Do you want to see in-game holidays in EverQuest Next?

I have been giving this some thought for some time now and have come the conclution that i think if really SOE wants to have some Real Life holidays ingame then it should be something that should be founded ingame. I mean lets say the game comes out, its a new world and everything. They then should have some pre holiday season event simular to the ralling call events that then become a holiday simular to the real life holidays. I would even go one further and bring the Founders Holiday something that really means something and is really part of the game. So basicly when Alpha starts that date will be remebered for the years to come. So in the next year when its released There will then be a holiday called the Fouders of the new world or something stupid like that that can go on for like a week.

Still believe if your gonna have holidays, that they should be like the original druidic/Germanic/norse (pagen) holidays pre-Christian adaptations.

After all, the fantasy that this world is based off of...is from old druidic/norse religions and beliefs. Not Christian.

I have never liked the in game holidays that mirrored real life holidays. Santa hats, Halloween customes/candy, etc. They also tend to last a long time and are pretty pointless. If they must have holidays then let them all be deeply rooted in paganism.

Pagan Holidays:
Samhain (Halloween) first Full Moon in Scorpio: ritual is known as Ancestor Night or Feast of the Dead. Because the veil between the worlds is thinnest on this night, it was and is considered an excellent time for divinations. Feasts are made in remembrance of dead ancestors and as an affirmation of continuing life. A time for settling problems, throwing out old ideas and influences.

Winter Solstice or Yule, (Christmas). This is the time of death and rebirth of the Sun God. The days are shortest, the Sun at its lowest point. The Full Moon after Yule is considered the most powerful of the whole year. This ritual is a light festival, with as many candles as possible on or near the altar in welcome of the Sun Child.

Imbolc,(nearest holiday is valentines) Full Moon in Aquarius, is a time of cleansing and newborn lambs. It is a festival of the Maiden in preparation for growing and renewal.

Spring Equinox or Ostara, (Easter), is when light and darkness are in balance but the light is growing stronger. 1

Beltaine, first Full Moon in Taurus. It is primarily a fertility festival with nature enchantments and offerings to wildlings and Elementals. The powers of elves and faeries are growing and will reach their height at Summer Solstice. A time of great magic, it is good for all divinations and for establishing a woodland or garden shrine. The house guardians should be honored at this time.

Summer Solstice or Litha, Is when the hours of daylight are longest. The Sun is at the highest before beginning its slide into darkness. Traditionally, herbs gathered on this day are said to be extrememly powerful. On this night elves and fairies abound in great numbers.

Lughnassadh first Full Moon in Leo. This is a preharvest festival, the turning point in Mother Earth's year. The last herbs are gathered. It is a celebration in honor of the god Lugh's wedding to Mother Earth.

Autumn Equinox or Mabon, was a time of rest after labor, completion of the harvest. Again the hours of day and night are in balance, with the darkness increasing. All preparations for the dark of the year and the year's ending were made, thus bringing us back to Samhain.

Whenever people wonder about the holidays and such and not wanting them to coincide with real life holidays, it makes me wonder if that is even possible considering how many real life holidays we have. If we were to combine all the holidays onto a single calendar that every country celebrated is there actually a time in which we have no holidays?

With that being said there are a few holidays which I think are truly needed based entirely around lore.

Erollisi Day which is an adaptation of Valentine's Day and is celebrated around the same time. This holiday could be moved to a different time frame of the year, but it definitely should be in game. While the lore behind the holiday closely resembles that of Valentine's Day there should be a resemblance in Norrath to honor those that fall in love.

Nights of the Dead festival which is an adaptation of Halloween and is celebrated around the same time. This holiday is celebrated in many countries as the Night of the Dead and should have a resemblance in Norrath to honor those that have fallen.

Moonlight Enchantments is a unique "live event" that is celebrated on the 20-21 of every month. This live event should definitely find it's place in EQ Next.

Hero's Festival is another unique holiday celebrating the anniversary of EQ Next. Need I say more? It is celebrated for a week lead up to the launch anniversary of EQ Next.

Other holiday's which could be implemented that I see which for lore reasons would be good choices would be the following: Brewday, Tinkerfest, and City Festivals. I do not want to see Christmas celebrated in any form as it's religion specific and does not fit in with the game. If they want to celebrate the winter solstice that is perfectly understandable, but anything which has been commercially deemed "Christmas" should be nixed from the plans.

I like holidays. It does not matter how they happen or why, but I think we should have them reflecting a new in game calender or matching out of world.

pretty cool write up Michael, though you forgot to add in Ostara that we need to have orgys and get drugged up and burn offerings in part of our celebrative festivities. All part of fertility y aknow

The other Problem with real life Holidays is the ethnic Portion. I see it again and again in real life. In my Country some celebrations that have been around for 20-30 years have now been disbanded because of ethnic reason. And some Gamers might feel offended ingame should there be simular Events. Theres no reason against us having simular Events based on the seasonal Occasion but it should be heavyly modified to fit lore of the game.

Its like many have said in other post here. Religion is the main concern and should just be respected and stay real life only

I can see that being a conflict. Make in game holidays that don't reflect on any certain holiday outside of game when you look at it that way. About religion though..no holiday should be considered reflecting any one religious..ever. Most of the holidays that people try to claim as Christian came from the religions that predate them, and are simply borrowed material, in which was even borrowed by another set of beliefs before them. I see them as fun little things people can choose or choose not to participate in.

In game holidays that don't reflect the outside world do make more sense though.

I'd like to have holidays only based on game lore and not real world stuff.. however it would be nice to have something special happening during christmas.
Something i would like to see avoided would be a system where devs are placing ''incentives'' in order to get more and more players taking part in them every year. If people want to take part in them, let them, if they dont want to, then dont put them in a position where they feel its something they ''need to get it over with'' in order to receive some XP boost / stat buff etc etc.
I find what happens from that kind of mechanic is you have lots and lots of people just grinding through the holiday events so they can get back to raiding etc etc and the whole event just didnt really feel festive at all.

Arbor day only

Yeah, could just pick the most important holidays like Arbor Day, Talk Like A Pirate Day, Groundhogs Day, Confederate Memorial Day, Flag Day, Columbus Day..and Hell, maybe even Casimir Pulaski Day!

I love the celebration of the holidays in game. I think that celebrating the classic real world holidays is exciting and enjoyable. Halloween is my personal favorite and in game event really give me something to look forward to. I thought EQ2 used the holidays to add in some really great housing items that were unique to that time of year and I always love the addition of vanity/costume items.

With that said, I think that EQNext should do a mix of both. Add in holiday events that are specific to the EQNext world, but that does not mean necessarily excluding those events that are happening in the real world.

I know every MMO does it... but I just find these things taxing time sinks to get the special item that 9 times out of 10 - devs forgot to code properly such that it wastes bag space for the next 8 years and can't be used in regular play because it has bad stats or is not transmutable or can't do pet battles or is only ride-able 2 days a year or some other mess-up...

These are also prime territory for developer sins like forcing PvP on PvE players, or forcing PvE on PvP players... or putting a new-character holiday item into an endgame raid, or forcing end-game players to "raid" the new player starting area... or putting in a quest to commit horrible evil acts that are 'real life squicky' because "Drama!" and "Plot!" or some other foolishness.

This also tends to be a place where Dev cultural biases show through in ways we wish we didn't know... (like holidays to promote alcohol, or worse ones that show ethnic biases)

Or my favorite: the best in slot raid gear for the next 8 months being a reward from an event that occurs in one week during the holidays and is completed in 38.3 seconds...

I've just seen way too many cases of done wrong and takes too much time for junk to find these appealing... and I know that despite that, if they are there, I will end up feeling compelled to do them.

While many game developers have had that issue of messing things up, EverQuest 2 "Frostfell" holiday has been one of the most celebrated holiday's in game due to it's largely accessible to everyone. Crafters, Raiders, Groupers, Soloer's, etc.

Yes I love Halloween in-game.

For the sake of immersion, I would like to see holidays crafted around in-game lore, if they match with real holidays, so be it, but primarily stick with the Lore.

THIS THIS THIS

I care

Holidays are awesome! Brewfest (Octoberfest - getting the achievement for max alcohol tolerance ain't easy), Frostfell, Erollisi Day, maybe put one in for Cinco de Mayo (unless we already have something there).

If it's going to have Everquest in its title, it has to have Frostfell, otherwise that's just bait and switch advertising. The other holidays are all pretty standard stuff. I do miss the cherry blossom festival in FFXI. Honestly some of my best in game memories are based in or around festivals in some way or other.

It's a game - we're supposed to be having fun.

I love the holidays. I hope the game is fun, some of the stuff posted make it sound like the game should be completely serious and no fun or humor to be had. I hope it isn't that way.

Holidays make the game feel a lot more varied and it's always something to look forward to in-game.
It'd really be nice to see the AI react to the holiday, so if it's an in-game lore equivalent of Christmas, perhaps they would be doing things like decorating houses and building snowmen and all the rest of it.
In-game equivalent of Halloween: Human/other NPC's would be more cautious of shady characters and might feel a lot more superstitious, but would still be decorating the world, dressing up and such.

As long as it's lore-friendly and not a direct rip off, I'm fine. The tacky stuff really makes me lose immersion.