Friday 15 December 2017

Quest for Christmas: Winter Updates in Games

Around this time of year all the big games start rolling out their Christmas updates. Games will get seasonal facelifts, characters often get Christmas themed outfits, and levels are covered in snow to celebrate the holidays.

Animal Crossing was perhaps the first game I played that really went all out with it's Winter change. Since the Gamecube featured an internal clock, the game's world would change seasons according to the real world, so as England started to get snowy, so too did the little town of Korser. Here's a little gif of what I think of whenever I play Animal Crossing in December.



More recently though, Overwatch got it's second Christmas update and brought back the Winter games. More costume for the characters, more snowball related mini games, and more poses of characters raising a mug of cocoa to unlock. Games are always better with friends though, and I once again strapped in for a few rounds of games with Daniel. It's a great way to stay in touch with him despite the geographical distance between us, and the incentive to play together to unlock our Christmas swag is very tempting.



Last year, I was browsing through an appreciation thread on Reddit discussing the Winter update and there was a faintly heartwarming post by a single parent. They explained that they don't really have the means to celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense, their family, and their income were both very limited, as such, Christmas really wasn't a very big deal for them. However, since the parent and the child like to play Overwatch together, they found a means of getting into the Christmas spirit together through their love of games. As cheesey as it sounds, I thought it was a nice story and it made me count my blessings. I'm lucky to have a great family to celebrate Christmas with, but it warmed me to think that even something as simple as a free cosmetic update for Overwatch is enough to instill the Christmas spirit in one family.  

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