WoW players got their 5th Anniversary present early; a revamped version of the original Onyxia raid, tuned for level 80 players and today's smaller, scaling raid groups. Players who logged in this week also received a mini-whelp pet. They also added Mr T to the game. After all, allowing Tauren Mages would destroy the lore, but having a friendly Night Elf sitting in the middle of Horde territory putting Night Elf Mr T heads on everyone is fine as long as it coincides with a cable TV ad campaign.
EQ2 players, for whatever reason, had their anniversary presents arrive a week or so late. Besides a few in-game festival quests, the real treat was a one-week-only questline that had players visiting scaling solo instance versions of one dungeon from each of the game's expansions. (The lore forums believe that the mysterious figure who sends you on this quest is Norrath's missing God of Dreams.)
Overall, WoW's version probably took more development time and work to accomplish. It also provides a timesink - another level 80 raid dungeon - that will stay with the game for the rest of the expansion cycle. Even so, EQ2's little trip down memory lane seemed more genuine and enjoyable. Sometimes, it actually is the thought that counts.
My Sarnak with the various souvenirs from the holiday on display in his home
I feel like Scrooge for saying this but I find holidays and anniversaries terribly unimmersive in games.
ReplyDeleteStopping to celebrate Mother's Day or whatever while our great heroes are striving to save the world from the Ultimate Evil is just banal.
WoW seems to have particularly lost the plot although a game that reportedly had 20 000 pop culture references at launch was always meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek.