Guild Wars 2

RAGE! I have wasted hours and hours trying to do this, and I am right on the cusp. It’s the most beautiful feature for Wintersday, and yet it causes the most frustration NOT fun. Having to stand there waiting for and watching a continuous stream of people who just show up and blow right through really raises the steam levels.

Those who are good have almost no wait time while those who suck get their noses rubbed in it over and over again. Even without a timer it wouldn’t be trivial to get through it. The timer just forces you to have to jump with a crowd which really blows also. Why not just TIME it and give rewards based on that? People could compete for bragging rights, emotes, whatever, but why cant the slower people be allowed to get to the end and enjoy the pretty views along the way???

Who was the test group for this? I have no problem with crazy hard content for the skilled out there who want a test to measure themselves against, but putting up a retaining wall that says YOU SUCK is really a negative for the game. Come on Anet, stop doing this to us.

Hongxing.9528:

By the way, it seems to me that the ‘difficulty’ may also be down to pc specification and lag.

- Some may feel that it melts fast because their pc have rendered slower
- On occasion, I have started jumping but I’ve seen some others still at the start point waiting, almost 3 flakes away before they start.
- Lag sometimes helps and sometimes is bad, it depends when it got connectivity.

No doubt, I couldn’t even play till I turned everything down to the lowest (couldn’t load in before it started) plus there are more particles than in MKCT or something…My FPS gets hit when I’m in it.

I enjoy it very much. Once you get used to all the dangerous spots and burn it into your brain, running thru non-stop is my favorite part

ophidic.1279:

I would say that EVERYONE is entitled to complete a holiday event. It’s not supposed to be a challenge, it’s supposed to be something fun and easy, and it should take no more than 20 minutes AND you should be guaranteed some cheap holiday items, liquor, food, socks/sweaters/hats whatever, but NOT EXOTIC ARMOR as per the Clock Tower.

If Anet is making every holiday about jumping and dungeons, I’m gonna be pretty annoyed.

Sorry to be so bold, but what I find annoying is that feeling of entitlement. If they make it so everyone can complete it, they would have to dumb it down to a level that most player will find it a joke… and players will complain with reason. What is needed is mix of hard and easy events… and ANet nailed it with Wintersday as the Tixx dungeon is a walk in the park, the guitar bell hero is just plain fun with a bit of challenge, and the jumping puzzle requires skill without being aggravating.

And since I have yet to actually do it (almost made it last time), let me log in and try that one again! See you in Tyria!

E Kay.9236:

ophidic.1279:

I would say that EVERYONE is entitled to complete a holiday event. It’s not supposed to be a challenge, it’s supposed to be something fun and easy, and it should take no more than 20 minutes AND you should be guaranteed some cheap holiday items, liquor, food, socks/sweaters/hats whatever, but NOT EXOTIC ARMOR as per the Clock Tower.

If Anet is making every holiday about jumping and dungeons, I’m gonna be pretty annoyed.

Sorry to be so bold, but what I find annoying is that feeling of entitlement. If they make it so everyone can complete it, they would have to dumb it down to a level that most player will find it a joke… and players will complain with reason. What is needed is mix of hard and easy events… and ANet nailed it with Wintersday as the Tixx dungeon is a walk in the park, the guitar bell hero is just plain fun with a bit of challenge, and the jumping puzzle requires skill without being aggravating.

And since I have yet to actually do it (almost made it last time), let me log in and try that one again! See you in Tyria!

Or they can just at a difficulty setting to it so everybody can enjoy it instead of some either getting frustrated with it and other finding too easy.

E Kay.9236:

ophidic.1279:

I would say that EVERYONE is entitled to complete a holiday event. It’s not supposed to be a challenge, it’s supposed to be something fun and easy, and it should take no more than 20 minutes AND you should be guaranteed some cheap holiday items, liquor, food, socks/sweaters/hats whatever, but NOT EXOTIC ARMOR as per the Clock Tower.

If Anet is making every holiday about jumping and dungeons, I’m gonna be pretty annoyed.

Sorry to be so bold, but what I find annoying is that feeling of entitlement. If they make it so everyone can complete it, they would have to dumb it down to a level that most player will find it a joke… and players will complain with reason. What is needed is mix of hard and easy events… and ANet nailed it with Wintersday as the Tixx dungeon is a walk in the park, the guitar bell hero is just plain fun with a bit of challenge, and the jumping puzzle requires skill without being aggravating.

And since I have yet to actually do it (almost made it last time), let me log in and try that one again! See you in Tyria!

Have you seen GW1 holiday quests? You go, fight some stuff, after 3 or 4 sections which are incredibly easy, you got everything to “do” all the event stuff, and make a few candy cane weapons. NO ONE complained that it was too easy.

There was an event in the underworld that I just never really did because I wasn’t good at it, but there was nothing special you got from it as far as I was aware.

Bell hero? Good lord don’t even get me started on that one. I could not sort out what was happening…

It sucks because it was just fun being at the events in GW1, and now it’s not fun at all. AND I WANT IT TO BE FUN. I never in a million years thought I would be complaining about the first GW2 Christmas. =(

DeadlySynz.3471:

E Kay.9236:

ophidic.1279:

I would say that EVERYONE is entitled to complete a holiday event. It’s not supposed to be a challenge, it’s supposed to be something fun and easy, and it should take no more than 20 minutes AND you should be guaranteed some cheap holiday items, liquor, food, socks/sweaters/hats whatever, but NOT EXOTIC ARMOR as per the Clock Tower.

If Anet is making every holiday about jumping and dungeons, I’m gonna be pretty annoyed.

Sorry to be so bold, but what I find annoying is that feeling of entitlement. If they make it so everyone can complete it, they would have to dumb it down to a level that most player will find it a joke… and players will complain with reason. What is needed is mix of hard and easy events… and ANet nailed it with Wintersday as the Tixx dungeon is a walk in the park, the guitar bell hero is just plain fun with a bit of challenge, and the jumping puzzle requires skill without being aggravating.

And since I have yet to actually do it (almost made it last time), let me log in and try that one again! See you in Tyria!

Or they can just at a difficulty setting to it so everybody can enjoy it instead of some either getting frustrated with it and other finding too easy.

God, I could even deal with it if there was no moving bits, checkpoints if it was long enough so you don’t have to start all over from the beginning, and no groups, just instance the stupid thing. Or is there some technical reason why instancing it would be bad?

ophidic.1279:

DeadlySynz.3471:

E Kay.9236:

ophidic.1279:

I would say that EVERYONE is entitled to complete a holiday event. It’s not supposed to be a challenge, it’s supposed to be something fun and easy, and it should take no more than 20 minutes AND you should be guaranteed some cheap holiday items, liquor, food, socks/sweaters/hats whatever, but NOT EXOTIC ARMOR as per the Clock Tower.

If Anet is making every holiday about jumping and dungeons, I’m gonna be pretty annoyed.

Sorry to be so bold, but what I find annoying is that feeling of entitlement. If they make it so everyone can complete it, they would have to dumb it down to a level that most player will find it a joke… and players will complain with reason. What is needed is mix of hard and easy events… and ANet nailed it with Wintersday as the Tixx dungeon is a walk in the park, the guitar bell hero is just plain fun with a bit of challenge, and the jumping puzzle requires skill without being aggravating.

And since I have yet to actually do it (almost made it last time), let me log in and try that one again! See you in Tyria!

Or they can just at a difficulty setting to it so everybody can enjoy it instead of some either getting frustrated with it and other finding too easy.

God, I could even deal with it if there was no moving bits, checkpoints if it was long enough so you don’t have to start all over from the beginning, and no groups, just instance the stupid thing. Or is there some technical reason why instancing it would be bad?

Or you could admit to yourself you just suck at it and not constantly make whiny unconstructive selfentitlement posts. The puzzle for all its flaws isn’t that hard. It actually gives you a fair amount of leeway in terms of time. All I see from you is not wanting to put in any effort. If you can’t do it than move on already. The wintersday event is more than just the jumping puzzle and you don’t need it to get the overal title.

As for a difficulty setting that would just shift the discussion to rewards being unfair instead of how difficult it is. In other words it wouldn’t solve anything at all.

Soapies.9671:

I actually find this puzzle really hard. I’m nearing 10hrs (which is so sad, but I’m currently unemployed and stubborn) and I still haven’t gotten to the end. I know I’m not the only one because I’m always hanging around people who have been there just as long as I have and fail every single time also!

I wonder if the people who find this too easy are the only ones logging onto this forum to say something, because there sure are a lot of us to are having a really hard time.

Please don’t make them harder.

I hate the fact it’s timed in multiple ways – your health, the snow flakes and the presents.

I hate that you can’t play this solo, and you’re constantly trying to see yourself through other peoples avatars (I’m an asura, so I can never see where I am)

And I hate the kitten candy canes, lol.

Ah well, c’est la vie. I’ll probably keep going for another 20hrs if I have to.

I completely agree with you Soapies. I honestly don’t understand why so many people are saying this JP was too easy, and yet the number of those saying it’s really hard seem few and far inbetween when I see a ton of people attempting it time and time again too. I’ve probably given this at least 100 attempts so far, and I still have yet to make it to the peppermint section.

In fact, I’m wondering if maybe something is slightly off with my keyboard, because I notice a very tiny yet noticeable lag between hitting space and my character jumping on screen (I’m using an 8 year old PS/2 Microsoft Multimedia keyboard) – anyone else have that experience, or is it completely lag free jumping for you? Maybe it’s something with my space key, as all the other controls seem good.

I’m getting quite good at jumping through the snowflakes, but every single time, I’ll mis-time a single jump. Sometimes it’s within the first 10 or so snowflakes, but usually I can make it 20-25 in. But inevitably, I still miss a jump somewhere, and it’s INCREDIBLY frustrating. I’d love for one of those folks that says this is too easy to try it on my computer so that I can find out once and for all if it’s me, or if it’s my hardware causing me trouble. I have a spare USB keyboard at work – I’ll have to bring it home for a day and see if that helps any.

ophidic.1279:

Have you seen GW1 holiday quests? You go, fight some stuff, after 3 or 4 sections which are incredibly easy, you got everything to “do” all the event stuff, and make a few candy cane weapons. NO ONE complained that it was too easy.

Sounds pretty forgettable and boring. Why would anyone want to do that for any reason but getting the reward?

To the people who like Jumping Puzzles, if Anet was to dumb them down to make them accessible to everyone, then that would be removing our fun. The Wintersday puzzle was already a big let down for those of us that loved the Mad King’s Clocktower. Changing the difficulty of the puzzle is already a give and take, and this holiday JP has already taken fun away from those that love Jumping Puzzles and given it to those that don’t like Jumping Puzzles as much.

If they are just going to dumb down the JP’s then they might as well just stop making them for holiday events. The people who like Jumping Puzzles will find them too easy and boring, and the people who dislike JPs already dislike JPs from the very start. Why should the difficulty be targeted to people who dislike the concept of the activity in the first place?.. that’s just going to make no one happy.

Me and a friend who are casual players (having done only 5 other JPs I believe) spent about 2 hours on the Wintersday JP, and we loved every minute of it. The atmosphere was spot on, and completing it did feel very rewarding to me. I think the difficulty was just perfect for a holiday JP. If anything, make them a TAD harder, not easier. The timer was perfect as well, allowing you to hesitate in some spots but not too much. Also, the changing challenge (flakes to candy to presents to evading snowball) was GREAT! I would appreciate if there were still JPs of Clock Tower difficulty though, but ones that can be tried at any time, not just during holidays. (I’m a bit sad to say I wasn’t there at halloween to try the clock tower).

If you want to make the JPs harder without being more timed, please think about adding some misleading pathways. I was actually mislead towards another pathway (instead of towards the presents) the first time I was on the candys, ending up on the last candy before nothingness, which was neat.

What I would like to see changed is that the Karma reward is not equal for all levels. I see the point with the crafting mats, but not the Karma, because the difficulty of the puzzle does not depend on character level.

Overall, I want to thank the developers of winter wonderland for a great experience! This jumping puzzle was the most fun I’ve had in a computer game for a long, long time.

Surbrus.6942:

Sounds pretty forgettable and boring. Why would anyone want to do that for any reason but getting the reward?

To the people who like Jumping Puzzles, if Anet was to dumb them down to make them accessible to everyone, then that would be removing our fun. The Wintersday puzzle was already a big let down for those of us that loved the Mad King’s Clocktower. Changing the difficulty of the puzzle is already a give and take, and this holiday JP has already taken fun away from those that love Jumping Puzzles and given it to those that don’t like Jumping Puzzles as much.

If they are just going to dumb down the JP’s then they might as well just stop making them for holiday events. The people who like Jumping Puzzles will find them too easy and boring, and the people who dislike JPs already dislike JPs from the very start. Why should the difficulty be targeted to people who dislike the concept of the activity in the first place?.. that’s just going to make no one happy.

I LOVE jumping puzzles and have completed them all on my own – except with a mesmer portal for the skipping stones and mad king, but until this puzzle I played using the cursor keys for movement… I have switched to a mouse now and have finally managed to get to the presents (yay me) after 6 days and probably 50+ hrs of trying. I have been incredibly frustrated by the long wait times and the people who breeze through. (Do they even realise there is a time limit?) There are many who are so good at it they can finish and get back for the next timer, while I have 2 minutes or so of boredom. Personally, I like the idea of it being instanced or reducing the wait time at least. Also having multitudes of people jumping on the same spot is incredibly difficult to deal with so perhaps limiting the overflows to smaller groups could be an option.

Perhaps the people who find this too easy should be happy that they are brilliant jumpers and look at setting their own goals to beating the puzzle whilst the developers acknowledge that not everyone has the latest equipment and fastest internet pings and makes small allowances for us “less brilliant” players who still happen to LOVE jumping puzzles.

New reward for completing the puzzle today. Free teleport to LA. Completed it 3 times now, serious …
And yes, the JP is way to easy, looking forward to a real challenge from a jumpin puzzle.

I enjoyed the jumping puzzles so far (not that I did all of them but those I did were awesome), but not the holiday ones. The fact that Anet fails to see that GW2 never ever needed timed jumping puzzles is most discouraging. If I want to play a racing game, I have plenty of choices.

So even though the idea and the environment is awesome, the flawed design kills it for many people. I sincerely hope that the player feedback will be considered in the future events, so we won’t have to face timed jumping puzzles ever again.

As a side note for the “omg so easy, make it even harder” crowd: I played plenty of Tomb Raider games. Pixel perfect jumps and so on. It was hard yet satisfying, but that was an andventure/platformer with controls tailored to that experience. Please keep that in mind before asking for harder jumping puzzles.

For those asking for a harder challenge there IS a hard mode. Go into your video settings and turn your saturation and contrast ALL THE WAY DOWN

Sorry, but you’re going to have to adapt just like everyone else.

Happy Holidays and good luck with the events!

I just made it to the end of the jumping puzzle. In the “end room” your character is spawned facing the inside of the big gift box. I accidentally pushed forward and to my horror I was ported back to Lion’s Arch. I did not receive any prompts. I was not able to open my chest.

I have finished the JP before and I know there is a portal next to the chest that takes you back to LA. That portal AFAIK has a prompt unlike the box.

Would it be possible for ANet to put prompts for portals like that in the future?

Edit: I finished it again and the same thing happened. I kept my hands off the keyboard and the same thing happened. I got ported back to LA. ;_;

DareWreck.4107:

I honestly don’t understand why so many people are saying this JP was too easy, and yet the number of those saying it’s really hard seem few and far inbetween when I see a ton of people attempting it time and time again too. I’ve probably given this at least 100 attempts so far, and I still have yet to make it to the peppermint section.

You don’t understand why it’s too easy? Let me tell you – because I did it on my first try. My sense of achievement was nowhere near that of completing the Clock Tower. Still, it was not a bad puzzle, just easy.

Ptolia.3450:

I have been incredibly frustrated by the long wait times and the people who breeze through. (Do they even realise there is a time limit?) There are many who are so good at it they can finish and get back for the next timer, while I have 2 minutes or so of boredom. Personally, I like the idea of it being instanced or reducing the wait time at least. Also having multitudes of people jumping on the same spot is incredibly difficult to deal with so perhaps limiting the overflows to smaller groups could be an option.

Perhaps the people who find this too easy should be happy that they are brilliant jumpers and look at setting their own goals to beating the puzzle whilst the developers acknowledge that not everyone has the latest equipment and fastest internet pings and makes small allowances for us “less brilliant” players who still happen to LOVE jumping puzzles.

The wait time jumps to the end once all players have disappeared from the jumping area. With a few seconds of leeway for the last person to complete to have enough time to get back and start a new round. :P

The best thing I see that could be done here is give two difficulties. Easy, for the people with bad PCs and who just want a reward/achievement and Hard for people who want to retry 100 times and feel awesome after finally completing it. Hard should of course give better rewards, but not something that can’t be gained elsewhere.

Zaith.9132:

For those asking for a harder challenge there IS a hard mode. Go into your video settings and turn your saturation and contrast ALL THE WAY DOWN

Sorry, but you’re going to have to adapt just like everyone else.

Happy Holidays and good luck with the events!

Also use all of the shortcuts available without skipping ANY of them, especially the ones at the bottom route. There a few really long jump shortcuts.
Oh and, roll under at least one snow boulder.

For everyone to be happy, i think they should make different levels of difficulity. Example: very easy mode to very hard mode. The very easy mode would be simuliar to the vistas in game. And the very hard mode simuliar to the clock tower.

I loved this Jump Puzzle. You fail a ton of times, but by then, you get the tempo and you learn the paths. I beat it on my 15th attempt I believe.

Also, take off your pants .. easier to see where your legs are landing.

I didn’t get a chance to do the Halloween puzzle, so I was really impressed with this one. The way it’s timed and “grouped” is really, really cool. It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without either of those two elements. I replayed it several times after I first completed it because I just enjoyed the experience. It took me about an hour of practice to get it the first time.

i loved the jumping puzzle. it was the right amount of difficulty. it wasn’t so easy that i wasn’t proud to make it to the end (i.e. everyone else made it so i ought to) and it wasn’t so hard that i said kitten this and go do something else.

only suggestion i have is put charr and norn in a different overflow, as normal sized beings (human, sylvari, asura) it’s really hard to jump/gauge where you are when charr/norn models overlap yours. it causes me to wait for all of them to go in front of me, or jump so recklessly to stay in front of them that i end up dying.

Surbrus.6942:

ophidic.1279:

Have you seen GW1 holiday quests? You go, fight some stuff, after 3 or 4 sections which are incredibly easy, you got everything to “do” all the event stuff, and make a few candy cane weapons. NO ONE complained that it was too easy.

Sounds pretty forgettable and boring. Why would anyone want to do that for any reason but getting the reward?

To the people who like Jumping Puzzles, if Anet was to dumb them down to make them accessible to everyone, then that would be removing our fun. The Wintersday puzzle was already a big let down for those of us that loved the Mad King’s Clocktower. Changing the difficulty of the puzzle is already a give and take, and this holiday JP has already taken fun away from those that love Jumping Puzzles and given it to those that don’t like Jumping Puzzles as much.

If they are just going to dumb down the JP’s then they might as well just stop making them for holiday events. The people who like Jumping Puzzles will find them too easy and boring, and the people who dislike JPs already dislike JPs from the very start. Why should the difficulty be targeted to people who dislike the concept of the activity in the first place?.. that’s just going to make no one happy.

Why does anyone do any holiday events? FOR THE HOLIDAY ITEMS, LAWL.

Taikanaru.5746:

You don’t understand why it’s too easy? Let me tell you – because I did it on my first try. My sense of achievement was nowhere near that of completing the Clock Tower. Still, it was not a bad puzzle, just easy.

A number of people have said that in this thread, so let me rephrase my quandry: I don’t understand how so many people got through the JP on their first try, when I’m failing miserably repeatedly. Have you (and the others) practiced JPs in the game so much that this winter-themed one was second nature to you? Do you have your camera angled in such a way that makes it incredibly easy? What about your controls and mouse sensitivity settings (in regards to the latter, both in and out of GW2)? Do you have a monster gaming rig that chews up GW2’s scenery with no problem? (My GeForce 560ti blew up right around the end of the Lost Shores event, so now I’m using my old 8800 GTS, which surprisingly does pretty well – but the game definitely isn’t as smooth as before, so that’s not helping).

There’s so many variables involved (and yes, I am overthinking it!) that I’m downright curious how so many found this JP a breeze. There’s got to be what, a couple hundred jumps from start to finish, and I’m honestly surprised that so many people made it through perfectly without mis-timing at least one jump along the way. I think the farthest I’ve made it so far is the point where the snowflakes take a sharp 90 degree turn to the left on the Gingerbread course (probably some 30-40 snowflakes in), so I clearly (mostly) know what I’m doing in order to make it that far, but I still always end up miscalculating a jump somewhere along the way each time, where I either jump forward too far or not far enough, or bump my head on an angled snowflake and then plummet to my doom, etc.

Anyway, I completely agree with what Agyaggalamb said above, how the controls in GW2 are not set up with controls tailored to a platforming game, which is why I believe so many are finding this JP frustrating, much to the chagrin of those here that had no problem with it. I beat Super Meat Boy, so I certainly know my way around platformers, and I even have played through many a Mega Man game back in the day with the (usually hated) disappearing platform parts. The controls for those games, though, are specifically designed for this type of game play.

I did it! i finally did it!

I ran up that candy cane thinking dont fall DON’T Fall, got on the last pressie and jump in! didn’t touch the sides at all….

In the reward chest area for like 3 seconds and BOOM! ported to LA without letting me loot my first chest! NNNNNNNNNNNoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo….

Got the hand of it in the next 30 mins and managed to do it 2 more times to which yielded less and less results. Was the first time i completed suppose to have something of value cos if yes, Anet u better gimmi gimmi gimmi that stuff back, im not happy about that!

spent 3 days on this JP…..

Aside from above,

Lots of fun, alot easier than MK imo… didn’t like those candy canes sticking out of the towers but i guess that was a challenging part depending what camera angle you used.

Nice 3 different starting paths but i think i’ve said this before, a few more (total of 6) wouldn’t hurt either. Only 7 of us going yesterday (during my time) and we managed to get 1 on 2 platforms and the remaining 5 on the same platform several times….

I like that meet at halfway kind of thing, gets each other to kind of assisting the community (if you made if that far). Overall i would give it like a 7/10.

Pressies in center exploding sometimes first 3 rows exploded very quickly to which required u to run the the last pressie on either left or right on the first 3 rows, little difficult given the DoT on u.

But fun fun fun, boy that wind thing was a pain, had to listen out carefully since some camera angles u couldn’t see it!! lol.

Great stuff,