Saturday 30 October 2004

Pic of the day: No, this is not Jackie O'Lantern, but a heroine keeping watch over the citizens of Paragon City. On the pavement a formerly uppity Hellion. "You think a Hellion will run away?"

CoH Halloween event

For half a week up to Halloween (the last of October), the online game City of Heroes has (g)hosted a special event. During these days, Paragon City has been under attack by dark forces: Evil witches and sorceresses, pumpkin-headed monsters and zombies. Daylight has been withheld from the fair city, casting it in a seemingly endless twilight. And heroes go trick-or-treat at the doors.

Yes, such is the sad state of things in Paragon City, that heroes are knocking on doors to get inspiration. Although in this game, "inspiration" is the name of what you may know as "power-up" from platform games. Some inspirations will restore more or less of your health, others will restore your energy if you are getting exhausted, some will protect you against attacks and others will increase your damage output. They have a limited duration and are a quick fix when a battle doesn't go your way. And now you can get them by clicking at the innumerable doors in Paragon City. Except around half of the time, monsters come out instead.

Regardless of my personal feeling about Halloween, I have to call this a success. To top it all, you can earn badges by defeating a large enough number of these Halloween-specific enemies. So there has been a flurry of activity. One day I was actually disconnected from the server twice because of the overload in my zone. It is clearly popular. And I think well of the dedication in making such a grand event, even though I may have mixed emotions about the theme.

I don't think my religion prohibits me clicking on doors in the game, unless it prohibits me playing the game in the first instance, which I have so far deemed it doesn't. I have tried. But it is not quite my style. For the most part I have run around in the newbie zone with my newbie characters taking down Clockworks and Hellions. Clockworks in particular are a nuisance, and if a hero has to run from too strong monsters, the Clockworks love to take pot-shots at them with their ranged electric attack. So with all the newbies around tricking and treating, I feel like I'm doing a valuable service for the community, clearing up the underbrush of conventional villains and mechanical nuisances. ^_^

This is the first year for the game, they started near the end of April. So now I am looking forward to the Christmas and New Year's themes. If they do this much for such a dubious little thing as Halloween (or "Goth Holiday" as I like to call it), I can only imagine what they will do for the Holly Holidays. But in particular, I am really looking forward to Valentine. Will we get flowers and chocolate as temporary powers? Creativity knows no bounds!

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And on that note, I am writing this on Sunday and NaNoWriMo starts in 45 minutes. I may still write something long and thoughtful during November, but I would not bet the family fortune on it, for those of you who even have a family fortune. I would definitely not bet my family jewels on it ... ^_~