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As a part of a sweet nod to Valentine's tradition (or perhaps more technically to 義理チョコ - giri-choko), the Japanese Pocky people, Ezaki Glico Company, are holding a festival on their new Pocky island in Second Life. The Pocky festival runs all the way until White Day (ホワイトデー, March 14).

Popular Japanese ska girl group, Ore Ska Band (オレスカバンド) will be playing on the island 29th of Februrary and 1st of March at 7PM and 10PM - though we're not sure which side of the dateline or which timezone that's in exactly. We'd figure Japan Standard Time so you'd be looking at the day before, japanophiles. That's the safe way to play it. If it turns out to be in SLT (US Pacific) you've at least not missed it.

For those of you who didn't have the opportunity to see the wedding of Sister Psyche and Manticore on Valentine's Day, Samuraiko Productions captured the joy and delight of the event. Ah, the outfits, the pre-wedding jitters, the explosive fury of Citadel's rage, it was all captured for posterity. Just think, when there are little Manticores and Sister Psyches running (or flying, or teleporting) about, Justin and Shalice can look back on their wedding day ... and only wish things were this quiet at home. For a high-quality version, please check out Samuraiko Productions' web site, but if you just can't wait, here's the YouTube version.

Valentine's day comes even in the Galaxy Far, Far away, and you know what that means - a lame tie-in to a fuzzy species! Christmas has the Wookie Life Day, copped from the reprehensible Star Wars Christmas special. I'm not really sure how Ewoks represent love in Star Wars Galaxies, but these midget teddy bears apparently bring in the funk.

The "Festival of Love" sees the chief of the Ewokian tribe and the Shaman Logray heading to Theed in a sort of ambassadorship of affection. There, adventurers can try to speak the Ewok language like C-3PO or partake in traditional Love Festival fare. Chak Juice and Camby berries are on offer for a small fee, and apparently give the imbiber great big stat boosts. The official Festival thread has hints about the food and the Ewok language scrambler that makes up this particular V-day event.

For this Valentine's Day, we wanted to find the best of the screenshots that had been submitted to us -- ones that would embody the spirit of love. Of course, the few screens we do currently have involve either lovely landscapes or battles -- neither of which we thought was terribly appropriate. So instead we figured we'd go out and hunt down a screenshot for today's celebration of all things smooshy and cute. This screen comes from an MMO that just entered closed beta, and that we're working on a story for, even as I write this. Can you guess what this upcoming MMO bastion of cuteness could possibly be? Leave your idea in the comments below!

Remember, One Shots is all about you. Without your screenshots, we have no stories to tell. So be sure to drop your in-game screens to us at oneshots@massively.com!

Valentine's day is a busy holiday, no matter what online community you're a part of. World of Warcraft players are helping the love-lorn, while City of Heroes' heroes will find themselves attending a wedding. And hey, if you're looking for love offline, more power to you. EverQuest 2 players, in the spirit of the holiday, get to help out a sleaze-bag with his pickup lines, and do some match-making on the side. We here at Massively are nothing if not softies, and so we have for you a quick walkthrough of EQ2's Erollisi event quests.

There are only two questlines for the event, and both of them take just a few minutes to complete. The rewards, though, are some of the best I've seen yet from an EQ2 holiday event. These quests are pure mash notes to the players, and you're definitely going to want to take the time to snag all the booty you can. Err ... loot. Read on for our how-to, and make sure to check out our Erollisi gallery for a look at everything you can earn yourself!

Have you ever fallen in love online? Have you ever met that someone on an MMO that excited you to the point where the addiction of the game mixed with the addiction to discovery of this desirable stranger creates a high so strong that your heart skips just to see that special someone's name pop up on your friends list, to where you ache to hear that Ventrilo voice, to where you get turned on just by flirting while your game fueled creative mind is ready to race into realms of dream-time in a wave of delight, allure, and pleasure that the dingy world of Earth so rarely offers in this lifetime?

Um, me neither.

But, you know, should that happen, the Dungeon Curmudgeon here has some tips on how to handle your iFeelings for your iBabe or iBeaux for when you're together in the heart but not together in the flesh, accumulated from years of watching virtual romances become real or not-so-real love.

Ahh, it's the day of the year when roses will be everywhere, and everything heart-shaped is suddenly "in." Yes, indeed. It's Valentine's Day -- both in the real world and in many different MMOs! While not all of the events include things as funny as the Weighted Companion Crate, there are lots of great quests (easy xp and prizes!) silly and fun events (kissing Lindens!) and more going on in our different lands. For this morning's topic, we thought we'd ask you what your Valentine's plans are for your game of choice? Or are you going to be working on getting some RL love faction, forgoing games altogether and instead heading out for dinner or a movie? Whatever you've got planned, we hope you have the very best of Valentine's Days!

Let the bells ring out for Manticore and Sister Psyche: they're finally formalizing the relationship they started in the comics. Today -- Valentine's Day 2008 -- City of Heroes icons Manticore and Sister Psyche will be wed in a live wedding ceremony in the main Training Room on the Test Server. Manticore will be controlled by Sean "Manticore" Dornan-Fish, and his off-server wife Jennifer Dornan-Fish will allow Sister Psyche to mindride her for the event. With Matt "Positron" Miller officiating, and other iconic heroes attending, it's sure to be a ceremony to remember. The ceremony will begin at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time and will repeat hourly for the next three hours. Please note, though, that the service is first-come, first-served, and each presentation will only be open to 100 participants. It's the luck of the draw, heroes, so you and your villainous counterparts will need to find the ushers in Mercy Island and Atlas Park in order to attend.

I came across this machinima while on my quest for the perfect video Valentine. Olibith weaved a cute World of Warcraft tale of love to the sweet sounds of Frank and Nancy Sinatra. The best part was that he appears to have dedicated it to his wife and child. Say it with me now -- "Awww!"

While most of Olibith's material is pretty racy, this video isn't so bad. I must warn the viewers that there is some innuendo, though. Overall, I thought it was adorable to see the two gnomes experiencing the joys of courtship.

Fans of combat systems based on Eastern martial arts will be getting a valentine from VestGame Entertainment. World of Kung Fu is arriving in North America on the 14th as an open beta, and I couldn't be more excited. A kung fu devotee myself, I've been interested in this title, which bases combat styles on your preferred weapon, from standards like the spear and sword, to more esoteric types like the fan and hook. But even better than that is the game's stated intention:

'Unlike other games in which the point of the experience is to defeat monsters and enemies, this game invites the martial artists to become deeply involved in the development and establishment of a society which interweaves economic and social systems. The game also enables the players to enjoy the emotions of a private life filled with romance and drama. Furthermore, as they increase their skills, the players can establish their own school and master their own style of Kung Fu which they will then be able to pass on to others, plus much more!'

Expect a First Impressions to arrive shortly. I'll do my best to look at this critically, but come on, you can buy a 'Fortune Pig' to pick up your loot for you! How could this not be great? Stay tuned ...

Aren't crafters doing well in GU42? To celebrate Erollisi Day (Erollisi is the goddess of love) in EverQuest II, there will be a slew of crafted gifts available for the citizens of Norrath to woo the ones they fancy. As with the special Frostfell crafted items, these will be also be available for purchasing ready-made, but where's the fun in that? A recipe book can be purchased that contains 14 recipes for all crafters, and 2 recipes for tinkers.

Players will need to collect hard candy and love notes from mobs as the primary component in crafting the gifts, but these can also be handed in for certain items from the recipe vendors, so you'll need to choose how they are used. These items will only drop during the Erollisi holiday, so you'll need to stack up during this period if you plan on cranking out the love-goodies any time in the future. Check out EQ2 Traders Corner for the full gallery of gifts, and expect the Erollisi festivities to commence with the release of Game Update 42, some time in early February.

The City of Heroes team announced in their 2008 "State of the Game" post that there we some server upgrades coming soon in preparation of double experience weekend and Valentine's Day events. Considering that the end of January is nearly a week away, you may be wondering just exactly when all these upgrades are going to happen. The answer is soon, very soon. Beginning today (on January 22nd) the server upgrades start. Keep in mind that with each server getting an overhaul it's no normal weekly maintenance.

You can expect server downtime to be spread out over different servers for the next two days as well. Champion, Guardian, Justice, Protector and Virtue (also, the training server) are all going down for the first round of upgrades today. Then, tomorrow all servers not upgraded today go down as well. Thankfully, there's a handy forum post concerning all downtimes this week. Expect some more upgrade downtime next week as well, according to the NCsoft Norcal developer post.