Back when I had been playing for about a year or so, I got to attend the Grand Auction, and struggled and scrimped (and begged and borrowed from Sinestra) to get 800K silver for T.H.E. coolest set of armor ever. Padded, full leather, with accessories to take it to double leather that did nice things, and themed after a dragon (don't see that any more in game). Later, I made a significant mistake in selling it.

I was amazed then at the prices that some of the other items drew from the audience. I told myself that one day, yes one day I would be able to afford cool things like Edward, Tedra, Maruko, etc., etc.

The Grand Auction was a social event. We had fun learning more about each other. I even learned when and how to challenge Aanalar, and survive. I never quite got there with Snuffy. . .

This event, CCF, was a bit more planned out - time slots assigned to make sure folks who wanted to focus could actually focus. Pricing was explained, examples provided officially on the forums, casually in chat on Discord. And a team of people worked to try to share every relevant piece of information throughout the entire period. By the way, if you haven't thanked your TownCrier team and the efforts of Luxelle, Kaldonis and other stalwarts who gave of their time and energy to keep us all informed, now's the time. Golden Ogres for all! (Serious biz - Wyrom, please see to this.)

But - at it's core, I entered it with the aspiration of enjoying it as a social event. I got time to be tempted by Ardwen. Maags skipped so many circles that it made ME dizzy. Old friends that have settled in remote hot islands, like Daiyon, were seen and stories exchanged. Cryheart played the gallant knight role and made sure we all were chaperoned. Comrades who've been absent for so long were recalled and remembered, Like Lissa, Briars, The Black Sorcerer. And ancient enmities were given chance to re-blossom, as smug rangers and snooty dwarves attempted to rule the day. Did anyone else note that Drizzdt graced us with his presence? I'm not even sure if he remembered the snotty young Elf from back then, but it was perhaps one of the highlights of this event for me personally.

All of this, and I got to plan which events at which times, and for how much coin I might want to extend efforts to increasing my various characters' hordes. I enjoyed my purchases, and found that they didn't detract at all from the social exchanges.

Bravo for accomplishing something that might be overlooked - we the community are a community. We love who we love and hate who we hate, and portray all of that in a glorious fashion. And, yes - we dropped a few billion silver on things that would have cost a few million in that first Grand Auction.

But the interactions - priceless. Thank you to the GMS who give of their time, and the community at large all of whom continue to delight and entertain. Sincerely.

Doug

P.S. TownCrier team - I wouldn't have been able to enjoy even 1/10th a part of what I did without your efforts. Your communications greatly eased my preparations and left me free to enjoy these interactions in the time I had. I cannot thank you enough.

This has been a wonderful event. Thank you so much for working tirelessly for two days straight to bring us so many neat toys! I'm really excited about what I walked away with, and I have to point out how incredibly impressed I am that you rolled with the technical issues so incredibly well given how rapid the scheduling pace was. We should have been hours behind, but somehow you kept us more or less on track the whole time.


Thank you, thank you! This really was just fantastic.

I'll echo that this has been a wonderful event. I'm tired and I'm just casually roaming around trying to pick up new toys, I can't imagine how exhausted our GMs are. We are lucky to have them.

I spent way more than I expected, I'm sure a few others have as well, which is great. I believe this event was in part due to requests for a silver drain, and wow did they deliver on that goal.


Let's also not forget that everyone gets to enjoy an additional event, for free, due to the generosity of Wyrom. When my ISP goes down, I don't get freebies.

We're probably all a little tired, let's try to be kind to each other, because that's another thing that is free.

Doug's post is far more well spoken than my sleep-deprived brain will permit me to match, but I want to echo his thanks and enthusiasm. From my perspective, this event was exactly the silvers drain that the event needed. I was not terribly silver rich going into it, but I still managed some resistance (even if not for 240m on my main armor!) and a flare, along with some WPS stuff, and that's amazing. Also, given what other people were willing to pay, it looks like, for the most part, people found the prices to be reasonable, and that's great. Thank you so much, Wyrom and all the GMs, for offering these silvers and for paying attention to the game beyond the bottom line of Simucoins and micro-transactions. Can we make this a yearly event??

Cheers again,

~ Nuadjha, the Briar Fox

You inhale deeply upon your pipe, puckering your lips as you send out three rings of smoke before you, then puff out a small vine of smoke that darts right through all three which causes them to disperse in a hazy shroud!

Ditto to what Doug says.


Cryheart

Thank you on behalf of the entire TownCrier Team for your compliments and comments as we tried to provide live coverage. It was a HOOT!

I had so much fun. It was a bunch of work, I lost lots of sleep, and I still have NO regrets!

People stepped in as needed, we made decisions on the spot, and it was all great stuff! I can't thank the players and merchants enough for making the event a wonderful time! I feel like I got to see absolute treasures of Elanthia being auctioned off. In 20 years, I'll say ... "I remember when Vishra outbid Warclaidh for that Briarthorn weapon! You should have seen the color of his face when he conceded!" or "Do you know that self-knowledge item originally sold for just under a billion silvers? Can you believe it was THAT cheap?"

I was BLOWN AWAY by the price tags. After all of the prices for the last two days, a million dollars sounds like nothing to me today. I'm sure I'll get over that, since my bank balance is currently not much more than that. :)

I purchased one thing, and feel like I was very lucky to get it; I added +5 TD to my good armor. The 20 or so minutes I waited my turn with the merchant were some of the most anxious moments ever spent in GS. I was pretty convinced I would never be able to afford it after I heard the first couple price quotes from others. But I'd already let myself HOPE it was possible!

The price quote came in, surprisingly, just enough to leave me a millionish silvers left in my bank account. It was still a terrible high amount, and a crazy decision to make. Luxie is not an impulsive spender, it took almost a year to save that up. But ... she went for it!

It was immediately declared that the armor was now a family heirloom. No buyer's remorse. Heck, she might still die at the drop of a hat and I still won't regret it :)

Thanks everyone!


---
;tune towncrier
Rohese: "... the TownCrier (tune in if you haven’t, it’s without doubt the best thing to ever happen on LNet)"
Xanith: "It's flat out amazing"
Doug: "100.times ^"

TownCrier News Submission link: http://bit.ly/TownCrierNews

"I'm pretty sure spinners can also be set to skip people who have had services"

Why so 1010010???