The final day of Wintersday already passed in NCSoft's Guild Wars, and the winners of the Wintersday Hat contest are finally revealed. Check out the winning entries in the full article!

NCsoft has revealed the fun games, quests, and presents you can expect in the MMORPG Guild Wars come Wintersday event. As Grenth and Dwayna fight over control of weather, you can head over to the full article for more details.

It looks like NCsoft is getting into the holiday spirit rather early as it features the Wintersday 2007 Contest for the Guild Wars MMORPG. The game developers at ArenaNet want to base the next Grenth Wintersday helm off the winning entry submitted by the players.

In the yearly Wintersday battles between Dwayna and Grenth, players may actually be wearing your winning design as they fight it out on the frozen battlegrounds. Check out the contest details and prizes right after the jump!

A couple of days ago, we reported that the Wintersday Festival in the Guild Wars universe has been extended until January 11, 2007. Judging from how the players received the extension, it seems that there really was clamor to prolong the activity and not just a marketing hoopla by developer NCSoft as some skeptics always say.

According to the company's official report, players flock continuously to Guild Wars, and to date, have racked up a whopping 20 million hours of gameplay. We're quite crazy about numbers today and we don't know exactly why. But that's 1.2 billion minutes or 72 billion seconds. Can you imagine that?

That's enough blabbering now. Anyway, NCSoft also reported that a side project arose because of the Wintersday extension. In an additional show of holiday spirit and goodwill, Guild Wars players have offered to share their Wintersday gifts with those affected by the recent Taiwan quake. Plans are currently underway for a massive in-game gift donation.

Now that's what we call the real meaning of New Year Wintersday.

Guild Wars fanatics annually look forward to holiday event, Wintersday Festival. Aside from the different in-game happenings, there are also a lot of fun activities which players could participate in even though they are offline. It seems that the event was so well received this year, developer NCsoft decided to keep it for a little while longer.

Yep, Wintersday is still on and there are still a lot of things to do in case you failed to join the festivities. According to NCSoft's official message to its fans:

Through Noon PST (20:00 GMT) on Thursday, January 11, 2007:

Players can continue to compete in the Snowball Arena, join in the holiday quests and missions, and dodge Grentchies in Kamadan and Lion's Arch. Through participation in various activities, players will accumulate Candy Cane Shards which they may exchange for Peppermint Shields, Gingerbread Foci, and Candy Cane weapons of all kinds.

And of course, players can also trade those shards with the Wintersday Gift Givers in Lion's Arch and Kamadan for valuable Wintersday Gifts that contain a variety of exciting items.

Aside from the overwhelming success of the event, NCSoft mentioned that they decided to extend it for the benefit of their players in Asia, especially in Taiwan. Accordingly, a strong earthquake hit on the last week of December, knocking most of the region's internet connection.

Not sure if you're celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa? Wait till you see how virtual worlds celebrate the holidays. Basically, most MMORPG games take the concept of Christmas and give it that virtual twist.

In City of Heroes, this time of the year is marked with gifts littering the streets of Paragon City. While some contain goodies some may, in fact, be harboring vicious monsters. Only in a virtual world.

This time of the year Guild Wars celebrates Wintersday where the cities Lion's Arch, Ascalon City, Droknar's Forge, and Kamadan try to out do each other in the holiday decor department.

In Star Wars Galaxies, players deck their virtual homes with wreaths and trees and greet each other happy Wookie Life Day or sing "Wookie Wonderland" by the fire.

It's beginning to look lot like, not Christmas, but the Feast of the Winter Veil in World of Warcraft. And don't hold your breath for Santa. He isn't coming. Instead keep an eye on a kindly old elf who dresses in red and sports a gray beard known as Greatfather Winter.

Whether you're in the real world or in a virtual one, we wish you and your loved ones a very Merry ________ (fill in the blank with the holiday name of your choice).

Since it's the holidays, and we've already told you guys who won the Wintersday art contest, let's take a look at how Christmas, or Wintersday, feels like in the world of Guild Wars.

First up, let's rewind and look at the events of Wintersday 2005.

Now that that's done and over with, here's a short clip that runs through the world of Guild Wars as it is now. It should give you folks a nice idea of how the world looks like this holiday

Watch the embed after the Jump!

That's right, as previously announced, the Guild Wars Wintersday art contest has just ended and the winners have been announced. As we can see from the entries of the first and second-place winners that we have here, the quality of the submissions which poured in from around the globe is pretty impressive.

In any case, these lucky, lucky people will be receiving a package from NCSoft soon which contains a copy of Guild Wars Nightfall Collectors' Edition signed by the dev team, and a Nightfall T-shirt.

Gotta love fan art...

See the rest of the winning entries after the Jump!

The latest issue of The Scribe is out. If you're heading towards The City of Torc'Qua and Ravenheart Gloom, you don't want to miss this issue. Seems like something bad is brewing over there that poses industrial-strength challenges. Read the tips on how to overcome the dark forces that's gripping the areas.

On a more festive note, many cities are putting up giant candy canes, living snowmen, enormous trees decorated with lights, ribbons, and other ornaments to celebrate the Wintersday. If you're looking for the parties, head for Lion's Arch, Ascalon City, Droknar's Forge, and Kamadan.

Check out these stories plus the random acts of kindness this week in Guild Wars.

In Guild Wars, even the holiday season is a time of much fighting. This is the time of year when the gods Dwayna and Grenth battle over who will control the weather during the coming months. Eternal winter awaits in the event of Grenth's success, while Dwayna brings promise of an early thaw. Who will win? Players will have the final say as they vote during the grand finale.

The Guild Wars Wintersday event starts Wednesday, December 20, and will run for a total of 13 days, with the grand finale happening on Monday, January 1. If you can't decide which side you want to ally yourself with, you can just try both sides out and pick your favorite. All throughout the event, the cities of Kamadan, Lion's Arch, Droknar's Forge, and Ascalon City will shine with festive lights and decorations while their streets will be littered with holiday NPCs.

There are also a lot of special holiday quests, missions, and games in store for everybody apart from the Wintersday event, meaning that a veritable treasure trove of holiday-themed rewards await everybody who participates.