holiday-events
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Hyperspace Beacon: Bucket list
Once we start Star Wars: The Old Republic, we will not be able to stop. After only playing the game twice, I have a hard time going back to other games because -- among other things -- voice-over dialogue is far superior to walls of text any day. Then, of course, we can't forget character choices. We will be able to tell the quest-giver what we think of fetching that item for him at the shop when he could just as easily get it himself if he decided to walk 10 feet to the building next to him. That leads me to the point of this article. Despite all the incredible things we will be able to do in SWTOR, certain others will be missed once the game launches. Particular staples of MMO games, in general, will never be seen again. As someone who is placing his MMO future in TOR, I suggest creating a bucket list. Let's face it: When The Old Republic releases, we cannot look back to other MMOs. They will be dead to us. After the cut, I have complied a list of 10 items that we will never see again once we start playing TOR. Count them down with me.
Naoki Yoshida hints at future developments in latest Final Fantasy XIV letter
One of the promises that Naoki Yoshida made to Final Fantasy XIV players upon taking over the job of producer was regular, open communication. It's an easy promise to make, but the producer has also followed through in the delivery with his regular letters to the community as a whole. The newest letter has just been released, promising a variety of changes and updates in tomorrow's patch 1.17 and beyond -- including hints of an additional job system supplementing the existing Armoury system. The main thrust of this particular letter is explaining the division of labor in the game's development, with teams working on battle system revamps and improvements alongside quest teams and art teams, allowing for the game's current pace of small, rapid patches. There's also a promise that the Grand Companies will soon be unveiled on the official site, organizations which Yoshida states will be extremely important in the game's upcoming content. Final Fantasy XIV fans can read the full letter on the official forums.
LotRO March Producer's letter offers glimpse of fun to come
It's been a busy month for Lord of the Rings Online, with Update 2: Echoes of the Dead going live, tons of players checking out all the improvements and new content available to them, and the popular Spring Festival already underway. However, Turbine isn't resting on its laurels. According to the March Producer's letter by Kate Paiz, Executive Producer for Lord of the Rings Online, there are even more cool things planned for the not-too-distant future. Not only does Paiz touch on all the great content just introduced to the game in Update 2, but she notes that LotRO's fourth anniversary is coming up in April, that will see the addition of a new in-game Anniversary Festival celebration. Along with that, players can look forward to an unnamed treasure-hunting event, which will "likely be open for play periodically over the year." There are also some more tasty tidbits on Update 3, with a note that we'll hear more details about Isengard a little later down the road. In all, if you call Middle-earth your MMO home, you'll want to pop by the Lord of the Rings Online site and check out all the details the newest Producer's Letter has to offer.
Final Fantasy XIV celebrating the little ladies
Thus far, the holidays of Final Fantasy XIV have closely paralleled those of Final Fantasy XI, and the latest holiday announcement continues that trend in probably the best way possible. After all, one of the charms of the older game has always been its unique and sometimes offbeat holidays, a tradition held over in the brand-new Little Ladies' Day. It's a chance for players to celebrate the coming of spring, blossoming trees, and of course, their diminutive feminine side. The event will run from February 17th until March 3rd, and the announcement itself previews both the festive decorations for the event as well as the new crafting recipes associated with the holiday. As with previous holidays, there is also a piece of fiction detailing the origin of the revelry, a case of misconstrued motive within the sultanate of Ul'dah. Final Fantasy XIV players can look forward to the event in just a couple of days, an event that promises to provide some much-needed spring cheer along with a surfeit of tasty rice cakes.
Breakfast Topic: Do you actually do holiday events?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. I remember a World of Warcraft before achievement points. Shortly before their introduction at the tail end of The Burning Crusade, Brewfest hit. By this holiday, the full list of achievement points was up on the PTR, and players all over Azeroth were getting mad that Blizzard included Disturbing the Peace as a requisite for the Brewmaster. Since Dalaran wasn't released yet, it was impossible to do during that Brewfest. They would have to wait until September 2009's Brewfest to complete their What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement. Disturbing the Peace has since been removed from the Brewmaster achievement. At that time, I was incredulous as to why people were getting so mad over an achievement point. On one of my fact-finding missions to the general forums, I found out some of the reasons for the outbursts of rage I was seeing. Most people were just mad because they didn't want to wait a year for their Violet Proto-Drake. A minority, however, were mad because they would have to do Brewfest two years in a row. As someone who has amassed a grand total of 18 holiday achievements -- all of Hallowed be Thy Name, four Brewfests, and two more -- over three years of playing the same character as my main, it made sense to me that people didn't want to do Brewfest. Holiday events hold no attraction for me; I'd sooner go level an alt or alt-tab and write an article for WoW Insider than do the current Love is in the Air event. I'm not quite sure what it is about them, but in-game holidays just bore me, and I've never cared enough about the Violet Proto-Drake to bother doing them. What about you? Do you log on at 8 a.m. every Christmas morning to get your He Knows if You've Been Naughty achievement on every new alt you've made that year? Did you complete the Midsummer Fire Festival once on your main so you could get your epic mount and then shun it forever? Are you going to pull a me, who stands AFK in Orgrimmar boggling at people running around with their Peddlefeet?
Time for love in Final Fantasy XI
Valentine's Day is almost here, that special time of year when you attempt to distill the essence of a romantic relationship into chocolate form. And if you were hoping to escape from the day within Vana'diel, your efforts are rather misdirected -- Valentione's Day coincides nicely with the holiday in the real world, with just as much saccharine summation of liaisons in Final Fantasy XI. This year's celebration will run from February 1st until the 15th, giving players plenty of time to show their in-game companions how much they care (enough to try and get a special even reward, at least). As with previous holidays, the event announcement is accompanied with a piece of in-game fiction, something that reminds us all of an important truism -- never make your healer angry. Final Fantasy XI fans should take a look at the full piece, as it's worth a chuckle or two. No definite information on what the rewards will be is included, but it's a fair bet that the event will be similar to that of years past. So if you still aren't rocking a heart-shaped wand, it's time to get up to speed -- although you might want to lay off the chocolates a little, since there's another lesson about that in the fictional accompaniment...
The Daily Grind: Which in-game item did you work for the longest?
Most MMORPGs are loot-centric games, and whether the gear is required for basic gameplay or relatively meaningless "flair," often times acquiring certain items takes quite a bit of time and effort. Hi-Rez Studios' 12 Drops of Christmas promotion recently concluded with the gifting of an abominable snowman helmet to the Global Agenda die-hards who managed to make it through the lengthy set of challenges. While most of the tasks were pretty easy to accomplish in-game, coordinating the events with hectic holiday schedules took some doing, and I had a couple of close calls when it came to meeting the objectives and squeaking in under the deadlines. Today's Daily Grind asks about your prized rare loot items and the hoops you had to jump through to obtain them. Which item took you the longest time to acquire, and how long did you work for it? 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!
NCsoft hypes Aion double crafting XP and holiday events
Happy Solorius Festival, Daevas! Yes, the Atreian equivalent of Christmas is back, and you can join the ongoing Aion celebration through January 5th. You'll find new quests in both Sanctum and Pandaemonium, as well as rewards that include decorative hats, gift bundles, and buff consumables. Mid-winter and New Year's marks the Year of the Ribbit celebration, and festivities include even more quests and rewards (including new ribbit outfit pieces). The party starts December 22nd and lasts through January 12th. Finally, NCsoft is turning on the double XP spigot again, this time in honor of Atreia's crafters. Friday, December 17th through Monday, December 20th is a prime time for catching up on any artisan activities you may have been neglecting, as double XP for crafting, essence-tapping, and aether-tapping will be in full effect.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Reminiscing on holiday events
There's been a lot of event play-time in Runes of Magic lately. The pumpkin festival carried on for a lot longer than was originally anticipated and transitioned into a short -- and smaller -- autumn banquet. Now, Christmas is right around the corner. I've been drooling over the Christmas trees that are already for sale in the cash shop. RoM has seen a full year's cycle of events come and go twice now, and we are approaching the third Christmas. Now that long-term players have seen all the offerings, I wanted to peer into the place these holidays have in the world of Taborea and see how they add to our virtual lives. In this article, I want to share how I look forward to events and explore some of the great reasons to have them. 'Tis the season, and all that jazz. Let's take some time to look back and reminisce on RoM's holiday events and why we take part in them.
The Mog Log: Relaxing with community answers
Sometimes, all it takes to see an answer is a subtle change of attitude. For the past month or so, I have been trying to spend every ounce of spare time available on Final Fantasy XIV, but I'm starting to relax a little bit because I realized just how silly it is. I would rather enjoy the journey and get there when I get there; level 50 will come as it does, and hopefully by that point my fellow AETHER members will be able to craft spectacles. Until then, let's just relax a bit and indulge a few questions with answers, yes? Gente asks: Why is Final Fantasy XI the only game getting a holiday event? There's no Halloween event for Final Fantasy XIV this year, no. There will likely be one next year, however, as the development team has stated there are events in the works for as early as the end of the year. Considering past experience with Square-Enix and this most ghoulish of holidays, we can expect it will feature an inordinately useful item and a surfeit of ghosts within the city walls.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Guide to Pumpkin Festival
Runes of Magic has been around long enough now that holiday events are making a second round. In the wake of the Juice Festival's first appearance, the Pumpkin Festival is one of the events getting a second go. Legend tells us that before humans rediscovered the continent of Candara, the land of Kolydia was ruled by tyranny. On a cold winter's night, unknown assassins wearing masks succeeded in eliminating the unsavory rulers and the hoi polloi rejoiced. The people started celebrating that day by wearing masks which became rumored to bring good luck. Unknown years and another continent later, humans made do the best they could on the underdeveloped land. The tale is said that a farmer carved out a pumpkin and put a candle in it. After seeing this, the Eye of Wisdom thought it would be a great idea to mark the day for rest and celebration before Winter. The mask wearing was added to this, kids added costumes and trick-or-treating, thus the Pumpkin Festival was born. I don't have a photographic memory nor did I painstakingly write down all event-minutea from last year, but this year's festivities look to offer more activities. On top of that, there are plenty of costumes, holiday furniture and even holiday mounts to obtain or buy. The only problem is the absence of any source to help you traverse the ins and outs of what you can do and what you can win. Until now. Click past the break for help making your way through this year's Pumpkin Festival.
Star Wars Galaxies ramps up for the Galactic Moon Festival
Even if you're in a galaxy far, far away, that's no reason to get away from the festivities that Halloween brings. It's time for Star Wars Galaxies to host the Galactic Moon Festival once again, an event wherein mystical Jedi warriors and proud Wookiee soldiers can pretend to be fantastical, made-up creatures like ghouls and vampires. And while there's a touch of thematic disconnect there, if there's one thing we MMO players seem to love, it's a good holiday event. Starting on the 21st of October, the Galactic Moon Festival features everything you could want in a holiday celebration -- cosmetic costumes, minigames, and plenty of little treats for players to acquire over the course of the event. Aside from a variety of rewards to be earned via a particularly terrifying costume, there are new pieces of cosmetic clothing to be purchased, from the elegant Z'zopheratu's jacket to the adorable Rotta the Huttlet backpack. Take a look at the full preview to see what's coming for Star Wars Galaxies with the festival.
Final Fantasy XI prepares for a haunted harvest festival
It's time for the events to start rolling in for Halloween, always a favorite holiday for MMOs to celebrate. Final Fantasy XI has been running its own ghoulish take on the occasion for many years now, and the most recent iteration promises to be more of the same. This year's harvest festival has just been announced, complete with the requisite piece of fiction to help ground the holiday in the lore of Vana'diel and its inhabitants. Running from October 19th to November 2nd, this year's festival promises to contain many of the elements seen in years past, such as trick-or-treating and the joy of setting up decorations. Longtime veterans will remember that this event also lets you obtain the desirable Treat Staff II as well as a number of cosmetic items, which makes for a fun experience all around. Take a look at the official announcement, and get ready for another October of rather meddlesome spirits in Final Fantasy XI.
The Daily Grind: How do you like your in-game holidays?
While the Yanks in the audience are busy recovering from their Independence Day beer-and-BBQ binges, the rest of you might well be wondering what all the fuss is about regarding that most American of holidays. Well, I'd love to wax on about it, but since we're not a history blog, let's look instead at the myriad MMORPG holiday celebrations that happen throughout the year. Whether it's something like the fireworks shenanigans going on in Mabinogi this weekend, or the double XP happening in EverQuest II, every title normally does a little something extra for the major holidays including Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and of course, July 4th. Does your favorite game celebrate real-world holidays? If so, does it make any attempt at dressing it up to fit the game world, or is it just an excuse to indulge in some free items or unusual quests? What are your favorite holiday gaming events?
Celestial Nights (and days) coming to Final Fantasy XI
While there are those who might argue that the release of the June version update is celebration enough, Final Fantasy XI isn't the sort of game to let a couple of months go by without some Vana'dielian holiday event. It's time for another fun trip into the celebration of summer, and this year's festivities promise to celebrate everyone's favorite part of the season: young lovers dying unpleasantly. At least, that's what this year's piece of introductory fiction for the Celestial Nights is promising, along with the ever-popular profiteering moogles. Unlike several events in Final Fantasy XI, the actual process of the event over the past two years has remained fairly static, as has the backstory regarding the event. In short, it's a chance for characters to get some unique furnishings and the ever-popular decorative pieces of armor. This year's event will be starting on June 29th, running for two weeks until July 13th. Avid players can brush up on the guide from prior years for a good idea of how this year's festivities will most likely take place.
Vana'diel's Feast of Swords returns to Final Fantasy XI
Amidst all of the Final Fantasy XIV news, it would be understandable if players had a bit of a harder time remembering what holidays are coming up in the venerable Final Fantasy XI. But it would be very sad to miss out on this one, the time-honored Feast of Swords that gives everyone a chance to swing wooden blades at animated samurai armor. It might seem a bit odd to have such a holiday presented as foreign in a Japanese game, but that's always been one of the oddities of the setting. Per the custom, there's a short fiction piece detailing the lead-in to the event, which continues the trend of Final Fantasy XI's moogles being portrayed as inscrutable meddlers. The holiday proper begins on April 27th, with the usual procedures. Talking to an event moogle gives you a special blade, and finding a moogle in one of several zones lets you enchant the blade to hunt the local armor. You won't be able to fight anything else, but it's all worth it when you slay the creature and get your ever-coveted cosmetic event rewards. In short, it promises to be fun times for adventurers of all levels, although possibly less fun for animated samurai armor.
Patch 3.3.3 PTR: Zarhym clarifies new holiday boss mechanics
So one of the new changes coming in Patch 3.3.3 is that one will be able queue up using the dungeon finder in order to fight world event bosses such as the Crown Chemical Trio or the Headless Horseman. However, the actual extent of the changes is a bit more involved, as Zarhym clarified in a recent forums post. Here's the rundown:
Mabinogi fuses science and magic with new Alchemist update
In real life, alchemy was an early scientific movement that wound up stumbling upon a few concepts important to modern science. In Mabinogi, it's at the heart of the most recent update as a mixture of both science and magic, allowing characters access to new skills and abilities through research and magical prowess. The Alchemist update for the game has just been released into the wild, and brought with it a new form of gameplay, the aforementioned Alchemist abilities, and not one but two different holiday events for players to enjoy. Within the new zone, Taillteann, players will be able to explore both the Alchemist's House to research components of the new skills, or take part in the game's new Shadow Missions. If taking part in the missions and the new storyline isn't as appealing for the moment, however, there's also an event running for both Valentine's Day and the Lunar New Year, with both offering players a few carrots if they take part in the festivities. Mabinogi has been keeping a steady stream of content updates for some time, and this newest update promises to give players even more to explore within the world of Erinn.
Love is in the air in Final Fantasy XI
For most people, Valentine's Day either means either buying something nice for your partner if you're in a relationship, or staring in silent rage at the endless array of heart-shaped candy boxes if you're single. Unless you're a player in Final Fantasy XI, in which case it means yet another opportunity to get yourself a heart-shaped wand and possibly fulfill your dream of being a magical girl. The not-so-deceptively named Valentione's Day is fast approaching yet again, and as per tradition, the official site has put together a short piece of fiction to commemorate and preview the event. This year seems to hint at a slight twist to the events of prior years -- while the charm wand has become strongly associated with the event (since that was how one earned it in the first place), it's usually the end reward of the process. The small preview story seems to hint that we'll be called upon to slay more than a few monsters with said wand before everything is said and done... or perhaps it's just a sweet little vignette. Either way, Final Fantasy XI players will get a chance to find out between February 4th through February 15th.
Final Fantasy XI launches event for the new year
The new year isn't one of the major holidays celebrated by MMOs -- the favorites are the recent winter holiday season and Halloween events, with the possible Valentine's Day or middle-of-summer event. But there's still a time and place for ringing in the new year, and if there's one thing that Final Fantasy XI loves, it's holiday events. (Or killing players in Dynamis. It's a fine line.) This year's event focuses on the spirit of the tiger, with two celebration NPCs roaming the world surrounded by the auspicious spirits of tigers. While the official posting only tells the story explaining the event, FFXIclopedia has a preliminary guide explaining the event. Chasing the NPCs and trading enough items to them allows you to receive furnishings for you house, or a vanity weapon that can then be used to pick up a unique painting. The event seems to be taking place at random spots all across Vana'diel, with a list of confirmed spots on the guide to help players obtain their new toys. While the game's spiritual sequel is due out this year, it's still a good time for Final Fantasy XI players to celebrate another year in their game of choice.
