Fall Festival Returned .... wait what?

[Thorebane]

So just this minute on Gilrain the Fall festival has restarted HAHA!

Happened to anyone else?

Is this some bug/glitch?

[Silchas]

Maybe time is running backwards on that server.

[Thorebane]

Wow .... then became the days where a champion beats a whole level 50 creep raid by himself ... mwhaha

[Celestrata]

Surprise, it's not a glitch!

The Fall Festival will be returning across all servers as a part of our weekend festivities. We're going to be putting up an announcement on everything that's happening this weekend shortly!

But, otherwise, dive in to the Harvest Festival and enjoy!

[Bryos]

I just noticed it in game. Good to hear...now I'll get my Ale Association Kin.

[whheydt]

I guess we now have to prepare for another onslaught of forced emotes.... Oh, joy....

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

[Silchas]

I would say whoever thought of this is a turkey but I am afraid the joke would be lost.

[opurt]

I guess we now have to prepare for another onslaught of forced emotes.... Oh, joy....

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

Muw-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

(Although I have them all as skills now so I can do them whenever I want.)

[Crell_1]

Given the notes in the latest Bullroarer patch: The Ale Association quest “Inn League Disaster” unfortunately had to be removed from the game... Some changes were made to world event scheduling, and this quest did not get along well with the changes!"

Could someone please record this entire quest from start to finish and put it up on youtube?

[Drucrew]

It's just to try and lure the O.C.D. peeps back from Skyrim. Nice try, but they are busy making potions there.

*sigh* more mailbox fainting time....meh

[Bel-Astarte]

I would say whoever thought of this is a turkey but I am afraid the joke would be lost.

I just hope the pie eating contest is operational...

[Silchas]

I just hope the pie eating contest is operational...

Pumpkin or pecan?

[Desposyni]

So what are the weekend festivities all about? What are we celebrating?
Or is it just in retaliation to BW running a massive beta/stress test for SWTOR the same weekend?
I will be too busy crashing a test server to care about a festival I have already done to death.

[Armaius]

So what are the weekend festivities all about? What are we celebrating?

Thanksgiving comes to mind.

[Bel-Astarte]

Pumpkin or pecan?

How's a hobbit to choose?

A slice of EACH!!!

[Silchas]

How's a hobbit to choose?

A slice of EACH!!!

and THAT is the right choice of course!

[kevxr2002]

It's just to try and lure the O.C.D. peeps back from Skyrim. Nice try, but they are busy making potions there.

*sigh* more mailbox fainting time....meh

That a swtor beta weekend.

[KualaBangoDango]

I would say whoever thought of this is a turkey but I am afraid the joke would be lost.

Only lost on most non-Americans.

So what are the weekend festivities all about? What are we celebrating?

My guess is the American holiday of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving comes to mind.

Yup

How's a hobbit to choose?

A slice of EACH!!!

and THAT is the right choice of course!

Well, to be fair the RIGHT choice would be an entire pie of each. A slice just wouldn't cut it.

[Viniel]

I'm also seeing double mob kill XP. Or thereabouts. I'm guessing that is part of this.

[Ironcrown]

I just hope the pie eating contest is operational...

I like pie. Pie is good.

[Hammerfast]

It's just to try and lure the O.C.D. peeps back from Skyrim. Nice try, but they are busy making potions there.

*sigh* more mailbox fainting time....meh

Amazing game! It's got my butt for the whole weekend. A whole army of LOTRO's couldn't lure me back until I finish this awesome storyline.

Oh wait! Then there's Batman. That one's next.... between bouts of Battlefield 3. LOL. Sorry Turbine. Too little. Too late. Better luck next time

[Jadzi]

It's just to try and lure the O.C.D. peeps back from Skyrim. Nice try, but they are busy making potions there.

That a swtor beta weekend.

It's Thanksgiving. Lots of places are celebrating in some manner, including MMO's. Guild Wars, for instance, is busy having Special Treats Weekend. I suppose that's also a ploy to compete?

Lighten up, and have some pie!

[Joreel]

And I'll be betaing Star Wars all weekend. It looks like a really good game.

[Ruschi]

How fun! I missed most of the festival-- time to grab the cosmetic duds I thought I'd be missing.

[Demelza]

Firstly:

I would say whoever thought of this is a turkey but I am afraid the joke would be lost.

Only lost on most non-Americans.

... Probably more accurate if you'd added a modifier along the lines of: "unusually ignorant non-Americans". You might be surprised, at least with regard to Europe, that the large majority of Europeans have a peculiar habit of not just studying, but even visiting, other countries, and taking quite a significant interest in the affairs of the world outside the borders of their own nation(s). Although I obviously can't speak for all European nations, I'd take a small bet that, if you took a straw poll in Britain (where I live), about 75% - and that's a conservative estimate - of post-school-age people would be well aware that Americans traditionally eat turkey at Thanksgiving. A further 25% (at least) would even know *for what* those who participate are being thankful, too - which isn't really bad when considering it's another nation's tradition we're talking about

Secondly:

Thanksgiving comes to mind.

Well, considering the (zero) relevance which "Thanksgiving" bears for the (significant) proportion of the player-base who aren't North American, and to prove to all the sceptical voices here that this (unprecedented) "double-take Festival" is genuinely an impromptu celebration of Thanksgiving, and *NOT* a marketing ploy to compete with Skyrim (must... resist... creating potions... will never escape!) and/or SW:TOR's beta weekend, how about introducing similar "bonus extra" events *each year* to cater for those of us who don't share the Thanksgiving tradition?

In the UK, for example, for those who don't already know this (and although we have had Harvest Festivals of various kinds going back centuries, if not millennia), we have a comparable specific celebration dating back to slightly before the time of the first-ever Thanksgiving in America (in 1621), i.e. "Guy Fawkes' Night/Bonfire Night/Fireworks Night", celebrated on 5th November each year to commemorate the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the House of Lords (UK equivalent of the US Senate), together with the King and the entire British nobility, on 5th November 1605, and held every year after that date. It's as "big" here as Thanksgiving is in America: second only to Christmas, probably (although New Year is a good contender, especially in Scotland).

Many other nations have similar Autumnal Festivals - for example, the Hindu/Jain Festival of Diwali/Devali/Deepavali, commonly known as "The Festival of Lights", observed between mid-October and mid-November, which is one of the most important annual festivals in many countries, celebrated for a variety of reasons.

As far as the "canon" of LotR Lore goes, Guy Fawkes' Night (since it occurs in England, which is the country represented in LotR by The Shire), is arguably only *slightly* non-canonical - due to its too-recent nature in terms of LotR's non-specified, but certainly "pre-Mediaeval" timeframe. Festivals held in nations outside of Western Europe (the "scene setting" for almost all of LotR's storyline) are probably more questionable, Lore-wise, although it is certainly no less "canonical" to celebrate, for example, Diwali than it is to celebrate Thanksgiving, since *both* festivals occur in countries which are definitely not part of the overall geographical area where Tolkien chose to set the action within LotR. (For Lore purists: Yes, I know that "The New World", comprising all of "the Americas" was represented by "The West" and/or Valinor - so it existed, but no specific action in LotR took place there.)

For myself, and to use the name of a Deed I actually completed - by accident! - due to my obsessive over-indulgence in a previous Festival, I am suffering at the moment from "Too Much Festival", so I will not be joining the throng hanging around at the Party Tree, no doubt having forced Emotes thrown at me until the joke wears a little thin (to say the least).

However, seeing as this is, one would like to believe, a simple act of goodwill on Turbine's part, entirely unrelated to any external behaviour or actions by any other gaming house, I hope we can all look forward to seeing similar occasional, random "resurrections" of LotRO's Quarterly Festivals - or other scheduled "celebratory" events - in the future...?!

Best,

Demelza of Lórien
Friend of the Wild and Lady of Streams