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Monthly Event Pro/Con List
Homitu
Member UncommonPosts: 2,030
My pro/con list for the weekend events:
Pros
- Captured the epic scale of the struggle and warfare against a newly discovered, badass enemy. The storytelling and MMO experience was strong.
- The way the challenge of the Karka was presented was realistic: nearly indestructible new foe > research ways to harm them > implement the research > counter attack and invade. Then they were appropriately hard to take down in practice.
- Brought players together, server felt alive, active chat
- Rewards were solid, finally have a progression incentive which generates motivation
- Fractals of the Mists. (This has its own pro/con list for me, but is overall a resounding success in my books.)
Cons
- Laggy when massive amounts of players were involved; game still suffers from technical limitations when too many units are on screen at once
- Zergy nature of largest scale events decreases gameplay fun factor
- Tankiness of new mobs, while immersive from a story perspective, could become frustrating or annoying from a gameplay perspective.
- Players may feel obligated to log on during times when they may otherwise not want/be able to. Players who couldn't log on during the weekend or during specific times, missed out forever. Missed out on chance for good rewards.
My final verdict?
These events are a welcome addition to my MMO experience. They enhance the sense that Tyria posesses that coveted immersive quality: that it truly is a living breathing world. Tyria has changed in an important way each month so far. With those changes have come memorable moments and stories that will only be told by those who were there to experience the world at that time. These events embody the massive global experience I hope for in an MMO. While there remains plenty of room to improve the actual gameplay experience of many portions of the events, these one-time-only monthly content events are far more than I had hoped for with GW2. Most importantly of all, they make me feel a part of a massive, evolving world more than perhaps any MMO ever has for me in the past.
I will edit as I or others come up with more pros/cons.
Comments
My thoughts exactly. I am a huge GW1 fan and until recently (Thursday when I got the trial) I didn't like GW2 much. But this one time only event really excited me about the game. Now I bought it and will probably play it for a bit when Ihave the time to spare for some gaming
This type of events is what excited me about MMOs back when I started playing for the first time. I always imagined that there would be large scale world events like the one in WoW - Gates of Ahn Quraj. GW2 has me super excited now :P
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
My opinion:
They need zoning technology to allow people to complete the event at their convenient times. Otherwise it's just a huge waste of resources to let like 10% of the population finish it on ANETs schedule.
Really like the new fractal dungeon.
But that crab crap event that caused lag all over the game... hmm not so much to like there. Couldn't even go do some WvW after I gave up on the event because of the lag. Skills going off 5-10 seconds too late, game freezing for 1 min, constant disconnecting. I'd say this was the worst weekend so far in GW2.
Oh and I forgot to mention all the bugged out npcs for the scavenger hunt (sure they got fixed the next day, but it was still pretty damn annoying).
"If I had a d*ck, I'd go get laid. But we can do that next best thing... Let's kill people."
I think one time event is fantastic, where it actually become part of history, rather than just another dungeon for the game. The resources are gone toward new area and creatures model which will be in game forever right after the event, so I don't think it's so much of a waste. It's like there is a festival in town, but I have to be at work and can not attend. I will miss it, but I will hear people talk about it. If the festival is always there, it will be meaningless as everyone can just attend at anytime, forever. No one will actually be part of the historical moment.
I didn't participate.
I had a bunch of personal reasons to not, of the better stuff to do type. But.........
To be honest....I was turned off at the whole "1 time event, if you miss it this 1 time, it will be gone forever".
It is just a video game, I like that about it. When ANet manufactures, or attempts to atleast, presure to log in, it starts to get that "jobby" feeling. Turning me off.
On a lesser note there is the alienation a player may feel if the event is missed. But this actually ties into the whole "manufactured log-in need".
Just my 2 cents, I do understand that ANet needs to find ways to get folks to log in. I just find it adverse to what I like out of a game at this point in my life.
Two big events, and what about Christmas and New Years? How totally ballsy of them to launch so close to the holidays and not skip the event till next year. I effing love it. The events are some of the best I've seen too.
Still, would like to see what they do in 2013 once they catch their breath.
Christmas has always been a major event for guild wars but new years hasnt the christmas event just usually runs threw to newyears. they probably had halloween christmas made before the game even came out lol.
I'm pretty sure the events were well into development. Of course, you aren't going to churn what they did in 1 month. Doesn't mean it was already done...they had to patch it in afterall. For something like this, I'd be sleepless worrying about whether it could be ready to go on time if I was in charge. And one month after launch? So many complications.
Or, how about "darn, I've got better things to do...but I'll catch the next event. Or not. Hope the rest of yall enjoy it."
Seriously, now it turns into the bastards forcing people to log in? Do you hear that people, they are only making great events with some parts one time only, TO FORCE YOU TO LOG IN.
Or..How about understand that "My 2 cents", is a reference to my opinion being worth only 2 cents, as in 2 pennies, or if you want you could even say 2 pence, or go way back and call it 2 coppers, the point being it is just my opinion and not worth much more than, let us say 2 cents, or just 2 pennies and not worth much at all.....
To your point about "the bastards forcing people to log in", I suffer no delusions about why else you would spend money developing and launching 1 time events except other than to force, encourage, wrangle, coerce players to log in. If it wasn't, you would just launch said content and leave it up.
I think it doesnt even need to be that complicated..
just have the event start over an hour or so after its completed.With those who already completed it getting lesser "ehh" items the second time around or having the chest completely unaccessible to them.
Really,
They cannot satisfy everyone, I think they picked the best time they could have. 12 in US and 20:00 in europe, pretty much primetime for both continents.
What else could you ask for?
I think the current system is a compromise between the 2. The vast majority of the added content is permanent. The small transitional events are the only one time only portions of the overall content patch. While these events may make people who missed them feel bummed, they also make people who were there to experience them feel like they were a part of something special. The very fact that the events do only occur once is a huge contributing factor to the realism of the gradual evolution of the game world. It's that very fact that makes it a more immersive, living breathing world. It creates a sliver of what many players hoped to get from dynamic events: an actual permanent change. Yes, there are some consequences to this design, but there are also many benefits.
I structured this thread as a pro/con list because I think it is important to remember that there are pros and cons to every design feature of an MMO. You simply cannot please everyone. I think it can be equally important for fans to recognize both the pros and cons regardless of one's own position. Seen as such, you might still wish a feature was different to better suit your own personal game desires, but at least you'll be able to see the developer isn't just giving you the finger.
And then we'll be able to get to the real debate: how we feel features can be adjusted for the betterment of the entire game community, not just to better suit our own needs.
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I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
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