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Perfect Ten: My favorite MMO April Fools' pranks of all time
There are two types of people on April 1st: those who are annoyed and indifferent to the tomfoolery going on all around them, and those who gleefully embrace the zany antics and baldfaced lies. For the record, I am of the latter crowd. I love April Fools' Day and the humor and creativity that it inspires. While this day is by no means contained to our neck of the woods, MMOs have a long-running streak of trying to pull the wool over our eyes. I think a good goof has to have several qualities to make it truly memorable. It needs to be original. It needs to be actually amusing, whether or not you "fell for it." And it needs to tweak our expectations and understanding of how MMOs work. Sometimes there are even important ideas that emerge from these jokes that could, indeed, make these titles better. So let's go through my favorite MMO April Fools pranks of all time, as catalogued by yours truly!
Star Wars Galaxies: Dr. Fool strikes back
Toys turning tables on Imperials and Rebels alike? It may sound like a bad joke, but Star Wars Galaxies has never seen such dire straits. The elusive and diabolical Dr. Fool (who has a Ph.D. in Evil Medicine) has returned once more to unleash his fiendish toys on the residents of Tatooine, Naboo, Lok, Corellia, and Endor. These high-level toys -- some resembling miniature AT-ATs -- should be treated as hostile on sight and taken down without prejudice. Of course, for this April Fool's event, players are to be rewarded for their diligence. SOE is tempting all SWG fighters and lovers to disable the toys with a special title: "Toy Recaller." This title can only be achieved on April 1st by taking down the malfunctioning toys before the stroke of midnight PDT. Wookiepedia has more information on this toy rampage, which coincidentally also happened a year ago to the day. You can also read the aftermath of the 2009 event on SWG's forums.
