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GM Events Only On Weekends?
It's hard to schedule around work, kids, school, and traffic during the week just for an hour long event. Instead of making GM events on a specific weekday for each server, they should be held on weekends. This will create more traffic, but at least players won't miss out on nice free items and meetings with GMs!! I couldn't get a Camp Bed due to this, same for the last GM event, and it's frustrating! Please make GM events only on weekends!
Comments
Besides, not everyone might be free weekends as well due to extracurricular activity for those who still do school.
Unfortunately for me, this semester I have classes during both times! ;DD I shall continue to sleep on the floor, since according to everyone's faces... the bed isn't very comfortable.
Yeah, true. Most GM events happen around 2-5 AM in Europe. I was really happy that i got chance to not go to sleep up until 4 AM for Valentine's Dance Party and it was worth it, even though i felt really tired and guilty for staying that late when i woke up in the morning with only 5 hour sleep lol. After that, i was really happy seeing that 9th Anniversary GM event 1st appearance happened 9 PM my time, it's a shame that 2nd appearance was too late for me to attend as well...
Hypothetically, the GM events occur twice during the day they are scheduled, one towards the noon hours and one towards the early evening. If you make a weekend version of it as well, then that's 4 times total for a single event, or only do it once on a weekend, which means 3 times total.
Now let's look at the situations people may be in.
Free during week, free during weekend - Pretty much, you hypothetically go to all events, which means you get multiple loot. Win-win for people who can do that, lose-lose for people who can't. Oh, and let's not forget those who multi-client, either legitimately with multiple computers or illegitimately via cracks/mods. Who knows how many alternate accounts they're running just for the goods?
Free during week, not free during weekend; or vice-versa - You'll only be able to go to at least one of the events, maybe 2 if the time works. Little to no multiple loot. You win some; you lose some. Probably most will fall into this category, which is fine. Not everyone will be able to participate; Nexon and just about every game company out there knows this, but they do their best to plan within their business schedule to even create in-person events like this. Why do you think they prefer scripted events?
Not free at all/Schedule Conflicts - Need I explain this one? At this point, you're stuck with Real Life vs. Digital Life. I'm pretty sure Real Life is far more important than a digital trinket that could one day poof into thin air when the game finally reaches the end of its life. It's not the funnest choice since people would rather have fun, but it's a choice that needs to be made to actually pay for things like internet in order to play once you move out of the house/parents start making you pay rent.
So, as you can see, people who can abuse the system will do so just for more free stuff. At that point, more people will complain because:
Now, personally speaking, I actually did AFK for this past GM event and got all three items on Ruairi (The bag of 'goodies' and the two balloons). I didn't have much choice in terms of wanting to interact during the event (or even enjoy it personally) because the first scheduled time I was at work and the second scheduled time was just 30 minutes after I got off work, which meant there was a high chance of me missing it since I had a few errands to run after work. While those were my excuses, did I let them stop me? No, I just left my computer on while minimizing every single thing that could possibly lag me out and turning my cam to pointing downward at my feet to avoid a graphical overload because of the spamming I know some of the 'kiddies' of the server will do it just because they can and they think it's funny to lag others who don't have decent computer specs to lag out (I actually run a high-end custom, so I shouldn't have to worry about this, but it's a precaution since Mabi tends to be a bit on the unstable side when it comes to in-person events). Maybe you're not used to leaving your comp on for such a long time because you want to save on the electric bills when you're not using it, but since items tend to be of more value to some people, I don't see why people still complain when they can just easily put the graphical countermeasures in place and AFK.
Now, if you actually want to interact with the GM, that's an entirely different story because, I kid you not, they will be swamped with whispers, overworld chat, and who knows what else players try to do (As a former temp GM from another game, I really feel for our GMs at Nexon...).
No matter what reason you use, more than likely it is not enough to justify Nexon to add a second GM event day, save for a reschedule due to technical issue that could not be resolved within the day or something happened to the GM that is supposed to be leading it.
Not to mention that GMs also have their own lives outside of Mabi/work. To come in on a weekend would also mean they would be sacrificing their personal time since GMs technically don't work outside of office hours unless there is an emergency, and even then, usually it's the tech team that is almost always on duty since they have to make sure things are stable (For veterans from Ruairi like myself, I'm sure you guys remember the duping crashes that were almost a constant issue, and for all servers, the really long downtime due to launching G4 to G6 [Pioneers of Iria] in one patch... XD If that isn't overtime for our tech boys, I don't know what is).
Oh, as a little side note... Working weekends for some companies is considered overtime since it may be considered outside of normal business hours (Even more so when you're going over the 40-hour limit for full-time workers in the State of California. There are laws that prevent businesses from making workers go over 40 hours a week unless necessary, like emergencies or lack of coverage), so pay rate is anywhere from 1.5x [Minimum] to 2x [Depending on company] normal pay rate here in California. While GMs won't mind that (And you may think it's a drop in a bucket), company might not be so gracious about paying overtime, especially when it starts accumulating over time, which can be a lot in the long run.
Sorry for the wall of text, but I'm just covering all my bases ^^;
PS: GM Events are a privilege, not a right. It's something they plan because they want to for fun, not because they need to in order to please us.
For 8m-20m. lol.
Or maybe skills should be disabled, similar to how the XO Quiz event was.
I think the item thing should be a surprise and not stated in the GM event page so it rewards the people who came to genuinely meet the GM and not those who only came with the intent of getting a cool doo-dad then leaving. :-)
Ever watched a show, then see a side character you really like that makes the episode 10x better? Well, let us be honest, unless the writers are talented enough, it is not a good idea, mainly because it is their scarcity that makes them pleasurable when they do appear, but also because they usually make an appearance when the writers have something great for them to say and do for their limited duration.
GMs are sort of the same. People would get bored. They would get bored. A lot of these events are to commemorate some holiday, or in anticipation in some event. I honestly would not log on for them if it were a weekly thing, because I would probably take them for granted, get bored, or otherwise. I mean, what is there to say between updates, between events?
So basically, you don't want the GM events to go the way events in general have? Active 24/7, almost necessary to keep most players interested in the game, and taken for granted by those same players?
I wonder what it would take to convince Nexon to go a month without any events. I would love to see that.
During the days of G2 to maybe about mid-Iria, we didn't really have much in terms of events, or at least we weren't slapped in the face with one weekly. Some events were server specific since they were player-made while we would normally have one or two a month, usually a double-rainbow EXP event or even pet events. I just remember they weren't that frequent so that we didn't burn ourselves out due to too many events.
The main problem, however, is that people will still complain when they cannot tend an event (The main subject for this thread) due to unseen circumstances/real life situations. Personally, the GMs are doing fine as is, and any GM events should take place when they deem it should (Read: Normal business hours).
My opposition for one end, or extreme, does not imply that I am advocating the opposing extreme. That is a bad argument.
In any case, I feel that it would get tiring real quick that the residual population that sticks around would not be enough to justify extra hours. I feel that if the GMs want to do it, which I doubt they would, are just people, dealing with an internet community of haters and fanboys for the most part. If they want to take this suggestion, sure. I urge caution, if not outright proposal to this idea.
They could offer prizes, but this would just inflate the numbers. Chatting is a bit of a middle ground, though I do not see it going well from past experiences.
Bed is extremely cheap in Tarlach shops, from what I've seen. It really does depend on server.
An all day log in prize would also be good, let people log in for prizes and then attend the party if they have time.
Making certain skills disabled would also help with the lag issues, its bad enough with the large crowds.