Even virtual worlds beginning to recognize seasonal celebrations

There are hundreds of winter holidays celebrated around the world from Kwanzaa to Hanukkah, and Ramadan to Christmas. This time is also celebrated in the virtual world with FPS games like “Overwatch” and MMORPGs like the “Elder Scrolls Online.”

The latter is not even celebrating a real holiday. The “Elder Scrolls Online” is celebrating an ingame event called the new life festival, which is Tamriel’s (the world the game takes place in) New Year’s celebration.

This celebration was not just something the developers made up for an ingame event. The new life festival was added to “Elder Scrolls” lore in the game “Daggerfall,” which came out in 1996 and had the world record for largest game world.

Bethesda Game Studios, who created the “Elder Scrolls” series (but not the “Elder Scrolls Online”) has christmas decor added to the main settlement in “Fallout 4” during christmas.

It is not just RPGs that have holiday events; the FPS game “Overwatch” has a winter event going on where some maps have a winter reskin and new winter-themed items have been added. These holiday items from character skins to intros are all locked behind crates that you can earn or buy and are eerily similar to slot machines in how rewards are given.

However there is still fun in seeing how the maps fare during the winter. Many of these holiday events are gimmicks; however, they are fun gimmicks.