The Festival of Olladra comes to Stormreach!

[Quarion]

The Festival of Olladra

Olladra, the goddess of Feast and Fortune, can be both playful and fickle. As tribute to this mercurial goddess, the Coin Lords will be celebrating the Festival of Olladra on 4 Lharvion* by giving away several Intimidating Daggers of Paralyzing Acid! This exclusive event item also has a lower tiered version called the Intimidating Dagger of Acid. The Coin Lords have a limited number of both daggers and will be giving them to a lucky few.

The Overview:

Between the dates of 25 Nymm and 1 Lharvion*, send a message to Sir Lawrence d’Deneith via the Sivis Messaging Boards. The subject of this letter should contain four numbers of your choice (each between 1-20), your name, and home world. Sir Lawrence will disqualify any letters which vary from this format, he will also disallow any letters which arrive before or after the specified dates.

NOTE: DO NOT SEND YOUR ENTRY TO ME. ALL ENTRIES MUST BE PMed TO SIR LAWRENCE BY CLICKING HERE (http://forums.ddo.com/private.php?do=newpm&u=33802).


NOTE: While Sir Lawrence does have a + in-game, his forum name does not. Send forum PM's to "Sir Lawrence". And while all contest info must be in the subject line, you must have at least one character in the PM body text. - Thanks to MB.

On 4 Lharvion*, Sir Lawrence will be visiting each home world and roll publicly for the winning numbers. Prizes will be awarded after 11 Lharvion when the daggers have arrived from Zilargo.

Rules:

Between the dates of June 25-July 1 send +Sir Lawrence a PM on the DDO.com forums with your pick of four numbers each between 1-20 (for example: 3, 12, 12, 19) IN THE SUBJECT LINE. Be sure to include your character name and server. This information must appear in your subject line of the PM only! +Sir will delete any PM that does not have all required information in the subject line. Below is an example of a proper entry. The subject line should look like this:

Bob, Argonnessen, 2, 11, 18, 20

Event PMs will only be accepted between 12:01 am eastern June 25, 2007 and 12:00 pm eastern July 1, 2007. You may submit only one entry - extra PMs will be deleted.

Players who picked all four die rolls for their server will win a +2 Intimidating Dagger of Paralyzing Acid! Anyone who correctly selected three of the four numbers will receive a +1 Intimidating Dagger of Acid.

On July 4th, 2007, +Sir will visit each server to roll the winning numbers (See below for scheduled times.)

The Fine Print

* 25 Nymm through 1 Lharvion = June 25th through July 1st. 4 Lharvion and 11 Larvion are July 4th and July 11th respectively.

Separate winning numbers will be determined for each server with no limit as to how many winners are allowed for either prize.

There are is no guarantee that each server (or even any server) will have a winner.

Winners will be announced on the forums and the prizes will be delivered through in-game mail by +Sir Lawrence in the middle of July. Only one dagger per person - people who win the +2 Intimidating Dagger of Paralyzing Acid do not also get the +1 Intimidating Dagger of Acid.

Only properly formatted entries will be entered in the Festival. Reminder: a proper entry is a PM sent to +Sir Lawrence via the DDO.com forums that includes your name, server, and four numbers between 1-20 in the subject line.

Only one entry per account. Only entries whose numbers were exact, will win. There is no entry fee. You do not need to be present (i.e., logged into DDO during the drawing) to win. All active DDO accounts may participate. +Sir will have a record of all entries and will determine the winners for each server accordingly.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Quarion, you may want to clarify that while Sir Lawrence does have a + in-game, his forum name does not. Send PMs to Sir Lawrence. And while all contest info must be in the subject line, you must have at least one character in the PM body text.

[GeneralDiomedes]

A suggestion: perhaps consider other ways to reward people in game. Loot is nice, but seems to be used for everything.

- Titles would certainly be welcome - 'Favored Of Olladra' or something would be appropriate, or let people use their Forum titles in game or something.
- In-game perks such as reduced vendor prices at House J
- A free Action point

[Boulderun]

Will these daggers be Bound? I.e. should we submit the character name that we want the item on, or will any of our chars do?

[Lyletuba]

Does "YOUR NAME" = your forum name or the name of the character to whom you want the prize to be sent?

[leafman343]

Does the order of the numbers have to be exact to win or is it any order along as the numbers are the same? i.e. I pick 20 17 16 14 and Sir rolls 14 17 20 16

[Pecky]

Odds of Winning: 1/160,000

As much as I like contests, isn't this one maybe a bit of a stretch as far as the chances of anyone winning?

But hey, on the other hand, we all know how well the randomization function works for dice rolling so chances are it'll be a combination of rolls along the following: 1, 1, 3, 1. Who hasn't seen that combination before? :D

On a more serous note, contests are appreciated no matter how trivial they are. A contest like this would be nice to have every week. Even something automated. Reintroduce the Gamblers Den but this time allow us, the players, to do the gambling there. We could have the Halfling Mafia doing numbers with little kobold runners taking the bets. Orc bookies. Maybe the trolls relocated out of Sorrowdusk and have become enforcers for the Hobfather.

Theres a world of possibilites!

[Quarion]

Quarion, you may want to clarify that while Sir Lawrence does have a + in-game, his forum name does not. Send PMs to Sir Lawrence. And while all contest info must be in the subject line, you must have at least one character in the PM body text.

Thanks for pointing that out Mad Bomb! I included it.

[Tyrande]

A suggestion: perhaps consider other ways to reward people in game. Loot is nice, but seems to be used for everything.

- Titles would certainly be welcome - 'Favored Of Olladra' or something would be appropriate, or let people use their Forum titles in game or something.
- In-game perks such as reduced vendor prices at House J
- A free Action point

Initimidating Dagger of Paralyzing Acid? Yet Another Unused Loot Decoration? (YAULD)

I like the titles idea - Favored of Olladra. I second the motion.

Also, whenever character(s) with the title of Favored of Olladra opened a chest, the chest automatically generates +1 Loot to a random item in the chest? :)

[Merlask]

So....many....numbers..dates..dice.... GAAAAH *falls over from the gravity of the number crunching*

Will Sir Lawrence be doing any other festival related activities once the formality of the rolling and winner (or not winners as the case may be) is over with? I mean... it IS a festival after all, so I would warrent that entails some manner of... organized socializing ^_~

Post Script: Yep, that does it, +Sir is getting a bag of dice delivered to him by care of whoever is at Gencon this year :X

[Tyrande]

How about an extra character slot as a prize too?

[Sir_Lawrence]

Your character name, please. This way I can make sure it goes out to the right winner(s).


Does "YOUR NAME" = your forum name or the name of the character to whom you want the prize to be sent?

[Sir_Lawrence]

No, the daggers will not be binding.


Will these daggers be Bound? I.e. should we submit the character name that we want the item on, or will any of our chars do?

[Sir_Lawrence]

Numbers do not have to be in any order. So if you picked 20,18, 2, 15, and I rolled 12, 18, 20, 2 you could still win.



Does the order of the numbers have to be exact to win or is it any order along as the numbers are the same? i.e. I pick 20 17 16 14 and Sir rolls 14 17 20 16

[Sir_Lawrence]

YAY! More dice to add to my legions of polyhedrons!!!

*does the happy dice dance* :D :D :D :D


So....many....numbers..dates..dice.... GAAAAH *falls over from the gravity of the number crunching*

Will Sir Lawrence be doing any other festival related activities once the formality of the rolling and winner (or not winners as the case may be) is over with? I mean... it IS a festival after all, so I would warrent that entails some manner of... organized socializing ^_~

Post Script: Yep, that does it, +Sir is getting a bag of dice delivered to him by care of whoever is at Gencon this year :X

[Mad_Bombardier]

But hey, on the other hand, we all know how well the randomization function works for dice rolling so chances are it'll be a combination of rolls along the following: 1, 1, 3, 1. Who hasn't seen that combination before? :DGood point. Will Sir Lawrence be rerolling duplicate numbers to simulate a "Pick4 Lotto"? Or is 1 1 1 1 an option?

[Sir_Lawrence]

Yes, guessing the same number (such as 1) more than once in your guess is valid. So, yes, you could guess 1, 1, 1, 1. SO you have to ask yourself one question: Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya? (okay, maybe two questions.)

[schroebj13]

Is it one entry per RL person, or one entry per character?

Thank you Turbine(and +Sir)

[Coldin]

Wow, guessing 4 numbers correctly to win a prize, and 3 just to get a consolation prize sounds pretty tough.

Couldn't people that get 1 or 2 numbers right get a, say, "+1 Somewhat Frightening Dagger of Citric Acid"?

[Borror0]

"+1 Somewhat Frightening Dagger of Citric Acid"?

/laugh!!

[dragnmoon]

Event PMs will only be accepted between 12:01 am eastern June 25, 2007 and 12:00 pm eastern July 1, 2007. You may submit only one entry - extra PMs will be deleted.


Wow since you did not post this until 12:27 PM June 25.. I would be amazed if someone went back in time to send a PM before 12:01 am Eastern :eek::D

[Inkblack]

Taking into account that the numbers may be picked in any order, I calculate the odds of winning as:

Intimidating Dagger of Paralyzing Acid: 1 in 6,667
Intimidating Dagger of Acid: 1 in 351

Odds of winning a prize: 0.3%
Odds of not winning: 99.7%

Calculation Details:
Probability(4 out of 4) =
1 in {1 / [(4/20) * (3/20) * (2/20) * (1/20)]}
first pick: 4 correct numbers to choose from out of 20 possible
second pick: only 3 correct numbers left, still 20 to choose from
etc.

Probability(3 out of 4) =
1 in {1 / [(4/20) * (3/20) * (2/20) * (19/20)]}
last pick: 19 incorrect numbers to choose from out of the 20

Probability(Prize) =
[(4/20) * (3/20) * (2/20)]

Probability(no Prize) =
1 - Probability(Prize)

EDIT: As pointed out by Tyrande below, this calculation is for the best case odds: when the player chooses four unique numbers. Odds of winning are lower if the player chooses some numbers to repeat.

Ink

[Wulf_Ratbane]

Couldn't people that get 1 or 2 numbers right get a, say, "+1 Somewhat Frightening Dagger of Citric Acid"?

The +1 Paper Dagger of Lemon Juice.

[Wulf_Ratbane]

A suggestion: perhaps consider other ways to reward people in game. Loot is nice, but seems to be used for everything.

Unique weapon and armor styles.

For example, I'd love to have a suit of armor with a bulls-eye on the back. :D

[Tyrande]

Taking into account that the numbers may be picked in any order, I calculate the odds of winning as:

Intimidating Dagger of Paralyzing Acid: 1 in 6,667
Intimidating Dagger of Acid: 1 in 351

Odds of winning a prize: 0.3%
Odds of not winning: 99.7%

Calculation Details:
Probability(4 out of 4) =
1 in {1 / [(4/20) * (3/20) * (2/20) * (1/20)]}
first pick: 4 correct numbers to choose from out of 20 possible
second pick: only 3 correct numbers left, still 20 to choose from
etc.

Probability(3 out of 4) =
1 in {1 / [(4/20) * (3/20) * (2/20) * (19/20)]}
last pick: 19 incorrect numbers to choose from out of the 20

Probability(Prize) =
[(4/20) * (3/20) * (2/20)]

Probability(no Prize) =
1 - Probability(Prize)

Ink

Not sure if the calculation is correct. Sir Lawrence did mention the numbers can repeat. In essence, you can roll all four 1s or four 20s.

So the low end chance of winning a paralyzer: is 1 in {1 /(1/20*1/20*1/20*1/20)} = 0.000625% or 1 in 160000

and low end getting the consolation prize: is 1/20 * 1/20 * 1/20 = 1 in 8000 or 0.0125%

low end probability of no prize: 99.9875%


Yes, guessing the same number (such as 1) more than once in your guess is valid. So, yes, you could guess 1, 1, 1, 1. SO you have to ask yourself one question: Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya? (okay, maybe two questions.)

The probability is per account. Higher number of accounts will generate higher probability of winning. And depending on what Sir Lawrence rolled, your calculation is valid for four distinct numbers.

[FlyinS]

The +1 Paper Dagger of Lemon Juice.

+1 Ulcer Dagger of Doom (DC 2).

Um, it won't let me send a PM with nothing in the body of the message. Should I just repeat what's in the subject line?

[DrAwkward]

Not sure if the calculation is correct. Sir Lawrence did mention the numbers can repeat. In essence, you can roll all four 1s or four 20s.

So the chance of winning a paralyzer: is 1 in {1 /(1/20*1/20*1/20*1/20)} = 0.000625% or 1 in 160000

and getting the consolation prize: is 1/20 * 1/20 * 1/20 = 1 in 8000 or 0.0125%

probability of no prize: 99.9875%

You have a 1 in 160000 chance of picking the numbers in the same order as Sir Lawrence. There are 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 ways of arranging those four numbers and still have a valid winning entry. 24/160,000 = 1/6667ish


The consolation prize is even trickier, because there are four rolls, not just three. I'm thinking Inkblack might have goofed when he included the 19/20 for the last roll, but I need to think it over. It isn't intuitive that your odds should go down because you got an extra roll.

It might be "odds of picking three specific numbers" times "number of combinations of three numbers out of four choices"
= (1/20) * (1/20) * (1/20) * (20/20) * (4 * 3 * 2)
= 24/8000
= 1/333ish?

Finally, your odds of winning anything is the same as your chance to win the consolation. Everyone that wins the grand prize also qualified for the consolation, by definition.

Now, since this is a celebration of a goddess of bounty, why aren't we winning food? How about a snack for those that match 2/4?

[Inkblack]

Not sure if the calculation is correct. (snip)

You are correct, my analysis is for the best case when the player chooses 4 unique numbers. Turning what you said around though, the player has a lower chance of winning a prize if they pick some numbers to repeat. This is because you significantly reduce the probability of winning the consolation prize if you choose a repeat number. In order to maximize their chance of winning, the player should choose 4 unique numbers.

The probability is less than 30% that the four winning numbers rolled by Sir Lawrence will have a repeat number.

Ink

[Inkblack]

I'm thinking Inkblack might have goofed when he included the 19/20 for the last roll, but I need to think it over.
You have to include the 19/20 because in 1/20 of the cases you won the grand prize and not the consolation prize.

Ink

[Sir_Lawrence]

A famous smuggler once said: "Never tell me the odds."

[Tanka]

Actually, I think he more yelled it than said it.

[Cupcake]

Your character name, please. This way I can make sure it goes out to the right winner(s).

Good Afternoon Sir!! Very nice to see you!

Hands you your afternoon tray of fresh cupcake.:D

[DrAwkward]

Hands you your afternoon tray of fresh cupcake.:D

I think the Coin Lords should consider contracting Cupcake to provide snacks for those that only pick 2/4.

It is a celebration for the goddess of bounty, and I can think of no better representative in all of Stormreach.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Now, since this is a celebration of a goddess of bounty, why aren't we winning food? How about a snack for those that match 2/4?Some of the New Kargon's Tasty Hams would work quite nicely too. Or maybe Kargon and Cupcake's lovechild, Tasty Hamcakes.

[moorewr]

The +1 Paper Dagger of Lemon Juice.

OUCH!

[Cupcake]

I think the Coin Lords should consider contracting Cupcake to provide snacks for those that only pick 2/4.

It is a celebration for the goddess of bounty, and I can think of no better representative in all of Stormreach.

I be happy to provide snacks for the proposed dates in question.

[Nonan]

I need the +4 Lozenge of Ant Acid Please...

[Luthen]

The Festival of Olladra

Olladra, the goddess of Feast and Fortune, can be both playful and fickle. As tribute to this mercurial goddess, the Coin Lords will be celebrating the Festival of Olladra on 4 Lharvion* by giving away several Intimidating Daggers of Paralyzing Acid! This exclusive event item also has a lower tiered version called the Intimidating Dagger of Acid. The Coin Lords have a limited number of both daggers and will be giving them to a lucky few.

The Overview:

Between the dates of 25 Nymm and 1 Lharvion*, send a message to Sir Lawrence d’Deneith via the Sivis Messaging Boards. The subject of this letter should contain four numbers of your choice (each between 1-20), your name, and home world. Sir Lawrence will disqualify any letters which vary from this format, he will also disallow any letters which arrive before or after the specified dates.



On 4 Lharvion*, Sir Lawrence will be visiting each home world and roll publicly for the winning numbers. Prizes will be awarded after 11 Lharvion when the daggers have arrived from Zilargo.

Rules:

Between the dates of June 25-July 1 send +Sir Lawrence a PM on the DDO.com forums with your pick of four numbers each between 1-20 (for example: 3, 12, 12, 19) IN THE SUBJECT LINE. Be sure to include your character name and server. This information must appear in your subject line of the PM only! +Sir will delete any PM that does not have all required information in the subject line. Below is an example of a proper entry. The subject line should look like this:

Bob, Argonnessen, 2, 11, 18, 20

Event PMs will only be accepted between 12:01 am eastern June 25, 2007 and 12:00 pm eastern July 1, 2007. You may submit only one entry - extra PMs will be deleted.

Players who picked all four die rolls for their server will win a +2 Intimidating Dagger of Paralyzing Acid! Anyone who correctly selected three of the four numbers will receive a +1 Intimidating Dagger of Acid.

On July 4th, 2007, +Sir will visit each server to roll the winning numbers (See below for scheduled times.)

The Fine Print

* 25 Nymm through 1 Lharvion = June 25th through July 1st. 4 Lharvion and 11 Larvion are July 4th and July 11th respectively.

Separate winning numbers will be determined for each server with no limit as to how many winners are allowed for either prize.

There are is no guarantee that each server (or even any server) will have a winner.

Winners will be announced on the forums and the prizes will be delivered through in-game mail by +Sir Lawrence in the middle of July. Only one dagger per person - people who win the +2 Intimidating Dagger of Paralyzing Acid do not also get the +1 Intimidating Dagger of Acid.

Only properly formatted entries will be entered in the Festival. Reminder: a proper entry is a PM sent to +Sir Lawrence via the DDO.com forums that includes your name, server, and four numbers between 1-20 in the subject line.

Only one entry per account. Only entries whose numbers were exact, will win. There is no entry fee. You do not need to be present (i.e., logged into DDO during the drawing) to win. All active DDO accounts may participate. +Sir will have a record of all entries and will determine the winners for each server accordingly.

Ya see you guys just like to be as confusing as possible. While to most it may be common sense there is NO "Subject Line" in the PM section. It's a choice of Title or Message. So how about you clarify for others who might not quite follow what you're asking.:p Thanks.

[Sensei]

Could we get a look at the daggers Sir? PLEASSSSSE!

[Sir_Lawrence]

Could we get a look at the daggers Sir? PLEASSSSSE!

I'll have a copy of the daggers available soon.

[Spookydodger]

You'ld be better off putting some 1's in your choices.

The odds of rolling below 5 in this game is better than rolling 20. We all know this! :D

[tekn0mage]

They put time and resources into THIS ?

for shame.

[DKerrigan]

They put time and resources into THIS ?

for shame.

What, created two items and told people to PM someone on the forums? Oh, and type up a post? You're right...ALLLL those resources wasted...FOR SHAME TURBINE!:rolleyes:

[Fahkrin]

They put time and resources into THIS ?

for shame.

It should be fun. I'm sure I won't win though, judging by my chest pulls. Note that we don't have to online to win (a big plus; I hate the randomness of having to be online, in the right spot, at the right time).

Nice.

[Dredus]

Lol, do you send a PM to...


+Sir Lawrence

==or==

Sir Lawrence


It seems kind of confusing to me...

[tekn0mage]

What, created two items and told people to PM someone on the forums? Oh, and type up a post? You're right...ALLLL those resources wasted...FOR SHAME TURBINE!:rolleyes:

Yes... devoting any time to anything other than getting this game out of the Intensive Care Unit is a waste, in my opinion.

[Vardak]

Yes... devoting any time to anything other than getting this game out of the Intensive Care Unit is a waste, in my opinion.

Yep, going to have to go with Tekn0 on this one. odds of a winner = 1/160,000. I'd bet the under on number of valid entries = >1000.

Would a 1/10 chance of winning 1,000,000 gp be game breaking, NO. Would a lot of people win and be happy, YES.

[Rouge]

Yes, guessing the same number (such as 1) more than once in your guess is valid. So, yes, you could guess 1, 1, 1, 1. SO you have to ask yourself one question: Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya? (okay, maybe two questions.)

Will you be rolling the PC's saving throw and to hit dice or the NPC/monster to hit dice?

If he's rolling our saving throw dice then your winning numbers will be..... 2, 2, 1, 3.......
If he's rolling the NPC's to hit dice then your winning numbers will be..... 19, 20, 20, 17......
If he rolls the Rogue Open Locks/Disable Device dice........ none of the numbers will be double digits

[Vardak]

If he rolls the Rogue Open Locks/Disable Device dice........ none of the numbers will be double digits

What? I thought a OL/DD roll was a D8;)

[knghtstalkr]

are you using real d20's or using a Turbine created random numerator generator... that will affect my choice of numbers!:D

[Krell]

I pulled out my official DDO purple 20 sided dice that was passed out at PAX to roll up my 4 numbers ;).

[Coldin]

Well, if I recall correctly, Sir Lawrence only rolls Natural 20s, so I think I know what my choices will be... :D

[UtherSRG]

Odds that your first number matches one of the four of Sir's numbers (4/20)
and your 2nd number matches one of the three remaining (3/20) and 3rd number (2/20) and 4th number (1/20) = 4*3*2/20*20*20*20 = 24/160000 = 3/40000 = 0.000075 (A)

Odds that you will get at least three out of four = total chance of winning = 3/2000= 0.0015 (B)

Odds that you will get 3 but not 4 = B - A = 0.001425

Odds that you won't win = 1 - 3/2000 = 0.9985

[Jefro]

We have to put something in the message for the PM to send, I just duplicate my title[subject line] post

[Ozy]

Will you be rolling the PC's saving throw and to hit dice or the NPC/monster to hit dice?

If he's rolling our saving throw dice then your winning numbers will be..... 2, 2, 1, 3.......
If he's rolling the NPC's to hit dice then your winning numbers will be..... 19, 20, 20, 17......
If he rolls the Rogue Open Locks/Disable Device dice........ none of the numbers will be double digits

What, your OL/DD dice not rolling correctly? I routinely roll 10+, even some 20's on those things. :P Of course when your DD is in the low 40's, and OL is in the high 30's you don't need much help. :P

[FlyinS]

It should be fun. I'm sure I won't win though, judging by my chest pulls. Note that we don't have to online to win (a big plus; I hate the randomness of having to be online, in the right spot, at the right time).

Nice.

Agreed. I like that I don't have to be online to have a shot at winning. It's not always easy to be online on demand like that.

Good contest and good job with this one Turbine. This is the type of thing many of us players love!

[In_Like_Flynn]

The chance that your first number occurs in a set of four random numbers is not 4 in 20.

To calculate the odds that your first number is one of four randomly rolled numbers, you must calculate the odds that your number is not among them and take the inverse.

19/20 * 19/20 * 19/20 * 19/20 = 130321/160000 = 0.8145

There is an 81.45% chance that your first number is not among the four, and, inversely, a 18.55% chance that your first number is among the four.

If your first number matches, take it, and the matching number, and remove them. Now you have your second number, and three randomly rolled numbers.

19/20 * 19/20 * 19/20 = 6859/8000 = 0.8547

There is an 85.47% chance that your second number is not among the three, and, inversely, a 14.53% chance that your second number is among the three.

Perform the same equation two more times and you get

19/20 * 19/20 = 361/400 = .9025 or 90.25% and 9.75%
19/20 = .95 or 95% and 5%

If you multiply the chances of failure together, you get the odds that you will match NO numbers: 0.5987 or 59.87%

If you multiply the chances of success together, you get the odds that you will match ALL numbers: .000128973 or 0.01289%

Your odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 7752.

[Kaboose]

i am not doing the math because i am lazy but i take it what your tying to say is that almost none of us will win?

am i right here?

[In_Like_Flynn]

i am not doing the math because i am lazy but i take it what your tying to say is that almost none of us will win?

am i right here?Well, I am going to win. I'm just laying out the odds so the people who don't understand how unlikely it was that I would not only win, but call it in advance.

Sorry you can't share in my elation. I'll be sure to post pictures of my new uberweapon. :)

[cdbd3rd]

Wow, guessing 4 numbers correctly to win a prize, and 3 just to get a consolation prize sounds pretty tough.

Couldn't people that get 1 or 2 numbers right get a, say, "+1 Somewhat Frightening Dagger of Citric Acid"?


ROFL! Very Monty Pythonish of ye. ;)

[GeneralDiomedes]

They put time and resources into THIS ?

for shame.

Sometimes they like to appeal to the portion of the gaming population that has a sense of fun and community.

[cdbd3rd]

<snip>

If you multiply the chances of success together, you get the odds that you will match ALL numbers: .000128973 or 0.01289%

Your odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 7752.

Except, as +Sir has mentioned above, duplicate numbers are possible. Alters the equation, but I'm too tired to adjust it atm.

edit: Told ya i was tired... The 19/20 does account for the duplication of each number. My bad.
/Face dives onto keyboard....
ZZZzzzz......

2nd edit, in my sleep, obviously. :)

My favorite game quote:
"This forum requires that you wait 60 seconds between sending private messages. Please try again in 109 seconds."

[slothman911]

[QUOTE=Quarion;1212992



Only one entry per account. Only entries whose numbers were exact, will win. There is no entry fee. You do not need to be present (i.e., logged into DDO during the drawing) to win. All active DDO accounts may participate. +Sir will have a record of all entries and will determine the winners for each server accordingly.[/QUOTE]


I submitted 2 entries we have 1 account wife 2 sets of characters, my wife and I but only one forum name. I am not sure why it is set up like this but she has her set of characters and I have mine. Will one of our entries be deleted?

[Sir_Lawrence]

send Sir Lawrence a PM on the DDO.com forums with your pick of four numbers each between 1-20 (for example: 3, 12, 12, 19) IN THE SUBJECT LINE. Be sure to include your character name and server. This information must appear in your subject line of the PM only! +Sir will delete any PM that does not have all required information in the subject line. Below is an example of a proper entry. The subject line should look like this:

Bob, Argonnessen, 2, 11, 18, 20

This is just a reminder because I have already deleted over a dozen entries that forgot to follow this rule of the event. :( If you think you were one of these people, please submit a new entry if you want to try to win. I like seeing everyone have get a fair chance and not lose theirs because they sent their entry incorrectly.

[Samera]

This is just a reminder because I have already deleted over a dozen entries that forgot to follow this rule of the event. :( If you think you were one of these people, please submit a new entry if you want to try to win. I like seeing everyone have get a fair chance and not lose theirs because they sent their entry incorrectly.

Also - Sending your entries to me, Quarion, Kommunity Kobold, or the Cube won't get you anywhere. ;)

(I say this because some of you have sent them to us.)

[mocat]

Well, if there are odds of winning, then I am a shoe-in to win.

I definitely am odd! :D

[Cupcake]

Well, if there are odds of winning, then I am a shoe-in to win.

I definitely am odd! :D

I'm odder so there.

[Thrust]

I'm odder so there.

I'd say it's a toss-up...

-Peanut Gallery

[mocat]

I'd say it's a toss-up...

-Peanut Gallery

:eek:

:D

[tekn0mage]

How is an event planned for the forums going to do ANYTHING for the game, the players, or the company?

I don't know what percentage of players have a forum account, but many people don't ever come here.

The sense of community that they are appealing to is a very limited and select bunch. Not worth going through the effort, in my opinion.

In the end, Turbine will pat themselves on the back for a "job well done" and have its select forumites saying 'yay turbine'. Hardly a well-thought out "festival" as they have done in the past.

An in-game event would have at least appealed to everyone, whether or not the game was any fun. At least they had an opportunity to play.

[Beherit_Baphomar]

How is an event planned for the forums going to do ANYTHING for the game, the players, or the company?

I don't know what percentage of players have a forum account, but many people don't ever come here.

The sense of community that they are appealing to is a very limited and select bunch. Not worth going through the effort, in my opinion.

In the end, Turbine will pat themselves on the back for a "job well done" and have its select forumites saying 'yay turbine'. Hardly a well-thought out "festival" as they have done in the past.

An in-game event would have at least appealed to everyone, whether or not the game was any fun. At least they had an opportunity to play.

*shine's big steel toe*

Can someone open that door for me please......

*pulls back...*

Can someone shut that door for me please....thanks.

Now, where were we?

[Beherit_Baphomar]

This is just a reminder because I have already deleted over a dozen entries that forgot to follow this rule of the event. :( If you think you were one of these people, please submit a new entry if you want to try to win. I like seeing everyone have get a fair chance and not lose theirs because they sent their entry incorrectly.

Stop reminding everyone how to do it properly.

Let the doofuses think they have a chance.

[In_Like_Flynn]

How is an event planned for the forums going to do ANYTHING for the game, the players, or the company?

I don't know what percentage of players have a forum account, but many people don't ever come here.

The sense of community that they are appealing to is a very limited and select bunch. Not worth going through the effort, in my opinion.

In the end, Turbine will pat themselves on the back for a "job well done" and have its select forumites saying 'yay turbine'. Hardly a well-thought out "festival" as they have done in the past.

An in-game event would have at least appealed to everyone, whether or not the game was any fun. At least they had an opportunity to play.It's going to interest those people who visit the forums. An in-game event is just as limited (to those logged in on a particular server at a particular time). And in-game events are posted on the web page and in the forums, so if you're not visiting here, you're not going to know about them anyway.

And as every good business person knows, 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. Targeted marketing to the strongest supporters is just good business.

And I'm still going to win.

[tekn0mage]

fair enough ... I won't beat a dead horse. Just saying in as nice a way as possible "I object."

[Coldin]

Suggestion: (Please read Samera, Quarion, Sir Lawrence)

For all upcoming server/forum events, send out an in-game mailing to every character much like when new content comes out. That way everyone will be informed b/c everyone checks their mail.

[Kadagan]

well i've submitted my entry.. but the odds are in favor of nobody winning the big prize.. unless of course there are more than 80,000 subscribers to DDO.. that's the equilibrium point.

If there is no winner, will you pick one of the entries at random and give them the grand prize? Or reroll until there is a grand prize winner? Or maybe even one per server?

[mocat]

well i've submitted my entry.. but the odds are in favor of nobody winning the big prize.. unless of course there are more than 80,000 subscribers to DDO.. that's the equilibrium point.

If there is no winner, will you pick one of the entries at random and give them the grand prize? Or reroll until there is a grand prize winner? Or maybe even one per server?

Yeah......

..... what he said. :cool:

[Capstern]

This is just a reminder because I have already deleted over a dozen entries that forgot to follow this rule of the event. :( If you think you were one of these people, please submit a new entry if you want to try to win. I like seeing everyone have get a fair chance and not lose theirs because they sent their entry incorrectly.

I used that format but I had to put a character in the body of the message to make it send - would that have disqualified me?

[FlyinS]

This is just a reminder because I have already deleted over a dozen entries that forgot to follow this rule of the event. :( If you think you were one of these people, please submit a new entry if you want to try to win. I like seeing everyone have get a fair chance and not lose theirs because they sent their entry incorrectly.

It would be helpful if you included what we should put in the body of the message then as I don't know of a way to send it with nothing there. It won't let me.

[hirmor]

Yes, guessing the same number (such as 1) more than once in your guess is valid. So, yes, you could guess 1, 1, 1, 1. SO you have to ask yourself one question: Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya? (okay, maybe two questions.)

Well the probability of you rolling a 1, 1, 1 and 1 is the same as rolling any other combinaison... Each roll is an independent event and thus has the same statistical chance... so much for "feeling lucky"... It is pure statistics... I guess I don't qualify cuz I don't believe in Lady Luck... Nothing like pure simple statistics to an assassin... Nothing left to chance... Rather trust in Vecna and a better UMD roll... Any "chance" of you ever awarding a +5 or better UMD item as reward... Lol

[Mad_Bombardier]

I used that format but I had to put a character in the body of the message to make it send - would that have disqualified me?Nope, I clarified that in post #2 and Quarion added the note to the main message.

[dinin_darkblade]

there is a raid item (seven fingered gloves) that give +5 umd from warforged titan raid.

[Quazi]

got it

[Sir_Lawrence]

:D Know what my favorite number in any odds game is? The "1". No matter what the odds are, you can never win - unless you play. So that "1 in 4,000" chance of being the one? Well, that "1" could be you! I'm a big fan of being that "1" instead of the "4,000". :D

[Spookydodger]

I submitted 2 entries we have 1 account wife 2 sets of characters, my wife and I but only one forum name. I am not sure why it is set up like this but she has her set of characters and I have mine. Will one of our entries be deleted?

I would imagine that yes, it would be deleted. They really have no way of knowing if your account is really played by 2 people, or just 1 and you're full of balogna :D

Then it would also open the flood gates for someone who says their family of 16 plays their characters.

I'm sure something could be said that the account still technically is owned by one person, regardless of how many people play it, and only that person is entitled, by the rules, to a chance to win.

[FlyinS]

Nope, I clarified that in post #2 and Quarion added the note to the main message.

Ok saw that now, then it begs the question of how to know if my PM got disqualified or not. Subject line was done as asked, just repeated exactly the same in the body of the message. I would hope that's ok, but who knows.

[Tehran_Adinson]

LOL...you want me to roll and match 4 numbers to yours to win a prize. With my luck on rolls I couldn't roll a 1 on a 1 sided die.

[Merlask]

LOL...you want me to roll and match 4 numbers to yours to win a prize. With my luck on rolls I couldn't roll a 1 on a 1 sided die.

Heh it's ok Tehran... I was joking the other night with a guildie that she flipped a quarter and failed ... don't get too discouraged. You have to do that whole lucky dice rain-dance thing *glares at her d20 sitting on her desk that was not playing nicely last night*

[HumanJHawkins]

<CUT>EDIT: As pointed out by Tyrande below, this calculation is for the best case odds: when the player chooses four unique numbers. Odds of winning are lower if the player chooses some numbers to repeat.

I didn't read the 4 pages of replies that might have already said this, but is the above statement based on a bug in the code, or are you misunderstanding the math?

In a pure random roll, the odds of getting 1, 1, 1, 1 (or 50, 50, 50, 50, etc) are exactly the same as getting any other series of numbers. The reason humans tend to assume otherwise is because 1, 1, 1, 1 is memorable wheras 22, 54,39, 12 is not. So, because you never see 1, 1, 1, 1 come up, you are inclined to believe it is less common.

However, if you were to burn any other series of numbers in your memory and focus on them (22, 54,39, 12 for example), you would find that it too, never comes up.

[SneakThief]

I would imagine that yes, it would be deleted. They really have no way of knowing if your account is really played by 2 people, or just 1 and you're full of balogna :D

Then it would also open the flood gates for someone who says their family of 16 plays their characters.

I'm sure something could be said that the account still technically is owned by one person, regardless of how many people play it, and only that person is entitled, by the rules, to a chance to win.

It sounded to me like he pays for 2 accounts. Depending on how you sign up, these can be under the same login as sub-accounts. I would hope, if he pays for 2 accounts they would allow him 2 entries.

[slothman911]

This is just a reminder because I have already deleted over a dozen entries that forgot to follow this rule of the event. :( If you think you were one of these people, please submit a new entry if you want to try to win. I like seeing everyone have get a fair chance and not lose theirs because they sent their entry incorrectly.

How about letting people know if you deleted their entry?

[Xierin]

Some of the New Kargon's Tasty Hams would work quite nicely too. Or maybe Kargon and Cupcake's lovechild, Tasty Hamcakes.

Let me tell you about the time my Hubby sold 5 Kargon's Tastey ham for 2.65 Mil gold .... ;)

No I'm not kidding, he has a SS

[Inkblack]

I didn't read the 4 pages of replies that might have already said this, but is the above statement based on a bug in the code, or are you misunderstanding the math?

In a pure random roll, the odds of getting 1, 1, 1, 1 (or 50, 50, 50, 50, etc) are exactly the same as getting any other series of numbers. The reason humans tend to assume otherwise is because 1, 1, 1, 1 is memorable wheras 22, 54,39, 12 is not. So, because you never see 1, 1, 1, 1 come up, you are inclined to believe it is less common.

However, if you were to burn any other series of numbers in your memory and focus on them (22, 54,39, 12 for example), you would find that it too, never comes up.

Picking numbers to repeat lowers your odds of winning as long as order of numbers chosen is not important. Compare two guesses: 1, 1, 1, 1, and 1, 2, 3, 4.

Grand Prize:

For 1, 1, 1, 1 guess:

Odds first roll is correct: (1/20) -- it has to be a 1
Odds second roll is correct: (1/20)
Odds third roll is correct: (1/20)
Odds last roll is correct: (1/20)

Odds all four are correct: [(1/20) * (1/20) * (1/20) * (1/20)] = 1 in 160,000

For 1, 2, 3, 4 guess:

Odds first roll is correct: (4/20) -- can be 1, 2, 3, or 4
Odds second roll is correct: (3/20) -- can be any of the 3 remaining
Odds third roll is correct: (2/20)
Odds last roll is correct: (1/20)

Odds all four are correct: [(4/20) * (3/20) * (2/20) * (1/20)] = 24 in 160,000

Consolation Prize:
The same thing happens with the consolation prize.

There are 19 possible combinations of winning the consolation prize with 1, 1, 1, 1 using a 20 sided die. (Win on 1, 1, 1, x -- dice rolls are not in order).


But on 1, 2, 3, 4 there are 76 possible winning combinations:
1, 2, 3, x (19 because you would win the grand prize on a 4)
1, 2, 4, x
1, 3, 4, x
2, 3, 4, x

As long as order is not important, you can improve the number of combinations that your guess covers by not picking numbers to repeat. If the order of selection is important, then everyones odds are equally bad. I'm really curious to see if Sir Lawrence will post the results -- x number of grand prizes and y number of consolation prizes.

Ink

PS - Just to clarify: in the above example a roll of 1, 1, 1, x is considered the same result as x, 1, 1, 1. Again, the rolls are not listed in order.

[HumanJHawkins]

Picking numbers to repeat lowers your odds of winning as long as order of numbers chosen is not important. Compare two guesses: 1, 1, 1, 1, and 1, 2, 3, 4.
<CUT>

Dooh... You're right. I've just been Math-Pwned.

[HumanJHawkins]

The odds of winning seem pretty small (as they probably should be)... Do you have a certain number of daggers that will be given away one way or another, or, if no one picks the right numbers, will the game simply end with no winners?

Thanks!

[Sir_Lawrence]

A few quick replies:

There is no guarantee of winners - but there is a guarantee of suspense and excitement.

Not everyone will like it I'm sure. But not everyone likes the color blue either. (The blue-naysayers are less vocal however.)

As for which PMs were deleted? Honestly, I didn't look at the names. Because they didn't follow the instructions, they were deleted immediately - I have *A LOT* of PMs to sort through and record (hence subject line only).

Lastly: You can put anything in the body of the message. Odds are good that I won't open them. That's why I ask for the info in the subject field so I can see what I need right away and record it.

Yippe-yi-yark-yark!

[sidmind]

A few quick replies:


Lastly: You can put anything in the body of the message. Odds are good that I won't open them. That's why I ask for the info in the subject field so I can see what I need right away and record it.
!

you do know that you can't send a PM without "SOMETHING" in the body of the message.

I typed 4 "dots" .... in the body to get the pm to send.

[Mad_Bombardier]

you do know that you can't send a PM without "SOMETHING" in the body of the message.

I typed 4 "dots" .... in the body to get the pm to send.
And thus the note: "You can put ANYTHING in the body of the message."

C'mon now folks. This was covered in post #2 and edited into the instructions in the OP.

[sidmind]

reading skills are very important, something I am missing.

[Capstern]

A few quick replies:

There is no guarantee of winners - but there is a guarantee of suspense and excitement.

Not everyone will like it I'm sure. But not everyone likes the color blue either. (The blue-naysayers are less vocal however.)

As for which PMs were deleted? Honestly, I didn't look at the names. Because they didn't follow the instructions, they were deleted immediately - I have *A LOT* of PMs to sort through and record (hence subject line only).

Lastly: You can put anything in the body of the message. Odds are good that I won't open them. That's why I ask for the info in the subject field so I can see what I need right away and record it.

Yippe-yi-yark-yark!


In honor of the summer movie season shouldnt that be

yippie-yi-yark-motheryarker

?

[Azden's_Guardian_An]

I 'm not certain I understand your rules... +sir lawrence...but I'll trade you back, that 'vorpal sickle of haggling' from risia you let me roll for. For one of your updated weapons... on riedra...8). How about it?

azden

[Maldini]

A few quick replies:

There is no guarantee of winners - but there is a guarantee of suspense and excitement.

Not everyone will like it I'm sure. But not everyone likes the color blue either. (The blue-naysayers are less vocal however.)

As for which PMs were deleted? Honestly, I didn't look at the names. Because they didn't follow the instructions, they were deleted immediately - I have *A LOT* of PMs to sort through and record (hence subject line only).

Lastly: You can put anything in the body of the message. Odds are good that I won't open them. That's why I ask for the info in the subject field so I can see what I need right away and record it.

Yippe-yi-yark-yark!

My question is: is Sir Lawrence just an alter-ego of another Dev and they use this pseudo-name to suggest a different personality for live events or is he really a separate individual entirely?

[Symar-FangofLloth]

My question is: is Sir Lawrence just an alter-ego of another Dev and they use this pseudo-name to suggest a different personality for live events or is he really a separate individual entirely?

That's like asking how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop! The world may never know...

[Sir_Lawrence]

That's like asking how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop! The world may never know...

Three. *crunch*

[Sir_Lawrence]

I'd like to point something out to some of you...


[COLOR=yellowgreen]four numbers of your choice (each between 1-20)

Now, on *my* plane of existence, this means the numbers will be between 1 thru 20. Some people have been posting their numbers to me as high as 98! So I'm forced to make a small change in the rules:

If you wish to participate, you will have to follow the numerical formula of *my* plane of existence and choose four numbers between 1-20 each. :p

[azzeroth]

Sir Lawrence will your shiny pet kobald have a dagger too that would be awsome :D

[Kadagan]

Sir Lawrence will your skiny pet kobald have a dagger too that would be awsome :D

If you are refering to Community Kobold... He already has a
+7 axiomatic dagger of infraction points.

[Tanka]

*snip post from 12:23 AM EST*
Dude, don't you ever sleep?

[JD2134]

I'd like to point something out to some of you...



Now, on *my* plane of existence, this means the numbers will be between 1 thru 20. Some people have been posting their numbers to me as high as 98! So I'm forced to make a small change in the rules:

If you wish to participate, you will have to follow the numerical formula of *my* plane of existence and choose four numbers between 1-20 each. :p

Quick question on this is it 1 to 20 or 1 to Negative (-)20. cause the little symbol infront of the 20 is often used to denote a negative numb such as -20. Thus there would a difference if someone selected 15 cause going from lowest to highest you number range would be -20 throu 1. this would also mean that people could select the number Zero , where if it was a postive 20 then it would be 1 thou 20. and zero would not be a number.

[Vardak]

I'd like to point something out to some of you...



Now, on *my* plane of existence, this means the numbers will be between 1 thru 20. Some people have been posting their numbers to me as high as 98! So I'm forced to make a small change in the rules:

If you wish to participate, you will have to follow the numerical formula of *my* plane of existence and choose four numbers between 1-20 each. :p

Wait! you make such a point of saying numbers BETWEEN 1 - 20. Wouldn't that actually EXCLUDE 1 and 20?:rolleyes:

[DrAwkward]

How about Sir Lawrence just says

"Pick four numbers that you can find on a standard d20."

[Braddock_Tharmwell]

How about Sir Lawrence just says

"Pick four numbers that you can find on a standard d20."

How about we just allow Sir Lawrence to reject all the incorrect or "BDead" entries, thus giving those that have some semblence of a clue an even better chance to win. ;)

[JosephKell]

So I am assuming that repeats are re-rolled?

So then the odds of winning the "mini" weapon is 1 in 1140 and the odds of the "big" one is 1 in 4845?

If repeats aren't re-rolled, then the odds are 1 in 8,000 and 1 in 160,000. I'm really hoping they are re-rolled. ;)

Oh well, it doesn't really matter since my investment was picking 4 numbers (9, 11, 12, and 15 for those that want to copy me ;) ).

[Sir_Lawrence]

Quick question on this is it 1 to 20 or 1 to Negative (-)20. cause the little symbol infront of the 20 is often used to denote a negative numb such as -20. Thus there would a difference if someone selected 15 cause going from lowest to highest you number range would be -20 throu 1. this would also mean that people could select the number Zero , where if it was a postive 20 then it would be 1 thou 20. and zero would not be a number.

Does your head hurt? After reading this, mine does.

[Boulderun]

Does your head hurt? After reading this, mine does.

Try wearing a stormreaver's napkin. It should all become clear.

[7-day_Trial_Monkey]

I went with my favorite number, 4 times.

2.7182818284590452353602874713526, 2.7182818284590452353602874713526, 2.7182818284590452353602874713526, 2.7182818284590452353602874713526

And I'm feeling lucky!

[Jamz]

Does your head hurt? After reading this, mine does.

Nope. But he's wrong actually. You said pick a number BETWEEN 1 and 20. In *my* plane of existence, the numbers 1 and 20 are NOT between 1 and 20 but are 1 and 20. That leaves us to pick numbers 2 through 19 :D

But to make matters worse, he didn't say WHOLE numbers or integers so 3.1419 is a valid number :D

NOW, does your head REALLY hurt :p

PS Yes, Natural Logarithms would be allowed to!

[7-day_Trial_Monkey]

Ya, I think what he meant to say was:

Pick four of these: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, with repetition allowed.

But he was too lazy to type it out. :p


hmmm... upon further review, my suggeston would allow someone to choose a comma or two! Back to the drawing board!

[Gennerik]

Nope. But he's wrong actually. You said pick a number BETWEEN 1 and 20. In *my* plane of existence, the numbers 1 and 20 are NOT between 1 and 20 but are 1 and 20. That leaves us to pick numbers 2 through 19 :D

But to make matters worse, he didn't say WHOLE numbers or integers so 3.1419 is a valid number :D

NOW, does your head REALLY hurt :p

PS Yes, Natural Logarithms would be allowed to!

You are correct, Sir Lawrence didn't say fractions and decimals aren't allowed, but the shear cosmic forces that must be present in order to roll 3.1416 on a d20 scare me. That's like the beginnings of a black hole on my table. And I think it would start to ruin the varnish.

[Jamz]

You are correct, Sir Lawrence didn't say fractions and decimals aren't allowed, but the shear cosmic forces that must be present in order to roll 3.1416 on a d20 scare me. That's like the beginnings of a black hole on my table. And I think it would start to ruin the varnish.

Who said he's rolling a d20? Maybe it's a (1d100/5)? :p

[MacDaddy89]

All active DDO accounts may participate. +Sir will have a record of all entries and will determine the winners for each server accordingly.

What about all the people you have unjustly banned?

[JosephKell]

What about all the people you have unjustly banned?Better (or equal) chance of 3.14159 being rolled then them winning is my guess.

[EspyLacopa]

I went with my favorite number, 4 times.

2.7182818284590452353602874713526, 2.7182818284590452353602874713526, 2.7182818284590452353602874713526, 2.7182818284590452353602874713526

And I'm feeling lucky!

eeee!

[Missing_Minds]

Quick question on this is it 1 to 20 or 1 to Negative (-)20. cause the little symbol infront of the 20 is often used to denote a negative numb such as -20. Thus there would a difference if someone selected 15 cause going from lowest to highest you number range would be -20 throu 1. this would also mean that people could select the number Zero , where if it was a postive 20 then it would be 1 thou 20. and zero would not be a number.

If it were a negative, then the only number you should choose would be -19, because it no longer denotes a range of numbers but a mathematical problem with a sum of -19.

So everyone just needs to do a PM to him with the title of

Bob, Risa, -19, -19, -19, -19

You are guarantied to win.

*offers Sir Lawrence a kobold to neuter to keep his mind off the pain, but lets the kobold keep the haggling vorpal hidden behind its back*

[WolfSpirit]

Does your head hurt? After reading this, mine does.
.
I'm with you here Sir Lawrence...
Lets try not to overthink things here guys, its really not all that complex.

[7-day_Trial_Monkey]

.
I'm with you here Sir Lawrence...
Lets try not to overthink things here guys, its really not all that complex.

A good point.. complex numbers!

I wish I had picked 7+3i, 19-2i, 7+i, 8-i. :mad:

[Sir_Lawrence]

:eek: Well, since I have a "Delete Button of PM Smiting" I guess you can send any guess you want. :p

[Vardak]

This just in! Much improved odds. He did say choose number between 1 -20. so I suspose 1, -20, -20, 1 would be a valid choice. 1/16 isn't all that bad of odds!

At least the thread is starting to be fun!

[query]

[*Looks at post again*] Wait that said RAIN dance not PAIN dance, dang it!
Drops the mallet of guessing*]

Do we have to dance?
Well.....

Ah we can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends dont dance and if they dont dance
Well theyre are no friends of mine!
I say, we can go where we want to, a place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind,
And we can dance!

(And POP goes the [Server] World!)

[*looks at the last page of the thread...*]

Now I have to do numbers from a black hole ruining my VARNISH?!
That's it!

[*Activates improbability drive while having Tea and No Tea and copies the numbers from there.*]
(Yep, banged myself in the Diodes)
Did I mention I'm feeling very depressed today?


Heh it's ok Tehran... I was joking the other night with a guildie that she flipped a quarter and failed ... don't get too discouraged. You have to do that whole lucky dice rain-dance thing *glares at her d20 sitting on her desk that was not playing nicely last night*

[Merlask]

[*Looks at post again*] Wait that said RAIN dance not PAIN dance, dang it!
Drops the mallet of guessing*]

Do we have to dance?
Well.....

Ah we can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends dont dance and if they dont dance
Well theyre are no friends of mine!
I say, we can go where we want to, a place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind,
And we can dance!

(And POP goes the [Server] World!)

[*looks at the last page of the thread...*]

Now I have to do numbers from a black hole ruining my VARNISH?!
That's it!

[*Activates improbability drive while having Tea and No Tea and copies the numbers from there.*]
(Yep, banged myself in the Diodes)
Did I mention I'm feeling very depressed today?

*hugs* on the upside hon, that whole 'we can dance' thing made me smile, which I could really use right now to offset the whole...y'know... tooth thing

[query]

I had an extraction today too. Hope everything else grows right.
(And while feeling pretty drained right now, I'll send a little levity as per the comfy chair genre in the other thread I posted in before the pulling.)

Oh, guess this should be some official posting too so sent in my numbers.

(Is VERY Marvin now.)


*hugs* on the upside hon, that whole 'we can dance' thing made me smile, which I could really use right now to offset the whole...y'know... tooth thing

[Stealthbr]

By SUBJECT do you mean the title of the message?

[Mad_Bombardier]

By SUBJECT do you mean the title of the message?Yes, he does.

[Sir_Lawrence]

Today is the last day to submit your guesses to me! You can't win if you don't eneter!

Also, please remember to follow submission rules from the original posting. If you already submitted once, no need to submit more. :rolleyes:

[Kargon]

Today is the last day to submit your guesses to me! You can't win if you don't eneter!

Kargon was going entermer today, but eneter? that sound scary, remind kargon of word enemama. :D

[Sir_Lawrence]

TIME'S UP!

I will not accept any more ticket entries for the Festival of Olladra!

[Cowdenicus]

All your Uber loot are belong to me.

[Sir_Lawrence]

On July 4th, beginning at 5:00pm EST, I will enter each world alphabetically to roll the winning numbers live. I will be located in the Coin Lords' offices and will announce the numbers via a broadcast message - this means I will not be located in any player instance. I will not allow /tells sent to me on that date, sorry.

Several players did not follow the rules of the event and had submitted multiple guesses. I apologize in advance if the rules were misleading in any way when we stated only one entry per account. What this means to the contest: If you had submitted more than one entry - I only took the first entry I read and the others were deleted. So if one of the entries I deleted was actually a winning number - Sorry. In order to be fair to all players who participated and followed the rules, I feel that by recording the most current guess submitted and deleting the rest is fair to all players. :(

There were also several who submitted guesses incorrectly by not listing their numbers, server and character name in the subject line. Again, I apologize, but these posts had to be deleted as well due to not following the rules. Sorry. :(

One addition, we forgot to mention that this contest was for the American servers only. Any who use our servers can participate, but if you submitted a ticket for the European servers, for example, I had to discount those tickets. (Yes, I had one of these.) I apologize for this confusion. :(

So to repeat:

On July 4th, beginning at 5:00pm EST, I will enter each world alphabetically to roll the winning numbers live. I will be located in the Coin Lords' offices and will announce the numbers via a broadcast message - this means I will not be located in any player instance. I will not allow /tells sent to me on that date, sorry.

Once all the numbers have been rolled and announced, I will announce the winning numbers here and it will take me a few days to sort through all the tickets and verify each one. Once I have done all this, I will announce all the winners (if any). :D

:) :) :) :) :) May Olladra grant you her blessings (and may you all have a safe and fun holiday week!) :) :) :) :) :)

[Lorien_the_First_One]

TIME'S UP!

I will not accept any more ticket entries for the Festival of Olladra!

Umm....you closed it 12 hours late, the rules said 12pm. I know lots of ppl who didn't enter because the didnt hear until after noon Sunday. To be fair, I hope you disreguard the last 12 hours worth of entries.

[BlueBadger]

whatever happened to the pictures of the daggers?

Thorgar

[Clawstorm]

Who wants to take bets no one wins? =)

[DareDelvis]

Just to be clear, and sorry if this has been posted, but do we have to be logged in at that time?

My guess would be no, since this was doen via pm anyway...

[The_Cataclysm]

whatever happened to the pictures of the daggers?

Thorgar

Yeah, where are the pictures?

[Spookydodger]

I only took the first entry I read and the others were deleted.




I feel that by recording the most current guess submitted and deleting the rest is fair to all players. :(


Not that it matters, but which one was it? :)

Taking the first and deleting the rest
or
Taking the last (most current) and deleting the rest

[Spookydodger]

Who wants to take bets no one wins? =)

Wouldn't that be even worse odds than the event itself?

[query]

42.

Kargon, Lomng Tmbe no see!

How is the job working out?

[wizzy_catt]

hmmm no more tickets ;(

[Sir_Lawrence]

The winning numbers are as follows for each server:

Adar: 7, 14, 17, 18

Aerenal: 2, 3, 10, 12

Argonnessen: 3, 12, 19, 20

Aundair: 4, 5, 9, 13

Fernia: 6, 8, 17, 20

Ghallanda: 6, 9, 16, 19

Khyber: 3, 7, 7, 12

Lhazaar: 2, 4, 12, 12

Mabar: 5, 6, 8, 20

Riedra: 7, 9, 11, 20

Sarlona: 5, 11, 19, 20

Tharashk: 7, 15, 17, 18

Thelanis: 8, 13, 19, 19

Xoriat: 2, 7, 20, 20

I'll be reviewing the numbers and will announce the winners as soon as I can. A picture of the daggers will be available soon as well.

Have a wonderful Festival of Olladra, and for those on the planar realm of North America, Happy Independence Day!

[Cowdenicus]

Doh, can we play one away, then at least I would have won something. doh.

[Sir_Lawrence]

In case no one noticed it, the end time for submitting your guess was on Sunday afternoon at 12:00pm. This means that all the guesses I got after that time (and still getting) will be void.

:rolleyes: Also, any "correct" guesses sent in at this time will be double-void! :rolleyes: (Yes, I already got one of these.)

Initial review of the guesses show nine players who guessed three numbers correctly! No grand prize winners however. We won't say more until we can double-check the lists.

[DKerrigan]

No roll on Risia?:(

[Coldin]

Drat, got 2 numbers right.

Sure you couldn't give out that +1 somewhat frightening dagger of citric acid? :D

[GeneralDiomedes]

I liked Eckleberry's release date guessing game better. That was genius.

[Xyfiel]

I wasn't for this figuring the odds were too low, and since no one won the grand prize, seems I made the right call. Now they need to reroll on each server till someone gets one imo. Not much use for making a item that none of us have.

[Theboz]

I wasn't for this figuring the odds were too low, and since no one won the grand prize, seems I made the right call. Now they need to reroll on each server till someone gets one imo. Not much use for making a item that none of us have.

Why? nobody won, with the given rules. why change them because nobody won. oh well. Congrates to the people who got 3 of the numbers correct and did win something.

[UtherSRG]

No roll on Risia?:(

Of course not. Risia is a test server, despite everything Turbine says to the contrary.

[Inkblack]

Wow. I did a quick back of the envelope estimate, and came up with a likely number of entries between 2,500-4,500 given that many winners. That's a lot of numbers to go through. Thanks for the hard work Sir Lawrence.

Ink

[Denomicon]

I liked Eckleberry's release date guessing game better. That was genius.

I think they are still playing that game, have you seen the current splash screen? ;)

[Solstice]

****! I could win if I play in Sarlona! :(

correct numbers in wrong server cannot win too? :p

[Vardak]

Initial review of the guesses show nine players who guessed three numbers correctly! No grand prize winners however. We won't say more until we can double-check the lists.

But more importantly, how many valid entries were there?

[GeneralDiomedes]

I think they are still playing that game, have you seen the current splash screen? ;)

:D :D

[MysticTheurge]

No roll on Risia?:(

He probably went to roll on Risia and then noticed that Risia has no players on it. Ever. :rolleyes:

[Mad_Bombardier]

He probably went to roll on Risia and then noticed that Risia has no players on it. Ever. :rolleyes:HEY! I was there (all by my lonesome, for a solid 10 minutes) on Wednesday morning. Does that make me the big weiner!?

[Furgulder]

Fernia: 6, 8, 17, 20

lmao. at first I was like "doh! i forgot to put my numbers in" and then i read the rolls, and would have guessed none of those numbers :)

[Quarion]

Here is the long awaited picture of the daggers! Congratulations to all the winners.

[Sir_Lawrence]

After careful examination of all the number guess submissions I received, I have determined that the list of characters below are the winners from the Festival of Olladra:

AUNDAIR has two winners: Obren and Alhoon!
GHALLANDA's winner is: Marrcus!
KHYBER's winner is: Arj!
RIEDRA's two winners are: Sollice and Azden!
THARASHK's winner is: Vanleer!
THELANIS's winner is: Kevall!
XORIAT's winner is: Fael!

Each had three numbers correct and will receive the +1 Dagger of Intimidating Acid later in the month when I receive my shipment from Zilargo!

(If you feel that your number was a winning submission and was overlooked, please PM me and I will investigate it for accuracy.)

I want to thank everyone who participated! To everyone who did not win: Better luck in the future. To those who did win, congratulations! If you would like to see future events like this one in the future, please send me a PM and let me know.

[WolfSpirit]

Those are the coolest looking daggers EVER!!!

I want one now just because of the look!

sweet!

Congratulations winners!

[Hammersong]

Daggers look cool, but very WoW-ish.

[Kadagan]

nobody won a para dagger... :(

[Kulothar]

Considering my loot lately, either I am overdue to win this lotto or I shouldn't submit.. Being the perpetual optimist, I submitted and maybe I can get the one of citric-acid to stir my tea.

Although weapons are nice prises (and this is a nice one), there is a point to non-weapon rewards. Title as nice for bigger competitions but I would like to see something more DM House ruleish. Like, can't you guys make a tome of Luck+1? Just like a str/dex/etc Tome but raise the characters Luck by +1? How about a trinket of something, either Aura (perm) low level spell or unlimited charges of low level spell. Say Aura of eagles splender or mage armor. It would be less useful at higher levels but unique and you have the shards of silver flame already. Other more difficult (or obnoxious) prises could be like the robe of scintillating colors that keeps changing colors all the time and has a clicky of something colorful like hypnotic patern or glitterdust. Tell me that wouldn't cause the newbies to talk (and people other than bards not invite you to parties).

P.S. I spade my Kobold like you suggested.. but now all of his friends throw things at me when I enter dungeons..

[DKerrigan]

Wow...the hardness and durability on those are nice...166|22...to think that the vorpal sickle was all flimsy...:rolleyes:

[barecm]

Pretty sweet. However, why have a contest if no one wins the grand prize?

[Merlask]

Pretty sweet. However, why have a contest if no one wins the grand prize?

Because you all will strangle and kill one another (and i don't mean the pvp pit mechanics) to get a 'grand prize' :eek: Should have seen the viciousness at the Olympics

[Thundercracker]

Were the numbers rolled ever posted anywhere??

[trptim]

Look at the value of the paralyzer
I would definitately make a trip to House D to sell it :D

And only minimum level 8

[barecm]

I would be great if they had a contest based on something more related to the game. Pick four random numbers from a die roll? Wow, that is pretty lame. Select a random person in the audience to play a game based on random die rolls... more lame. How about giving some sort of reward to the first group (or guild) to beat the newest raid on elite on each server? It doesn't even have to be a weapon, something as simple as a unique looking color or shape to whatever armor you are wearing. Or, gasp, maybe even a cool cloak (heaven forbid we get cloaks) to show off your accomplishment. Maybe even the first to accomplish getting full favor? Something, anything, based upon accomplishments in the game, not how lucky you are at forecasting die rolls.

I don't know about anyone else, but having contests where hardly anyone gets to participate or is so random it eliminates 99.99% of the population just winds up looking bad all the way around.

[Braddock_Tharmwell]

Pretty sweet. However, why have a contest if no one wins the grand prize?

That rule would pretty much kill the Lottery Industry wouldn't it? :)

[Kraldor]

That rule would pretty much kill the Lottery Industry wouldn't it? :)

This isn't the lottery - there is no limit to the amount of prizes that can be given here

[MysticTheurge]

This isn't the lottery - there is no limit to the amount of prizes that can be given here

Uh, well this sure seemed like the lottery. That was the whole point.

But you're right, there is no limit to the amount of prizes they could give out. So obviously they should just do away with the games all together and simply mail everyone one of these fancy grand prize daggers.

That'd be a lot of fun. :rolleyes:

[Kraldor]

Uh, well this sure seemed like the lottery. That was the whole point.

But you're right, there is no limit to the amount of prizes they could give out. So obviously they should just do away with the games all together and simply mail everyone one of these fancy grand prize daggers.

That'd be a lot of fun. :rolleyes:

That wasn't the point of my post. Braddock mentioned that guaranteeing a winner would ruin the lottery industry, which is irrelevant to the situation seeing as how the prize pool is unlimited. I'm not in favor of having everybody win, but in a game, whats the point of having a contest where nobody wins? So they can tease us with the picture of +Sir and the daggers? With the small amount of people that got 3 rolls right, it wouldn't be so bad to just give them the paralyzing daggers, so at least someone wins. Having it so nobody gets the grand prize is like having a scavenger hunt where the items are impossible to obtain. I have to agree with barecm here, the premise of a game where you guess die rolls is just a bad idea. Previous contests we've had like the scavenger hunt were much more enjoyable, seeing as you have the entire server involved in the contest. Granted, in that case the majority of people were able to win the prize, but it was certainly better then nobody winning at all.

[MysticTheurge]

Whats the point of having a contest where nobody wins?

I don't get it. The rules were really simple. You picked numbers, if they matched what was rolled you won. That's the point of the game. The point of the game was to have some fun in a lottery style. No one was ever guaranteed to win.

Now, if they're smart, they'll take a page from the lottery playbook and keep increasing the "Jackpot." The next lottery style game should have a grand prize of the daggers from this one and something else. They could potentially get people pretty interested (well more interested anyway) in a game that followed that pattern.

But, I don't see the reason why somebody has to win (the grand prize, which is what we're debating, some people did win, just not the grand prize) in order to have fun with the game.

[Kindoki]

I don't get it. The rules were really simple. You picked numbers, if they matched what was rolled you won. That's the point of the game. The point of the game was to have some fun in a lottery style. No one was ever guaranteed to win.

Now, if they're smart, they'll take a page from the lottery playbook and keep increasing the "Jackpot." The next lottery style game should have a grand prize of the daggers from this one and something else. They could potentially get people pretty interested (well more interested anyway) in a game that followed that pattern.

But, I don't see the reason why somebody has to win (the grand prize, which is what we're debating, some people did win, just not the grand prize) in order to have fun with the game.

My bolding. I agree that is exactly what should happen. Eventually, you could get someone who wins a dagger, a shield, a suit of armor, a ring, etc. etc. in one fell swoop. That would be pretty cool.

[Sir_Lawrence]

An interesting discussion here. I am open to all feedback as always. However, the one thing I need to know is whether or not you - as a whole community, not an individual (meaning I want to hear from everyone!) - want to see more events like the Festival of Olladra? The only way to get more events like this (or others) is to participate and let us know what you think! There are more events being planned and the excietment grows with each one on our end, but we need to know how you feel about them (good and bad) so we know where the event strengths and weaknesses are.

[crimsonretribution]

I like events. I like free stuff. The bad side of this particular event though, is that there was very limited player activity involved in this one, all we did was pick four numbers.

[Tanka]

While I like player events, they should be, IMO, more like the Christmas event -- more people participated in that one overall than any other event that has happened since.

Limiting them to forum users, while a good way to push forum usage, will not reach the majority of the playerbase. Many players simply do not care to use the forums and only want to play the game.

[Coldin]

Well, in order of best to worst events in my opinion...

Trivia Events (Trivia across the whole server is always a good thing)
>
Scavenger Hunt (Gave everyone a good chance to claim a prize)
>
Hide and Seek (Though the frequent movement with no focused area to look or hints made the event frustrating)
>
Festival of Olladra (Odds to win were too low imo)
>
Trade or No Trade-2nd Version (Rules were confusing and no way to help one's chances of being selected)


I should add that the Festivus Jester was probably the best thing to do just because it lasted so long and we got cool cookies and cakes. But that doesn't really count as a live event does it?

[Ciaran]

An interesting discussion here. I am open to all feedback as always. However, the one thing I need to know is whether or not you - as a whole community, not an individual (meaning I want to hear from everyone!) - want to see more events like the Festival of Olladra? The only way to get more events like this (or others) is to participate and let us know what you think! There are more events being planned and the excietment grows with each one on our end, but we need to know how you feel about them (good and bad) so we know where the event strengths and weaknesses are.

I would like to see them, but on a larger scale than a quick pop in, pop out thing that necessitates people to use the forums to partake of the events. That event felt a little underwhelming to me, personally.

The trivia that was done several months ago was a fun event and got a lot of people together. I'd like to see stuff like that more. The recent ladies night event looked like it was a lot of fun for all involved.

As an example of what I'd like to see for an event, what about holding some kind of scavenger hunt in Delera's graveyard in which random undead are spawned (sort of like in that old trailer for DDO where there's undead actually roaming around the graveyard?) for Hallowe'en? Maybe you could have to find a zombie that looked unique from all the others (such as a different color, different clothes, or some such).

That's just a wildcard example given that I have no idea what is able to be done or not, but I think events like that would be a lot of fun and make the servers feel like there's an actual community to interact with.

So not so much with the Festival of Olladra which wasn't really interactive and required a person to be on the forums (several guildmates of mine don't bother with the forums; it's just not their cup of tea, they shouldn't be precluded from events because of that), but more stuff like scavenger hunts and trivia.

Thanks!

[Kindoki]

I like events like the festival of Ollandra because you didn't have to be present to win. I can almost never make the set times for things because I play around my wife's work schedule, and I am a part time player at best (4-6 hours a week). So having events that don't require me to be somewhere at a specific date and time are cool. I admit the difficulty of actually winning was a bit off-putting, but the lotto idea with increasing jackpots really makes it a winner.

[Theris]

What I really miss is the changes in the environment and in costumes for player characters as seasons/holidays changed. I remember when Halloween rolled around in the land of Asheron's Call. The Auberean lands were filled with pumpkin head monsters and players could loot masks that made your characters head become a pumpkin head or some other AC monster. During the winter months snow covered the ground and large snow men could be found roaming the lands.

I really miss that. If I could get that with DDO, I'd be happy camper.

[Hence]

Create an arena on every server that is not accessible to the player community.
Hold slayer events, something to challange players against creatures, the more you kill, the better the reward. Kill them all for a grand prize.

The reason you would not want the arena to be accessible is because of what happened with the other event, people cannot control themselves.

Hold team pvp events, supervised by you. A tournament, every player on the winning team gets a nice USEFUL item, something like a Secret Decoder Ring, runner up team gets a fancy looking hat or something.

OR...

How about a time trial event, this way multiple parties can play at the same time to speed up the event. Have it be a time trail to complete all VoN 1-6. Or to complete an entire quest arc. Whoever does this the fastest, gets a prize. Now that would be fun.

[amysrevenge]

I should add that the Festivus Jester was probably the best thing to do just because it lasted so long and we got cool cookies and cakes. But that doesn't really count as a live event does it?

I agree with this guy. The Festivus thing was fantastic.

I submitted a number for the latest festival, but wasn't excited (well I was kinda excited when I got 2 numbers right, but that's all).

Mike

[Strakeln]

An interesting discussion here. I am open to all feedback as always. However, the one thing I need to know is whether or not you - as a whole community, not an individual (meaning I want to hear from everyone!) - want to see more events like the Festival of Olladra? The only way to get more events like this (or others) is to participate and let us know what you think! There are more events being planned and the excietment grows with each one on our end, but we need to know how you feel about them (good and bad) so we know where the event strengths and weaknesses are.The holiday festival (where we found gold/silver/bronze tokens in chests) was quite well-received. I still see the occasional candy cane and rez cakes being sold on the auction, and I and carefully guard my small stash of beholder cookies.

[Hendrik]

Well, in order of best to worst events in my opinion...

Trivia Events (Trivia across the whole server is always a good thing)
>
Scavenger Hunt (Gave everyone a good chance to claim a prize)
>
Hide and Seek (Though the frequent movement with no focused area to look or hints made the event frustrating)
>
Festival of Olladra (Odds to win were too low imo)
>
Trade or No Trade-2nd Version (Rules were confusing and no way to help one's chances of being selected)


I should add that the Festivus Jester was probably the best thing to do just because it lasted so long and we got cool cookies and cakes. But that doesn't really count as a live event does it?

I would have to say that this list of best to worse mimics my feelings as well. The best 'event' was the Festivus hands down.

Live events are a hard thing to nail down +Sir. Have to test the waters and see what works and doesn't. You are doing that and while some go over great others do not. IMO, you ARE doing a great job and I, and my Guild, thank you for it. We look forward to your events and attend them as we can as a Guild Event.

Keep testing out new and different things. Keep up the good work.

And above all else, Thank you very much for the Events. I know these are not easy to plan nor pull off.

/respect

[DKerrigan]

An interesting discussion here. I am open to all feedback as always. However, the one thing I need to know is whether or not you - as a whole community, not an individual (meaning I want to hear from everyone!) - want to see more events like the Festival of Olladra? The only way to get more events like this (or others) is to participate and let us know what you think! There are more events being planned and the excietment grows with each one on our end, but we need to know how you feel about them (good and bad) so we know where the event strengths and weaknesses are.

Events with more player involvement and a higher chance of "winning something" pique my interest. Though I entered the recent Festival event...the odds of anyone winning were pretty meager, as shown by the results of the event in that no one won the "big prize." More events with a greater chance of coming away with something (anything) for the participants, like the Festivus Jester and coins, Hide and Seek and to a lesser extent (largely due to player misbehavior, at least on Adar :rolleyes: ) the Deal or No Deal event are much more appealling than 1 in 16000 or whatever the odds of the last event were. People feel like they are more involved when there is a reward for their efforts, no matter how great those efforts may be or how small the reward ends up being imo

All of the events that I have heard about and partaken in have had different qualities that have effected the enjoyment of them uniquely. The Festivus Jester was very programming intensive, but Turbine involvement aside from that was low and most importantly, everyone "won." Because it was largely quest/chest based, anyone who was playing the game during that period had a chance to win the contest. There were relatively very few truly meaningful rewards in the form of lasting items (I think the best reward I heard about was a Sunblade for the Gold Token turn in), but everyone playing during that 2 month or so period was able to walk away with something, even if it was only a Festivus Twig;).

Hide and Seek took the player involvement out of the normal flow of game use (questing/looting/leveling), but gave everyone an equal opportunity to win the prize if they chose to participate. The Scavenger Hunt had the same characteristics as Hide and Seek in that respect.

Deal or No Deal stepped away from player involvement largely and was more of a player interaction event. While many attended, due to the nature of the event relatively few had a chance to walk away with something, and most became frusterated due to the multiple instances and the very limited ability to "win" the event.

Finally, the most recent event followed the lottery pattern to a "t", many players entered but few really expected to walk away with anything. The involvement of +Sir was virtually non-existant in that he could have just /rolled all of the numbers for each server and showed up to read them off. Because he was virtually intangible (not in any instance on the server), there was next to 0 interaction aside from players reading the announcements, meaning the event was smooth compaired to DonD, but because of the nature of the event in that it was forum based a hypothetically small cross section of the population that frequent the forums were eliglble to participate at all, meaning that the server population at large was largely unaware of the event at all.

In closing, if there are going to be more events similar to the Festival of Olladra, they need to have a more widely reaching scope as far as player involvement is concerned (in game mail set up to receive entries on each server and an announcement in the laucher window) and there need to be more levels of reward for participation in the event.

That's just one man's opinion though. :)

[Sir_Lawrence]

;) DKerrigan, tell me what you REALLY think! :p

[Coldin]

DKerrigan, I couldn't have said it better myself. The events are far more engaging when I feel I actually have a chance of winning something.

[barecm]

I have to agree with DKerrigan here.. I would also prefer events that everyone has a resonable chance of coming away with something, everyone has a chance to participate and the events are fun. To this point none of the events meet this criteria.

The last event was silly... try to pick four correct numbers on a a future die roll? Please. First off, it is not fun at all and quite lame. The deal or no deal was at least interesting if you were one of the few to be picked to play. The rest of us (99.999%) stood around bored silly... again, lame. Hide and seek is pretty ok, if you are a 12 year old on a rainy day and the TV is broken. How is supposed to be fun in an MMO? Trying to find someone hiding in storm reach somewhere. Wow, sign me up. The Christmas Festival or whatever it was called at least gave us some useful clikie type items. I could use another stack of shield cookies... However, not exactly an event or fun, more like some different loot collectibles to turn in for items. However, it was the best of the bunch I guess.

As suggested, make the events interesting. Give us something here that we cannot see or do on our own. Maybe the first to run a guantlet style maze? If you insist on having only a select few participate, then let them fight a series of randomly spawned monsters in the middle of town for all to see. Or, have a gladiator competition like from Roman times... individuals or even guild teams vs others or perhaps a pack of monsters that are spawned. Maybe even players vs developers in an American Gladiators style competition in various events. We compete against the devs, but rack up points against an opponent. You can even have brackets and such like a college hoops style tournament. There are literally tons of things you can do that are more fun that the current jokes that are pawned off as Server Wide Events. Server wide events acutally have more than .0001% of the people involved.

[UtherSRG]

QFT


Events with more player involvement and a higher chance of "winning something" pique my interest. Though I entered the recent Festival event...the odds of anyone winning were pretty meager, as shown by the results of the event in that no one won the "big prize." More events with a greater chance of coming away with something (anything) for the participants, like the Festivus Jester and coins, Hide and Seek and to a lesser extent (largely due to player misbehavior, at least on Adar :rolleyes: ) the Deal or No Deal event are much more appealling than 1 in 16000 or whatever the odds of the last event were. People feel like they are more involved when there is a reward for their efforts, no matter how great those efforts may be or how small the reward ends up being imo

All of the events that I have heard about and partaken in have had different qualities that have effected the enjoyment of them uniquely. The Festivus Jester was very programming intensive, but Turbine involvement aside from that was low and most importantly, everyone "won." Because it was largely quest/chest based, anyone who was playing the game during that period had a chance to win the contest. There were relatively very few truly meaningful rewards in the form of lasting items (I think the best reward I heard about was a Sunblade for the Gold Token turn in), but everyone playing during that 2 month or so period was able to walk away with something, even if it was only a Festivus Twig;).

Hide and Seek took the player involvement out of the normal flow of game use (questing/looting/leveling), but gave everyone an equal opportunity to win the prize if they chose to participate. The Scavenger Hunt had the same characteristics as Hide and Seek in that respect.

Deal or No Deal stepped away from player involvement largely and was more of a player interaction event. While many attended, due to the nature of the event relatively few had a chance to walk away with something, and most became frusterated due to the multiple instances and the very limited ability to "win" the event.

Finally, the most recent event followed the lottery pattern to a "t", many players entered but few really expected to walk away with anything. The involvement of +Sir was virtually non-existant in that he could have just /rolled all of the numbers for each server and showed up to read them off. Because he was virtually intangible (not in any instance on the server), there was next to 0 interaction aside from players reading the announcements, meaning the event was smooth compaired to DonD, but because of the nature of the event in that it was forum based a hypothetically small cross section of the population that frequent the forums were eliglble to participate at all, meaning that the server population at large was largely unaware of the event at all.

In closing, if there are going to be more events similar to the Festival of Olladra, they need to have a more widely reaching scope as far as player involvement is concerned (in game mail set up to receive entries on each server and an announcement in the laucher window) and there need to be more levels of reward for participation in the event.

That's just one man's opinion though. :)

[BurnerD]

I think something like a really short, but difficult well hidden encounter area somewhere in stormreach would be a great event. One chest - limited to first 3 people who find it.

The issue would be of course the first person to find it running three characters through it, or telling his guildies about it.. so maybe three separate encounters... one pull only.. first to find it and defeat it gets the prize. It should be solo only and extremely hard for the appropriate levels.

In regard to length it should be like the encounters in one of the exploration areas, but should be very very difficult to find and have one helluva fight in it. Put it in the harbor, marketplace, one of the houses, etc...


Run different levels at different times.

[Missing_Minds]

I'm all for these events in many of the forms. Stuff where your average player, elite player, and newb player all have an equal chance of winning.

Hide and seek, scavenger hunt, the lottery, deal no deal... I liked them all and personally I think they add to the game. Festivius really fit the ideas above to a tea.

The issuse with deal no deal is the sheer amount of instances and people that showed up. That will make it not fun for most sadly. (Let alone the player caused lag in those instances)

personally, I would love it if we had more events on a more regular bases. Or even surprise events for fun.

[Marabias]

I have partaken in every event. I have a few scepters for the efforts. Two of the search ones and one of the UMD ones. All I really remember about the events is how you spelled my name wrong when I found you during hide and seek.

If you want to make fun events you need to make active events. If you want fun active events check out the DDO site across the sea. They have the right idea when it comes to events.

Giant Onslaught (http://www.ddo-europe.com/event.php?id=53)

Gladiator Contest at the Livewood Arena! (http://www.ddo-europe.com/event.php?id=45)

Higher, Further and Faster! (http://www.ddo-europe.com/event.php?id=59)

Vengeance in the Night (http://www.ddo-europe.com/event.php?id=88)

There might be more, but I think you get the idea.

[DrAwkward]

You could pick one of the less popular quests and do timed team runs. The lowest "completion time" wins.

1) Gather the teams for the event
2) Announce the rules
3) Annouce the quest
4) Wait
The teams will run off to the quest, and do a speed run.
Once they finish, the leader /tells you the completion time.
You give an extra 10 minutes or so for teams that started late.
5) You annouce a cutoff.
6) You hop into the instances of the best times and verify the numbers.
7) Award prizes.

There is actually very little effort on the part of +Sir Lawrence, you can involve a large number of folks, and it encourages team play.

This could theoretically be done as a player sponsored event -- You'd just need to have the group drop down to 5 to let the judge join in to verify numbers. Would someone like to coordinate it and let +Sir Lawrence know if it works out ok?

[Karethon]

In closing, if there are going to be more events similar to the Festival of Olladra, they need to have a more widely reaching scope as far as player involvement is concerned (in game mail set up to receive entries on each server and an announcement in the laucher window) and there need to be more levels of reward for participation in the event.

Well said in its entirety, but I wanted to put extra emphasis on this part. My guild has 3 people that actually read the forums (if we're lucky). Unless I provide a direct link to an article, many things are unknown to them. When +Sir was making his rolls on our server, most everyone asked what was going on. I told them "it's a forum event". They were all happy with that answer and pretty much ignored the rest of what was broadcast. I know the event was not intended that way, but with the entry requirements, that is how it ended up. Making the entries via in-game mail, and in-game/launcher announcements would have probably produced a higher "turn-out" and more interest in the player community.

[Nero]

I think a great Idea for an event would be some kind of team based PvP event. Just set up teams of four. Have tiered level restrictions each dictating thier own rewards. Perhaps even create a completely new arena by jacking parts of other maps. (This saves programming time.) My suggestion for the map is create a flat sky based area. Have the floors be clouds. Possibly being able to jump from location of cloud to cloud for more stategic combat. Use the Marketplaces sky texture. Use maybe Tharashk's Arena walls but enlarging the area of course. Then you can use the special GM warp power to zap participating players to the skymap which is tagged with the tavern brawling area effect.

Bam if you want I'd volenteer to program this for free. I have a lot of experience coding halflife quake 1-4 doom 1-3 and red faction maps. Albeit some of the codes will be a bit modified but hey I'd make an effort.

Heh you don't even have to give prizes the I won the Sir Lawrence PVP tourney bragging right would be enough.

Ooh and for added effect you can jack the music from Von 6 that would be interesting mood setting. Oh wow while on the thought why not use the skymap from VoN 6 a night fight would be incredible and memorable.

If you would like Sir Lawrence I could submit a VERY (and I am warning you VERY!) thorough Idea on how to make this event work.

And if the event doesn't work you can always just ditch the map later or create a doorway that allows raids to go there and fight for fun.

Another possible event suggestion would be an airial race where you gave the group fly and had them go through an obstacle course. I could give details on a possible way to set that up as well. The reward for that could be golden wings of flight. (Gives 10 seconds of fly with a 1 click per rest clicky. Or perhaps it be a 30% striding trinket.)

Hmm must stop before I ramble on about other possible events.

[Capstern]

can we just have the mobs form an all out assault on stormreach and we all have to fend them off :P

then neat loot fall of the bodies hte longer you survive

I knwo this could never happen the server room would end up smoking mess but man that would be fun

free for all in all the public areas of stormreach with a maybe like I said loot dropping from bodies or....

you die once and you are done and confined to a tavern until there is one las tman standing and he gets something and whoever had the most kills :)

I know thats a pipe dream but would be fun

[Truegood]

We need an event like try and KILL the GM's. Get your team together. Dont be afraid. We are waiting =P

[EspyLacopa]

can we just have the mobs form an all out assault on stormreach and we all have to fend them off :P

then neat loot fall of the bodies hte longer you survive

I knwo this could never happen the server room would end up smoking mess but man that would be fun

free for all in all the public areas of stormreach with a maybe like I said loot dropping from bodies or....

you die once and you are done and confined to a tavern until there is one las tman standing and he gets something and whoever had the most kills :)

I know thats a pipe dream but would be fun

I'd just form a band and sing the enemies into submission.

[Farlath]

I would really like something like on the European server where they did the gladiator type event in the tavern. I would also like maybe a sponsored PVP toruney. I have tried setting some up on my server but could not get one going. If it was sponsored and could gurantee no interference I think it would be fun.

[DKerrigan]

;) DKerrigan, tell me what you REALLY think! :p

I thought I did.:p

In addition to the laucher announcement and an in-game entry method for another event similar to The Festival of Ollandra, there should be more prizes available. There should be prizes for correctly selecting 2, 3 or 4 numbers in any order, as well as prizes for picking 2, 3 or 4 numbers in the order that they are drawn (best win per entry). The prizes for picking the numbers in the correct order should be better than the prizes for picking them in any order, and obviously the more you get correct, the better the prize should be. Maybe 3 unique items and 3 other items that are already in the game but not readily available.

Now you know better than anyone how much work is done behind the scenes with the collection and checking of the entries (I'd imagine it'd be pretty easy to put all of the entries into an excel spreadsheet and check them that way, though that'd still be pretty tedious and time consuming), so maybe you'd want to gear up another instant gratification, winners on the spot even like Deal or No Deal. (If you do though, please set up some sort of antimagic field in the area of the event, PLEASE!:o)

[Kisaragi]

An interesting discussion here. I am open to all feedback as always. However, the one thing I need to know is whether or not you - as a whole community, not an individual (meaning I want to hear from everyone!) - want to see more events like the Festival of Olladra? The only way to get more events like this (or others) is to participate and let us know what you think! There are more events being planned and the excietment grows with each one on our end, but we need to know how you feel about them (good and bad) so we know where the event strengths and weaknesses are.

As others have mentioned, the events are great, but getting involved seems to involve having a great deal of luck or patience. I'd personally like to see some big invasions happen within the city, that impacts the various zones. So maybe House Deneith Shops sell unique weapons/bolts that they've 'siezed' off of the enemy forces.

Like a week long invasion of the city, with some new missions available at the different houses. Examples include;

House D - Asks you to protect supply/weapon caravans and secure materials for use in new weaponry.

House P - Asks you find ingrediants in the deep dungeons for making healing elixirs for the injured.

House J - Asks you to find ancient city diagrams lost within the cemetary, so that invaders can be intercepted.

House K - Asks you to find adamantine/mithril deposits to arm the city's guard to defend the city.

In addition to this, have towers/walls where soliders defend the city through archery and hand to hand combat. Heh, even random boulders pounding the city from catapults.

Invasion in every sense of the world to get everyone involved. Ways of getting/making new items, and a chance to be real heroes of stormreach.

In time you can say "We stood firm outside the Temple of the Sovereign Host and battled limitless odds, but our guild stood firm,and at the end of the day, the enemy knew this was not going to be a simple fight."

Item raffles, random lotteries, and even gameshows are nice, but personally I'd like some big events. A holiday where there just aren't representatives, but the whole town gets a new 'holiday' look. That's just me though.

I like major events. I like things big and flashy that give you great chances to tell stories later. Things that bring characters and guilds together, and make everyone who wasn't there, wishing that they were.

[Gennerik]

In order to keep player involvement up, but at the same time reduce the ability for players to be annoying and disrupt the actualy game, how about this idea:

Quest-Based Scavanger Hunt - Players (either solo or in parties) are initially given a clue through a world broadcast message. Randomly inside one of the chests that spawn inside that quest, the clue for the next quest that needs to be run can be found (with each player getting the clue as a bound inventory item). Basically players have to decipher the clues in order to find out what quest they need to run in order to get the next clue.

For the clues, they shouldn't all be the same. If, say, you're targetting players to run through 10 quests, those 10 quests are randomly picked from all the quests that are involved in that series (I'll get to that in a second), so players can't just figure out the series of quests and run all their characters through those. Each clue should be something quest-specific. For instance, one may be "Trapped within the earth, only darkness will allow you to see your final path to sunlight. Perhaps you should put out the lights..." and lead players to running Tomb of the Shadow King, where players extinguish torches inside the tomb to finally lead a mummy into direct sunlight so they can finish the quest. Something of that nature.

Then, so players of all levels can participate, have different series of quests. The first broadcast would be to everyone, and would therefore be a fairly low-level quest (I'm thinking about a 3rd level quest), and from there, the clues are generated based on the highest level character in the group. Each series would have a certain range of levels available to them that they have to look for. Perhaps you could have a quest range of 1-5, 1-8, 1-11, and 1-14, where if the maximum level of the characters is 4, then they never get a clue for a quest higher than level 5. For a party that includes a character of level 9, they may get any quest between level 1 and 11, and for capped characters, any quest in the game except for raids are fair game. This includes series of quests, where you may have to run a couple of quests in order to get to the one you want. The higher the series of quests, the more quests that may be involved. For levels 1-5, they may only have to run 6-8 quests before finishing the event, for levels 1-11, they may have to run 10-12 quests, and for 1-14 characters, they will have to run 15 quests before finishing.

As far as rewards go, the first group on each server to find all the clue receives the grand prize for each level range. I figure the grand prize should be something quite nice, as the hunt will be something fairly time-intensive. Each group after the first will recieve a smaller prize, still nice but not quite as nice as the grand prize. That way, everyone that finishes the event gets something, but the first group to finish gets the nicest prize. Prizes would be series-dependent, so no overpowered items go to the low-level characters, but something that's still useful for that level and possibly a few levels beyond that.

[Spookydodger]

;) DKerrigan, tell me what you REALLY think! :p

It's cheekiness like this that makes me wonder about many, many things.

Ok, here's what I REALLY think.

I think that the contests, by and large, thus far, have been a ridiculous.
Most items have been next to useless.Something that is less than the UMD of a golden cartouche, which almost everyone knows about and can get with relative ease, is not a good item.
When not useless, they have been flawedA vorpal weapon with a dramatically subpar toughness and hardness is like getting a rocketship with 1/8th of a tank of gas
Public events have sometimes had very poor planning for human factorsPlan for the worst. GM's should have been present, trained in dealing with such situations, and ready to issue temporary kicks/bans on the spot before things got out of hand. It seemed like there was no preparation for the players that lack patience
Events have varied wildly from little user participation to too-muchThe recent numbers game was so little Turbine participation that it didn't really make people feel you were among the common-fold, in my opinion. Trade or No Trade, besides being a lousy rip-off name, required such a presence from Turbine staff as to make it largely infeasible under most circumstances
Consolation prizes are often insulting to even the most basic playersGiving away masterwork arrows should, in no way, shape or form, be considered to be a good idea, certainly not in the standard 20 stack. The players will dislike it when they receive it, and in certainly 99% of the cases, dislike Turbine when they ditch the item. Loot that emulates the items that you sometimes get from the gold piles for the stormreaver dragons should not be considered prizeworthy

Suggestions:
Create events that virtually guarantee at least 1 winner. Such as the highest number rolled gets the good item.Hide and Seek (with only the first finder being rewarded) is a good example, or 'the highest roller on a 1d100'.
Items should be better than what a player could normally (or with relative ease) get. A UMD 5 item would have been stellar. This would be more than fine with the scarcity of the item. The daggers of paralyzing acid were great, now if only someone had actually gotten them other than Quarion.
Random prizes and consolation prizes should take recipient class, level, and relative equipment into consideration.Giving a masterwork maul to a 14th level sorcerer is a slap in the face akin to a 30 year old getting a coloring book for Christmas.
ANY public held events must be done with proper tools to control the flow of people and deal with troublemakers without destroying the event or ****ing off orderly participants.Allowing event holders to set the maximum number of people in the instance before making a new instance ("we only want 20 people to participate, the rest will be shunted to instance 2 to wait their turn").Anti-magic bubblesParalyze/hold/muting of public nuisances as an exampleHold events in off-major travel path placesEntrance to The TwelveKobold Island (if grouped)Three-barrel cove tavern

There is a decided lack of professionalism and forethought in many things in this world. If you doubt this, take a gander through this site (http://worsethanfailure.com) (work safe) to see for yourself. Failing foresight from knowledgeable and experienced event handlers, we need to learn from our mistakes quickly.

Most people I play with don't bother with the events thus far for the previously mentioned reasons. I would love for that to change and for it to be something we look forward to with the same zeal as loot weekends. I love events like this. It's why I help run them from time to time.

[query]

but I was around for other events.


First off, I would like to thank +Sir and all the other Developers and GM's who made these events possible! Your time and effort are appreciated by me and others, and I hope you will continue doing live events.


Deciding what event to do however, is a trickier part.

As we have seen, players have different ideas what a live event should be.
But I think I can safely say mosty players want to feel as if they have participated in some way for such an event.

Sitting in bleachers while a small percentage gets called is why some others...umm...degraded as they did with Trade or no Trade. Sure, other players are just rude buffing gnolls, but I'm betting many were simply frustrated in not being included, bored in not being included, or both.

Having an activity where a majority to all players can participate and see results is a key factor.

It doesn't have to be a contest, but if it is, all should feel they did more than sit or click a button and wait. Maybe the tension of the lottery drawing anticipation works in RL, but when we pay over a hundred dollars a year to log online here...I'm guessing we'd like more...interactive feeling options.

As mentioned, something as simple as a trivia contest where all have a chance at playing and winning live or doing a holiday theme make us the players feel like we are part of the moment, and not a random rolled few.

Even a "silly" thing like oh..say...a beach party (which I can neither confirm or deny if anybody "important" showed up, ) allows a player base to embrace an event and just "have fun from the gaming grind."


+Sir, I know you have stopped by on Thelanis and seen many events run there. From epic titles to just plain fun. While these are player-base, consider why we keep having them.

People can often join them all throughout the day, each offers a variety of things to do, and WE HAVE FUN with them.

While I know not all servers do the same thing (I chose Thelanis since it's the #1 events ranked server) consider why that works on Thelanis, and see if you can find a universal thing you can share with all players. From brawling in the arena, to running for clues, to just dancing with the kolbolds, you'll find we all can be very flexible if given something we all can do.

Again, this is just my opinion and feedback. But opinion and feedback from one who has seen many events on many different MMO games (and saw what failed to keep me) before here.

Personally, I would recommend asking Merlask her opinion on what makes an event work, since she has run so many of them. I'm sure if you asked for her opinion and/or help +Sir, she would be glad to share her expertise and experience.

[Lyletuba]

An interesting discussion here. I am open to all feedback as always. However, the one thing I need to know is whether or not you - as a whole community, not an individual (meaning I want to hear from everyone!) - want to see more events like the Festival of Olladra? The only way to get more events like this (or others) is to participate and let us know what you think! There are more events being planned and the excietment grows with each one on our end, but we need to know how you feel about them (good and bad) so we know where the event strengths and weaknesses are.

A forum only event is a nice ‘thank you’ to the minority that monitors the forums. But realize that is exactly what it is. It will not be ‘fun’ because there is nothing to watch. It’s like buying a lottery ticket and checking the newspaper for the results. Great if you win. ‘Meh’ if you lose. Nothing while you wait.

Now I enjoyed DonD and actually got called to try for an item. Setting aside the disciplinary issues (not fun feeling like I’m in a classroom filled with unruly students being yelled at by the teacher) you need to engage the people in the audience to make it fun for ALL. It was really exciting just before you called out the name of the contestant, then it was – Sir calls out a name. You realize it’s not you. The contestant runs onstage. Times passes. Sir says “He’s gonna try for the sickle!” Then Sir says “He lost.” Then the contestant walks away and Sir either calls someone else or you chase him to the next instance.

Tell us what the contestant rolled! Tell us what he won as the boobie prize! Get the audience involved other than that 20 second period between the previous loser leaving and you calling a new name.

Overall, when you shake things up in-game, I get giddy as a school girl. Seeing a Dragon fly above the Marketplace. Incorporating forum activity into the game (naming the LotD tavern, Kargon and his Tasty Ham). It’s like adding new content. It shows the game is alive and interactive.

What ever happened to


Kneel before me!

Insignificant heroes. I have the forces of Xen'drik at my disposal! I will find you and destroy you! I will test your mettle this weekend, watch for me and send a letter to your next of kin warning them that you will never be returning home to Khorvaire!

-Tchurvul the Vulture

I was so psyched when I saw that post. But he probably got recruited to fix the issues that weekend instead of funning with the populace. I’d love to participate in a tavern brawl in the middle of town with Devs and mobs.

Or have a contest where if you lose, you fight or die. Or what if you risk your favorite item in return for a chance at making it better or having it be destroyed. Call it the Forge of Fury of something like that. You put up your greater undead bane item to make it a disruptor, too, or lose it forever. But keep the audience in the loop to make it exciting for all observers.

And please create an anti-magic shield around the entire arena so no spells can be cast during the event. Put yourself on a pedestal too high to jump onto and simply teleport the contestant up there too. That way no spells and no naked dancing people on stage. Then teleport him/her back to the audience when done (or into the death den, muhaha).

[rfachini]

I thought the Triva event was a good idea. Anyone could participate, it was live, it was not complete luck, and it was fun. Make the prizes a bit better and add in a few fun luck questions too, like "What number from 1-10 am I thinking of?"

Board events like this one are fun too. It was a good idea and I'm glad you did it.

[HumanJHawkins]

An interesting discussion here. I am open to all feedback as always. However, the one thing I need to know is whether or not you - as a whole community, not an individual (meaning I want to hear from everyone!)

Speaking for a very small fraction of the community (i.e. Me), I like the events. It is very cool that you (and your team) do these kinds of things for your customers.

So, forgive the following that might seem negative. It isn't meant to be. But I agree that the events could be improved, and the only way to improve things is to look at what is not ideal so it can be reviewed for change next time.

Here's my suggestions:

1) Put yourself in the position of a player, or better yet ask 10 different people to get a range of views on each stage of the event. For example, when having a lottery, consider:

- What is the best way to have people enter? Will requiring a specially formatted e-mail in order to enter frustrate a lot of my users who may not be technically inclined? Would making a simple web form be cheap (and reusable) enough to justify it. And would this save us enough time filtering through results that it actually saves money?

- How should the winning numbers be chosen? Should we have a system in place (even if it is just a quickly sortable spreadsheet or a simple SQL query) to determine and announce the winners immediately?

- How many people should win? And if there is no winner, should we roll again?

- Should we have a consolation prize, or even a thank-you gift for everyone who played... For example, 100 masterwork arrows that don't do anything more effective to the enemy than any other arrows, but that sparkle as they fly for a cool visual effect?

- Should we have a choice of prizes, so the Cleric who never fights doesn't get a sweet melee weapon that he can't use?

But the main thing that will really work the kinks out of any system is to do a dry run... You could have asked all of the turbine employees to send a quick sample entry according to your specs... I imagine this would have resulted in a lot of incorrect entries, therefore giving you the info that you either needed a different way of entering, or much better initial instructions.

You could have made a cupcake as the in-office prize for this dry run. Then when no one won and you ate it yourself, you would hear all of your coworkers groaning and mocking you... This would have told you that a contest where no one wins is usually a downer for people, and you need to change the rules to make sure someone wins.

Also, you need to consider the audience and the value of what you are offering... This is not like a state lottery for money where profit motive requires making sure the odds of winning are very low. All you need to make sure is that you don't give the winner an unfair advantage, or unbalance the game by adding too much power to the players.

Giving away a vorpal or paralizer or ring of the ancestors, etc. once every 3 months to each server is not going to unbalance the game or give anyone too much advantage. So you really should make sure someone wins something of that magnitude in each contest.

My 2 cents.
Cheers!

[Lyletuba]

You could have made a cupcake as the in-office prize for this dry run. Then when no one won and you ate it yourself, you would hear all of your coworkers groaning and mocking you... This would have told you that a contest where no one wins is usually a downer for people, and you need to change the rules to make sure someone wins.

LOL!

[Sir_Lawrence]

As of tonight, the winners (as previously announced) of the Festival of Olladra have received their +1 Intimidating Daggers in the in-game mail! Once again, the winners are:

Aundair: Obren and Alhoon
Ghallanda: Marrcus
Khyber: Arj
Riedra: Sollice and Azden
Tharashk: Vanleer
Thelanis: Kevall
Xoriat: Fael

If you see them, offer them a hearty "Congratulations!"

[DKerrigan]

As of tonight, the winners (as previously announced) of the Festival of Olladra have received their +1 Intimidating Daggers in the in-game mail! Once again, the winners are:

Aundair: Obren and Alhoon
Ghallanda: Marrcus
Khyber: Arj
Riedra: Sollice and Azden
Tharashk: Vanleer
Thelanis: Kevall
Xoriat: Fael

If you see them, offer them a hearty "Congratulations!"

If I see one of them on one of my alt servers (main is Adar, Tharashk and Thelanis are my alts) I will.

[Spookydodger]

Hrm.
Thanks for the bruises, and you can keep the stool samples.

[Hafeal]

When I began my subscription to DDO I thought there would be much more intereactive events than there have been. That being said, I would rather see dev effort go into fixing bugs and more content first; to me, live events are the icing on the cake.

IF you are going to have such events though, I think DKerrigan and ThEndor have made some great points. The events are designed so you WILL give the items away, this event seemed to miss that point.

If you want to offer an infinitesimal chance to get something (i.e,. a lottery), announce that you can gamble for unique items as a reward in the several taverns around town where they have the games.

But the many posters here have great ideas which all come down to - make the events MORE interactive. Some trivia is ok. Some gameshow is ok - just broadcast the show more so you can take "ownership" of their success or failure.

But mostly people want to use the gear they have acquired in the context of the game. Towns attacks, duels, dev appearances, hunts all go toward doing this.

The big thing to me though is that you need to make the events more regular. with a greater range of times - (e.g., more than one 1/2 hour time slot on each server). If people know when regular events occur - they will plan for them and you will have more participation. The unique give-aways, I would guess, are fun for the devs, a creative opportunity.

For example, the Festivus was great - but, to me, it implies it should happen again around the same time each season. Will it?

I would love to get a Sir Lawrence response to all the great posts in this thread - even to acknowledge reading them and weighing them for what they are worth. It goes a long way to know that the feedback you are soliciting is being read and considered in some way. :o

[Sir_Lawrence]

I would love to get a Sir Lawrence response to all the great posts in this thread - even to acknowledge reading them and weighing them for what they are worth. It goes a long way to know that the feedback you are soliciting is being read and considered in some way. :o

Your command is my wish, Tmdag4!

For the most part, I am tracking the various comments and letting everyone have their say - hence my silence. There are a lot of aspects regarding all live events which I must weigh with every one we've had to date. I'll discuss this again in more detail at some point in the future. For now, please continue with your feedback. We have some great stuff planned for the future!

[Namelessone]

My only question is this, is it at all possible to create an anti magic area that will not allow spells to be casted. I was at the reception and was annoyed to fernia that people would run in and cast an aoe spell and then run away. . . Really got old after oh say the first time.

[Kylstrem]

My only question is this, is it at all possible to create an anti magic area that will not allow spells to be casted. I was at the reception and was annoyed to fernia that people would run in and cast an aoe spell and then run away. . . Really got old after oh say the first time.

Heh... Give +Sir Lawrence a "Globe of Feeblemind" with a 100 foot radius. Anyone within the globe is feebleminded and can't cast spells nor click on clickies.

[Hafeal]

Your command is my wish, Tmdag4!

For the most part, I am tracking the various comments and letting everyone have their say - hence my silence. There are a lot of aspects regarding all live events which I must weigh with every one we've had to date. I'll discuss this again in more detail at some point in the future. For now, please continue with your feedback. We have some great stuff planned for the future!

/salute Sir Lawrence

Thank you! I look forward to getting your response to the full array of feedback you have received, and, of course, the next event! :D