He's back! Greatfather Winter has cloned himself and established a Winter Veil camp in Ironforge and Orgrimmar respectively. Goblin vendors are selling rather useless, but probably tasty seasonal brews and we're all asked to go looking for that reindeer, who seems to get lost almost as easily as Corkie. It's the same procedure as last year. Are you tickled at the thought of participating in the Winter Veil event 2009?

Larísa:

I actually never paid much of attention to any world event until Winter Veil hit last year. I didn't bother, since the little rational goblin voice in my head judged them to be rather unnecessary, not offering any upgrades, taking tons of time, giving nothing but bags filled with junk.

When Blizzard introduced the title Merrymaker as an award for completing the Winter Veil quests and a bunch of added achievements, I changed my mindset was changed. In an instant I got turned into one of those sad social casual players; I just KNEW that I had to become Merrymaker Larísa, whatever it would take, no matter of if it was useful or not.

Since the Christmas period generally is rather slow in the game, most guilds putting raiding at a halt due to lack of players online, it turned out not to be as bad as I had imagined; on the contrary I found it to be a pretty fun, lighthearted and entertaining way to spend my hours online. I would definitely rather bribe Greatfather Winter with cookies and milk and look up monks all over the world to toss snowflakes over them than going on a grind. Most of the things I was supposed to do put a smile on my face.

Above all - it was the first time I did everything, so Winter Veil offered the sweet added taste of novelty, which comes with all new content - be it a new kind of quest or a new raid instance. The freshness is the same.

Quick jump forward to this year. Do I get equally excited and happy about Winter Veil, now that I've already done it once before?

Well, I thought I should make an effort to follow the tradition, so I bravely set out on the mission to rescue Metzen and kill that Abominable Greench over again, even though I already had the achievement. And to be honest I wasn't very tickled.

A bit of the charm with those quests last year was to find the creatures - now they're highlighted on the new map interface with built-in questhelper addon. The rewards aren't impressive, the quest design and animations are old-style, not anything of the fancy things introduced in WotLK, and this year I don't even you don't get any achievement flash my screen.

So basically: No, I'm not excited at the quests and achievements.

On the other hand I AM rather delighted at the Winter Veil period as such. I love the decorations everywhere, the atmosphere, the snow balls flying through the air, the Christmas dresses (although Larísa admittedly is freezing in her bikini), the unlimited feeling of childishness and playfulness which don't see that much of for the rest of the year.

I'm also wondering what gifts Greatfather Winter will bring us this year. There have been speculations that it will be something needed to complete the only new achievement, BB King. But I can't stop hoping there's something else. If Ghostcrawler can't give us a pony, what about a new cute vanity pet? I'm tickled at the thought.

Elnia:

I am tickled at in seeing Grandfather Winter again. Growing up, Christmas was always my favorite holiday, not so much because of the food (I liked Halloween candy better) or because of the presents (I can’t remember a single one) but because it seemed to be the only holiday when people were happy.

In Warcraft terms, The Feast of Winter’s Veil is a special time for me because during this feast last year I dinged 60 for the first time. It was also the first Warcraft holiday I participated in because I was not playing the game in September and October of last year. I remember being mildly frustrated because I couldn’t complete the Achievement because I wasn’t high enough level.

For reasons I can’t explain now, I had decided that I wasn’t going to upgrade to the expansion but just cap out at 60. So I actually spent most of the Feast working on the Ambassador title instead, which I achieved on Christmas Eve. My Christmas present to myself was to be one of the first Night Elves on my server to have the Mechanostrider, which has been my land mount ever since. I still remember getting whispers about how I must have hacked the game.

The result is that I am tickled pink to finally, after an entire year, have the Merrymaker title. The first day I rushed out to drop the bombs, kiss the revelers, and defeat the Horde with a little helper from my friends. It took me about three hours total to get it all done but I am pleased indeed. I do not have a violet drake yet but in my own way I can talk about what a long strange trip it’s been.

Last year at this time I wasn’t even planning on playing to 80, and I never would have dreamed it would take me six months to go another 20 levels. I never would have dreamed that I’d meet Larisa and that I’d start writing for a blog. Never would have imagined I’d get involved in the gold game and now have so much gold I don’t know what to do with it.

A long strange trip indeed. One that has left me feeling tickled pink.