Tower. It was not the content of the game that set me off. It was the reaction of people to me (as a Norn) I shouldn’t have to turn off my HUD, or block 50+ people just to do an event, because I’m getting cussed out for being a Norn. (All of my characters are Norn.) I eventually gave up on the Tower, not because it was too hard, but because my playing a Norn was causing too many other people grief. I don’t want to be “that guy”

Don’t stop making difficult content. I for one will be one of the people looking forward to the challenge. It is a shame that so many people chose to take the low road, and be nasty about the Tower. This is not indicative of the community as a whole. I have put it behind me, and look forward to whatever November will bring.

The main issue I think people had with the puzzle was the harsh timer. Having completed it, all my immense rage I’d built up over the puzzle vanished. I thought the jump puzzle was excellent! Though I really feel that the timer needed to be a little nicer to people as then you would not be forced to dive blindly through a crowd because you don’t have time to wait until you can actually see where you’re jumping to.

The MK dungeon (“jumping puzzle”… really?) was easy, but EXTREMELY fun. I LOVED the jumping between levels to reach him at different phases and I really hope that A-net put that mechanic into dungeon bosses more. It added that extra something and, along with his teleporting around each floor, made the dungeon feel different from the average “full guns blazing nuke the boss until he’s dead” approach we find ourselves in with other bosses.

Also, I’m amazed that this Aurhia still hasn’t learned that falling damage doesn’t affect your armour. Perhaps he was dying more than he realised from those dangerous little plastic spiders? =]

“I did not consider the MK boss map as a jumping puzzle. All you are doing is dropping down. And I made it so there are MANY paths down.”

I play with my wife, and we tried to do MK about 5 times. Not once was she able to get all the way to the bottom alive, even after dozens of tries per attempt. I myself had trouble on a couple of occasions, so I would have to say you are completely wrong if you didn’t think that was a jumping puzzle.

I really don’t get why everybody is complaining about that jumping puzzle. The achievment wasnt needed for the title in any way. So if you are not good in jump&run stuff leave it and don’t whine about it. (Btw your character is always in the same location of the screen and you can jump correctly without seeing them. Further more if you did it with the necessary speed you got ahead of most of the players without a problem)

That jumping puzzle was awesome fun. Great work Josh!!!
Please do not stop making more challenging jumping puzzles! =)

Nebilim.5127:

The point of the relatively small amount of resources we put toward JPs are meant to bring more people in, not trade one demographic for another.

But that’s exactly what you are doing here. You are dumbing down mechanics of the game to appease to the casual mass. And believe me, you will lose players this way too. People will be mad that you can just do events by smashing your face onto the keyboard. And then classify the event/holiday as extremely boring. I bet this holiday was special to a lot of people due to the hard to do jumping puzzle; It was truly something you could call achievement. In matter of fact, act 2 was the best part of the halloween for me.

Don’t lump people that don’t enjoy or can’t do jump puzzles in with “casuals”. They’re separate groups. I’m a pretty casual player and I’m very good at the jump puzzles. If they dumb it down, they won’t be doing it for “casual” players like me, it will be fore players (whether casual or not) that aren’t good at/don’t do jump puzzles.