Flame & Frost, Retribution - April patch

[Arrowstormen]

They will want to avoid what happened the last time they had a trial weekend. So yeah I think they will have the patch at the end of the month after the trial is over with.

What happened?

[Deleted]

What happened?

they just went full retard... HEY lets do a one-time event at the same time we do a trial weekend! that wont make the servers overloaded/crash!

[Arrowstormen]

they just went full retard... HEY lets do a one-time event at the same time we do a trial weekend! that wont make the servers overloaded/crash!

I went fine!

[Karizee]

Is this patch going to be before the free pass April 19-22, or is it another one scheduled for the 26th like the past two months?

Per the teaser page the patch will hit on the 30th. The trial weekend is 19th - 21st.

I really liked the one-off events but alot of people complained that they couldn't attend due to RL schedule or time zone conflicts so I understand why they are backing away from that.

Still, there's something to be said for the "I was there!" feel of the one-off events. I got to help explore Southsun Cove - I helped build the bridges, set up the camps and outposts, see the Lighthouse get destroyed and defeat the Ancient Karka (whose corpse still lies down in the Karka Hive!)

They hit something crazy like 98% of capacity during that event. No wonder there was insane lag.

The Mad King event doesn't feel as exclusive since they made it a cinematic that played over the entire time the Halloween events were active. But still, watching daily as the statue continued to deteriorate and become more corrupted, more menacing, the exoskeleton of the statue starting to burn away, all of that leading up to the big finale was pretty impressive.

I'm getting the same kind of feel with the Flame & Frost event. This slow build to something really spectacular. Looking forward to it!

[Lane]

I really don't get the love for one time events. If you miss them you're SOL, if they were really good you'll want them to happen again, etc.

[grandpab]

I really don't get the love for one time events. If you miss them you're SOL, if they were really good you'll want them to happen again, etc.

Some of the best events in a game I've experienced have been 1 time events. Asherons Call would do them once in a while and tie it in with the story that was currently going on.

I think they have an awesome opportunity to make some good content with the living story, but there's just not enough content or depth to it right now. It's also the first story arc they've done in GW2, so I'm being easy on them. I'm waiting to see how things play out, but I really want things to go well.

[Fencers]

Yea, one time events are awesome.

The entire point is to not miss them. With the kool thing being you were there where others were not.

[Lane]

Ah, so it's another exclusive/exclusionary thing? Awesome. :P Yeah, I don't care for those. I get enough of that in real life, I don't want or need it in my leisurely activities as well.

I think I'm kind of an MMO socialist. Maybe that's not the best description, but I've never had a problem with everyone having access to everything.

[Zeek Daniels]

Ah, so it's another exclusive/exclusionary thing? Awesome. :P Yeah, I don't care for those. I get enough of that in real life, I don't want or need it in my leisurely activities as well.

I think I'm kind of an MMO socialist. Maybe that's not the best description, but I've never had a problem with everyone having access to everything.

Its not just MMO's its alot of things in life that you may only get the chance to do once and that makes it even more memorable. I can still remember the first and only time i went to a WWF live event when i was a kid and got to see Big Boss Man and hulk Hogan.

[grandpab]

It's not something that needs to be done a lot, once every few months. I've never really cared about it being exclusionary. From my experience it's just a cool experience to be a part of, and it gives you memories of the game that stand out a lot more. It isn't something you get to see every day so you appreciate it a little more.

[Arrowstormen]

The karka event was just so cool. So many people together, fighting for three hours. Also, that one Ancient Karka you thought for half the time. And before that, the massive zergish army of karka that just rolled over players, downing more than 20 different people every time they did it.

[Lane]

I can honestly say that one time only events are not memorable for me. When I think back to my playtime in WoW, Rift, or Tera their one time only events don't factor into my nostalgia or reminiscence at all. Many times I have to be reminded they occurred even when I'd participated in them. It's just not my thing, I guess.

[Fencers]

Ah, so it's another exclusive/exclusionary thing?

Of course!

Here is the thing about MMOs-- you play them with other people. The human desire for strife and divide drives those games in a way that is hard wired into our psyche.

"That guy has the flaming shoulderpads of doom from the special one time event!"
"That's right. I was there, noobs. Let me tell you about phase 1..."


The things people remember are those things like the gates opening for AQ, the Sleeper going down, the River of Tears, Pandemonium ravaging the server, etc.

If it happens on a schedule every 2 hours... eh.

I mean how thrilled can one be for the shadow behemoth or the purple dragon thingy at this point? Are you in outright awe at the task before you or beaming with the accomplishment of a downed dragon every Tuesday @ 7pm?

For a lot of people, that stuff loses it's luster. It's human nature.

Honestly. What-fucking-ever, Shadow Behemoth. Too busy kidnapping other players in Age of Wushu to care.

[Lane]

Well, I still have fond memories of the first time I saw SB, back when the event was bugged to happen only once in a blue moon. Now that it's been on farm status for the past couple of months, no, but I still have that first memory.

AQ was much like Lost Shores, so miserably laggy and plagued with disconnects it was impossible to enjoy. Same thing with River of Tears (assuming that's the one I think it is where everyone converged upon Stillmoor and you bowed before Alsbeth for that achievement). The stuff leading up to it was so-so. All I remember of AQ was that it was a really easy way to get reputation (at the time) for a cross faction mount. All I remember about RoT is actually how miserable it was competing with a bunch of 50s in Freemarch for death rifts (before they nerfed that).

Now that I think about it, the only one time only event I have fond memories of was the pre-Wrath stuff. Unfortunate they never repeated it.

Eh, I don't know. I'm guilty of sporting new rewards as much as the next person, but I don't purposely go around with the rarest items available to seek attention. If I'm using something it's because I personally like it, not because I'm trying to somehow one-up the people around me. It seems like a lot of people want that, some badge of "Ha ha, I was there and you weren't!" It's just weird, to me. o_O

[Rhywolver]

Of course!

The things people remember are those things like the gates opening for AQ, the Sleeper going down, the River of Tears, Pandemonium ravaging the server, etc.

If it happens on a schedule every 2 hours... eh.

I mean how thrilled can one be for the shadow behemoth or the purple dragon thingy at this point? Are you in outright awe at the task before you or beaming with the accomplishment of a downed dragon every Tuesday @ 7pm?

While the quoted stuff is true it is a thing that you have to see from several points. Developers waste a lot of time for a one-time event not everyone can enjoy or has missed it if he / she is a new player. After that, the content is gone and won't remain in the game, except some flaming shoulderpads are still there.

The every-two-hours-events are cool if you haven't done them or if you like to repeat them every now and then. I can't wait to bring my gf to the Claw of Jormag fight and watch her reaction when the dragon is pinball-shoot between the mountains. The unsatisfying thing here is that the events can be organized, Dragontimers take out that 'Wooo random events happens with great Dragons'!. Last time I checked the developers aren't too happy with that, I wonder if they make the times between events more unreliable sooner or later.

What I like to see is some kind of middle way between the two examples. An Event that happens once a day / week and has no set location to take place. Back in the Diablo2 days, Diablo suddenly became an every-now-and-then world boss. When Cataclysm came out, everyone wanted to get burned by Deathwing for the achievement. There is place for something between one-time and all-the-time events. Mixing in their bounty hunt system could help.