Pumpkin Crowns: the good, the bad

it's for show

The pumpkin crown doesn't have an armor level. It can also be infused.

@Mercury Angel : and to the person who thought he had to check every 15 minutes in LA to see the mad king - the king appears are scheduled times: 3:00pm, 6:00pm, 9:00pm EST, etc. So it's not really a mystery. That's how everyone knew to expect him.

Just for show. And it is customized, so the economy won't be ruined by it.

Use a ghost in a battle. The enemies target it. Just thought I'd share that.

Great job by the GW team IMO. The Pumpkin heads are great fun, especially when your mesmerising the lower levels at Ascalon City with it.

*golf claps for the whole GW team*

At first I didn't think it would matter if Halloween items went up in value, but after thinking it over I'm not so sure.

Let's assume halloween items are worth 1M each and people buy / sell them for that much. Now at the moment only rich players can would be able to afford them, but what happens to the money? It's passed down to less rich players who then spend it on everyday stuff like common materials, runes, dyes, etc. What's the end result? Everyday stuff gets expensive.

Imagine if woodplanks cost 1k per bundle, black dyes cost 80k, major vigor costs 40k. As long as people buy from traders more than they sell, it continues to drive up prices.

Now that black dyes are 80k, no one sells them to trader anymore but to other players which doesn't help deflate the prices. What happens to the new players who buy the game and enter post-searing? Well they didn't have any witches brew so they're SOL and have to hope for a dye drop or endlessly farm materials to have any sort of buying power.

Ah, but where's that listed?
I heard second hand from a person in-game, and even then, nobody was exactly sure what time zone would be used for the US servers until the first such event.

What I wanted was for the actual site to list it, taking out any need for guesswork.

Normally, I remain in International districts, and leave Talk off except for when absolutely necessary, as most of the spam is pure and utter trash I'd rather not read.
However, it was pure luck that I happened to leave talk on while stopping in LA with a friend to get some screencaps together for the Holiday event, when I happened upon a Korean server native in the international districts who was wearing a pumpkin head, and he filled us in.

The only other potential way I would have found out is through GuildWars Guru, albeit I almost certainly would have.

However, I'm thinking of all of the people who, even tonight at the midnight showing, STILL weren't familiar with the procedure and when he'd show up.

Nah. It wouldnt go up that much. It might go up a bit, but eventually would come back down to normal.

Words can't describe how much I appreciated this event

When I first got on and saw all the halloween changes I was filled with joy. It hadn't crossed my mind that anything this big would happen. Guild Wars has certainly occupied my time this week!

As for the Mad King.. I was super excited when he came. I knew that he would be coming at noon so I was up and about waiting for him. I thought that the event went well. I had to turn local chat off because the vocal majority liked being stupid. After doing it 4 times there are moments when I still get excited and then there are moments when It's sort of boring. I would like to say kudos to the Arenanet team..I'm definetly looking forward to future events ( Thanksgiving - hopefully Christmas - Really hopeful Saint Patricks Day - I can see it now! ) a request for christmas item??? how about a santa costume designed for females and males.

Thank you so much for making me feel like a boy again Anet!

Yeah but nobody is going to care about a witches brew down the line, or any of the items for that matter, so nobody is oging to be buying them for an ecto per or anything like that.

The trader price floats with the price that traders who use in game chats. Probably over 80% of all people use the traders just because buying and selling with real people really sucks. Which means that if the price on common items did rise, it would still reach a peak from multitudes of people selling back those common drops at inflated prices.

I dont really think it matters what happens.

The economy will look after itself

Even in RS the economy remains balanced apart froma few dumb items.

But hey, look at the RW.... i mean faberge eggs?? .. WTF

Old star wars figures?????????????

Many many more examples im sure u can think of some....... and yes i know the RW (real world) economy sucks.. but it allways has sucked... since the begining of time... Star wars figures and faberge eggs dont make it suck any less.

A thriving economy needs balance. high priced goods, and low.. that is the centeral issue.

However predicting how people will react to events and changes, and therfore whether these items will become high or low priced is allways difficult. Trying to "pre-empt" these predicted responces can sometimes cause more problems than you expect.

I promise you Anet will be monitoring the situation... and.... if they feel things get out of hand i think we may well see some kind of halloween sink pop up..... (i wont suggest one here).


However for the meantime, the best responce is probably to sit back, mix some witches brew and absinthe, and have a nice relaxing out of body experiance.

after getting the first crown... i decided that i had to get 2 more for my other 2 rp chars... so here's a pic
thanks alot anet... it was a entertaining halloween

Huh? Is that true you can put sup. runes into the crown?? I'll try that tonight...if so I'll solo UW with a pumpkin rofl.

Still, it doenst have the normal +1 attribute from your scar-pattern

No dis-respect mate... but Guildwars guru had a post up explaining everything from very early in the morning. Its no-ones fault but your own that you couldnt be botherd doing 5 minutes worth of reading.

And also, your wrong to score down just because they didnt tell you exactly where and when, in fact... this should be scored UP.. the excitment of the unknown is a very powerfull. Only impatient kids who demand everything on a plate complain about having to wait.

Leave a suprise left in your life.

I had thought (on another thread and/or topic)
Halloween Items are going to stay for a while.
Many of them are actually very useful, like the ghost in the box for agro and soul reaping.

I don't think that the devs would be stupid and/or careless enough to put festive items with actual *properties* and remove them from the game afterwards.

As all of you have mentioned it would de-balance the economy in-game.
I think they are here to stay.

I happened to like the event. I got a good laugh and actually had fun in
town, 2 things that are becoming a rarity these days.

On a side note, does anyone know if the pumpkin can be dyed?

I cant understand why the hell you would buy a piece of equipment such as the Pumpkin Crown if you cant even wear it.

nop i tried

I guess I would have enjoyed it more if I was 12 Not bad though, just not what I was hoping it would be. I guess hearing about the undead Gwen in the early development of the game had me set my standards too high.

My favorite part of the experience was the hilarity that ensued around the mad king. The people that would ROFL, LMAO, LOL, and HAHA NOOB it up when the mad king killed someone. There was nothing more funny in my opinion than being called a noob or hearing someone else get called a noob for dying. I heard some good stuff on the local chat. One of my favorites was when the king killed a bunch of "noobs" someone typed ROFLWAFFLE NOOBS that one made my laugh for no apparent reason.

The other thing was waiting for the king and the conversations on the local chat were just hilarious. There was one dist. that had a poliotical debate going, which was ended with "NOOB LIBERALS" being typed in the chat LOL! funniest thing I heard in a while. And for ONCE in Lions Arch the trade channel was SILENT. Very fun night. Lots of laughs and noob calling. I loved it.

instead of giving away the holloween items i thought they should have had a special mission. just have it be all day in lions arch a specail holloween mission were at the end you fought the king and his gaurds or something. just give away 1,000 exp and have a small bonus thing worth 1,000 exp. then there would be no prob with the holloween items messing up the ecomomy. what do yall thing. maybe at christmas we can fight santa lol.

Ok, anyone that's played this game for more than a few months should remember the price hike with black dyes. They all went up from 13k to about 30-40k. Correct me if i'm wrong. ANET saw this and changed the programming for the dye trader to keep prices reasonable. That's why you won't see the dye trader with black dye for more than 8.5-9k. The same thing will happen with crafting materials and the like, IF anything of the sort happens. Also, common crafting materials are just that, COMMON, their prices won't rise. If anything price related gets out of hand, ANET will fix their traders. Only problem now is people selling 15>50 items for rediculous amounts.

I was saddened to see the number of "children" who were screaming at the scripted King to hand over a pumpkin. It was truly shocking, especially in one or two of the English districts!

Give me my F* pumpkin you F* B* ....

Honestly, there was so much nastiness and profanity i literally had to tell them to watch their language....not that it helped much.

There was also the usual spoiled and ungrateful minority who would say things such as "Is this it? F* this i'm leaving!"

On a more positive note:

One time i finished escorting two peeps from Nolani to LA and we walked right into international 2 and i noticed Isaiah Cartwright (ArenaNet skill guy) at the front of a really large train of people and that made me laugh.
He was teasing folks about the arrival of the king (as if he could make him appear when he wished) and he pretty much had everyone wrapped around his little finger!
The chat was filled with "Pleeeeaaasssseee!"

All that for a pumpkin! If only they had a bit of armour on them or could be worn "over" your normal helm.

So the "Mad King Says" game was corny...what of it? I had fun and got some pretty cool items in the process.

The "Mad King Says" game was RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing excellent.Seeing people do the emotes that he didnt say "Mad King Says" and seeing them go WTF? was hilarious.

Last night was just awesome, although I was a little disappointed that you couldnt take the MAd King guards with you to other zones. I SOOOOO BADLY wanted to run them to Thunderhead keep and beat that mission to get a screenshot of a giant candy corn golem in the party at the cutscene. I think that would have been PRICELESS!

After reading the discussion on the various Halloween topics I would like to first say that I am glad they did it. Having side events is part of what makes these games fun and interesting but I guess it is just a matter of personal opinion.

2nd Has anyone actually purchased or traded a large some of gold or items for a Halloween Item?? Or has anyone sold one for a large amount. It seems a lot of people say it will sell for alot or that it will fade out but no one has quoted an experience that I have found. I ask because I kept seeing a player offering 1 of each of the 4 halloween items for 10k. Please respond if you have had any experience with this.

Thank you devs...

GW is my first game in the RPG world.


I was in Droks Forge when the update with the first changes occurred, and when I signed in again, I was gasping and giggling in delight. I explored everything, took SO many screenshots and enjoyed how beautiful everything looked. The details in the shadows when standing under the spooky moon at droks, with the candle-lit headstones.. amazing. The Corpse of Krytan that talks to you when you stand/walk on him had me laughing, as well as the bone dragon and Charr Krytan.

I found information on the Mad King arrival easy to obtain, it is, afterall, the age of information at your fingertips.

The wait was fun. Of course the immaturity in local chat was dismaying, but in one district it somehow became the Monty Python Sing-a-long and I had SO much fun. It was a community of gamers at that point.

Thank you for giving me fun things to discover in the little corners, and thank you for making me laugh and feel like a kid again!

As for the pumpkin head, my guildies and I were having fun taking squash serum, putting on the pumpkin heads, and letting the serum wear off – to the amazement of noobs. THAT caused quite an uproar. I wish they were salvageable for plant fibers or something… but I’m glad that they can’t be sold. I’m sure in 6 months someone will sell the Halloween items for ridiculous plat, but poo on the silly ones who buy them. I plan on hanging on to my ghost boxes just because I’m really fond of them. If they come back again next year, then great, I will replenish my supply.

As consumers in the GW economy, we have the power, and the responsibility to keep prices reasonable. I wouldn’t worry too much. The devs seem to know what they are doing.

I read somewhere that Gail Grey said something about the Halloween Items not going away after halloween.

That event was hysterical. I was laughing uncontrollably at some of the stuff that was being spammed in local chat The funniest moment is when the King Randomly called someone for Paper Rock Scissors who had a vulgar name. Or the people who didnt realize that the king was a script and kept asking him questions.

Unfortuantly, I never seen so many F words... and Racist words spammed in a local chat ever. I wonder how many people got their accounts suspended last night?

Ditto.

Ditto.

I live some distance from my son - this event allowed us to partake in a bit of Halloween festivities together despite the miles between us. Yeah, a pumpkin hat may not be much to some; but to others - the experience meant so much more...

Thanks Anet!

The rampant racism and childish level of humor displayed by the crowd disgusted me, and only by muting common chat was I able to enjoy the rather amusing little show the king put on. And for the record, my rock beat his scissors. Rock FTW.

I have to also share my amusement and disappointment in the players on these forums for their fear that the items are going to ruin the economy of the game. I thought most of the people here were a little more intelligent, or at least more intellectually dedicated to the game, than the players who spam LA selling purple's and calling other sellers 'ghea'. He said he'd be back next year. There's your solution. RIGHT THERE. He said it fifteen frigging times. If he, and his items, return every year... there's no real economy for the items beyond a small boost six months from now. Someone in my guild has almost his entire inventory filled with 250's of the ghost-in-a-box's, and I laugh. My 50ish will keep me amused until next year. Or christmas. Or whatever.

He'll be back. So will his absinthe. Mmmmm... Absinthe.

best halloween evar since 3 years ago.

I was simply amazed at the amount of interaction available during this event from NPC's. While I agree the Mad King went on a little long because he started repeating himself, it was a GREAT event and a lot of fun, especially Mad King Says. (and I LOVED hearing the Mad King laughter after each event.)

The Pumpkin Helms are pretty cool. I do wish they had an armor level but I can understand why they don't. If we get more clothing options for in-town and out-of-town for Chapter 2, I can see non-armor stuff becoming more popular.

The graphical artwork was simply amazing. Each town was so much fun to just explore and see what it all looked like. And the graphics were top-notch, as was the sound and music.

Personally, if this is the caliber of events we can look forward to in the future again, I'm very excited!

The Mad King actually call on me to play Rock Paper Scissors and i beat him! and whats so funny is people type in local chat "Cheater".

It funny how the Mad King slay you if you type in the emote too late or too slow. I actually died twice for typing the wrong things in chat. But overall, i like this even and got two pumpkin head and bunch of Halloween items. Can't wait for Christmas or any holiday!

I'm assuming you didn't read the later post, and you're rather... sure of yourself.
I'm 'wrong' in an opinion? You're telling me how I should score? o_O
Then you go on to make a sweeping generalization for anyone who disagrees?

I wait many times in life, particularly since I became an adult and started having to deal with beauracracy personally, instead of having my father handle things. Last time I was at the Department of Public Safety to renew my license, I waited in a line for over 2 hours.

I'm a very patient person and I buckle down for what I have to do.

However, that doesn't mean I have to LIKE it.

Aside from that, I don't make demands, I make suggestions for what would make something more enjoyable for myself.

Personally, I'm mildly autistic (higher functioning end of the spectrum, wasn't until recently that I was diagnosed). Surprises aren't generally enjoyable for me. I like to have a structured life, taking things into my own hands and organizing them such that they fall into place.
I'm also not the only autistic person in the world, nor the only autistic gamer. Autism rates are also on the climb (whether the actual incidence is going up, or the ability to diagnose is questionable). That doesn't mean the game should be adapted to what works best for such people, what it means is that your opinion is NOT the only valid one.

I personally think your post was very thoughtless, and were I of a similar mind, I could say that only children fail to be able to consider alternative perspective. But I'm not, so I won't. I'll just assume you had a moment where you forgot that constructive criticism and varying perspectives exist.

I wrote my original post with multiple perspectives in mind-
Those of us who are busy, or dislike waiting around needlessly to enjoy ourselves.
Those of us who are less well connected (you got the guru post, but what about Koreans? If what I assume is correct, we got our information on the Mad King's appearance and how he works from the Koreans. Where did they get the information then?)
Those of use who are impatient (There were plenty of people who didn't care for emoting on command and just wanted a pumpkin head.)

I enjoyed the event overall, I think you failed to realize that. However, just because I did so doesn't mean I didn't think I could have enjoyed it more, and so I wrote everything out as such.

Now, no disrespect to you, but I think you really need to reconsider that other people don't necessarily agree, and it doesn't automatically mean they're wrong. Particularly when it comes in terms of their own opinion about whether they enjoyed something or not.

It won't ruin the economy.

Why?

The mad king returns next year. Thus it was said, thus it shall be. Honestly, that's how it should be- maybe with a few changes, but other than that, yes.

I enjoyed my second visit with the mad king exactly as much as I did my first one. I loved it. =) It's a nice kind of interaction that isn't "BEAT UP THE MONSTER".

I was also amused by the people shouting "LET'S TAKE THIS OUTSIDE, YOU COWARD!"

I believe that the in-play effects like the soul-reaping were unintentional; and while the items may or may not go away I think their effects, other than the purely entertaining/visual, will be removed.


Exactly! I'd like to see more scripts of this variety; though they obviously put alot of effort into the king script, it was very well done. And, if you turn off general chat you actually got to enjoy the event, sans the king-bashing comments...though the constant "n00b" bubbles when people would die was somewhat humorous.

Best part about the Pumpkin Heads was that, after talking to the King, five of us went and did Final Assault wearing them.

Taking a head shot in Sorrow's Furnace while wearing a pumpkin head hurts a lot!

it was only 1 day....and i had class and work

(i wanted that helmet)