Could we get one single post from a GM which clearly describes how the prizes are working this time around?

Also, could we get that posted in advance every single time from now on? Maybe in the quest description in the box office?

If you don't want to post about it in the announcements, I understand. If you don't have teasers about the prize pool until a few weeks before the event, that's fine. What's really irritating is finding out less than 2 weeks before the event that it's not going to work like the last series of runs. The cherry on top is sifting through a couple threads of scattered information in order to find details and still, after reading it all, not being sure exactly what is going on.

I don't expect to be disappointed. Even as a participant in one of the gimped death cooldown timer runes last time, I wasn't particularly disappointed. I just like to know what to expect.

In the past runs, the winners of each round got a prize (GALD or enchant, for the past few mini-DMC runs, correct?). Will this be the case or is there only a prize for the winner of the final round?

>>In the past runs, the winners of each round got a prize (GALD or enchant, for the past few mini-DMC runs, correct?). Will this be the case or is there only a prize for the winner of the final round?

>>Only a prize for the winner. Everyone gets a souvenir pull.

Wyrom, I think he means the winner's reward in the first 10 runs, separate from the random prize pull.

Like the previous mini weekend tournaments there will still be 10 enchant services (up to 8x) going out to the winners of each of the qualifying rounds, correct? This in addition to the 100 (if they show up) random prize (item) pulls.

To confirm, the only change from the last three runs is the grand prize switching from a padding/weighting (max exceptional) or enchant (max 10x) service, to a transferable Landing workshop private property deed.

And thank you for being so responsive with the details.

Why is this still going ahead as plan even though there was no announcement for buying tickets? Why not cancel them out and then open them up to everyone who would like to buy one? Seems highly unfair to the rest of your customers. Either that or add more runs. Acknowledging that you screwed up but then not doing anything to fix it is just not cool.

Cancelling wouldn't be fair for those that purchased tickets. I'm sure we'll have more runs eventually. Creating prizes isn't as easy as Tamuz and Wryom make it look.

SGM Sleken

Nothing at all was announced before the tickets sold out, buyers made assumptions, Solomon forgot to make the announcement and it sold out anyway. Nothing shady involved, caveat emptor and all that.

Property deeds in DMC have always been transferable. Not sure why you'd expect anything else at this point.

-Richard/Fjalar.

Yeah, I know they don't get that. I thought you were inferring that only the winner of a round gets a pull from the prize pile.

~James
Player of Septimius

This is exactly why I asked for it to be spelled out.

There was confusion the first time the Droughtman's mini-run tickets were sold (it differed substantially from the 2011 tournament). But all three 2012 mini-runs were the same in terms of prizes: all first-round participants get a prize pulled from the treasure chest, winners of the first round got an enchanting or GALD service. In the final round, participants get a non-treasure-chest souvenir, and the winner received a grand prize of an enchanting, weighting, or padding service. And, of course, all contestants get the silvers from each of the individual rounds. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

The grand prize was never variable in the mini-runs so no one would have expected it to change. And, from other people's posts, it's clear that people expected first round winners would get a prize as well.

There's nothing innately wrong with the new prize structure here. If we had been told ahead of time that the grand prize was going to be a transferable property deed, that first-round winners wouldn't get a prize, and that the treasure chest pool would be getting a boost (with teasers to follow), I'm sure many people would have been excited (after all, 90% of the participants would get a bump here).

At this point, the issue is that it's just not what anyone expected. People will definitely complain about the prize structure simply on that basis. Most of us probably already worked out in our heads what we would have done with our win. That fact that the opportunity is gone is perceived as a loss (even though it's not). This is human nature.

As customers, we all just want to know what to expect.

Just to give you a little insight on everything, maybe to better help understand our situation, I'll explain a little bit. We actually finalized some tools when it comes to building items for events such as Droughtman's Maze Challenge or Night at the Academy after the tickets went on sale this time around. Then Ebon Gate hit us, which is a very time intensive event for the majority of staff. So please accept our (or at least my) apology about the poor communication.

Moving forward, the prize structures can change from event to event, even with the event having the same name. This time around, we built items with substantially better properties for you, so that all ticket goers would end up with something we hope you'll like, or can barter with players to get something you like. This prize pile is a littler more heavily weighted for mechanical items. But we do have some interesting non-mechanical items too.

A new X/day item system is also being introduced this run, so expect a handful of those type of items. We made a number of items that were requested here. We have some top notch stuff. I think you will find your time here will be worth your while.

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~Wyrom, ASGM
Host Manager
GameMaster Trainer
Honorary QC Lackey