As you’re gobble, gobbling up food today, rooting for your favorite football team, and enduring the uncomfortable political conversations at the dinner table, you might be tempted to take some time to play MMOs during this American holiday.
Thanksgiving isn’t as huge of an inspiration for MMORPG holidays, but they do exist and are perfect for players who want to get decked out in the latest Pilgrim fashion from 1621 and stock up on food buffs.
So if you’re looking for a way to complement the holiday in-game, here’s where you should go today!
World of Warcraft: Pilgrim’s Bounty
The turkey is the centerpiece of World of Warcraft’s Pilgrim’s Bounty event, which returned yesterday to provide players with a week of turkey distractions. The silly event features a food fight, reputation buffs, and a toy, pet, and cosmetic that can be attained. If you’re particularly diligent, you can earn yourself a Pilgrim title when all is eaten and done.
Pokémon Go: Celebration
“We would like to say thank you — and what better way to say thank you than to celebrate our community. So, starting November 23rd and going through November 30th, we will double the amount of XP and Stardust you receive when completing in-game actions.”
Riders of Icarus: Light’s Banner
By logging in each day for at least an hour, players will earn a shiny daily reward for the attendance event. Players brand-new to the game can earn an additional week of bonus rewards for trying out the game. Finally, the last event will grant all players buffs to tempering success, rare drop chance, and daily achievement rewards.
Dark Age of Camelot: Happy Thanksgiving
“To celebrate the holiday, please enjoy the following bonuses until the morning of Monday, November 28th. On Ywain, there will be a rotating +125% Realm Point bonus in the zone of Pennine Mountains, Jamtland Mountains, OR Breifine. On Gaheris, all three capital city regions have been given a +125% Realm Point bonus.”
Black Desert: Abundant Harvest
The update includes the game’s Thanksgiving event, which amounts to a daily quest for rewards and the spawn of King Targargo, an enormous and deadly turkey who’s invaded Fleme Hills and dares you to come kick his butt, at least until November 30th, when the event concludes.
Elder Scrolls Online: Free Xbox One weekend
Bethsoft has just announced the free-play event for the Xbox One will kick off on Wednesday, November 23rd, and end Sunday, November 27th. As during the last promo event, new accounts will be gifted 500 cash shop credits to play with.
Defiance: New Frontier Harvest
Every other MMO with a Thanksgiving event can pack it in because Defiance has clearly won the arms race. Literally, in fact: The game isn’t just giving you a healthy dose of turkeys; it’s literally weaponizing turkeys with the new Flock Launcher and Roost Hatcher. They are guns that shoot turkeys. Feeling festive? Fire a turkey at someone’s face. No sitting around and eating, no doing the lore gymnastics necessary to justify these holidays existing in this fictional setting, just bam. Firing turkeys out of guns.
Neverwinter: Thanksgiving Bonuses
“While many of our adventurers will be stuffing their faces, how about we stuff your schedules by holding five different 2x events this weekend! Are you ready for 2x RP, AD, XP, Guild Marks, and Enchants & Runes? We know we are!”
Tree of Savior: Harvest Festival
Characters level 50 and up will be able to pick up event seeds from the in-game notice board, once per day, then either use it immediately for a sweet experience and movement buff or plant it at a farm in-game for a prize instead. “Planted prizes can be collected by anyone as soon as they are ready to be harvested,” the studio warns. “Please note that you alone will be responsible for keeping your harvest safe as we will not be providing help with lost harvests.”
ARK: Survival Evolved: Turkey Trial 2
This holiday update also includes Turkey Trial 2, the second iteration of last year’s event. Detail are sparse so far, but the event will include a new challenge and new cosmetics as well as introduce ARK’s first emotes. These emotes wont disappear like your Thanksgiving dinner though; WildCard’s Jeremy Stieglitz assured players that the emotes will be permanent once players unlock them.
WildStar: Double XP X-Plosion!
“For a limited-time Protostar will match your experience point for point, which means you earn twice the XP every time you earn XP during this special event. The XP X-Plosion runs from November 24 at 2am PST until 11:59pm PST on November 28.”
Trove: Turkeytopia
By fighting off the giant birds, players can extract loot stuffing from their innards and enjoy rewards such as hats, recipes, and rare mounts. Trove is bringing back old favorite mounts while adding a few new ones. Our favorite? The cooked-but-strangely-ambulatory “roast rider.”
To give players even more of a reason to log in this week, Trove is holding a Freebie Friday with 24 extra daily loot chests, an 100% XP boost, double cubit star bar payout, and, er, more jumping.
Devilian: Abyssal Challenge
“This weekend, from 9:00 AM PST on November 23 to 9:00 AM PST on November 29, we challenge you to take on the Abyssal Tower once more! Enter the Abyssal Tower challenge mode, and receive stacking bonus rewards the higher you get. Rewards are also granted per character based on the highest level the character reaches, so play with multiple characters to get the maximum amount of rewards!”
