The Massively Overpowered 2018 winter holiday roundup

It’s that time again, the time for a roundup of all the winter holiday events going on in the MMO universe! The nice thing about this particular holiday is that there’s so much associated that that it’s easy to fill in something; almost every game can smack a fuzzy red-and-white hat on somebody and call it good soup. And let’s face it, if you can keep that hat on in a large enough number of outfits, you’ll probably be happy with it.

Of course, it’s hard to catch up with all of the possible events, but we’ve endeavored to get a full roundup of events in here; if you see one we missed, let us know about it! We love hearing all about the latest snow-and-candy-cane explosion in a game world. That’s not a joke, it’s serious.

AdventureQuest 3D: Frostval

“Happy Frostval, hero! The time has once again arrived for heroes and frost moglins alike to crowd close around the hearth, sing merry Frostval tunes, and mercilessly slaughter snow monsters. Travel to Frostvale and explore the new town. While you’re there, throw some snowballs at other heroes, quest through the holiday releases, and be sure to get that free ugly sweater armor for free… because it’s free.”

ArcheAge: Winter Festivities

“Celebrate the spirit of the holidays in Erenor with warm, winter wardrobes and a good, old-fashioned snowball fight of fury!”

ARK: Survival Evolved: Winter Wonderland

“Through January 7, the ARK Winter Wonderland holiday event will be celebrated on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 platforms. All maps are supported in both single player and multiplayer, with the event automatically activating on any map, even on modded map servers.”

Black Desert

It’s tree-trimming time over in Kakao’s massive sandpark.

Bless Online: Winter Festival

This has not exactly been a great year for Bless Online, but perhaps playing the game’s holiday event will still fill your heart with warmth and good cheer. Or just get some free stuff!

Champions Online: Attack of the Misfit Toys

Now is the time when all of the toys no one loves or plays with attack in the heart of Millennium City. Try not to think about this as an analogy for Champions Online itself.

Dark Age of Camelot: Midwinter Festival

The Midwinter celebrations, with realm bonuses galore, are already live, though the the 12 days of Midwinter event don’t begin until Friday, December 21st.

DC Universe Online: Season’s Greedings

Ah, yes, the real thing we all want with a winter holiday, getting stuff. Sure, you laugh, but at least DCUO is being honest with all of us. It does seem a little disingenuous to stop Larfleeze from getting stuff and stealing presents when you’re stealing them right back, but at least it’s not the cinematic universe, right?

Destiny 2: The Dawning

Create baked goods by defeating enemies. If only it were that easy in real life, right? Smash a few ants and then you have pancakes ready to go. On second thought, let’s not have it be that easy; it’s disturbing to contemplate.

Elder Scrolls Online: New Life Festival

There are enough places in Tamriel that seem to be perpetually cloaked in winter that it might seem odd to celebrate winter anywhere else, but the New Life Festival includes new housing decoration. What else do you need to celebrate?

EverQuest: Frostfell

At this point, if you’re playing EverQuest, you are probably very familiar with the game’s winter holiday. So you know what to enjoy when it arrives this year, yes?

EverQuest II: Frostfell

Or try the slightly fresher version, if you’d rather! Both games are getting a bit long in the tooth at this point.

EVE Online: 13 Days of EVE

Keep logging in and keep getting more rewards? That sounds pretty winter-event-ish. There’s not much lore to it, perhaps, but it at least lets you look chilly even in the inky cold of space.

Final Fantasy XIV: Starlight Celebration

We’re not going to know exactly what this event looks like until it goes live, but datamined information points to it being a celebration akin to Final Fantasy Theatrhythm. Tapping to the beat is also the true meaning of Christmas.

Forsaken World: Winter events and bonuses

You don’t have to worry about creating a coherent unified lore theme if you just run a general series of seasonal events to coincide with the time of year. Galaxy brain thinking.

Hearthstone: Winter Veil

“Starting now through December 31, exchange happy holiday greetings with worthy opponents in a Tavern festooned with a wonderland of fancy Winter Veil decorations. Cozy up and play 100 cards to complete the Happy Winter Veil! quest to receive FOUR The Boomsday Project card packs! Then settle in for some festive Tavern Brawl fun!”

Lord of the Rings Online: Yuletide Festival

Gosh, every Lord of the Rings Online event sounds classy as heck. It’s the most fun you can have at a holiday celebration filled with short fellows and hairy feet outside of your uncle’s house!

Monster Hunter World: Winter Star Fest

The game’s first expansion is planned for next year and seems to be specifically winter-themed, but why not enjoy a bit of winter fun ahead of time with this bit of festive holiday joy? It still involves hunting things and getting rewards!

Neverwinter: Winter Festival of Simril

Boy, it really feels like you shouldn’t be having this sort of festival in a city called Neverwinter, huh? At least it’s bringing improvements to the fishing minigame.

Overwatch: Winter Wonderland

It always bothered me that we treat this song like it’s a Christmas song. Look, there’s a lot of winter that isn’t in December, right? Anyhow, Overwatch is less about the song and more about various thematic maps and gunplay along with new costumes. So, typical Overwatch.

Perfect World International: X’mas Carnival

As crass as it might seem, calling the holiday “Xmas” is actually just as resonant with the overall traditions of the season as any other name for this particular holiday. Use of it dates back to the 16th century! So you can give PWI props here for being historically accurate in its naming.

Planetside 2: Auraximas

Get a gun with festive siding, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la,
Find a jolly tank for riding, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la,
Use a snowman for a decoy, fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la-la!
Auraxis celebrations of joy, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

RIFT: Fae Yule

Whether you’re on the game’s Prime servers or playing on the normal live environment, you’ll be able to enjoy the game’s annual holiday celebration.

Runescape: Winter Weekends

Because the weekends are for winter. The weeks, though… are also for winter, but it’s less catchy of an event title.

Runes of Magic: Snowflake Festival

“The Phirius Workshops taking a fancy to this custom would make the Snowflake Festival an even bigger event in the years to come. Each year more and more people took part in these activities creating this wonderful and exciting atmosphere that we can experience during the winter season nowadays.”

Secret World Legends: Krampusnacht

“Secret World Legends delivered a nice surprise gift for Krampusnacht 2018: new content! As in, new new, not returning-from-TSW new. Not just ‘stuff’ either, but missions. Missions — not one, but two! And one’s a new investigation mission at that! Can you tell [MJ is] a little excited?”

Skyforge: Winter Celebration

“Immortals are coming together to celebrate this very special season. The myLoot calendar is providing you with gifts for a while longer and the Soundweaver is now available to all of players! Like last year, the Winter Celebration will have many in-game events and festive rewards.”

Spiral Knights: Winterfest

“As with previous years, the Grinchlins aim to ruin Winterfest for everyone, and they’re making a pretty strong showing. No amount of coal or yellow snowballs has deterred them. Impostoclaus needs assistance in the Save Winterfest prestige mission! Help out and earn red, green, and white Winter Wish tokens.”

Star Stable: Winter Village

If you’re wondering if you should miss this update, we say “neigh”! Thank you, we’ll be here all week, this is actually pretty awesome regardless of terrible puns.

Star Trek Online: Q’s Winter Wonderland

Q is a jerk. But in this event, he is a seasonal jerk. And at least it settles any sort of debates about whether or not it’s winter on all of the various planets throughout the galaxy; it’s winter here.

Star Wars Galaxies Legends: Wookiee Life Day

Nobody can sunset the Star Wars Holiday Special. Nobody.

TERA: Wintera

There’s a new battleground available for the game’s annual holiday event his year, so you will be able to focus on that instead of the fact that the developers are just not very good at naming things in this game. “Wintera,” really?

Trove: Snowfest

“Winter is coming and the weatherman has called for Snowfest! Let the frosty fury of flurries begin! Beat up on baddies throughout Adventure Worlds and the Shadow Tower to stock up on Snowfest Mystery Boxes. […] Not only that, but Winter Piñatas have returned, and they are loaded with wintry wonders like the Winter Piñata mount, the Chilly Pin Head, the Slope Slider hat and much more!”

Ultima Online: The Krampus!

Whips and obscure Germanic monsters, that’s the true meaning of Christmas. Really, that either means you’re having a really bad Christmas or a really good one that a lot of people won’t see that way.

WAKFU: Kwismas

This year’s Kwismas is marked by a new Kometh pet, which will make it nearly impossible to not feel like you’re overusing the letter K on this particular holiday.

Warframe: Winter Solstice

Some people might say that with Warframe’s far-future setting and baroque weirdness, not to mention the different timeframes on different planets, that it’s a little odd to have a single Winter Solstice event across the game. Those people are liars and maniacs; it’s the Winter Solstice, feel festive in your techno-organic death ninja.

Wizard101: 12 Days of the Spiral

Yes, the holidays arrive in familiar form in Wizard101. That also includes a giveaway for each of the 12 days of Christmas, because why not? It contains slightly fewer lords-a-leaping than that might imply, though.

World of Warcraft: Feast of Winter Vail

“The fine folks of Smokywood Pastures aren’t letting a little thing like war between the Horde and the Alliance get in the way of spreading holiday cheer—or gaining a bit of profit. Winter Veil has begun in Azeroth, and with it come all the fripperies, fineries, and delectable comestibles of the holiday.”

But wait, there’s more…