—ALMOST UNNECESSARY QUOTE FROM JAGEX—

Bob’s bell rings, are you listening?
In the land, rune is glistening –
A beautiful sight,
we’re happy tonight,
walking in a RuneScape wonderland.

When it snows, ain’t it thrilling?
Find the kids, if you’re willing –
A pressie for me, and plant a new tree,
walking in a RuneScape wonderland.

Snow’s fallen on Karamja Volcano and there have been some strange going ons. The childerkins of Musa Point have been childernapped and some say that the gublinch are to blame! Go and see Shanty Claws, the singing werewolf sailor, in order to get the details. You can find him on the small jetty just to the north-east of the Karamja volcano. If you do well, you’ll be rewarded with a free to play festive hat. Additionally, if you are a member, you will get a seasonal tree to plant in your player owned house!

In other news, the “trimmed” amulets from the new treasure trails are now appropriately marked with a (t) at the end of their object name.

The Christmas update will be removed in the first update of January. However, the rewards for it will stay in the game.

Until then, best wishes and festive cheer to all of you!

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AND NOW – ALEX 43!

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It’s Christmas time in Runescape once again, and to help capture the real essence of Christmas, Jagex have actually recolored the Karamja volcano and added patches of snow to give it a wintery look. They allow you to make and wield snowballs, throw them at goblinch to freeze them, and wear a brand new Christmas hat with its own emote.

However, instead of Santa Claus, a large lovely Christmas tree with toys and presents, and a helping hand in Diango’s toy shop, they introduce a strange sailor werewolf named “Shanty Claws”, who asks you to capture 10 goblinch by throwing snowballs at them and throwing them in cages to rescue Karamja’s children, and then gives you a reindeer hat and miniature tree to set up in your own house. The children don’t get gifts and you don’t even see Santa this time.

Although it beats the yo-yo Christmas of 2004, where you merely speak to Santa in a few towns and recieve a present, many of us were hoping for another chance to assist in toy-making and seeing Santa’s face once again to help capture the holiday spirit rather then what we were given this year. Jagex is full of creative minds, but thinking outside of the box doesn’t exactly mean tossing it aside altogether.

Perhaps what Jagex was trying to do was allow the players to celebrate Christmas moreover with each other rather then by an in-game event. If these snowballs could actually be thrown at other players resulting in no damage, similar to the rubber chicken, then this would be more easily attainable. However, it is said that the snowballs are all going to melt at the end of the holiday, leaving the hundreds of players insane enough to make thousands of them with nothing but wet hands and frostbite seven times over.

Sorry, Jagex. This wasn’t the kind of Christmas that many of us were hoping for. However, the hat and its emote are actually quite amusing, and my garden has a nice little addition to it, so it wasn’t a total waste. They also followed their usual tradition where they added a toy or two that lasts after the event, untradable once again, so I am thankful that we get to keep something after this.
If I was rating this update on a scale of 1 to 10, I’ll give it an average of 6.

– Usefullness = 2 / 5 [Just for showing off]
– Relevence to reality = 2 / 5 [A singing werewolf is hardly “Christmas”.]
– Expectancy = 3 / 5 [We got our toy]
– Entertainment = 4 / 5 [The snowball fight was actually quite fun]
– Humor = 4 / 5 [DEATH BY SNOWBALL!]
– Well worth time = 3 / 5 [It’s a once in a life-time oppourtunity]