Turbine developers are spreading the holiday cheer in The Lord of the Rings Online as the Yule festival is once again coming to Middle-earth and with it a new developer diary to outline the festivities and what led to some of the more colorful festive events such as "The Glorious Beer Fight". Putting aside the fact these two developers must have attended one of my uncle's holiday events, this diary will give both veteran players and those new to Middle-earth a quick crash course in what to expect from the Yule event and where some of the ideas came from. Some of the content such as the horse race has been revamped and changed into a solo experience to eliminate that pesky issue of winning, but still losing the race. Other content has also been revisited, but once you finish with the race (or before if you want more fun) be sure to check out "The Glorious Beer Fight" with the super secret bat.

There’s this bat, you see. We devs feel powerful when we use it, but it’s supposed to be a secret. Why a secret? Because it’s mean to use the bat on fellow players. Unleashing the power of the bat would be a terrible thing indeed; it would be like giving The One Ring as a reward for completing the Epic storyline. But Rask promised that if I unleashed the beast, he would do his best to contain it.

• You can read the entire developer diary here.