Harvest-Festival
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Harvest Festival started yesterday
Sure, there's an expansion in mid-launch, but that doesn't mean we can just ignore the Harvest Festival, does it? Running from September 24th (that's yesterday) until the 30th, the Harvest Festival is an in-game holiday remembering those that made the ultimate sacrifice. Both Horde and Alliance celebrate the holiday - the Horde commemorate the death of Grom Hellscream and his last act of defiance against the Pit Lord Mannoroth that freed the orcs from their enslavement to the Blood Curse, while the Alliance celebrates the life of Uther the Lightbringer, hero of the Second War and martyr of the Scourge. You also get to pig out, because some things are universal. So head on over to Blizzard's official preview and then get your festival fix in game. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
WRUP: The sad, lonely life of Bubbleman
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too! Part of the "fun" of unemployment is trying to figure out what to do with those extra 40 hours or so of leisure time you get during the week. Sure, there's that whole looking for jobs thing, but that gets pretty old, so I've been playing Mega Man. A lot of Mega Man. Way too much Mega Man. The music in the series is absolutely phenomenal, especially when you consider the limitations of the NES. There are some rocking covers of the stage themes out there. And, as you can see above, some more ... uh, original reimaginings of them. I guess I've never considered how sad and lonely Bubbleman's life really is. (Sebastian the Crab is a lying little jerk.) But enough exploration of robots' non-existant emotions. This week, in addition to the usual What are you playing? question, we asked our columnists a very important question: Why is the Harvest Festival your absolute, hands-down favorite holiday?
Breakfast Topic: Holy moly, can you believe we forgot the Harvest Festival?
Oh my god, you guys. We here at WoW Insider totally dropped the ball -- the exciting Harvest Festival started two days ago, and we didn't say a word about it! Don't worry, though. It's a week-long event, and you have until Sept. 13 to get in on all the fun! And what fun is that, you may ask? Well, this year's Harvest Festival is going to be better than all past Harvest Festivals combined. It's got a plus-sized roller coaster for some of our more obese thrill-seekers, Larry Bird's 84-year-old Aunt Tilda, an all-organic corn maze, not three but four hospitality kiosks, famed little horse Li'l Sebastian, and ... Oh wait, wrong Harvest Festival. This is the one in Azeroth with absolutely no achievements associated with it. The one, where, according to our own Daniel Whitcomb: Yeah, it's a small holiday, and a weird one at that. I mean, you either honor Uther, who was a jerk to Tirion Fordring, ineffective against the Scourge and was betrayed and killed by his protege, or Grom, who betrayed the Orcish race to the Burning Legion at least twice, and whose clan is still one of the major sources of strife and bad Horde-Alliance relations on Azeroth today. So, uh, yeah. How are you celebrating the Harvest Festival? Are you doing the one single quest associated with the holiday? And how will you ever be able to stand the 51-week wait until Harvest Festival 2012 once this one is over?
V-E-ME Day: LotRO Europe announces launch date for free-to-play
It's been a long time coming, and after some legal hemming and hawing, Codemasters announced that Lord of the Rings Online in Europe will be finally launching the much-anticipated free-to-play version of the game. On November 2nd, LotRO will open its doors to free players across Europe. This comes after a two-month period of limbo for EU players, which began two days before the update launched in North America. Codemasters had cryptically announced that F2P would be put on hold for what turned out to be contractual reasons. Fortunately, it seems as though the red tape has been cut, and players are free to sample the same blessed bounty as their NA comrades. This update also includes the new region of Enedwaith, the LotRO store, Volume III: Book 2 of the epic storyline and the Harvest Festival. Interested players can sign up for their free-to-play account at LotRO EU.
Harvestmath, Hobbits and hauntings: LotRO's fall festival starts tomorrow
Middle-earth may be a naturally horrifying place at times, but the Free Peoples have a talent for making the best of a bad situation with an abundance of festivals, parties and general merry-making. Tomorrow kicks off the annual fall festival in Lord of the Rings Online, and with it a number of upgrades and additions to an already-popular event. The festival -- also called Harvestmath -- is featuring for the first time Bilbo's cellar, which the locals have renovated into a "Haunted Burrow" of sorts. Here, players can explore the twists and turns of a not-too-scary funhouse, discover secret passages and complete quests for prizes and cool new cosmetic items. Harvestmath also features plenty of other activities for a Hobbit looking to have a good time -- apple-bobbing, reputation quests, new deeds, pie-eating contests, dancing and feasts out the wazoo are ripe for the taking. Read Massively's 2008 guide to this festival, and brush up on the new Haunted Burrow with a recent LotRO dev diary!
Breakfast Topic: Harvest Festival begins today
Today begins the amazing Harvest Festival! This lengthy celebration of the harvest includes one quest and no -- count them -- no achievements. We still managed to have fun with it last year with the Epic Harvest Brewfestival Kodo Ride. When the holidays were overlapping, we turned our mounts into kodos and rode them to honor Grom Hellscream. The gallery is below. Don't adjust your sets; we were riding drunk. No, this was not a responsible ride on mythical animals in a fantasy world. So go forth, eat your free food and honor your faction's harvest hero. And if you're into more compelling in-game holidays, don't fret: Pirates' Day and Brewfest are coming up within the week. What do you think Blizzard should do to make Harvest Festival more interesting? Disclaimer: This post is subject to change without notice if Blizzard actually implements a full-fledged holiday this year. %Gallery-76902%
Massively wishes you a happy Halloween
Halloween is probably second only to Christmas in terms of holiday popularity. Ask just about anybody what their favorite holiday is, and they'll probably list one of those two (if it fits the culture). Naturally, as MMO players, we have fun celebrating it in our virtual worlds just like we do in the real world. And boy, this year, do we ever celebrate. Just about every active MMO out there had (or has) something going on. The 2009 lineup included: Final Fantasy XI - Harvest Festival City of Heroes - The Deadly Apocalypse EverQuest II - Nights of the Dead Fallen Earth - Days of the Dead Warhammer Online - Daemon Moon Rising Aion - Harvest Revel Guild Wars - The Mad King's Revelry Runes of Magic - Pumpkin Festival Lineage - Cavern of Chaos Lineage II - Spooks and Scarecrows Age of Conan - Nights of Lost Souls EverQuest - The Haunting of Norrath Legends of Norrath - Brraaaaaainss! Star Wars Galaxies - Galactic Moon Festival Exteel - Hey, sweet! Paint! Free Realms - Super Spooktacular Champions Online - Blood Moon Most of these events last a few days into November, so if there's any one in particular you're dying to experience, you might still have a chance if you have a subscription laying around. If you're not able to visit any of these in person, we have screenshots from many of these events in the gallery below. Enjoy! %Gallery-76860%
Spooks and sweets await in Final Fantasy XI
The time is nearly upon us for darkness to return to the world of Vana'diel, and all that can be hoped is that adventurers will stand against the undead to keep their homes and cities safe. Final Fantasy XI's Harvest Festival is fast approaching, complete with the requisite cocktail of ghouls, ghosts, and gibbering zombies shuffling about. What was once an innocent celebration has turned slightly more sinister with the addition of processions of undead throughout the world, calling for those of stout heart and strong arm to keep safe.It's a bit melodramatic, but it's hard not to get the vibe with the announcement, which includes not only a description of everything coming to the game for the holiday, but a short story explaining the origin of Vana'diel's pumpkins and how they came to be seen as wards against evil spirits. The even promises the usual plethora of rewards and fun activities for all, whether you intend to help defend the capitals from undead incursions or just want to pass around some sweets to the good citizens of the nations. If you can tear yourself away from pumpkin carving or the recent news about the game's sequel, it would be a fine time to take a trip to Final Fantasy XI -- just carry a candle.
Reminder: ICftB Epic Harvest Brewfestival Ride today
The Epic Harvest Brewfestival Ride is today! Those of us who are level 40 and above are going to dress up our Epic Mounts as Brewfest Kodos and ride to Honor a Hero in Ashenvale. When: 4:30pm EDT (1:30pm PDT, 2:30pm Server Time) Today Where: Meet in front of Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (U.S.) Who: Any Horde character with an Epic Mount How: Send a tell to Robinella or any It came from the Blog Lurker to join the guild We will be earning enough tokens in Brewfest to obtain the ability to transform our mounts and then riding to honor Grom Hellscream. We will then return to Javnir Nashak and complete the one Harvest Festival quest (there is no Achievement). If you have any questions about It came from the Blog, please read our FAQ. See you soon!
It came from the Blog: Join the Epic Harvest Brewfestival Ride
What happens when Harvest Festival and Brewfest collide? The It came from the Blog Epic Harvest Brewfestival Ride! On Saturday, those of us who are level 40 and above are going to dress up our Epic Mounts as Brewfest Kodos and ride to Honor a Hero in Ashenvale. When: 4:30pm EDT (1:30pm PDT, 2:30pm Server Time) Saturday, October 3rd Where: Meet in front of Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (U.S.) Who: Any Horde character with an Epic Mount How: Send a tell to Robinella or any It came from the Blog Lurker to join the guild We will be earning enough tokens in Brewfest to obtain the ability to transform our mounts and then riding to honor Grom Hellscream. We will then return to Javnir Nashak and complete the one Harvest Festival quest (there is no Achievement). If you do not have a high enough level character on Zangarmarsh to participate, there is still plenty of time to make a Death Knight and complete the starter quests.If you have any questions about It came from the Blog, please read our FAQ. We hope you'll join us for the Epic Harvest Brewfestival Ride!
Breakfast Topic: Harvest Festival
The Harvest Festival is kind of the garbage holiday. It's the holiday that all the cooler holidays like Hallow's End and Brewfest make fun of, trip along the hall, and ostracize in the cafeteria. Harvest Festival is the weird kid who doesn't have any friends, smells funny, and whom teachers forget when making a headcount on the school bus. As far as holidays go, it's kind of the nothing holiday. It's there, but nobody really knows what it's all about and very few people bother to participate. I mean, hey, feast table outside of Orgrimmar! Then what?Then nothing! Well, you see all sorts of ghosts all over the place (which is creepy, but hey, it's almost Hallow's End, anyway), but there's really nothing that stands out. At least the ghosts from the Lunar Festival had those cool moonbeams. No, Harvest Festival is the half-baked holiday that doesn't even have an Achievement. Yep, it's so bad that even a one day event such as Pirates' Day trumps it with an Achievement, and was even cool enough for WoW.com to organize some shenanigans around it. No wonder nobody hangs around that smelly kid!So today, on the beginning of Harvest Festival, let's dedicate a word or two to World of Warcraft's most unimpressive holiday. What are you planning to do? Without any Achievements, you can even ignore it! If you're Horde, there's that quest to visit Grom Hellscream's monument in Ashenvale, but his son Garrosh has been such an unbearable asshat that even that has lost its charm. Unless Blizzard plans to hotfix the event and dredge it from the murky depths of suck, here's a Breakfast Topic to welcome the holiday that's so uncool that even artwork of a Harvest Golem looks better. And man, Harvest Golems are ugly mothers.
Vanguard's Harvest Festival brings new quests, encourages bird-eating
With Halloween now behind us, the Thanksgiving events are starting up. Vanguard appears to be the, well, vanguard here, as its Harvest Day event began yesterday. Quest NPCs with four new quests have arrived in Khal -- the Halgrim family are recent immigrants who want to host a Harvest Festival, but Salrash the Birdmaster is determined to stop them because he finds the Halgrim's plan to have a feast on bird meat abhorrent.There are, in typical Vanguard fashion, raid four raid mobs that you can hunt down to celebrate: the aforementioned Salrash the Birdmaster, Turfin, Duksworth, and Ciran. Sounds like fun -- don't stuff yourself with phat loot and costumes too much!
Free play/bonus EXP weekend welcomes back lapsed LotRO players
If you're a former The Lord of the Rings Online subscriber who's thinking about returning to Middle-earth, or just looking for a way to kill a weekend, then you'll be interested to know that Turbine is hosting a "Welcome Back Weekend" event in the game.All former subscribers will be able to play for free between October 2nd and 6th. Additionally, everyone (old players and new alike) will receive 25% more experience during that period. This is obviously intended to re-hook veterans so they'll buy the Mines of Moria expansion when it comes out. Nothing wrong with that, we suppose.Oh, and it also uncoincidentally coincides (you see what we did there?) with the annual Fall Festival. We already asked you guys a while back what you thought of LotRO. Some of you expressed interest in returning to see what's new. Here's your chance, eh?%Gallery-32889%
Massively's complete LotRO Fall Harvest Festival guide
The Lord of the Rings Online Fall Harvest festivities are now in full swing, and as promised, we at Massively have created an in-depth guide to help you make the most of your holiday time. This year's event sees the return of many of last year's goodies, plus some new and exciting favorites! Each racial zone has its own version of these Fall Harvest festivities, with different names, events and prizes. Yet each one is fundamentally the same. With the addition of the Troves and Trickery quests in Bree, Duillond, Thorin's Hall and Hobbiton, players can get their hands on some exciting new cosmetic masks just in time for All Hallow's Eve.This event runs from now until October 12th, so you have plenty of time to gather festival tokens, complete special quests and compete in the horse races! Follow along on our complete guide by clicking the link below, and be sure to also check out our enormous 33-image gallery of Fall Harvest Festival screenshots and maps below to get you where you need to go. Harvestmath >> %Gallery-32889%
One Shots: Masquerade!
Not sure what to make of this merry scene? Don't be afraid -- those aren't scarecrows. Today's One Shots shows off another fun image from Lord of the Rings Online, this time featuring some of the silly pumpkin/gourd masks you can get as part of the Harvest Festival! Perthir, our regular One Shots contributor sent this in to us and explains:Left to right pumpkin heads are Perthir, Shamone and Graemir, the Beaver in front is Sindarin. To earn the masks we spent some time Trick & Treating around Middle Earth! We're stood in front of the Defenders of the White Tree (EU Eldar) kinhouse. We dig the LotRO Harvest Festival masks, but have to admit that pumpkins always make us want pumpkin pie. Mmmm. If you've got any great screenshots of an accomplishment your guild/fellowship/group/corp/etc has achieved, or just screens of you all being silly together, we'd love to see them. Just send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name/guild/server and whatever information you'd like to give us on what's going on in the screenshot. We'll make your image Internet famous!*%Gallery-9798%*Well, we'll host it anyway. You'll have to make it awesome for true Internet fame.
One Shots: Fishing up a great fall day
Fall is here! We feel it in the crisp evening air, the cooler temperatures, and of course the denizens of Middle-earth notice because of the return of the Harvest Festival in Lord of the Rings Online. Players from near and far will be gearing up to enjoy the festivities, so we're bringing you this awesome One Shots sent in today from Emah, who is a member of the Laer En Tul Acharn kinship on the Nimrodel server. Emah writes to tell us that this was shot in Halecatch lake, just south of Bree, and features many of their Kinship just hanging out and enjoying time together fishing. If you've got a screenshot of your guild doing something -- from the mundane to the awesome -- we'd love to see it! Role-play events are also welcomed, as we'd love to hear about what you're doing. (Especially if you're doing it again where others can pop by and enjoy the fun!) Just send those to us here along with the details and your name/guild/server to oneshots AT massively DOT com. We'll take care of the rest!%Gallery-9798%
The Harvest Festival returns to LotRO
The Harvest Festival is coming! The Harvest Festival is coming! Starting later today, September 26th, and running until October 13th, Lord of the Rings Online will play host to the second annual Middle-earth Harvest Festival. According to the announcement, there will be a return of player favorites like bobbing for apples, picking pumpkins, horse races and the Geode Surprise.Plus, there will be new Trick or Treat quests for players to enjoy. Does this mean we'll see some new Halloween-type masks and candy for the lil 'uns?? Stick with Massively as we present a complete guide to the Harvest Festival coming soon!
WoW Moviewatch: Some Brewfest highlights from last year
It's been an exciting couple of weeks in World of Warcraft. First there was the Harvest Festival, then Talk Like a Pirate Day, and now, Brewfest. Players are invited to kick back and relax with their friends while they participate in fun activities related to the alcoholic beverage we know and love -- beer. Some of the festivities include the Dark Iron Dwarves, racing rams, and beer goggles. While the special mounts are rare drops now, it doesn't hurt to get out your stein and have a good time trying to get it. If you fail, well, you're still drinking, so that's a plus!If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Harvest Festival ends today
Just a friendly reminder for everyone: Today is the last day of the Harvest Festival, the annual event honoring the fallen heroes of the Horde and the Alliance. That means you have one more day to head to the front entrance of Ironforge and Orgrimmar to hang with some ghosts, buy some cheap fireworks (those Midsummer Ground Flowers are awesome, and I am totally stocking up), and go pay your respects to Grom or Uther. Yeah, it's a small holiday, and a weird one at that. I mean, you either honor Uther, who was a jerk to Tirion Fordring, ineffective against the Scourge and was betrayed and killed by his protege, or Grom, who betrayed the Orcish race to the Burning Legion at least twice, and whose clan is still one of the major sources of strife and bad Horde-Alliance relations on Azeroth today. And what about hanging out with all those ghosts? I mean, isn't anyone concerned that they could be scourge? And what about those Forsaken ancestors? Shouldn't they look like humans as ghosts, since they were humans in the first place? And wouldn't a good portion of those Orc and Troll ancestors come from the tradition of savagery and cannibalism and demon worship that the Horde is supposedly trying to break free from? Oh well, at least it's free fireworks and free food. Enjoy it while you can! Brewfest is a scant week away too, so be sure to review the new Coren Direbrew loot and plan your trip to the Grim Guzzler now.
Blood Elves and Draenei can run the Harvest Festival
As a few of our readers have noticed, Blizzard has fixed the old problems with the Harvest Festival this year -- the new races of Blood Elves and Draenei can now do the quests that start outside of Orgrimmar and Ironforge. Last year was the first time the races had a chance to run them, and Blizzard hadn't implemented the quests for them yet. But this year, things are A-OK.Unfortunately, there's no acknowledgement that they're new to the game -- while the quests do mention the character's class, they just see BEs and Draenei as just other members of their faction. It was a little weird running to honor Grom Hellscream with my Blood Elf, but if you want to be a good member of the Horde or Alliance (and pick up that nice food dispenser in the mail), have at it.
