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 Christmas 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) Christmas items that were offered by Christmas Collectors located in these cities.
 * 3) Christmas quests were offered by Old Nickoles in Lion's Arch.
 * 4) Candy weapons were offered by Candysmiths in the three major cities. 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 got 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.