Game updates/20051221

Update - Wednesday, December 21
Season's Greetings

(Please sing along to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas.)


 * On the twelfth moon of Wintersday ArenaNet gave to me...
 * Blessings from Dwayna
 * Festive decorations
 * One mighty snowman
 * Weapons made of candy
 * Gifts that might kill you
 * Snow-covered henchmen
 * New winter monsters
 * Some really long quests


 * Lots of drinking Dwarves
 * Gingerbread Shields
 * Curses from Grenth
 * And a new way to watch PvP!

That's right, Observer Mode!

Now you can watch as top-ranked guilds battle it out in the Tombs and in rated guild matches. The upcoming Guild Wars Regional Playoffs and World Championship will also be available for viewing as they happen. The details are as follows:

Whenever a top 100 ranked guild plays in the Tombs or in a rated guild challenge, the game is automatically available for everyone to see. Other "special event" games will also be available for viewing. Everything that observers see is delayed 15 minutes from the original game, to prevent cheating. Games become available for observation approximately 15 minutes after they start, and remain available until approximately 15 minutes after they finish. While you are watching a game, you can chat with your fellow observers. There is no limit to the number of people who can simultaneously observe a game, but for purposes of chatting, observers are randomly assigned into groups of about 100 people. In Observer Mode, the Map Area window displays the positions of all characters on the map. You can click on any character to jump there. Alternately, you can use Auto Camera mode to let the game pick the most interesting targets for you. A new heads-up display automatically shows you the Health of teams that you are currently watching. If you prefer to use the Party window to view party status details and to select players to watch, you can easily switch the Party window back and forth between teams, or you may choose to view multiple Party windows and watch different teams in each window.

Guildwiki Notes
This update is the Wintersday 2005 Update that added a lot of content celebrating the holidays in Tyrian style. The celebration is centered around Wintersday, the Tyrian equivalent of New Year's. On this day a struggle between Dwayna and Grenth takes place to determine whether the day will be filled with joy and gift-exchange, or gloom and somber remembrance. According to legend, if Dwayna won, spring would come early, and if Grenth won, winter would last longer than usual.

The update introduced the following new features:
 * 1) The three major cities: Ascalon City, Lion's Arch and Droknar's Forge were decorated for Wintersday, along with the The Tombs.
 * 2) Wintersday 2005 items that were offered by Wintersday 2005 collectors located in these cities.
 * 3) Wintersday 2005 quests were offered by Old Nickoles in Lion's Arch.
 * 4) Candy weapons were offered by Candysmiths in the three major cities and the Dwayna vs Grenth snowball arena. These required Candy Cane Shards which dropped from slain monsters.
 * 5) Presents appearing all around the three cities. Players can pick them up and give them to children NPCs in the cities before the Grentches get them.
 * 6) A Snowball Fight Arena where teams fought with new Snowball Fight skills to see who can collect presents for their side the fastest.
 * 7) The Enchanted Snowman... A set of four snowmen were available as henchmen in Lion's Arch, Droknar's Forge, and Ascalon.

On Wintersday (Dec 31), there was a competition between Dwayna and Grenth in Lion's Arch. An Avatar of Dwayna and an Avatar of Grenth appeared in each district; Dwayna's next to the Wintersday Tree and Grenth's near the Carolers of Grenth. Supporters of each would gather around the aforementioned avatars, and after a long speech and showering of gifts, they would be tallied. If Dwayna won, Yule Caps would be given to everyone present, the district would be lit with fireworks and gifts would appear around her for 15 minutes. If Grenth won, all those present would be given Horns of Grenth, fireworks would also begin, and murderous Grentches would run around, spawning some lethal presents as well as some legitimate gifts. Additionally, his supporters would be killed and bone horrors summoned from their cadavers. Only those who were present at the original tally would receive horns or a cap. These competitions took place at 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, and 12am(PST in US, GMT in Europe). The international districts took place at 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm, 1am, 5am and 8am GMT.

To ensure people received the gifts that they wanted, players tried to designate the various districts as either 'Grenth supporting' or 'Dwayna supporting', the results varied, but this seemed to work for the most part.