Tis The Season.

That's right folks, it's the season to be merry fa la la la la and so so onnn.

Offline, well work has been busy. Life has been busy and there's all that stuff next month.
Yeep I haven't gotten any gifts or put up the tree. Lazy I know. Fortunately (in a very odd sense) my laziness includes the interwebs. Not only do I have to still do proper Christmas out in the real world, granted I have been listening to Phil Spectors Christmas Albumn, I have to poke my head in on the two events around in my games.

City of Heroes brings the Winter EVent with the now traditional Ski Chalet and Warhammer Online brings beer, booms and boasts with Kegs End.

Winter in City of Heroes means a few things.
There are presents everywhere that when opened could have something good or a bunch of snowmen. Naughty or Nice, opening 200 presents gets the Toy Collector Badge.
Never again will I grind that. Once was enough.
The snowmen are annoying, but every so often you can get the Giant Monster class Winter Lord. Thar be a badge there as well and as Shannon has discovered, two merits per kill. Granted I've not looked at the Merit system but I don't think that's a particularly impressive haul. The right team and he's down faster than a catgirl in Atlas.
Candy Canes! Oh yes. Oh yes indeed. There are various temporary power rewards for the candy canes. They're a clever bit of work. Previously if you missed an event and it's badges, they were gone. Badge whores abhor such things. Candy canes however were introduced...last year I think? With them you can get the temp powers, but you can also get badges that you may have missed from earlier Winter Events (y'know, by not being there or not working for 'em) that are otherwise no longer available. This year they've also thrown in a Halo aura. Naughty or nice, you can now complete the Angel or Devil look.

I'm tempted to put it on my possibly Holy powered, certainly wing sporting Dual Blades Tanker just to annoy people and further confuse the whole "She is not an Angel stop asking" issue.

Mostly though I bet they'll be used in Pocket D to signal being cyberbait. That's just me being cynical.

The only thing that has got my attention at the moment (and yes I am glossing over other details like the Winter Event only Universal Travel IO set, in game roleplay events and the hideous looking Baby New Year in his own mission from Father Time) is the redesign to the Ski Chalet.I say now that I am not interested in the badges, I claim that the Tome Of Knowledge has now moved into that obsessive centre of my brain/heart and reigns supreme but... well there's a giant snow slide with a time challenge. Going to have to give that a go.


Warhammer Online is bringing in the Kegs End, or rather by the time I post this it is live. I've not heard much about it myself having been busy lately. However I caught some highlights thanks to the Herald mostly and Massively in general.

Heres what I learned.
1) Beer, explosions and /boast.I mostly play Dwarfs, so all three are fantastic. (In a moment of subverting Paul Barnett, while I adore Dwarfs, I don't drink, I am 6'6'' and I'm not that hairy. I do however love tunnels.)

/Boast is something that I think is good. Sure making fun of people you whomp in PvP or RvR can go either way. Sometimes it's in the spirit of the thing (What won't Goblins/Orcs laugh at?) and sometimes it's clear that the guys clustered around your corpse are wishing for a /teabag.Still in the interests of fostering rivalries (not discord) being able to boast over the broken bodies of foes who had previously been laughing their greenie faces off appeals to me.

Bloody grobi.

2) Rewards.Live Events have thus far always given me something worth having. It may not be the basic reward (Though the title and see through effect of the Witching potion was fun), it may not be the advanced (though the capes from both events are wonderful with interesting bits) but by the Elite I've had something well worth having.

This time around?I can get a Trophy. They're always good to have. In fact I want more trophys and pocket items.
I can get a title, The Drunkard. Norri tends to be either sozzled or convinced he's a master scout. Sounds like they've got the title for him.I can get a recall spell. No idea if it has limited uses, but the ability to zap myself all the way back to a City Pub? Fantastic! Especially if you're after the Auction House.

3) Last bits.
There'll be mobs, there'll be things occuring. There will be interesting effects and new sights to see. Third live event they've had and they are still pulling out new things. I love this.

The two last sticky out in memory bits then.
The Golden Stein? Well... on that I am ambivalent. I don't know if it's something everyone can have, and even if they can, I have Furds Bottomless Mug already. Still..if it's goin' beggin'...

The Keg backpack?
Two words. DO WANT!

City of Heroes, I still enjoy you and I will come to play in the snow, but if anyone wants me and I'm not on the slide, I'm in the Warhammer world chasing down a Beerpack or two. It'll be a blast.