A little over a three months ago, a group of people came together
and formed a players event resource committee—otherwise known as PERC. We are a
collection of players from every server, dedicated to enhancing the CoX
experience by helping plan, support, and run different player events on a
server wide and game level.

In all our ambition and wanting to get out of the gate, we ran a
little contest calling for the best dressed heroes and villains in game. This
was no ordinary under Atlas costume contest because the winners would have to
answer questions. The answers and costumes of all the finalists were judged by
all members of our committee and also Sexy Jay! Such as it was, the Mr./Ms
Paragon City/Rogue Isle Costume Contest was born.

We have had several requests to see the questions that the
finalists had to answer. We apologize for the delay, as there were some
technical issues surrounding retrieving them after the contest was over. The
questions were:

1. 
   What is your favorite hero/villain AT?
   
2. 
   What is your favorite thing about CoX?
   
3. 
   What was the design aesthetic behind your costume?
   
4. 
   If you could tell Sexy Jay, the costume designer of CoH, one thing, what would
   it be?
   
5. 
   You’re in this situation, how do you accomplish your objectives to these two
   scenarios:
   
   
   
6. 
   A cat is stuck in a tree—granny is calling for help! Tell me, what steps would
   you take to rescue granny's cat? (for Heroes)
   
7. 
   You see a baby with a lollipop—he’s surrounded by adults. Tell me, how would
   you steal candy from the baby? (for Villains)

Without further ado, here are some of the more creative answers
that we received:

Dr. Aquaticus, question 5

First off, this was a difficult situation, considering the fact
that I am, in fact, a FISH attempting to rescue a CAT...but a true hero can’t
pick and choose his good deeds...

GRANNY: “Help! Help! Help me please!”

Content Watch

Events

“I haven’t seen you around here much. Get out on that dance floor
and burn it up!” -DJ Zero

“As a veteran of the Rularuu invasion, the first Halloween, the first Winter,
the first Valentine’s day...etc., etc., etc. They just keep getting better.”
-The_Zekiran

It’s this time of the year again where you need to buy gifts for
all your family and where you’ll be spending this weekend waiting at the mall
in a long line to pay for your last minute bought presents. The regular Content
Watch is taking a small break and we present to you this special holiday
edition featuring Special Events provided by the devs.

First, I must thank all of you that took the time to reply to my
thread. It took a while to start, but that was partially my fault as I lost my
home Internet access last week and due to a general lack of free time, but
that’s another story. You can follow and post your opinion
here. I will surely find some time to read it and reply during the
holidays.

You can split the Events into two generic categories: recurring
event and one shot deals. Examples of recurring events are Halloween, the
Winter event, Valentine’s day and double XP weekends. One shot deals happen
according to the situation, like the Rularuu invasion with the introduction of
the Shards, the Statesman strike at the end of CoV beta, and the CuppaJo
goodbye party in Pocket D on the test server.

Recurring events always come back at the same period of the year
and, so far, bring something new from the previous year’s version. For example,
the possibility of exchanging Candy Canes for badge and temp powers in this
year’s Winter Event and the ski slope badges. Also in the Halloween event, NPC
costumes temp powers were added this year.

Shadow Fire wrote, “I love the events. They provide a nice respite from the
usual. The major turnout as players renew their accounts or just log in more
often really livens things up.”

That is true. You can expect to see many more players logging in during these
special periods of time.

However, JkevinCarrier wrote, “The Trick-or-Treat thing was clever, but I have
to admit the novelty kind of wore off after a day or two.”

Some might not believe it, but the holidays can be a blast without
that nasty white stuff. Here in Florida, we find plenty of things to do without
that mess. Granted, it was cold as heck on that hay-ride. The winds blowing of
the Bay during winter get plenty cold for me. One particularly warm year, as a
child, my parents took me to Honeymoon Island to hunt sand dollars at the
beach. You just wade out into the water till you hit a sandbar and then scootch
your toes around in the sand until you find one. They crawl across your hands.
It was neat. Coincidentally, I learned that bleach can be bad that year.

Some years, we drive around to look at the lights on the nearby
homes. Some are fantastic. One year, we made a special trip to Dunedin to see a
house that had been decorated in CD's, hundreds of thousands of CD's. Mostly
the AOL ones that come in the mail. I guess they got tired of using them as
coasters. Oh but it was gorgeous. The guy had even fixed some together into a
big, disco like ball with lights pointed at it so that they sparkled that prism
looking thing. That was beautiful.

There used to be a home in Town and Country that was phenomenal.
People came from everywhere to see it. He had a Santa's workshop set up with
little animatronic elves toiling away while Santa slept (and snored) on a
little elf bed. He also had a three story train set with versions of the Polar
Express running simultaneously. Giant snowmen (styrofoam, I think, this is
still Florida) and a little village with a little winter carnival and 3 foot
tall Victorian dolls on the rides.

Victorian! Oh, there's the Victorian Stroll at Harbour Island.
That's another good one. All the shops in the Harbour Island mall decorate in
Victorian style, but with electric lights. Though that might be better for the
little ones in a year or so. I know my boys.

I could always go with a family tradition for the gifts, that's a
thought. See, every year someone gets "the big box" and there's no telling
what's actually in it. It's my dad's thing usually. He likes to prank. One
year, he gives "the big box" to his new wife, they'd barely been married a
year. That year, he used a refrigerator sized box and filled it with balls from
the tree that the cats had partially eaten, crumpled newspaper, an old sock...
oh she was in tears. He's telling her to keep looking, look under that stuff.
She finally found it; thank any god you want for that. She was about to kill
him, then she found the cruise tickets down at the bottom.

Oh, there should be a family friendly Solstice dance and dinner
somewhere. That might be good for everyone. This always seemed like a cross
between Christmas Eve present opening, a feast, and country line dancing.

It's too late this year, but a few times we've done the traveling
thing. Visited family in Virginia, Alabama, and Georgia... It gets cold in
those places. Like, snow and stuff. Hubby has an aunt in Alabama that lives on
a mountain. It's pretty but it's cold. It's also deer season right around then
so... maybe not for the little ones right now anyway.

So, weather depending, we might go to the beach, go on a Victorian
stroll, see some houses all decked out, crash a party or just prank each
other... what to do, what to do...

What are your plans and traditions?

Happy Holidays!

I'd like to thank the Art and Screenshot section for being so
festive! Over the last few days, I've collected a ton of Holiday themed
costumes from some of the most creative folks on the forums. Through out this
issue are the some of the ones I collected.

~Dirtwolf

Holiday Memories

By
Lady_Athyna

I'm trying to decide which 'thing' to do this year with the family
and I realize I've got a lot to choose from. Our standard plans involve going
to my dad's on Christmas Eve for the whole Christmas thing, exchange gifts and
dinner and such, come home, fire up the NORAD Santa Tracker while setting out
the cookies (oatmeal raisin this year, mmmm). Mom will come over to spend the
night; I don't like her being alone. Then shuttle the little ones off to bed
and start the dirty business of assembling everything. There will be no
regulation basketball hoop this, that had to be one of the coldest Christmas
Eves ever. No two desks and a bar. They're boys, they can assemble it
themselves, right?

Get up, slog some coffee and let the little ones go. Actually, not
entirely chaotic, some enthusiasm has to take over, but I don't want to duck
the wrapping paper toss again. I got hit in the face one year. Then the feast,
the biggest, southernest breakfast ever. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, gritz,
milk-sausage gravy, eggs, biscuits... everything, and more coffee for mom.

Then pile into the old minivan and head over a county to do it all
again at the in-laws. This always blows me away. She used to be a foster parent
and they had, at most, I think about 24 kids one year. The living room was a
sea of presents. They'd start opening in the morning, take a break for
breakfast, go back to opening, break for lunch, opening, dinner and still more
opening. It'd last till midnight sometimes. But they've cut back on what they
can do, both with fostering and with spoiling them. And, when you've got a kid
who's never really seen a Christmas tree, much less a present just for them,
you spoil them a little.

A few times, hubby and I did the deliveries for the foster
program, driving to drop off locations and taking the gifts to some of the
foster families. That was amazing. If you get a chance, I recommend doing that
if you don't have little ones. As in, really little ones. The whole thing is
kinda lost on the 2 year old but that might be something to do again when the
little ones are a tad older.

This year, we'll be driving down a few hundred miles to see my
oldest son. He's taking a course through a halfway house to straighten a few
things up before joining, I think it's the Marines this week he wants.

But what else? There's got to be something beyond the norm,
something that's just plain fun for everyone. The little ones are still too
young to accompany us to a toga party on Saturnalia (those are fun, a feast
with every kind of imaginable food and drink and sometimes a huge bonfire), the
last one was at a friend's home. I still have mine and hubby's black togas and
gold laurels. But that's not kid-friendly.

Oh! For a few years we were invited to a few Hanukkah parties. One
of the nights is usually set aside to invite friends and those are awesome.
Much like Saturnalia food-wise (huge spread!) but minus the togas. And the
older kids managed to get pretty good with a dreidl. One year, the Hanukkah
festivities coincided with a friend's birthday. Her husband hired a horse-drawn
carriage to take her and some guests for a hay-ride through Davis Island. That
was beautiful.