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Q u o t e:


It's not as rare as you make it out to be, provided an individual does it the average times per day (5) over the course of the event. That said, based on that metric, the A Mask For All Occasions is far, far more difficult to get probability-wise, hence why it is not a part of the meta-achievement. There's a line, essentially. The mask achievement was over that line, whereas Sinister Calling is not.

EDIT: Ooglop, the Horseman's mount is ten times as rare as the Squashling, in terms of pure numbers. You've just had a very strange run of personal luck.

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Why not keep the pet as rare as last year, but remove the daily limit to this.


The big error you guys have done with this is before I played like a madman to get the pet because, well, I like pets. I also like fun holiday stuff as evidenced by my bank(freed up 50 bag slots with the patch, WTB holiday clothing storage!). But now with the addition of this achievement, you've basically made the holiday completely unfun. The GNERD achievement was hysterical. The Southshore one was fun though waiting til 4am so I could do it and still getting two shot by one of the dozen retadins camping the town put a damper on that. But this I still think is too overboard. You could've easily left the pet as rare as it was last year, but add a bunch of other stuff to the achievement slot(list of his loot, gather at least 6 different types). But you've almost kind of cheapened the pet by making people act this way to get it just for a title/drake, ya know? It also really makes me worried that if you like the idea of randomness and not everyone completing it next year, that nothing will really be added to the event at all next year as there won't be an achievement associated with it. Have you guys given any thought to that at all with this system?

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Q u o t e:
The biggest failures are the people saying "Achievements are supposed to be hard!"

I guess they must be talking about the achievement you get for reaching level 10, or getting all your bank slots, or maxing out a profession, or catching 10 fish, or completing 5 dailies.

FAIL

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They shouldn't be "hard" but they shouldn't be "no effort no luck now gimme my loots" so that EVERYONE can get it. At least not for all of the achievements.

Sure, there are some free ones that you'll get just by playing, and fun ones like the Leeeeeeroy one. Others, not so simple. I like this personally, I know I'll never achieve the arena pvp title so should they nerf it because I want it?

I just dunno, I have no problem doing this as many times a day as I can and somewhere down the line eventually get it. I however have a problem with doing this as many times a day as I can and not getting it. Just kinda lookin gloom when ppl are offering everyone in the group 300g not to roll on it, and the griefing going on screwing other players over. Not making this event very enjoyable.

I just don't see how Blizzard can think this is fair to their playerbase at all. I killed the Brewfest dude ever single day 5+ times(my friends have multiple alts that we use) and never once saw the Kodo. So now we're working our collective asses off with even MORE alts yet we've still seen 1 Squashling, 0 helms, and 0 mounts. Seriously Blizzard I don't see how you think this is fine. We're putting in so much effort but at the end of the event at best ONE of us will have both squashling and helm even though we all put in the same work.

edit: As for the one of us getting it, yea and thats if we're lucky.

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Q u o t e:
Yes, we've been talking about achievements in world events moving forward as well. We're not ignoring the future.

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Well, what would happen next year? If you plan to keep this title somewhat rare, it would mean that players have to be able to earn it in the future, otherwise it would be a feat of strength in accordance with the rules you guys have started. Is the general plan for when next brewfest rolls round to have another list of achievements, meaning that each event would have to be almost multi-tiered to complete, but that would be really complicated and might make the holidays too busy.


I do realize this is another problem you guys do have to deal with, and probably the reason for the inconsistency here(how some holidays are easily completed just by participating in them while others are completely dependent on the games LOLRNG system. If you make an event too easy to complete, well then the person gets what they want, and have little to no desire to do the event next year on the same character. On the flip-side, you have to figure out a way to add new stuff to the achievements currently in without breaking something(imagine if someone got the title and/or mount and had it taken away the next year because something was added, meta-achievement wise).


I'm kind of torn on this whole achievement thing, truth be told. I enjoyed doing everything I could in every holiday that came around, simply because it was a change of pace. But now with this little check-list of things I can do, it's like I HAVE to do them, ya know? And even if I summoned the boss 5 times a day every day of the event, there's a real chance I'd never even see the pet or helmet, and even if I did, I'd have to win the roll as the odds of seeing the item 5 times with the same group 5 times a day is extremely low. Did you guys take that into account when you came up with the magical % for this? I do understand you had to do SOMETHING if you wanted titles to mean something or whatever, but man, working my ass off on holiday content and then not getting the pot at the end of the rainbow? That kinda would make me not want to do it next year anyway, or any of the holidays ever again really. The change of pace is great, but if I wanted to fight and wrestle with this game's archaic RNG system for rewards, I'd healbot another raid or instance.



Ultimately, I appreciate the spirit in which these were probably done, but overall they're just diminishing my enjoyment of the holidays themselves. Something that brings out the worst in the player base is not something to strive for with holiday content. :\

Blizzard this is what you've done to us :(

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f245/buckman341/zomghorsemen.jpg

Roughly 50-60 summons in one night using tons of people in our guild and their alts which was done around the daily reset so we could do it twice.

Squashlings - 1
New swords - 2
hallowed hats - 6-8
no mount!

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Q u o t e:
I just dunno, I have no problem doing this as many times a day as I can and somewhere down the line eventually get it. I however have a problem with doing this as many times a day as I can and not getting it. Just kinda lookin gloom when ppl are offering everyone in the group 300g not to roll on it, and the griefing going on screwing other players over. Not making this event very enjoyable.

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QFT, a friend was mentioning yesterday how he got into a HHM group where a group member was pleading and begging, offering to pay, offering to keep running with everyone with his mains and alts if they let him have the pet and helm first. At the end of the run, neither the pet and the helm drop and he was very near to exploding. My friend kinda felt sorry for the guy and promised to run with him today again for the pet. In the end, it was not a very pleasant mood in the air.

I understand it's all about choice and all, but I feel that if a player is dedicated enough to stay with Blizzard for another year or two(If they had missed brewfest member), doing all the quests involved, he/she should be entitled to the proto-drake. I am not saying it's a free hand-out, but isn't this a fitting reward for customer loyalty? For hanging out and staying on? Rather than gripping on a RNG item? That the player might not even want if not for the drake and title?

I don't know much about game design, but some how this just feels wrong.

Can someone explain to me why it is worth it to stick to their guns on this one? I don't understand the problem with giving the people what they want.

Fun achievements > RNG

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Q u o t e:
Can someone explain to me why it is worth it to stick to their guns on this one? I don't understand the problem with giving the people what they want.

Fun achievements > RNG

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Your math is wrong.

Reward from more rare achievements > Reward from 100% guaranteed achievement

EDIT: in my opinion

There's no point in complaining anymore, they obviously don't care. We've been trying since Brewfest and they say the same thing.

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Q u o t e:


Your math is wrong.

Reward from more rare achievements > Reward from 100% guaranteed achievement

EDIT: in my opinion

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But that is just it, it is not really an "achievement." All you did was get luckier than the majority of people to have it drop and then lucky again to win the roll.

Unless you say it was an achievement that you managed to actually hit the greed/need button when you pointed at it with your mouse, how is this an achievement.

Unless you somehow cheated and used a cheat program to make it drop, you did nothing more special to get it then most of the other people who will have done it far more times by the end of it than those who already have one.

When you kill him over 300-400 times, I will say you at least achieved something beyond pure luck (something out of a player's control).

Which brings me to another point, why is there an Achievement to kill the Headless Horseman if we have to kill him OVER 9000!!!! times for the pet/mount/whatever?

Personally, I feel there were really two ways to go with both the Meta and Hollow achievement and keeping them rare over all. One is to build into it a system of chance to statistically create a rare system. The second is the more difficult solution of creating a unique challenging list of achievements that few skilled and dedicated players will be able to complete while to more casual players the task will be simply too daunting. With the Squashling you chose the former. This said, an example of the latter would be the Brew of the Month club building in dedication through patience. Examples that people gave of killing the horseman X number of times would also show dedication. Killing the Horseman before he spawns his own squashlings (not sure if this is possible via the script of the battle) would be an example of skill. Lets face it, the horseman is not hard to kill. If I could summon him as many time as I wanted, I'd be able to have everything he drops in under a day of farming. Simply placing a drop rate on an item is the easy way out to create a rare achievement. I know you guys can think of something more creative than this; I've seen it in the past.

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Q u o t e:
Yes, we've been talking about achievements in world events moving forward as well. We're not ignoring the future.

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Have you been talking about how Brew of the Year is completely unfair for people who didn't do it this year, in regards to completing 'What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been'?

I have to agree that playing the RNG for titles and achievements is a bit...off. However, I think that the droprate on the Squashling is high enough to allow players to get it if you run HH daily and with a crew of people that you

1 trust
2 know have alts who can help.

I saw the Squashling drop twice in a row on monday afternoon. Granted, that's only a fraction of the times I've seen the hat drop, but two of us got the pet in one run. Not bad. Also, consider that there's still..what? Ten days left to do this? The odds of getting a squashling aren't HORRIBLE, particularly if, like I said, you run with a crew that you trust and has alts that will help. It's also good to run with the SAME group every time, since as you each get the pet or hat, your own chances for getting one increase as well.

Look on the upside: the 20-mask acheievement no longer counts towards the title, which is a huge load off the backs of anyone trying to become known as The Hallowed.

In closing, I'd like to say that the removal of the 20 masks requirement is going live during maintenance this morning, as I would really like to log in later today with a new title. Here's hoping.