Halloween Event 2014

[Mook_Mook]

that looks pretty cool and is not a reskin. I like it a lot!

[Gilraen]

Well, part of the new costume is new. It has the coliseum shawl's hood. If it is dyable, though, it'll be a new favorite of mine.

[mbncd]

I think the witch robes are pretty.

Concerning the horror aspects, I think SE is largely worried about their under age audience. Kids these days know what alcohol is, etc, and most of the swearing is said in round about ways that many kids simply won't understand. Things like realistic gore, scary stories, jump scares and other things commonly associated with Halloween might be too scary though. Heck, even a lot of adults really have issues with those sorts of things.

My favourite FFXIV Halloween event has to be one from a couple of years ago that had imps asking lore based riddles with multiple choice answers. It was fun figuring out the answers, and if you couldn't figure them out yourself you often learnt a little of the lore you didn't know about before as you looked them up or eliminated options. I did that for ages and they had a lot of riddles so it was always interesting ^_^

[Jeykama]

Underage? This game has prostitutes, mild homoeroticism, a really horny Elezen that wants to "mount" you, slavery, murder... I think the players can handle a few silly jump scares.

Anyway the robes look nice, if a little plain(?). I just want the event to have more to participate in than a short series of one-off quests. Kind of like the easter event's egg hunt except with more interesting items than glamour crystals =.=;

[mbncd]

Underage? This game has prostitutes, mild homoeroticism, a really horny Elezen that wants to "mount" you, slavery, murder... I think the players can handle a few silly jump scares.

Anyway the robes look nice, if a little plain(?). I just want the event to have more to participate in than a short series of one-off quests. Kind of like the easter event's egg hunt except with more interesting items than glamour crystals =.=;

Most 8 year olds are probably quite familiar with all the things you just listed or the language obscures it enough that kids don't really have to know what's going on beyond "talk to the person under the marker, kill the person that attacks you". Meanwhile Edda's face from the Tam Tara HM quest still gives some people nightmares. Kids live by different standards now, where they shout about the worst kinds of abuse without really knowing what it means yet they're still afraid of the things that go bump in the night, perhaps now more than ever with the sort of things shown in prime time TV these days.

As I said though, plenty of adults scare easily too. I have an aunt who can't even watch Warm Bodies and she knows it's much more of a RomCom than a Horror but she "just can't..."

In general, the holiday events are designed to be done by everyone so they tend to stick with comedy, nonsense or touching drama, simple things that almost everyone can appreciate. Fear is much harder to aim at everyone. Different people are scared by different things and to different degrees. If you use the wrong type of scare or make it too intense or not intense enough, it misses the mark. Comedy and touching drama are much easier to write to aim at the masses because there's a far more general consensus of what's funny or what's touching that most people will agree upon. Sure, they'll miss the mark with some outliers but the general principles work on the larger scale much better, even if they aren't necessarily thematically appropriate.

That isn't to say that they will continue to avoid horror themes, just that they haven't really gone for it in the past in FFXIV (aside from the Edda stuff) and I can understand why that may be the case.

[Yumi_umi]

Soooooo is the neat halloween theme coming back or will it be something new?

[Mugiawara]

I think the witch robes are pretty.

Concerning the horror aspects, I think SE is largely worried about their under age audience. Kids these days know what alcohol is, etc, and most of the swearing is said in round about ways that many kids simply won't understand. Things like realistic gore, scary stories, jump scares and other things commonly associated with Halloween might be too scary though. Heck, even a lot of adults really have issues with those sorts of things.

This game is rated T for Teens lol. Have you seen Teen Mom? They've gone to a whole new level. If a little scary thing here and there will scar kids.
Then I guess having a baby at 14 years old is nothing lol.
Edda wasn't even scary for me, it was just sad and weird...xD But surprise scares and stuff in the game would be hilarious!
Or a random pinata bat thing popping out of no where...or hell a Haunted Halloween house dungeon that gives ingredients for special candy
crafters can make or something... We could use Haukke Manor and they could decorate it up a bit or something.
Just thinking of some neat things SE could do for events.