December 21, 2011

AQW: Frostval and Beyond!

2011 Cookie Contest Song

The Cookie Hork returns to show off delicious cookie contest entries! Congratulations to everyone who participated. You guys are AMAZING! Winners to be announced Friday just before the new release!

Song of the Frozen Heart Finale!

This Friday, you'll see all of your friends entirely consumed by the ice venom coursing through their veins! Dead Morice's plan has come to its chilling conclusion... almost! With all the humans on Lore (except you?!) frozen into cold-hearted ice golems, Dead Morice has turned his attention to the last pocket of resistance to this frosty finish - the moglins of Frostvale!

There's SNOW where to run, little Moglin!

Now the fate of the Frostvale moglins as well as all of your friends rests on your armor-plated shoulders! Head deep into Dead Morice's iced-over volcano fortress and start heating things up! Now that you have the Flame of Frostval (thanks, Gravelyn!), you'll need to rescue your friends (who are visibly trapped inside a really cool-looking ice golem exterior) AND save the moglins... before they get put on ice. Permanently!

What's even worse is that you can still see Frosty the Moglin blinking.

With another cameo appearance by Empress Gravelyn, moglin expressions that will tug at your heartstrings, and a stonecold boss battle, this is one Frostval Finale we just couldn't keep under wraps! (Note: finish wrapping Frostval presents...)

Quibble Coinbiter's Holiday Haul - Part 2! 

Check out Cysero's Design Notes from Monday to see previews of what's coming in the Quibble Coinbiter shop update! Look for more armors, more helms, more weapons, and the Frostval Quibble Bank Pet!

Bank to Basics with Moglin Pets

The Zorbak and Twilly Bank Pets will be available in Valencia's AC shop and Aria's pet shop! And speaking of Aria's pet shop...

December Pet 'o the Month - Reinderp!

We are in love with this cheery little guy, and hope you'll find a place in your backpacks and in your hearts for him this Christmas! Meet Reinderp!

Derp, derp, derping all the way!

He is the happiest Reinderp in the herd! (Even if all the other reindeer DO call him names.) This member-only pet will be in Aria's pet shop for the rest of December, and will be sold for 1234 gold! And that means that the Harvest Dragon and Yergen pets are on their way out... so get them while you can!

Frostval Character Page!

Members have been asking for more character page backgrounds, and Frostval is the perfect time to add one! Now you can proudly pose in the middle of Frostvale... all year long!

Stop! New Year's Time!

NEXT Friday we will be releasing our New Year's celebration with an all-new story and truly temporal rares to usher in the Year of Chaos with a heart - and time - stopping BANG! When a Chaorrupted ChronoMancer decides to prevent the arrival of the New Year altogether, you and Lim will have to work together before time runs out!

Frostval Gifts open after next week!

If you haven't looted that conspicuously full bag of gifts in Battleon, then you're missing out on one of the best parts of AQW's Frostval - the PRESENTS! Everyone will be back in the Lab on January 3rd, so the gifts will open sometime that week! And ALSO happening that week...

A VERY special announcement!

Throughout 2011, you guys have been asking us to focus on introducing new forms of gameplay.* In the first few months of 2012, we're going to take steps to do just that! We'll be releasing the first part of an exciting addition to AQW... but we're going to need your help to do it!

Once we release the first part of this, we'll need your feedback to see what direction you'd like us to take it in. This addition is pretty common in other MMOs, but we're going to put an AQW-twist on it! Look for more details after the New Year's!**

* And we're not talking new stories or items, as some of you have worried.
** This new gameplay addition is NOT guilds. We also hope to release THOSE in 2012, too. Cross your fingers!

Etherstorm Wastes is coming in January!

Earth. Fire. Water. Air. You'll need a brave Heart to enter Etherstorm Wastes this January, because the elements have gone INSANE! Fire should burn, Water should flow, Air should move, and the Earth stay steady. But when that balance goes out of whack thanks to Desoloth, lately of the Dragon Plane, the elements you know - and the Great Dragons that control them - may never be the same! (And where there are dragons... there's Galanoth!)

More Mid-week Member-only Updates!

As promised, we'll be continuing to roll out mid-week member-only updates in 2012! These updates are smaller than Friday releases; the team making them is only 2-3 people: Cysero, Yorumi, and sometimes an extra artist. The rest of the time, and the team, is devoted to preparing the Friday releases. But continuing to produce more and better content for our members is high on our priority list, so make sure to let Cysero know what older zones you'd like to see expanded!

And so much more in 2012!

With THREE Friday the 13ths, MORE Chaos and Chaos Lords, a Summer Blockbuster event, the conclusion of the DoomWood storyline, the continuation of the SkyGuard storyline, the member-only SkyGuard class, the Alina/Rolith AQW/DF crossover wedding event, and SO MUCH MORE... we don't even have time to worry about the end of the world coming next December!

It really WILL be the Year of Chaos, and we are all SO excited about what's coming! We hope you all are, too!

Everyone else has left to begin their holiday celebrations, so I'm going to head home and finish wrapping Frostval presents for friends and family. We'll see you all this Friday as we release all that awesome stuff I typed a few paragraphs up!