GW2 April Events Calendar 2018

I'm ok we take a break from Rux, but

I'm not happy with that since there's No Boss Hunt ☹️

We want epic Pumpkin Squash !!!  It has been almost half year...we miss it already.

Cactus vs Pirate is normal speed.

  - If you're cactus, watch out for walking barrels 🙂

  - If you're pirates, watch out your steps.

  - If you don't like snapping, fly to sky.

  - As rule of thumb, don't get yourself expose in open space.

  - Camouflage, find a good spot and be patient, let the enemy come to you.

  - Get a headshot, especially if you're future/camo cactus, it's so satisfying.

With regard to taunting there seems to be a complete disregard for the young kids playing this game - and very young kids at that -, and one's left with the impression that PopCap is surprisingly ignorant of a significant section of its customers. The kids I know of (and that's quite a lot through my son of eight) get put off by the taunts to the extent that some of them are actually so distressed by some clown taunting them that they stop playing after a while.

Personally, I find them a childish, perverse and a bloody rude way of gaming, totally disrespectful of one's adversary and completely at odds with good gaming practice (try taunting someone on Counter-Strike and see what happens) .....but this is seemingly an unknown to the marketeers at PopCap. On reflection, it could be a cultural thing. I'm from Scandinavia and bullying - of which taunting is derivative - is a complete no-no up here.

April looks like a typical month for PvZ, but as Asukujo points out, how come the pumpkin Boss hunt hasnt come back for in a long time?

Those are the only 3 boss hunt hats im missing (diamond, gem and scrumptious).

@Anonymous

Isn't taunting generally unavoidable in online multiplayer games anyways? If it's not gestures, it's going to be crouching repeatedly. If it's not crouching repeatedly, it's showing (major?) disrespect to the player by shooting their fallen bodies. And if it's not shooting fallen bodies, it's a (nasty/gloatful) message sent to the player--some of which don't have certain messaging settings active.

I remember an instance in the first GW when I saw a sunflower doing the "Plant It" gesture on top of a fallen zombie partner. Without much thought, I launched a ZPG at near point-blank range and got the vanquish. Was that rightfully earned?

Still, I prefer GW's gestures than the latter taunting options.

However, if you have someone that's a shark always aiming to vanquish you and they taunt you every time when they do, I'd probably stop playing the game, too. That, and players who consistently use the same "broken" characters, giving little room to counter without using a "broken" character yourself... That'd certainly do it.

If it wasn't for the game's gestures, I wouldn't have witnessed three peashooters rocking out and headbanging prior to a boss hunt. Or have seen the occasional random player I revive try to revive me back and gesture to me.

Well, if somebody taunting me, I might taunt back or ignore it (depending on my mood) and whether it's part of that week quest or it's a challenge.

But if they shoot on top my dead body, it's definitely a declaration of battle (even there's quest) and I will find that player and settle it down until heart content.

That is all very well, but you are obviously not an 8-year old and the refinement of gesturing, be it crouching repeatedly or dancing is beyond that age group and looked upon as equally insulting. Whatever way you look at it they are both a way of gloating over a defeated opponent. Kids don't possess the cognitive refinement of differentiating between the two and take things at their face value. 

Even though I found GW1 a mess in terms of balancing and game-play it thankfully didn't have taunting as a major component of what EA (and others) find "fun".

My gripe against EA and PopCap is that a game that is first and foremost targeted at children must take the stage of their cognitive development into account. This they fail to do.  

I'll agree that this game has more encouragement for taunting than in the previous GW.

They could have chosen to get rid of the taunting quest, let alone edit its text of "What's the point of learning all those taunts if you don't get to show them off?" They could have maybe done a silly encouragement quest to where you did a gesture after reviving a partner. (Though I don't know how I'd react if I got revived by an engineer who used "Slappy" afterwards. Probably a facepalm.)

There's the community challenge (two weeks from now) which is at its third run. Honestly, there could be better challenges like the usual elemental one or a rolling thunder match-up between soldier and corn to where they can use infinite ZPGs/Shuck Shots and Rocket Leaps/Husk Hops, but no primary weapons. That would be a blast in so many ways...

Then there's the thirty seconds of fame on the podium that I think they may have gotten as an idea from CoD.

And lastly, there's the thirty seconds of the match results (when it shows the gardens/graveyards defended/captured and players can goof off and, of course, perform taunts) when in GW1, unless it was the last capture point, the results always went to a CG map of the bases captured/defended.

So in all, yes. The game has increased encouragement for taunting. Because, what else are you supposed to do in those moments if you can't fire weapons or use non-damaging abilities?