Guild Wars 2

I am curious as to this comment made by ANet a while back:

“How we’ve came to this conclusion is that no player’s time is more valuable than another. Everyone has different off peak hours for whatever reason. Players should not be punished or unable to experience and view the same content as everyone else because they play at a different time. They too are paying customers.”

Having missed out on the Ancient Karka event due to time zone differences, how does that event fit in with the statement made by ANet? I understand that the appeal of a ‘one time event’ is that it only runs for one time, however I also feel that as a player I am being punished by not playing at what ANet deems as “prime time”. I am not saying that I am any more important than any other customer, but I would appreciate that when they make a game that is World Wide, to actually cater to a world wide audience.

So, rather than throwing a tantrum about it, I had a discussion with other members in my guild who also missed the event.

And the question is: What can be done to resolve this, while still keeping it as a one time event? Please note that this is not just in response to the Ancient Karka event, but also the Mad King appearance. And possibly, in future, a Wintersday event when it get’s released. (If they continue down the path of one-time events)

Suggestions are welcome.

My personal thoughts on this are to run the event as per normal, but have it set up in a “dungeon”/area that you can only enter once. Give players 24 hours, perhaps even 48 hours to enter the area to complete in the event. Once they’ve entered the area and have opened the chest, they cannot enter it again. (Also acknowledging the issue of disconnects before opening chest)

The other options are either have the account loot the chest once – prevents multi-logging from people with Alts; once the chest is looted, you can’t loot it again. (But you can help out with the event again)

Otherwise – introduce the Ancient Karka/Mad King/other one-time events, etc as a Fractal in the new dungeon.

Thoughts?

Thoughts..this has been discussed to death in the lost shores subforum.

Looria.8019:

Thoughts..this has been discussed to death in the lost shores subforum.

Not just about Lost Shores, but also EVERY one time event that has either passed, or will be in future.

It has been discussed everywhere. As long as you can have multiple time zones in one server, and Im talking oceanic guy, US guy and EU guy on the same server, there is no solution how to make 1 time event without leaving one party out.

I think its a rough spot for them. Its about more than pleasing the customers already here, they need revenue and thus more new customers and one time events are huge for that kind of thing. You need the new customers to feel welcome and like the world is huge and expansive, like they are part of something grand..a singular instance or dungeon isnt going to do that, its going to feel generic and “meh”. I think they should just limit the overflow servers to only so many people..a number it can handle easily and allow everyone to see all enemies and not have major disconnect issues or lag. I also believe the chest should be account only.

’’under new management" << should have read the fine print. Abandoning so many core philosophies so suddenly might indicate “the end is nigh” for the franchise. As such departures in principle have always ended poorly for IPs generally.

Ditton.3149:

I think its a rough spot for them. Its about more than pleasing the customers already here, they need revenue and thus more new customers and one time events are huge for that kind of thing. You need the new customers to feel welcome and like the world is huge and expansive, like they are part of something grand..a singular instance or dungeon isnt going to do that, its going to feel generic and “meh”. I think they should just limit the overflow servers to only so many people..a number it can handle easily and allow everyone to see all enemies and not have major disconnect issues or lag. I also believe the chest should be account only.

I’m not sure on the mechanics of the game, but you could theoretically, limit an area to say 30-50 people? Cutting down on lag, clipping, rendering issues, etc. Or as you said, limit overflow – but whether they have enough ‘Overflow Servers’ for the amount of players around.

I can see where you are coming from. Looking at the videos online, it looked pretty cool having players EVERYWHERE just attack-spamming. Reminded me of when players first realised that dragons spawned in different map areas and you see players left-right-centre. The flip-side is the lag due to player load could’ve been a deterrent for new players as well.

As another option, if they wanted to leave the event as ‘one time only’, allow players to go back and “revisit” the event. They get together a party or squad (30 players) and enter the instance. That way people don’t continually miss out on events. You can limit the time the event runs for from anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. As I said earlier, not just for Ancient Karka but ALL ‘one-time’ events that ANet has executed OR planned.

I remember reading a while back how many US players were upset at missing the Mad King finale, so ANet set up a ‘Mad King Actor’ that gave you your achievement and hat. While this was great on ANet’s behalf, I don’t believe in handing out things for free just for talking to someone. It makes the reward feel ‘cheap’. I believe that players should work for the item, and that they should do it together as well so that it can foster a greater community and player cooperation. There are alternative ways to deliver the event while still ensuring that all their customers get the content.

Looria.8019:

It has been discussed everywhere. As long as you can have multiple time zones in one server, and Im talking oceanic guy, US guy and EU guy on the same server, there is no solution how to make 1 time event without leaving one party out.

It’s very narrow minded to believe that “there is no solution” on how to include all players without even first considering the options, possibilities, or even pausing to think of a solution yourself. MMOs have been around for a very long time, and will continue to exist; and while they exist, you will always have an issue with timezones. There are many solutions to many problems, and it’d be nice to hear what other players can recommend rather than having someone slam them down and say “NO! YOU CAN’T DO IT!”.

Im saying that as long as you have all timezones on one server it cant be done like this.
Im not saying there is no solution.

Other games have solution by having EU / US servers and EU players cant play on US servers and vice versa. That way you can make sure that each timezone has the event in peak time.

I believe there are many other solutions, but not in the current model and with “one time” events presented the way ANet is presenting them.

Imo, having multiple timezones on one server is just not good thing for 1 time events.

Looria.8019:

Im saying that as long as you have all timezones on one server it cant be done like this.
Im not saying there is no solution.

Other games have solution by having EU / US servers and EU players cant play on US servers and vice versa. That way you can make sure that each timezone has the event in peak time.

I believe there are many other solutions, but not in the current model and with “one time” events presented the way ANet is presenting them.

Imo, having multiple timezones on one server is just not good thing for 1 time events.

Thank you for taking the time to clarify your post. Your original post made it sound like there was “no solution”. I apologise for misinterpreting your post.

The EU / US servers are a good idea in theory if you only have EU and US players, but the moment you throw Asia/Oceania/etc into the mix, it becomes a horrible mess with region locking. I think WoW tried to region lock certain countries to different areas, and in turn players just purchased either an EU copy or an NA copy of the game. Granted, if you do that, then it can be your fault if the ‘one time event’ is on at a wrong time for you on your current server.

I agree with you on the multiple time-zones on a server with one-time events… It just ends badly and in player backlash. Even if it is your time zone, and you have work or something, you can still miss out.

I think if they could make the events run something similar to the dragons on a 3 hour timer, then players can contribute to the event regardless of time zone and real-life commitments. But as mentioned previously – only can loot the chest once.

I don’t know if the ability to multi-log, reloot the chest, and if precusors were intended with this particular event; although it dragged the prices on TP down which is good, it also split the community. “XYZ player looted it 5 times! I didn’t know we could do that!”. Having a single loot per account would acknowledge this issue.

If people want to reloot the chest, the reward tables can drop. Similar to how dungeons give you less XP for each re-run of them.

I really, really do hope that ANet has learnt from this event and will take on board the feedback given from players on the forums, social media and surveys and find a way to acknowledge the time difference issue.

Or just make the events instanced. I mean thanks to the issue GW2 has you cant see more than 50 objects on your screen anyway. So why bother making 1 time event outside with hundreds of players, since you can only see fraction of it on your screen.

Make instanced events for lets say 30 players groups or something, that way ppl from all corners of the world can get together and do that one time event whenever they want during the time the event is happening (make it 1-2 days or something)