MMOG Holiday Quickies 36
Holidays are always interesting times of the year in MMOGs, as development teams gear up for live events that change the face of the typical worlds we play in. Everquest 2's Holiday is in full swing, with the Frostfell event. Aggro me has a review for the curious. Planetside is featuring Holiday headgear, and Ultima Online offers up goodie packs with trees and presents. Azeroth's Feast of the Winter Veil has snowballs, lost reindeer, and once again has players selling cookies for outrageous prices on the Auction House. Ahh...the holiday spirit. City of Heroes/City of Villains is going all out this year (possibly to make up for the lack of a Halloween event this year). Heroes and Villains both have their own version of the event, with a mysterious Gamester entering the arena for some general holiday mischief. Finally, Final Fantasy XI not only has the Traditional Starlight Celebration, thanks to the Moogles, but just had a massive patch that's (as always) causing some stir in the player community. Happy New Year to all, be you Carebears, Gankers, or Forum Trolls! Update: 12/27 20:31 GMT by Z : Some users pointed out that I neglected to mention Red Moon Rising, Eve's new expansion, and the Guild Wars Holiday event. I promise, folks, it has nothing to do with malice. Some game events just catch my eye more readily than others, so thanks for keeping things Holiday cheery!
Great Wintersday makeover in GW! (Score:3, Informative)
Loads of fun goodies are available too of course, including items that provide a strong in-game boost outside of the festivities. For example, whacky snowmen golems that you can hire as henchmen for your team and which are stronger than regular henchies. And candy canes which you can double-click to wipe out your Death Penalty after dying --- uber!!!
The battle between Grenth and Dwayna will involve PvP using the candy cane weapons that we've been working all week to obtain. We won't know the details of this until Wintersday itself, but GW has such an impressive skills-based PvP system (levels almost don't matter, only how good you are at using the hundreds of skills in each of your two professions) that it's bound to be terrific.
Very impressive work by ArenaNet/NCsoft, and not a bug in sight despite the collosal makeover. (I have no connection with them, other than as a satisfied player.)