I think most of the stuff I’m bringing up has been said already, but I’d like to make mention of it just the same.
Firstly, I think it’s awesome that you’re continuing the high standard from Guild Wars 1 in providing new content at a decent rate (Sorrow’s Furnace probably being the equivalent of this). Secondly, staggering it over overflow (albeit a major “Guide Dang It” moment for most of the people who missed it, or are going for extra rewards) was a good move, but not a whole fix.
Clearly, it would be too much stress on the game to have the event go on every hour in every server, especially if players were not locked out after just one go (of course, if they were locked out, that would prompt its own slew of protests). That said, though, while the idea of a one-time event is exciting—in fact, it was awesome for the Beta Weekend Event finales—it probably causes more immediate game and community stress than spreading it out over a day or two.
The Beta Weekend finales, the Mad King’s entrance, etc. were (at least in my opinion) examples of one-time events done well, because the experience just that: an experience. Participating players get the thrill of being there, while those who miss out can either watch it on Youtube (without the same immersiveness), or at worst, they haven’t really missed out on any benefits.
The finale for this event, on the other hand, is a different story simply because it offers loot. Exclusive loot, at that—the box and accessory—and a chance for the infamous legendary precursors. Understandably, whatever portion of the player base works Sundays, or lives in an inconvenient time zone, will be upset that they’re missing out on (essentially) several dozen gold in drops, even if they can still watch the (laggy) proceedings on Youtube.
Ironically, an even larger portion missed the action because of the sheer volume of players fighting, getting disconnected, or crashing; wasn’t that expected and prepared for, considering its nature as an open-world “one-time event” with loot incentives?
I’ve heard about compensating those who attended but were disconnected, and I just read about the possibility of a scavenger hunt for some of the loot, which makes me (and hopefully most of us) much less upset, if true; still, much of the concerns (and the associated whining, and the harsh debate, and everything else that accompanies negative feedback) could have been avoided if the Ancient Karka event was spread out over a longer time span. If it wasn’t feasible at the time, that particular event could have been delayed until things settled down.
Summary: Yeah, it’s good that people feel special if they can join a one-time event and get awesome gear for free, and it certainly helps the “epicness” factor (as long as it’s not too laggy to be playable), but having it spread over a couple days rather than a couple hours gives current players the same power boost across more regions and work commitments, while not making any difference to (reasonable) exclusivists a year down the road. And if the resource commitment for repeats would have been too hard to meet given the circumstances, the time-limited event could have been saved for a better time.
(Personally, I would have been content for a previously innocuous zone to suddenly be desecrated by a rampaging Ancient Karka a couple months down the road.)
(edited by Coaster.4651)