If you think about the halloween event, it wasn't that bad. There's always room for improvement but overall the decorations and rewards were nice. When people talk about the best mmorpg halloween event, usually GW2 takes the lead. Maybe you can look into it and get inspired? Here are some suggestions on how to improve it for next year....

1. Fix the bugs

Were there any bug fixes from last year? Were there any improvements made to the mini-games? I didn't notice any. Red light / green light for example should be fixed so that you're not guaranteed to lose even if you do everything right. This is because she can say red light / green light really fast 100% of the time. This should change. There should be a set limit to each speed so that she doesn't say it fast 5 times in a row. There are threads about these bugs and I'm sure plenty of reports.

2. Make the spooky cave more fun

Seeing only 2ft ahead of you is crappy especially when you're being thrown backwards due to some rubberbanding lag thing. It's really hard and frustrating to play. Make it easier, allow players to see further away and perhaps change it up so it's more interesting than finding boxes. This could be a daily event again if it were made right but as it stands, I'm so happy it was a one-time thing because it was brutal.

3. NPC musicians

Decorations in towns and farms etc are nice, really nice! Although I didn't notice any spooky bands playing. I'd love to see NPCs playing music maybe even from those who won the (Halloween) Music event? That would be really neat. But festivals are boring without food tables with buffs and music!

4. Where were the GMs? Trick or Treat!

If anyone looks spooky it would be the GMs (sorry but you guys have the face of plagues and nightmares). Perhaps next time they could be found around the world for "Trick or Treat" wheen you interact with them you can either get a trick or a treat. Whatever that means is up to the imagination of the devs :)

5. Something big lore-wise / adjusting the timing

GW2 has the mad king. Everyone loves the mad king but here we have Marni and his toys. It's not as extravaggant but there was combat against the witch and MK which was good. Still, the timing was pretty annoying since it was either during work hours or too late at night to participate. Mad king is always around doing things. I suggest taking notes from what they're doing and how they are getting players involved. It's pretty nice to not feel pressured trying to work and play at the same time because it's the only time you have.

6. Dailies were non-existent this time around

There wasn't any dailies other than getting the buff. What's up with that? I think this is the first event (I think?) that had no dailies. In some way I'm glad there weren't dailies because that spooky maze thing was annoying to do but i think last year there were dailies for all the mini-games. They were nice.

7. Maybe something to do with different towns?

Since magnus is a thing and we can warp between towns like mario now, perhaps taking a book from trick-or-treating, there could be good rewards for going town to town?

8. Procedural haunted hedge maze

Anybody else a big fan of hedge mazes? A procedural hedge maze event would be like an infinite dungeon but instead of monsters you fight, it's a maze you have to solve. Not sure right off the bat how it can be made fun for more than 15 minutes but it could be neat if done right.

These are just random thoughts that came to mind but in the west, halloween is often seen as the best holiday of the year which may be why GW2 puts a lot more work than any other game for it since they're a western studio. There may be a chance that this event may be permanently cancelled in the future due to the sad thing that happened but in the event that it doesn't, these are some ideas tossed in the court. If anyone thinks of better ideas please feel free to contribute.

Considering they really reduced the amount of missions in Marni's they seem to not like Halloween anymore and with them closing it for an unrelated event (I play games to avoid going out) it's just one more nail in the coffin of BDO. Honestly they were giving the community the finger with the Adventure log, just not allowing you to access it for 2 years then they add a witch who dies so fast you need to have max gear to make sure you hit everything. And if you die and respawn, good chance you are north of the river and can't get back in time since each of the 3 witch spawns you need last 2 minutes because they STILL can't get something in place so bosses actually LAST. People die, reload and it takes TIME, ESPECIALLY for the new folk who need the adventure log done. The vast majority of players are not spending $500+ on video cards.

I'd say PA is more Christian based, they've been trying to shy away from Halloween since they took over from Kakao. At the same time they've killed Santa too, in favor of Father Cron (and removing santa from above cities). 

Edit: Like to add that their events to get us to publicize them (like carving pumpkins) have been pretty terrible, too, not giving everyone who participates a present (like they used to) but only selecting a few of the top? They don't let everyone get a reward for doing it, I'm not gonna bother.

Nuke it from orbit. This event was one of the most frustrating things I've seen in a long time.

For a game that boasts about it's fluid combat and gameplay, this crap they create for events are some of the clunkiest things ever.

Yeah I went to try and do the last quest in the event that housewhathewer and 3minute afterwards I was already on my way back to heidel...

It's trash, just avoid it. IDK why PA even wasted time on it honestly. Their best change in this year was the fact that they gawe away the coupons just for logging in so we can ignore this buggy mess.

They should have a team whose focus is completely on the festive events.  These only come once a year, and they should be a welcome distraction from the daily grind.  They should have them tested and ready to go a month in advance, and try to have them be fun and enjoyable for everyone, not just for a few.  I like the Thanksgiving Turkey events, where a turkey appears where you're fighting and you can get good rewards from it.  Easy to access and appreciate.  The whole world is part of the festival.  They should have more things like that.  I haven't seen a Spook since 2020.  They must have all have gotten COVID...

So, give us snowmen to beat up across the world for Christmas!  And they all drop Caphras and Cron Stones!

I appreciate that they try hard to implement new things.

But they should test them.  Debug them.

And make sure people want to do them.  And like doing them.

Rewards were OK.  Love the candy and the Black Spirit Dice. 

I also got 120 crons.

Decorations are phenomenal!  Par for the course in this game, the visuals are amazing!

The music is awesome, but of course, being implemented in a buggy system..... we can't hear the Halloween music all night in the cities.  Random trash gets in the way.

Keep trying, PA!

I'm rooting for you!

Yeah, and who should pay for having that team? You? Should they lock these event behind cash shop? or who gonna pay for it? You know devs are expensive...

Pearl Abyss makes millions of dollars per month, they can afford it.

Yes great except for those of us who CANNOT finish Magnus because of that garbage horse taming crap so we don't get the fast travel and we don't get the new storage and we don't get the free Pen.

git good. Horse taming is like the easiest thing you could have done in the magnus other than skipping dialogue. I don't know how you can't use a lasso unless you have a physical disability. Grab a lasso and sugar, find a horse that isn't buff like a jojo character and throw your lasso at it. Press spacebar at the right time (absolutely easy, it's a reused mechanic all over the game) and then when the countdown reaches about 5 you start tapping on your spacebar and get it over the middle which only takes like 2 seconds anyway. Approach the horse, if it does the mini-game again, repeat the step. Once youre at the horse, feed it 5 lumps of sugar, climb on the horse. EASY. How do you have issues with this is beyond me.

If they label it as a marketing expense it might be tax deductible. Either way they're a billion dollar company that rarely releases new content for BDO (might change soon?) so I'm sure it's well within their budget unless you think they're a small indie dev company. :P These types of events are meant to bring back old players and attract new players to the game. They already have the foundation for the events, they just need to polish them and make them more engaging / fun.

Long quote so I had to cut it down for readability :P Yes, exactly! Events can make or break a game. People come for the events and if they are awful it represents the game in a bad light but if they are great events like the Mad King in GW2, people will praise it and keep playing.

You can not label the salary of your employees as marketing expense.

Yeah they already rarely release content, so they should focus on maningfull content rather than a niche that is only available for a limited time anyway. While they could afford it technically, in the reality they proved it over the years that their staff is missmanaged and they waste time on things that have no added value to the game.

Also imagine old players coming back cause a buggy mess where you get rubberbanded into annoing mechanisms for literal pocketchange lol :D