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

I would love to see Norrath holidays that correspond with ours, and share a few traits. For example, I'd love to see a Yule tide festival, with gifts and feasts. I don't want to see Santa or his reindeer. I'd love to see a Harvest Festival, without any of the obvious Thanksgiving imagery. And I absolutely want to see something Halloweeny...but not trick-or-treating Halloween, undead scratching at everyone's door and the night filled with screams and hideous laughter Halloween

I love holidays in game

Just make sure they don't glorify any particular religion/nationality.

Everquest without Santa Glug would be like not having dark elves or dragons. Everybody in Norrath, from Halflings to Trolls, Qeynosians and Freeporters all gather together to get their gifts every day and have snowball (and now fruitcake) fights.

Seriously, anyone who hasn't seen it should make an EQ 2 account and log in. Choose Kelethin or Neriak for your starting areas (easiest to get to the cities), run to the city, and take the Magic Cabinet to the Frostfell Winter Wonderland. You want "community" on a server? There it is, in all its glory

I love it when we can celebrate real world holidays with something matching in game.
Aye, holidays in Everquest and EQ2 I experience are always wonderful, and holidays in the world are wonderful as well. As far as choosing which holidays to celebrate in EqNext I cant say. But I can say IRL more holidays(even snow days) are that break that you need and generally I would say the more holidays in EqNext the merrier. With moderation =P
The table of discussing NPC's that are aware of a holiday is brilliant. I can imagine playing the game and visiting/helping the same elven lady throughout the months leading up to her excitement of frostfell, or a mischievous fellow with high hopes for the coming holiday or event, yet to find out that you helped him unknowingly build a con 'would take a army to defeat'. The AI you mentioned in the video and I hear seem to be pretty impressive. I can also see where races and the different deity's they follow expand or illustrate a plot or complete absence from a event. Possibly leading to guild war's if pvp system could be discussed in that case.
I like holidays like frostfell for its season greetings yet also fashions Christmas tree's in game as well as santaug(aint dat eaz learn'n a good willed ogre's name) It is good imo to celebrate real world holiday in game, yet with reminder of its actual IRL importance-to mix some creative fun filled lore and ale or eggnog, turkey, or the story/legend of the first half-elf! (and while typing this I like FrostPaw's post about charitys etc. that is a unique idea)
I do want to point out that in my words here that holidays and events are not the same thing =)
*first time poster here at the Eqnext RT and trying to catch up! ...ever sense I fell off the bridges of Kelethin in 99 =D

...which is one reason why I favor a "Winter" or "Yule Festival," a "Harvest Festival," and the like. They tend to cross those boundaries quite handily.

pretty hard not to have a christmas holiday, for instance.
I see no problem with it, even though I'm not christian.

I disagree. To me it has nothing to do with Christmas itself it has to do with adding Real Life events to a Fantasy world. As soon as they add Santa, presents, Christmas trees I feel the fantasy world is not so fantastic anymore. Same with the other real life holidays.

Would prefer they just did massive in game events that creates a memorable game experience.

If they did mimic holidays I would rather they stick to the more non commercialize meaning. I know this is just personal preference and not something I would worry about all that much.

I think that holidays based on in-game lore would be awesome, ESPECIALLY if the game changes a little bit each day over a few weeks as the seasons change and bring the next holiday closer. With the "smarter" game AI, even the npc's could start to show excitement for the approaching holiday, and even begin to change their wardrobes and "routines" as their favorite holiday approaches. I'd love to see a food merchant's store start displaying holiday foods and decorations as a Harvest Festival approaches, or a city guard adding a sprig of holly berries to his uniform as the Mid-Winter Celebration is in full-swing.

On the flip-side, have npc's that despise certain holidays, and react accordingly. Maybe there's an ogre blacksmith who resents the human holiday celebrating a major battle against ogres in the past, so the blacksmith gets cranky as that city holiday gets near, even to the point of charging humans more for his wares during those days, etc.


Of course, my biggest hope will be that Sony finds a way to have the world transition into and out of each holiday without having to bring the servers down to do so. Surely there's a way to introduce new content and re-release old content on the fly without having to shut everything down. (That's a bit off-topic, but loosely related heh).

I'm ok with holidays as long they have enough sound lore for them to make sense being in there. I've always enjoyed Frostfell in EQ2 myself.

Yea, I agree with you there.

Speaking of holidays and events, I played EQ1 since its alpha. I even got to know Kelsiferous and entered the guide program. One of the best ways to celebrate holidays and events was through the guide program. I am really hoping that is brought into EQnext because I would participate in it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately for me, life circumstances prevented me from playing after 2006 and Lathoril is no more...in addition to my old station account. Now that I am a father and Army microbiologist, I am really looking forward to this. Part of me still wishes I would have deviated into game design when I was offered the chance in undergrad.

Yes, but if you had gone into game design, you wouldn't have been able to help find a cure for the zombie virus that was threatening the world last summer and any game designing you would have done would have been moot (so far the zombies haven't displayed much of an interest in gaming).

I never enjoyed Frostfell or other in-game holidays. There really wasn't much "community" as there was just a lot of people running around the same zone grinding quests to gain shards or whatever else, so they could buy house stuff or vanity gear. EQ2 is a quest grind, no matter how you sprinkle it with holiday themed events. Some enjoy it, but imo, it really took away a lot of immersion from the game and just became a convoluted mess.

If "holidays" are going to be in EQN or EQNL then let them be unique to the world and not coincide with American based holidays.

Holiday events that change things up from the usual, whether they tie in with our holidays or not, tend to be a boon. People seem to return to MMOs when they have these, and there's generally an air of excitement in the community during in game holiday events. New things to do, see and achieve - new rewards to gain.

It is a worldwide game. Holidays in game need to be lore based and have no relation to real world holidays.

I think that EQN needs to go another route with holiday's, yes i do enjoy the holiday's but they need to come up with their own holidays..

I vote EverQuest native holidays ..... I can go out side an experience real world holidays what I think I want more emersion in the world that is EverQuest. I am even kind of hesitant with holidays that are too similar like Halloween or Easter, while holidays like Christmas or Thanksgiving are more natural to the time of season as long as the history is changed I would not mind.

Razic Zin,

May all your gamer dreams some true

I'm not a fan of holidays that match real world holidays in any way -- not even time of year.

I would prefer a completely original game world with its own traditions that have absolutely nothing to do with the real world in any way, shape, or form.

At the very least, I think there should be holidays to celebrate each individual season (fall, winter, spring, summer) with themes that are closely tied to EQ lore. I don't think the celebrations necessarily have to bear any resemblance to real world holidays, and I definitely would not care for game holidays that closely or exactly resemble real world holidays. I get a little tired of all my characters across all games accumulating candy cane striped cosmetic items. It would be nice to see seasonal celebrations that vary depending upon race and region. I'd also like to see holidays tied to EQ deities and perhaps even some cultural holidays unique to certain races/regions, for example maybe the Ratonga celebrate a holiday that no one else does.