Hey guys. I updated the prize list and the front page news item. The prize pool is now numbered, so you can see there are 110 items with ease. While we were going to offer some buffer items, it seems the concept isn't taking hold like we hoped. So the prize pool will stay "as is." There will be no updates or additions to it going forward. We removed the golvern slab and shade-lizard as prizes, and replaced them with two mana-flaring runestaves.

Here are some sneak peeks to some of the items:
• The bracelets are all pocketed and enhancive, with the "Steampunk" script on them (they have silvery gears).
• The belts with the rare metal buckles are all pocketed enhancives with a belt script on them.
• The boots with rare wood heels are pocketed and enhancive with a neat tie/untie script on them, complete with scarab shells inside them (Heh, you'll see if you win a pair).
• The grey moonstone cube casts Spirit Guide (130) 5x a day, but takes a whole day to regain a single charge.
• The armillary sphere casts Warding Sphere (310) 3x a day, recharges a single charge in 8 hours.
• The white opal torus cats Spell Shield (219) 2x a day, recharges a single charge in 12 hours.
• The shredded dresses are funny, see Tamuz's teaser post to understand what they can be.
• The witchwood box has a greater black ora jewelry piece inside. It's a mask.

Prize Pool

a faintly luminescing glowbark runestaff capped with a twisted green kelyn leaf
a slender silver lor runestaff bound with petrified flaeshorn vines
a tenebrous globe of ether
a tenebrous globe of ether
a pair of thick rolaren gauntlets with articulated fingers
a pair of thick rolaren gauntlets with a brass-riveted plate on each palm
a bejeweled quartz stone case embossed with a coiled maze roa'ter
an enruned dark glaes scarab brooch covered with a silver-swept crystal carapace
an enruned witchwood box
a cabochon of silver-ringed cerulean aetherstone
some matte black spidersilk robes banded with viridian satin on the sleeves
a lacquered silvery sephwir longbow with curved spiral nocks
a folded silvery eonake katana with a polished eahnor guard
a folded black rolaren katana with a polished eahnor guard
an enruned dark ironwood greatshield inlaid with polished eahnor chevrons
an enruned black rolaren buckler with a polished convex surface
a suit of smoky glaes platemail with polished rolaren poleyns
an opalescent cobalt vaalin band set with a nacreous blue waterweb
a ruic-stemmed dark glaes pipe with a faceted firestone bowl
a glaes-runed verdant faenor claidhmore
a thin-bladed silvery zorchar kris engraved with a line of blackened runes
a tapered ruddy gornar espadon with a deep-carved fuller
a rectangular rolaren-headed maul set with rhimar and drakar runes
a drakar-spiked blackened steel morning star with a scorched white oak handle
a double-edged cobalt rhimar warblade set with a frost agate pommel stone
an iron-reinforced wyrwood heavy crossbow with a brass-plated stock
a suit of triple-linked golvern augmented chainmail with dagged sleeves
a suit of celestial blue rolaren scalemail with ermine trim
a pair of thick golvern arm greaves inset with bars of polished rolaren
a darkened grey illthorn harp strung with silvery rolaren
a slender kelyn-tipped pike with a polished white oak shaft
a fel-hafted golvern waraxe
a thick rolaren-studded tetsubo with a polished ironwood haft
a pair of copper-banded mithglin bracers set with tiny rolaren gears
a copper-coiled fireleaf rune staff capped with a glowing glaesine orb
a pair of lead-toed leather boots
a pair of rolaren-threaded casting gloves with scorched fingertips
an engraved crimson eahnor greathelm with a glaes-paned visor
a rune-carved silvery lor staff
a slender dark illthorn staff
a pair of golvern-studded thick leather gauntlets
an ermine-lined cobalt wool cloak with a clasp of fused gold coins
a pair of thick leather gauntlets with eonake knuckle studs
a gold-runed crimson eahnor quiver
a glass-topped ironwood humidor inset with curled rolaren scrollwork
a black rapture cloak
an eahnor and silvery leather bracer
a reinforced crimson eahnor cuirass inset with numerous thin golden rods
a checkered azure and silver silk cloak clasped with a burnished golvern chain
a rounded black cobblestone painted with a pair of golden feline eyes
a pair of lead-weighted leather gauntlets
a rhimar-cored silvery glaes greataxe with a leather-wrapped white oak handle
a polished cabochon of fulgurite pendant set on a rune-carved rolaren backing
a woven reed and dried wiregrass pouch
a tanned leather wand bandolier with waxed brown canvas loops
an enruned white ora armillary sphere with brass and copper rings
a curved dark ironwood scabbard set with faceted firestone cabochons
a coiled black vaalin wyvern ring set with smoky quartz crystal claws
a coiled green vaalin serpent bracelet set with smoky quartz crystal scales
a faceted sliver of grey shadowglass
a sturdy tanned leather belt set with silver-flecked white crystal beads
a circular faenor ivy vine medallion
an ebonwood gilt-worked staff
an eonake-runed mithril mace
an eonake-runed mithril talon sword
an eonake-runed mithril warlance
an eonake-runed mithril flamberge
a cyan-speckled alabaster mushroom
a roan-speckled alabaster mushroom
a lime-speckled alabaster mushroom
a kohl-speckled alabaster mushroom
a fawn-speckled alabaster mushroom
a weathered leather coin pouch stitched with strands of veniom thread
a deeply hooded black muslin burnoose stitched with argent runes down its sleeves
a blackened leather harness traced with argent scrollwork
a gleaming eonake naginata with a single wing-shaped blade
a distressed leather-wrapped bludgeon weighted with kelyn
a white opal torus
a grooved eahnor dagger with an onyx-inset bone handle
some opalescent vaalin-framed spectacles
a grey moonstone cube
a slender silver and alexandrite anklet
some raven black full leathers with tenebrous straps
a faded silver spidersilk belt clasped with a circular krodera buckle
a faded silver spidersilk belt clasped with a circular eonake buckle
a faded silver spidersilk belt clasped with a circular golvern buckle
a faded silver spidersilk belt clasped with a circular eahnor buckle
a faded silver spidersilk belt clasped with a circular veniom buckle
a reinforced steel coat-of-plates
a tarnished steel javelin with a sharpened razern tip
a shredded section of a gown
some sturdy black leather boots heeled with solid illthorn
some sturdy black leather boots heeled with solid glowbark
some sturdy black leather boots heeled with solid lor
some sturdy black leather boots heeled with solid witchwood
a vitreous alexandrite bracelet
a translucent alexandrite bracelet
a slim alexandrite bracelet
some dark steel full plate lined with plush honey badger fur
a tarnished steel breastplate
some honey badger pelt robes
some sculpted steel armor lined with plush honey badger fur
some honey badger pelt leathers
some supple full leather stitched together from honey badger pelts
a tarnished steel katar with sharpened razern blades
an eonake-caged soulstone amulet
a torn section of a cotehardie
a flat-topped golden rolaren band set with spectral blue crystal runes
a leaf-bladed veil iron partisan
a thin-bladed dark veil iron wakizashi

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~Wyrom, SGM
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Awesome!

I'm not sure I understand the torn dresses still. But I don't really understand dresses that aren't torn, so I suppose that's par for the course.
And that black ora mask is awesome. Not for any of my current characters, but you can REALLY build a character or a story out of such a unique piece.

>>Maybe I'm not getting it.

The dresses are a gag gift. The real prize is inside.

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~Wyrom, SGM
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Heh now that's funny Wyrom. I can see a lot of thought and feedback was put into this item list. We should feel bad for complaining and ruining the surprise on some of these. :)

>>Neat... faceworn or headworn?

There is no face slot.

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~Wyrom, SGM
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Those take a pin (general) worn slot.

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~Wyrom, SGM
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Black ora masks are helms.

-E

The Man in the Black Ora Mask!

___
GemStone IV will be up shortly!
Sorry guys, my bad :(

It'd be cool if a black ora mask became enveloped into your skin like the mask from the titular Jim Carrey movie, changing your description, and most importantly, not taking up a functional slot, especially your solitary head one. Heck, make all black ora like that, its attuned and permanent, why not let it bond with your skin. Wear a greater black ora bracer and your end up with a scaly hardened forearm striated with veins of black ora.

Will non premium members ever get a chance to go on a run? Or is this gonna be a premium only event?

I don't foresee another DMC anytime soon. We have a very nice event schedule for next year already in the works.

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~Wyrom, SGM
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>The Gownsmiths of Elanthia tour, coming soon!

Ive noticed a lot of the GMs putting on festivals of their own in the last year or so. Reidyn with the solhaven one, Valyrka with the illistim one, Galene with the cysaegir one etc. Tamuz should do the Gownsmiths of elanthia tour! Imagine spending hours upon hours on nothing but gowns! Everyone would be so impressed. The praise alone, what phenomenal range that Tamuz guy has! I cant even begin to daydream about Tamuz unique gown zests.

>>Adding MCW Hemlines to unweighted dresses

Sounds like dancing with a lady in that might hurt.

The issue is being looked into to see if there is anything we can do about getting the one link to open up on time with the other two links.

I'm not sure why you're railing the issue given all the facts, or claiming poor customer service, when I've been responding as best as I can.

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~Wyrom, SGM
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>I'm not sure why you're railing the issue given all the facts, or claiming poor customer service, when I've been responding as best as I can.

Wyrom, I try to be fair, but the fact that you've known about the issue for so long and no one has tried to fix it at anytime in the past 7 or 8 years is insanely ridiculous. I think people are a lot more upset than you're recognizing and it stinks that it falls to you to be on the front line, but this is more typical Simu stuff that people are quitting over.

A simple announcement before a big ticket item, about the bug, and what we could do to get around it, would solve 99% of the rage, but that was not done. Pointing it out AFTER the fact, is not acceptable.

>To be fair, isn't a bug that's existed for 7-8 year technically grandfathered in as a feature?

no, if it were a "feature" there should have been a notice at the top of the page. not everyone attempted to sign up for RtCF round one. I didn't, obviously others didn't either. I've been signing up for events since 2007 and in the five pay events I've signed up for on this account (and more on the other) I've never seen that before. To be fair, isn't it reasonable to think people will believe that tickets aren't yet for sale when the website says "tickets for this event are not yet for sale?"

While I don't know what can be done to placate the people who rearranged their lives to get a ticket and thought tickets were not on sale when scheduled, only for the tickets to be sold out, their concerns have not exactly been met with empathy from the senior GM in charge of events or a response from corporate.

I personally didn't know about the game feature where sometimes "tickets for sale" link didn't appear. Well, that's not true, I knew it showed up a few seconds AFTER tickets went on sale, but I had always used the "sign up now" icon in the information page. There is none for the DM this time.

What was my solution? (yes I got a ticket) I told a friend in AIM that they weren't for sale yet, and said odd.

They responded with.. Click the D icon on the page. Even that took me like 30 seconds to figure out. They didn't say big D, they said droughtman graphics. I thought they meant from the home page, and use sign up, and I went back, and said it still isn't there. THEN I got what they meant and hit the D, and got in, half the tickets gone. Got a ticket.

If I hadn't gotten a ticket, I probably would have been more irked at myself for no figuring it out then at SIMU for broken/missing links. Sure, I would have been upset, not ragequit upset, but upset.


As for Vel's comment.. yeah. Nowadays people only think good customer service is when the company does whatever they want. In this case, good customer service would be to make sure it never happens again. I am sure Wyrom is working on that.

Clicking on the title link only isn't the best idea as it is not as user-friendly as a "Get your tickets" link. What would work better is a bit more communication on the page. My suggestion is to remove the "Tickets are not available message" and just use the "Get your tickets" link followed by the date and time tickets are to go on sale, like this - "Get your tickets - Available 12/19/13 9PM EST". The would make the link available regardless of the time, allow people to know where to click in a very user-friendly manner, and relay the information about when the tickets are to go on sale. From that point the date and time information could be stripped off after tickets went started to be on sale using the same method that is currently in place for updating the "Tickets are not available" message since it won't matter if those get removed 5-30 minutes late.

>Clicking on the title link only isn't the best idea as it is not as user-friendly as a "Get your tickets" link. What would work better is a bit more communication on the page. My suggestion is to remove the "Tickets are not available message" and just use the "Get your tickets" link followed by the date and time tickets are to go on sale, like this - "Get your tickets - Available 12/19/13 9PM EST". The would make the link available regardless of the time, allow people to know where to click in a very user-friendly manner, and relay the information about when the tickets are to go on sale. From that point the date and time information could be stripped off after tickets went started to be on sale using the same method that is currently in place for updating the "Tickets are not available" message since it won't matter if those get removed 5-30 minutes late.

1. Clicking on the title of a listing is the most common method of navigation on the Internet.

2. """But Wyrom it said "Get your tickets - Available 12/19/13 9PM EST" but that message never changed, it still said they will be available at 9PM so I thought you were running late and no one came to hold my hand and I just kept refreshing but it kept saying 9PM even at 9:05 and I didn't get a ticket and you should make an extra run just for me."""

If you must keep the second link have it say "CLICK HERE TO TRY TO BUY TICKETS" in bold red. Let that actual next page, the page you must refresh, be the one with the date and time on it. You absolutely cannot underestimate the ability for people to be confused.