Guild Wars 2

Dear Guild Wars 2 Forums Community,

I believe that Snowball Mayhem, the competitive mode for the Wintersday event, should be made available to the Guild Wars 2 playerbase year-round. As Sanctum Sprint was made available year-round, I don’t see why the same couldn’t be done for Snowball Mayhem (or even aspect arena). However, instead of a rotating daily activity like sanctum sprint & others, it should be available all of the time for those interested in playing it. I just don’t see the logic in providing an enjoyable playing experience only during a very small portion of the year. Dry Top and Silverwastes were made available to players year-round, and the same could be done to various event competitive modes like Snowball Mayhem.

On a separate but related note, I would also like to see a deathmatch mode of Snowball Mayhem, as I much prefer fighting other players to capturing a flag. There’s nothing “uncreative” or “boring” about a deathmatch option (e.g. first team to X kills)—it is still a lot of fun for players to compete against each other.

In any event, I am interested in what others in the GW2 community have to say about this.

Regards,

Hildace (mike)

It would be interesting to make it permanent and keep it as ‘CTF’ because regular sPvP does not have that mechanic. It’s more ‘King of the Hill’ and Deathmatch. If they did make it permanent, they should also make it give PvP rewards. Technically it is PvP that requires teamwork, after all.

Then again, if they did that then the novelty of it all would wear off rather quickly. If they did this then they would have to make the Halloween content permanent as well. So for novelty’s sake, it stays temporary.

Speaking of temporary content that could have been permanent but isn’t:

-SAB

-Molten Facility Dungeon in it’s entirety (yes I know that parts of it are now fractals, but it’s not the full dungeon).

-Aetherblade dungeon where the final boss is Mai (parts of it are fractals now too)

-Twisted Marionette fight. That had some interesting mechanics and required coordination from lots of players. Then again, I really hate Scarlet, so maybe it’s best nothing of her specifically makes a return.

Just throwing that out there.

Just who do you think is going to play this game year-round? Do you even understand how few people play the current set of activities? What makes you think that something as awful as Mayhem is going to get played off season?

I know you called it a “competitive mode”, but it’s really just PvP. There are too many conflicting mechanics in place for it to be taken seriously as competitive.

The purpose of having event-based arenas is to provide players with a unique and special experience and things to do during those events. They are designed together with the theme in mind for the event and are meant to be experienced together with the rest of the event. Not having those arenas be available all the time builds hype for when they eventually do come around.

Asking for a killing-focused mode for Mayhem says enough about what you understand about scoring and winning in Mayhem.

Regardless of the above, ANet does not care about activities. You will not see any of the changes you are asking for.

Zera Allimatti.2541:

It would be interesting to make it permanent and keep it as ‘CTF’ because regular sPvP does not have that mechanic. It’s more ‘King of the Hill’ and Deathmatch. If they did make it permanent, they should also make it give PvP rewards. Technically it is PvP that requires teamwork, after all.

Then again, if they did that then the novelty of it all would wear off rather quickly. If they did this then they would have to make the Halloween content permanent as well. So for novelty’s sake, it stays temporary.

Speaking of temporary content that could have been permanent but isn’t:

-SAB

-Molten Facility Dungeon in it’s entirety (yes I know that parts of it are now fractals, but it’s not the full dungeon).

-Aetherblade dungeon where the final boss is Mai (parts of it are fractals now too)

-Twisted Marionette fight. That had some interesting mechanics and required coordination from lots of players. Then again, I really hate Scarlet, so maybe it’s best nothing of her specifically makes a return.

Just throwing that out there.

Thank you for your input, Zera! For me, every pvp situation is a “novel” situation, in that none of them are exactly the same. I can pvp almost endlessly, year after year, in the same setup, so long as it is fun (eg my class is fun to play and the general layout is good). I don’t magically get bored of pvp as I would in a pve area. Hopefully the developers can look past the “novelty” of various content to offer it to players that would enjoy it year-round. Maybe doing so would have the added benefit of inspiring them to introduce different competitive modes/areas at different times during the year (as they wouldn’t be able to re-release the same content in adjacent years since that content would already be available year-round).

Shayne Hawke.9160:

Just who do you think is going to play this game year-round? Do you even understand how few people play the current set of activities? What makes you think that something as awful as Mayhem is going to get played off season?

I know you called it a “competitive mode”, but it’s really just PvP. There are too many conflicting mechanics in place for it to be taken seriously as competitive.

The purpose of having event-based arenas is to provide players with a unique and special experience and things to do during those events. They are designed together with the theme in mind for the event and are meant to be experienced together with the rest of the event. Not having those arenas be available all the time builds hype for when they eventually do come around.

Asking for a killing-focused mode for Mayhem says enough about what you understand about scoring and winning in Mayhem.

Regardless of the above, ANet does not care about activities. You will not see any of the changes you are asking for.

I understand there is hype for when the event does come around, but the reality is that they are just re-releasing the exact same content from the previous year. If they made these competitive modes available year-round, they would be more inclined to create a new area/mode for the following year.

Sanctum Sprint and Southsun Survival are examples of activities that could have very easily been only during the event they were introduced in. However, they are available as daily activities throughout the year. I think Anet could go beyond that for Snowball Mayhem, or other competitive modes.

I know exactly how the scoring works in Snowball Mayhem. My team wins the vast majority of the time, and part of that is due to the fact that a given team gets points for kills, not just flag captures. I enjoy the pvp aspect of it, and not so much the objective aspect (eg capturing the flag). I’ve been that way in every MMO I’ve played; almost always focusing on PvP/WvW and not so much on PvE objectives. I play GW2 for fun; therefore I focus on what is most fun for me within the game.

Its my favorite activity in wintersday. Id be ok with it being year round I feel like I’m missing out because I’ve been in HotM all of winter lol.

Just allow guilds to create “Custom Activity Arena’s” much like Custom PvP arena’s…

Would solve so many complaints with the mini-games current state.

Shayne Hawke.9160:

Just who do you think is going to play this game year-round? Do you even understand how few people play the current set of activities? What makes you think that something as awful as Mayhem is going to get played off season?

Do you understand how many people love Mayhem? Just because YOU do not like it, it doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of us whom think it’s the best PvP in game.

I think if this is to be added, it has to be in Hoelbrak. Just put a portal anywhere in there and it fits. Either that or make the “new” LA into an arcade of sorts where all the activities reside. Especially cough Sab….

DeWolfe.2174:

Shayne Hawke.9160:

Just who do you think is going to play this game year-round? Do you even understand how few people play the current set of activities? What makes you think that something as awful as Mayhem is going to get played off season?

Do you understand how many people love Mayhem? Just because YOU do not like it, it doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of us whom think it’s the best PvP in game.

I think if this is to be added, it has to be in Hoelbrak. Just put a portal anywhere in there and it fits. Either that or make the “new” LA into an arcade of sorts where all the activities reside. Especially cough Sab….

Exactly!! I have a total blast playing it.

DeWolfe.2174:

Do you understand how many people love Mayhem? Just because YOU do not like it, it doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of us whom think it’s the best PvP in game.

Popularity is not synonymous with quality. My favorite activity is Sanctum Sprint, but even I can see how broken and poorly supported it is, and even how much worse it’s gotten just over the last four months.

Shayne Hawke.9160:

DeWolfe.2174:

Do you understand how many people love Mayhem? Just because YOU do not like it, it doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of us whom think it’s the best PvP in game.

Popularity is not synonymous with quality. My favorite activity is Sanctum Sprint, but even I can see how broken and poorly supported it is, and even how much worse it’s gotten just over the last four months.

“Quality” in an mmo is more a matter of perception than anything. What is “fun” or “good” for one person may be “boring” or “garbage” to another. Overall, I think GW2 is a quality game, when compared to other mmo’s out there.

The popularity of various parts of the game is important in maintaining the playerbase; its relevance shouldn’t be diminished.

I don’t dislike sanctum sprint; however, I stopped playing it after the event because I got bored of it. It’s not overly challenging to get 1st place. The warp power-up practically guarantees it.

Just request that they put it into unranked queue rotation. They’ll put anything in there.

I’ll just throw in that I like Sanctum Sprint, but stopped playing it when it went on rotation because it rarely seemed to be available when I was actually in the mood for it, and I just lost interest.

SAB is even worse. Try buying a coin with real money that let’s you play Snowball Mayhem as much as you want, but then they don’t even bring it back every Winter.

The ratio of effort-spent-on-developing-things-to-do versus actual-things-you-can-do-when-you-log-in is depressing.

I can see it now " we’ve heard u guys like the winters day activity to be permanent, and since we’re still in the holiday spirit, the bell choir is now made as a permanent event, enjoy everyone!"

CrashTestAuto.9108:

I’ll just throw in that I like Sanctum Sprint, but stopped playing it when it went on rotation because it rarely seemed to be available when I was actually in the mood for it, and I just lost interest.

SAB is even worse. Try buying a coin with real money that let’s you play Snowball Mayhem as much as you want, but then they don’t even bring it back every Winter.

The ratio of effort-spent-on-developing-things-to-do versus actual-things-you-can-do-when-you-log-in is depressing.

Yeah—I definitely agree with you about the rotation. I can’t stand them for the same reason—it rarely has what I want to play when I want to play it.

Loading.4503:

I can see it now " we’ve heard u guys like the winters day activity to be permanent, and since we’re still in the holiday spirit, the bell choir is now made as a permanent event, enjoy everyone!"

lol….

I would actually like to see Bell Choir made a permanent activity, to be honest. It’s my favourite of the 4 Wintersday activities.

That said, I would not be against Snowball Mayhem becoming part of the Activity rotation. However, the odds are against it happening since it’s very much a “festival event”.

:D well I’m all for it! Snowball Mayhem was so much fun to play and I know a good handful of people that would love to have it as a year-round game! This game could use a little more pvp content like Mayhem. It’s a nice change from the pvp game they already have. v-v It sucks how we have to wait so long just to play it again… :/ If they made it a year-round game more people would get into PvP rather than sticking to PvE (like me). Plus, the new daily system is trying to encourage people to try different things on the game like pvp, adding it as a year-round game would be a nice touch to it in my opinion ^^.

ANIME.1430:

:D well I’m all for it! Snowball Mayhem was so much fun to play and I know a good handful of people that would love to have it as a year-round game! This game could use a little more pvp content like Mayhem. It’s a nice change from the pvp game they already have. v-v It sucks how we have to wait so long just to play it again… :/ If they made it a year-round game more people would get into PvP rather than sticking to PvE (like me). Plus, the new daily system is trying to encourage people to try different things on the game like pvp, adding it as a year-round game would be a nice touch to it in my opinion ^^.

I completely agree with you!! I knew I wasn’t the only one!!

Signed. I love snowball mayhem.

I still did not dare to enter it. PvP is scary. Maybe next year.

Zaxares.5419:

I would actually like to see Bell Choir made a permanent activity, to be honest. It’s my favourite of the 4 Wintersday activities.

In my arms, brother!

I love snowball mayhem. Like the other activities, it’s an instant, fun alternative. I find its casual approach to PvP very appealing. Here’s to hoping it’ll be considered to be a permanent part of the game .

I don’t mind as long as they fix it so you can’t use toys when playing it.

I know pvp can be intimidating at first, but I gave mayhem a shot and loved it right away! Snowball Mayhem is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it, the great part is you can just run and start snatching gifts for your team and they’ll do the pvp part! Lol and it’s really easy to learn, think of it as football and you’re just trying to get the ball to your side. Snowball Mayhem is very simple but it’s one of the reasons why i love it so much. It’s another reason why they should add it as a game, so people who want to try pvp but feel to overwhelmed to play conquest can still give it a try (:

I would rather have the jumping puzzle all year
But I love snowball mayhem to

I liked snowball mayhem.. For as many activities that is not played in game and many of us know which ones those are .. Anet should slowly replace with new content and see what the players like.

jdkentucky.2871:

I liked snowball mayhem.. For as many activities that is not played in game and many of us know which ones those are .. Anet should slowly replace with new content and see what the players like.

Exactly. It’s time to provide us with the content that we enjoy!

jdkentucky.2871:

I liked snowball mayhem.. For as many activities that is not played in game and many of us know which ones those are .. Anet should slowly replace with new content and see what the players like.

^^ Totally agree with you!! Adding a whole new set of activities will be a nice touch to the expansion that will be coming out! I’d love to play snowball mayhem again >.< without having to wait so long :x well I hope they’ll consider adding it soon

ANIME.1430:

jdkentucky.2871:

I liked snowball mayhem.. For as many activities that is not played in game and many of us know which ones those are .. Anet should slowly replace with new content and see what the players like.

^^ Totally agree with you!! Adding a whole new set of activities will be a nice touch to the expansion that will be coming out! I’d love to play snowball mayhem again >.< without having to wait so long :x well I hope they’ll consider adding it soon

We’re still waiting for snowball mayhem to be added year-round; we shouldn’t have to wait until next winter to play it again.