Eorzean Evening Post: Starlight Celebration .

I’m going to be honest with you – I’m not a big fan of seasonal events in MMOs. I guess it comes down to this stubborn idea of immersion, where the sudden appearance of things that look like they’ve been taken from real life kinda breaks it for me. I get enough Christmas decorations outside of gaming that I don’t need more of it during the Feast of Winter Veil or Frostfell.

Events are important for MMOs, they break the monotony that tends to creep in after a while, and a lot of people love them. I just prefer mine to be unconnected to my regular life. Tinkerfest in Everquest 2 is still one of my favorite events (probably because I started playing in the middle of it), for example. And while they were blatantly cross-promotional, I’ve had some fun with Burgeoning Dread and Breaking Brick Mountains in Final Fantasy XIV – despite them being just a few FATEs to run. I was completely suckered in by the Lightning Strikes event, to the point where I seriously considered picking up Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns because of it. I’m just that easy, I guess (also, Lightning is an awesome character).

But there is one way to make me excited about seasonal events – vanity pets. There is simply no way I’m going to miss out on Hoary the Snowman during the upcoming Starlight Celebration. I mean, have you seen him? He’ll look completely misplaced during the summer months, and he’ll probably run the risk of melting under the Thanalan sun, but I don’t care. I need to have him. He’s got a top hat. C’mon.

Another must have is the fake mustache that’s given out this year. In 2013 it was a full Santa Claus-beard, which I’d never use, but I’ll most certainly slap the mustache on my female Miqo’te and snap some fun screenshots while running dungeons. Yes, it will grow old fast, but it will be awesome while the fun lasts. The rest of the awards include some festive clothing, which I’ll personally will just stuff into my armoire and promptly forget about, and some Christmas decorations for your house. I’m looking forward to seeing what other people will do with it all – I’m sure the Final Fantasy XIV subreddit will be filled with creative and impressive uses of the decorations.

All we’re really missing is a red hat – or worse, a reindeer nose – for our Chocobos. Better luck next year, I guess. And no, the Starlight Barding from last year doesn’t count.

The last big seasonal event in Final Fantasy XIV was All Saint’s Wake, the Eorzean version of Halloween. Some of the rewards, especially the brilliant spooky Chocobo barding, were cool but the event itself was fairly lacking. The main quest chain had its humorous moments, but it felt like it fizzled out into nothing. Too bad, since it did seem to lead up to something cool. The rest of the event was more or less spamming the same FATE over and over again, moving up and down the main street in the Steps of Nald, until you had enough currency to buy the seasonal stuff from the vendor. The most fun was watching people getting transformed into various monsters and famous characters, running around in Ul’dah as Nanamo or Admiral Merlwyb. But that was more or less it.

There seems to be a bit more to the Starlight Celebration. The main quest starts out in Gridania, next to the Amphitheater, where you’ll meet up with The Raven correspondent Xavalien (Square sure love their Eorzean journalists). While there’s no information that I’ve seen about what you’ll actually will be doing, the quest will be – according to the official website – about spreading “the spirit of the season to Eorzea’s children”. Practically speaking, I expect this quest to send us running across all of Eorzea, spreading cheer to its younger NPCs by simply clicking on them.

That might sound cynical, and kind of boring, for outsiders. But the charm of these kinds of quests in Final Fantasy XIV has always been the writing – some of it really warm and heartfelt, like during the final stages of the Moonfire Faire event or the brilliant cut scene at the end of The Rising. The dialogue and the characters are two of the things that have kept me around in Eorzea, and I don’t expect the Starlight Celebration to be any different in that regard. Of course, setting up the seasonal events like this ensures that everyone, no matter their level, can experience the quests.

Compared to All Saints’ Wake, which you could finish up in an hour or two, the Starlight Celebration will feature daily quests which you’ll have to do to get the currency – Fallen Stars – you’ll need to buy the rewards. There’s no word right how many Stars you’ll need to buy all the rewards you’d want, or how many of them you’ll be awarded each day. I’m just glad that it’s not a fire-and-forget kind of event. If you’re going to throw a Christmas party like this, it might as well take some energy to fully experience.

All the rewards won’t be available straight away either. While the event itself starts on December 18, you won’t be able to pick up everything until after December 24. I’m out of town on that date, and I’m sure many of you will be busy as well, so I’ll be itching to get back home to buy them. Hopefully missing a few daily quests won’t set you back too much. After all, the event runs until New Year’s Eve, which should give us ample time to get everything.

I might be stubborn and grumpy at times, and I’d rather that the Starlight Celebration didn’t borrow so much of its aesthetics and feel from our regular Christmas. But writing up this column, I think I’ve actually hyped myself up in the process. I’ll do my best to get into the Christmas spirit in both game and real life. I’ll do my very best to bring Starlight cheer to the children of Eorzea. They’ve been through a lot during the last couple of years, with the Calamity and all the different monsters that would rather eat them instead of giving them presents probably having scarred them for life. Grumpy, yes. Heartless? No.

Also, I did help save Eorzea a few times this year. I guess that means I’ve been good and deserve a couple of presents? Right?