As halloween is just around the corner im noticing a lot of mmo's adding in themed content based around Halloween. This all seams to have gotten a bit ridiculous to me, even just off the shelf mmo's like fallen earth and aion are adding a halloween themed "event" to the games.

WOW has done this for years and takes it to the extreme by having the Oktoberfest themed "brewfest" as well as the usual Christmas and Halloween themed events.

Does this kind of real world mish mash of content come across as being a bit lazy to anyone?

Does it not break the immersion that your playing in a completely different universe?

To me it just reaks of lazyness, a dev team can identify with a real world theme and quickly add in the "event" to the game. Instant thoughtless content that people seam to lap up. This seams even more strange when it happens in games llike Warhammer Online when clearly they should be fixing and adding more meaningful things to the game world.

Does anyone else cringe when they see these things in an mmo set in a completely different reality or is it just me?

Lazyness pure and simple. Im playing a fantasy game because its not real life. I dont want real life nonsense into my fantasy world. Christmas, really? didnt know christ existed in azeroth. of course, he doesnt exist in our world either, but thats another discussion altogether.

Originally posted by Toquio3

 Christmas, really? didnt know christ existed in azeroth. of course, he doesnt exist in our world either, but thats another discussion altogether.

Blizzard calls it the "Feast of Winter's Veil" 

When the festivities are holiday themed, but named something else when the game lore/world requires it, players love it. There's no reason for a developer NOT to add extra content during the holidays. It cool blink y toys, new quests or even just a new look to the environment for a short time.

wouldnt it be more interesting to have a holiday/event based on the actual game's lore instead of our own?

Gimmicky seasonal content is a waste of time and money which could be used for durable content.

It also hurts immersion to have holidays matching real world events.

I guess it depends on how much effort they put in to the holiday content. The more effort and content in a holiday event the more  I resent it. The devs could have adressed some missing element instead of making holloween masks quests and buff treats.

There is always some missing element.

For instance make a proffesion more interesting or add more non combat elements to the MMO.

Maybe work on a meaningful but not to harsh death penalty.

(Maybe an Explorer class my little wish)

If the holiday content is already there and little is required to make it available I can live with it but i still rather have game play mechanics or true content. 

It doesn't blow me away, particularly Valentines Day stuff, but I don't see it as being lazy at all.  I've never played a game that had seasonal events in which they were part of advancing your toon, anyway.

If it doesn't make sense in the setting/genre, I'm not too fond of it.  For example, V-day in SWG.  But Life Day(christmas) made perfect sense.  I think they shouldn't have one if it can't be fit into the lore somewhere.  For example, having an actual 4th of July in Azeroth or an actual Christmas in Middle Earth...

LotRO is doing Harvestmath right now, which I think blends in just fine; it's less Halloweeny(though you can get masks) and more Harvest Festivally.  From what I can see, it only had to be developed once and they can use it every year. 

It's just another thing that makes the gaming world seem less static, and MUCH MUCH cheaper and more practical to develop than having seasons...

general season festivals seam fine to me, like the above poster mentioned with the harvest festival in LOTRO. It fits with the lore especially for the hobbits who love there food.

What i dont understand is why the mmo is having Vallentines day, Chinese new year, Christmas and Halloween spin off events. Dont we play these games to escape from reality a little?

Playing WOW for example, wouldnt you much rather the immersion of an event based on Tauren or Night Elf rituals/beliefs ?

I just dont see any creativity in borrowing from the real world, sure it all boils down to fluff but from just briefly looking at a few mmo's at the moment i can see a Halloween themed event in:

World Of Warcraft

Aion

Fallen Earth

Warhammer Online

Star Wars Galaxies

I wouldn't say lazy, I mean events based on human holidays are still events, and they could have done nothing.  That being said, I would rather not see reindeer and santa claus in a fantasy MMO, never been a big fan of tradition anyway.

HUMBUG

Humbug indeed.

Nice choice of avatar, also. Creepshow was an interesting movie.

Originally posted by Ettirxa

general season festivals seam fine to me, like the above poster mentioned with the harvest festival in LOTRO. It fits with the lore especially for the hobbits who love there food.

What i dont understand is why the mmo is having Vallentines day, Chinese new year, Christmas and Halloween spin off events. Dont we play these games to escape from reality a little?

Playing WOW for example, wouldnt you much rather the immersion of an event based on Tauren or Night Elf rituals/beliefs ?

I just dont see any creativity in borrowing from the real world, sure it all boils down to fluff but from just briefly looking at a few mmo's at the moment i can see a Halloween themed event in:

World Of Warcraft

Aion

Fallen Earth

Warhammer Online

Star Wars Galaxies

Most players like events. Most players like content that will offer a change of pace mow and them. Since most players enjoy them, it's incentive for devs to do them, if for no other reason than as a retention tool.

As for the themes, Halloween can always fit into the lore as a harvest time since, prior to it turning into Candy Grubbing Day, that's pretty much what it was about .

Now, let's throw the curveball that a lot of purists will probably dislike me for - most players don't give a rat's ass about lore. Therefore, it makes good sense to tie into the lore enough to preserve continuity and not break fiction, but enough real world content to make the event familiar to its audience. For example, if you are adding a consumable at halloween, it's a good idea to call it something within the game context but also a good idea to have the icon resemble a pumpkin or candy corn. It retains the fiction and 'immersion' but offers a familiar visual, allowing the player to associate it with the event.

I may be the only RPG fan that doesn't understand how "immersion" is supposed to work or why so many people seem to value it so highly.

For me, seasonal content is a bit of quirky fun. I enjoy flying around on a reindeer instead of my usual purple dwagon. It's fun to get an item that I can use to turn other people into bats or a plastic fake tauren face mask for my dwarf to wear.

Holiday content in MMORPGs is one of the main reason why I leave MMOs.
I mean if I am already bored by the game, the holidays content is the last straw.............I can't stand that bullshit.

Originally posted by Toquio3

Lazyness pure and simple. Im playing a fantasy game because its not real life. I dont want real life nonsense into my fantasy world. Christmas, really? didnt know christ existed in azeroth. of course, he doesnt exist in our world either, but thats another discussion altogether.

... there is no Christmas in azeroth. That being said , most of the mirror holidays they put in are fun and get a way from the normal day after day routine. But as with anything, not everyoen will like it. You could give everyoen a hundred bucks and someone would find a reason to talk shti about it... ..

Originally posted by Bama1267

... there is no Christmas in azeroth. That being said , most of the mirror holidays they put in are fun and get a way from the normal day after day routine. But as with anything, not everyoen will like it. You could give everyoen a hundred bucks and someone would find a reason to talk shti about it... ..

One reason is that those events give away Monopoly money, not real cash. Most quests that I've seen don't even give xp in WoW's 'events'.

They are like temporary versions of the achievement points.

I think it's a great opportunity for some refreshing content additions, giving players something a little out of the norm.  Just like in the real world.

Meh yeah it kinda killed it for me in wow when some one would ride by on a reindeer. lame.

I dont' really think it was lasy of the devs, but I didn't like it. and hte time could be put to better use expanding the crafting system. or new mobs or somthing.

I think it highly depends on the game. Games that have more connection to real world (ie Fallen Earth and the super hero games) can get away with real world holiday events. Games such as WoW and Aion that create holiday events that fit their lore I am all for. I am a huge fan of CoX's holiday events, as they are fun departure from the normal mob grind in the game plus I love the temp costumes you get.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Humbug indeed.

Nice choice of avatar, also. Creepshow was an interesting movie.

Yup, that's him. I wondered if anyone would recognize him, was a pretty old flick.

Originally posted by heremypet

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Humbug indeed.

Nice choice of avatar, also. Creepshow was an interesting movie.

 

Yup, that's him. I wondered if anyone would recognize him, was a pretty old flick.

I recongized it right off the bat. Huge huge horror fan I am.