Guild Wars 2

Sollith.3502:

I find it funny how uncreative they are with the event designs… It wouldn’t be that hard to make a “one-time event” designed in a way that players don’t have to revolve their lives around one kitten game.

I think they are creative and I don’t revolve my life around that game, so I guess you can do it differently.

Anet has begun to disappoint me; oh well within the next few years I’ll have positioned myself to create a game far superior to anything they could ever do.

Really, bro? =p

Why do these new “one-time events” have to be any different from the “one-time event” you experience each time you create a new character? You only experience those one time, everybody is able to participate no matter where they are from, and supposedly the event changes the face of Tyria while beginning your story. If Anet continued to run events in that fashion everyone would be happy.

There is a certain irony to these threads.
On the one hand you have people unhappy with how a situation is handled. On the other you have a group of people upset that people dare be unhappy and voice this unhappyness. Disregarding the fact for a moment that group A has no interest in adversely affecting the experience of group B but is still teh one accused of being entitled, selfish, childish etc. Disregarding that fact.
The unhappyness voiced is some of the greatest praise for the devs. What is being said is that there is a group of customers who appreciate the creations of these devs enough to be vocal about their desire to enjoy these creations. But these people are portrayed as the ones not appreciating what the devs are trying to offer. And that is irony, that a group of people saying: “These devs can do something so awesome, they should share it with as many of their fans as possible”, are the people accused of being the bad guys and not the ones who say: “What these devs are creating is something you should not care if you miss it.”

;)

There’s a reason why every mmo company out there makes events last several days when limited- so that people who don’t happen to have that 2 hour window off work can still get to enjoy it.

Good job spending all that time making events that are not only one time only, but so limited most people won’t even get that one chance due simple to real life constraints. I guess casuals and people with actual lives are at the bottom of Anet’s ‘want to retain subs’ list.

Well I understand that sometimes you miss out on things in a game, I was looking forward to this event. Even with me moving I was excited as I will be in and settled before the event started… That is until I learned that they will not be out to connect my internet until the 19th. I am going to a small town, how are they so busy that it will take 2 weeks to get to me. Oh well, everybody who gets to participate have fun and youtube it!

Its not like we expect ANet to solve all the problems because the earth is round, there is a dateline in the western Pacific, people work when others play and sleep. It is just that we wish they would consider all that when they are designing/planning these once-only events and their times. If it finished a few hours earlier then most of the Oceanic player could still participate AND go to work…although it would mean a very early morning for them…..just some more thought about your WHOLE playerbase and not just the biggest numbers.

One potential outcome I see is that ANet will decide that the resources put into these short lived events, aren’t worth the return they get in both player turnout or money. The more difficult they make it for players to participate, and the narrower the window to do so will mean that eventually players may decide it’s not worth it.

Take the Halloween cutscene for example. As I explained above, my girlfriend and I went out of our way for the game, only to find out it was a cutscene. Based on that, I don’t think I would go out of my way again, unless I knew it was going to be something worth adjusting my schedule for.

It would truly be sad if ANet stopped making high quality content for the game, but unless they start being a little more flexible and considerate of all the players, I just don’t see how it can be economical to continue doing it.

lordkrall.7241:

So, some people simply want them to do event that the vast majority of players will miss, just so a small minority will be able to compete in it?

How do you know that isn’t what’s happening here? Highest concurrency != > 50% of active player base.

I agree, TERRIBLE timing.
Doing a one-time-only event during a weekend?
TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE idea.
People have lives outside of the game too, you know.

one time events are a waste of resources, especially short ones like this – resources better put to use fixing bugs and adding in PERMANENT content. These sort of events should really be put into something like the personal story. When I see stuff like this, it makes me not even want to play, or support ArenaNet through the cash shop, as arena net obviously has no interest in providing me with engaging content I can participate in

Hate to complain, but I need to express my situation as well. I work in a hospital on FRI SAT and SUN nights and have lost out on beta weekends for months. Now I worry special events are always going to land on those days as well.

It would be nice if one time events last all week as well as the weekend, to be fair to us weekend warriors. -Thanks

Remember when you were a kid and the circus was coming to town?
Remember how your grandfather’s birthday meant you were not going to be in town that weekend?
Remember how you took something away from that, learning that dissapointment due to obligations interfering with your desires is a part of life, and the only thing you can control/influence is your response to it?

Oh… well… I see…

Resume foot-stamp-punctuated-it’s-not-fair routine while I go quiz my six year old on how they deal with these situations, I’ll get back to you.

it does have permanent content..the revealing of it is the one time release.

I’m guessing it’ll just be some small cutscene much like halloween was. In that case, you could just watch it on Youtube, or maybe ANet could have an npc with some type of floating recording device that you can interact with and watch the cutscene.

The way it’s going, most one time events are going to shaft most players from Oceania and Asia, but no matter what time ANET chooses, somebody is going to miss out.

I think having events at times good for the Asia/Pacific crowd would be a nice gesture, but that’s quite a lot of work for not much return for ANet. They are a business.

Ronin.5038:

I’m guessing it’ll just be some small cutscene much like halloween was.

From the announcement thread…

The event will culminate in a big Finale on Sunday November 18, make sure you will not miss it. This will be a onetime only event chain that will run multiple hours, and it will kick off at noon PST (20:00 GMT).

How do you translate “event chain” into “cutscene,” and “multiple hours” into “small… like halloween was?”

It has more to do with how they design the event, than when they schedule it. Maybe one-shot anything is just a bad idea. Their concern over it being spoiled via youtube, etc.. just means they might want to rethink their priorities.

Fuz.5621:

People have lives outside of the game too, you know.

I know! They should totally send a letter to everyone asking when they should hold events.

Wendigo.7931:

Ronin.5038:

I’m guessing it’ll just be some small cutscene much like halloween was.

From the announcement thread…

The event will culminate in a big Finale on Sunday November 18, make sure you will not miss it. This will be a onetime only event chain that will run multiple hours, and it will kick off at noon PST (20:00 GMT).

How do you translate “event chain” into “cutscene,” and “multiple hours” into “small… like halloween was?”

Whoops. Looks like i made a mistake.
Here’s to hoping that they change the one time event chain to run multiple times that day.

Siphaed.9235:

Fuz.5621:

I agree, TERRIBLE timing.
Doing a one-time-only event during a weekend?
TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE idea.
People have lives outside of the game too, you know.

And those people who live outside, who don’t want to play the game on Sunday or have better things to do, can and will miss out. Tough luck, that’s life. If you cannot schedule around an event in a game, you cannot possibly expect the developers to schedule the event around your life; that’s not happening.

Weekends are…

1) The most common day off in a work week.

2) No-school days (college and high-school).

3) Most populated time of the week for the game.

and bonus…

4) 12pm PST is 3pm EST, 8pm London England. That’s a timeframe that fits Canadians, South Americans, USA, England, and everyone in-between. Even for people in Australia, that’s 7am the next day.

So, in closing: Buahahahahaha, I’m going to the event and other people aren’t. That may be mean, and I’m sorry, but the excuses that people are making about missing the event are just silly.

?

For those who think scheduling your life around a game is the way to go, might I suggest this article:
http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/6867/How-to-Tell-Youre-Addicted-to-Games.html

Personally, games to me are entertainment. They are scheduled around my life. And I expect them to be.
If I miss out on an event in game, because of something IRL, so what? I can catch something else that will entertainment me, later.
If I miss out something IRL (e.g. Grandparents birthday) it is a big deal, cause no one can be sure that I can catch the next one. These are One-Time time limited events.

If ANET wishes to schedule their events as if nothing else in the world matters, than by all means please go ahead. It is their prerogative, as the game’s developers.
My prerogative as a user is to prioritize how much these events actually mean to me, if anything, and schedule these in-game events as my time permits.
If I miss the event because ANET scheduled it for a limited time during the hours where I’m doing something else, then to me its the developer’s loss but not having one more person to witness their awesome creation. Not mine, cause I had something else better to do.

Siphaed.9235

4) 12pm PST is 3pm EST, 8pm London England. That’s a timeframe that fits Canadians, South Americans, USA, England, and everyone in-between. Even for people in Australia, that’s 7am the next day.

So, in closing: Buahahahahaha, I’m going to the event and other people aren’t. That may be mean, and I’m sorry, but the excuses that people are making about missing the event are just silly.

And for people in New Zealand, it’s 9am and their work/school day has already started. For people in SE Asia, Hong Kong etc, it’s 4 – 5am.

Being located in Australia, I can make this event by waking up at 6am and then going to work afterwards, but all we’re saying is that if one-time events are ALWAYS going to be at these times, that means that a particular segment of the GW2 population is ALWAYS going to miss out on these one-time events. That’s just unfair.

Wendigo.7931:

How do you know that isn’t what’s happening here? Highest concurrency != > 50% of active player base.

True. But it is most likely the closest they will ever be able to get at a specific time.
No matter what they do people will miss out, so they simply decide to do the event when the most amount of won’t.

Zaxares.5419:

Siphaed.9235

4) 12pm PST is 3pm EST, 8pm London England. That’s a timeframe that fits Canadians, South Americans, USA, England, and everyone in-between. Even for people in Australia, that’s 7am the next day.

So, in closing: Buahahahahaha, I’m going to the event and other people aren’t. That may be mean, and I’m sorry, but the excuses that people are making about missing the event are just silly.

And for people in New Zealand, it’s 9am and their work/school day has already started. For people in SE Asia, Hong Kong etc, it’s 4 – 5am.

Being located in Australia, I can make this event by waking up at 6am and then going to work afterwards, but all we’re saying is that if one-time events are ALWAYS going to be at these times, that means that a particular segment of the GW2 population is ALWAYS going to miss out on these one-time events. That’s just unfair.

This is a fair and valid point, and i’m one of the lucky ones who lives in Europe. I’d suggest having 2 time-slots for the event that covers the two separate ‘zones’ and not worry about Youtube or anything else cheesing the users’ experience. It’s up to the user if they want to have the event spoiled by a video.

Theoretically if you have 2 events, one at the current time, and another that is far nicer to the other less fortunate (time-wise) folks, there won’t be much overlap as they are roughly 12 hours apart anyway.

Flynch.6034:

This is a fair and valid point, and i’m one of the lucky ones who lives in Europe. I’d suggest having 2 time-slots for the event that covers the two separate ‘zones’ and not worry about Youtube or anything else cheesing the users’ experience. It’s up to the user if they want to have the event spoiled by a video.

Theoretically if you have 2 events, one at the current time, and another that is far nicer to the other less fortunate (time-wise) folks, there won’t be much overlap as they are roughly 12 hours apart anyway.

Keep in mind however that even if we are one of the “lucky ones who lives in Europe” we most likely won’t be able to complete the whole event chain (if we have work) seeing as the first part starts at around 21:00 in the evening and is going on for “several hours”.

As for the suggestion at hand I am not sure if that is even possible in the game. As far as we know they can’t have two different version of the world map at the same time.

lordkrall.7241:

But that’s only true with the model they have chosen for these events.

They. Chose. This.

They could do it differently. If they absolutely wanted to do a one-time event, they could stagger them across servers over a period of days, and hand out event passes that transfer you over to a server that fits your schedule on a temporary basis.

This is not a case of them choosing the best option out of a bunch of bad ones to deal with something they had no control over. This is a failure of imagination in the implementation of their story decision. They have control over everything. They could have catered to everyone. They are choosing not to, and they have given us no reason to think they have plans to not continue to do this in the future. Don’t try to defend this as anything other than it is.

But the thing is: We have no idea about the limitations of their servers. We have no idea about the limitations of their code.

Seeing as they have not done it they way you describes most likely means that they CAN’T have different versions of the world on different servers.

This event leads up to a new area being permanently opened, it might not be possible for the game to have it one server with the area opened and another having it closed.

I do think they need to sit down and re-examine how these one-time events are going to happen in the future(if at all). I’m fortunate, in that I live in North America on the East coast and don’t work weekends, so Sunday at noon Pacific time is perfect for me! But I can certainly see how it could feel unfair to those living on the other side of the world.

I don’t personally know what the solution is though…

If they change to time to accommodate the Oceanic players, they screw over NA/Europe(which is, I assume, where the majority of their players live).

Having them run multiple times may take away from the impact/specialness these events have, but it would mean a lot more players could experience them.

Having them occur on Saturday would at least let the Oceanic players wake up early Sunday morning(their time) to participate. ArenaNet could make the opening event start on Thursday instead of Friday so that they could still run a decent length of time, and then let them carry on a bit after the finale, similar to what they did with Halloween.

Hopefully some of the people participating in the events will post videos of it on YouTube so that people who missed out, for whatever reason, can at least watch it.

I see that Anet dosn’t want to address the concern that half there player base won’t be able to enjoy their event in its fullest. Don’t see why they can’t make it that you can set off the event chain once per account like you do in the story instance’s .

Hopefull they can see our concern’s and are working on it before the date.

Dead.7385:

Fuz.5621:

People have lives outside of the game too, you know.

I know! They should totally send a letter to everyone asking when they should hold events.

Or they could use common sense and loop them so that if you can’t make it the first time, you have multiple chances for the same experience. The benefit of having one time events comes at the expense of experience them at all for a lot of people in the community.

There’s no need to be a smart kitten about it. No-one was asking them to run the event around their personal schedule, many people expressed (valid) concerns with missing a one time event because of weak reasoning. They see alternatives to the problem which gives much greater access to more people. The ones being unreasonable are the ones who refuse to acknowledge the legitimate concerns and potential solutions of others regardless of what ArenaNet decides.

Why do one time events have to be run one time ??? Cant you run them say 3 times at different time zones .

They do this all the time in sporting events kind of like a re-run it may not be live but you still get to enjoy the game.

Okay…so you want extra programming so that you get to see some cut scene on your own time? There is going to be permanent changes and you get to experience those in your own time. What is it that the oceanics are so disparaged about missing?

This is always going to be a problem, but a one time event is just that, it happens once. I feel many peoples pain here, we all have other obligations, but we all also have to decide what is more important. In this case it’s a video game or real life issues. I simply don’t see this differently than any other common life occurrence. I can’t even tell you how many times this comes up for me even in a days time, i make plans to do A and then get a call to do B i’d rather do, but i already made plans for A. Seriously blaming a game company for schedule conflicts seems pretty poorly placed.

Ditton.3149:

Okay…so you want extra programming so that you get to see some cut scene on your own time? There is going to be permanent changes and you get to experience those in your own time. What is it that the oceanics are so disparaged about missing?

No, that’s not the case at all. People are upset and disappointed because it’s not just a cut-scene, but an event chain that’s only going to be offered for “multiple hours.” In other words, there is going to be playable content that they absolutely can not participate in because it said playable content will only be available for “multiple hours” and for the Oceanics, it’s the wee hours of Monday morning. I totally understand this frustration and disappointment because I’ll be missing this playable content as well (but for different reasons).

If this was JUST a cut-scene like what we saw with Halloween, it’s very likely folks wouldn’t be nearly as upset since cut-scenes can always be caught on YouTube. But once ArenaNet removes the event chain from the servers, there is absolutely no way to experience it ever again.

Offering playable content for only “multiple hours” is a bad way to go. Even if it’s during period of highest concurrency, a significant portion of the player population will still miss it. A far better model for these world-changing events was the Halloween event, where the cut-scene was the one-time event and the playable content tied to the cut-scene was available for several days.

Several days > multiple hours when it comes to playable content.

lordkrall.7241:

Flynch.6034:

This is a fair and valid point, and i’m one of the lucky ones who lives in Europe. I’d suggest having 2 time-slots for the event that covers the two separate ‘zones’ and not worry about Youtube or anything else cheesing the users’ experience. It’s up to the user if they want to have the event spoiled by a video.

Theoretically if you have 2 events, one at the current time, and another that is far nicer to the other less fortunate (time-wise) folks, there won’t be much overlap as they are roughly 12 hours apart anyway.

Keep in mind however that even if we are one of the “lucky ones who lives in Europe” we most likely won’t be able to complete the whole event chain (if we have work) seeing as the first part starts at around 21:00 in the evening and is going on for “several hours”.

As for the suggestion at hand I am not sure if that is even possible in the game. As far as we know they can’t have two different version of the world map at the same time.

Yes I do agree that the timing is awkward – I have a very very early start for work so most likely i’ll only be able to complete a portion of the event.

As for the time-slot idea, it wasn’t so much that there would be two separate entities for each event, but moreover, one event would start at 21:00 UK time, and the other would start at 09:00 UK time. This means a lot more people will be able to enjoy it in differing timezones without a major risk of players repeating the event. There will always be some 24/7 players who will get to see it twice, but i’d say that’s a decent price to pay to have an even greater number enjoy it in the first place.

These one times events are meant to transition the world into a new state which everyone will be part of after the event. It’s really just a “reveal” event. In my opinion, I think it’s really cool that ArenaNet has these reveal events. It’s like an interactive cinematic that those who are present get be part of. The rest of us get to see what happened on youtube/other streaming website after the fact.

If it’s similar to the Halloween event where players got to watch the Mad King destroy the Lion’s Arch statue, then I’m not sure what the anguish is about in this thread. If those who really wish it was an all-day event got their way, I think it would be pretty awkward if that cinematic replayed every hour. Sure, it would be cool if the event were instanced for characters, but I’m not sure how that would work in their current engine or what implications that could have in terms of the game’s harddrive footprint.

The reason I’m posting is that those opposed to these one time events may convince ArenaNet to make such events less exciting/epic for participants and that would be a real shame. I’m saying this, knowing that I wont be able to participate in the upcoming event/reveal without taking time off work.

People really need to read other people’s posts properly.

1) Most of us don’t have a problem with missing one-time cinematics. For the Lost Shores content however, we know that there will be a unique event-chain that is several hours long that allows us to participate in the way the world of Tyria changes. That is awesome.

2) Most of us agree that one-time events are cool and support their existence. They give a sense of immersion and the sense that the world is living, breathing and changing.

3) Most of us accept that we are not able to make every event and we accept that it’s just a game and that real life usually takes priority.

4) However…. what we don’t accept is that scheduling these events at the same time every time, based on concurrency, is a particularly fair,. equitable or even imaginative way of scheduling them.

I’m not annoyed at missing one (or several) of these events, that is inevitable. I’m also supportive of one-time content being in the game. I am, however, annoyed at the prospect that I may end up missing ALL of them if the same policy is carried forward.

I think the ideal solutions are as follows:

1) Instance it after the initial scheduled event, so that characters that missed it can choose to experience it upon their next log-in/next load of that area. Doesn’t necessarily work for events that are designed for mass participation though. Utilise the kind of “phasing” techniques that other game company implemented in its expansions so that changes to the world are only visible to those who complete the event.

2) Grant five or so further scheduled sessions of it through an NPC who relates the tale of what went down. After the tale begins, all players in attendance are whisked off to an instanced version of the event and live out the tale. That way you can still have lots of players participating for the sense of epic scale, and it doesn’t break immersion for those lucky enough to participate in the original event. Phasing not required, as from a game lore perspective the event has already occurred.

3) Schedule one-time events differently on different servers.

4) Less ideal, but at least schedule them differently from month to month so that the same group of people aren’t ALWAYS missing them.

I think my favourite solution is no. 2 as it has a nice balance of the intention of one-time events, while still catering to an international player-base who just want the chance to experience it for themselves.

Josh Foreman.8250:

We run one-time events at the time where we have the highest concurrency.

I’m going to go ahead and point out that on Friday and Sunday at 12pm PST you’re not running events on the games highest concurrency. Saturday I can very well see your reasoning for the event. However, the other two days (Especially Friday) are very poor choices.

replicant.3620:

Josh Foreman.8250:

We run one-time events at the time where we have the highest concurrency.

I’m going to go ahead and point out that on Friday and Sunday at 12pm PST you’re not running events on the games highest concurrency. Saturday I can very well see your reasoning for the event. However, the other two days (Especially Friday) are very poor choices.

And if you actually read the announcement it is quite clear that the one time event does not happen on Friday or Saturday, it is happening on Sunday.

the Main Event starts on Monday morning Australian time, that is what we are raising our complaint about, most of us will either be at work or the kidds will be heading to school, This is the constant programming we would like changed so that we call all enjoy the game to the fullest without being discriminated against cause of where we live.

There’s always going to be someone that misses out on these, they know that. If I always spend Sundays with my family I would never see the event. That’s why the events are designed in such a way that you aren’t missing anything that you can’t youtube later.

First things first ANets first event (Halloween) was kittening awesome, for all the initial QQ it turned out to be a blast.

Having one time events is AWESOME, even if I am not there to see them I at least know ANet is doing something unique and cool. I also imagine they will stagger the times around a little for these onetime events so that everyone has a chance to partake in a couple of them.

No one complains when they miss a one time event in real life (i.e. everything) so why act like its the end of the world here?

Cindas.6149:

I am very disappointed in A’Net for making content that not everyone will be able to enjoy or even experience . . .

We weren’t able to learn more about the finale, as ArenaNet is keeping things under wraps for now, but suffice it to say that the team is pretty confident that players will enjoy the experience and especially the special reward that players will receive.

Wow…just wow…

This is VERY disappointing indeed. Bad call ArenaNet!

I was afraid of the answer running it at the highest concurrency and that’s 12 noon on a Friday pst and 3 pm est, Right in the middle Americans workday, school day, does this mean the American pop is waning? While euro pop is higher?

I wasn’t able to do any of the Halloween stuff do to it all happening on my work time, so I’m disjointed from the events now anyways, going to be missing this one as well due to second shift work, so I’m at the point where I just don’t care about the events which sucks because I would love to see em, but hey there’s a lot more people than me in the world so hopefully eastern players can make it.

This means they have 3 days of events… so it was either going to have the start on a Friday or the ending on a Monday (if they had started on Sat.)… ANet chose Friday for the weekday.

The highest Concurrency is specifically for Sunday 12 noon, and has nothing to do with the Friday start time.

Generally speaking: EU has always had more players/servers than NA, so it doesn’t have anything to do with population changes… it’s just always been that way. Being a worldwide game, ANet is always going to upset someone with whatever time they make the 1 time events. They chose the best time choices for the majority of their customers.

So after all the feedback specifically stating that their community doesn’t like one time events they make the next one actual gameplay instead of a cutscene and probably with rewards too.

I’m sorry did I pay less for this game then everybody else? Am I only classed as half a customer? Does Anet even care about its customers?

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

I’m not sure why they don’t have different EU and US start times for these events. Using the excuse that players will upload the video to YouTube is not a very good excuse.

That’s like saying that if they release The Hobbit at different times throughout the world, someone might read about it on the internet. If players don’t want content spoiled, they shouldn’t be looking for it on the internet.

The three things that ANet could do to make this easier on all players are:

1. Space events out so they don’t require such a large time commitment all at once. I think most people can plan for these things, but not many can dedicate entire weekends to playing a video game.

2. Be more transparent about all the events coming up. Put a calendar online, and in the game showing upcoming events and times. Even if it just says, “World event!” with a time, that would be enough for people to look months down the line and book time off, or whatever.

An extra step would be sweet iCal/Outlook integration so we could manage them like any other task and ANet could change, or adjust them as needed.

3. Be a bit more transparent about WHAT it is that is going on. We all like surprises and such, but not everyone will be super happy to dedicate the time, only to find out it’s a cutscene.

Anecdote: Last week my girlfriend and I were on the road traveling to California. We knew there was an event at 12 PDT, so we planned our travel day around it. We rushed to a McDonalds (free WiFi), and sat there frustrated as it took over 30 minutes to update the client. We eventually got in, only to find out it had been a cutscene.

Again, these events are super awesome and I applaud ANet for putting in such amazing effort (the Halloween theme was quite cool), but they need to be a little more flexible for all their players.

This!

There are two data centers 5+ hours apart. Each data center should have it’s own start time for the region it’s in. I could care less if the event is “spoiled” for those in the US unable to stay away from spoilers before the event kicks off here. At least more people would be able to participate!

In the end no matter the events set people will always miss the event. It more than just time of day where they live but mostly due to life stuff.

No matter what time Anet place the event nor how long they make it last there will be a large chunk of the player base who will miss the event because they live in different timezones and have different daily schedules.

It isn’t like 50% has the same time zone and 50% has the other timezone. The difference in timezones and scheduales in daily life is much small percent based that it comes to the point a large chunk of the players will not be able to play the event no matter how long the event is.

The has never been a MMO in existence that has made a limited time event be accessible for everyone nor a large part of the community.

Fiontar.4695:

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

I’m not sure why they don’t have different EU and US start times for these events. Using the excuse that players will upload the video to YouTube is not a very good excuse.

That’s like saying that if they release The Hobbit at different times throughout the world, someone might read about it on the internet. If players don’t want content spoiled, they shouldn’t be looking for it on the internet.

The three things that ANet could do to make this easier on all players are:

1. Space events out so they don’t require such a large time commitment all at once. I think most people can plan for these things, but not many can dedicate entire weekends to playing a video game.

2. Be more transparent about all the events coming up. Put a calendar online, and in the game showing upcoming events and times. Even if it just says, “World event!” with a time, that would be enough for people to look months down the line and book time off, or whatever.

An extra step would be sweet iCal/Outlook integration so we could manage them like any other task and ANet could change, or adjust them as needed.

3. Be a bit more transparent about WHAT it is that is going on. We all like surprises and such, but not everyone will be super happy to dedicate the time, only to find out it’s a cutscene.

Anecdote: Last week my girlfriend and I were on the road traveling to California. We knew there was an event at 12 PDT, so we planned our travel day around it. We rushed to a McDonalds (free WiFi), and sat there frustrated as it took over 30 minutes to update the client. We eventually got in, only to find out it had been a cutscene.

Again, these events are super awesome and I applaud ANet for putting in such amazing effort (the Halloween theme was quite cool), but they need to be a little more flexible for all their players.

This!

There are two data centers 5+ hours apart. Each data center should have it’s own start time for the region it’s in. I could care less if the event is “spoiled” for those in the US unable to stay away from spoilers before the event kicks off here. At least more people would be able to participate!

Exactly. What’s worse? The event being “spoiled” but actually getting to participate, or not getting to participate and having to watch what happened on youtube?

Or they could run the event chain for, say, 24 hours. There will still be people who can’t make it for whatever RL reason, but that should cover the vast majority of the player base.

The idea of special two hour only event chains seems self-indulgent at best. Like someone’s idea of protecting the story they want to tell, instead of maximizing fun for the most possible people.

ANet, have you applied your touchstone to this?

“Is it fun?”

For some. But, if designed differently, it could be fun for more.