Guild Wars 2

I didn’t give up on it but I was pretty close to. I attempted it HUNDREDS of times before I was finally able to do it. Then I beat it twice. I could have done it more but I was trying to do the “hard” left path and wasn’t fast enough.

I think what is most hard about this puzzle is the speed requirement. I was consistently at the front of my packs, yet I still was close to dying after the long chest jump. Not a lot of margin for error.

I think its sad that something as amazingly fun and frustrating as the Mad King Clock Tower should be nerfed in any way and especially that content like this would be reduced or shelved just because people can’t do it.

I spent a tremendous amount of time trying to do it (Around 10ish hours) and I loved every minute of it! Maybe a slight reward for getting past certain sections would have eased the minds of those less fortunate players (Excluding the red herring ).

A JP should be tough, it should make you want to rip your hair out, because on completion of them I find myself really enjoying how I got there. On that note, I would LOVE to see like a Vista or something on completion of a puzzle, especially ones like the Hidden Garden one. Would be amazing.

The only real crit I have was not on the fact that I was stuffed with other players (that I took as part of the challenge) it was the constant zoning that I had to do in and out of the tower. I am sure that if that was handled somewhat differently a lot less people would be complaining.

But that’s my 5cents.

Also for those who never got to the top. There are a number of sneaky tricks one can use to give you extra time – For instance, this is difficult to describe but I will try:

About midway between the first chest and the second chest is a small stone platform and then a jump onto an incredibly thin beam. Most people waste time jumping on the stone platform, re-positioning and then jumping on the beam. However, if you jump simply from the block before it directly onto the beam you save yourself countless precious seconds.

The other hard one for me surprisingly was the jump to the second chest I often bounced off the platform and off the tower completely. Simply jumping a few steps before the end of the plank and slightly to your right made you hit the chest and stop the fall.

Imo those are the only 2 really painful parts,.

Josh Foreman.8250

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.

Josh.

Josh, Josh, Josh. Someone go get Josh and tell him to read this.

This post made me so sad, that I am now posting for the first time in these forums. Your post has de-lurker’d me.

THE CLOCKTOWER WAS FANTASTIC. Please hear me out.

I have never wanted to see an apology redacted before, but Josh, you did a d& good job. You should not apologize for this. It is a masterpiece. It is a difficult puzzle open to everyone, that everyone will know about, and that will be talked about for quite a while – and it’s OPTIONAL. It is innovative, painful, and satisfying to complete. The high-profile nature of this puzzle means I got to see my girlfriend go all “ARGOBARGLE BLLTHIBBLE” over it. You can go to Lion’s Arch and talk about it.

I love that people are there with you – it makes it HARD AS HELL to see with Norn and Charr, but video games should CHALLENGE YOU. When you get up to the chest and celebrate, and SOMEONE ELSE IS THERE WITH YOU, and yet another person is going to make it in five minutes – it feels good. It feels good not because you did something tough, but you did it and SO DID THAT GUY. At the same time. You connect with someone random. You both sit in the chest and yell ‘boo!’ at the next person to get it. Or, if you don’t make it, you all /cry while you wait. Someone puts up a food fight table. None of this would be true if it weren’t high-profile.

The high difficulty is AWESOME. The high availability (no gear requirement, open to everyone) is AWESOME. The high profile is AWESOME. Look at how much debate this sparked! Look at all the people talking ABOUT YOUR GAME! Yes, it’s hard, but the complaining will only last so long! And you stuck true to the design principles – everyone can get to it, everyone knows what it is, and there’s no REQUIREMENT to do it to advance to something else!

People are going to complain about things. It’s their right. But PLEASE remember – more people complain than praise. A lot of people love this clocktower. You made a great thing well known and available to everyone without compromising challenge and fun. So if you really do have a high degree of empathy, please feel what the fans of this tower feel. Don’t you dare beat yourself up about this.

I honestly wouldn’t have been mad at all if I knew that the clock tower wasn’t required for the emissary title. I think it’s good that there are challenging puzzles for the people who like that sort of thing. I just don’t think they should be mandatory for achievements that focus mainly on more traditional PVE content. So far, they haven’t been, and that’s probably my favorite aspect of Guild Wars. For the most part, different activities are nice and compartmentalized and don’t screw each other up.

Skipped it after reading about it on the forums. It was reason #2 for my skipping most of the event.

I was already very frustrated and disapoined w the implementation of Mad King Memories, and then I read about it Clock Tower the forums which seemed to suffer from one of the exact flaws that Memories did. Both CT and Memories implementations seemed to fail to test or think about what happens to such a design when theres a bunch of players working on it simultaneously.

Reaction: I had been away playing WoW/MoP for a month and was looking foward to coming back to GW2 and seeing halloween done right. Given my experience with Memories and what I was reading about Clock Tower, I (mostly) skipped the rest of the event and went back to WoW until halloween is over.

Difficulty: From what I hear the innate difficulty is challenging, which is absolutely fine IMO. The main problems are: 1) obstruction from other players, and 2) the limited time of the puzzle.

5% Success Statistic: Apparently Josh designed this thinking that only 5% of people could succeed. That’s wrong. For challenges like this (and many others), its not a binary can/can’t do, but rather, how long it takes people to do it. I.e. its more like: 1% can complete in an hour, 3% can complete in three hours, 10% in ten hours, etc.

And that’s why having it be a limited time puzzle was such a bad decision. Essentially, you set something up that people will want to complete and solve, but then set a time limit on them which makes it necessary that they do it NOW if they want to achieve it. For folks who complete it quickly this isn’t an issue, but it is an issue for the folks who are going to take longer.

While some folks will step away from a challenge that is beyond them, many other folks. given a completion time limit, will forge ahead – but after a while, they’ll quit having fun, and then quickly end up frustrated and angry.

And that is why it is a bad idea to put a challenging event into a holiday.

It only took me an hour for my first run :/.

I just spent about 5 runs on each section trying to learn the jumps, not caring about the time limit. Then had about 5 attempts to complete the whole thing.

As far as I’m concerned, this wasn’t a test of skill, but rather a test of patience. It has so much to do with skill as it does with patience to try it over and over again and, ultimately, luck. Gave up on it after 2 minutes of trying. I intend to play this game for fun, and even do challenging things. But to be frustrated continuously for something that’s simply not worth the time?

Yeah, no thanks. I’ll just skip content similar to this altogether.

I spent 4 hours attempting the tower and i hated the thing. After making it to the top i thought it was the best part of the event and kept doing it.

10+ hours….. Everytime I’d make a silly mistake near the end haha

Just went on then, got it first go. In shock.

Lol many people aren’t paying attention or just too absorbed in their own rants.

1. Dev did NOT say anything about wow nerfing the hell out of clock tower/future JP. He just doesn’t want them in a special event inviting the “Have to!” feeling from people or something that forces you to do them. Relax. All the Oh god don’t nerf it!!! is silly.

2. All these I did it so its wonderful and everyone else should kitten posts are not helpful at all. Actually it is annoying. Not everyone is you, not everyone is a couch potato teenager with fast fingers.

3. All the I couldn’t do it so it sucks!!! Remove it!! posts are not helpful at all. Actually it is annoying. We shouldn’t remove crap just because some people could’t do it, there is always skill involved in every game.

4. Please be constructive guys.

I for one spent 8 hours of my life on clock tower which I will never get back. It was infuriating, but in an addictive type of way so that I couldn’t stop trying. I never beat it but I am not sad. In fact the only change I’d wish for is for it to be untimed. Challenge still exists for the jump junkies, and those who need to think things through more have all the time they need.

Thats it but yes the only thing I cannot stand is the: I did it so don’t listen to anyone else!! That kind of behavior is ridiculous. The world neither revolves around those who beat it nor those who failed. Deep breaths. Halloween was fantastic.

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.

I totally love this jumping puzzle. This is like the best jumping puzzle of the entire game. All those tension, pressure, timing, and environment are absolutely amazing. Thank you, Mr. Foreman, for making this event; I had a great time this Halloween.

After numerous attempts, yes, I gave up on it and decided maybe I’d try again next time. I don’t think I made it halfway up.

Not blaming ANet or the puzzle designer, in the spirit of the Mad King, it should be hard. But with my hands being like they are and my keyboard wearing it, it was beyond my abilities. It always takes me longer to do jumping puzzles than everyone else anyways…lol

Anyways, yes I gave up, but think they did a good job with it

The thing that bothered me the most about the Clocktower was being “compulsed to do it” i.e. the Achievement and exotic you get from it.

If it wasn’t for them I probably would have quit after 30 minutes of failure, but im kinda glad I pushed beyond that frustration even if it was just for the Achievement.

All things considered it is one of the beter Jumping Puzzles and I had less frustration missing a jump on the Clocktower, where it would cost me 30 seconds of waiting, than on some of the other JPs, where a missed jump could cost me 1.30 Silver+ and a minute of walking from the next Waypoint.

This thread makes me feel better. Now I know I’m not the only person who sucks at jumping puzzles. Because of that, I didn’t even try the clock tower one.

I did manage okay with the MK boss map. Yeah, I died a few times, bit it wasn’t too bad. The only really hard part was when you had to drop down to a small ledge that was hiding in the shadows of the larger rock you’re standing on. A member of my group had to point it out to me, otherwise I wouldn’t have ever saw it. Once you know it’s there, then you can see it, but honestly I never saw it on my own.

Probably doesn’t help that my gamma is all screwed up in windowed full screen mode (which I prefer in my dual monitor setup), since we can only adjust gamma in full screen mode. The dark parts of the game are too dark on my monitor at the default gamma setting.

I tried it once. Was caught by the mist fast. Then I decided that I was
1. too slow and
2. too bad in jumping puzzles.
I saw the video here and I am happy I decided the way I did: I would never have made it.
Certainly I avoided a lot of frustation creeping up.

I’d like to see more such puzzles in future events. Clocktower was fantastic.

just wanted to add that you did nothing wrong. the jumping puzzle was EXTREMELY hard. and it took me many many many patient tries, of trial and error, of practice, of figuring out what was the best path and it was still challenging. but i had SO MUCH FUN DOING it. as frustrating it was at times, okay it was never really THAT frustrating, it was my favorite thing of this holiday event!!!!!!!!

so pleasem don’t get discouraged or change the way you do things. but perhaps as you mentioned, maybe not have it be part of a giant event that everyone wants to be part of and get the achievement for. at least not under a time limit of 4 – 5 days (or whatever it was).. that being said, i thought it was extremely cool that it was part of a limited time type of event. it gave you extra urgency, a double time limit (the one in the tower and the one FOR the tower). which i thought made it all the more fun.

and just in general, i got a lot of practice through this, and has thus helped me better at all the other jumping puzzles. WvW BL for e.g., just because it’s one i do consistently, i used to make stupid falls and stuff, and be liek wtc, i clearly made that jump! but now i know, i’ve been doing it wrong. the clocktower really forced me to evaluate my jumping skills, i took the time to do the same jump a few times until i at least understood how to do it (execution is another thing, lol XPP) and this has helped me see what needs to be done at each upcoming jump in gw2, whether it be a JP, a vista or just simple exploration of Tyria…

Wanted to add my 2cts because Josh’s post was kind of sad … It took me 4 hours to beat the clocktower, but I still think it was the best part of the event (except, maybe, the mad king crushing lion’s arch fountain … kabam!).

Just being there with other people, failing, trying again, talking about where you fell, trying again, cursing stupid norn blocking my sight, trying again, … it was just great. It was social, it was difficult, it made you really feel like you acomplished something – it was just fun.

I understand why so many people are frustrated with this, and maybe putting this into a huge casual-directed event wasn’t the best move. But the design fitted so nicely into the whole mad realm and the idea was great.
And, although the other players were disturbing during the puzzle, I still think this was the best way of doing it. It is halloween after all, and doing stuff alone is not really what a halloween event should be about imho.

Long story short: Yeah, the puzzle was difficult, but one of the most fun things in the game so far. Loved it!

I’ve said this already, but I wanna make sure Josh hears it, and believes it- the Clocktower was AWESOME, even for me, who couldn’t even start it, let alone complete it. It was beautifully made, devilishly clever, and it made you work your bookah off if you wanted the goodies- all hallmarks of a really GOOD puzzle.

It wasn’t required for any titles, so I didn’t feel like I was missing out; it was tons of fun listening to people in map chat cheer about finishing it, or go over strategy & jumping tips. I was perfectly happy to go farm more candycorn (NOM!), or run all my characters through the labyrinth daily for loot

I think (from reading through this thread) the thing that put people off was the combination of difficulty + timed+ major element of major event. I think pulling any one of those three out of the equation would have raised the completion numbers.

And trying something different for the next puzzle or dungeon or whatever isn’t going to ‘make the game suck’ or ‘dumb it down’ or ‘nerf it’ no matter what people say. Variety is a good thing, and giving a wide range of activities means that over the course of the whole game, there’ll be something for everyone.

Make the next holiday puzzle something that uses tons of grey matter, rather than reflexes and timing… then we’ll see who’s dumb

Finally gave up, after more hours than I can count. Can’t say it was much fun; it was rather frustrating and required more patience than I have.

My biggest problem with this was making it part of a holiday event which lasted for a couple of days only. If it were available all year round, I’m sure most of the people wouldn’t get this frustrated and wouldn’t cry so much about it. There’d be less pressure and people would just do it when they felt like doing it. Myself included.

Trying to finish a timed jumping puzzle is hard in itself and adding ten other people to jump around you doesn’t make things any easier – especially if three of them are huge Norns, two are Charrs and one is just a stubborn Human who doesn’t want to take off his huge armor because it isn’t getting in anyone’s way. This is usually when people start insulting each other: hoping that the Mad King makes all the Norns die in agony, calling Charrs kittening kittens and cursing the hell out of players who have their armor dyed pink. Or even worse, they start summoning golems, elementals and oakhearts so they screw up everyone and no one is able to see anthing anymore, let alone themselves.

And then there’s the camera. Words can’t even begin to describe how I hate the camera in this game. My first hour of attempts to do this puzzle was wasted solely on figuring out how to make it past the platform where the first lightning strikes and it was due to the camera zooming in all the time.

The wait time, the cutscene and the poems by the Lunatic Courtiers drove me insane, I swear it. I still can’t stop reciting Tick, tock, the mouse ran up the clock, and time swallowed it whole – tail and all!

That being said, I’d like to see the jumping puzzle return next year, with a few improvements. Love the idea behind the puzzle. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it all the way up to the top and finally get my achievement.

On a side note, I did find the Mad King dungeon to be the best part of the event and I think Josh made an awesome job there. The instance was the only thing I enjoyed thoroughly during this event and the jumping only added to the fun. Had a blast with my guildies while doing it, we laughed our kitten off on VoIP.

To Mr. Josh Foreman,

I just wanted to add my voice in saying that I thought your work and that of the rest of the team was incredible for this Halloween event. Your responses in this thread are just another amazing part of you and your team as well. I look forward to you building on to this event for next year, even if it’s just a little bit. Please don’t be like some previous MMORPGs and just be satisfied with the same old thing each year. I think it would be neat if a new seal got broken each year resulting in more happenings across the lands and perhaps in the 5th or last year of the game they all are broken and it concludes into a major event, but that may just be me.

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.

If not a part of a holiday event, when would you consider to be an appropriate time to add challenging puzzles like this one?

I actually felt that the Clock Tower’s role as a prominent event would have been diminished if it were less challenging. If everyone could go in there and clear it within 15 minutes, it would have been a minimal addition as far as content is concerned. It certainly wouldn’t have been as memorable for both those who completed it and those who did not.

I really like this Tower,
i may try 4HR to finished it,but still got a lot of fun.
After i got the chest,i still jump few times everyday,cause it`s so fun. I`m truly love this MK TOWER.
Thank you for giving me this funny halloween event.

Wow, some parts of this thread are a bit ridiculous. Heaven forbid that achievements are actually achievements. Josh the Clock Tower is awesome! I want to see more challenging stuff as part of seasonal events. The easy stuff is fun (Mad King says, scavenger hunt, etc) but there should be something there for those of us who want a challenge to make the seasonal stuff more memorable.

I was not able to finish the Clock Tower during the event, but that is okay. Sometimes being successful at something just takes a lot of practice. If you can’t manage it before the end of the Halloween event, just admit that it is beyond you for now and try again next year. The idea that everything should be achievable by everyone is just bizarre.

The only legitimate complaint is that there were too many people in each Clock Tower instance. It was fun to do it with other people because you could chat and such, but it should have been limited to ~10 people. It would be less fun doing it on my own, I would think, but having too many people did make it hard to see (although.. most people didn’t make it too far on any given attempt).

Also, they should make it clear which achievements are needed for titles, but that is not really directly a problem with the jump puzzle.

I’ve spent more than 5 hours trying to finish it on different sized characters and failed. It was the first time I tried to do something in this game and couldn’t complete it. It was the best part of Halloween for me. Keep adding challenging content like this.

Ansatz.6498:

Wow, this thread is a bit ridiculous. Heaven forbid that achievements are actually achievements. Josh the Clock Tower is awesome! I want to see more challenging stuff as part of seasonal events. The easy stuff is fun (Mad King says, scavenger hunt, etc) but there should be something there for those of us who want a challenge to make the seasonal stuff more memorable.

I was not able to finish the Clock Tower during the event, but that is okay. Sometimes being successful at something just takes a lot of practice. If you can’t manage it before the end of the Halloween event, just admit that it is beyond you for now and try again next year. The idea that everything should be achievable by everyone is just bizarre.

The only legitimate complaint is that there were too many people in each Clock Tower instance. It was fun to do it with other people because you could chat and such, but it should have been limited to 5-10 people. It would be less fun doing it on my own, I would think, but having too many people did make it hard to see (although.. most people didn’t make it too far).

Also, they should make it clear which achievements are needed for titles, but that is not really directly a problem with the jump puzzle.

I think it was limited to 10ish people. At least I did it numerous times on different characters and was never grouped with more than 10 or so others. If not then, then definitely no more than 12. I agree that that part was frustrating in the very beginning when you were just starting to learn the early jumps, but once you get past the first 20 seconds, the other players are all but negligible.

I agree with everything else you said. Achievements cease to be achievements at all if everyone can get all of them. I already think far too many achievements are diminished in this way. Then again, we have no way of linking our achievements to other players or no way of being inspected, so it’s kind of all pointless anyway.

dampersand.2741:

It is a masterpiece. It is a difficult puzzle open to everyone, that everyone will know about, and that will be talked about for quite a while – and it’s OPTIONAL. It is innovative, painful, and satisfying to complete. The high-profile nature of this puzzle means I got to see my girlfriend go all “ARGOBARGLE BLLTHIBBLE” over it. You can go to Lion’s Arch and talk about it.

I love that people are there with you – it makes it HARD AS HELL to see with Norn and Charr, but video games should CHALLENGE YOU. When you get up to the chest and celebrate, and SOMEONE ELSE IS THERE WITH YOU, and yet another person is going to make it in five minutes – it feels good. It feels good not because you did something tough, but you did it and SO DID THAT GUY. At the same time. You connect with someone random. You both sit in the chest and yell ‘boo!’ at the next person to get it. Or, if you don’t make it, you all /cry while you wait. Someone puts up a food fight table. None of this would be true if it weren’t high-profile.

The high difficulty is AWESOME. The high availability (no gear requirement, open to everyone) is AWESOME. The high profile is AWESOME. Look at how much debate this sparked! Look at all the people talking ABOUT YOUR GAME! Yes, it’s hard, but the complaining will only last so long! And you stuck true to the design principles – everyone can get to it, everyone knows what it is, and there’s no REQUIREMENT to do it to advance to something else!

People are going to complain about things. It’s their right. But PLEASE remember – more people complain than praise. A lot of people love this clocktower. You made a great thing well known and available to everyone without compromising challenge and fun. So if you really do have a high degree of empathy, please feel what the fans of this tower feel. Don’t you dare beat yourself up about this.

This.
I understand, ok, so there will continue to be extremely difficult jump puzzles added. Great. But it WAS NOT a mistake to put one in a short duration event. It brought people together, misery loves company, and so on. I love the fact it made thousands of us get mashed together in a short window of time, trying to beat the dumb thing before it ended, together. (I failed miserably, but enjoyed every moment)
This would never happen on a puzzle that was available 365 days a year. The fun of being cheered on by other people…. The absolute triumph of finally getting it would somehow be diminished if you were all alone.
Again, it was not a mistake!!!!! lol. People complain about everything, I do mean EVERYTHING in the game at some point, from every angle. The fact that this clocktower has a lot of unhappy customers is par for the course. I’d be so disappointed if there wasn’t something similar in future holiday stuff, and it sounds like you’re thinking that way

I’m noticing lots of folks that seem to imply that any given challenge is universal to everyone. When in reality what is a challenge is subjective to the individual. This puzzle was easy for some, basic but personally challenging for others, nearly impossible for even more, and downright evil for plenty. It really is a delicate balancing act between making things too hard for and too mundane. Based on the reactions to this particular puzzle I’d be confident in saying they failed the balancing act here.

My camera kept zooming in and out when colliding with the terrain. I know I could have completed the tower if the camera wasn’t so spastic because I saw the chest on a couple attempts. Overcoming the camera is no test of skill, and it shouldn’t be the bar against my completion.

I know work has been done on the camera to improve this problem, but it still persists quite heavily. Maybe it’s because I’m Asura? Oh well. Perhaps after a year they’ll have the camera bugs fully fixed. /sigh

I only got online about an hour a ago and tried it once, didn’t even know it damaged your armor. The entire jumping puzzle isn’t a test of skill, its a test of patience and honestly, it sucks ~ simple as that.

Personally I thought the tower was a great and fantastic challenge but was marred by camera issues and some collision detection issues. I gave up mainly because charr and norn (no offense to the furry of overgrown) crowding the same small platforms made taking off and landing a leap of faith.

Stupid forced logout for rebuild! I was working on the clocktower incognito with one other sneaky person. We had both camped out there and the server was still going even though the event had ended. If I had been smart and logged out and back while the other person was running the tower I could have saved the instance! Part of Halloween ending was not allowing any new instances of the Clockwork tower to be started. My plan almost worked.

Am I the only person who didn’t have a problem with other players blocking my view?
I mean, sure, I couldn’t see where my character was and/or where I was jumping for the first little stint, but at this point in the game, we should be familiar enough with the controls, camera, etc. to figure out exactly where our character is even if you can’t see him/her. Specially if you do other jump puzzles.

My main problem was not being able to stop moving, as that’s how I often gauge my jumps for other puzzles. Took me 4 hours to finally complete the tower.

i tried it for 15-20 hours before i finaly gave up. it was the only mad king event i didnt succeed at, mostly due to server lag or bad ping.

I think a lot of people thought you needed the clock tower to get EotMK which led to needless angst.

It defeated me this year, but I still had fun with it. Blocking was a problem but it was funny failing with a crowd.

Awesome event! Wouldn’t change it for nothin’. That said, I tried like 10 times and said “lolwutyeaaahhhhhnokthxbye.” I just don’t have the time, energy or patience to struggle up that. Not to mention once it was go time I couldn’t see my character behind the other 10 players and would just run him into the poison. I found myself just guessing when to jump since I had no clue where I was.

This thread is really long and I obviously haven’t read it all, so I apologize if this has been brought up before.

I for one found the clocktower to be impossible to accomplish, even after 5+ hours of repeated attempts. And that’s fine, I’m willing to accept I simply do not have the skill set required to complete such tasks. I like the challenge of figuring out jumping puzzles but do not have the twitchy reflexes to deal with split second reactions.

But here’s the problem, I also don’t like having content in my games that I’m utterly incapable of completing or participating in. That leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

So what about an idea like this: wherever possible there is an “easy” version and a “hard” version of these kinds of activities? This way those that want and can manage the greater challenge can (and be rewarded appropriately), while those who simply aren’t able to accomplish the event on hard can still do it, albeit on an easier setting, so that they don’t feel as though they are left out. For example, the “hard” clocktower would be the default while the “easy” version could eliminate (or greatly reduce) the rising tide so those with lesser reflexes are more able to complete it without getting angry, frustrated, and left out.

This way nearly everyone is happy and we all win.

My wife and I thought that the Clock Tower was the most fun part of the whole Halloween event (and all of it was very fun!) The jumping puzzle imo was a great difficulty level, and my wife and I hope that you make even harder ones in the future, hopefully in game permanently so it’ll always be there to do.

The problem wasn’t the clock tower, the problem was on the user end. Users with clunky, fat, sausage fingers.

Know that many of us loved the tower.

-Bigbeef

CaptainFabulous.8410:

So what about an idea like this: wherever possible there is an “easy” version and a “hard” version of these kinds of activities? This way those that want and can manage the greater challenge can (and be rewarded appropriately), while those who simply aren’t able to accomplish the event on hard can still do it, albeit on an easier setting, so that they don’t feel as though they are left out. For example, the “hard” clocktower would be the default while the “easy” version could eliminate (or greatly reduce) the rising tide so those with lesser reflexes are more able to complete it without getting angry, frustrated, and left out.

This way nearly everyone is happy and we all win.

I thought about saying this too. Simply changing the rate of speed of fog in easy medium and hard versions.. green reward in easy, yellow in medium, gold in hard. This might be an easy answer. Should make most happy. I know I’d of eventually made it if I had only been able to pause more to aim my jumps. Of course the sense of achievement wouldn’t be as great, but whatever.

edit to add
easy= solo instance (or the wait time on a fail would be awful), 75% slower fog
medium= 5 player cap, 25% slower fog
hard= the way it has been and should always be

Sadly I didn’t do this Jumping Puzzle because after 3 hours of fighting with a janky camera I just gave up.

I have no problem with difficulty, (I LOVE the harder jumping puzzles in open areas)

But when something is difficult and something I have NO control over like a camera zooming in for no explainable reason is also getting in my way it’s frustrating.

You did an amazing job with this puzzle from what I did see and the videos I watched (trying to figure out if the camera was being janky because the path I was taking)

It is not your fault that someone else programmed piss poor camera angles, zoom distance, and FoV

So please, hold your held up high, and make something just as hard for whatever new maps is coming out……just fight for a large open area to make it in :P

Alternatively yell at your co-workers to get them finally fix all the camera bugs littering what should be an amazing platforming experience.

Until such a time all the camera bugs can be fixed, please consider all new jumping puzzles, especially event ones – make them less annoying like clocktower.

KorKor.9452:

John,
No! Do not listen to these people. You made the puzzle 100% optional even if it was part of a Halloween event. Nobody was forced to do it and all the people complaining? These are either the same people that got WoW ‘n’ other games ruined due to wanting it all on a silver platter or a completitionist that has to have it all done or they are not happy. These are not the people you should tilt an ear to in design.

Agreed. The Clock Tower is the most fun part of the Halloween Events. I completed it first time after about 2 hours work. Yes, the body size may be a little issue yet however, it’s more fun to play with many people. Although we kept hating/ cursing this dumb evil tower, you know, it’s just a vent and I thought that most ones were indeed cursing this GAY tower with joys lol. Without this, the events would be just like daily jobs.

Since the tower is completely optional, I don’t think that it needs a nerf… Even people can just ask their friends to complete this job for them, for example, I’d been asked to complete this task for some of my friends… in the last day.

I’d say thanks for this tower which give me lots of laugh and topics to say dirty/ trash words with my friends

Tried it somewhile but after it coming clear that it was pretty much impossible to do with so many people around and not being able to see where my char was or where to jump exactly i decided try later.. never returned.

other than not wanting to have other players around while doing it, it was fun what i managed to do it.

Bella.3502:

The wait time, the cutscene and the poems by the Lunatic Courtiers drove me insane, I swear it. I still can’t stop reciting Tick, tock, the mouse ran up the clock, and time swallowed it whole – tail and all!

One time, after failing the Tower with my Charr for the 5th time or so, I said in the map, “QUIET, YOU WRETCHED RODENT!” and proceeded to unload on that Asura with my Rifle. Got some laughs out of the other players in the lobby. XD

If I was Mr Foreman I would add a Hard Mode for the “pros” which was actually impossible (but only just), and then taunt them by posting things like “keep at it, I designed it and I’ve only completed it twice!” or “this was only intended to be beaten by the top 0.001% of players” etc. And make it longer, hell perhaps even make it procedurally generated so that it goes on forever. And have an entry fee. And a single chest at the top with a chance of getting a unique legendary weapon skin (but only a miniscule chance, as per standard GW design guidelines).

At least that would keep them busy and out of forum threads which clearly aren’t intended for them (the clue’s in the subject).

The clock tower was perfect! It is one of the best MMO activities that I have seen. I had a blast with it, so thank you Josh.

It is simply impossible to please everyone. Just go to any MMO forum (swtor, WoW, Lotro, GW2, etc) and you will see that they are all filled with inane whining.

I too after over 50 tries gave up. I don’t have the time to sit in there and do it plus do the other events as I am a student and do have to study from time to time as well as go to classes lol. Was a lot of fun but with all the people that were piled in there I had trouble seeing and just don’t jump as fast I never even stopped for the first chest but would still run out of time and end up in the green goo that rose oh well maybe next year I hope it will be back next year that is.

You, Sir Josh are a f^_^ing genius

I have to say Josh, I am impressed by your posts here. You show you can handle feedback, either positive or negitive. You’ve shown that you listen and care. But most of all, you communicate with your playerbase.
It inspires a lot of faith in me that next halloween (or any content updates you are a part of) will be even better than this one.