Adertise Events and festivals in cities and outposts, before they happen!

I've missed a couple of events and festivals this year because I didnt know they were happening.

One reason is that I have my username and password set to auto-log in, so I dont see the messages on the main window. Another reason is that I dont always check websites to see whats happening.

I expect im not the only one in this situation who auto-logs in or doesnt always check the websites.

And lets face it, why would you check the websites unless you were actually looking for specific information? Unless your bored and happen to check and noticed a festival or event is coming, then you wont know.

Alot of people are also really busy during their time out of game and forget about regular events and festivals, because they actually have more important issues in real life.

All I ask is that when its leading up to an event or a festival, Anet put signs up or symbols or something to show that an event is coming soon.

Even if its just an NPC walking around shouting "Xmas is coming", "Hallowean is coming", "The dragon festival is coming".....

...with a guy dressed as santa, or the pumpkin king or as a dragon.

Just some kind of advert ingame, in real-time, making everyone know. Thats how they do it in real-life. They pack the shops full of xmas stuff for months before christmas.

Just to give us a gentle-reminder or a hint that something is coming, so we realise.

I dont think creating a few posters, or flags or automated NPCs would be too hard! And not just in capital cities, but in random outposts through campaigns, so you dont miss them.

YES sounds great mabey on the toon select screen having in a small tab saying xmas is coming and the dates etc, having people walking around would be nice as well and mabey u could go up and talk 2 them to get the times of the events.

/ SIgned x10

Rain Slip

So your saying that because you are lazy and auto log as well are lazy and don't check websites that ANet should put on hold everything else they do so they can make NPC's that will let YOU know when events are going to happen? STFU

They put in on the log in screen to let you know, no ones fault but your own you don't see it. They already take the steps. Go away.

What more can i say

Yeah I am onboard with this, even a little messege like the guild messege telling us what is going on could be nice

That's as far as I would expect them to go.

Just a statement above the Guild message letting you know an event is coming.

Alas, the stupidity pit seems to be bottomless.

Who controls that Guild message anyway? Why you do don't ya?

If you are an officer or a Guild Leader, post the notice yourself, if your not ask someone who can to do it. BAZAAMM you got yourself an early warning message how bout that? Another thing ANet has done for you that you neglect, GG.

It also may be a good idea to LISTEN/READ what others in your guild/Alliance are talking about, because those events happen to be topics of converstion in the weeks prior to. OR is everyone in your guild/alliance lazy too and has no idea WTF is going on?

As a veteran player:
I say yes. As much as I like to help people, it gets tiresome and sometimes irritating helping answer the same question ("Wher do i git hat?") or just reading the same question spammed over and over (Wuts going on? Why is town lke dis?)

As a person why tries to be involved with the community or at least keep myself informed:
I say no.
The feed a person a fish/teach a person how to fish analogy comes to mind.
Sure, not everyone will read the main guild wars site. Not everyone gets involved on a fan forum. However, the more I answer some questions in game in regards to festivals and events. I wonder if I am doing more harm than good. It doesn't help people figure out how to use Guildwiki (yes, I know it has flaws),it doesn't get them involved with a community, it doesn't teach them to look outside of the game for answers or help.

Compromise?
NPC that does announce upcoming event. That NPC can answer some general/commonly asked questions. The NPC could even direct a player to the guildwars.com site for more info...though I see it being out of place by doing so.

/notsigned I do not want spam messages from aNet when I do both read the messages at login and pay attention to GW news.

WTF!

some of us that don't play 24/7 and don't have time to check the website because we have lives and who cares if he auto logs in i h8 logging in only to see my pass word is rong!!

Well i guess you got your wish as the is a Buy The Bonus Pack ad on char select which i assume will become an ad for the next event by the time its coming up

1) Was there any need to be rude.
2) I work within IT and I enter about 100 passwords a day, so forgive me if I want to skip that process in GWs.
3) Its not lazey just because someone doesnt check a fan or company website every 2 seconds. Most people dont check websites unless they require information.
4) How does it not make sense to just have advertising in-real time ingame. You see posters all the time in shops when xmas, hallowean or easter is coming. How is too much to ask we get some kind of NPC advertising coming festivals or events. Even if its a big poster on a wall ingame saying "this festival is coming".
5) They change the log in screen message once every 2 or 3 months. Most people learn to just ignore it, because of that. Because we have all read the warnings and usuall messages 100 times. But because of that, we ignore new ones or miss them. It not an "in your face" message.

What if your not in a guild?
What if you dont always have guild or alliance chat on?

I cant say anyone in my guild has been taking about the dragon festival until today. I've never heard any guild members chat about the double faction weekend. I've never known anyone to mention other events from previous weekends.

I never even saw people in towns or outposts mention it.

I've missed events in the past because i've heard no one mention it, or I've not known to check the website or not expected a changed message on login.

They are not blatent enough messages, or information. You have to put this information in places that people cant miss it, just as you would in a shop when advertising a coming season or holiday.

That suggest people know to look outside the game for information, that they know to check for events and festivals. Not everyone who plays GWs is IT literate and grasps the concept of using websites for research.

Alot of players dont know or release the fan-websites exist. Unless they know to check if events or festivals are coming, then they wont.

New players, and even old, dont realise that double faction and other events happen. They WONT know to check. They wont know to check announcements on the log-in screen. Double faction weekends are random too, so unless you do check information on websites or at login, you wont know about it.

Its not like a set event that happens every year.

Alot of people log in without even looking. Why? because 9/10 times it doesnt change and you dont give it a glance. The log in screen message only changes about every 2 months.

Whos talking about spam?

Im talking about a poster ingame, or an NPC giving a message every few minutes in the odd outpost. I didnt mention anyhting about spam.





All I'm saying it put a sign in a captial city or campaign outpost saying something like "On [enter date] you will get double faction points when fighting in faction battles", or something.

How does that not make sense?

We advertise festivals, holidays and events in real life with big signs and costumes! So why not ingame?

Just to reach that audience that might otherwise not realise. Concider how many people arent playing this weekend, and dont realise this festival is happening. Alot of new players WONT.

i have auto log in to, and always miss the event board, i mean it cant be to hard to have some signs, maybe a notice board in g/h or something?

I know your agreeing, but I meant more to put any advertising inside the PvE element. In outposts and capital cities and even inside PvP main locations.

I, for one, NEVER go to my guild hall so I wouldnt see anything in there.

I dont PvP, or GvG!

The idea is to put the advertising is places where people cant miss it. People miss announcements either because they bypass the log in, they learn to ignore the login messages or they dont check websites 24/7.

All areas that they dont NEED to go to or look at.

The advertising needs to be in areas which they CANT miss it.

i dont pvp of gvg either

So basicly, main towns ..
LA, Kaineng and kamzors.. maybe a small notice

like..

XX event, xx Date, xx time (e.g) Dragon Festival, wotever date,
wot ever time.

when u enter the town.

or again, a sign post u can click on and tells u about upcoming events etc

OR put the info on the char selection screen? =p

or even another F button, like the new F10, maybe something like that,
press f2 (example) little window pops up with upcoming events etc =p

I have my shortcuts set-up to auto log-in. However, I know that because of this, I'll miss any special things posted at the log-in screen. So what I do is, every Wednesday when I start up Guild Wars, I hit the log out button, and see what's posted. I then quit the game and restart it. It's easy, it takes five minutes tops, and you never have to enter your password.

The easy solution is to move the anouncements box from the login screen to the character selection screen where everyone can see it.

/notsigned

Honestly, its not that hard to find out about events (or to be in a good alliance that would have officers who post this stuff in the guild annoucements). That fact is, there are TONS of districts in Shing Jea at this very moment, so it is obvious that the average player DOES hear about these events.

Town criers announcing various news were suggested many times since like ever. And that's an addition that makes a lot of sense.

/signed

Geez... just see the official page and read the scrybe!

Lazy bums...

I love how people always read the ENTIRE thread before posting and end up saying the EXACT same thing as someone else. If you want to read what I replied to them with, read above.

I visit the page once a day. You should too.

/signed for the idea of a town crier that walks through hub cities making the announcement a week or so in advance.

This is exactly right. That way nobody's screens are cluttered with announcements, autologin users don't miss announcements, and people who have to make arrangements to be online on a certain day have time to do so. Criers are easily seen, but just as easy to walk past.

Usually I catch wind of new events by word of mouth, people talking in LA or Kaineng, but this isn't very reliable. Since the announcements on the side are usually something I'm not interested, like double Balth Faction or something, I don't always read them.

Concidering all I do, all day at work, is jump on and off this website. I'm obviously on here alot more then you. I dont mean to sound bad, but I do try to keep track of what people post in any threads I take part in.

No need to skip/ignore the log-in screen. You probably still spam local chat with trade messages and get temp banned because of it too?

too many distraction in the dialog box is annoying

Alternative:
How about putting a "town Crier" NPC at every outpost/town, who ever wants to know anything talk to the NPC, I for one don't like announcements appearing in my dialogue box.

Or make use of the "Scirbe" as the town crier, put one in every town/outpost.

/signed

i missed the 1st Wintersday event because back in those days there was no scribe and events were a new thing etc. I checked Gw and its website just 3 days before the event on the day i had to go home for Christmas just incase there was an event but there was no sign of any upcoming event. I logged in after Christmas on my Mums laptop just to see what the Guild Was up to and discovered the much to my own horror i had missed the entire event (and now the helms from that event are forever my bane and are the only ones missing from my collection)

Although they have got alot better at advertising events i still think there should be some more in game advertiseing eg. a billboard or poster in each of the big towns even if its just a "Coming soon - Grenth Vs Dwayna, Wintersday 07"

What?

No I dont and never have spammed local chat, not even before they put the warnings up. But I knew about that new change, due to reading forums and checking guildwiki updates.

But you cant compare that notice on the login screen to a festival notice.

The notice about being banned for spamming is a constant. It will always be there or atleast for months. The festival and event notices only exist for a set amount of time. Usually only a few days.

The issue is if you dont see those notices within that given time, or you dont know the event is coming. You wont know to watch out for it.

Because the notices on the login screen change very rarely, you dont think to check them. But even so, we have no ADVANCE warning of events or ample enough time for events.

Double faction events for example are pretty much random and only last a weekend. We're not told their coming and we have to just notice them when they do.

All im asking is advance warning in some other form then login screens.

You might make a holiday and not play the game, long before you realise an event is happening.

I played WoW for 2 months to try it out, and I came back to find I missed 2 events because I had no idea they were coming. It wasnt on a website or on the log in screen (including the double sunspear and lightbringer weekend where most people maxed the title).

But it happened within a 2 month span! Where was the advance advertising?

/signed

not to help me as i don't auto log in, i read the notice before hand every day, i also check guildwars.com every day sometimes a few times.

This is basically a good idea, as not everyone does check everything, not everyone will know about fan forums, or the oficcial site/wiki, and these events are not alsways posted on them. if you avoid the task of logging in manually then its easy to miss this.

So I agree there should be some form of advertisment ingame, and this would have to cover the GH, PvP outposts and the towns,

How it would be implemented is up to Anet, personnaly i don't visit major towns that much i either tend to be in my GH or AB or minor towns vanquishing, so i could concievably miss advertisments in Kaineng, Lions Arch and Kamadan.

Just because some of us don't need this doesn't mean its not a good idea.
Some people need the help and flaming Freeked is not necessary. Arguing that its lazy not to go to fan forums/official sites or the log on screen is simply poor argumentation.

A better argument against this would be the time consumed to implement this as i Imagine that events being decided upon pretty close to before they are done this would invovle manually inputting some data from time to time. However to counter that they must have to manually implement the events anyway so maybe adding in some wee bit of code to advertise wouldnt be to hard

Events happen every weekend. They have for a long time now. Since you know there will be an event every weekend, you simply need to look for the info on WHAT the event will be. I notice the log-in screen change with event info on Tuesdays. Websites vary on when they post the info. Since you know it will be on Friday-Sunday, pick a day and check the places Anet already uses to announce these events.

They already announce info for events.
Events are every weekend.

Take a few minutes each week to find the info they announce.

I've never noticed there to be an event every weekend. The odd weekend maybe, but never organised.

Events seem very random to me, and my main point is that you just dont know when or if their coming. You dont know until they actually arrive. You might be out the house or have made other plans by then.

All we need is some advance warning or information ingame, to say "This event is coming on the [enter date]... come one, come all, to enjoy [enter name]!"

Even if the NPC is standing on stilts, or wearing a funny costume. Something to get your attention.

Thats not much to ask.

Its not about being lazey. Its about not knowing something is happening until a day or two before hand. By which time you might be busy having made other plans weeks before hand.

I realise Anet rushes alot of events off, to keep us on our toes or they dont realise them until the last minute. But maybe they should plan things ahead a bit more, so they can warn us in plenty of time.

Any and all information concerning events and festivals is either on a login screen that alot of people simply rush through, or on websites that people dont always read.

Even if the announcements were on the character select page. You spend ALOT more time on that page then any other.

They could simple do a Poster style thing for any event in the same point they are currently avertising the Bonus mission pack. Its big bold and colourful and fairly hard to miss. I still think they need to give a decent warning about what Event is happening and when (which isnt quite everyweekend but most weekends) the simplest of which could be just a brief "something special - coming Next weekend" if they cant commit to saying what it is.

That would do me... just something that is MORE in your face and unavoidable. A small text box doesnt catch your eyes, but a big image with icons and colours does..

as Leafblade said.. like the mission bonus pack advert (but then again, thats making Anet a profit, so thats why they make more effort to advertise that).

Yo don't have to check the page every 5 minutes. Only once a day. It only takes 10 seconds:

Add to bookmark. Check the page. No new stuff? Go to the game.

The page is there to be seen. Rules, new info, etc...

You don't want to? Ah... that's your problem, not Anet's.

What would be next? MAke the Wiki ingame too?

When I log onto my computer, I get Firefox open and click my GW.com tab everyday, I like to see what's going on, even if there's nothing on the main page I click on "Game Updates" most days to see if anything minor happened. This takes 1 min at the longest. Fish you say you enter passwords and look at websites all day so you don't want to go on GW.com and yet you most likely go on guru/wiki/whatever else when your at home anyway, can't you cut out 1 min of your guru time at work/home to check gw site. You yourself said you're on and off guru every 5 mins at work why not go on gw.com one of those times. Why make Anet implement something like you propose when you taking an action yourself can easily rectify the problem?

Because casual gamers like myself don't run over and load up the wiki or the main site as soon as we get online. In my case, it's preference, not laziness. I like to just log in and play, not make three stops first to make sure I'm not gonna miss anything neat.

If it's not advertised in-game, there are people who will miss it. Although I usually see the events on the login page or hear about them from my friends, a lot of people use autologin or expect it to be the usual "double XP for elite cap" fare.

As I've said before, the town crier set up a week or so before a major event would be awesome. NPCs walking through the square calling out get my attention. The dude in Kamadan advertising his fresh fish still catches my eye for a second. It wouldn't have to show up on your chat screen (like the guy currently advertising the battle arena; you don't see that anywhere but in his speech bubble, do you?), but he's there, he's in the major cities, and you'd be hard-pressed to miss him.

Ill back up Freekedoutfish by saying:

Anet is doing better than they have been doing with advertising but they still could do alot better, alot of people dont bother looking at forums or the official Site for that matter, they simply load up the game and play. People who do that get the least amount of warning about events and it is VERY easy to miss, thats alot more people than u think it is.

You seem to have missed one of my main points. Anet doesnt always advertise these events or festivals until they happen, or atleast only a couple of days before.

You dont usually find out until you log on and a message says "this event is happening all weekend", or the wiki says "an update was added for this event".

This means anyone who has made plans well in advance for that weekend, will miss out. Anet does sometimes give us advance warning, but not always.

And yes xmas, hallowean and easter festivals are a given.

But not all festivals and events are advertised in enough time for people to plan around it. If they just gave us advance notice of stuff which is happening, then it wouldnt be an issue.

I do check the wiki sites alot (I dont do alot at work) and obviously this one, but unless it says "In 2 weeks, an event will be happening", then I dont know its happening until its started.

I dont usually know something has been done until its in the updates list or the events section of wiki.

I might make plans in those 2 weeks for that weekend and without realising, miss that event. People do have lives outside the game, and its not always easy to balance the two out if we dont know whats going to occur ingame.

I accept I could just turn off my auto-login, but as I say.. I enter 100 passwords a day and at home. Its not my fault if I want to bypass that process just once.

I play GW every night nearly, and I want to give myself a break from entering the odd password.

But I dont quite understand why notices are on the login screen anyway. I would expect most people spend more time on the character screen.

A good example is HUGE advert for the mission pack.

I logged in last week and I saw that and instantly drawn to it. That is correct advertising to grab your attention. That is how you inform people of stuff and make them notice it.

Small bulletins on the login screen dont grab your attention, they can blure into the background as you login.

Is it too much to ask that Anet add icons like that onto the character screen, which grab your attention when they do events?

/Signed

I always check the news box at login to see if there are any events. Usually just a quick glance to see what it is (whoo hoo! double gladiator points, I can miss that) then I don't pay attention to it for the rest of the week until they update it with next weekends event. I check GW.com every couple of days just to see if there's anything of interest.

However, there are still people in Shing Jea asking how to get a hat, and it strikes me that they weren't properly informed about the event in the first place. I myself checked the GW website a lot becuase I was excited about an event like Dragon Fest, but I can easily see how a vast majority of players never even visit the website for one reason or another.

One of the things that's always bothered me is a lack of explanation unless you actually do visit the website. Perhaps what might be best would be a general festivities NPC, that would make your hats, make your fireworks, and would answer general FAQ's, such as: When exactly does the Emporer come next? Why every two hours starting at 2am sir! How many tokens do I need? 250 shiney new victory tokens! Why is everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off grabbing and shoving to get these celestial charges? So that you can collect as many as you possibly can to defeat the actors! Why is that man over there is looking at me funny? He's gay! General things like that. And to add to that, an inocuous timer at the top part of the interface that says when the event starts, when the event NPC is coming next, things of that nature. And when you mouse over the timer, it would come up with a little bubble saying "1:06 hours left until the Emperor comes to Shing Jea!" When there is no event, there is no timer. So when it pops up, people would automatically wonder what it is and what it's about, and mouse over it to see.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there some event(day of the tengu maybe) where you got a message in the general chat like: "??? arrives in Shing Jae in 15 minutes" because I remember leaving parties for this event.

Any one else remembers this?