A Critique of the Anniversary Finale-Syntax-4/02/06

**TPaine**

First off, thanks are in order to the Devs who obviously put in a lot of work designing the new textures, objects, etc that made this event possible. The new actions on the searchlights were very cool, and the Security personnel were the toughest mobs I've ever encountered.

I believe I speak for the majority of players when I say the final day of this event was a letdown. After a sublimely crafted buildup involving all our favorite LET characters, what we ended up with was a 6+ hour marathon of killing mobs, without even a differentiated finale. We spent hours and hours killing the Security and shutting down the spotlights, only to have them reconstruct and reactivate. Some of us discussed in vain what clue we could be overlooking, what clever action would finally end the cycle. Then, without any prompting or explanation, the Architect tells us that this time when we shut down the spotlights, it will somehow end the scourge of the Sleepwalkers. Oh and by the way, the Security won't reconstruct anymore either, just for convenience’s sake.

There was no thought involved, no requirement except that we once more do the job we'd been doing for the past six hours. No player or group of players precipitated the end by their actions, it just happened at a specified time. Events should be more than just an endurance test without a point. None of our work for the majority of the event meant anything. We could've just hung out at Mara until the Architect decided it was time for the Security to not reconstruct anymore.

Feel free to post your thoughts on this event, but please keep your comments intelligent and don't let this devolve into a flame war.

ShadowMavrick

I say it hasnt ended yet when I jacked out the sky was cloudy and every thing had a "blue" tint to it....Odd just yesterday it was the opposite....I smell something coming tommorow.

**B3AR**

I'm not going to beat around the bush. This event was over all the worst! The event was designed for high levels only. I am a level 33 and i couldnt do anything. I was mowed down by any Sleepwalkers and didnt have a chance to do anything. There should have been for LET involvment. Then at the end of the event the secruity staff shows up and are like, "What happend?". After a mob chased the staff we all went back to a concert site and watched the screen hoping for a moive or somthing. This event was a waste and hope the next will be twice as good. Oh, and dont forget about us low levels.

**timeframe01**

I was at church during the finale. I was able to get up to a few spotlights and mess with them before being torn apart by logic cannons doing around 2000 damage. It was my first event so I thought it was pretty good, altho I thought more variety was needed towards the end.

Why, just why did they have to put it on a Sunday?

shadows_of_pain

Ya i liked the premise of the event, But the "final" fight was way to drawn out. and like a few people have been saying there was little or nothing for lower lvls like me (lvl 36) to do. i ended up loading patcher and rezzing and healing people for a few hours before jacking out and doing some house work.

**Jediken**

dang... so very very true...

FrayJack

TPaine wrote:
First off, thanks are in order to the Devs who obviously put in a lot of work designing the new textures, objects, etc that made this event possible. The new actions on the searchlights were very cool, and the Security personnel were the toughest mobs I've ever encountered.

I believe I speak for the majority of players when I say the final day of this event was a letdown. After a sublimely crafted buildup involving all our favorite LET characters, what we ended up with was a 6+ hour marathon of killing mobs, without even a differentiated finale. We spent hours and hours killing the Security and shutting down the spotlights, only to have them reconstruct and reactivate. Some of us discussed in vain what clue we could be overlooking, what clever action would finally end the cycle. Then, without any prompting or explanation, the Architect tells us that this time when we shut down the spotlights, it will somehow end the scourge of the Sleepwalkers. Oh and by the way, the Security won't reconstruct anymore either, just for convenience’s sake.

There was no thought involved, no requirement except that we once more do the job we'd been doing for the past six hours. No player or group of players precipitated the end by their actions, it just happened at a specified time. Events should be more than just an endurance test without a point. None of our work for the majority of the event meant anything. We could've just hung out at Mara until the Architect decided it was time for the Security to not reconstruct anymore.

Feel free to post your thoughts on this event, but please keep your comments intelligent and don't let this devolve into a flame war.

I'm with you on this. It was going so beautifuly, and the Syntax cypherite leisons really gave me the opening for the show. LETs arent about constant mob killing and repition, its about a story where things that werent so obvious that you just overlooked before seem to jump out and become the key item for the final day.

Sadly, there was nothing like this. Things came close, but nothing that made you slap yourself and say "How could you miss that!". The times were really good, especially since lots of the EU players in my faction were on. Next time, give us a knockout story, one that doesnt require doing the same thing for 6 hours as a climax!

**CPT_Starschwar**

I agree with everything tpaine said. The Buildup was better than the event... and six hours of smashing lights and fighting security was just plain silly. I'd rather have had an actual concert... (we want Cryptos to sing the blues!)

Zelon

If you guys remember me from the Trial I would have to say that the trial was a better event than this. I know that some of us low levels were mad a bout the Trial ending because we couldnt kill the corrupt but at least I felt like I was defending the matrix. In this event it seemed to me like I was just killing regular spawns of Blue Tinted Cypherites that were some how blue pills that were given super powers.

I missed the whole Death of the Destroyer event when it occured because I had to go to my church and even that event was better than this. I have to say though there was defenatly more LET action in the RPing like Mr. Meter and the other guys but I mean couldnt we have fought some lvl 255 guy that could only be defeated by having something special being used or maybe like in end of beta have instead of redpills, the Blue pills on the street disapper and be replaced by sleep walkers, that would be more of an RP element since someone told me SWs are Blues.

ONe thing I want Rarebit and Walrus to know is. Go the extra mile, bring more to us and think out of the same box/ template you have been using for most live events or at least modify them to seem fresher. With the security shirts that you needed blue frags for I killed as mainy spawns as I could get but nothing dropped, I dont even know how my friends got them, I tried standing away from lvl 50s but every where I went one was by. Most I applaued for not stealling my spawns but still there were people killing them and stealing them.

I was sick after the first hour because I didnt know what the hell I was doing. SOme one kept asking about lights being on and every light I came up to was smashed. I aslo waited for the end, were people thoguht Seraph or soemthing on a screen was going to pop up. I even went to club hel to see if Flood or someone was planing to party. Right now I definetly feel like MXO is turning into a multiplayer game, instead of an MMORPG, when I was out there I didnt see any of the other LET charactors fighting to keep the peace in the matrix. Just to point out, heros should try and stop the world from being taken over, not just stand around and flirt.

(PS sorry for the rant)

Advisary

Well I played pretty much all day hoping that things would escalate. I managed to raise a level just by aiding in the killing of level of 50 sleepwalkers. Still I was left with a level 18 character by the end of it and didnt even see a blue frag until the architect announced it was time to mess with the lights. I was a bit disappointed to find that my anxious anticipation of a "live" event only resulted in just the repeated killing of NPCs that only 50th lvl characters could fight. Me being level 18, I had no chance of getting any of the security shirts or other gear which required blue frags. There were sleepwalkers at my level and some which were below but overall every NPC was at least level 50.

I can understand that you may have wanted to do an event for higher level characters so that you could give people with fully developed characters a chance for something new to work for. If that was your goal then you did a good job.

This event was clearly unfair for those of us at lower levels. For those at higher levels, it offered only one goal, getting new clothing.

The props were good, the clothes were neat and the thing with the lights was interesting but it wasn't enough for how the event was advertised.

The biggest problem that this event had was it's design. Having everyone meet at a few locations put more stress on the servers than was expected. This resulted in lower than average framerates for everyone. For people like myself who have played on a 56k, it didn't bother me. For others, it ruined the event. There were times were there must have been at least 30 people and just as many sleep walkers on the screen at once. Combine this with people using area affects and it really got rough. Things almost halted, games crashed and people complained.

Sometimes these areas became so congested that hardlines became unusable near them. I think that a better idea might be to have an event which does not require such a large group of people to accomplish the objectives. Or if it does, make sure that it is somewhere inside, such as an exhile hideout.

This event was an anniversary event. As you know, anniversary events get better with each progressive year. There are topics started about people who were upset by this event and how they are either going to cancel their subscription or how they feel that this event was the worst. What you have to remember is that while these people are the most vocal, they are not in the majority.

Personally, I was excited about the idea of getting the security clothes. Being a low level character I didn't have much of a chance of this. For that reason alone I felt like a bit of an outsider in this event but I still had fun. This event brought out a lot of people and I got the chance to talk to a lot of people I'd never met before. It was fun just because of that. Even though I was killing the same NPCs over and over again just being there with the rest of the community is what I think made the event fun.

I'm not sure what to say as to how to make the next event better. One thing is to have an event which both higher and lower level players can participate in. Having different constructs for each for the live event wouldn't be a bad idea. It would reduce the lag a bit and give an explanation for the forced pvp(which made targeting sleepwalkers difficult).