Most cultures have seasonal events of some kind based on crops, rebirth, harvest, solstice...
Most cultures have some sort of celebration and superstition regarding the dead.
Is it too far fetched then to assume a make believe culture would not have a similar pattern of seasonal events and or some celebration/superstition.
This is where most games go wrong in my opinion. Having festivals and holidays timed around real life holidays is perfectly fine to me, but they need to be sure the flavor fits the world rather than defaulting to real world decorations and assumptions. I think FFXI did them the best of all the games I've played; they were truly tied to the world but still made sense in real world timing.
i find it hard enough getting immersed at all in todays MMO's. so a halloween troll eating a thanksgiving turkey singing jingle bells doesnt bother me as much as the person standing next to me who looks exactly like i do.
FFXI did it right I feel. Tie seasonal events to ingame lore and culture. Pretty sure there's a handful of games that have done it this way, but FFXI is the only one I can recall right now.
It's not a huge deal either way, but for the most part i've not been impressed or participated in most MMO season events.
Don't get me wrong - i'm not against season events.
I'm against season events that are rooted in the REAL WORLD,
especially the religious kind that make my blood boil.
These companies invest a lot of sweat and money to immerse you in their strange world and lore,
just to smack you in the face every single year with "Look! It's Christmas".
Which in 99% of the case has absolutely nothing to do with the game.
They simply throw overboard all the crap they went through just to give you some snow balls,
a christmas tree and some stupid halloween boss or whatnot.
It's annoying, it's completely disconnected from the game setting and in my personal case it offends my intellect to
have to deal with these primitive and superstitious traditions.
What you call "primitive" and "superstitious" is another persons BELIEF. Honestly just because some people actually enjoy them and believe in them doesnt make them "primitive" and you more "intelligent" get off your high horse.
You are the epitome of an arrogant atheist. You give other atheists and agnostic people a bad name.
Playing: FFXIV, DnL, and World of Warships Waiting on: Ashes of Creation
Christmas is 99% non-religious nowadays anyway. I know some Jews who feel that if they celebrate it then they'd be insulting their heritage (that I can understand). But other than that I think the people who hate chrismas aren't your run-of-the-mill atheists but instead are just the religion-intolerant people.
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IMHO, the problem with holidays for MMOs is that it's the devs/GMs who decide if and how the holidays are observed...
If the game is a sandbox, the players could decide whether or not to decorate their player-made town for the holidays. The players could to make their buildings and town look exactly how they want it to look... Or they could make it that way year-round, or they could celebrate christmas in July instead, or whatever.
Originally posted by greenreen That's why I can use the x in the name and remove the religious aspect.
(You do realize that the X is a 1000+ year old abbreviation for "Christ", right? --- But I agree with the main point of your post though)
I have to admit, instead of a generic holliday events, I wouldn't mind a company spending time creating actual seasons in a game, Spring, Summer, FAll, Winter. It's odd that they'll have seasonal holliday events but the games themselves have no seasons.
It is ALWAYS summertime in Elwynn Forest. Harvest never is "a time" in the game world. Harvest happens everyday.
Snow only falls in the snowy zones.
Some arbitrary declaration by the devs does not make it so. The game world disagrees.
Holidays are indicators of time passing. The holidays seem to fall when real life time passes, not game world time.
They are overdone. Stick a fork in holiday events already. I find myself NOT logging in during events to miss the rat race that ensues with said events.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
Originally posted by Johnie-Marz I have to admit, instead of a generic holliday events, I wouldn't mind a company spending time creating actual seasons in a game, Spring, Summer, FAll, Winter. It's odd that they'll have seasonal holliday events but the games themselves have no seasons.
Comments
Most cultures have seasonal events of some kind based on crops, rebirth, harvest, solstice...
Most cultures have some sort of celebration and superstition regarding the dead.
Is it too far fetched then to assume a make believe culture would not have a similar pattern of seasonal events and or some celebration/superstition.
This is where most games go wrong in my opinion. Having festivals and holidays timed around real life holidays is perfectly fine to me, but they need to be sure the flavor fits the world rather than defaulting to real world decorations and assumptions. I think FFXI did them the best of all the games I've played; they were truly tied to the world but still made sense in real world timing.
FFXI did it right I feel. Tie seasonal events to ingame lore and culture. Pretty sure there's a handful of games that have done it this way, but FFXI is the only one I can recall right now.
It's not a huge deal either way, but for the most part i've not been impressed or participated in most MMO season events.
What you call "primitive" and "superstitious" is another persons BELIEF. Honestly just because some people actually enjoy them and believe in them doesnt make them "primitive" and you more "intelligent" get off your high horse.
You are the epitome of an arrogant atheist. You give other atheists and agnostic people a bad name.
Playing: FFXIV, DnL, and World of Warships
Waiting on: Ashes of Creation
Christmas is 99% non-religious nowadays anyway. I know some Jews who feel that if they celebrate it then they'd be insulting their heritage (that I can understand). But other than that I think the people who hate chrismas aren't your run-of-the-mill atheists but instead are just the religion-intolerant people.
------------------------------------
IMHO, the problem with holidays for MMOs is that it's the devs/GMs who decide if and how the holidays are observed...
If the game is a sandbox, the players could decide whether or not to decorate their player-made town for the holidays. The players could to make their buildings and town look exactly how they want it to look... Or they could make it that way year-round, or they could celebrate christmas in July instead, or whatever.
(You do realize that the X is a 1000+ year old abbreviation for "Christ", right? --- But I agree with the main point of your post though)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/xmasabbr.asp
MMOs have no time. Seasons don't exist.
It is ALWAYS summertime in Elwynn Forest. Harvest never is "a time" in the game world. Harvest happens everyday.
Snow only falls in the snowy zones.
Some arbitrary declaration by the devs does not make it so. The game world disagrees.
Holidays are indicators of time passing. The holidays seem to fall when real life time passes, not game world time.
They are overdone. Stick a fork in holiday events already. I find myself NOT logging in during events to miss the rat race that ensues with said events.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
That would be nice