Dec 1st, where's my Holiday token?

I'm really sad. I thought I would log and see pop my Holiday token 🙁

Where is it?

Does anyone know what content has actually been activated for December, if any, at servers up from maintainance ?

Last year it was Dec 3rd before everything started - tokens, Krampus, Artisan Fest.

Krampus still sleeping too

Artisan Fest has been started

Dark Forest goes through the 20th...can't remember when they said Krampus would be activated..soon I hope! And no mention of Holiday Tokens that I can recall....what else would you guys want? Just curious because honestly I have been selling off most of my Christmas stuff. We've gotten like 4 different styles of trees, all kinds of deco...wreaths, garland, bells,candy canes, etc...what else is there to give?  Another round of rare gift boxes I guess.....

I'm hoping for a full set of these new statues for Christmas but the RNG hates me lol

Larisa said:

....what else would you guys want?

Elf Statues! (In a good size - smaller than the spawn statues but bigger than the wizards on a bench.) A good size reminds me - maybe add a rocking horse that is smaller than the current castle size ones to the list too.

Larisa said:

Dark Forest goes through the 20th...can't remember when they said Krampus would be activated..soon I hope! And no mention of Holiday Tokens that I can recall....what else would you guys want? Just curious because honestly I have been selling off most of my Christmas stuff. We've gotten like 4 different styles of trees, all kinds of deco...wreaths, garland, bells,candy canes, etc...what else is there to give?  Another round of rare gift boxes I guess.....

I'm hoping for a full set of these new statues for Christmas but the RNG hates me lol

I miss getting things like soulstone fragments, heritage tokens, and similar stuff. 

I recall several years when holiday gifts came late. I'm patient 🙂

I'd like a Christmas mailbox!

Maximus_Neximus said:

I miss getting things like soulstone fragments, heritage tokens, and similar stuff. 

Agreed! Even if they did holiday clothes or red/green armor (no stats just for show) that we could wear and then throw on a mannequin that would be cool.

I like the useful type of gifts (or wearable at the least) as the decor ones of the past several years basically just end up collecting dust and taking up space after December. 

Maximus_Neximus said:

Larisa said:

Dark Forest goes through the 20th...can't remember when they said Krampus would be activated..soon I hope! And no mention of Holiday Tokens that I can recall....what else would you guys want? Just curious because honestly I have been selling off most of my Christmas stuff. We've gotten like 4 different styles of trees, all kinds of deco...wreaths, garland, bells,candy canes, etc...what else is there to give?  Another round of rare gift boxes I guess.....

I'm hoping for a full set of these new statues for Christmas but the RNG hates me lol

I miss getting things like soulstone fragments, heritage tokens, and similar stuff. 

I don't see them giving useful things away anymore...would take $$ from the stores

They better kick Krampus in gear. Would not be xmas without getting ganked by a pack of minions. 

I have halted character transfers pending token activation because of the 30 day age requirement to receive a token. It would be nice to receive holiday decor weeks before Xmas.

keven2002 said:

Maximus_Neximus said:

I miss getting things like soulstone fragments, heritage tokens, and similar stuff. 

Agreed! Even if they did holiday clothes or red/green armor (no stats just for show) that we could wear and then throw on a mannequin that would be cool.

I like the useful type of gifts (or wearable at the least) as the decor ones of the past several years basically just end up collecting dust and taking up space after December. 

Aye - Elf clothes would complement the Krampus Santa hats and boots quite nicely 🙂 

Marge said:

Larisa said:

....what else would you guys want?

Elf Statues! (In a good size - smaller than the spawn statues but bigger than the wizards on a bench.) A good size reminds me - maybe add a rocking horse that is smaller than the current castle size ones to the list too.

Elf Statues would be good, maybe the size of the smaller Nutcrackers



And yes PLEASE a smaller rocking horse...



I need a ladder to get up on this thing! 

Pretty sure the xmas tokens not been activated before dec 15th some years.
No rush, I can wait, once its out its a full month to collect them so you got the time 🙂

i would like the holiday fireflies in one solid color, like gold, red, silver, white, blue. 

As always, I'd like for a reward that is more 'lore in-game' than out. "A gilded mug bearing the crest of Blackthorn wishing you a prosperous new year." 

Wishlist:
Designer face mask for Christmas, takes up ear slots and comes with 10 ssi  🙂

The game gump is showing the previous years time frame.

@Mesanna @Bleak @misk @Kyronix

Rumors are flowing.  Are we getting gifts this year?

Nov news letter has this
"Make sure you watch your P's and Q's because Santa is watching and Christmas is right around the corner!"

Even if we don't get a traditional UO Gift, we have the Forest Champ spawn still running, the Artisan Festival, Krampus AND the new Ice Dungeon event starting tomorrow. LOTS of gifts can be had with all of that. Yes I do look forward to the Happy Holidays from the UO Team cards, I save at least one from every year from every member of the current team, I am  quite satisfied with ALL of these events running right now.

So I am not one of those who thinks it's okay to demand gifts, but I must say I look forward to them every year--even retreads...And this year, such a terrible year, I would be very sad if there weren't any.  Hoping the team comes through for us!

So I feel if it is true there will be no gifts, the UO team should announce it. It will be terribly sad to lose something we have had since UO's first year--but if that is the decision, please be honest with us.

I think it was planned for but they are busy with Legacy server development... and maybe taking too much time reading popps' posting.. 😂

It is disappointing that the further in to the month we go the more it looks like they're not doing gifts (for the first time in 23 years). Especially for people who activated extra accounts so as to qualify for them. A comment one way or the other would be appreciated even though we all know a firm 'no' will provoke a lot of flak. Probably better to rip that bandage off early.

They ripped the bandage off: https://mailchi.mp/broadsword/uo-newsletter-4?e=70ac293754

That is sad that they can't make a token with a few gifts.  Looks like Live shards are in the far back seat because they are working on the NL shard.

"instead of giving you a holiday token like we've been doing since 1997, we thought you would appreciate having to grind events for the items instead!  Special thanks to everyone who may have activated unused accounts to get  holiday rewards we appreciate the free money"

@kyronix ;

This erodes community trust.  If the dev team doesn't see what is wrong with this, a constant UO players could look forward to, especially after the sucky year we've endured, then the Dev team is truly out of touch. 

Even a past years token as a gift (sand/snow/grass tiles everyone has been asking for, as an example) would have been better than this.

We're robbed of trading our tokens with friends from other shards. An activity many of us look forward to and have done for years and years now. 

wow, just wow...

None of these events have holiday themed items so not sure why they are claiming to have them baked in. I love having to work over and over for my christmas gifts.(said sarcastically)

So then is the Shard Bound Unfinished Table Legs costing 50 Ice Dungeon points our lump of coal? (Sorry that makes NO sense to me.)

Violet said:

"instead of giving you a holiday token like we've been doing since 1997, we thought you would appreciate having to grind events for the items instead!  Special thanks to everyone who may have activated unused accounts to get  holiday rewards we appreciate the free money"

@ kyronix 

This erodes community trust.  If the dev team doesn't see what is wrong with this, a constant UO players could look forward to, especially after the sucky year we've endured, then the Dev team is truly out of touch. 

Even a past years token as a gift (sand/snow/grass tiles everyone has been asking for, as an example) would have been better than this.

LOL. What's out of touch is this post. I mean, seriously people. Stop with the dramatics. 

probably they've forgotten how grinding those events are, just like i won't ask my kids to do gardening before I give them their xmas presents. 

This is on par how 2020 is. This Dev team has not a clue. To busy staring at a whiteboard and putting things in the UO store. What a slap in the face to their paying player base. 

Boo

Meh, i could do without the tokens bags and cards choking up my storage space. this way i can get the reward I want and quit messing about. 

I don't like that we don't have holiday token this year. They manage to put new store items but couldn't think about a gift token with 2-3 deco items? Can't still believe this. This is amazing how they do not feel their community. They're holding meetings that no one attends because this is always the same bs answers.

"No".
"Send me an email".
"This is not in the books."
"Maybe later". another read, no.

They need to get someone in charge that isn't disconnected as they are right now if they wanna continuie this game longer than it already existed.

Huge disapointement.

There’s already so much Christmas stuff in game. Does it really matter that much? 

That's not the point. The point is some people look forward to it, there are collectors who like to collect the rare box colors, decorators that love the new deco. I personally don't care, this year has been totally FUBAR'd and the fact that they have so many events going on right now makes me happy. Instead of logging all my toons for a tokens, I'm logging them in to get Artisan rewards on shards that manage to grow a full tree. The Forest spawn  was fun for awhile, the statues, while not very Christmas-y, are kinda cool...and  a few neat little deco items in the ice dungeon reward list that I can either get or not.

I'm not taking sides...yes not getting a card from the team is 🙁 but I'm not gonna stress about it.  

Ultima team is doing it's part to 2020 this to the very end.  Focusing on a new shard and no Christmas gifts is just the perfect way to reward long term players.  While I have some appreciation for the events, I don't have time to grind for chances to get things.  The First Aid Belt was a nice system, in that I'm straight up rewarded for my effort.  But I don't have time to fight other players for a small drop % and I get to do that until I get 100 for a spellbook I probably don't even want....the last event (deceit) had better setting, reward, and time line.  Krampus has no new content, and I'm just not buying the messaging here.

I know there's a lot of frustration in this post.  I've been positive towards the teams efforts and news all year but the choices to end the year have tipped the balance (imho) towards the negative. Tough, limited-reward event and replaying old events with old rewards...

...but more importantly, claiming that those are a good reason for breaking a yearly tradition of Christmas gifts is just....it's really angered everyone in my playing circle. Including me. I do NOT understand how a candle with "I survived 2020" with a "Happy Holidays from the Dev Team" card stresses your resources.  And I'm talking lowest effort level possible here. We would accept literally 'anything' just to reward us for being here.

I agree, something with  UO Survived 2020 or something would be nice...maybe they can throw something together before the end of the year and surprise us.

Maybe the fact that they have shard bound unfinished table legs as a reward for the Ice Dungeon event is indicative of them losing steam over new items to give at this time. (I will forever be confused by this probably)

A Red or Green Mysterious Cube could have been made as a gift with a card.
The returners would have loved a Soulstone Fragment.
A 2020 Ostard statue to ride.

Pure lack of caring about paying customers from @Mesanna

None of the rewards scream Christmas at me.

the krampus minion hat is a xmas hat for example, but how grinding it is to get this particular one? 

Aragorn said:

the krampus minion hat is a xmas hat for example, but how grinding it is to get this particular one? 

I got that recipe when it came out.  That's not new.  I have dyed reforged ones 

no it's not new, just saying it's one of the few rewards in the current events which is heavy xmas focused.

I logged in today, on an account I have kept active, to get my holiday token. The in game news says the old message from last year about holiday tokens. It's very confusing. Then I come here and find this news. Sad times.

Not everyone is a grinder. Some of us play differently and this is seriously messed up. I'm glad I didn't activate my other accounts. I will just simply miss out this year and the ones going forward I guess.

Kimmy said:

Not everyone is a grinder. Some of us play differently and this is seriously messed up. I'm glad I didn't activate my other accounts. I will just simply miss out this year and the ones going forward I guess.

yup. UO is a grinding game from crafting to fighting to gift collecting to fishing to resource gathering to boss activating to special events to taming to treasure hunting.
If you dont like grinding most any persistent game is not for you.

Pawain said:

That is sad that they can't make a token with a few gifts.  Looks like Live shards are in the far back seat because they are working on the NL shard.

That, or, as usual, they cannot care less for the opinions of the players that they are sure they have already "hooked".

Don.t really see that the team put any effort at all into Christmas this year.  I have only been around a couple of years so I really don’t know what the Christmas events are all about but I could see them going on around me and appreciated they were there in previous year.  Enjoyed getting the gift boxes with just the cookies and newspapers inside.  Did not feel much like Christmas in Britanicana this year.  

Arnold7 said:

Don.t really see that the team put any effort at all into Christmas this year.  I have only been around a couple of years so I really don’t know what the Christmas events are all about but I could see them going on around me and appreciated they were there in previous year.  Enjoyed getting the gift boxes with just the cookies and newspapers inside.  Did not feel much like Christmas in Britanicana this year.  

Ivenor said:

I can understand that this 2020 has been a s****y & complicated year for anyone and that it s*****d the launch of the NL project in which the Team has put a lot of energy, but nevertheless even a duplicated Christnas Token should have been given, IMO.

I see no energy except the "team" has mailed it in for an entire year. As per the norm, their communication skills are zilch. This group has pissed on tradition just to make a name. Well, they have...

Ivenor said:

Arnold7 said:

Don.t really see that the team put any effort at all into Christmas this year.  I have only been around a couple of years so I really don’t know what the Christmas events are all about but I could see them going on around me and appreciated they were there in previous year.  Enjoyed getting the gift boxes with just the cookies and newspapers inside.  Did not feel much like Christmas in Britanicana this year.  

I agree: no snow either.

I can understand that this 2020 has been a s****y & complicated year for anyone and that it s*****d the launch of the NL project in which the Team has put a lot of energy, but nevertheless even a duplicated Christnas Token should have been given, IMO.

Moreover, if one adds to all this the "genial" idea to make Shard Bound ALL the items from this year Story Arc...

I mean, what sense has to make SB the Armor Sets? The only effect of this thing has been to make their prices skyrocket in every Shard and so making near impossible for the small collector to have the interesting ones - Bones, Plate...

The last I understood it, they took the "snow" away because of a few players (likely 3-4 players on tons of different accounts) complaining for whatever reason. I won't get conspiratorial, but every real rational player loves the snow in UO.

Snow in Ultima was one of the hallmarks of the game that set it apart from things like World of Warcraft. Please bring back snow Devs... all of the real players miss it greatly. I built my houses where they were up North because of snow. I will never do Krampus without snow.... everything is less without snow on the ground during the Holidays. Please bring it back, and do not listen to the 3 nay sayers whoever it is that complained. It is truly magical, awesome, and a brilliant idea to bring people into the game and get them to stay. There is no reason not to have snow turned on right now, this is one thing that is easily done to keep Ultima great.

Snow makes Ultima magical and the change of seasons sets this game apart. Please never miss holiday tokens again, and turn snow back on for the rest of us. I would rather have snow and Krampus alone with Holiday tokens (promotes trading too) than any dungeon "event." The dungeon events are getting rather old.

+1 to bringing snow back for the season

From what I understand they stopped the snow/rain because it supposedly caused lag. I also remember when it was winter (snow would fall instead of rain) they would also change the terrain to have some snow patches on it; I remember it was always outside of my house and would be changed back to grass around March. I'm assuming they stopped doing that when they stopped the snow on the screen?

keven2002 said:

From what I understand they stopped the snow/rain because it supposedly caused lag. I also remember when it was winter (snow would fall instead of rain) they would also change the terrain to have some snow patches on it; I remember it was always outside of my house and would be changed back to grass around March. I'm assuming they stopped doing that when they stopped the snow on the screen?

I just came back and subbed after being gone for years. I was really looking forward to the Christmas gift this year and I must say it is sorely disappointing to have one of my favorite things in UO absent for seemingly no reason. How hard is it to recycle code and put out gift bags with things you guys have already programmed into the game? This just says the dev team is severely disconnected with the players. Especially if this lack of attention is because they are working on a new shard.

Unimpressed. Waiting on a better game to release and UO is going to struggle to keep people like me around if their roadmap to the future is ‘new shard’. How about making treasure hunting worthwhile or work on new content instead of making a fresh version of all the old stuff?

People like you who stopped subbing since likely last year this same time? I'm not sure they feel as if losing a customer like that is that big of a deal... sorry