by Reuben Waters on Nov 06, 2009
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Once upon a time in the magical land of MMOGs, in-game anniversary
celebrations set the bar for what would become one of the staples of
the industry in the years to follow. Much of the more recent flood of
holiday themed events came into being thanks in large part to how
developers formerly opted to commemorate milestones in the overall
lifecycle of their creations. With two such major milestones just
around the corner, we take a look at how one of these events stacks up
to the celebrations of yesteryear today in Loading
Fabled or Forgotten?
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
target="_blank">World of Warcraft DungeonsBiggest movers today:
DiabloThis weekend marks the 5th anniversary for
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest 2 - has it
really
been that long already? It seems like only yesterday I was casting
Swarm of Rats for the first time on my necro and shaking my head in
dismay when I discovered that the swarm consisted of a single rat,
but I digress!
While the game clearly lost the epic tug of war over forced grouping
vs. solo friendly MMOG gameplay long ago, any current players who were
around for the games launch will no doubt wax poetic about the equally
epic round of changes EQ2 has seen over the past 5 years. In a somewhat
bizarre turn of events though, the big anniversary celebration for the
game is being held on the Test server next Monday and Tuesday. You read
that right folks; the big party is going down on a server the bulk of
you likely never play on.
EverQuest II will be celebrating its 5th Anniversary very
soon! In
honor of this, we'll be hosting a birthday celebration on the Test
server! There will be one party on November 9th at 5pm PST and another
at 11am PST (7pm GMT) on November 10th. The party will be held in the
Community Lounge and there will be cake, fireworks, and some trivia
with prizes! Make sure to update Test well in advance, especially if
it's your first time on the server.
Back in the old days when dinosaurs still roamed the earth I was a
fairly hardcore player of the original
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38">EverQuest.
I still consider the
5th anniversary for that game to be one of the best examples of
live
events in MMOGs. Not only were entire zones full of noobs slaughtered
each and every time the undead army would claw its way out of the
ground near the Wayfarer camp in Butcherblock (and elsewhere), but
fabled versions of some of the most notable mobs in the original game
also made an appearance, complete with fabled item drops for those
lucky campers able to get a good spot in line to take a crack at the
mob during the event.
The lands of Norrath were thrown into a temporary state of chaos,
and
it was a total blast. Mind you my necros corpse summoning business
also went into overdrive for the week, but the pleasant byproduct of
aiding numerous players recover their corpses was that my social circle
on the server expanded exponentially during the event.
Perhaps its simply too soon after the latest round of
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/76315">holiday festivities,
or maybe there is indeed some new sigma surrounding major MMOG events
occurring
in November as Ethec discussed
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/76250">earlier this week
whatever the reasons may be, I for one am somewhat surprised that SOE
isnt going all out for their latest milestone anniversary. Give me
giant armies of red Skeletal Commanders and Fabled Fippy Darkpaws any
day of the week you can keep the virtual cake and fireworks.
Do you think developers should go all out for anniversary events for
their longer running titles, or is the market already far too saturated
with seasonal events for them to retain their former impact? Share your
thoughts right here in the Loading
forum!
3 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG
features today! 22 in November! 2,094
in
2009!
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- Reuben "Sardu" Waters and the Ten Ton Hammer team