MMORPG.com columnist Victor Wachter writes this look at Holiday events, their origin and what they can and can't do for an MMO.

Around this time of year, things start changing. Snow covers the ground, shops are decorated with wreaths and festive ornaments, and new dungeons open up with monsters bent on destroying the holiday season. Yes, the holidays in MMOs are pretty much like our own world.

There was a time, back around the turn of the century (I think we get to say that now that we are going into a new decade) when holiday events weren't universal in MMOs. My history could be wrong, but I recall the first holiday I ever participated in was the 1999 Ultima Online "Santas vs. Reindeer" event, two years after the game was released. For the first several years of the MMO's existence, holiday events were hit or miss and those games that did hold them often recycled the same content year after year.

Read Wachter: Holiday Events.

This was a highly enjoyable read, thank you for your column and have a good Christmas at Bioware. ;)

Yes I think its nice that games add a little flaver.  For the past few years we had the same old thing in LOTRO horse races, and what not, same old recycled quests.  This time we have a new beer fight quest that was a lot of fun and the horse races changed somewhat not for the better.

EQ2 has a lot of nice stuff for frostfell,  I wish they would go back to the old stuff of giving snow globes but I like the new ice dragon quest.

I think new fresh stuff is the way to go, but with the econody the way it is a lot of companies keep the same old thing.

All in all a Good read.

Good column.  Well done.

I like events, in general, in mmo's, so I'm a bit biased here.  So, to answer your question:  Yes, I do think they are fun an even necessary.  But, I'll add one more reason that I think you missed:

They make the game world less "static".

Remember when the idea of a persistent online game carried with it the possibility of an every changing world to play in.  ThePeople, places, enemies, and things to do constantly changing around you each year.  The "ultimate" (insert favorite PnP game here) experience.

Then came the big budgets, grind, "fed ex" quests, instances, theme parks, player housing, etc, etc.  And the once dreamed of "dynamic, persistent worlds" turned into giant, static "mmos".

My point?  Events, even corny holiday ones, can remind us that these games CAN be dynamic.  That the game world CAN reflect the real world in that it CHANGES regularly.  Something that was there yesterday, may not be there tomorrow...or ever.  You may experience something totally different than someone else..or even not at all...and that's okay.

So, yes, I'm a fan of holiday events, and really events in general, as they remind me, even if just briefly, that when I play an "mmo" I'm actually playing in a living, breathing world, as opposed to working in a static game environment that can be completed with a few simple clicks.

I too am a big fan of holiday events, not just the christmas events, but all of them. I think CoX does it right. They have a fun winter holiday, valentine's and halloween events. Most of their stuff is recycled but since we only see it for a few weeks each year, that is fine. They do add a few things to each event every year to spice it up enough. It breaks up the grind, and it is fun reading in LFG channels for people looking for trick or treating groups or baby new year groups.

Yep, guilty of enjoying the holiday events, as well. CoX has always done it right, in my opinion, and it's part of why I'm currently playing a game I thought I might be done with for good, currently. The event this year has been a blast and has definitely been worth the price of admission. Thanks, NCSoft, for continuing to deliver a great time over the holidays (server crash last weekend notwithstanding! ;))

Also guilty as charged.. I always had fun with the Frostfell events that EQ1 had (don't play the game anymore though). Playing Lotro now, and they've come up with some pretty fun stuff (hedge mazes, horse races, bar fights, learning dances) in addition to the traditional "collect x amount of whatever I need right now" holiday quests.  For me, it kind of breaks up the grind.

Humbug! I may be in the minority but I don't like this useless junk taking up my precious inventory space in any game. The items you get for the grind(trade ins) are next to useless, just even more junk to take up that extra precious space that they like charging you extra for....so go ahead and give them money so you can grind more useless junk to give them even more money for the space to hold all the useless junk in. Merry Humbug to all and to all a miserable night.

i definitly enjoy holiday events in my mmos. the only one ive been playing steadily is RuneScape (boo! boo! shun the heritic!) anyway, the point is, i'm so far along in the game that i've run out of content (i'm too cheap to subscribe[well i did, but dont have the time to play it enough to warrent a renewal]) so basicly, the only fresh exiting content is holiday events! easter, halloween, thanksgiving and christmas each get a special quest, and i love the feeling of doing something by myself, without having a clue what to do : D thats why i never look at guides and seldom ask for help! i love doing puzzles and solving things on my own, and the holiday events allow me to take a blissfull hour or two away from the grind of the rest of the game to hang out with my mates and do the event.

*drops 2 pennies on the table*

I too am guilty of enjoying in game holidays. 

In a game like CoH they are fine, in the likes of Vanguard they are so out of place. But this problem can be made worse by the programers. Vanguard featured the worse Xmas theme clash I have seen.

In Vanguard Rudolph(?) is a Reindeer mount you get just by asking for it from a NPC, which can fly. Totally out of synch with lore but its only for the festive season right? Wrong! Once the season is over, he cannot fly but they dont remove him, so you get people riding around on a Xmas reindeer mount all year round.

I like the in game holiday stuff because it gives you a chance to take a break from the same old grind and do something fun for a change. That's not to say playing itself is a bore but there are times when I get burned out on questing raiding etc. and I just want something different for a little while. I really like it when you get items for doing in game holiday stuff.

Yes I too like the holiday events.

It would be nice though if WoW would add some new ones even keeping some of the old would be ok but they tend to do the same thing every year and every holiday save for the newest additions. Of course next year they won't be new just the same.  Even the loot drops are the same and useless. I say useless because the same thing drops over and over and over and things like mounts or weapons or a needed quest item are more than rare they are super rare.  Then those repeat drops cannot be DE or sold so they get to lay and rot.  I would love a sleigh ride or some other things to do.

I think things like this are needed to help break the grind up a bit and give the players fun things to do. Keeps the boredom down some for sure.

Hey Vic, not to nitpick ... but I seem to recall Ultima Online doing something for christmas in '97. Santa ran around, and we got gift bags with fruitcake and egg nog (some of us got naughty bags with spam and coal). And I seem to recall someone PKing Santa and swiping his true black leather gloves ...

Originally posted by Drakkhen

Hey Vic, not to nitpick ... but I seem to recall Ultima Online doing something for christmas in '97. Santa ran around, and we got gift bags with fruitcake and egg nog (some of us got naughty bags with spam and coal). And I seem to recall someone PKing Santa and swiping his true black leather gloves ...

THANK YOU! After I wrote that, I became more and more convinced that there was another beforehand, just couldn't place what it was. I was running through all the rares I could think of in my head, but I guess since true black became common, I glossed over that one. I do seem to recall the occasional fruitcake turning up on a vendor though. Wasn't there this humongous stack of donuts on Lake Superior that Christmas too?

Originally posted by Valdartak

Humbug! I may be in the minority but I don't like this useless junk taking up my precious inventory space in any game. The items you get for the grind(trade ins) are next to useless, just even more junk to take up that extra precious space that they like charging you extra for....so go ahead and give them money so you can grind more useless junk to give them even more money for the space to hold all the useless junk in. Merry Humbug to all and to all a miserable night.

I can't help get the feeling that there is a specific incident or experience you had that you are referring to there. If it's any consolation, what you describe isn't the norm. Most holiday events and gifts require realtively little 'work' as they are often free or part of an optional and short quest or task.

Personally, I don't see a problem with holiday gifts and events, just so long as they actually have a use to help your char out in some way. Trinkets that possess little value and have no inherent use for my character are worthless items that I end up dropping on the ground anyway. The bigger problem is, is that dropping those items constantly gets very annoying and tiring, very quickly! Bottom line, holidays are fun with other players, just leave the gift bags at my feet, and I'll ignore them.

I love holiday events and have been known to go back to my games and sub just to get the holiday items.

In my experience holiday events can be really fun and awesome. To be honest, I've only ever experienced two games' holiday events: Word of Warcraft which, like the entire game, turns holiday events into a holiday grind, and City of Heroes/Villains which does holiday events the way every developer should do them. They tend to bring back past events while adding new ones, so you can get the stuff you missed last year and experience new content this year.