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Too many MMOs with holiday events?
TheAncient
Member Posts: 67
There has been an awful trend of including holiday events in MMORPGs of late. I can see why some people might love them, but not everyone is into events which essentially are immersion breakers.
I'm an athiest, a middle aged athiest at that, so the idea of a heavily commercialised Christian or Pagan events changing what is meant to be escapist fun is not only anathema but downright intrusive. Celebrating Independance Day or Thanksgiving simply has no meaning where I live and has no relevance to the games either.
Why can we not have MMORPGs with unique holiday events tied to the lore of their particular worlds? That is something I could buy into and enjoy.
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You're missing the point - these events are shoehorned into the fantasy of MMORPGs they stick out like a sore thumb and don't sit easily with lore etc. Let's see something new and different.
This is my thought as well. That's why I rarely participate. I am an over obssessive completionist and these events cause serious ADHD issues with me...so I avoid them.
Playing: FFXIV, DnL, and World of Warships
Waiting on: Ashes of Creation
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Oh for crying out loud.
I'm an Atheist as well, and I find it just fine. I actually enjoy the events for what they are. Thousands of people play these games, covering a wide swath of beliefs, and celebrate (or not) a wide variety of holidays. Do you see all these people complaining about it "being intrusive" on them because their personal beliefs aren't being "respected"?
No. You don't.
Why? Because it isn't. It's a game, it's a light-hearted, festive celebration that comes with special events, prizes and activities. No one is coming into your house forcing you to engage in the activities, and your personal rights aren't being infringed on. Give it a rest and stop looking for things to be offended by. The MMO world doesn't revolve around what you, or any other individual chooses to or not to believe.
If it's so offensive to you that you can't enjoy everything else your game of choice offers, then just avoid those areas while the events are going on.
What, are we supposed to start letting "political correctness" seep into the freaking fantasy worlds of games now, too?
Also, MMOs have had holiday events for years now. It's not something new.
Umm, you missed the point.
Because you are an atheist and you walk down the side of your city street and see a giant catholic church, does that mean you're going to start lobbying stating that, "I'm not catholic, this intrudes my atmosphere here in the city."?
Get over it, and just avoid it.
TwitchTV: iNeoki
Assuming you are not posting just to bait the "war on Christmas" types, you are missing a key historical fact: new cultures assimilate and rebrand the holidays and celebrations of old cultures. Christmas itself is an example of this - Christianity usurped the dates and symbols of the previous solstice celebrations. This is what is happening in MMOs: they are taking the dates and symbols and reinventing them into their new fantasy cultures.
If you want to complain, simply complain that they aren't diverging far enough away from the real-world celebrations - but there's no point in making up completely arbitrary new dates (except the launch date - which I'm surprised many games don't make a big in-game celebration about, beyond a gift box).
I'm not sure if i'm recalling right, but I believe FFXI had lore-tied festivals and such. Unless they corresponded with something in Asia. I agree with you that it sounds like a neat idea though.
Hey, if it wasn't for holiday events, I wouldn't have my coveted Santa hat in Rift.
Walking around in my underwear with that hat on is my favorite thing to do in-game.
I usually dont care about them either way
I play around them if they dont spark my interests.
No matter the religion it can be enjoyed, these aren't religion bound anymore it's more of traditions, and a lot of MMO's actually do tie them into lore. Like wow takes what happens in the real world around these times and rebrands it for the game, and for certain holidays fits it into lore pretty neatly.
I hope they never take out these events, it's chearier, new and exciting to see the decorations even if they are just pixels on my screen. Besides the holidays are totally optional!
If you wanted the conversation to be about holidays ruining immersion, you probably should have left the fact that you are a middle-aged atheist out. Because you added that tidbit, many would infer that it ruins your immersion, in part, because you don't believe in such holidays.
Some games do have their own holidays. FFXI did. It certainly brings something new to the table, but for many, it's not the same as celebrating Hallow's Eve on Halloween or Winter Solstice around Christmastime.
It's not all about the players. Developers get a kick out of releasing holiday content as well. It's the development team celebrating with the players on festive holidays that most enjoy. You don't have to be a Christian to like Christmas. Just take the holiday at face value. It's a time when giving is emphasized, and people come together.
Now for the sad part. I am sure that part of the reason why holiday content is released is to encourage people to log on. Otherwise, people who are able to celebrate with their family and friends are off celebrating, and the people that are left in-game are those who are not as fortunate. Perhaps they are far away from home or they had to work late into the night and missed out on the festivities. In-game events bring those people together. Otherwise, there would be no incentive for logging in, and the servers could be seen as somewhat depressing.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
You make me like charity
A lot of games do change the names. Alse they use the commercial ideas not ideas from the religion, it is still alienating other beliefs, however even christians will argue that these themes have nothing to do with what the holidays are about. So yeah they are generic. Also halloween isn't a recognized religious holiday.
People get worked up over the dumbest things.... no wonder this world sucks ass.
"In the immediate future, we have this one, and then weve got another one that is actually going to be so were going to have, what we want to do, is in January, what were targeting to do, this may or may not happen, so you cant hold me to it. But what were targeting to do, is have a fun anniversary to the Ilum shenanigans that happened. An alien race might invade, and they might crash into Ilum and there might be some new activities that happen on the planet." ~Gabe Amatangelo
I chuckle at the whole 'it breaks immersion' argument.
This is fantasy, where almost anything can happen and be justified.
90% of the time you're playing in a world where trolls, elves and lizardmen can throw ice shards from their hands and travel the lands on giant eagles. I'm sure one could even find a game where high-horses are available as a mount, seems right up some's alley.
How dare those devs try to give us a little extra content!!! /eyeroll
I don't really mind it as long as it fits the lore. Pumpkins belong in tsw, but in gw2 or wow it's really stupid to see them.
I'm an atheist too. Ingame there might be gods, but not outside
fixed for you. And there probably shouldn't be a debate on religious views on these forums.
Personally, I love holiday events. They shake things up a bit, allow the developers to do fun things (like any good event does). It makes my holidays feel even more special (and amkes me feel less guity that I am playing a game instead of spending all my time with my family).
Finally, a thought on the title of the tread. Given that most people play a limited number of MMOs at a time, why would it matter that most MMOs seem to have holiday events of some kind? Maybe what you really want is for MMOs to have fewer holidays that have events...
EDIT: clearly Tyfon isn't a fan of Mad King Thorn (from Guild Wars)
I used to TL;DR, but then I took a bullet point to the footnote.
I sense a new campaign for separation of Church and Fiction. Although one could argue that church is fiction, I won't go there.
I like it when MMOs celebrate the different holidays. I can understand why someone might not like it, but I'm all for it. I think it brings something familiar to the game world. WOW does it best with Halloween.