All the trimmings

Yesterday's post was not as good as it should have been, I apologize. As I sit here with the smell of baking pumpkin pie dancing around me I find it very difficult to concentrate on writing this blog post. Lets hope this one turns out better.

It is a funny thing in Ultima Online history about holidays. At first every holiday was celebrated. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentines, St Patrick's Day. Yes, there was actually an observance of St Patrick's Day where they gave out green mugs. It was a Mature rated game back then. I doubt they could get away with observing a holiday that is mostly about drinking and being drunk today.

For the first few years, there was always holiday related stuff to be found. But then it virtually stopped. I believe the whispering Valentine day roses were the last holiday observed. They still kept up with the Christmas..........I mean holiday gifts. But for some reason every other one was tossed out the window. Only in the past year or maybe 2 years have they begun doing more holidays. They even did an IOU card for April Fools. For Thanksgiving this year all champions are appearing as turkeys. Maybe we will be treated with something more on the actual day tomorrow (or today rather since this is getting posted at midnight). Who knows.

Other MMOs such as World of Warcraft tend to celebrate their own made up holidays instead of official ones. It is pretty much up to the game designers how they want to handle it. Warhammer Online had a week long witching event to coincide with Halloween, so I guess that would be considered an official holiday instead of a made up one. Either way is fine. If you decide to make up one it wouldn't be very easy to get into a winter themed one in the middle of summer. So as much as you would like to create your own, you are still bound by the real world.

In my opinion, a game that decided to observe holidays shows a more dedicated and loving team than one that does not. Holidays are something that are experienced around the world no matter where you live. A MMO world would be a rather dull place without them.