The Syndrome Syndrome

I know I'm not the only one who feels that all the "Special Events" have become less... special.

After whomping on Winter Lords for a month, people are tired of them. Presents? Just lying around in the gutters, being ignored.

Anyone remember the Halloween fatigue that set in last Thanksgiving?

And now here come the Rikti, Aaaaa-gain...

(How long will it be 'til Valentine's Day gets here? Get ready to break out those togas...)

I'm calling this the Sydrome Syndrome, named for Syndrome, from the Incredibles:

The Winter events was extended beyond their planned schedule as 'compensation' to servers that had major stability issues during the event.

Then earlier in the year we had a 'repeat' double Xp weekend for pretty much the same issue (but different servers affected)

I would hope that 3 weeks (the planned duration) at a time of year when people are frequently traveling wouldn't be considered too much.

Judging from this timeline. Halloween = 2weeks normally, Winter event 3 weeks, Valentines 2 weeks. These are however all clustered Oct-Feb.

45 weeks of 'normality'

Throw in a couple of invasion weekends, and double XP weekends, and drop that to 41 weeks if you like.

I hate how I was forced to click on every present I saw!

Good god, the banner event did go on for way too long. Most people who gave a damn about the badges had them all before the first week was over. The winter event was similar, by the 3rd week it was getting very difficult to get anyone interested in Baby New Year and getting more than one team together for a Winter Lord was pretty much futile by the final week. Even on the more crowded servers.

I'm still disappointed they haven't added an event for National Pretzel Day.

Special event periods increase the number of people playing the game in that time period. You put them into Ouroborous and you've just made them even more banal - available any time, anywhere. They aren't special at all if they available every day of the year.

Also, not everyone gets to play at the same time, so shortening the period for these events means that fewer people get to play them.

As for "special event becoming normal play", we've just left a period of time where Halloween and Christmas Events were nearly back-to-back. You can play normal play from now until Halloween again. Valentines Day doesn't impact on normal zones (unless it has changed for this year).

I hope they change some of it for next time - I thought the way that you lost 3 levels for refusing to click Lord Winter's present was a bit too harsh.

i do think the holiday events need to be changed more than they have. the raid type events are annoying as anything. i would welcome the idea of more instanced mishs (or changing the mish as in the winter event or valentine event).

but overall the holiday events have become rather dull after 3 years of nearly the same thing (as in my experience).

I hate to say that I agree with the OP. When I see a new holiday event coming, I don't get excited anymore. Heck, I don't even log on half the time.

How about instead of the holiday events being "bigger" and "bigger" every year (which just makes more work for the devs), how about we just have them less and less. They only last for one week, and that's even every OTHER year. Like you'll have Valentine's and Halloween one year and Winter and something else (a summer sandstorm filled with desert monsters?) the other year?

Make them shorter, and you make them more special. Sure some people will get in a tizzy, but those people get upset about every little thing, so frag them.

or, have the events ramp up. Don't have everything from day one. If you intend a 3 week Winter event, have items that appear in Week 1, items for week 2, and of course, items for week 3. That way interest is maintained for those that play all three weeks, and there's still a week 3 with everything for those who've been traveling.

You're all forgetting the new or casual player who hasn't been in the game every day of every event for the past three years. If the events were curtailed, they'd be whining instead.

I think the problem is that you have Halloween for 3 weeks, about 4 weeks of normal play, the Winter Event for 2-4 weeks, about 4 weeks of normal play, then the Valentine's event for a couple weeks, then... nothing until Halloween again.

I'm for a new event of two. Double XP weekends are all well and good, but I would like to see something a little more creative. April could have an Rabbit-related mission. Maybe some sort of "Save Uncle Sam" mission in July. Something like this could spice up the event-less time between February and November.

i do understand about casual players and stuff, i dont think they should scrap the current events, just create something different and alternate between the old event and the new event each year.

While I *did* agree that sometimes they go on alittle too long,I can't say that any longer I don't get to play everyday like I used to.

If I'm lucky me and the wife can only get on once a week and not very long at that.This past winter event I only got to get on three times and at the most for only a couple hours.

So I can see the pro's and con's of the events now.Just remember folks not everyone can play all the time or anytime they want.

Do not assume, that just because you are tired of the events, that *people* in general also feel the same.

I personally love this years winter event, they actually made something new by adding the winter realm instance. And it's a lot of fun, and a great way to earn a load of candy canes with some very easy and fast merits to boot.

I'm also glad they extended it -- as I was away on holidays for most of the event, and had grumbled that I was going to miss out on most of it. I finally got back from holidays, and its still on! So I had a blast catching the end of the event and joining in the fun.

I've done several winter lord and winter realm teams in the last couple of days, was very easy to get teams for it. And I'm a glowie addict -- have been madly clicking glowies inbetween doing missions and other content.

Whilst you might be bored with the events, like someone else said, new players want to have a go at it too, so they need just as much as a chance as the vets. And then some of us, who are altaholics, like to roll our new alts and get them into the event fun as well (for various reasons).

Don't get me wrong -- new content is always welcome.
But I feel you are being rather harsh on the winter event, when they actually added something NEW content wise to this years.