As many MMOG Halloween events come to a close this weekend, the list of participants lengthens and expectations inevitably rise. What can game developers such as Mythic reasonably provide players during holidays and which elements are pivotal to a successful event? Ten Ton Hammer examines various aspects of holiday mechanics over the years and attempts to point out the good, the bad, and why you don't see Columbus Day content.

Different people have different skill levels and time investments. In order to provide the most return for your development investment, a game must provide various levels of rewards based on challenge and how long it takes to obtain a reward. While this might sound like a simple definition of meaningful, it can be a difficult balance to find in the real gaming world. Should an instanced event take one hour or two? Will players have to kill 100 ghosts or 1000? Should there be a time investment at all?

• Holiday Content - A Challenging Necessity