ZAM's Valentine's Day Event Round-Up

Love is in the digital air! Want to spend Feb. 14 online? We're looking at how some of our favorite titles are celebrating Valentine's Day!

It's that time of the year when those of us without sweethearts bake ourselves heart-shaped cakes and eagerly look forward to the cards from our grandparents since we know we won't be getting any from people our own age! That's right: it's almost Valentine's Day! But even if you're spending the holiday alone, your favorite MMORPGs are more than willing to distract you with a variety of events and mini-games. ZAM takes a quick look at how our favorite titles are celebrating the abundance of love; read on to see what's waiting for you in your game of choice!

Fresh from my latest review of War of the Immortals, Valentine's Day will bring an event where players in Atlantis can collect chocolates from the ground and hand them in for experience. Jade Dynasty will feature a collective wedding event on every weekday around the holiday; participants end up getting hitched and receive a unique title and some loot! Players logging in around this time can also receive special masks and time-limited mounts. Rusty Hearts (my favorite PWE game so far) is following up their holiday art contest with a Valentine's Day Art Contest, and offering the new premium character, Natasha, as a prize

Perfect World International is getting their Game Masters in on the action by making them part of the event; at certain times on Valentine's Day, players can request photo-ops with them. These screenshots can then be submitted to a contest, and the top five will be allowed to pick almost any mount in the game as a prize! Ether Saga Odyssey is also holding a screenshot contest, and they are also giving out prizes for couples that marry. Even better, as more players marry on a server, all players will receive some temporary buffs! Finally, Forsaken World has a Valentine's Day sale with 50% off normal wedding packs and wedding rings. The game will also feature Valentine's Day cards and random gifts from NPCs.

Next up we have information from Gala Networks Europe, operator of the gPotato.eu portal, about the events taking place in several of their games!

Canaan Online will be full of passion on the 14th of February, expressing its love for its players by sending out experience point items to all players. Events will be run to win marriage items, allowing players to receive the in-game experience and money gained from being in a party with a marriage partner. The community will also be invited to submit pictures of their real-life pets in a competition to find the cutest pet owned by a Canaan Online player, with fabulous in-game prizes up for grabs.

Castle of Heroes is celebrating the Valentine period between the 14th and 19th of February with a very special two-part quest themed around Romeo and Juliet. Players must assist the two lovers by distracting border patrols and defeating border control offices, allowing the two lovers to meet in the land of Kimmeria. Running alongside the romantic quest is a Facebook competition, where Castle of Heroes GMs will post a funny picture and players must declare their undying love for the subject of it in the comments. The best five declarations will win an array of in-game prizes, including items such as Rice Ball hero upgrades, 20 good-to-excellent grade equipment drops in the form of Goblin's Toolboxes and a Gold Recruitment Card to speed up unit recruitment times. Everyone who posts a declaration of love will automatically receive 10 Goblin's Toolboxes, meaning there are no losers in love for Castle of Heroes players.

Dragonica will see the return of the Cookie Factory mission map, which comes with two new modes and two never before seen bosses named Coofie and Ademia. The modes are defense and tower defense challenges, and players completing the Cookie Factory will be rewarded with event items that can be traded with NPCs for new jewelry sets. Additionally, new Cupid outfits will be available and a new vending machine will appear in Port of the Winds, stocked with new items.

From the 9th of February to the 23rd of February, Flyff will have a Valentine's visit from two unique NPCs, in the form of an angel and a devil, and the appearance of a special monster, the Love Thief. Players that defeat the Love Thief will obtain pieces of a broken heart, which can be given to either the devil or the angel. Collecting and giving 100 heart pieces will grant players Loyalty Chocolate, 3,000 EXP and a special ticket, depending on which side they give the 100 pieces to. After the event, the total number of tickets collected will be counted and whichever side gave out the most tickets will be declared the winner, with boxes of random rewards given to both sides, but the winner's boxes will be full of cool rewards and items such as the Black Panther Hoverbike, Pet tickets and Cloak Exchange tickets. The loser's box will give a random pick of food and drink items.

Valentine's in Rappelz brings special drops in the form of herbs and flowers, which can be combined to receive a special lucky box; from this, players will be able to acquire powerful items such as Rings, which will provide bonuses to character's stats, and Bouquets, which will improve their stamina regeneration. Valentine's chocolate will also appear in drops during the event that will run from the 7th to the 14th of February. Also, players will have the opportunity to participate in a side event where they will have the chance to win a special "Love" Looting Pet together with an Outfit of their choice. To win those prizes they will have to create a short story, along with an in game screenshot, to express their feelings for the person they love.

As well as the Valentine's events, February will mark the 4th anniversary for Rappelz's German and French servers. gPotato.eu will be awarding players with a 100% drop, Lak and EXP bonus and  players will be able to find special 'Anniversary Boxes', which offer the chance to receive special items normally available only in the Guild of Merchants. To round off the 4th anniversary celebrations, the Rappelz team has decided to organize a fantastic giveaway;  via social media and in game events, German and French players will be able to win three 'Razer Packets', each containing a Razer Mouse, a Razer Keyboard and a Razer Headset, at a total value of 250€. The other countries with Rappelz servers won't be left out of the grand celebration, as the drop, Lak and EXP bonuses will be set at 50% for the duration of the anniversary events.

Seven days of romance are coming to Terra Militaris with Mars & Minerva Love Week, starting on the 9th of February and running until the 16th of February. Themed around the love of the Roman gods of war and knowledge, the event will see a doubling of EXP for the entire run, with an extraordinary triple EXP day on the 14th of February. The auction house will be showing its love to Terra Militaris players by removing all taxes for the week, and a special blessing from Mars will lower the requirements for engaging in battle in neutral areas. This opens the doors for smaller guilds to participate in big battles for controlling holy shrines. Running alongside the in-game event is a special Mars & Minerva Love Week Facebook event, where fans are invited to contribute a love message to Terra Militaris itself, its gods or even its GMs, on a special event page. These can take the form a love letter, a poem, a photograph with comments, a drawing or a single sentence to represent the Valentine's spirit. The winners will be decided by community voting via liking the submissions and a cool pack of in-game items will be awarded to the top 10 'most liked' posts.

Need for Speed World is boasting a Valentine's Day Customization Contest, where players can submit a postcard of their styles. Better hurry; it ends at 12PM February 14th! Eden Eternal has two holiday events; one defeating enemies for rose petals that can be made into bouquets; and the other to defeat two special bosses, Pride and Bias. And Lucent Heart has an event where players need to help cupid bring love to people by gathering feathers for his arrows and finding his lost accessories. Additionally, two new NPCs (Rapis and Priscian) offer some new quests and a mini-game of higher-or-lower.

If you haven't heard the news yet, Trion Worlds is attempting a world record for "most in-game marriages in a 24-hour period" this Valentine's Day in Rift. Players who tie the knot (with the new marriage feature introduced in patch 1.7) will receive the in-game title "The Avowed." Community Manager Elrar is also offering to personally oversee someone's in-game ceremony if the player wins a writing contest detailing his/her love.

World of Warcraft brings back its annual "Love is in the Air" event. Players can follow a quest chain to learn why all the guards in their capital cities seem to be under the influence of some conniving cologne. The event features several achievements, but this year has introduced a new mechanic in the form of collectable love tokens that can be exchanged for prizes (including a rare plainstrider mount). There are several new dailies and a variety of rare items to collect as well as "the Love Fool" title; get to it!

EverQuest is offering a Valentine's Day promotion, 25% off select item bundles. EverQuest II also offers a holiday sale, and has the Erollisi Day seasonal event… which we have the scoop on at ZAM! Final Fantasy XI has both a screenshot contest and in-game events. And last but not least, Final Fantasy XIV is hosting Valentine's Day, with matchmakers in the main cities. More can be read at the Lodestone site

Paul "LockeColeMA" Cleveland, Staff Writer.

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