snowballs
Latest
Guild Wars celebrates Wintersday in July
Here in the UK, the concept of Christmas in July is almost unheard of. Indeed I've only heard about it because, as a journalist, the Christmas in July events are where all the big consumer companies and department stores unveil their Christmas must-have toys and gifts. The whole thing seems much more prevalent in the US and Australia, oh and in Guild Wars.Yes, that's right, Guild Wars. NCsoft have announced their 2009 Wintersday event, the Tyrian New Year celebrations, will be taking place between noon PST on Friday July 17th until 11:59pm PST on Sunday July 19th. It's just a matter of chatting to a seasonal priest in the decked-out locales of Ascalon City, Droknar's Forge, the Great Temple of Balthazar, Kamadan, or Lion's Arch to get teleported to the Snowball Arena. You can then do battle with other players and earn candy cane shards which can be exchanged for a wealth of seasonal gifts.For more information, check out the official Wintersday site here.
EVE Online's snowball fights to end January 6th
While implementing "future Christmas in space" wasn't the most feasible option in EVE Online, CCP Games did revive their holiday tradition of giving players snowball launchers, with harmless snowball ammo. The snowball launchers sound and function like standard missile launchers, and upon impact the snowballs burst into a cloud of snowflakes. However it seems the cat's out of the bag in terms of baiting surprised targets into returning (live) fire in high security space, and having them put down by CONCORD -- EVE's NPC police. Perhaps it's just as well though. Soon those unused snowballs will melt, thus ending EVE Online's holiday celebration on January 6th. Needless to say, players who quickly tore through their snowball supply and are trying to replenish their cache will have to hurry. CCP Fallout, EVE's Associate Community Manager, writes that "capsuleers who bid on snowball contracts before this date, yet receive them after, will find themselves owners of a pile of melted snowballs upon delivery." So use 'em or lose 'em. They'll be reduced to puddles in just a few days, and since CCP Games doesn't do this every year, it might be your last chance for quite some time to try these out.
Celebrating the holidays in EVE with snowball fights in space
Space is cold. You wouldn't think 'holiday cheer' and EVE Online would be mentioned in the same context, but CCP Games has gotten in on the holiday action with the other MMO developers this season. Xiphos from the EVE blog "A Misguided Adventurer" had a holiday surprise from CCP when he logged into the game this morning: a snowball launcher and snowball ammo. Xiphos writes, "Happy Holidays from CCP! Everyone check your hangars and you'll find a nice little gift from CCP. 300 Snowballs and a Snowball Launcher. A High slot fitting, these deadly cold balls of ice do -10 Thermal Damage and are damn fun. Start launching some at your friends and enemies and let's get a massive snowball fight started in Jita, top station!" Every character in EVE Online automatically received these items today, even your lowly scouts and price-checking alts. Added to the fun is the initial surprise that seems to grip some highsec dwellers as they realize they're being fired upon and CONCORD (EVE's NPC police force) doesn't care. No less than five of them warped off in panic while I tried to get the accompanying image. Try it, you'll see.
Snowballs vs. Farmers
Few WoW players like the professional gold and item farmers in the game. The rise of the underground economy for selling gold and rare items outside the Auction House has lead to farmers--most of whom hail from Asia and don't speak English well--repeatedly spamming the general chat channel with WTS messages. Some players have resorted to using snowballs, which were added last week as part of WoW's holiday content, as a way to manage an annoying gold farmer/spammer. Witnesses have seen one spammer get pelted with hundreds of snowballs in Ironforge, enough to cause her to flee the city. This is a great example of the community finding a solution to a problem instead of relying on a technical solution. Technical solutions can usually be overcome easily by the system exploiters (gold farmers), but solutions like this not so much. The truth of the problem is that it's as simple as Economics 101. As long as there are people willing to buy illicit gold instead of earning it, there will be people willing to farm the gold to sell to them...where there are buyers, there will be sellers. Until Blizzard can figure out a way (if they can figure out a way) to effectively block goldfarming and selling, I think I'll enjoy the snowballs while we have them.
