Firstly, why not deck out a main city -such as Kyovashad, in event-related decorations? Like this Meat or Treat event could have had demonic pumpkins in front of doorways to each building. Maybe colored light effects that are all in purple and green -like torches set up with these colors lighting the town. Perhaps even a giant statue or effigy of the butcher near the way point in town.
Have some free cosmetics in the store - that’s fine. just like this event has - but also have some cosmetics that players can earn over time. this is a grinding game, so let the players grind for special items. Have a quest person in town, maybe dressed sort of witch-like and she tells you of the corrupted shrines. The goblins were trying to make a way into the realm when something went wrong and they accidently corrupted the gateway so sometimes it grants access from The Butcher. She tells you to go forth and click shrines to cleanse them and take care of what pops out. So it can be the same as what we have now, but add more flavor to it.
If its a Goblin, then the treasure bag could include a piece of candy as well as a coin -maybe we call it a Treasure Coin. The piece of candy can have an effect much like an elixir but maybe just one effect -like say we have yellow, red and blue candy wrappers on the candy -red could increase attack speed by 5% for 30 minutes, Blue could increase movement speed by 10% for 30 minutes and maybe yellow increases dodge chance by 8% for 30 minutes. all effects that can be seen as boosting your character like high from the sugar in the candy … heheh.
Then the Butcher could drop all that he drops but also maybe a Butchers finger or something as proof that you killed him. return the Butcher’s Finger to the quest lady and she gives you like 5 Treasure Coins for the finger. Then she tells you that The Butcher is a demon and he will constantly reform himself, so you should keep going down in dungeons to cleanse all the shrines you see. every now and then return to her and she will give Treasure Coins for the fingers. so its almost like a repeatable quest after the first turn in. So you get 1 Treasure Coin from each goblin treasure bag and then 5 for killing the butcher in the event. This witchy quest giver will also have some cosmetic items to sell you for the Treasure Coins. These can be like a helmet cosmetic or two (since it’s Halloween) that make your character look scary for the occasion. have some glowy weapon cosmetics -like items that glow purple and green to go with the themed torch lights in town. maybe one of each type of weapon. Make these cost like 15,000 or even 30,000 coins so its a grind to get them just like the current PVP and Citadel cosmetics. Make it so the Treasure Coins roll over and when the event ends, we keep what coins we earned and next year when a Halloween event returns, we still have what we earned the previous year and can keep working towards unlocking other cosmetics that we didn’t get a chance to unlock this year. That keeps players engaged and keeps them coming back year after year for the event.
Now onto the winter holiday gift event. Lets say Kyovashad is now covered in deep, deep snow and outside of each shop and doorway people in town have erected Snow Monsters. Take existing models of goatmen and other creatures from Diablo IV and color then white like snow and set them up around town as sort of demonic snowmen. the torches that are temporarily set around town could have Red, Blue and Green lights shining around the town and giving it the feel of the gift giving season. This time we also see kids around town sitting and standing around in places. One of the kids has a quest and he informs us that kids in every city around Sanctuary are worried they wont be getting presents this year because someone or something has stolen all the gifts. He asks us to find a gift and bring it back if we can.
Lets keep with the treasure goblin theme here also. Bring back extra treasure goblins in the overworld and in dungeons. This time the goblins are just roaming around and every time you kill one, the Treasure Bag they have has a gift inside. just a box that is wrapped in gift wrap. You then take this first gift you find back to the kid in Kyovashad and he gladly accepts it and tells you to find more for all the kids in Sanctuary. So the repeatable quest here is to find kids in each major city and give them gifts. You could put 2-3 kids in each city and any one of them can be the turn in. maybe have a special challenge that says if you give at least one gift to every kid in every city, you get a title.
each time you turn in a gift to a child in any of the cities, you get a Gift Coin in return. once again, we have a special vendor in one of the main cities where the coins can be turned in for various event themed cosmetics. maybe back pieces and trophies for mounts or whatever. these could be in the colors of the event -such as red, blue and green as a theme or maybe they are snow-covered. whatever. and again, make the coins you earn stay with you all year round and next season when the event returns the players have what they earned previously and can pick up where they left off in trying to save enough to earn all the cosmetics they want from this vendor. it, once again, keeps people coming back every year for the event and keeps them playing all event long to grind out rewards.
These events - such as this Meat or Treat event are nice, but we all have to agree that they are a bit lack luster -especially when you compare these events to every single other game on the market. even free games like Dauntless liven up the main town with lights and they have quests with cosmetic rewards to collect. SWTOR does this brilliantly and even World of Warcraft does it -a game right in Blizzards own studio. So why can’t Diablo have just as much fun with events? it makes no sense. These events only have to be worked once and then ya just reuse them again and again every year when its time for them to return. Maybe ya add a few things to the cosmetic vendor for each event each year, but the point is that it’s ok to make a sort of coined event for each holiday and then bring back that same event year after year with maybe a few small additions each year. it works in other games, so it’ll work in Diablo and be much more fun and engaging than the current events are now.
Thank you for the time and consideration on this suggestion.
-Anox (MLA Clan)
(and please also bring in clan features -Clan shared stash, even just one shared tab will help. Clan events such as Clan Dungeons with 8-12 players, Clan world boss fights with 8-12 group members. Clan guild halls to group up and hang out in as a clan. Clan back trophy with the clan heraldry on a flag) (and we need a place to trade items -such as a bazaar or marketplace or some other spot to buy/sell/trade items in game for in-game gold.)