GuildCast 47: Guild Wars 2's First Holiday Event Under the Microscope

Written by: Scott Hawkes (Twitter @jarimor - Google+) | November 1, 2012 9:00 am

25 Comments

There’s been a lot of madness going on in Tyria.

But, perhaps even as you read this, it is coming to an end.

The Halloween event for Guild Wars 2 reached its final phase today. What were the highlights? Did you go slaughtering with abandon in the Labyrinth? How many keyboards did you destroy in a fit of anger when running the Clocktower?

The GuildCast crew tell us what their experiences have been and just how this first seasonal event for GW2 ranks alongside other MMOs.

The rumor is that a big update is arriving on November 15. Can the source be trusted? And if so what does the information enclosed in the leak really mean?

Is there a complete new addition coming to PvE? What landmass could soon be opened up for exploration? We ponder the possibilities.

From November 1, free transfers are limited to once a week. Have people been server hopping? We talk at the reasons behind the restriction and whether it fixes the underlying problem.

What is certainly an overlying problem is that guesting is not in the game yet. It is apparently coming soon, but with it coming much later than expected, what issues has it caused to the player base?

The gamers four letter word “bots” has been a thorny issue and ArenaNet appears to be responding stridently. Has the dev team really “got this”? We talk about the prevalence of an issue that is of great concern to many.

That’s a whole lot to of content to take care of but we still manage to squeeze in your viewer questions.

Richie Procopio is unable to be with us due to the malevolent Sandy this week, best wishes to @bogotter!

In his stead is GAMEBREAKER’s ever convivial Jason Winter along with Gary Gannon, ZAM’s Scott Hawkes and Massively‘s Elisabeth Cardy for a fright inducing episode of GuildCast!

GuildCast 47: Guild Wars 2's First Holiday Event Under the Microscope

50:06

Star Wars The Old Republic

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39:42

WildStar

Unicorn Duck Shadow Puppet Ep4:
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0:36

World of Warcraft

How To Play:
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In this episode of How To Play, Mike demonstrates the proper technique for playing an Affliction Warlock.Read more »

13 comments

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr

So is Anet going to extend the event or redux the Halloween finale because of the outages on the East Coast – it would be a shame for all those players out there who are without (and continue to be without power) to miss out on the remainder of this event.
- St_Draco
  
  Unfortunately no.
  
  “We heard your questions about extending the Halloween event for those of you affected by Sandy. Unfortunately we cannot do that, but the reason why we can’t is exciting: We are preparing for our big November update, which will start on November 15, and there will be content that will be in the game prior to that, leading up to the event. But we also want to use this moment to remind you all that your personal safety is much more important than any computer game. If you could be affected by the storm, please listen to the authorities and take every precaution to ensure you and your loved ones are safe. Tyria will still be there once the storm is over.” – Martin Kerstein
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr
    
    That’s too bad – they did it several times in GW1. It’s a shame that those affected don’t have something special to look forward to once everything is back up and running once again. This is one of the reasons I was never fond of one-off events in games. Tyria may still be there, but the Mad King won’t, nor will any of the special items unique to the event.
    - RBHgamer
      
      All the events from Halloween this year (and 2013 Halloween additions) will be available next year. that is a solid ANet tradition. I think having monthly events is fantastic. We have much to anticipate and every year they will be upgraded and added to. It will be great.
      - http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
        
        I loved that about GW1 and can’t wait for GW2 to get to that point. Even when I got bored and stepped away from the game for a little while every now and again I’d still remember to log back in for Halloween, Winter’s Day, Canthan New Year, Talk like a Pirate day, Winter’s Day in July, and whatever other little events I heard about.
        
        That is how you retain players; screw sub fees and milking player’s wallets for almost a year with no new content, just give us lots of nice little events scattered throughout the year and we’ll be happy.
- Nick Cattane
  
  A GW2 forum moderator already posted they will not be extending the event as it would hault their plans for their next holiday event mid-november.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/W76UOX2IDTRMMYTPASSJDLXLRM Bob
  
  ANet said they are not because it would bump into the major content update that will be happening on Nov. 15th.
http://profile.yahoo.com/W76UOX2IDTRMMYTPASSJDLXLRM Bob

As for the content, to put it into perspective, Hunger Royale in the beta took on developer 12 hours to do. GW2′s tech may be able to throw out new content rather easily and quickly.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=638293439 Felix Klaar

why is the sound always coming slightly more from the right?! D:
- http://www.facebook.com/tehsilva Brian Silva
  
  I know I hate that! I can’t wait till they finally figure out a fix for that. I wonder if they’re even aware. I posted something about it months ago.
- http://www.facebook.com/patrikules.vunderbar Patrikules Vunderbar
  
  i’m guessing schaffnit broke something again… lawl… j/k mike
http://www.facebook.com/jason.ackerman.96 Jason Ackerman

The Halloween event was great until Halloween day when the hole in the ground in Lions Arch was sealed up and and it was soooo boring just walking around the area with the King and the Simon Says game. Maybe the 1st time you do it is fun, but after that it got pretty boring. You would think when he broke through the fountain would be on Halloween day for the climax.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Brandon-Evans/1603660859 Brandon Evans

Ok I’m from the south and I leave my butter on the countertop, of course its just one stick at a time but whats the big deal with this, its not going to go bad befoe u use it and it spreads so much easier.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1653322492 Kevin J. Redmond

Viva Asura!
http://www.facebook.com/Joey.Morrone Joey Morrone

If you give me my own box Gary, I’d be ok with that!

<3 Gamebreaker
Krzysztof Kotarba

I liked 2 pvp halloween games… One was like moba, and second hide and seek. It was cool.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000495825358 Barnabás Horányi

I felt the same way about the Clock town! I WAS TRYING FOR 15 HOURS! and at the las very last try i made it! yaaaay for me! xDDD
http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Sardella/1422784105 John Sardella

Who tried the Clocktower for an hour before giving up? This guy.
http://twitter.com/tokillamoabird Tzeebo

New PvE mode: horde mode!
HORDE MODE! HORDE MODE! HORDE MODE!

Please, make it happen!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Craig-Hooker/13619430 Craig Hooker

If Polymock is going to go anywhere, it’s going to be in Rata Sum. They already have the space for it mapped out, even, with its own asura gate that is currently closed. The little arena in Lion’s Arch would be for minipets, if it’s going to be a thing, and different from how Polymock worked.
protrolly

They did well on the events has i see on youtube and other sites but the lack of info like where the hell is the clock tower. maybe next year i get to find more of the events i miss this time.
- http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
  
  The Clock Tower was in the Mad King’s Realm. You go through one of the haunted doors out in the world to be transported there, then talk to one of the Lunatic Court members to be teleported to the clock tower or a new PvP game type.
  
  You didn’t seriously spend the entire week in Lion’s Arch did you? How could you not have gone into the MK Realm?
- Jant0n
  
  I would check out Dulfy’s website next time there is a holiday event if you need a guide. She has some pretty detailed GW2 info on there (non holiday related guides & info as well). As Jonathan Hornsby said you had to enter the Mad King’s Realm through one of the the haunted doors with a pumpkin above it; these doors would spawn after a chain of events was completed.
- http://twitter.com/elixabethclaire Elisabeth Claire
  
  You should have been getting in-game mail (at least, myself and everyone I know did) with introductory guides to the Halloween events. IIRC, there were 3 or 4 such messages pointing players in the proper direction.
DoctorOverlord

Good episode. I agree that ArenaNet did a great job with the Halloween event.   Particularly with how they incorporated the Clock Tower.   Scott has a point that modern MMOs are scared to make things hard but it’s their own fault because they always make things feel needlessly mandatory. Elizabeth pointed out the Clock Tower was not necessary for the achievement, so the only reason to do it is for the satisfaction of beating it.

In other words, you do it just for fun.   And that’s something that has been missing from MMOs.

OMG I didn’t know about griefing bots!   I wonder if the cauldron from the Witch’s Costume can do the same thing as the fireworks.

If is does work ArenaNet should make a similar item on the Black Lion shop and give it FREE to all players.   Let us deal with the bot problem ourselves lol   I need to see about joining the Mesmer Police.

GuildCast 47: Guild Wars 2's First Holiday Event Under the Microscope

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