Happy Musings Thursday my friends! This week I’m finally musing about Halloween! So before EA disappoints us again, I’ve got some optimistic thoughts, so let’s get to ’em…
So I want to do a couple of things with this week’s musings post, wrap up Cthulhu’s Revenge and talk about Halloween 2019. So let’s first jump into Cthulhu’s Revenge…
We recorded an episode of Addicts Live last night (which will air on Saturday), and we all came to the same general conclusion. This mini-event was ok. The writing was great, prizes were ok, and we liked it more than Krusty’s Last Gasp.
Content-wise, this felt like an add on to Last Year’s THOH episode…or 2015 THOH event. Almost like they had this idea back in 2015 and sat on it to put it in the show…OR they intended for this to be an add on with last year’s THOH event and decided it didn’t work with last year’s monster theme and pulled it. That would explain why Dracula shows up in the dialogue….
But speculation, while fun to do, won’t get us anywhere. So let me give some thoughts about the event itself as it all winds down…
Aside from the Oyster eating table, I was pleasantly pleased with the prizes available with this one. All of the items fit well in Springfield…even if they are from Fogbury…and they all come with a permanent task. Always nice to see items getting use.
The Cthulhu character as the final prize is a nice touch. I’m happy to see it’s a full character with tasks and not just an NPC…Brooders may disagree with me, but TSTO does not need more NPCs.
Overall I’d give this event a solid B. Not outstanding, but not average or awful. The dialogue was great, really funny, and the addition of the Cthulhu as a full character moves it from a C+/B- to a B in my opinion. A nice little time filler while we wait for the real Halloween event in TSTO…
We talk about Cthulhu’s Revenge a bunch on Addicts Live, so check out the new episode on Saturday morning for more…
Now let’s talk about the real Halloween event…
There are two things Tappers can expect every year in the TSTO event cycle…Halloween and Christmas. Those are two standard events each year, and two events we usually mark as the “gold standard” for TSTO. Generally, if EA’s going to make a change in gameplay/structure that change is made during Halloween or Christmas. (Wheel style gameplay…Christmas event, the introduction of 3 Act Structure arrived with a THOH event, introduction of multi-events Christmas event…)
Over the last 7 years, we’ve come to expect excellence from EA when it comes to Halloween and Christmas. Sometimes we’re let down…Pagan Christmas…and sometimes we’re rewarded…Rigellian THOH. It’s because of this history I can confidently say…to those cynical Tappers…this is not it for Halloween. This Cthulhu’s Revenge mini-event is just a Halloween appetizer, NOT all we’ll get for Halloween. (Well, I base that on history and the fact that it’s only October 3rd and this hit on September 25th…even EA’s not that lazy/dumb to release a Halloween event 5 weeks before Halloween.)
So let’s get into a little speculation, shall we?
–Timeline…based on when the mini-event ends I do think we’ll be in for a 4-week THOH Event this year. I suspect it’ll start on Wednesday, October 9th and end Wednesday, Nov. 6th. About a week after Halloween. That generally fits into the THOH end date pattern over the last few years…
–Format…as much as I hate to say it, I do think we’ll see another multi-event for Halloween this year. I hope/think this will be the last one, but I do think they’re aiming for a full year (at least) of them. So I do think Halloween will follow the multi-event format.
As a side note: I do think the multi-event format, at this point, is a failure. It would be a good format the throw in every once in awhile, but have every event…mini and multi…following the same structure has become a failure. And it’s causing a lot of players to just stop playing TSTO altogether.
-Content… EA has a golden opportunity with THOH this year to really do something special. This is the 30th Treehouse of Horror AND episode 666. Do I think they’ll do something special? Well, I hope they will, but I’m not holding my breath…
Now that we’re closer to the actual episode airing, FOX is releasing a little more info about it. As a reminder here’s the poster that was released over the summer…
And now we have an official Synopsis of it…
The 30th “Treehouse of Horror” features a demon Maggie, a mission to rescue Milhouse from another dimension, dead-Homer’s spirit trying on some new bodies for size and Selma finally finding love in an unlikely place – the alien in the basement.
And a TON of promotional images have been released…scroll away if you don’t want to see them….
I don’t know if the fact that we’re still three episodes away from the actual THOH episode airing will prevent EA from putting content from the actual episode in the update…so they don’t spoil the episode. BUT, let’s pretend we know for a fact they’ll be basing the event on the episode.
4 Acts to a multi-event, 4 central themes in the THOH episode.
-Week 1 could feature demon Maggie, with the final prize being a demon Maggie costume.
-Week 2 parodies Stranger Things and focusing on Milhouse and Bart. Tasks for the kids (Nelson, Martin, and Bart) riding bikes and a Lisa as Eleven costume as a prize(like in the poster)…with the central focus being the saving Milhouse storyline.
-Week 3 can you imagine the possibilities of a dead Homer trying on new bodies in TSTO? How hilarious would that be?
-And Week 4 is a parody of The Shape Water…joint task for Kang and Selma, and it would be nice to have the central focus of a week be on someone other than the main Simpson 5.
That would be a nice tidy THOH event. And I think something like that, where each week is based on part of the episode, would get folks excited about the game…even if it is another multi-event.
Anyway, I’ve rambled long enough this week about it. Let’s just hope EA has been listening and puts out a great THOH event that we’ve all come to expect over the years. We shall see what happens next week 🤞
And remember to check out Saturday’s episode of Addicts Live for our thoughts on all of this…
And I’ll add this in here once again this week…EA if you’re reading this, and let’s face it we know that you are…it would go A LONG way with players if you actually sent the event info teaser packet out BEFORE the THOH actually starts. Build some hype for it. Which was, you know, the whole reason you started sending out the info packets in the first place…
And that’s it guys, my latest round of random TSTO Musings. Thoughts? Care to share your own musings on the topic? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!