Guild Wars 2

What I enjoyed most from Wintersday were the jump puzzle and the Infinarium, at least when it’s new and you’re not just grinding through differing variations of events. Everything else I found to be not fun and at best.. filler. Toypocalypse is better than a sleeping pill, the guitar hero game and the new PVP mode were even less fun. Toypocalypse almost sounded like a Horde mode but what we got was the most disappointing of all. No rewards, absolutely boring grinding gameplay that you couldn’t wait to be over, couldn’t bring in your friends in probably the most boring thing you can do in the game etc.

The Halloween event on the other hand, I barely had time to take in the mad king story while running around frantically trying to finish it in time and didn’t get to the jump puzzle for the sake of time, didn’t want to spend it all on the JP unproductively but the dungeon and even the PVP minigame with the zombies was actually really well done and I wish they would p

I may particularly be biased towards content vs just filler “activities” but I felt like Halloween was by far the better update in terms of meaningful things happening, mad king taking out the statue etc. We also had much better skins and rewards to chase after, Wintersday at best has the slingshot.

What say others?

Wintersday was a blast to me. If I had to compare them on a level of which was more pleasing to go through, I would say Wintersday. Not having to freak out about times, and one time events was a huge stress reliever. I prefer the way they handled this event as well.

Personally I loved the dungeon variations. I thought it was a lot of fun going back to the Grove variation, and helping out friends. I was surprised by how much I had forgotten lol.

I really appreciated the jumping puzzle as well. With the Halloween’s Clock tower, I tried it three times, and saw it was a huge waste of my time. This jumping puzzle was difficult enough (for me) that I got it maybe 3 times out of the dozen times I tried.

I absolutely loved the PvP event. There were some issues, but my team wasn’t normally organized enough to take advantage of them (I hardly saw anyone waiting on the gift respawn). Normally I suck so much in PvP I rarely join in any matches, but in this event I was a monster with that slingshot! I stopped trying to get the presents, and had mini death matches instead!

I didn’t feel anything was really filler. Also I didn’t get the feeling anything (outside of the dungeon) was super necessary either. I loved how this event felt like a huge amusement park for me to pick, and choose what I wanted to do.

For me, both events were a success.

Wintersday was designed to be a more laid back take it easy event. It could be seen as a bit of a let down compared to amazing event that was Halloween but they figured since it is the holiday season people might not have as much time to dedicate to GW2 as they did compared to Halloween or Lost Shores, and created the content to suit that situation.

Awww cmon, the pvp mode for wintersday is awesome! Who wouldn’t love becoming a giant snowball and crushing people, its lulz all day!

I think Winterday is great.

Enjoying Wintersday a lot more than Halloween.

Love the Jumping Puzzle without the dizzying swirly green.
Loved the daily dungeons.
Love Bell Choir Hero.
Like the Snowball Mayhem game. Would be better if it was balanced better.
Like Toypocalypse, could do with better rewards.

Hated all the skins from Halloween, but find myself stocking the skins from Wintersday, just in case I run out.

I did enjoy the adviser vs. villager game in Halloween, but it’s good to have different games for different events.

LOL well thats why I asked, different strokes for different folks.

IMO the clocktower JP was a masterpiece even though it wasn’t designed well to accomodate everyone. The intricacy of its design really blew me away and it sucked that it was squeezed in on a weekend with a lot of other things going on and most people didn’t have the time to master it. I’m sure if it was up for at least a week or longer more people might have completed it.

It was too much packed into a small 3-day or whatever time frame though. I didn’t even get a chance to look at what we could have crafted in Halloween much less get any mats, if it were me I would have left things up for a week. Hopefully they give us all a longer chance at it all next year

I want to say you had like a week or so for the jumping puzzle since it was released on the 26th and the event didn’t end until Nov 1.

I kind of wished the event team had made their original idea for Wintersday’s jumping puzzle available in some fashion. It sounded like it would have been a decent challenge. What we have now would have probably been the first tier (the easy tier), it’d go on until a third tier (the hardest tier). Probably would have rivaled Halloween’s jumping puzzle, but would have also made a lot of people angry who would have gotten stuck on the first or second tiers.

For me, Halloween had better lore in the form of the Mad Memoires scavenger hunt. Since story and characterisation is what appeals to me most as a gamer, Halloween comes out on top in this regard.

However, Halloween (and Lost Shores) suffered from a very rushed timeframe in which players had to keep up on a daily basis or risk missing out on content. In that respect, Wintersday is 10x better and I hope it is the model ANet will keep going forward.

I am a bit disappointed that Wintersday won’t have a special day-long finale in the vein of GW1, but given the massive amount of content we’ve received so far, I’m not complaining.

For a more precise breakdown:

- Loved Wintersday Wonderland (The Clock Tower was more satisfying to beat, but the Wonderland was still fun/challenging without it becoming frustrating, which I think is a nice move for the wider player base.)
- Daily dungeons were OK. I found them a bit repetitive and think they went on longer than they needed to. 3 – 4 activities (not including Toxx) in each instance should have been sufficient. Wish you could repeat them for (diminishing) rewards of Cogs/Stuffing/Glue as well.
- Loved the Bell Choir. I’d do it more often if the drop rate of Personalised Gifts were better.
- Snowball Mayhem is OK. It’s fun for the right people, but I’m not really a PvP gamer.
- Toypocalypse could have been done better. It needs better rewards, and should be shorter. I did it once to get the achievements, then never went back. Although I earned the Toypocalypse Cancelled achievement back when you needed to save all 5 dolyaks, I appreciate ANet making it easier for others to get the achievement. (I’ll always have the satisfaction of knowing I did it the “hard way”. Whether or not other people have the achievement matters not at all to me.)
- The variety for the Wintersday rewards for Socks/Hats/Sweaters need to be looked at. Each currency should offer a wider variety of rewards. Stuffing/Glue could be some of the tradeable rewards, along with a bigger variety of Snowflakes and crafting recipes.

I’ll chime in. I enjoyed the time frame of presentation for Wintersday. I think the rewards could use some work, in variety and how they are presented. Halloween had a too intense of a time frame, but the scavenger hunt style was enjoyable. I am a very casual player, I take my time with everything, and don’t have a lot of time anyway. I mostly stick to the open world, and rarely set foot in dungeons, so can’t comment on dungeons. I would like to see more open world activity like the Halloween Doors, that was fun and interesting. I stuck my nose into the Mad King Realm, and that was great for a dungeon feel without having to group up. I like being able to make choices on where to run around for experiences and loots. Hope the devs can continue to improve on play styles and loot parameters because overall the art design is great. I’d be more satisfied with a less stringent loot drop, and a bit more variety on how to acquire. The stories engaged me more in Halloween, so I hope the lore grows in depth a bit more.

dungeon was boring and repetitive, seriously absolutely no thought was put into this 5 day recycled marathon; collect 15 plants/presents, stop toys, destroy turrets, fight a variation of toxx, yawn. the pvp snowball was okay for a bit but just depends what teams you get, achievo hunters ruin it cos they wont play to help the team and the reward wasnt worth the effort. toycrapalopse was a huge letdown, wasnt fun, wasnt doable with friends/guildies, the most unfun horde/firefight/tower defense game i’ve ever played. everything else is kinda meh, some skins are nice others kinda bleh. music event was decent. jp was okay. currency got worthless pretty quick, no long term use like the candy corn.

was hoping for something like mad king dungeon but nope, overall huge disappointment.

I enjoyed both. The clocktower puzzle was more challenging and fun to me, but winter’s was more accessible and better designed for big groups doing it at the same time. I like the halloween dungeon better since it was a real boss instead of a series of heart-like quests like winter’s. But again, winter’s is more accessible.

But what I like most about winter’s is that what I like isn’t what everyone likes, and there was definitely more something-for-everyone activities than halloween.

If only the unbreakable bell wasn’t that rare.

That’s so funny. I’m the exact opposite OP. I was disappointed in just about everything for halloween but I’m loving wintersday. There were no skins to be had on halloween. It was all rare stuff from the boxes or temporary stuff while I love the wintersday skins and they’re easy to get. I love all the wintersday activities like snowball fight and the bells while I just didn’t mesh with the halloween stuff. It just felt like there was nothing to do. For wintersday I just loved the snowball fight in the LA square. I could do it all day.

The lore was cooler for halloween of course. I think the minis are better for wintersday but their acquisition was tons better for halloween. The jumping puzzle for wintersday was a big let down but the halloween one was amazing. I can understand the need to dumb it down though. It is supposed to be a charitable holiday

Just loved wintersday!

I liked Wintersday very much. Do wish the jump puzzle wasn’t bugged and would give me my karma though.

Actually it’s a good event.The only 2 things which are too easy are the jumping puzzle and Toypocalipse.The puzzle compared to MCKT is too easy and toypocalipse’s pre-nerf was awesome.After it? Meh…such disapointement
Everything else i was just great.I liked the bells and the pvp map.

wintersday imo is so much better than halloween. The events were really fun, everyone can celebrate the holiday cheer with such cheap weapon skins, everyone basically gets free 2-3 minipets, and people with real money to spend get something special as well. :P

I completed all of the Halloween event except the jumping puzzle. I have not completed a single thing in the Wintersday event. Heck, I think I only logged in twice since it started and logged back out after 2 or 3 minutes.

I absolutely loved the Halloween event, I completed everything and was terribly sad to see it end. Wintersday feels really forgettable to me, there really isn’t much to it. The PvP mode was okay for a bit but became boring quickly, I enjoyed the bell event quite a bit since I’m a Guitar Hero fan, and the JP was pathetically easy to master. As for Tixx’s “dungeons”, they were all pretty repetitive and lost their appeal rapidly.

I pulled all nighters to enjoy as much of Halloween as I could, I completed all the Wintersday achievements and haven’t bothered with the event since I completed Toypocalypse (my final achievement).

I disagree.

I am not American, so I don’t care about Halloween. At all. Christmas (or Wintersday) is a global holiday which everyone can relate to.

Oglaf.1074:

I disagree.

I am not American, so I don’t care about Halloween. At all. Christmas (or Wintersday) is a global holiday which everyone can relate to.

what makes you assume halloween is an american thing only? O.o

also, wintersday is ok, though tixx annoyed me a little. usually i don’t like musical stuff like the bell game but after some practice i was was able to get my achievement done and score some good points. the snowballfight was the best imo. would have wished for some more quests related to it maybe.

ashlaran.3804:

Oglaf.1074:

I disagree.

I am not American, so I don’t care about Halloween. At all. Christmas (or Wintersday) is a global holiday which everyone can relate to.

what makes you assume halloween is an american thing only? O.o

Because it is inherently American…? But thanks to Coca-Colaism it is spreading across the globe at a rapid rate.

Wintersday was good but Mad King was awesome, its not that wintersday was a let down so much as the nailed it perfectly with the first event so its hard to make something thats gonna live up to that.

I have to disagree on the jumping puzzle points that a lot of people are making. I think there has to be a little bit of a learning curve on it, sure, but I don’t believe it needs to be like a 4 hour process before you can finish it the first time like my friend (I refused to do it after my 3rd try). I literally sat and played through all of the halloween quests on my two characters in GW1 while my friend attempted to finish the jumping puzzle. I just felt it wasn’t fun, it took forever waiting, and it was just a major waste of time. Now wintersday comes along and is, in my mind, a much better example of a good jumping puzzle. I feel like there’s just a range of people from “Wanting Free Handouts” to “I want to spend half of the event trying to figure it out” and it’s just hard to meet any of the wants in that area.

Wintersday needs a big event on or around Christmas like there was with GW1. That was the best part of Wintersday for me in GW1 and I wish they had it here.

I disagree with this thread’s title and the poster.

I’m glad Wintersday is more laid back, with more time for those with not so much time due to holidays, to still experience the full event. Halloween was also fun, but to be honest, Halloween in Guild Wars 1 was MUCH BETTER and not so much of a lag-fest. The different servers really are the death of these events, making it impossible for many players to enjoy these event together.

I enjoyed the Mad King’s Clocktower more, because it was more of a challenge, and kind of scary. The Wintersday jumping puzzle is more player friendly, but also less of a challenge.

The toypocalypse was alright, but due to the lack of awards, not something I see myself doing again considering the amount of time it requires.

I liked the mini dungeon. But it is just one dungeon really for the whole event. But again it is more laid back. I like the lack of stress.

Wintersday > Halloween IMO. A big attraction for me is the wonderful score/music. I also love the jumping puzzle. Because of the different paths and the snowball fights, I find it has a lot more replayability than the clocktower. I remember trying clocktower for 4 hours straight and not even making it 1/3 of the way up. With Winter Wonderland, I can finish it on my first try most of the time, but I don’t find it overly easy.

The PvP part I wasn’t too hot on, just because it’s hard to get the titles, but the combat is still pretty fun. Bell choir is nice, especially if you try playing each different part. The dungeon and Toypocalypse could have been a little less boring, but they were overall positive experiences. Ugly Wool clothing is really annoying, but I approve of the inventory boxes I got, as well as the other festive-themed items. I like that the skins are easily accessible.

Though, the biggest attraction for me is the music and scenery. Very wonderfully done!

Although I replied to this thread already, I would like to add two more thoughts to this event.

I truly enjoy the accessibility of this event over Halloween, and am still enjoying Wintersday.

However, the two points that I felt kept this event from being great were; nothing happened on the 25th, and I also feel the story was completely overlooked.

It would’ve been really nice if we were all given a small present in the mail on Christmas. Now I understand you get three mini pets, a very cute backpack skin, weapon skins, and all the content in between; yet it would’ve been nice to have been given a present on Christmas.

The second thing I felt was completely underwhelming was the story. Halloween’s lore (imo) was so great, because they used GW1 lore! I’m dumbstruck there wasn’t any mention of the battle between Dwayna, and Grenth! That was one of the coolest things to witness in GW1. I understand the deities left Tyria, but goodness you could have still tied in some really interesting twist to the old traditions of Wintersday.

Toxx, and Tixx just didn’t feel fleshed out at all. Yes, I get it, Portal. That was it. There wasn’t anything else to the story that I saw at all. I’m still curious as to what the ‘Giant Clanker’ did to the skritt to make them so vengeful towards the Inifinarium. Sure you could assume they gave them presents, and they rebelled on a Skritt town, but how much cooler could it have been to investigate such a happening. Perhaps a quest line to rebuild the Skritt town out of the kindness of the player’s heart? Sounds more akin to the whole spirit of holidays; you know giving back?

Anyhow, those were the only two things that sort of bugged me.

Town clothing- Halloween>Christmas
Weapon Skins- Halloween<Christmas “because i can buy outright”
SPvP Games- Halloween>Christmas
Jumping Puzzle- Halloween<Christmas
Jumping Puzzel Reward- Halloween>Christmas
Dungeons- Halloween<Christmas
Events-Halloween>Christmas
Lore-Halloween>Christmas
costume brawl- Halloween>Christmas
Tixx vs Mad King- Halloween>Christmas

I would like to point out that it would make more sense for us to receive a gift around January 1st instead of December 25th, because that was the central point in time that the gods were fighting over (although in real world terms it probably would have been closer to February 2nd with the war over how long winter would last).

Onshidesigns.1069:

Town clothing- Halloween>Christmas
Weapon Skins- Halloween<Christmas “because i can buy outright”
SPvP Games- Halloween>Christmas
Jumping Puzzle- Halloween<Christmas
Jumping Puzzel Reward- Halloween>Christmas
Dungeons- Halloween<Christmas
Events-Halloween>Christmas
Lore-Halloween>Christmas
costume brawl- Halloween>Christmas
Tixx vs Mad King- Halloween>Christmas

Aside from the sPvP games, I agree with this list.

Onshidesigns.1069:

Town clothing- Halloween>Christmas
Weapon Skins- Halloween<Christmas “because i can buy outright”
SPvP Games- Halloween>Christmas
Jumping Puzzle- Halloween<Christmas
Jumping Puzzle Reward- Halloween>Christmas
Dungeons- Halloween<Christmas
Events-Halloween>Christmas
Lore-Halloween>Christmas
costume brawl- Halloween>Christmas
Tixx vs Mad King- Halloween>Christmas

I’d also have to agree with this list. My only difference would be I liked both JP about equally. Infiniarium (or however its spelled), was fun the first few times, until the last couple of days, when it became the same things over and over. I don’t care for sPvP, so neither of them I really enjoyed (only did them till I go the achievements).

Narcemus.1348:

I would like to point out that it would make more sense for us to receive a gift around January 1st instead of December 25th, because that was the central point in time that the gods were fighting over (although in real world terms it probably would have been closer to February 2nd with the war over how long winter would last).

That’s true. They do the finale on the 1st (so looking forward to this year! I finally get my rudolph helm hehe).

I really love the endless tonics from Christmas but i prefer the gem store costumes from Halloween event.

TheUndefined.1720:

Toxx, and Tixx just didn’t feel fleshed out at all. Yes, I get it, Portal. That was it. There wasn’t anything else to the story that I saw at all. I’m still curious as to what the ‘Giant Clanker’ did to the skritt to make them so vengeful towards the Inifinarium. Sure you could assume they gave them presents, and they rebelled on a Skritt town, but how much cooler could it have been to investigate such a happening. Perhaps a quest line to rebuild the Skritt town out of the kindness of the player’s heart? Sounds more akin to the whole spirit of holidays; you know giving back?

Toxx lied to the Skritt, probably promised to give them shinies in exchange for them helping destroying all the toys so she could remain Tixx’s favorite creation. Some of that was available in-game but mostly it came from the interview where they stated Toxx is jealous that Tixx keeps making all these new toys and praising them as brilliant creations. She decided to start a little revolution and “liberate” the toys in more ways than one.

i liked wintersday overall, but the dungeons where boring and faceroll. Also the dolyack thing was badly designed, you cant enter with a team seriouslly Anet really!!!
Besides that it was good overall.

I’m done with GW2 until after the New Year, although, I’m afraid if they plan to have a Canthan New Year event in February. What’s planned for that? Kuunavang strafing LA / starter zones?

Buy Lunar Fortunes from the gem store, get nothing. Shoot off fireworks across Tyria. Maybe more PvP modes, and the return of Rollerbeetle Racing?

Well, I think that Halloween is a more menacing holiday, so it’s easier to craft a “dire” storyline around it. Wintersday is more about fun for fun’s sake, and the events are designed around that. I think that’s better than if we had to push down some mad Krampus or something, and really if they did that every time it’d get stale too.

I’ve got to say, I just did Toypocalypse for the first time and I was completely letdown by the rewards we got. Rather I should say, the rewards we didn’t get.
No chest, no daily bonus, no coin, just the same ol’ useless presents that give a ton of crappy wool items.
I really loved the Halloween event but Wintersday sadly just pales in comparison.

This event was great, especially the puzzle and the bell choir which was pretty original.

Maybe the only negative point i would say is that everything was based on luck and skill wasn’t really rewarded. Luck about opening all gifts, about mystic forge, mystery boxes, etc…
There should have been maybe one harder achievement, or reward, for example if you kept getting 600 in the bell choir.

But i did appreciate a lot the event however

Disagree with OP. The issue isn’t Wintersday, it’s the fact that it lasts more than long enough. This will give everyone the opertunity to get the things they want, but those that completed everything on the first go will have little to go back to.

The one issue that I have are the buyable lottery boxes. No game should have them unless they want to show that they prefer exploiting players over creating a loyal and happy fanbase.

Seriously, I’d have paid $20 for the quaggan mini but I’m not gonna spend a dime on lottery stuff.

The problem with Wintersday is that they listened to all the complaints from people on Halloween and Lost Shores about things being too difficult, having short windows to enjoy parts of the event, holiday skins being too rare/random, etc, etc, and now we have any easy event with no real challenge to any part of it, and consequently no good rewards because everyone has them.

I’m glad Wintersday was this extended. I hate being stressed for time. It makes the event un-enjoyably when they do that. People go away for the holidays and can’t always play everyday. Canceling holiday plans for a video game would be rather stupid. I don’t care for how they had the minis from the boxes account bound, but that’s about it. This event was much better. I was stressed out over the Halloween event; it was just too short. I never want that again.

I’m very glad they spaced the event out because if it had been done like Halloween or Lost Shores I would have missed the entire thing.

I think there was a bit of a miscommunication issue where some people obviously expected to treat it the same way – doing nothing but Wintersday activities for the entire duration and got bored repeating the same things, and of course it would get boring because they intended it all to be doable in a fraction of the time.

As for the events themselves I’ve enjoyed all the ones I’ve done. I didn’t put much time into Toypocalypse because I’ve had about 6 hours to play since it started and wanted to do other stuff more. But I love the jump puzzle and really enjoy Bell Hero, the dungeon is fun (as you may have guessed I haven’t had time to do it enough to get bored) and I like the minis as rewards.

The one let-down for me is the rediculous approach to the festival minis (the Snowman, festive Golem, Airship and Foostive). I’d be fine with the RNG boxes if they weren’t account bound so people who get lucky could sell extras to those who don’t. As it is I’m not willing to risk the little money I have to spend on it on getting screwed over by a rediculous mechanic.

I much preferred Halloweens event over winterday. For 1, I loved how you could jump into the mayhem, play and have fun, and leave when you needed to. No group needed. (Until the mad king destroyed the L.A. statue). None of this standing around trying to find a group crap. I was all kinds of excited because of the wintersday skins… only to find out that they were not available for all weapons. That made me sad. I have enjoyed the giant packages in the field with the killers inside. Its fun not knowing if you will get skritt and live or anything else and be demolished. But I can honestly say, that is just about all I have enjoyed about this event that has lasted WAY TO LONG!!!!