Yes, I can go throw snowballs at other players. Yes I can build snowmen out of magic snow. I can open presents and follow a dolyak carrying presents as many times as my heart desires.
The problem is that everything that we can do this year we could do last year. We have the same annoying JP, the same game ringing the bells, everything is the same.
The biggest disappointment of all. Because I did the “get the ornaments back for the orphans” event last year there is nothing new for me to do this year. I find it really sad that Anet couldn’t come up with something new for those of us that already have the tree. After all, think about it, we are long time loyal players but this is what we get for Wintersday?
Thank you Anet for ruining Wintersday for me by just recycling the same thing we had last year.
Is it it strange though that Guild Wars 1 had the exact same holiday decorations and the exact same holiday quests every year, and people just did them and didn’t complain.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Is it it strange though that Guild Wars 1 had the exact same holiday decorations and the exact same holiday quests every year, and people just did them and didn’t complain.
Yep, people now just want to complain/rant about how bad things are.
Is it it strange though that Guild Wars 1 had the exact same holiday decorations and the exact same holiday quests every year, and people just did them and didn’t complain.
And still happily do. Same as in at least 4 mmos who hold christmas festivals. To be honest, I am amazed many expected any sort of change after an expac. Festivals by nature tend to be recycled. New content for new players, familiar favs for vets. Fairly standard stuff.
Thank you Anet for ruining Wintersday for me by just recycling the same thing we had last year.
I wasn’t playing this game last year, in fact I was still doing the Guild Wars 1 Wintersday. So, the Guild Wars 2 Wintersday is completely new to me. Thanks Anet!
Asura characters: Zerina | Myndee | Rissa | Jaxxi | Feyyt | Bekka | Sixx | Akee | Tylee | Nuumy
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.
Cycling seasonal events are repeated content for a reason. They give a nice little change for the seasonal event that gives the developers a way to take a little time off work without completely leaving players in a content desert.
I look forward to the “same holiday content” every year.
It’s not a living story update. It’s a festival. of course you’re completing the same content for different rewards each year. That’s the point. You do a thing each year to get that year’s shinies, and arenanet gets to be a little lax on the work to put out the update.
If they were pushing completely new content every year in stead of just a little bit of new content, festivals would take so much time to produce they’d get in the way of real content updates.
I was fully expecting the exact same content as last year (and every year basically). Its a festival, and Anet has already said they’ll largely be the same each year and aren’t meant to introduce a bunch of new stuff, but rather just bringing back the stuff people enjoy each year for a bit as something different from the norm.
I am a bit disappointed in the lack of new shinies, though. Halloween gave us some some new minis, a new bunch of weapons, and an armor / backpiece or two as well as the fancy sought-after effect shoulder. Wintersday is… one mini (basically, I’m not really counting the versions that just add another couple packages) and the fancy effect shoulder.
Kind of lackluster by comparison, unless I’m missing some of the stuff, which is entirely possible since it just started and all.
Is it it strange though that Guild Wars 1 had the exact same holiday decorations and the exact same holiday quests every year, and people just did them and didn’t complain.
People didn’t have an official forum to give feed back on. I always liked winters day in GW1. GW2 winters day is just poor when compared to the other festival’s GW2 has had.
I’m just gutted I have to wast time everyday going to the orphans to give them gifts as they seem to only take one a day. And I have 92 left………..
Several guild hall decorations to spruce up the place for wintersday. people can argue this is content that some can’t use, but honestly, it’s far better than the many many years of nothing guilds got previously.
It looks like holiday decorations are an official thing from here on.
Yea, log in and see all the gold and gem sinks for winter’s day; alt f4. Anet is focused on only 2 things it seems…pushing MTs as much as possible and their esport thing. Meh.
Several guild hall decorations to spruce up the place for wintersday. people can argue this is content that some can’t use, but honestly, it’s far better than the many many years of nothing guilds got previously.
It looks like holiday decorations are an official thing from here on.
Yes, I’m a big fan of this. I doubt we will get our scribing up in time so soon after HoT, but overall this is something I’m glad to see in game and gives us an extra aim
Is it it strange though that Guild Wars 1 had the exact same holiday decorations and the exact same holiday quests every year, and people just did them and didn’t complain.
Is it it strange though that Guild Wars 1 had the exact same holiday decorations and the exact same holiday quests every year, and people just did them and didn’t complain.
Wintersday 2011 introduced new costumes, replaced Operation: Crush Spirits with The Great Snowball Fight of the Gods, and removed the grentch activity from decorated towns (along with the Grentches and Young Children).
Wintersday 2010 introduced new costumes, changed rewards for most quests, added the Fighting in a Winter Wonderland and Operation: Crush Spirits quests, and coincided with the addition of the conclusion to Hearts of the North. The jingle pets are now unlocked by completing Snowball Dominance from Casey Carpenter.
Wintersday 2009 introduced costumes and the White Jingle Moa (unlocked by completing certain quests for Lieutenant Thackeray). Wintersday 2009 Redux was added afterward to allow people more time to get a festival hat and the event introduced the Wintersday Hat Giver.
Wintersday 2008 expanded Wintersday to include the Eye of the North, with its quests and introduced the Jingle Bear (unlocked by completing certain quests for Lieutenant Thackeray).
Wintersday 2007 added two quests to the the Rift Warden quest giver in both Lion’s Arch and Kamadan, as well as the Miniature Polar Bear.
Wintersday 2006 added Kamadan, Jewel of Istan to the towns that celebrated, including its quests and finale; Tomb of the Primeval Kings stops celebrating Wintersday.
Wintersday 2005 introduced Wintersday which was celebrated in Ascalon City, Lion’s Arch, Droknar’s Forge, and the Tomb of the Primeval Kings, with the finale in Lion’s Arch.
Is it it strange though that Guild Wars 1 had the exact same holiday decorations and the exact same holiday quests every year, and people just did them and didn’t complain.
Wintersday kept getting updates and was expanded into the expansions. (kamadan got questlines and a decoration, not only tombs, LA, droknar and ascalon. EoTN got new quests and also decorations.)
So: 2005 first wintersday, 2006 nightfall, 2007 UW quests?, 2008 expanded it to eotn, 2009 nothing new?. 2010 snowball fight of gods, 2011 nothing new, 2012 changed hat quest.
EoTN, the last expansion, was released 2007.
Halloween is afaik similar. And that are only two events. There are two other big events which are comparable to wintersday and halloween (canthan new year and dragon festival) plus several smaller events like aprils fool, thanksgiving, eastern, st. patricks, wintersday in july, wayfarer, pirate week.
So even when some events stayed the same, there was overall a bigger variety of events. GW2 has just released a new expansion. Anet hasn’t stopped developing GW2 and is already working on GW3. So its a bit sad they don’t seem to care about the events anymore.
it’s mostly the same as last year, but not exactly:
the wintersday gifts have new drops
the events are a little smoother (or at least so it seemed to me)
the vendor offerings are different
there’s a shiny shoulder skin
Still, not sure why the OP is expecting every event to offer completely new components every year. As others have said, one of the appealing qualities is that it is and will be the same from year to year — that’s what makes it a festival rather than a one-time event.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Apparently those large explosive presents on the PVE maps spew creatures you have to kill in order to collect a present, but those creatures don’t give any XP. Kill 5-6 creatures and get a wintersday present.
SShhh…if you keep on wanting more, then Anet and NCsoft might bring in an “Elite Account” for 14.99 a month…
At the same time, I wouldn’t mind paying 14.99 a month if it netted some decent stuff like free stuff every month, bag/bank expansions every month… sort of like a in-game loot crate, but with actually useful items…not junk skins and boosters….
Yes, I can go throw snowballs at other players. Yes I can build snowmen out of magic snow. I can open presents and follow a dolyak carrying presents as many times as my heart desires.
The problem is that everything that we can do this year we could do last year. We have the same annoying JP, the same game ringing the bells, everything is the same.
The biggest disappointment of all. Because I did the “get the ornaments back for the orphans” event last year there is nothing new for me to do this year. I find it really sad that Anet couldn’t come up with something new for those of us that already have the tree. After all, think about it, we are long time loyal players but this is what we get for Wintersday?
Thank you Anet for ruining Wintersday for me by just recycling the same thing we had last year.
It gets even better. Unlike last year when we actually still got AP for the single daily completed items, this year, Anet even kittened up the wintersday dailies as well by taking away any achievement points for completing single dailies. Two chests instead of just one is little compensation for kittening this up too Anet. It is still you saying “play it how we think you should” instead of letting the players decide for themselves. Had we still been able to get some achievement points for the daily items that WE decide to complete, it would have worked. If I could +100 to OP’s thoughts as well, that would have still only been a part of my disappointment with Wintersday offerings this year.
Thanks for continuing to chip away at any of the remaining decent stuff about the game. They are apparently too busy figuring out how to take previous rewards away from the people they should be trying to support, their existing player base.
SShhh…if you keep on wanting more, then Anet and NCsoft might bring in an “Elite Account” for 14.99 a month…
At the same time, I wouldn’t mind paying 14.99 a month if it netted some decent stuff like free stuff every month, bag/bank expansions every month… sort of like a in-game loot crate, but with actually useful items…not junk skins and boosters….
That would change one of the things that kept GW better than the others, you couldn’t get wallet gods playing, because everything you could get, so could everybody else. If it just amounts to basically “cosmetic” stuff that doesn’t change game play, I wouldn’t be opposed to that, but I also think that the “buy it once” deal was another thing that made GW better than the others, instead of having the monthly fee just to be able to play the game.
I only just started playing a couple months ago, so I can’t compare to last year’s. But this event seems weak compared to similar events in other games.
The OP mentions “following a dolyak around”… is that actually the point of that event? I thought I was missing the point, but then as with nearly everything else in this game, it’s so poorly explained (or not explained at all) that I thought the title was accurate and you were supposed to DEFEND the dolyak, which appears to actually be impossible, because the “attackers” con friendly, can’t be targeted, and take zero damage from AoEs. I see players running along swinging weapons; are they even more clueless than I, or is there some UNEXPLAINED trick involved in actually doing damage to mobs that can’t be targeted? Or is it, as the OP suggests, just some bizarre non-interactive parade that starts every five minutes?
In nearly every game that has snowball throwing, there is a point to it: the target goes into a stumble animation when hit, or there’s a chance that the target gets a short duration season-themed buff, or has a chance of a snowball spawning in inventory so that he can “return fire”, or there is a structured contest in which you score points for hitting your target and the highest score wins some achievement or accolade. In GW2, throwing snowballs doesn’t appear to serve a purpose. No effect is applied to the target if hit, it’s very difficult to hit a target that is not standing still… there is just no EXPLANATION or feedback to tell you that you aren’t just wasting time.
Most games with a winter event have oversized gifts that spawn randomly, and sometimes these explode with knockback and spawn hostile mobs. Unlike GW2, they DON’T involve being knocked back a quarter mile for hefty damage AND lengthy stun, but then the GW2 devs do seem to love their ridiculous superpermaknock attacks. I mean, that is the whole reason they put centaurs in the game, so you can in nearly every encounter with them be bounced continuously around the battlefield until you die from falling damage without ever getting a shot in? The Wintersday gift mechanic seems designed to knock you completely out of aggro range of the newly spawned mobs (WHY?!?), but there is not anywhere in the game where that doesn’t guarantee that you are knocked INTO the aggro range of something else. Thanks LOADS. And
Most games also have special quests for the event, often with different sorts of challenges from normal content. Except all the other games let you LEAVE such content if you find it’s not to your taste. I got trapped in Toypocalypse, another event where nothing is explained until you are already in the content, and then THERE IS NO EXIT. The rules SEEMED simple enough, except they’re garbage. “Pick up any object to use as a weapon”… except no item you can pick up can actually be used as a weapon. “You can only heal in the center of the map”… except that if you are seriously injured, you might as well let them kill you, because it will take fully 15 minutes to heal due to the crap regen rate, and there is NO EXIT. Thanks for announcing the Tier 2 Building Phase or w/e, except that wasn’t even MENTIONED in the rules, so I have no effing clue what I’m supposed to do (not that I can actually do anything, because after 5 minutes of “healing” I’m not even up to 35% health). I finally got out by quitting the client after a new build was announced, otherwise I’d probably still be stuck in there.
I was actually looking forward to Wintersday since finding my first broken ornament in a JP chest. Except there doesn’t appear to be a quest in this event that requires them, so really what’s the point? At least Halloween had good xp and useful items obtainable only through the event. I’ve not found anything to convince me to continue participating in Wintersday.
They should have added something akin to the ornament thing.
But, the worst part for me is the removal of buyers for ugly wool stuff. Why did they give us the tree in our home instance if they were going to make everything you received totally useless? And, why the huge increase in price for frostbitten implements?
The first Wintersday and the first Halloween in 2012 beat these “small pocket” festivals hands down.
Remember when you could explore Gendaran Fields and open presents or doors? I do.
Remember when you could go to a different city and meet up with tixx or carve punpkins in queensdale? I do too.
Since then all the festivals are just a pale representation of the glory that was.
Only good thing is that they add to my daily total so I can log out quicker.
The first Wintersday and the first Halloween in 2012 beat these “small pocket” festivals hands down.
Remember when you could explore Gendaran Fields and open presents or doors? I do.
Remember when you could go to a different city and meet up with tixx or carve punpkins in queensdale? I do too.
Since then all the festivals are just a pale representation of the glory that was.
Only good thing is that they add to my daily total so I can log out quicker.
I wish we could craft all of the mini-toys. The first year for Wintersday, you could get items from the Tixx instance and craft the minis but not all of them. I don’t know if you can still do this at all, but it would be nice if we could not only craft them, but also craft them all in one year.
You guys shouldn’t really be that surprised. Halloween this year was the same and it was basically because so much time and effort was put into the HoT release. Should have known or assumed that Wintersday would be pretty much the same as last year too.
They don’t have the manpower to bring more new PvE content to Halloween or Wintersday immediately after an expansion release. But they do have the manpower to throw a Pro League PvP Tournament for $200,000.
I don’t mind the same events again, but getting the Winter’s Presence shoulder item is almost kitten near impossible for someone like me. By including the timed jumping puzzle as a requirement is just mean. I have a hard time already with the regular jumping puzzles due to my limited hand dexterity, but timed ones are just out of the question for me. Please Anet remove the JP requirement. I’ll do the other ones I promise!
I don’t mind the same events again, but getting the Winter’s Presence shoulder item is almost kitten near impossible for someone like me. By including the timed jumping puzzle as a requirement is just mean. I have a hard time already with the regular jumping puzzles due to my limited hand dexterity, but timed ones are just out of the question for me. Please Anet remove the JP requirement. I’ll do the other ones I promise!
Sorry, but you are no longer their target audience IMO. If you don’t like jumping puzzles, verticallity or PvP you best move on as these are now their focus. Unfortunate like many people this game was my home for years and now I feel like an unwanted guest.
Yes I can continue to do the things I did for years, only with majorly reduced rewards due to the f2p model nerfing all save SW (boring). Yes I can continue to explore the same old maps, but after waiting for a year, instead of the 2 week schedule, I grew bored. HoT maps are just a large time sink and grind fest and already have a job, thanks. Festivals getting the gloss over treatment is just one more disappointment in this new “iteration” of GW2.
I don’t mind the same events again, but getting the Winter’s Presence shoulder item is almost kitten near impossible for someone like me. By including the timed jumping puzzle as a requirement is just mean. I have a hard time already with the regular jumping puzzles due to my limited hand dexterity, but timed ones are just out of the question for me. Please Anet remove the JP requirement. I’ll do the other ones I promise!
Yeah. That’s not much chance I’ll be able to do a jumping puzzle with appearing/disappearing platforms and exploding presents. I have a hard enough time doing regular, old jumping puzzles.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
You guys probably aren’t going to get the shoulders anyways even if you do finish the JP unless you’re sitting on a huge pile of gold you’re willing to spend, so no need to worry.
| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. | Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.” “Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.
You guys probably aren’t going to get the shoulders anyways even if you do finish the JP unless you’re sitting on a huge pile of gold you’re willing to spend, so no need to worry.
I do have the gold….
Though I admit I’m not anxious to spend that much on those shoulders. However if I was going to then the jumping puzzle would be a significant barrier.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
You guys probably aren’t going to get the shoulders anyways even if you do finish the JP unless you’re sitting on a huge pile of gold you’re willing to spend, so no need to worry.
I do have the gold….
Though I admit I’m not anxious to spend that much on those shoulders. However if I was going to then the jumping puzzle would be a significant barrier.
Those who do have that much gold to throw around can always think of it from my perspective as well. I ran the JP 15 times effortlessly because honestly~ I’m good at JPs. But I medically don’t have the energy, willpower or patience to grind 10k bottles of alcohol. So it’s whatever. Disappointing, yes, but I expected it to be this way because it always is. Life isn’t fair and obviously Anet isn’t going to let the whole world run around with millions of snow partials flying everywhere; bogging down the servers. So if you want it bad enough then just do it as hard as you can.
| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. | Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.” “Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.
Basically, bunch of people wanted things handed to them on a silver plate, and if it’s not then they go on forum and complain. Bravo, Brave.
Since no one in this thread asked for anything on a silver plate, I can safely say that this response has no relevance at all. lol
Didn’t realize the shoulders require the jumping puzzle. That’s really too bad. Even on a good run making all the jumps, the freezing thing is really prohibitive.
I don’t mind the same events again, but getting the Winter’s Presence shoulder item is almost kitten near impossible for someone like me. By including the timed jumping puzzle as a requirement is just mean. I have a hard time already with the regular jumping puzzles due to my limited hand dexterity, but timed ones are just out of the question for me. Please Anet remove the JP requirement. I’ll do the other ones I promise!
Yeah. That’s not much chance I’ll be able to do a jumping puzzle with appearing/disappearing platforms and exploding presents. I have a hard enough time doing regular, old jumping puzzles.
but this is an old jumping puzzle, it got never changed in the last 3 years
I don’t mind the same events again, but getting the Winter’s Presence shoulder item is almost kitten near impossible for someone like me. By including the timed jumping puzzle as a requirement is just mean. I have a hard time already with the regular jumping puzzles due to my limited hand dexterity, but timed ones are just out of the question for me. Please Anet remove the JP requirement. I’ll do the other ones I promise!
Yeah. That’s not much chance I’ll be able to do a jumping puzzle with appearing/disappearing platforms and exploding presents. I have a hard enough time doing regular, old jumping puzzles.
but this is an old jumping puzzle, it got never changed in the last 3 years
Annnnd I’ve haven’t been able to do it, for 3 years.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
The JP honestly isn’t that hard. Yes, it takes patience. But finishing it is more rewarding if you have to work for it. It’s definitely doable. On the other hand, if you have a dexterity issue due to some medical condition, then I understand the frustration. :\
Is it it strange though that Guild Wars 1 had the exact same holiday decorations and the exact same holiday quests every year, and people just did them and didn’t complain.
GW1 simply was in an earlier era of MMOs it seems, the same thing has happened in most of the longer-running MMOs I play.
Is it it strange though that Guild Wars 1 had the exact same holiday decorations and the exact same holiday quests every year, and people just did them and didn’t complain.
GW1 simply was in an earlier era of MMOs it seems, the same thing has happened in most of the longer-running MMOs I play.
We always got new, awesome hats for free though that could be worn with any outfit. :o And we all know hats are serious business.
| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. | Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.” “Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.
Last year there was a significant amount of luck available through mystic forging wintersday presents. The minimum luck was 50. No 10s.
It looks like the forge recipe doesn’t work now. Giant wintersday presents are gone and that’s what the forge gave us. Checking the wiki for snowflakes still shows the recipe gives the giant presents.
The JP honestly isn’t that hard. Yes, it takes patience. But finishing it is more rewarding if you have to work for it.
Some activities are fun, but an annoying JP isn’t. And the reward ? yeh, right. Let’s not waste words on that please. Even the shoulders aren’t worth that much of a pain in the b..t.
Only reason to do the event is to sell all the crap you get and to gain some exp and karma, period.
I’m disapointed too. The new direction of the game seems to be to grind for everything. The mini recipes, the achievements with candy cane and alcohol… that all turns out way to grindy to be fun. If that is Anets imagination of a fun and entertaining game, GW2 is in a worse shape than ever.
I’m also disapointed that LA didn’t get ANY decorations. Last year the city was completly destroyed by scarlet, so it was reasonable to move the festivity to DR, but this year… It is just disapointing.
Also WvW is missing it’s decoration. You can now argue that the new borderlands are just not the right place for that kind of decoration and that this looked way better with the alpine settings, but it shows just once more that noone cares for WvW. I’m not sure if EBG had decorations, but i rly miss the candy cane shooting balistas, the gift throwing trebs and the gift dolys.
It is just decoration, it shouldn’t bother me that much, but it feels like they didn’t put any love or creativity into this event.
Not surprised that people are flooding the market with the old toy skins and ugly items since its not worth the orphan karma event. Unless you are doing the dailies.
The JP honestly isn’t that hard. Yes, it takes patience. But finishing it is more rewarding if you have to work for it. It’s definitely doable. On the other hand, if you have a dexterity issue due to some medical condition, then I understand the frustration. :\
After you do it a few times, honestly it’s super easy. I’m farming the puzzle so I can sell gifts for gold. I’ve got about over 1k gifts =)
