Guild Wars 2

I just wanted to post here and express my deep displeasure (read: whining) that you have removed the Mad King dungeon before the end of Halloween. Thanks. Those of us with busy lives are super happy we have to wait another year to see that content.

~Signed,
Someone with a job, family, obligations and precious little free time – but who made time this evening to give the dungeon a shot.

UPDATE:

Thanks to everyone who offered an opinion on this. I just wanted to update this now that I’ve had a chance to cool off (a bit).

When I said that I have limited time to play, I didn’t mean that I don’t have 10 minutes to run a dungeon, because I do. The problem is timing, and prioritizing. Firstly, I didn’t know that it was a short dungeon (Anet already set a precedent regarding dungeons), and secondly, I was trying to sync up with some guildies to run the dungeon. But both of these things don’t address the issue, so let me break it down for you.

I was playing catch-up with the content for this holiday, so Monday, I managed to finish the Clock Tower and I had a BLAST.

Tuesday, with what time I had, I finished up some other items that I still hadn’t had a chance to do previously. But of course, this was based on the idea that I had until the 31st to get everything done (beacuse NO, I hadn’t heard it would expire early, I guess I didn’t read every out-of-game bit of info they had).

Wednesday, I was prepared to hit up the dungeon, and it was pretty much the last thing on my list, so imagine my joy to discover that the content was gone.

So Anet, if you want to have time-limited content, fine. Just add a kitten kitten timer on the freaking dungeon itself – IN GAME – or something. Most of us don’t hang off every word that some Anet employee writes on some forum or blog post. Bloody kitten, you even have a nifty feature in the game launcher that allows you to post info I can read before I hit PLAY, so why in kitten did you not use that to give a warning to players? But I would rather you simply design it better next time. Your holiday content was FANTASTIC, there’s no question about that. But it’s a pretty jerk move not give players a chance to try it before the holiday actually expires.

Someone with a job, family, obligations, and precious little free time – should have made time for the dungeon (read: 10 minutes) before tonight.

There was plenty of warning that the dungeon only lasted until Act 4 started.

The only truly acceptable reason to complain about missing the dungeon is the following; “Hurricane Sandy dragged my house across the city”. Even then, those people have bigger things to concern themselves with, like getting their house back to it’s previous location.

I feel bad for you, It was a pretty fun dungeon. I almost missed out on Act 4 but power was restored to my area just before midnight, and I know how crappy it made me feel that I was probably not gonna have access to the final event. The Act 3 dungeon should have been available until the event end so people who couldn’t make it during Act 3 could finish the dungeon.

Well, I guess ignore doesnt work. Oh well.
Dude, you had to leave your house and you have real life issues, why are you worried about a Halloween event on an online game?
But to answer your question, yes, I think its pointless to have a Halloween event AFTER Halloween. Im sorry that you were inconvenienced by a severe storm (which btw Anet has no control over) but to ask for an extension is in my opinion kinda absurd. Just wait for the next update and Christmas.

Yes, it is entitled. It’s a Holiday Event, not a year round thing. The content is only available during the Holiday, just like any other MMO, and just like the Holiday stuff is only sold in stores prior to and during the actual Holiday.

That’d be like asking everyone to have Christmas again a week later because you had the Flu during Christmas and felt that everyone should cater to you and experience it again.

Let’s not let this get out of hand. You know how it is – you look forward to something, but instead find disappointment. I really didn’t expect anyone to care, but it was simply therapeutic to vent a little nerd-rage. I’m pretty sure I’ll recover.

Let me add some constructive criticism that ANet might be able to use:
Up until this point, all Acts were accessible with the introduction of new Acts. If the “holiday” is still active (ie, it isn’t midnight yet), then why not continue to provide that content? Please don’t tell me it’s because of the silly Mad King simon says game…I’m pretty sure you could still keep that dungeon running and no one will get their panties in a bunch because the Mad King is in two places at once. It’s an instance, for kittens sake.

/end thread

Today is Halloween, the dungeon was not there. The event is going to be around until the 5th. Every single other part of the event is going to be available all week. This is the only thing that is not going to stay for the full length of the event – it was up for what, 2 days? With no advance notice? Not quite fair. Especially since it’s needed for the title. Holiday events are supposed to be fun and available for everyone.

Leiloni.7951:

Today is Halloween, the dungeon was not there. The event is going to be around until the 5th. Every single other part of the event is going to be available all week. This is the only thing that is not going to stay for the full length of the event – it was up for what, 2 days? With no advance notice? Not quite fair. Especially since it’s needed for the title. Holiday events are supposed to be fun and available for everyone.

Everything other then the Black Lion Chests ends on the 1st. Nothing else is staying until the 5th.

Yeah hugely disappointed too, only just got back into the game after waiting for a friend to level with. We managed to do everything with ~lvl 20 characters except missed the mad kings dungeon. So cant get the “Emissary of the Mad King”.

Honestly , they gave 2/3 days to do that , if it was only for a few hours i would agree.

I just got power restored from the hurricane a couple of hours ago, feel like I missed quite a bit because of that.

“Someone with a job, family, obligations, and precious little free time – should have made time for the dungeon (read: 10 minutes) before tonight.”

I was one of those that didn’t see a warning at all that the dungeon will be closed. But at least I did ENTER the dungeon to get the achievement.

Making each act of the event last 1 week would be a good improvement.

Make it last longer so those bots will be mapped to run the dungeons and we can roam Tyria in peace. =.=

I sympathize that you are frustrated you missed it. They tried to tell a story in 4 acts and in order for them to do that, it was necessary that they closed the portal and ended his threat so that during Act 4 he could be walking around LA. By doing this they put the story before the action. It’s an unusual choice for game devs.

I do think they could have handled it by giving access to it through the Mad King’s realm. Like a portal inside the labyrinth would have worked.

This was the first real major event of the game and to be sure between the broken achievement, the general frustration with the jump puzzle, and the tons of feedback about things like item drops, expense of crafting items, and yes, the removal of the dungeon before the event ended there were a lot of lessons for ANet to learn. Hopefully the next big event they have planned to launch later this month will benefit from this experience, and hopefully next year they will use this same event again so that people can get a chance to see/get what they missed.

ZenDad.4671:

I sympathize that you are frustrated you missed it. They tried to tell a story in 4 acts and in order for them to do that, it was necessary that they closed the portal and ended his threat so that during Act 4 he could be walking around LA. By doing this they put the story before the action. It’s an unusual choice for game devs.

I do think they could have handled it by giving access to it through the Mad King’s realm. Like a portal inside the labyrinth would have worked.

This was the first real major event of the game and to be sure between the broken achievement, the general frustration with the jump puzzle, and the tons of feedback about things like item drops, expense of crafting items, and yes, the removal of the dungeon before the event ended there were a lot of lessons for ANet to learn. Hopefully the next big event they have planned to launch later this month will benefit from this experience, and hopefully next year they will use this same event again so that people can get a chance to see/get what they missed.

People will always piss and moan when a developer doesn’t cater to exactly what they like/want. This isn’t a reason to completely change up their approach to design. The halloween event was fantastic, all 4 acts.

There are a few flaws that should be considered for next time (tower bugs and character sight issues, undermining crafters, breaking the economy… again), but “I didn’t get my achievement, because I couldn’t be buggered to log in for three days, and Anet should cater to my whims,” is not one of them.

i agree its stupid. the halloween dungeon isn’t open on halloween : / they should open a portal to enter the zone for the achievement at least. even if you can’t kill him now ( from the story point). epic fail of a holiday event.

I’ll have to agree as well… We still can do Act 1, 2 and 4 until the Halloween event ends, so why not 3?

I’m fine with not having actually seen the cutscene of the Mad King appearing in LA, I can watch that on Youtube, but I wish I could still have a chance in completing the last achievement. It would be as simple as others have suggested: adding a portal in a different zone, like the Labyrinth. Just think it’d make sense and give a little extra time for those who don’t have so much of it.

To be honest, you didnt miss much except for the achievement and title. The dungeon itself was lackluster and boring.

So, you want to be able to go into a dungeon, where the mad king is, “kill him” and then come back out and he’s now giving you candy (and hats). Also all the meanwhile whilst your in the dungeon he is outside telling jokes and making people dance for him? Yes yes that makes PERFECT sense, Just sayin’.

That could be countered by making the portal to the dungeon be called “Mad Realm Timegate” or whatever you wish, allowing you to re-live the past event in a certain area (in this case the dungeon).

I’ve been really busy with RL and today I finally had a chance to log in to check the event and was really excited to try the instance. But then I just realize that the Mad King has been pushed back and event is over.

It’s a bit annoying, to be honest.

This is seriously dissapointing. I also missed the dungeon due to RL. Not being able to enter it in act4 and thus not being able to get the title strikes me as really bad gamedesign.

At least make the clocktower or the carving count to the title.

This is simply one of those “Tough luck” situations. Better luck next time.

I, for one, am glad that the tormenting dungeon has come to an end. I ran it a few times just for the Halloween experience, but I won’t miss it.

If this game is truly important to you, then make time for it. If it isn’t, then why are you here?

By the same logic some people here are using, the event should never end. Not everyone has gotten to try everything, and it isn’t fair they they haven’t. The obvious solution is to never end the event. Endless Halloween is obviously good game design.
/sarcasm

Kitten happens.

The dungeon takes all of 7-15 minutes to complete. If you don’t have that amount of time in your life to hop on and do it then you really shouldn’t be playing an online game. Either that or expect to miss certain things.

The boss was cool.. but the instance itself was really short. Most people seemed to like doing it to farm it for the end chest.

@Gisei, But part of the gaming experience is to get to try new things.

I understand that it’s a “tough luck” situation, but in my opinion the event duration was really short. Meaning that everyone didn’t get a fair chance to get to even try the instance.

Better luck next time.

All greens not even a rare from about 25 runs..

My whole guild was planning to run the MK dungeon Wednesday night. The idea that all 10 of us – every one of whom play several hours every day – all missed the ‘plenty of notice’ does not hold up. Please feel free to rub my nose in the ‘plenty of notice’ that was given – In Game – about the timing of and length of the various parts of this very fun event.
A – so I can learn what to look for, or
B – so I can learn how to interpret A-Net speak.
Seriously, quote the in game email or whatever I missed or misunderstood, please.

While we play every day we do not try to wade through this massive forum every day. Indeed, with all the forum start up problems (it only started working – by that I mean I am now able to log in and Search – on my machine about 10 days back) many of my friends gave up and never come to the forums at all.

I hope that in future an in game pop up news at start up system may be implemented.

Thanks for an overall great event.

@Gisei:

Except that it is not ‘tough luck’.
It is tough luck if only one in a houndred chests contain a certain item and I don’t get to loot one.
It is tough luck if I play 100 games of rumble and even though I play exceptionally good I don’t win a single one.
But it is not tough luck if the halloween event you need for the completion is only available for two days, one of which it is so bugged that you cannot enter the instance. It is not tough luck if you can play all the stuff form the previous events in act4 but not the dungeon. In this case people are not being punished for being not good enough or not finding the time to play at all – they are punished for no reason.

Look, I wouldn’t even complain if act1 events were only completeable during act1, act2 events ony during act2 and so on. But every single event can be completed during act4 – except for the dungeon. And there is no reason to have it this way, there are several solutions to this (some have been posted above), none of which has to be ‘halloween going on forever’. No one ever asked for that.

I think how the event worked perfectly and so much better than any other game.
Weird events start happening around the world.
Portals open up and get you involved more into whats behind everything going on
You kill the guy behind everything
You party

Brilliant!

The Halloween Dungeon could not co-exist with the Halloween finally as the finally involves the Mad King being brought to heel, back under the curse and being allowed to come to Tyria “just for run”. While the Mad King dungeon was about beating the Mad King back into submission. That is why the Dungeon is Act 3 and the Party Act 4. I am sorry you missed out. But its not Anet’s fault that your were too busy. We are all busy and won’t always be able to make every event. Moaning about it is just silly no matter why you do it.

I just wanted to post here and express my pleasure (read: It was really fun) regarding the Mad King dungeon. Thanks. Those of us with busy lives are had plenty of time to do the dungeon and we’d be super happy if you brought it back next year so we can see that content again.

~Signed,
Someone with a job, family, obligations and precious little free time – but who made time on the weekend to give the dungeon a shot.

Two can play at that game, and seriously: job, family (Everyone has one), study, birthday, halloween party, other private obligations, etc.

I will admit I wish I could have done it more but saying they didn’t give you enough time is just silly.

I’m a bit sad as well I never got the chance to do it.

This was my reasons why I never got the chance:
1: I was there when the phase started but I never got to enter the instance. It must’ve bugged. I either couldn’t enter with my friends or could enter but then I was alone.
2: Tried again the day after but no one wanted to do a group with me (lvl 31 at that time) so I gave up after a while and went to do other things.
3: Tried again another day and couldn’t get a group again. Decided I’d try to solo it. I probably could’ve done it but I ran out of time and had work in the morning.
4: Wanted to try again after work but phase 4 started at the time I finished work so I never got another chance.

So I’m a bit upset I didn’t ge to try out the whole dungeon but at least I got to see a part of it. I must say, I was a bit surprised that they closed the dungeon but it’s ok. I still got all the achievements for the halloween event.

“The dungeon takes all of 7-15 minutes to complete. If you don’t have that amount of time in your life to hop on and do it then you really shouldn’t be playing an online game. Either that or expect to miss certain things.”

Most of us where busy with other parts of the event. When act IV came I did just finish the content of act II (Jumping Tower, Halloween Events in the Labyrint). That leaves me with 15 hours of playing that I could do on the day. That should be enough time for the remaing content of act III (15 minutes) and IV (5 minutes), right? If the content of act III wasn’t closed already.

Being an adult with a job, family, and a social life I can understand disappointment at missing it but cannot understand placing blame on ANet.
It took 30 minutes and was up for 3 days 1 of which was a weekend day. How much time were you wanting them to give here because the argument could be made that there isnt enough time for the entire event for people to get pumpkins or ToT bags or all the achievements.

Blink Squish.7605:

I just wanted to post here and express my deep displeasure (read: whining) that you have removed the Mad King dungeon before the end of Halloween. Thanks. Those of us with busy lives are super happy we have to wait another year to see that content.

~Signed,
Someone with a job, family, obligations and precious little free time – but who made time this evening to give the dungeon a shot.

Someone with a job, family, obligations and precious little free time

Maybe you should seek a game that waits for you, nearly everything non-mmo does this. You could always give your kids up for adoption, divorce your wife and quit your job, ya’know since you make it sound like those people have it made.

~Signed.

Grass is greener.

@Jairlyn:
“How much time were you wanting them to give here because the argument could be made that there isnt enough time for the entire event for people to get pumpkins or ToT bags or all the achievements.”

Easy to answer: Until the end of the halloween festivities – just like all the other events. There is no reason to shut this single event down early.

I liked the dungeon, It was short and entertaining , difficulty felt just right and having a mini jumping puzzle to get to the chest was a great idea.

I dued this with my wife and I on rangers (neither with exotics) and it took us like 25 mins. If we knew about the skip jump on stage two it would have been more like 15. With a pug you could have run in it 8 to 12 mins (he has a lot of hp). Unless you were affected by the storm I don’t see any reason you couldn’t have jumped on for a max of 30 mins to do it. There were so many in the over flows spamming LFG for it even sub 80’s (you were boosted to 80) were getting groups and finishing it. Not only that but you only had to VISIT the dungeon to get the achievement so you could have solo jumped in and out to get it.

BadHealer.3608:

“Someone with a job, family, obligations, and precious little free time – should have made time for the dungeon (read: 10 minutes) before tonight.”

I was one of those that didn’t see a warning at all that the dungeon will be closed. But at least I did ENTER the dungeon to get the achievement.

Hey, I wouldn’t have even ENTERED if I hadn’t read here that that’s all you had to do. I was ready to skip it because I don’t have a party of 5. So kudos to the few people who mentioned that along the way. And my spouse (and guildie) who’s away on a business trip did not get the time to play during the dungeon. I’m going to have to hear about that for a year so don’t do this again with Wintersday. There’s only so much complaining I’ll be able to bear.

I was disappointed I didn’t get to run it enough. It was a quick dungeon with some nice drops, and by the time I found out it was going away, I had enough time to run it once more. I’m surprised it was a relatively quick time frame for the dungeon, but then again it was almost “too good to be true.”

As someone who missed the dungeon, I’m also upset. But, my reason is slightly different than the family guys reason.

I logged on every day of the event. I did Act 1 during Act 1, but then during Act 2, I asked a question: “Can people still do Act 1?” The answer was yes. At that point, I decided that I could make time for all the Halloween events ON Halloween. It seemed more appropriate and, since my wife had to work, gave me plenty of time to enjoy myself.

So I log on, finish Acts 2 and 4 … have every achievement except for the dungeon. What. The. Heck?! They closed the dungeon? Why? None of the other material was closed!

Supposedly people were given ample warning that the content would no longer be available. I never saw such a warning or I would have done the dungeon. I logged on every day during Act 3 to do my daily, battleground jump puzzles, and collect orichalcum. Not once did I hear that the dungeon was going to be closed before Halloween.

So I’m upset. I’m sitting at 3/4 on the Mad King’s Realm and that’s all I have left for completion. It would have been nice if we had some kind of warning to tell us that it was only going to be up for 2-3 days instead of until the end of the Halloween event. I’m highly annoyed.

And, just so everyone is aware, I’m in a small guild of about 15 people. None of us knew that it would be open only during Act 3 and so none of us got the achievement. Clearly this information was not “widely available”.

This is stupid they should reopen the dungeon

I am actually quite pleased with how the Halloween event was scheduled. I do wish that some kind of in-game mail, or the end date was posted on the Halloween’s main page, was available to tell everyone “This event ends when Act 4 starts.” I was lucky that I heard a ton of people on the map chat talking about it, and I was lucky for actually being there when Act 3 starts. So I got the dungeon over with pretty quickly.

As for the day time limit, which like someone said was more like 3-4 days, I loved it. It made the world so much more immersive. Give us a better head’s up, ANet, and people won’t have any excuses for missing the dungeon. Please don’t extend these types of events. It was timed perfectly!

those that are so busy that they have 1h of free time per week, shouldn’t be playing video games and especially MMO’s.

Did a lot fewer people than I thought realize that the dungeon was our chance as players to help ensure the Mad King didn’t break out of his realm / his curse that limits him to once-a-year in Tyria [i.e. Halloween]? Act IV, a throwback to GW1 Halloween, is possible because of containing him in Act III (i.e. you can’t leave the dungeon open and still do the silliness in LA).

I dunno; I felt prepared for the dungeon going away, but I read everything related to the event that was posted.

Seriously…? I work 50 hours a week, go to school FULL time, drive 40 min to work and 40 min back, workout 5 days a week, and still had time to do the dungeon. I don’t have a lot of time to play but I knew it was going away so I put aside 30 min to an hour to sit down and do the dungeon. I completed EVERY Halloween achievement and got both titles…pretty sure you’re just a whiner.

Wolfin.2076:

All greens not even a rare from about 25 runs..

Same here, i gave up after about 20 runs of it. I also did family size and the champion skeleton in the lab a decent amount of times with no luck. But now that i think about it, i don’t really care anymore. The mad king heavy armor set looks horrid imo and i don’t use gs anymore, only really wanted the stuff to make some money so i could afford the mats to make myself some exotic armor.

On the bright side, now that the event is over soon, i can’t be tempted to blow all my money on candy corn to make tots for recipes and stuff. Just need to work on getting myself to not blow all my money on rares to hit up the forge anymore lol.

" I don’t have a lot of time to play but I knew it was going away so I put aside 30 min to an hour to sit down and do the dungeon. "

Well, that is the point. We didn’t know that it did go away while the rest remains till the end of Halloween.

Mostly all of us did spare the Dungeon and want to do it at the end of the event. Sure we could spare some time and do the parts of act I or II later. But shouldn’t we finish act I+II first, before we do act III?