2009 Christmas event

"A Christmas Warble", commonly known as the 2009 Christmas event, was a RuneScape seasonal event released by Jagex on 21 December 2009. The event's basic premise was that it was the player's job was to go to the Land of Snow to free Santa Claus from a dark wizard who hates Christmas. The story of the event is loosely based on the traditional Christmas story A Christmas Carol. Unlike previous events, this one lasted three weeks instead of two. It was removed on 11 January 2010 with the news item "Nomad's Requiem." Rewards for this event included a new ghost costume, a wieldable candy cane, and a new emote. Snowballs returned in this event, but, unlike the ones from a snow globe, they could not be kept. This event was the first project developed by the Jagex Moderator Edam, who had recently started working at Jagex.

Storyline
In Draynor, Falador, and Varrock, mysterious Christmas cupboards could be found, with a partygoer cheering next to each one. The partygoers revealed to players that the cupboards are entrances to the Land of Snow, where the Queen of Snow was throwing a Christmas party and feast for all citizens of RuneScape. Upon entering through a Christmas cupboard, however, players find all the partygoers inside quite upset. They reveal to the player that a dark wizard who hates Christmas stole all the food for the feast, and kidnapped Santa Claus. The player then meets up with a snow imp as a companion, who suggests the player talk to the Queen of Snow, who is also Santa Claus's wife. When spoken to, the queen asks that the player rescue her husband and save Christmas.

When the player and the snow imp arrive at the house of Ebenezer Scourge, the dark wizard, they find Santa locked in a cage, and try to persuade Scourge to let him free. Scourge refuses, and reinforces his hatred of Christmas. The player's snow imp suggests that they try to scare Scourge into giving Christmas back. After looking around Scourge's house, the player finds some bedsheets and some chains, which he or she crafts into a ghost costume.

The snow imp tells the player that information about Scourge's past is needed before they go on to scare him. The player talks to the Queen of Snow again, who reveals to the player that, in the past, she and Scourge were in love, but she eventually left him for Santa Claus because Scourge had become evil. The player, disguised as a ghost, confronts Scourge and tells him about his evil deeds of the past, and his relationship with the queen. Scourge is not fooled, and retaliates by trapping all of the partygoers in the Land of Snow in a bind.

The player goes back down to the feast, and finds all the partygoers frozen within small, magical, glowing fires. The player learns that in order to free the partygoers, he or she must pour icy water on them in the reverse order in which Scourge cursed them. After freeing the guests, the player returns to Scourge, still disguised as a ghost. The player tells Scourge about how he has ruined someone's Christmas, and decides to bring the young partygoer Tiny Thom to Scourge. After the player's snow imp summons Thom to the house, Thom complains to Scourge about how he lost all his food and presents. Scourge becomes even more resentful towards the player, saying that Thom's brattiness only supports his cause. This leaves the player no choice but to leave Scourge again.

After talking with the player, the snow imp comes up with one more idea: since Scourge is uninterested in the past or the present, he must be concerned with his future. The player, still dressed like a ghost, goes back up to Scourge's bedroom, and, not talking, dramatically points to a gravestone (conjured by the snow imp) that has Scourge's name on it. Fearing for his life, Scourge agrees to free Santa Claus and give back the food, and claims to now be a changed man.

The player returns to the feast to find everything back to normal, with Santa, the food, and the presents back. Santa, grateful that the player and his snow imp helped free him, rewards them with a scarf for the imp and a very large candy cane for the player. Ebenezer Scourge can be found enjoying the feast as well, saying that he is redeemed, and that he wishes the player a Merry Christmas.

Rewards

 * The candy cane, which, when wielded, has the option to spin by right-clicking it in the Worn Equipment screen. When spun, the player will throw it into the air. The candy cane will then rotate 360 degrees mid-air before being caught again. A glitch related to this item was fixed after the Christmas event.
 * The Christmas ghost costume, which includes a hood, a top, and bottoms.
 * The Dramatic Point emote, which was the emote the player used when pointing to Scourge's gravestone. If not already unlocked, the emotes Freeze and Melt and Snowman Dance were also unlocked. The Trick emote, however, which was also used to scare Scourge, was not unlocked by players who didn't complete a Hallowe'en event.

Music
Music tracks unlocked:
 * Silent Knight
 * Ghost of Christmas Presents
 * Smorgasbord

Development


The 2009 Christmas event was developed mainly in September and October of 2009 and was the first project developed by Mod Edam.

Mod Edam based the story of the event on A Christmas Carol, a traditional Christmas novel written by Charles Dickens.

The Christmas ghost costume, a reward for the event, was not given an alternate form for female players, like the Santa and witch costumes. This was because that in the original novel A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, which the Christmas ghost costume is based on, had no actual gender, and the developers believed that if the costume had one, it would have been less scary.

The candy cane, another reward for the event, was previously an option for a reward for the 2008 Christmas event in one of Jagex's Guaranteed Content Polls. It lost to the Santa suit, which became the reward for the Christmas event that year.

Mod Edam wanted the rewards of the event to be so that they would not give any player any notable advantage over another, but would still be fun.

Announcement


The 2009 Christmas event was first announced in the news item "Christmas Cards and Blog". It linked to a developer blog written by Mod Edam. In the developer blog, titled "Holiday Event: A Christmas Warble", Mod Edam gave a few details about what the event would be like. The 2009 Christmas event was the first event to have a blog written about it.

Mod Edam said that new characters would be released with the event, but Jack Frost and snow imps, characters seen in a previous Christmas event, would have small cameos. Santa Claus's appearance was confirmed by Jagex Christmas cards that represented the event. Mod Edam confirmed in the blog that the plot would be based on a traditional Christmas story, but he did not say what. This was later confirmed to be A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Following the announcement of the event, many users on the RuneScape Forums speculated that the event's story would be based on Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. This was not confirmed until the event was actually released on 21 December. RuneScape players based their theories on several hints released by Jagex:


 * The title of the first blog by Edam is "A Christmas Warble", "warble" being a variation of the word carol (i.e. A Christmas Carol).
 * The caption for one of the pictures posted on Edam's blog stated, "Beware of the Humbug." "Humbug" is a well-known word that Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol's main character, often says in the book.
 * One of the Christmas cards released at the same time as the "Christmas Cards and Blog" news post is titled "A Christmas Warble" and captioned, "Santa brings a Hint of Christmas Future in this festive card." The picture is of Santa Claus, an old man, speculated to be based on Ebenezer Scrooge, and a young boy with a crutch under his arm, speculated to be based on Tiny Tim.
 * "Christmas Cards and Blog" makes a reference to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, which is one of the four ghosts that visits Scrooge in the novel: "Like the Ghost of Christmas Future, we're here to offer a hint of what's to come this Christmas, in the form of a new Christmas card and developer blog."

Release
"A Christmas Warble" was released on 21 December 2009 with the news item "A Christmas Warble (Christmas 2009)". A list of frequently asked questions about the event (answered by Mod Edam) was posted on the forums the next day. For this event, Jagex created a new particles system in RuneScape that included a more realistic look of snow. This was the first appearance of particles in RuneScape.

Many users on the RuneScape Forums commented on the delay of the release of the event. The 2006, 2007, and 2008 Christmas events were all released on either the 16th or the 18th of December, but the 2009 Christmas event was released on the 21st. The 2009 Christmas event is the latest released Christmas event since 2004.

This was the first Christmas event since 2007 in which players could collect snowballs from snow piles in the Land of Snow without using a snow globe. Although these snowballs could be taken out of the Land of Snow and lasted a week later than the Christmas event, they, unlike snowballs from a snow globe, would eventually melt. The snowballs that could be collected in the Land of Snow melted on 19 January 2010. Mod Tim stated that the reason it took so much longer after the Christmas event for the snowballs to melt was "because of the recent snow [they had] been having".

Upon completion of the event, players were invited to take food and drinks from the feast table. The food, which was available nowhere else in RuneScape, consisted of mulled wine, Yule logs, roast potatoes, and turkey drumsticks, each of which being able to restore ten life points. (Another item, called a cooked turkey drumstick, was once available during the 2008 Thanksgiving event; however, there are differences between that and the turkey drumsticks available during the 2009 Christmas event.) The food was only able to exist in the Land of Snow, and it would disappear if a player attempted to take it out. With the removal of 2009's Land of Snow, the food became no longer available.

A few days later, on 24 December, Mark Gerhard and Andrew Gower gave Christmas wishes to the RuneScape community in a news post.

The event ended three weeks later on 11 January 2010, with the news post "Nomad's Requiem".

Glitch
After players finished the event, they discovered that if they spun their candy cane and then quickly switched to another weapon (the most popular one being a godsword), then their character would spin the other weapon instead. In response to comments from players, Mod Edam confirmed that it was an unintended glitch in the game. Players insisted that Mod Edam leave the glitch in (as it provided no advantage for players, but was just fun to do); however, Mod Edam said that the glitch would be fixed anyway, as it could have potentially created other graphical errors. The glitch was removed on 11 January 2010, the same day as the end of the Christmas event.

Criticism
One part of the event required the player to unequip his or her equipment. As this included members objects such as the Cape of Accomplishment, heavy criticism came from ex-members, who are unable to reequip members objects after they are unequipped. Despite overwhelmingly negative feedback, Mod Edam announced that the problem was unintended, but would not be changed.

Awards
On the day of the end of the Christmas event, the 2009 RuneScape Awards poll reported that eleven percent of players (the highest percentage) thought that "A Christmas Warble" included the best graphics of 2009. Ten percent thought that the event's rewards, the Christmas ghost costume and the candy cane, were the best new items of 2009. Five percent thought that "Ghost of Christmas Presents" was the best new music track, and another five percent thought that "Smorgasbord" was. (These were both music tracks that were unlocked during the 2009 Christmas event.)