Some of the things I most look forward to in MMOs are holiday and world events. I love how dynamic they often are and how they truly change the immersion factor of a game temporarily. When done right, relaxing holiday events can bring a bit of fun to a world that’s usually dangerous and give players a reason to celebrate while collecting cool vanity items. The best world and holiday events also build upon the lore already present in the game, adding new, unique twists and adventures that players eagerly look forward to.
Following my love of world events, I’ve taken part in many during my years as an MMO gamer and journalist, and reviewed/covered both RIFT‘s and SWTOR‘s extensively. After experiencing Guild Wars 2′s Shadow of the Mad King, I couldn’t quite help sharing my thoughts on the event. Overall, it was quite impressive, and gives me hope for GW2′s future events.
The first aspect of Shadow of the Mad King that was impressive was definitely the fact that it was obvious that ArenaNet’s art department went all-out to design everything that made up the holiday. Lion’s Arch was quite a sight to behold during the event, and even the concept art drawings were amazing. From every little detail– the moon in the sky, the eerie green sky, the details on the event equipment, the various designs and shapes of the pumpkins, the little trick-or-treaters running around, and the cinematic of the Mad King busting into Tyria were all well done.
The fact that there were three new areas for the event alone– the clock tower puzzle, the labyrinth, and the Mad King’s dungeon was impressive in itself. The Mad King’s dungeon was very well done in my opinion, because it was a simple fight, but also contained many unique Guild War 2-type features, such as the rocks we had to hop between. It was also great that players of all levels could take part in the fight.
The clock tower jumping puzzle was definitely challenging, but that was largely because of the fact that everyone had such a limited time to complete it in. The area was often overcrowded, and with a difficult, timed puzzle, overcrowding and large player hitboxes just don’t mix well. The puzzle may have been better as a permanent addition, or even instanced to allow a certain amount of players in at a time.
The labyrinth and the haunted door system was a great idea in theory, because it gave players an easy way to group up for the Mad King’s dynamic events, but it was a shame that the doors were bugged for a couple of days. The dynamic events out in the real world were decent, but not quite as widespread as I was hoping. For that matter, I also would have enjoyed the Halloween decor in general to be a little more widespread. Lion’s Arch was fantastic, but after getting spoiled by all the pumpkins and creepy atmospheric details, it was almost a disappointment to go to another area.
The scavenger hunt and the various mini-games were great touches, and both worked well with the world event’s various acts. There was constantly something new to discover, and that was awesome. The act idea is solid in a world event, because it gives players a reason to log on every time the act changes, but unfortunately, I do tend to think Shadow of the Mad King could have been a little longer. If it would have been longer, the players affected by Hurricane Sandy may have been able to complete more steps of it as well.
It’s often difficult to strike that perfect balance for an MMO world event. Make it too long and players get sick of the cheery (or creepy!) decor (yes, World of Warcraft– I’m looking at you), but make it too short and busy players find themselves frustrated and inevitably behind. Not everyone can log on every day, and especially given the fact that Guild Wars 2 does lean on the casual side, future events could definitely stand to be a little longer in my opinion. It was nice that ArenaNet decided to allow players to grab the Witch’s Hat after the event ended, but the entire event really could have been started earlier.
More time given for players to complete the various achievements would have also given players more time to collect the vanity rewards. Some of the event’s best vanity items were quite difficult to get in Shadow of the Mad King, and despite the addition ArenaNet made to allow Halloween Chests to be crafted, rare items were still rare indeed. This was good in a way, because it kept players farming inside the labyrinth and running Mad King runs, but it was also bad in a way, because after a while of killing mobs in the labyrinth, the whole process seemed a little repetitive and well, non-immersive.
Dynamic events are best when they’re actually dynamic, in my opinion, and when players are scraping together every bit of Magic Find they can get and running as a giant herd toward the next Champion mob and accompanying chest (although we recently found out Magic Find does not work for looting chests), a bit of the dynamism is lost. I think the event may have been better balanced if players were able to get most of the items a little more easily, and instead of ArenaNet relying on players hunting after random loot, perhaps made the dynamic fights a little more random.
This may be my own personal preference, however, because I share the opinion when it comes to other areas of the game as well. I appreciate what ArenaNet tried to do with their dynamic event system, but I definitely think it’s not in a perfect state at the moment, and far too easily farm-able and predictable.
That said, I really did enjoy most aspects of the event. The art department outdid themselves if you ask me, and the variety of both activities available and items available was excellent. Considering this is Guild Wars 2′s first holiday event, I’d say it was very much a successful one, albeit with a few minor kinks. I’m anxious to see what ArenaNet does with future events (The Lost Shores is shaping up to seem interesting so far) and with Shadow of the Mad King next year. It’s my hope that the team keeps expanding on holiday events year after year, because that will expand the immersive qualities which were very prominent to begin with in this one.
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