event-time
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The OverAchiever: Time zones, battle pets, and an achievement you probably don't know about
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, Allison desperately wishes to return to the days of "server time." Confession: This article was originally going to be about achievements you could get from unexpected places, because I thought it would be cool to run a column on the areas you pass by a lot without necessarily realizing there are points there for the taking. I'd worked all the way up to Wanderers, Dreamers, and You, which I've been meaning to do for a while but never got around to ... and then I hit a giant road block. Why? This achievement was one of those unintentionally affected by changes in patch 5.1 that altered event times for a lot of servers. Most players will probably remember when the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza disappeared for a few months while Blizzard tried to figure out a way to square it with Cross-Realm Zones. The Fishing Extravaganza returned alongside a new system that standardized most event times across servers in an effort to simplify what was happening and when. The Wanderer's Festival was one of the affected events. After spending hours trying to track down and confirm the event time schedule for servers across the European, North American, and Oceanic servers, I decided it probably merits an article all to itself because the Wowhead thread is a giant rat's nest of conflicting and outdated information. Also, it's not enough to be there while the festival is actually happening, and if you don't get there early, you probably won't have a shot at a battle pet you can't get anywhere else. I am not too proud to admit I need help with this one.
The Daily Grind: How long should in-game events run?
If you were hoping to get yourself a nice Sand People outfit in Star Wars: The Old Republic's Grand Acquisition Race... well, you can still buy one, but you can't obtain the tokens to do so any longer. That makes the event a very brief one indeed, as it ran for just a week. You might argue this to be just enough time for players to enjoy the event if they wanted and not so long as to get annoying. Or you might argue that it's far too short for any sort of real pursuit of the rewards. The trick with any in-game event is to run it just long enough, but everyone's going to have a different definition of how long is too long. For some players, a week is enough time to get everything; for others, a month is still not enough. It depends on playstyle, it depends on how much there is to do, and it depends upon how neat the event trappings are. So what do you think? How long should an in-game event run? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
