9th-anniversary
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Blizzard teases new mount reward
Blizzard just posted this image of a new hippogryph mount and refers to it as a "reward" which means we can probably rule out it being a purchasable pet store item. There are absolutely no hints on what it will be rewarded from, but I've got a few ideas. World of Warcraft's 9th anniversary is on November 23. Could we be looking at a reward for logging in during the anniversary? The last time we saw a reward like this was for the 5th anniversary when everyone received an Onyxian Whelpling pet. The only thing working against this theory is the last 3 anniversaries have just been feat of strength rewards. The more likely possibility is a new Recruit-A-Friend or Scroll of Resurrection mount. It could even be an in-game reward, but for what? Let the speculation begin.
World of Warcraft's peculiar time dilation
When you've been playing a game as long as some of us have been playing World of Warcraft, you get some unusual moments of realization. One of them occurred to me recently, when talking about the upcoming 9th Anniversary of the game this November 23rd. The person I was talking to said "Yeah, my mom showed me how to play, I used to fish for her on her hunter" and it came out that said person was 21 years old, and that she has been playing the game since she was thirteen. She has effectively grown up in Azeroth, at least part time - nearly half of her life has been spent playing this game. Meanwhile, with each expansion the game has lost some players and gained others - there are people who started playing in Cataclysm and even people who started play this year (I know, I've met quite a few of them) and many of them have no idea how to even go about absorbing all that happened in those nine years. To people who've played all along, it all happened - it's part and parcel of the game, it's history we experienced. But to new players, the sheer volume of it all can be daunting - I've had players comment with disbelief when told about 40 man raiding, who don't really grasp just how many times class mechanics have been changed and revamped and altered. One healer simply couldn't grasp the concept of an out-of-combat resser, a healing character who stood back out of range of boss fights and resurrected people who died over and over again. For me, the trippy part of that conversation was reading a 21 year old relate stories of Molten Core to this newer player and realize they were stories of what she was doing in grammar school. Of course, for me WoW is a game I discovered in my 30's. My early thirties, come to think of it, and now I'm well out of that decade. So we're all aging, but the proportion of time we spent playing the game is different - for me WoW is just one of many games I've played, and certainly not almost half of my lifespan.
Players commemorate City of Heroes' 9th anniversary
While City of Heroes is no longer with us -- you might not have heard, sorry -- the spirit lives on in its former players' hearts. As this week would have been the ninth anniversary of the superhero MMO, the community has decided to celebrate by remembering all of the greatest aspects about it. On the CoHTitan boards, the call has gone out for players to share specific City of Heroes favorite aspects over a seven-day 10-day span on Twitter. Each day has a particular theme, starting with ways that CoH innovated and going on to include favorite missions, unsolved plots, why players want the game back, and more. "This isn't a time for negativity," the post's author writes. "This is about celebrating what was and what could have been. Join me in this celebration of love towards our beloved City of Heroes."
EVE Online celebrates nine years of internet spaceships
Break out the cake and presents because EVE Online is turning nine years old on May 6th! That's right, the internet's premier spaceship/spreadsheet simulator is almost a decade old, and CCP Games is doing it up big-time with this year's anniversary gift packages. Beginning on May 4th, players will have the opportunity to choose one of eight fabulous prize packages that include goodies such as ships, skill books, implants, mining crystals, and more. To take a look at all of the wonderful goodie bags that CCP has prepared for you, just head on over to the EVE Online official dev blog and check out the full announcement.
Anarchy Online celebrates its 9th birthday with a giant duck
Quick -- make a wish, Anarchy Online, and blow out those birthday candles so we can have some of that early-2000s cake! Might be a little old-fashioned with sharp polygons, but plenty of people are still lining up for a slice of its moist gameplay. Tortured metaphor aside, a MMO once renowned for the worst launch of all time is now a year shy of its decade anniversary. Anarchy Online was a bit of a maverick when it launched in 2001, a sci-fi MMO muscling in on fantasy's turf. By all accounts, Funcom's first MMO is still strutting strong, particularly after offering a free-to-play option a few years back and prepping a visual overhaul. Funcom has a good deal planned for Anarchy Online's ninth birthday, including several in-game events and special items. A groovy new bike, a cardboard hat, a giant walking mech and a new "super-secret" building will be available later this week. It's also the third birthday Mr. Squeaky, NipponTech's corporate mascot, and as the website reminds us, "Mr. Squeaky makes for happy fun times!" There's also a huge party for all inhabitants of Rubi-Ka, where Funcom will be throwing tons of presents to the crowd. Partygoers can catch the action at the ICC Headquarters in Andromeda on June 26th. It starts at 15:00 GMT on Atlantean, and moves over to Rimor at 21:00 GMT. Be there or be a really square duck!
