Everyone loves a holiday event, and gamers — who typically celebrate those events within the virtual universe of their choice — are no exception. With the Valentine’s Day holiday fast approaching, many MMOs are ramping up to offer events and items that coincide. For example, World of Warcraft has always had a Valentine’s Day event, called ”Love is in the Air.”

Rift, in its usual spirit of borrowing the best of what’s good about other MMOs, will also have a V-Day celebration, but they will also be putting their own unique twist on it. Your Ascended characters will actually be able to marry in-game, in a ceremony officiated by a GM. Can you think of anything cooler?

Okay, so you probably can, but this is still pretty awesome.

Here’s how it will work:

There are ”wedding instances” in two different places. The Guardians will find theirs on the top of Hammerknell, while the Defiant should look to Orphiel’s Spire. If you’re more of a ”run off and elope” kind of — um — Ascended, then you can just have a casual wedding anywhere, with little planning.

First you’ll want to visit a Marriage Coordinator. These are found in the capital city our faction. Buy a Marriage Contract and ”use” it on your chosen spouse. You will both get a prompt to confirm, so there are no worries of someone sneaking up and marrying you against your will. You can also grab a book from this guy, telling you everything you need to know in order to get hitched in Telara.

The developers are even offering a special promotion built around this event. If you and your other half play Rift together and decide to make it official in-game, you can send in your story and have a chance to win one of five  luxury weddings. One of the community managers, Elrar, will officiate for you, and everyone in the game will hear the news via chat broadcast.

Draft your story, keep it tight (they’re asking for less than 300 words), and post it to the True Romance in Telara forum before Monday, February 6, 2012. Winners will start hearing after that date and up until the 10th; if you haven’t heard by then, you probably didn’t win. You’ll also want to make sure that your story is in English, French or German, and that it fits the ESRB ratings for ”T” for teen players.

One last thing: the team at Rift: Planes of Telara is going for a Guinness World Record. They want to get the most in-game marriages ever, so if if you’re at all interested, make sure you don’t miss out on this event. Those who choose to wed in Telara between the hours of 12:00 PM EST February 14 and 12:00 PM EST February 15 will get the ”Tier of Knots” title, something that is sure to bring in all the title and achievement junkies.

You can find out all the details on the game’s official website; be sure to check that out if you’re interested so that you don’t miss any crucial steps.

Published on: Jan 26, 2012
By: TJSonntag