This weekend only, January 8th and 9th, you'll be able to earn extra bonus experience as you play.

• Starts at Jan 8th, 12am PST - Ends at Jan 9th, 11:59pm PST
• Server will be down momentarily before the beginning of the event

Have fun everyone!

Blade Mystery Egg
Limited time offer! Introducing the Blade Mystery Egg for only 99 Tokens! Crack open the egg to reveal an item hidden within, 34 items in total (teaser of some of the items in the egg below). Unlike the previous Dragon Mystery Egg, the Blade Mystery Egg contains the elusive Blade Wind Mount that will be permanently bound to its owner! 

As many of you know, this is a HUGE deal! Currently, only one person in each server owns this mount. So, keep in mind that this will not be easy to get, but they're many other cool items also contained within this egg. 

To obtain a FREE Blade Mystery Egg, visit our Facebook fan page for your chance to win this extremely rare mount!

Blade Mystery Egg Items 
Blade Wind
Super Sacred Jade
Light Dust Capsule
Blossom Rain

...and much more 


Also, the Christmas season is here and it's all about giving! So for the next few weeks, the Token Shop will be refreshed with new and exciting items that you can purchase and share with friends. 

News Events Schedule

Snowman Chess Challenge – Dec 23rd- Feb 24th, 2011
Introducing the Chess Challenge! Complete the challenge and you will gain access to a special instance occupied by hordes of snowmen. Defeat the snowmen and earn bonus EXP! 

• When a player takes on the Chess Challenge before and after Christmas, there's a chance of them entering the Snowman Chess Challenge Instance. There are many snowmen In the Snowman Chess Challenge and they offer more EXP than other monsters. There is a chance you may or may not meet the snowman during the instance.

Christmas Snowman Making Event – Dec 24th, 2010
A night watchman has been spotted patrolling Luo Yang on Christmas Eve. Gather snowballs around town and throw them at the watchman to receive a mystery prize! 

New Year Bell Ringing Event – Dec 23rd – Jan 20th, 2011
The Bell of Happiness has appeared in Luo Yang. Strike the bell with special hammers dropped by monsters will grant your character new outfits and a generous boost in EXP! 

• Bell will appear in Luo Yang (160, 113) on Dec 23rd 
• From 12/16/10 to 1/13/11, all monsters in the game drop Wooden hammers when killed (bosses drop gold hammers). 
• Players can obtain a Silver Hammer from Zhuge Cai in Luo Yang (172, 115) every 2 hours from 12/23/10 to 1/13/11. 
• Players can use their hammers to ring the bell in Lou Yang (160, 113) for EXP. 
• Wooden hammer can be used 3 times, silver hammer can be used 5 times and gold hammer can be used up to 200 times. 
• Gold Hammers are also available in the token shop beginning 12/23 to 1/13. 
• Players will receive some new outfits on the 100th and 200th time using the hammer. Players will receive bonus EXP using the gold hammer

New Year’s Celebration – Dec 28th – Jan 3rd, 2011
Ji Chen has a delivery task for you. He needs your help to deliver gift boxes filled with fireworks to Zhuge Cai in Luo Yang. The gifts will be used to light up the night sky of Luo Yang with spectacular fireworks [gifts will be placed around the Bell(160,113) in Luo Yang]! 

• Ji Chen in Su Zhou (131, 230) 
• Zhuge Cai in Luo Yang (172,115)

Powdery Snow – Dec 23rd – Jan 7th, 2011
Prepare for server-wide snowball fights! A blizzard will cover Luo Yang on New Years Eve, and you can attack your opponents with snowballs to slow them down or gain a recovery buff. 

• Players can obtain snow balls from Ji Chen in Su Zhou (131, 230) and Zhuge Cai in Luo Yang (172,115). 
• Snow balls can slow down your opponent and restore your HP when used in "Snowy Weather" 
• Players can use Blowing Snow Fireworks to create Snowy Weather in the game

Christmas Thief – Dec 23rd – Jan 13th, 2011
Someone has stolen from Santa Claus! Find the thief and defeat him to unveil secret treasure chests!

• The Christmas Thief will appear in 3 map areas and escape in one designated route. Players who are over level 30, you can obtain an item from Luo Yang Santa Claus (160, 150) to throw at the thief to damage him. When he is damaged, there will be a treasure box to open to get some treasure.
• Time of the event is at 7:30pm PST

Rice Cake Event – Dec 23rd – Jan 23rd, 2011
Team up with a friend for a chance to win cool items or gold! You need to assist each other to make rice cakes by combining different ingredients. 

• Players who are over level 30 can obtain one of many rice cake ingredients. You will need to find a player who is compatible with this ingredient. You and the other player can then make and eat the rice cake for a chance to obtain bound gold or an item.

Happy Thanksgiving Dragon Oathers!

With Thanksgiving just around the corner! We’re now planning a turkey dinner for all players above level 10!

The Details
Throughout the event, rabbits, turtles, and swallows on Pet Island all carry a Turkey Coupon with them and they sometimes drop it when killed. Players need to collect as much Turkey Coupons as possible during this event in order for them to obtain a high level pet turkey. Another way to receive Turkey Coupons is to participate in Intruders event and Thief Raid event. Players can earn a free turkey dinner in Da Li that comes with a pet turkey after they have collected enough coupons.

*Thanksgiving Gift Package also has Turkey Coupons in it. 

Different types of pet turkeys require different amount of Turkey Coupons:

• 10 turkey coupons-----level 5 pet turkey
• 45 turkey coupons-----level45 pet turkey
• 55 turkey coupons-----level 55 pet turkey
• 65 turkey coupons-----level 65 pet turkey

Tired of your lame mouse and keyboard? Want a FREE high quality gaming mouse or keyboard from TT eSports? Then you came to the right place.

To help celebrate the launch of our newest update, "Rise of the Guilds," TT eSports has given us 5 Challenger Pro Keyboards and 5 Black Mice to give away! We want to make it easy for you to win... so to enter in the drawing, JUST POST A COMMENT ON THIS BLOG ENTRY.

That's it!

Make sure you guys take a look at the great lineup that TT eSports has at www.ttesports.com and thank them for this great gift!

You must post here before the end of October 10th, 2010 PST. Posting multiple times will not increase the chances of you winning. We will select the winners on October 11th, and request your info through PM , so make sure you check back!

Take a look at the details of our latest update HERE!

Challenger Pro
Gaming Keyboard with 10 macro keys, 6 multimedia keys, 2 USB ports, red illuminated back light, and added hand cooling fan.

Black Mouse
Gaming mouse with 400/800/2000/4000 DPI, 16 bits USB data format, light weight, and anti-slip thumb grip texture to ensure precise movement control.

Some days, I really love my job.

Have you heard of Marina Orlova, aka HotForWords? She has two advanced degrees in philology, the study of words and their origins (I promised myself I'd say that part first) and is also one of the sexiest women on the internet. (This is official; just ask G4TV, who named her one of the sexiest five women on the web, or Wired.com, who dubbed her the #1 Sexiest Geek in the WORLD.)

She has her own website - http://www.hotforwords.com - a new book coming out, and one of the top 25 most frequently viewed channels on YouTube. English is the curvaceous Russian's second language, but she knows more about it than any native I know. Marina racks up (no pun intended) an additional 3.5 million views every week for her fun, risqué videos about the origins of language. She also happens to be the new Dragon Oath spokesmodel.

As a Community Manager, I have a lot of fun jobs related to Marina. She'll be appearing at our E3 booth (the ChangYou Chill Lounge) to sign autographs and promote the game, while wearing a costume from Dragon Oath. My first task related to Marina was to go through all of the game costumes and select one for our costume designer to create for her. Bikini bottoms are forbidden at E3 - all models must at least be wearing boyshorts - so I chose a gorgeous outfit with a bikini top, a blue skirt, and some pretty ribbons. She looks amazing in it. (By the way, I've seen Marina's measurements - yes, they're incredible, and no, I'm not telling!) Tomorrow, I get to buy her a cute pair of blue high heels to match the outfit. That's why I'm in such a good mood - as a female, I love shopping for shoes. Especially when I'm being paid by the hour.

So here's an interesting question raised by all of this. As mentioned before, E3 requires all female promoters to wear a certain amount of clothing. (These promoters are colloquially called "booth babes"; if you don't know what "colloquialiy" means, Marina can tell you.) E3's credibility took a hit over the "booth babe" controversy. Basically, a lot of companies were trying to compete to see who could have the least-dressed porn star draped lasciviously over their booth. (I'm sure Marina can also explain "lascivious.") So E3 responded by telling all promoters and spokesmodels to cover up.

I'm doubtful that this was the proper response. In fact, speaking as a feminist, isn't that a little offensive - to blame the bare flesh of the women as the cause of the problem? Shouldn't we be yelling at the executives whose exploitative attitudes caused this controversy? Or the American culture which encourages young women to hone their beauty at any cost, and then actively seek to be exploited by these companies?

One thing I am sure of is that Marina Orlova, HotForWords, is not part of the problem. She is articulate, brilliant, and charming, which is all the more endearing for her being nice to look at. Her flirtatious attitude and "scandalous" outfits have gotten millions of people to watch her videos, and learn about language in the process. On top of that, she is an honest-to-God gamer geek. How many E3 spokesmodels can say that - much less "booth babes"?

Maybe the solution isn't to cover the girls up, but to only promote games through partnerships with intelligent women who command respect no matter what they wear. As my boss told me once, "We will never have a 'booth babe' at this company who doesn't play video games." It's a simple way to state a complicated problem, but still - food for thought.

- Lucy Song,

Community Manager for Dragon Oath

For those of you who are just scanning through this article looking for the part about the free iPad, here it is: we are giving away a High Capacity iPad 3G to one player who logs on to either Dragon Oath server today between 4 pm and midnight PST! We are also giving out one of these to the winner of our Leveling Contest, so if you have more faith in your gaming prowess than your luck, read on.

Our Leveling Contest starts today at 4 pm PST, when the Nirvana PVE Server opens to the public. Players will have one week to level their new characters as quickly as possible. The highest level player at 4 pm PST on June 10th (or the player with the most experience, in case of a tie) will win a High Capacity iPad 3G (the same model we're handing out in the random giveaway.) There will also be prizes in-game for the 2nd-10th highest level, as well as for three random players (one Level 1-20, one Level 21-40, one over Level 40.)

To reward their hard work, the winner of the Leveling Contest will also receive one of every in-game prize. For the record, that's a Black Beast mount, an Ultra Panda pet, and three fashions: Steelwall, Melancholy, and Rage Roar. These are all new Token Shop items, which you can check out here on the Dragon Oath forums.

We wanted to give the winner of the Leveling Contest something special, because the amount of effort that goes into winning this kind of contest is unbelievable. Already, people are comparing leveling strategies on the forums, forming cooperatives to help each other hunt bosses, and plotting their plan of attack. That's also why we wanted to offer in-game prizes to the 2nd-10th highest level, because to even be in the running for first is quite an achievement.

We decided to balance this, however, with consideration for our players that cannot invest the same kind of time into the game. We have plenty of players who love Dragon Oath, but who can't play more than a few hours a day because of work, limited access to the internet, or other concerns. It's because of them that we decided to give out our four random prizes, including a second iPad. That way, they can have a chance to get something special just for playing the game and supporting us as fans.

A new PVE server and a new expansion (the Path to Nirvana expansion is also being released today at 4 pm PST) would be exciting enough. The prizes are just the icing on the cake. So come join the festivities today in Dragon Oath, and you might just win something!

Looking around the ChangYou office, I have to wonder whether I'm dreaming. Everywhere you look there are ninjas, Kung Fu masters, girls in pretty cheongsam dresses. What makes this day even more surreal is that all of these characters are going about their day as usual - faxing things, typing memos, testing bugs. I myself am in a silky blue kimono robe with my hair in ox-horn buns. Occasionally a guy with a video camera will walk by, and I hide behind my fan until he goes away.

This is our  first  work day in costume. But it's definitely been crazy around here lately, and that isn't likely to change any time soon. The video we're shooting is for E3, which would keep us busy enough - there's less than a month left to prepare. But we're also gearing up for our new PVE Server, Nirvana, as well as our Path to Nirvana expansion. Not to mention the Double Experience weekend that is expected to double our CCU.

The amount of work involved with developing and implementing an expansion is incredible. But the rule of MMORPGs is "expand or die" and we owe it to our players to keep up. We also are confident that this new expansion is tailored to what our fans want from us, not just the same "new race, new class, new area" formula used by so many games.

Of these three things, we do have a new area, Salt Mine, for higher-level players. The first batch of dedicated players have reached our Level Cap of 90, so we're bumping it up to 100, as well as adding new equipment for these levels. We're adding new items to the Token Shop - three new outfits and a lot of plans, which players have specifically been asking for. They wanted a cool-looking mount that added significantly to movement speed, so we have a new mount, the Black Beast, that adds 80% to your speed. It is also definitely cool-looking.

Every week, I hold a feedback session on Ventrilo to answer questions, take suggestions, and try to determine what players really want. One of the new expansion additions to the Token Shop, the Gem Removal Spell, was suggested in Ventrilo, developed by our tech guys, and has now become a reality. This saves a lot of trouble, because rather than Marketing trying to guess what our players want, we can just ask them.

So the video game expansion philosophy of "bigger, better, more" is not necessarily a problem. You just need to be sure that the content you're delivering is not only new, but desired. We hope that the Path to Nirvana delivers everything our players have asked for, and if it does, that will be the true measure of its success.

"G.M. bring me luck, luck!"

This is the cry that comes across the Shout channels at any hour, a supplicant sending their prayer into the darkness. They repeat their petitions upwards of ten times a day, day after day, waiting for a response from the heavens that they have utter faith will come. They have never met a G.M., or spoken to one. But they are certain that we have power over absolutely everything, and that if they simply keep shouting, eventually we will answer.

Sometimes I try to disillusion them: "I am a G.M. and I cannot give you luck, luck! There is no way to alter your luck in-game!"

Other times, I try a joking approach: "I the great and powerful Lucy grant unto thee luck, prosperity, and all manner of fortune! Plus being popular with women! ...Just kidding, I can't do any of that!"

The general response is dubious. They will politely thank me for responding to them, even though it was to confirm that I could not help them - and then they will go right back to shouting for luck. Perhaps they think that I don't have the power to grant their request, but if they keep asking a more powerful G.M. may emerge from the shadows.

I also get asked a lot about items and gold. "G.M. give me a Rare Turtle please!" "G.M. I just need 30 gold I'll pay it back I swear!" They are utterly confounded, and a little suspicious, when I explain that I have no rare pets and no gold. I can't spawn pets at will, nor gold; my own character has one of the weakest, most common pets available (a Parrot) and is flat broke.

I was talking to a particularly persistent player the other day. It started the usual way: a request for luck, which I explained was impossible. The player, thinking I was misunderstanding his request, explained in return that all he needed was a super-rare drop, and then his luck could go back to normal. Finally he demanded, "If you can't give me luck, who can??"

After a moment's thought, I answered, "...Do you believe in a God?"

He was not satisfied with that response, and went away from the conversation troubled that I had refused him. But I have been thinking about it since then, wondering whether there may in fact be a God who cares about video games, that cares not just about the fall of a single sparrow, but the rarity of a single drop. This comes back to the philosophical idea that Gods can perhaps be created - that if someone prays long enough, and fervently enough, an entity may rise to answer this need.

I would like to think that this is the case. It gives me a warm feeling to think that there is a deity out there that rewards us for completing 100% of the optional quests in a game, or that rains punishment down upon cheaters and botters. If there is such a deity, our sacrifices unto them are surely in the form of time: God of Video Games, take these eight hours of my life that I could have spent otherwise, and look upon this rare weapon I acquired as an offering in Your name.

The God of Video Games needs no temple. The code of the God of Video Games rustles through the virtual leaves of the CG forests, whispers its way through equations of drop rates, listens to the lonely cries of players on the Shout channels. This essay is hypothetical - I don't know if I "really" believe in such a deity. But with all of the love and faith gamers pour into their favorite worlds, it wouldn't be all that strange to imagine that devotion having somewhere to go.

And what would it hurt, in any case, to pray to a God that didn't exist? You've wasted nothing but your own time, which is a sacrifice anyway to such a God. In the space of this single essay, I have convinced myself to convert to this crazy, beautiful idea of a being that oversees players, that cares for the virtual worlds that humans have created. God of Video Games, this is all I ask - please, give us luck, luck.

- Lucy Song,

Community Manager