Almost a whole week of doing nothing but eating and playing your favorite MMOs – it’s no wonder Thanksgiving is one of gamers’ most favorite holidays.

But it gets doubly fun with the incredible deals, events and perks that crop up during this long, free play weekend. Here’s our yearly round-up that makes it slightly easier for you to decide where to spend your Thanksgiving in-game.

AION

Deals:

• Cuts the price on a game box to just $4.99. From November 23 to 28 at the Aion Store.

Events & Perks:

• Shugo Event showcase features Double XP on Weekends, Daru Days fur costumes and free gifts for logging in.

Buy Aion Kinah

EVERQUEST II

Deals:

• Loads of discounted Marketplace items “most of them at half-price or more.” Only on November 25 at the EQII Marketplace.

Events & Perks:

• Double XP Weekend for AA, tradeskill and adventure XP from November 24 to 27.

Buy EQII Plat

RIFT

Deals:

• Free game boxes for everyone, but no complimentary game time. The Ashes of History edition which comes with a Spindrel mount, personal banker and faction tabard is also down to $10. Available until further notice at RIFT trial upgrade page.

Events & Perks:

• Fae Yule world event as part of Patch 1.6
• 30% weekend bonuses, including XP, Favor, Prestige, dungeon currency and planarite.

Buy RIFT Platinum

RUNESCAPE

Deals:

• Purchase a 90-day RuneScape Membership card from Target ($22.50 in US) and GAME (£12.99 in UK) to receive a non-tradable turkey hat. Redemption must be from between November 18 to December 8.

Buy Runescape Gold

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

Deals:

• World of Warcraft per se has no sale, but its sister franchise StarCraft II is slashing its box price by half to $30. Until November 28 at Blizzard Store.

Events & Perks:

• Pilgrim’s Bounty is in full swing, bringing free food, buffs and holiday quests to players. Runs from November 20 to 26.

Buy WoW Gold

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC

Events & Perks:

• Mega beta test weekend is coming up from November 25 to 28 and will be the playtest equivalent of turkey stuffing, packed tight and irresistibly good!

Buy SWTOR Credits Soon

You will notice that a few of our favorite titles skipped the Thanksgiving bash, with many like FINAL FANTASY XI, FINAL FANTASY XIV and DC UNIVERSE ONLINE focusing on new patches and content instead.

In the end, it shouldn’t matter which MMO you end up spending the next week or two in. What should matter more is if you have fun and be with virtual friends you can be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, tooners!

Like many Square Enix creations, Final Fantasy XI is peppered with delightful music that give the game a dream-like atmosphere.

You might have fallen in love with a few of these soaring ballads and electro-pop tunes, so why not port them straight to your stereo and Mog House?

The new FFXI Original Soundtrack CD, now available for pre-order at $29.99, will fill your ears with popular tunes from the three Abyssea add-on scenarios, several unreleased songs from the Wings of the Goddess expansion, and a few lesser picks from the PlayOnline store.

The 11-track, double-disc set will also unlock the Spinet in-game item, which is described as a “Juenoan-styled keyboard furnishing” that randomly plays the soundtracks during Mog House visits, like an orchestral jukebox but with no need for FFXI Gil coin drops.

The non-finalized tracklist (which struck us as peculiar because no one ever likes the bait-and-switch) is as follows:

01 Summers Lost
02 Echoes of Creation
03 FINAL FANTASY / FINAL FANTASY XI Version
04 Luck of the Mog
05 Feast of the Ladies
06 Abyssea – Scarlet Skies, Shadowed Plains
07 Melodies Errant
08 Shinryu
09 Everlasting Bonds
10 An Ode to Heroes Fallen
11 Wings of Dawn

Today marks a not-particularly-groundbreaking update for Final Fantasy XI, but what it lacks in headline-grabbing changes are made up for by convenient, quality-of-life improvements. 

Job adjustments and battle system refinements make up the bulk of the July patch, led by Paladin tanking and damage buffs. Meanwhile, Ninja and Samurai main jobs will see slight buffs in a couple of abilities and combat mechanics.

Individual training in the Grounds of Valor is now a bit easier, while on Campaign mode players will get a higher xp cap per evaluation.

Minor but very irritating bugs like the lack of FFXI Gil and xp gains from enemies in Castle Oztroja have also been fixed.

On the UI front, there’s a new /yell command that sends a message to all PCs in one of four areas, depending on where you are: Ru’Lude Gardens, Upper Jeuno / Lower Jeuno / Port Jeuno. If you’re worried about /yell spam, a filter can be turned on to keep those yell messages out of your chat screens.

Read the full July version update notes for a full list of these convenience changes.

A few MMOs brought out the big bangs for Independence Day, from dye-filled blowouts in Aion to the annual pyrotechnics show in World of Warcraft.

But while others went all out, some took a breather in this all-American holiday. Read on to see which games you should be checking out for their patriotic shindigs. 

Aion

As one of the few MMOs that take appearance costumes seriously, Aion encouraged all Ascended to dress up in the national flag colors with everyone getting free red, white and blue dyes. (Yes, keep those Aion Kinah) These came with new surveys which won’t take much time to fill up and can be used to turn armor into parade-appropriate outfits.

NCSoft also gets plus points for the lore effort. “Independence Daeva marks the traditional anniversary of when the original Humans declared themselves free from oppressive Balaur rule,” said their holiday event announcement. “If you believe that you have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of Abyss Points, please join us by dressing in bright colors and setting off firecrackers in the memory of this historic occasion.”

DC Universe Online

If you expected the developers to cross some Marvel lines and offer a stripes-and-banners costume like Captain America’s, well tough luck. DC Universe Online seems to have snubbed the holiday, but they have a pretty good reason for doing so – they’re mighty busy preparing for the SOE Fan Faire which starts in a few days.

From July 7 to 9, the SOE Fan Faire will see the convergence of fans across a dozen or so MMOs. It might not be as flashy as BlizzCon, but it’s the kind of quirky convention that satisfies every type of geek and gaming inclination. While it’s too late to register – walk-ins are welcomed. Details here!

EverQuest II

Over at Norrath, EverQuest II players will have to amuse themselves with the new gliding and leaping mounts as most of the support staff were given the day off.

“Technical, Account, and Billing Support will be limited to email from 6:00 a.m. PDT through 7:00 p.m. PDT. Additionally, Live Chat support will be available from 12:00 p.m. PDT through 4:00 p.m. PDT,” said the announcement. Normal operations resume tomorrow, July 5.

Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV

It was business as usual for the two MMOs of Japanese developer Square Enix. To be fair, most FFXI and FFXIV players never really expected an Uncle Sam holiday to become adapted for the games, especially when Americans comprise a small portion of the subscriber base.

And we know they aren’t above hosting holiday events, as we’ve seen in their Valentine’s- and Spring-themed celebrations. Cookouts and star-spangled parades just aren’t international enough, I suppose.

RIFT

This one took us by surprise. Trion Worlds usually takes any opportunity to give out items or hold events in RIFT, but for Independence Day the company seems to have considered that they just have too much going on right now.

On top of their new Patch 1.3 world events, they have the new summer subscription promos and weekly community events. When you add a national holiday event to that, well even we think it would be over the top. We wouldn’t know what to do anymore! Next year though, some token item or costume or even a shower of RIFT Platinum would be a nice enough nod to the holiday, given that a good portion of Telarans are Americans.

World of Warcraft

Last, but arguably the grandest, World of Warcraft’s takes the cake for raucous revelry. The Midsummer Festival ends today, and the culmination is a bacchanalian feast of /dancing and /kissing and /toasting all the way to Booty Bay.

The fireworks display commences at 6:00pm PDT, and will repeat each hour until the event closes for good. All faction capitals are participating, so take a short break from all that Firelands raiding and spare a WoW Gold to get smashed with your faction at the local pub.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

This week saw the official start of summer, and MMOs brought on the first wave of scorching hot patches and festivals that’s got us thirsting for more.

RIFT

Need to cool off? Over at Telara, the new Patch 1.3: Waves of Madness provides all the crazy water fun your Ascended can handle. Read the EpicToon RIFT 1.3 Launch Day guide to track down the activities you’d want to do for months to come. Our preference tends to lean on the new Hammerknell 20-man raids for RIFT Platinum runs and participating in the world events for that stunning Murdantix mount chance reward.

World of Warcraft

In Azeroth, the excitement for Patch 4.2: Rage of the Firelands is building up to explosive levels. Players are eager to test the new raiding content featuring Ragnaros, and get to loot up to ilevel 391 gear in heroic fight modes.

All signs point to the new patch – and vicious PvP mounts! – arriving next week June 28, but you never know! For the time being though, the distraction of choice is the Midsummer Fire Festival event. Players are visiting bonfires, twirling till they’re spilling WoW Gold, and downing Lord Ahune for emblem-filled satchels. This year’s Midsummer event ends on July 4.

Final Fantasy XI

Care for a romantic romp at the beach? You’d have to settle for a midnight tryst over at Final Fantasy XI. The Celestial Nights festival returns next week to woo players from June 27 to July 11. Helpful event moogles should usher in the summer romance in a capital city near you.

Final Fantasy XIV

Summer takes a turn for the eerie in Final Fantasy XIV with two new instanced raids revealed for Patch 1.18. Players will get to battle criminal elements in the underground Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak or slay the undead lurking in the Dzemael Darkhold.

These new, one-hour limit raids should be out by next week at the earliest together with the much-anticipated auto-attack feature.

Aion

NCSoft turns up the PvP heat with the activation of Reduced AP loss and Rifting events starting June 22 until June 29. Now you have the perfect venue to vent out your summer rage, since AP loss will be reduced in half for encounters in the Abyss, Silentera Canyon, Ingisson and Gelkmaros. AP gains will also be increased temporarily for killing monsters in the first two areas.

All in all, summer MMO gaming is looking pretty swell. Where are your toons planning to skinny dip? Tell us in the comments below!

Two rival MMOs are pushing themselves to the limit to get their summer patches in order, with RIFT making a last-minute reversal of its Patch 1.3 changes, while World of Warcraft unleashed its Patch 4.2 official trailer in a final hype attempt!

Last-Minute Reversals

Trion Worlds scrutinized its Patch 1.3 changes for RIFT and reversed Valor changes that made PvP wonkier. In this week’s playtests, developers saw that Valor damage mitigation was too high and made everyone in Warfronts almost unkillable.

Chloromancers and several other specs that received major class changes in Patch 1.3 also got a reprieve when compromises were rolled out based on player feedback.

Patch 1.3 is scheduled to go live on June 22, so it’s down to the wire for these PvP balance tweaks. We haven’t heard many changes about the world event and 20-man Hammerknell raids, so at least raiders can rest easy knowing that everything down to RIFT Platinum rewards has been finalized in the new PvE content.

Pre-launch Hype

As Telara buckles up for the new patch, Azeroth gets its rallying call in the form of a new World of Warcraft Patch 4.2 official trailer.

Patch 4.2 brings players to the Firelands realm where Ragnaros is cooking up his own cataclysmic scheme. We support Thrall as he tries to stop the Firelord in a seven-boss raid gauntlet that offers the new Tier 12 raid gear and the first legendary of the expansion, Dragonwrath.

Already, the forums are clamoring for a confirmed release date (most bets are at June 28) but the consensus is that it will be within one to three weeks from now. Signs of impending release include the scheduled start of a new Arena Season and the slowing trickle of updates to the test realm patch notes.

Lesser of Two Villains

In order to defeat the greater threat that is Brainiac, Superman does the unthinkable in DC Universe Online Update 4 – team up with his arch nemesis Lex Luthor. The stage for this alliance of necessity? The Fortress of Solitude where Brainiac is set to challenge level 30 players.

A new currency will also debut in Update 4 called Marks of Krypton, which will supplement DCUO Cash in purchasing gear and upgrades. The next tier of iconic armor will also drop from the new raid bosses.

DDOS Attack Thwarted

This week, EVE Online came under a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) that targeted its game and web servers.

CCP responded turning its game and services offline, before launching “an exhaustive scan of our entire infrastructure” in order to protect player data. COO Jón Hörðdal said in a statement that these measures proved effective against the initial DDoS attack. Score: 1 Developers – 0 Hackers.

So far, the infrastructure remains unbreached and no data was compromised, although traffic flooding might recur in the coming days that will prompt server shutdowns.

Voidwatch Adjustments and Auto Attacks

Square Enix continues to roll out quality-of-life improvements to its twin MMOs.

For Final Fantasy XI, the Voidwatch battle system will get a new set of adjustments set for the next version update in mid-July. These include:

• New vendor NPCs for ascent items and voiddust
• New alignment bonus after damaging weakened enemies
• New scaling alignment bonus based on Treasure Hunter effect level

While for Final Fantasy XIV, auto-attack seems to be shaping up pretty nicely, based on this preview trailer released by Naoki Yoshida:

Yoshi-P also added in this week’s producer letter once auto attack goes live in Update 1.18, other related concerns like enmity and action animations will be recalibrated to fit the simpler combat mechanics. FFXIV Gil should flow a bit faster now for those solo grinding mobs.

So which game patch are you most excited for? RIFT, World of Warcraft, DC Universe Online (It’s the Fortress of Solitude, for crying out loud!)? Share your excitement in the comments section.

The festive holiday of Easter encapsulates everything nice about spring: fun activities, roses in full bloom, lively colors and a fresh start for all.

It’s no surprise then that Easter and spring-themed celebrations are sprouting like bunnies across MMO land, and EpicToon has collected the best ones for you to try take a crack at. We’ll be updating this page as more events pop up so check back often!

EverQuest II

Faydwer Faire event (Apr 8 – 10)

For the second year running, the good and neutral-aligned denizens gathered in the Antonia Bayle server to sing bardic songs, roleplay, and compete on everything from archery to vegan cooking contests. The player-run festival ended with a flying competition and an extended meet-and-greet at the Wayfinders Inn at the Kelethin Platform.

Final Fantasy XI

The Egg Hunt event (April 12 – 26)

Citizens of Vana’diel are scrambling to collect and trade eggs for exclusive prizes. Every day that a player is logged in during The Egg Hunt event, he or she will receive free egg items that can be mixed and match for winning combinations.

The festivities encourage players to mingle with their fellow eggs-plorers, and spend more time in-game. Event moogles will be stationed on all three major cities to facilitate the hunt, while resident moogles can assemble collectible furnishings into an egg buffet – try it out, it’s fun!

Final Fantasy XIV

Hatching-Tide event (April 15 – May 9)

A new festival in the city-state of Gridania and hatched by a peculiar Miqo’te, the Hatching-Tide event will have players warming dodo-sized eggs, and wearing egg caps until the Hatching Hour. Players can either believe the prophecy of the Dreamer that the eggs are a sign of the return of the Archons, or dig a little deeper into the mysterious festival.

Talk to the Dreamers NPCs located in all three starting city-states: Upper Decks in Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, and Merchant Strip in Ul’dah.

RIFT

Chances are slim that RIFT will see an Easter or spring-themed event this year, what with River of Souls world event just ending last week.

But players are making do with spotting “Easter eggs”– amusing pop culture references and quotes –planted by developers throughout the game. Have cheery fun browsing through this 22-page thread that compiles everything from Ghostbusters-inspired quests to Lovecraftian horrors.

World of Warcraft

Noblegarden event (April 24 – 30)

In Azeroth, players have a more traditional and comic take on Easter with the Noblegarden event. Players can hunt for colored eggs in sleepy towns like Goldshire and Bloodhoof Village, and collect Noblegarden Chocolate, which can be exchanged for a number of spiffy spring costumes and other quest-related items.

Participating in the Noblegarden events and completing the related achievements is a prerequisite for What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been, one of the hardest meta-achievements in the game that rewards the Violet Proto-drake flying mount.

Determined not to let a temporary shutdown ruin its anniversary shindig, Final Fantasy XI is going full steam ahead with its 9^th Vana’versary, with Square Enix giving us a sneak peek of the contests and giveaways coming our way.

Get Creative… Or Edible

The popular fan art contest returns, and entries can be submitted right now. For inspiration, you can browse through last year’s submissions and the chosen winning entries. Our general advice is to either pump up the graphic details, or go the cute and edible route, like our personal favorite, the adorable Tarutaru-Mithra lunch box (shown above).

Don’t Lose Your Marbles

There’s also the Mog Bonanza raffle to prepare for, which brings hundreds of rare item prizes and millions of FFXI Gil. Marbles should be available for purchase in cities by late May, after the monthly version update.

Mystery Loyalty Gift

The 9^th Vana’versary also continues with the Adventurer Appreciation Campaign, a two-week long fan service that sees developers showering players with one-of-a-kind items. This year, it seems to be a fashion collectible, although there’s no word yet on which slot it will occupy.

Ask and You Shall Know!

Square Enix also brings back the Census, which collects data across realms and provides helpful factoids for curious adventurers. The results of the Census are planned to be released in mid-June, making it a grand finale of sorts to the anniversary event.

You may have noticed that there’s been no mention of an Anniversary Ring, which contains limited use charges for an XP gain buff. Confidence is high that it was just a slight omission, given that the Anniversary Ring has always been part of the freebies offered at this time of the year. We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for it – till then, get cracking on those art projects!

Death in all its ghastly forms visited RIFT this week as the popular new game launched Patch 1.1: River of Souls, while in the jolly old realms of EverQuest II, players almost died of laughter—or at least roleplayed the part—in the full spirit of April Fools’.

Trial Key Frenzy

We don’t know if it was the sight of zombies or the promise of a rare undead horse mount, but everybody scrambled for free RIFT trial key codes over the weekend.

Trion Worlds released the trial key codes via e-mail and also seeded them across forums, blogs and game store websites. Each key code could be used five times to let friends into RIFT for free, just in time to see Alsbeth spread death and destruction in Patch 1.1.

If you weren’t able to secure free access for your friends, no worries! You can always join the guild contest, which rewards you with a 25-use trial key for a special preview event in the future. From our experience, having a great backstory and raiding achievements will make your guild stand out so gear up with RIFT Platinum and go clear the new 20-man River of Souls raid.

Bristlebane’s Day

In the merry lands of EverQuest II, pranks and laughs abound with the celebration of Bristlebane’s Day, the Norrathian version of April Fools’ Day. The annual joke-a-thon saw a few upgrades including a new quest and tradeskill recipes for purchase with your EQII Plat.

Aion in my WoW?

Speaking of jokes, popular datamining site MMO-Champion pulled a photoshopping prank to show us the evolution of WoW, should it decide to take a page from Aion’s winged fantasy designs.

Not too shabby at all. 100% guaranteed these wings would sell like hotcakes on the Blizzard store or command insane WoW Gold prices at the auction house—too bad they’re totally bogus.

Final Fantasy, Back on Track

Servers went back online in Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV almost two weeks ago due to the Japan quake, and both MMOs have used the time to quickly catch up to schedule.

FFXIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida confirmed that after a few compromises, Patch 1.17 will push through this month and will contain the Easter seasonal event. The follow-up Patch 1.17a will subsequently roll out with changes related to new mid-to-high level PvE content.

FFXI is also planning to upgrade fellows by raising their level cap from 70 to 85, with new limit break quests serving as a roadblock for level progression. Their duration as fellows has also been doubled to 90 minutes while their fighting capacity was also upped from 15 to 50 foes, making them more useful than ever in battle.

The Foundry, Now Live

Over on the other side of sector space, Star Trek Online activated their much-anticipated mission creator called The Foundry.

The Foundry provides tools for players to create missions, which can then be played by the entire Trekker community. Fans of the TV shows can also use The Foundry to recreate their favorite boob tube moments, although not all characters and planet locations are available.

Still, the customization options—from map and dialogue options to NPC selection—are all robust enough to keep budding mission designers busy for months to come.

This week offered the best and the worst of humanity as an MMO company rushed to aid Japan after its devastating earthquake, while hackers and scammers plague both the RIFT and Star Wars: the Old Republic.

NCsoft donates $6.3 million for Japan

NCsoft, the company behind Aion and Lineage II, announced over the weekend that it would donate 500 million Yen (roughly $6.3 million) to aid Japan’s efforts in rebuilding after the destructive quake.

“In order to support those who have suffered from the earthquake and to help restoration, we decided to donate 500 million Yen, which corresponds to one month of sales,” said NCsoft senior executive Sung Joon Park.

The company also extended similar generosity to lapsed players, offering a Reactivation Celebration from March 24 to March 31. Toons returning to Atreia will get reduced AP penalties from PvP losses, and can take advantage of the boosted gear and Aion Kinah drops introduced in the latest Aion 2.1 update.

RIFT pushes back against hackers and botnets

While gamers and companies around the world banded together to offer condolences and support to Japan, the tragedy seems to have had no effect on the heartless hackers and spammers populating RIFT.

The onslaught continues, but thankfully the new Coin Lock feature has proven extremely effective at thwarting unauthorized logins and the resulting RIFT Platinum heists.

Aside from the initial features we announced last week, the Coin Lock now boasts additional protective mechanisms based on player feedback:

• Characters cannot be deleted while an account is Coin Locked
• Characters cannot accept CoD mail if they are Coin Locked
• Decreased the cooldown between requests to re-send Coin Lock key emails
• Logging into an account with an existing connection will now force the connected account to fully exit the game

Beware the Beta Scam in Star Wars: The Old Republic

Senior community coordinator Allison Berryman warned the public against ongoing beta scams that sell special access to the official Game Testing program.

“All of these offers are false. BioWare is not issuing invites to Game Testing via any method other than those we outline here on SWTOR.com,” she said.

Ms. Berryman warned all account owners with access to the Game Testing program that any change of ownership is detected in-game, and will result in a possible permanent account ban.

Rather than risk the ban or a scam, players should be patient and wait for a testing invite from no-reply@bioware.swtor.com. Further instructions will be indicated in the e-mail on how to participate in the testing program. If you doubt the authenticity of the e-mail, forward it to bwacommunitysupport@bioware.com.for verification.

Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV still offline

Due to the power shortage in Japan, the two games from Square Enix will continue to be offline until at least March 22, at that time, an update will be released to confirm whether or not servers will be brought back up. All PlayOnline services will also be unavailable so players planning to request password recoveries or cancel their accounts will have to wait for a return to normal operations.