The Daily Grind: Do you like holiday events?

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 27th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Events, in-game, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Humor

We've only been done with Halloween for about a month, and we just finished Thanksgiving. There's still some other holiday coming up this year, followed by New Year's Day, followed by Valentine's Day, and so on and so forth. And all of these holidays are usually accompanied by events in the middle of your game of choice -- usually with a different name or a slightly different backstory, but with the ultimate effect of more holiday experience being shoved directly into your retinas.

On the one hand, this is fun. It gives you a chance to break up the flow of the year a bit better within the game, it lets everyone kick back and relax a little more, and the best events give every player something new to do for a little while. On the other hand, they can distract from the game's actual focus, the rewards can sometimes be disproportionate, and for some people they get enough holiday coverage anyway. Work retail around Christmas, for instance, and you don't want more Christmas decorations in your favorite MMO. (You might want more Hanukkah, but that's a different discussion.) Today we ask: do you like having holiday events in your games of choice? If so, what are your favorite sorts and best examples? If not, what's your personal reason?

Tags: christmas, culture, halloween, hanukkah, holiday-events, holidays, humor, in-game-events, new-years-day, opinion, tdg, thanksgiving, the-daily-grind, valentines-day

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Lethality said on 8:30AM 11-27-2009

This author makes assumptions on what the game's "real focus" is.

torak said on 8:52AM 11-27-2009

I think there is something wrong with me...in all of my years of MMOing, I very rarely play attention to this holiday "events"... Dunno, 90% of the time they are silly time wasters that I have no interest in giving the time too IMHO.

I am looking forward to Ewok Love day in SWG again =P
Nothing says Star Wars like collecting chocolate bars for a painting or a Love crossbow...screw attacking a Death Star!

Neurotic said on 9:00AM 11-27-2009

There was a question about this here recently already, and I'll repeat what I said then - I'm sick of holiday events. Sick, sick, sick. It's not so bad when they're based on internal game lore, but Christmas, valentine's day, mother's day, all that stuff - keep it OUT ffs!

torak said on 9:21AM 11-27-2009

You know what I'm in favor of? Holiday events based on the lore of the game. It would be neat in a game like Vanguard if you had different holidays in the different continents / cultures / races and different times.
If it fit with the story of the game, I'm for it.

What I can't stand is the marketing tie in with our holidays. It just feels cheap and I resent it being put in the game.

Karl said on 9:32AM 11-27-2009

Like Torak said, I like holiday events based on the lore of the game... if they happen to coincide with "real world" holidays then the event should still have a game-dominated flavor.

I think both Guild Wars and LoTRO do their festivals pretty well. GW has a "Canthan New Year" and "Dragon Festival" which are game-lore heavy, while occuring around real-world holidays. LoTRO has fairly generic seasonal festivals that feel like they can really happen in Middle Earth.

WoW probably has the most disconnected festivals - for example their Thanksgiving celebration. Not knocking the work that goes into them, but American-style Thanksgiving in Azeroth seems really out of place. With so many subscribers around the world, a large chunk of the playerbase probably doesn't even celebrate Thanksgiving at all so it must seem extra od. But, I have fun with it and do a few of the events - it doesn't stop me from enjoying a bit of the content for variety.

Jack said on 4:56PM 11-27-2009

In WoW the "Thanksgiving" was part of the lore that Blizzard added... They happen to own the lore and IP! So they can do pretty much whatever they want!! And next to that the Thanksgiving event was great and one of the best WoW events so far! Same go for the brewfest!

Vulturion said on 9:53AM 11-27-2009

I like them, particularly in the many MMOs were holiday events are the main form of content update now (Guild Wars, most SOE products, etc.).

They are almost always limited to 1-3 geographical hotspots anyway (since decorating or adding weather effects to entire games would be impractical), so I don't know how people can 'over-dose' on them anyway?

Choosing to go to the busiest community of a hotspots on the most festive days of the year then complaining about the abundance of people enjoying festivities there is kind of a sympathy non-starter; like going into a nightclub to complain about loud music on the radio, or a strip-bar to complain about T&A on television.

Tom said on 10:18AM 11-27-2009

I generally just try to ignore these "holiday events", as they seem silly and out-of-place to me.

Venekor said on 10:58AM 11-27-2009

I hate them personally, like a game should have it's own events. I play the game to get away from the real world and all it's bullshit and like SWG Love Day... and the Halloween zombies where everyone runs around wearing Bat Wings.... just ruins the game.

dudemanjac said on 11:19AM 11-27-2009

I love holiday events. I don't really care ifthey break lore. How realistic was chasing down Santa in Earth and Beyond? None at all. But it was a blast! I really enjoyed trick or treat in City of Heroes that first year.

You're more than capable of going about your business without it affecting you. For as many ppl I see here saying it's bad, there is no lack of ppl taking part in these events when they happen.

CCon99 said on 12:28PM 11-27-2009

The only ones I ever really liked was the ones done in City of Heroes since they still fit in with the games modern day setting. It always seems that no matter what games me and my guildies are spread out playing, but everyone always resubs every Christmas just to hang out at the Ski Chalet event.

Werewood said on 1:27PM 11-27-2009

If there has been a Hanuka event I would have participated ... our holidays are constantly missed around MMOs.
But since joining Everquest's launch day (and UO a bit before that for a few) I never participated in any holiday event.
Its a good way to know new games though. I even thought for a second to try out CO with their free 4 days - but I just started out of curiosity EVE 2 weeks ago, and ever since then managed to buy a retail box and investing a lot of time reading about it and playing. What a wonderful game which I managed to disregard for so so so long. Embarrassing to say the least.

Dumac said on 3:04PM 11-27-2009

I like them, they offer something different and special in games that while fun, can become monotonous if played too much.

I dislike the holiday advertising happening on every gaming website however, like any holiday event is going to make me resub to a game that i gave up on, or buy a game i never even considered, right. Its already a fact that any self respecting MMO is going to have a holiday event, advertising such a thing is futile, unless there is something REALLY special going on like the free weekend for Champions Online. Free time during a holiday event is what every game should do.

Part of why i love Guild Wars is that you get to be part of every event, even if you are not actively playing any more, like me. I only log in to GW during holidays, and enjoy a bit of the things that i haven't gotten bored with like Dragon Arena or Costume Brawl, game modes that are really special because they are not around often. And there is the hat collecting ^^

Neurotic said on 3:38PM 11-27-2009

Yeah, that's it exactly. It just feels like bandwagon-ism. 'Hey! Look at us! We have holiday events too!' Gimme a break already.

M said on 3:41PM 11-27-2009

Like stated in previous entries I like it to follow the lore of the game. Final Fantasy XI is really great at this because they have such a world wide audience on the same servers that they cant just say "Merry Christmas". They typically have monthly holidays that borrow from some sort of Real Life holiday but put a little spin on it. Guild Wars Halloween is the best event of all though. I remember the first year when King Thorn showed up and it was absolutely hilarious. Also annoying when there were like 400-500 Lion Arch Districts and half crashed.

-Drexel- said on 3:59PM 11-27-2009

I don't mind them entirely but I am starting to take issue with the holiday events in WoW. They connect them to achievements (which I am embarrasingly addicted to) and space them in such a fashion that I can't take a month off without missing some important link in the horrible chain that is "What a Long Strange Trip it's Been"....frankly it's turned in game holidays into the most stressful part of my gaming. I could just let it go but I am so far along now that it seems like it would be wasting all the time I put in up to this point to miss one now.

Generally I still like them as a way to mix things up a bit but they could ease up on the amount of them they continue to add.

ZombiBambi said on 4:02PM 11-27-2009

I actually like those sorts of events, at least when they're done well. Guild Wars and EQ2 have pretty good events (esp. the Halloween stuff), and Champions Online did pretty well with the Blood Moon event. On the other hand, you have games like WAR where its kind of obvious that the events have been rushed, and they suck as a result.

If games don't have events, that's fine. I would also like to see more events for in game holidays -- someone mentioned Vanguard, and yeah, it would be cool to see different celebrations across the year for the different continents.

Karl said on 6:58PM 11-27-2009

Right.. but just because they own the IP and "can do pretty much whatever they want' doesn't mean that it actually feels like it belongs in the game. Which was my point. The way it is set up now Horde and Alliance have almost the same quests/food/items, holiday recipes, etc. That's as believable as Europe and/or/ Asia and/or Africa celebrating the same holiday at the same time with the same food.

Cinnamoon said on 1:20PM 11-28-2009

It really depends on the scale, and how much involvement is required.

I love events like those in Guild Wars, that I can log into for 30 minutes, perform some silly emotes, and get a hat. There's more to do if I feel like it, but nothing essential.

I am pretty sick of the WoW events that puke holiday crap all over every town and dump weeks of tedious achievements on us.

Gotta say I'm sick of SWG events too. They usually last way, way too long, and are even more out of place. Life Day notwithstanding.

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