Dev Discussion #38 - Holidays

Vhaeyne

daveywavey wrote: »

What games have people played where they inserted the full Christmas/Valentines Day/etc without tailoring it to the game lore? I can't think of any that I've played that have done that.

FFXIV and WOW both do it... They may call it something stupid, but FFXIV both have Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Halloween. Decorated trees, pink hearts, and jack-o-lanterns are in both games. Guild Wars one had Christmas. I think I remember fighting the grinch in one of these games...

daveywavey

Vhaeyne wrote: »

daveywavey wrote: »

What games have people played where they inserted the full Christmas/Valentines Day/etc without tailoring it to the game lore? I can't think of any that I've played that have done that.

FFXIV and WOW both do it... They may call it something stupid, but FFXIV both have Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Halloween. Decorated trees, pink hearts, and jack-o-lanterns are in both games. Guild Wars one had Christmas. I think I remember fighting the grinch in one of these games...

Well, in Guild Wars 1 it was called Wintersday, and while the Grentches were decidedly Grinch-like, I don't recall any specific mention of anything RL-ish. Even Canthan New Year had its own in-game traditions.

Vhaeyne

daveywavey wrote: »

Well, in Guild Wars 1 it was called Wintersday, and while the Grentches were decidedly Grinch-like, I don't recall any specific mention of anything RL-ish. Even Canthan New Year had its own in-game traditions.

The only real world holiday I am willing to except in any game is Festivus.

I am particularly fond of the "Airing of Grievances" part...

daveywavey

Vhaeyne wrote: »

daveywavey wrote: »

Well, in Guild Wars 1 it was called Wintersday, and while the Grentches were decidedly Grinch-like, I don't recall any specific mention of anything RL-ish. Even Canthan New Year had its own in-game traditions.

The only real world holiday I am willing to except in any game is Festivus.

I am particularly fond of the "Airing of Grievances" part...

I can see a "The Purge"/"Return Of The Archons"/murder-hobo event beginning to form...

JustVine

daveywavey wrote: »

Vhaeyne wrote: »

daveywavey wrote: »

Well, in Guild Wars 1 it was called Wintersday, and while the Grentches were decidedly Grinch-like, I don't recall any specific mention of anything RL-ish. Even Canthan New Year had its own in-game traditions.

The only real world holiday I am willing to except in any game is Festivus.

I am particularly fond of the "Airing of Grievances" part...

I can see a "The Purge"/"Return Of The Archons"/murder-hobo event beginning to form...

I think the further into Ashes own religous practices the games holiday events are the better. I don't mind rl paraphernalia when it comes to color schemes and ornaments. But it would be pretty lazy to draw strictly from rl when they have a bunch of religions to really go ham on immersion. Sell the religions to me IS! (but please don't send me pamphlets.)

Therefore @Vhaeyne my thought about the weird time issue was that it has more to do with the gods and astral alignment of the stars and planets granting the relevant deities an edge over other gods to receive extra strength from their followers prayers/worship at those times. This also means holiday events can be at slightly different timings each year depending on the best time to do server maintenance or w/e.

daveywavey

JustVine wrote: »

Sell the religions to me IS! (but please don't send me pamphlets.)

Percimes

Side question related to this one from Nerror.

If there is a full seasons cycle in a month on Verra, how any offline holidays can be integrated to make sense?

Winterfest every month? Oh no, it is only celebrated once every 52 winter!

maouw

Percimes wrote: »

Side question related to this one from Nerror.

If there is a full seasons cycle in a month on Verra, how any offline holidays can be integrated to make sense?

Winterfest every month? Oh no, it is only celebrated once every 52 winter!

This is interesting, coz it means that Ashes could have an interesting "astrology" kind of system, where the alignment of celestial bodies actually affects the world of Verra.

Percimes

Or... these Holidays are linked to Sanctus' calendar and the time the races spent there. They are celebrated still on Verra because they are now integral part of the culture of the people and because they want to remember their in exile.

arkileo

Really love the idea of a big anniversary event, it's a great example of a holiday that would have both in and out of lore significance without necessarily coinciding with a real holiday. "Phoenix Day" or "Arrival Day" are great names.

Dargour

Holiday events are a good part of games, to me. I prefer them to fall in line with lore relating to the game, rather than real life. Along with the holiday events, it's even better if the events have drop-able collectables that specifically relate to the event.

Bayzul

I do enjoy when Holidays match up with IRL holidays. It brings your IRL festive spirit in game. Also for those of us that like housing the idea of getting to decorate in game for "Christmas/Halloween/Easter" is exciting (But i like when the Holidays in game have different names than IRL holidays)! My only concern is that holidays are season dependent and if Ashes has more season cycles than IRL then idk how that would work. I also like the idea of more added holidays that are special to the game and lore!

- Also when in game Holidays align with IRL holidays it helps ppl who may be alone on that holiday be able to celebrate and spend time with friends in game while having that holiday spirit around them in game.

Shoelid

Seasonal events are great, and they should line up with IRL holidays, but y'all should take the opportunity to make holidays that make sense with your lore. Holidays for each solstice and equinox. Holidays marking major lore events, like the apocalypse and the return to Verra. A New Year event could be cool.

Two main things: A holiday event shouldn't interfere with normal gameplay, and a holiday event shouldn't interfere with IRL celebrations. The new Krampus event in CoD for example: people can't play the normal game because the holiday celebration is forced on them. Also, don't have a specific event on christmas day that would make you want to play the game instead of spend time with family.

Locust

Events are essential to the game and while they don't need to align with real holidays, it can help if done right for players who work but might get an extra day or two off during these times.

One of my favorite things about events is the chance for unique gear. I love getting to strut around in my christmas sexy costume from 4 years ago christmas theme kind of thing, ya know? Also it should provide activities that differ from the norm. Like unique events such as chasing down yeti with a group and killing him for off chance of rando exclusive gear. Riding Santa sleigh to deliver gifts to all the children. Making fireworks for the new year celebration from goblin guts and wyvern bones and chance of random loot falling from the exploded firework... so on so on. Even better if you can make it where Guilds can provide some of the action and or activities. Guild provides quests that stem from Guild leader. Has to spend to be able to offer it but if high enough percentage of players in guild participate, then you earn the money back plus some and included items so as guild saddle(guild design on an attached flag or on the side of saddle.)

Thanks,
Locustbb

Azherae

I prefer two specific things, which Ashes is already well suited for.

1. In game holidays are shifted, so that they start the day AFTER the main corresponding RL holiday, if any, ends, and then build up to their main content about a week later before drifting off. This lets gamers enjoy their offline family time and their 'online family' time near enough to each other to keep the spirit going, but not conflicted.

2. Line up with the ingame calendars somehow. Ashes has an easy way to do this mentioned by someone already. There are multiple deities, assign each one to a holiday and then do a sort of 'Chinese' year system so that, for example, March is the 'year of the Phoenix' and so on, and that way you can have a celebration that happens every '12 years', and then just leave out some of them so that you don't have one every month.

I too, would prefer the 'standard' 4x Speed for ingame time vs RL time, but if we're definitely changing seasons every week instead of every 3 weeks, then this works well to line up with holidays at least. I don't care if they line up, much, since you can just stick the 'Year of the _____' celebration in some appropriate timeframe.

Basically I'm not gonna fuss if October 1st to 22nd is Spring but you still put 'Deity of Cold's Solstice celebration' to run Dec 26th-Jan 2nd.

Snekkers

I'd love to see real holidays like christmas, and obviusly prima aprilis

uncounted

Imo having in-game holidays makes the world more alive. Personally I don't mind if the holidays coincide with real life holidays, actually I prefer it because I have more time to play. But I think it's important for immersion for the game to have it's own unique holidays even if some of them are similar and/or coincide with real world ones.

Boanergese

I liked when World of Warcraft celebrated New Years, Christmas, and orphan day. It would be also interesting if the game created its only holidays or even borrowed from past cultures like the Mayans, etc. Like a lunar celebration or some festivity to the blood god. Harry Potter created Quidditch, why can't Ashes of Creation create some of its own lore, holidays, and sports.

Baibarss

I understand the appeal for real world holidays to be in the game, but it also can break the ‘immersion’ of the world and lore, IF they were not properly introduced. As someone mentioned, Winter Veil in WoW is basically Christmas; but it all made sense because it was properly introduced in the lore and some important events happened in it as well. So, if you guys are creating a secondary world with its own history and identity, I would love for the holidays to have foundations within that world. They can ‘mirror’ real life holidays if you want, sure, but they should have their own names and historical backgrounds.

My 2 cents.

Moowell

I think throwing in festivals is a good thing. They can bring some familiarity to a foreign world, can act as something to look forward to on a seasonal basis, and can break up the monotony of the grind if a player chooses to interact with them. Players that don't want to deal with festivals can avoid them for the most part, while players that do can enjoy the change of pace.

Gimpg

I like holidays in MMO:s, but make sure to not copy paste them from real life. If the event is exactly like christmas but just with another name, its going to be harder to get immersed in the game, because it will be so closely tied to real life. So do have events, but have lore for the event that is tied to the universe we are playing in.

When it comes to content during events, i prefer it if its rewards arent related to power, but cosmetics/achievements. Would also be fun if there are minigames unique to that event.

Happymeal2415

I hate having rl holidays in games. I'd much prefer lore in game to match with some created holiday

Tyranthraxus

Keeping it simple:

1) All events should be re-themed to AoC stuff; No Santa (wrong elves), no Jesus (in AoC, he would have just respawned immediately, instead of facing a 3-day cooldown), and no Easter Bunny

2) Any wierd-looking items (bat & vampire fangs, jack-o-lantern helmets, Valentine's Day Cupid wings, etc) should only be wearable DURING THE EVENT

3) No over-powered, must-have-it-to-win a fight items; Two otherwise evenly-matched players should not find one of themselves at a disadvantage because they didn't get the chocolate cherries during a Valentine's-like in-game holiday-event.

Gankez

i love it when theres holiday celebrations alongside irl ones.. hell for some people these games are all they have and being able to celebrate the holidays with their friends ig is the only celebration they have.. it doesnt hurt the game in any way imo and i look forward to it every year when other games i play do stuff for the holidays

Erodgemon

I prefer in game holidays to no align with irl holidays. I also think they should be themed on the games lore and not irl.

qurion

I would be nice to get an in-game gift around christmas, or some dried fruits around the end of ramadan. I don't think religious celebrations should have an in-game version (yuletide, winter veil, hallow's end), but rather a few themed cosmetics. Spooky around halloween and flowery in spring.

I do, however, hope for seasonal celebrations where it makes sense. Harvest festivals, launch day annual celebration, Sour Sandal Saturday...

Caww

I feel it is very important to have aligning Holiday events which allows players, many with extended time off, to get "extras" and experience a fuller than usual server. This also lets the dev's showcase special events which don't normally fit in a daily cycle.

Zarrath

My personal take is that real world holiday replicas in game break immersion, but only if they are replicas. I don’t mind the dates lining up at all, but in a world as in depth as Ashes is, I can’t imagine not putting a creative mind toward holiday theme.

A jolly gift giving person who rides in a sleigh and hands out gifts, pumpkins/costumes/candy, etc. are all bland and feel disconnected from fantasy worlds.

Brewfest and Dark Moon Faire are excellent examples of how to do in game holidays/events annually with a fun and possibly cultural spin for each race - meaning let’s say you do a Brewfest type thing - (Yeah I get it’s Octoberfest) - but that’s fine, maybe all of the races have their own unique versions that players can visit….like for dwarves it would be stout ales and drunken brawling, while for humans it would be wine related, for elves it would be bottles of milk because it’s almost their bed time (jk) - but you get the idea.

All of this to say that I personally prefer uniqueness, and honestly think carbon copies of real life holidays would be a disservice to the exceptional world you are creating.

Ilford

As others have said, having holiday events that line up with IRL holidays has been done to death. Personally I'd like to see the game have it's own concept of holidays that doesn't necessarily need to line up with IRL ones. There's no need to have Christmas or Valentines when you can delve deeper into lore and formulate your own.

CCC_HAN

I can only refer to Gw2. There is another event every two months. Some are based on IRL stuff like X-MAS or Halloween and others were created in the "in-game world".
The only thing I would want were no static events. In GW2 and other games, these events are always the same every year. (Same quests, almost no new things. Just copy + paste each year.)

-I would also like to have events like "Evil Santa Boss" that only appear once or twice in the entire event and are also difficult to kill. Something like a legendary world boss. Who only shows up briefly for 4 hours.

- Event dungeons.

-Event castle for PvP players.
etc.