winter-holiday-2010
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City of Heroes extends the Winter Event through the end of the month
It happens, despite our best efforts. You play City of Heroes, and you really did want to take part in the Winter Event, but between the holiday rush, doing charity work, cooking dinner for your family, and the non-stop chupacabra attacks, you just didn't have the time to log in. But Paragon Studios is going to give you a belated gift to help rectify that unfortunate circumstance -- you're not going to miss the fun as long as you get a chance to play before the end of the month, as the event is now running through the 31st. This year's event is very similar to the event of last year, albeit with the added challenge of defeating the nefarious (and frosty) Lady Winter to prevent her evil schemes. Players can also collect special salvage to unlock special Enhancements and costume pieces, as well as acquire badges from previous years. The event is running through the rest of the month, so even if you've been a bit too swamped to enjoy the holiday season in City of Heroes before now, you've got more chances ahead.
The Game Archaeologist and the year that was 2010
Earlier in the year when I started this column, I realized two things. First, I'd be giving myself as much as any of you a crash-course education in older MMOs, particularly with some of the more fringe titles that I'd never really explored up to this point. And second, it would be a challenge to find the right mix of elements to do these MMOs justice. So before we look back at all the games this column covered in 2010, I'd like to ask each and every one of you to take a minute and drop a comment about what you'd like to see The Game Archaeologist do next. What titles would you love to see honored in 2011? What features are the most interesting to you -- dev interviews, player interviews, history overviews, photo galleries, first impression playthroughs, or links to community fansites and blogs? What could I add to make The Game Archaeologist even better? I also want to take a minute to thank the readers, players and developers who have contributed to this column so far. While there are MMOs that get a lion's share of the press these days, we at Massively are committed to spotlighting as many of these games as possible, particularly if there's a passionate community and dev team behind them. I've loved hearing your stories and hope that in passing them along, perhaps we've opened a door or two to games that you might've never considered before. So let's hop in our hot air balloon and soar over the year that was 2010!
One Shots: Peace on Azeroth, good will to Moonkin
Ahh, Christmas. For many, it's a day to settle in, enjoy a delicious drink (or three), and relax now that the craziness of the holiday season is mostly over. With happy tidings of home, heart, friends, and family, we figured what better time to show off a moment of relative peace compared to the normally contentious Alliance vs. Horde relations in World of Warcraft. It would seem the holiday spirit even rubbed off on these three adventurers as today's One Shots contributor, Wonderwall, tells us: "This was taken on a PvP server -- Blood Furnance to be exact. I was questing in Hyjal when a duo of Horde (I am Alliance) were on a quest. I thought I would help them out by fighting their enemies, and in exchange they did the same. After it was all over we danced. 'Tis the season to be jolly, right?" We love all kinds of MMOs, from large to small. If you'd like to show off your favorite game, then grab a great screenshot and email it to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a note explaining just what's going on in the image. In the meantime, we'd like to wish you all a holiday full of friends, fun, and epic loots! %Gallery-85937%
EverQuest II offering bonus experience
Once all the presents have been opened, the fruitcake has been eaten (or relegated to the duty of propping open a nearby door), and many folks are back to work, it might seem a bit glum after the weekend's festivities. Thankfully, if you're an EverQuest II or EverQuest II Extended player, you'll have something to look forward to. Sony Online Entertainment has decided to offer up a great late present to its loyal players in the form of four days of bonus experience! From 12:01 a.m. PST on Monday, December 27th until 11:59 p.m. PST on Thursday, December 30th, players will be treated to a whopping 100% bonus on experience. According to the EverQuest II site, that covers all AA, tradeskill, and adventuring experience gained during that period and will cross to the French, German, Japanese and test servers as well as the main EverQuest II and EverQuest II Extended servers. So get ready to celebrate the last week of 2010 with some free epic extra experience in Norrath.
Updated: On the twelfth day of giveaways, Cryptic gave to me...
[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Congratulations!] On the twelfth day of giveaways, Cryptic gave to me... twelve product codes! On the eleventh day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me... eleven Hukumdar buffs! On the tenth day of giveaways, NCsoft gave to me... ten game expansions! On the ninth day of giveaways, Funcom gave to me... nine ladies lamenting! On the eighth day of giveaways, SOE gave to me... eight Station Cash cards! On the seventh day of giveaways, Kingsisle gave to me... seven Epic Cards! On the sixth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... six Vindictus packs! On the fifth day of giveaways, Mythic gave to me... five upgrade codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, ChangYou gave to me... four welcome gifts! On the third day of giveaways, Icarus gave to me... three months of gameplay! On the second day of giveaways, Hi-Rez gave to me... two gift packages! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! Welcome to the 12th and final day of Massively's 12 Days of Giveaways! We hope you've enjoyed the event, and we want to send a big thank you to the 12 companies listed above -- this wouldn't have happened without their generosity. We're finishing off the series with a bang thanks to Cryptic. The developers of Champions Online have been pretty busy lately. CO is gearing up for the switch to free-to-play in early 2011, but the team has also put together a holiday celebration in game. In order to bring more players in on the fun, Cryptic has given us 12 product codes for Champions Online. This will get you the full game, allowing you to play for free quite a bit before everyone else! Star Trek Online fans aren't forgotten, though. Cryptic also put 12 product codes for STO under our virtual tree, so we're passing those along to you as well. Finally, we've got two lifetime subscriptions: one for STO and one for CO. A total of 26 Massively readers are going to walk away with great new gift. As always, check our contest rules and then enter by leaving a comment to let us know which game is your favorite and why. Good luck!
Updated: On the eleventh day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me...
[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Congratulations!] On the eleventh day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me... eleven Hukumdar buffs! On the tenth day of giveaways, NCsoft gave to me... ten game expansions! On the ninth day of giveaways, Funcom gave to me... nine ladies lamenting! On the eighth day of giveaways, SOE gave to me... eight Station Cash cards! On the seventh day of giveaways, Kingsisle gave to me... seven Epic Cards! On the sixth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... six Vindictus packs! On the fifth day of giveaways, Mythic gave to me... five upgrade codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, ChangYou gave to me... four welcome gifts! On the third day of giveaways, Icarus gave to me... three months of gameplay! On the second day of giveaways, Hi-Rez gave to me... two gift packages! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! GamersFirst joins the 12 Days of Giveaways today by introducing a game we've not heard much about: Hukumdar. What is Hukumdar? It's a MMORTS that challenges you to take up arms alongside the humans, robots, and giants of Shaba and battle and enemy tribe. GamersFirst is introducing Hukumdar in style with a gift pack containing 11 codes for $120 of Hukumdar online goodies. The pack contains an Advanced Castle Teleporter, which allows you to move your castle to any available castle site, as well as Advanced Permits for production, building, and training. These permits last seven days and allow you to build two production nodes and buildings and train two sets of troops, simultaneously. The gift pack also contains three each of gem, rune, and scroll packs. Opening one will give you a random assortment of that type of item. Your heroes are all taken care of too! You'll get 10 Big Health Potions, each of which restores 30% of your heroes' health, three Small Bloodstone Potions to redistribute level 1-20 heroes' attributes, three Small Coral Potions for redistributing level 1-20 heroes' skill points, and a Small Revival Card to instantly revive a level 1-20 hero. We've got five of these packs, so if you're an MMORTS fan looking for a new free-to-play, let us know in the comments by Friday, December 24th at 7 p.m. EST. We'll pick five winners at random -- check our contest rules, and as always, good luck!
Behind the Mask: I'm raiding for Christmas
I'm not a big fan of holiday events. For the most part, they're an excuse to grind a bunch of cosmetic stuff, such as titles/perks and costume pieces. The other possibility is random junk filling my inventory, like fireworks, candy, and other assorted goodies that just end up on the auction house. If there's any holiday missions or quests, people are more interested in doing them in the most efficient way possible, instead of killing mobs for experience. Since I like tangible benefits, holiday events generally aren't my thing. I usually end up soloing over the season or playing with a small group of friends. Bah humbug. The winter events in Champions Online are really no different from the events in any other game. They mostly consist of gathering presents, doing little holiday quests and getting an inventory full of random junk. But the devs included something silly that I'm looking forward to: an excuse to get teams to do the impossible. Buckle in, guys: I'm doing Andrithal and Mandragalore this holiday season.
Steam offering discounts on MMOs for the holidays
You never get everything you want over the holiday. That's inevitable. That's also why Steam, the digital distribution service that's become all but ubiquitous, always takes the chance to offer steep discounts for players once the holiday season starts up in earnest. This year has already seen the rollout of some big sales, with Final Fantasy XI, Aion, and Global Agenda all available for discounted prices -- prices in excess of 50% off. Final Fantasy XI's complete collection is being offered for $4.99 up through January 3rd. Aion is available for just $10 (a 75% reduction and the steepest discount of the lot) through January 2nd, and Global Agenda can be picked up for a $15 outlay with no subscription fee. It's a wide enough range of games that nearly anyone will find something worth picking up, and on the off chance you don't see your dream game listed, keep your eye on Steam over the next few days. It's better to give than receive, yes, but it's even better to do both.
Updated: On the tenth day of giveaways, NCsoft gave to me...
[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Congratulations!] On the tenth day of giveaways, NCsoft gave to me... ten game expansions! On the ninth day of giveaways, Funcom gave to me... nine ladies lamenting! On the eighth day of giveaways, SOE gave to me... eight Station Cash cards! On the seventh day of giveaways, Kingsisle gave to me... seven Epic Cards! On the sixth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... six Vindictus packs! On the fifth day of giveaways, Mythic gave to me... five upgrade codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, ChangYou gave to me... four welcome gifts! On the third day of giveaways, Icarus gave to me... three months of gameplay! On the second day of giveaways, Hi-Rez gave to me... two gift packages! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! If you're a fan of NCsoft MMOs, you know that they feature some great holiday events. The developer teams for all of the games throw out decorations, quests, special events, and gifts galore. There's more, though! The Aion team added double crafting XP to the holiday events, Lady Winter is running around City of Heroes bent on mischief, Wintersday has arrived to Guild Wars with some new events, and we've got some awesome gifts from all three games under the 12 Days of Giveaways tree! NCsoft gave us 10 Aion gift packages, each containing a copy of Aion's Assault on Balaurea and a code for a variety of bonus pets. We also received 10 City of Heroes gift packages! Each CoH pack contains the Going Rogue Complete Collection and a 30-day jet pack code. On the Guild Wars front we have a little something extra: fifteen Balthazar and Melandru costume codes! We've got five Melandru costumes, five Balthazar costumes, and five complete sets! Ten Aion fans, 10 CoH fans, and 15 Guild Wars fans are about to have a very good day! All you need to do to enter is tell us which game is your favorite and what hooked you. Enter by Thursday at 6:00 p.m. EST, check our contest rules, and good luck!
Updated: On the ninth day of giveaways, Funcom gave to me...
[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Congratulations!] On the ninth day of giveaways, Funcom gave to me... nine ladies lamenting! On the eighth day of giveaways, SOE gave to me... eight Station Cash cards! On the seventh day of giveaways, Kingsisle gave to me... seven Epic Cards! On the sixth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... six Vindictus packs! On the fifth day of giveaways, Mythic gave to me... five upgrade codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, ChangYou gave to me... four welcome gifts! On the third day of giveaways, Icarus gave to me... three months of gameplay! On the second day of giveaways, Hi-Rez gave to me... two gift packages! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! Ah, Conan. He had a nice, clear idea of the best things in life. Here at Massively, we're a little short on lamentation at the moment, so we went the other route: the best things in life are free. Funcom has joined our 12 Days of Giveaways with a one-year subscription to Age of Conan, including the Rise of the Godslayer expansion! Age of Conan has had a pretty eventful year -- if you've been a fan for a while, you know, but if you're new there's no better time to check it out. Funcom put a little more under the tree too, so if you don't win the AoC subscription, don't despair. Two more Massively readers will win the Titan edition of Bloodline Champions. The game is currently in beta, so you'll have beta access until launch along with all the other bells and whistles that come with this edition. To enter, simply leave a comment telling us which part of Age of Conan is your favorite by 5:00 p.m. EST Wednesday. We'll draw three winners at random. Check our contest rules, and best of luck!
Happy Holiday screenshots from TERA
Here I thought Santa was a jolly elf. Apparently, he is a dwarf with wicked muscles, or at least that's how TERA depicts him. Our friends at En Masse Entertainment have not been shy about showing off their exquisitely detailed MMO, especially shots of the scary vampires. Well, today we have some winter holiday-related screenshots including a few featuring the said dwarf/Santa Claus hybrid. TERA has consistently amazed fans with elaborate pictures of in-game footage. It seems hard to believe this is actually an action-MMO -- there's no slowed-down animation here. Spellcasters throw bolts of energy when you wave a wand; those swings of the sword are happening at the click of a button. And yes, that bee stings in real-time. There is no pause for animated sequences in this gameplay! On top of all this action, there is deep lore and story. You may wish to stop by the official website to learn more or maybe check out our other TERA-related image galleries. Happy Holidays! %Gallery-111746%
Wings Over Atreia: All I want for Solorius is...
While admittedly they don't include two front teeth, there are definitely some things I would be thrilled to see in my virtual stocking this holiday season from the developers of Aion. At this time of year, you almost can't help but look ahead and dream about what things would make it a better world. Don't believe me? Name me one other time when you hear "peace on earth" more -- not counting a beauty pageant! But our desires for a better world need not be confined just to that real one we inhabit when our computers are shut off; in fact, wishing for a better Atreia (though peace among Daevas may be counter-productive) is right in the holiday spirit! I am not looking for any "I win" or easy button -- just a few things that will make for a better and brighter Atreia, some things that will put more fun into my time in Aion. I'm making my list and checking it twice. After all, 'tis the season of miracles, right? Sleigh ride past the break to take a peek at part of my Christmas... er, I mean Solorius... wish list!
Updated: On the eighth day of giveaways, SOE gave to me...
[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Congratulations!] On the eighth day of giveaways, SOE gave to me... eight Station Cash cards! On the seventh day of giveaways, Kingsisle gave to me... seven Epic Cards! On the sixth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... six Vindictus packs! On the fifth day of giveaways, Mythic gave to me... five upgrade codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, ChangYou gave to me... four welcome gifts! On the third day of giveaways, Icarus gave to me... three months of gameplay! On the second day of giveaways, Hi-Rez gave to me... two gift packages! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! Today's giveaway is a little different -- read on! First, Sony Online Entertainment has treated us to eight Free Realms Station Cash cards, each worth 1,000 SC. Free Realms is right in the middle of the Snow Days celebration, and there are plenty of wintry treats to spend these extra Station Cash on! Second, the team has added some bonus items to make up a gift bundle for you to keep for yourself or pass to friends for the holidays: download vouchers for PSN games Crescent Pale Mist, Qlione Evolve, and Swords & Soldiers. Finally, SOE has given us eight mystery gifts. It wouldn't be the holidays without some surprises and anticipation, would it? Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. EDT, you'll want to be watching our Twitter feed very closely -- we'll be handing out the bonus gifts from SOE on Twitter! For now, enter for this portion of the giveaway by leaving a comment! We'll draw eight winners at random Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. EST, so check out our contest rules and best of luck!
Lost Pages of Taborea: Snowflake Festival
Jingle brother's time is here. Time for slaying. Time for cheer. Presents abound every Christmas in the Snowflake Festival, and I've been hoarding them like a squirrel. This is one of my favorite holidays, probably my favorite one in Runes of Magic. Not only are there lots of treats to get, but the quests are fun. I reminisced last week about the events held in RoM year-round, but I wanted to run through some of the things I've been doing in this year's festival. Despite some recent patching trouble, the holiday is up and running. There are new mounts, furniture, Christmas graphics and prizes galore to enjoy this year. If you've never played RoM during the Snowflake Festival -- or never took part in the quests -- this will serve as a fun guide and idea engine for what's in store for you. Get your space bar primed and ready for lots of jumping and read on past the break.
Updated: On the seventh day of giveaways, Kingsisle gave to me...
[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Congratulations!] On the seventh day of giveaways, Kingsisle gave to me... seven Epic Cards! On the sixth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... six Vindictus packs! On the fifth day of giveaways, Mythic gave to me... five upgrade codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, ChangYou gave to me... four welcome gifts! On the third day of giveaways, Icarus gave to me... three months of gameplay! On the second day of giveaways, Hi-Rez gave to me... two gift packages! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! Back in November, GameStop teamed up with Kingsisle, the publisher of Wizard101, to offer fans of the game the Epic Bundle cards. The cards have been a big hit, so the Wizard101 team gave us seven of them to share with you for our seventh day of giveaways! Each Epic Bundle contains everything to twink your character out in style: a huge castle complete with a dueling circle and minigame kiosk, a gryphon mount, an Epic Spear of Power, a surprise dueling pet, new clothing, and 5,000 crowns for a shopping spree. This bundle is perfect for both new and experienced Wizard101 players, so all you have to do to enter is let us know which you are! Check out our contest rules, then leave a comment here telling us whether you're a veteran player of Wizard101 or a newcomer hoping to start out in the game in style! We'll draw seven winners at random Monday at 2:00 p.m. EST, so get your entry in before that, and good luck!
One Shots: Bad Santa
While Santa is a familiar and welcome sight to many, not every Santa you meet is out to spread joy and give out presents to good boys and girls. Take, for example, this evil Santa who shows up in Runes of Magic -- he's more bent on beatdowns than merrymaking. So, hey -- if you've had about enough of ho-ho-holiday stuff, then you can head for this MMO and hunt down some bad Santas for yourself! Darkorchid writes in to explain: "The best part about the Snowflake Festival in Runes of Magic is that you get to kill Santa! He's pretty easy, too. Must be due to all of those cookies and glasses of milk." There are only a handful of days left to send in your holiday shots. So if you'd like to share a festive image, send it in to us here at oneshots@massively.com. Be sure to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-85937%
Updated: On the sixth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me...
[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Congratulations!] On the sixth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... six Vindictus packs! On the fifth day of giveaways, Mythic gave to me... five upgrade codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, ChangYou gave to me... four welcome gifts! On the third day of giveaways, Icarus gave to me... three months of gameplay! On the second day of giveaways, Hi-Rez gave to me... two gift packages! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! Today's giveaway comes to us courtesy of Nexon. The Vindictus team has prepared quite a holiday party -- complete with snowball fights in stripey underwear. No party is complete without some presents, so for this sixth day of giveaways, we've got gift packages for six lucky readers. Nexon's got another video for the holidays titled "Dance of the Colhen Mercenaries," which you can check out after the cut. We're going to continue with the theme by offering up six Merc Survival Packs. Each pack contains 10 Platinum Tokens, 100 Merc Recovery Potions, 10 Goddess Grace, 5 Goddess Grace (Party), and five 30-AP Capsules. Simply comment to win as always -- the deadline to enter is tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. EST. Today you can tell us what you'll be doing or acquiring first in the Vindictus festivities. Check out our contest rules page, and good luck!
Updated: On the fifth day of giveaways, Mythic gave to me...
[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Congratulations!] On the fifth day of giveaways, Mythic gave to me... five upgrade codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, ChangYou gave to me... four welcome gifts! On the third day of giveaways, Icarus gave to me... three months of gameplay! On the second day of giveaways, Hi-Rez gave to me... two gift packages! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! Today we continue Massively's 12 Days of Giveaways! During this 12-day event, you'll find presents galore, courtesy of some of the best MMOs out there. Every day until December 24th, we'll post a new contest for you to enter. We've got a huge pile of goodies to give away, so they're going to be fast and furious -- you'll have 24 hours from the time the contest is posted to enter. Don't worry, though, because we're going to do our best to accommodate everyone -- you'll simply have to leave a comment to be entered in the random drawing, and we'll be posting each contest at a different time of day. Today's gifts are courtesy of Mythic, the creator of Warhammer Online and one of the grandaddies of the MMO genre, Ultima Online. Follow along after the jump to see what's up for grabs today!
Massively's ho-ho-holiday MMO roundup for 2010
It's that time of year again -- when snow falls in lands that normally don't even see weather effects! When you're supposed to love your fellow elf, human, dwarf -- or at least maim them in the nicest, most brotherly way possible. As one would expect with a plethora of MMOs out on the market, there are gobsmackingly huge numbers of events to take advantage of. Being the festive holiday folks we are (well, OK, some of us anyway), we've gathered up a listing of some of the many things going on. So if you're curious about just what holiday merriment can be found out there, grab some egg nog (alcohol optional), click past the break, and dive into our festive roundup of holiday events. Also, be sure to keep an eye on Massively as Rubi continues giving great gifts to gamers galore in our 12 Days of Giveaways event!
Updated: On the fourth day of giveaways, Zentia gave to me...
On the fourth day of giveaways, ChangYou gave to me... four welcome gifts! On the third day of giveaways, Icarus gave to me... three months of gameplay! On the second day of giveaways, Hi-Rez gave to me... two gift packages! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! Today we continue Massively's 12 Days of Giveaways! During this 12-day event, you'll find presents galore, courtesy of some of the best MMOs out there. Every day until December 24th, we'll post a new contest for you to enter. We've got a huge pile of goodies to give away, so they're going to be fast and furious -- you'll have 24 hours from the time the contest is posted to enter. Don't worry, though, because we're going to do our best to accommodate everyone -- you'll simply have to leave a comment to be entered in the random drawing, and we'll be posting each contest at a different time of day. Today's (very generous) gifts are from Zentia, the free-to-play game from ChangYou that's gained a lot of attention. Its charm attracted and kept a high number of players, and things are busier than ever in Zentia thanks to the holidays. Follow along after the jump to see what Zentia is up to for the holidays -- and what gifts we have for you today!
