Will they move Wintersday this year?

Will they move Wintersday to an new capital city or different location this year because Festival of four winds has a permanent home in crown pavilion? that would be 3 festivals now in that one location. I think it's time to move! :D Anyone have thoughts on this?

I agree it would be better for it to be somewhere else. Lion's Arch seems like the logical choice to me since it's a multi-racial festival and LA is the main city anyway.

But I think it's unlikely because they'd have to basically re-build the festival. Sure the instanced parts like the jumping puzzle and the snowball fight could stay the same (probably, but you never know with games, moving the entrance might break 3 other things) but everything that's currently in the map would need to be re-done. Obviously they are capable of doing that since they built it to begin with and moved it at least once, but it would mean taking all the people who are working on it off of other things and therefore slowing down other releases. I'm not sure Anet would consider it worthwhile for a fairly minimal change.

@Kelly.7019 said:Anyone have thoughts on this?

Believe it or not, there was a time when Wintersday was held in Lion's Arch. But ever since the destruction of the city and before it was reconstructed, the event is held within Divinity's Reach. The reason why the Crown Pavilion is where all of the game modes are placed is because they are all within reach and don't require you to travel from one part of the city to another.

I always thought Wintersday should either 1)move around like it did the first two(?) years, 2)take place in Hoelbrak because of snow or 3)take place in Rata Sum because of Tixx.

Out of these 1 or 2 would be my favorites because Rata Sum has the SAB festival. Lions Arch has Halloween and The Festival of the four Winds, should it stay tied in with the crown pavillion, is mostly centered around Divinity's Reach. But as Dani said, Halloween and Wintersday are basically on autoplay by now. Sure they'll make some additions here and there, fix a few things and keep the events updated with the story if needed, but I doubt they'd relocate a festival.

You have Halloween. Let us humans have Wintersday :)

If ANet is going to spend the energy decorating a city for a festival, I'd rather it be either for a new festival or to extend the content of existing festivals. Moving e.g. Wintersday to Hoelbrak just to give that city a special occasion seems a waste of resources and opportunity.

In particular, I'd prefer to see another spring event, to either coincide with SAB (which only appeals to a minority of players) or to better bridge the gap between the end of Lunar New Year and the start of FotFW.

Wintersday moving around the capitals like it did the first year would be fun. But I wouldn't want them to bring back the part where certain activities were only available in some cities (I think it was mainly the dungeon which was like that). I'm away a lot during December and usually busy when I am home so it was a pain to try and fit things in around that. Especially because that was back when Anet still thought it was fun to let players 'discover' what was happening - in other words tell us almost nothing except that a festival was happening between these dates.

I think I missed one city completely because I was away that week, and I remember being very relieved to find that all the activities were available once it got to LA so I could do the bits I'd missed earlier.

Wintersday is human centric festival. Moving it to other race city would be lore inaccurate.

@Donutdude.9582 said:You have Halloween. Let us humans have Wintersday :)

Technically tyrian halloween is human centric aswell.

Why Meatoberfest is not charr festival yet?

I always wondered why, if the festivals were such a big deal, they weren't celebrated in each of the six cities.

The celebration could show how each race view the event and have differing activities.

I know it would be a lot of work for the devs and only practical for the largest festivals, but it's a thought.

@Game of Bones.8975 said:I always wondered why, if the festivals were such a big deal, they weren't celebrated in each of the six cities.

Well, charr celebrating Wintersday which is originally a festival about Grenth and Dwayna, would be as reasonable as making charr commander part of Shining Blade in One Path Ends.

Sylvari need a holiday, one to celebrate the glory which is Mordremoth. Mordremoth May complete with races using Mordrem Mounts.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:If ANet is going to spend the energy decorating a city for a festival, I'd rather it be either for a new festival or to extend the content of existing festivals. Moving e.g. Wintersday to Hoelbrak just to give that city a special occasion seems a waste of resources and opportunity.

In particular, I'd prefer to see another spring event, to either coincide with SAB (which only appeals to a minority of players) or to better bridge the gap between the end of Lunar New Year and the start of FotFW.

@lokh.2695 said:I always thought Wintersday should either 1)move around like it did the first two(?) years, 2)take place in Hoelbrak because of snow or 3)take place in Rata Sum because of Tixx.

If theres gonna be any celebration in Hoelbrak, its gonna be the Grand Moot.

I would rather them spend the resources fixing/returning dragon bash to new LA than move a festival already working in DR. I am a fan of new festivals so people have seasonal content between LS releases, and when the game goes on maintenance mode, there is still content to cycles through.

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:Why Meatoberfest is not charr festival yet?

Meatoberfest would probably be awesome. The problem is that it takes place in October, too close to Halloween.

@starlinvf.1358 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:If ANet is going to spend the energy decorating a city for a festival, I'd rather it be either for a new festival or to extend the content of existing festivals. Moving e.g. Wintersday to Hoelbrak just to give that city a special occasion seems a waste of resources and opportunity.

In particular, I'd prefer to see another spring event, to either coincide with SAB (which only appeals to a minority of players) or to better bridge the gap between the end of Lunar New Year and the start of FotFW.

@lokh.2695 said:I always thought Wintersday should either 1)move around like it did the first two(?) years, 2)take place in Hoelbrak because of snow or 3)take place in Rata Sum because of Tixx.

That would be amazing!

@starlinvf.1358 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:If ANet is going to spend the energy decorating a city for a festival, I'd rather it be either for a new festival or to extend the content of existing festivals. Moving e.g. Wintersday to Hoelbrak just to give that city a special occasion seems a waste of resources and opportunity.

In particular, I'd prefer to see another spring event, to either coincide with SAB (which only appeals to a minority of players) or to better bridge the gap between the end of Lunar New Year and the start of FotFW.

@lokh.2695 said:I always thought Wintersday should either 1)move around like it did the first two(?) years, 2)take place in Hoelbrak because of snow or 3)take place in Rata Sum because of Tixx.

Yup, also in support of a Grand Moot festival in Hoelbrak and a Meatoberfest in the Black Citadel.

So, nobody mentioned this, but technically the Queen's Gauntlet and the other activities taking place in Divinity's Reach during the Festival of the Four Winds are separate events, though they happen to be held during the Festival of the Four Winds, which is headquartered in the Labrynthine Cliffs. The Crown Pavilion just happened to be reopened during this current version of the Festival of the Four Winds because of Queen Jennah, whether it does so in the future is open to debate(it probably will, just playing devils advocate).

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:Why Meatoberfest is not charr festival yet?

Have them both running and give players some choice to run between them.. getting drunk on beer and beef whilst wearing a pumpkin head with a candle a top.. I find that strangely appealing and sounds like the perfect way to honour the Mad King :)

@"Kelly.7019" said:Will they move Wintersday to an new capital city or different location this year because Festival of four winds has a permanent home in crown pavilion?

Errr... First of all, the Crown Pavilion is deep down in the crater. You can even enter it by jumping over the fence and down, down, down into the pit. That means it is nowhere "in the way" of Wintersday festivities.

Secondly, what makes you think the Festival of the Four Winds was permanent? It is and will be a summer festival only, which lasts for three weeks, which means the area is abandoned for the rest of the year (I wonder where they put the Boss Blitz bosses during that time...).

that would be 3 festivals now in that one location. I think it's time to move! :D Anyone have thoughts on this?

I wouldn't mind having additional festivities during that time in Hoelbrak, because of the snow environment. However, it would have to have a different name and new actitivities, because Wintersday is a human thing. Something involving lots of ale, hunts, brawling, worshipping the spirits of the wild and the like. ;)

@Ashantara.8731 said:Secondly, what makes you think the Festival of the Four Winds was permanent?Only that ANet has said it's an annual festival.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:Secondly, what makes you think the Festival of the Four Winds was permanent?Only that ANet has said it's an annual festival.

Annual <> permanent

Permanent would mean non-stop 365 days a year, no?

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:Secondly, what makes you think the Festival of the Four Winds was permanent?Only that ANet has said it's an annual festival.

No, it is a matter of point of view and definition of the word. The mounts in labyrinthine cliffs are non-permanent (rentable), while the mounts you got in PoF are permanent. Does that mean you are sitting on your PoF-mounts non-stop 365 days a year? No, you can't even use them at certain times (like in instances, pvp, jumping puzzles).

If you state "Annual <> permanent" I can as well state "Permanent <> available all the time" and it will be just as true ^^

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:Secondly, what makes you think the Festival of the Four Winds was permanent?Only that ANet has said it's an annual festival.

I think he meant it's permanent, annual addition to the game, unlike original Festival from season 1.

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:Secondly, what makes you think the Festival of the Four Winds was permanent?Only that ANet has said it's an annual festival.

In the context, Ashantara also was referring to the discussion of a festival, which are never 365 days a year. So even their original question, "what makes you think [the festival] was permanent" acknowledges that there are one-time only festivals (as we had during LS1) and annual festivals that remain in the game permanently.

Regardless, we're far from the OP's suggestion, which implies that each of the six cities in the game gets a chance to host festivals.

Currently, we have:

• Rata (Asura) for SAB
• Divinity (Human) for Wintersday and now Four Winds
• LA (council has had charr, asura, humans; at least one non-honorary norn; no sylvari): Halloween.
• Black Citadel (charr): nothing. Suggestion: Meatoberfest
• Hoelbrak (norn): nothing. Suggestion: Grand Moot of some sort
• The Grove (sylvari): nothing. Suggestion: haven't seen one in this thread.

Historically, Wintersday use to move around from city to city (and one NPC, Gronk, still does). Other than that, I don't think we've seen ANet have an excuse to decorate the three towns on the bottom of this list.

Again, my preference is not to worry about moving current festivals. I'd rather any energy available be used to enhance the ones we have (new activities or GH decorations etc) or entirely new festivals. Of those, Meatoberfest seems the most fitting to the existing game and would likely be huge amounts of fun.