Discussion: Animal Pack In Game Giveaway!

My only disappontment was not being able to stick around long enough to get a gold title. Still it was fun to see all the folks turn out for this, and for the most part, everyone seemed to be in a happy, joking mood.

Can't wait to be able to snare one of these for myself on Wednesday!

I was disappointed they didn't go to the second instance on Protector but some people need to get a grip. It was a special treat they didn't have to do and no one was entitled to get anything.

I'm not upset that they didn't go to Pocket D 2 in Pinnacle. I'm upset that they went to Pocket D 2 (or 3 or 4 in some cases, I heard they made an appearance in PD4 on Freedom even without any codes) on some servers but not others. If all servers were treated fairly, that's one thing. But when they showed up everywhere on one server, and not on another, that's just not fair. And to have a group of people standing around waiting and nothing happening. No word, nothing whatsoever for a full half hour, that's not fun. Especially if you use your Pocket D teleporter and might not even realize you're not in Pocket D 1.

I guess there were no problems on European Server, I had to work at those times!

Hey all,

First off, I want to start by thanking everyone for coming out to the event yesterday. Your support for these in game shin-digs help make them a fun and exciting time for everyone who participates, us included.

So in reading this, it appears that some folks didn't have as positive of an experience as others did. Regardless of the reason for this, I sincerely apologize if anything we did caused you to not enjoy yourself. The purpose of these events is to bring the Community together and for everyone to enjoy themselves, and when a good time isn't the result, it's not a good thing. So, my apologies.

To give you some insight as to why things happened the way they did: Unfortunately we had some last minute forum maintenance that sprang up late afternoon on Friday. This maintenance was absolutely necessary as it was part of a software upgrade applied organization wide. The timing of this sadly coincided with the Live Events happening on the North American servers, which resulted in us having to divide our resources between managing the Live Event and the forum maintenance. We definitely tried our best to provide the same experience to everyone who participated, unfortunately it seems as if some folks were left feeling unattended to. Again, this is something we sincerely apologize for.

Moving forward, we will be certain to request additional codes (or whatever prize or giveaway item it may be) to account for more people than expected, and we'll make an effort at least touch (no not that kind of touch...I'm looking at you Virtue) everyone we possibly can, even if that just means popping in and waving "hello".

Again, I just want to thank you all for your continuing to come out and party with us at these in game events, both on the Live Servers and the Test Servers. Your enthusiasm continues to make CoH the place to be!

- Z

Hm. While I am still displeased at my lack of freestuff...

I appreciate your response on the matter, while being a bit late you still came through to us with information. I was seriously considering just ignoring these sorts of events from now on but your response and what looks looks to be an honest to hami attempt to improve upon the experience and learn from mistakes...

Well. I know it's not easy to do this kind of stuff. And the explanation(Trying to run an event while also doing your job) made sense. AND you've presented your plan for making the next one better and working on fixing the problems we feel popped up this time. So... sweet. Communication is important and I'm used to getting the standard vague and automated responses that something that looks like it took real human effort stands out.

It remains to be seen if you guys can improve the (perceived or not)quality of events. But I'll give it another try.


Thank you very much, I look forward to having you around

Heh. Zwillinger ist kredit to team!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I attended two different events: Triumph and Virtue. It was sort of fun. Best part was one player ALREADY sporting a few beast parts thanks to a twitter code win.

But once I saw that pocket D on triumph was filled to capacity and there was a D2, figured, yeah, don't expect free stuff.

May be better to say that the costume packs will be given away *randomly* in the future, not outline any costume them contest. Because the costumes that won didn't really fit the theme at all in some cases. Player run costume contests, themed or not, with everyone lined up and judges coming down the line and narrowing it down to semi-finalists convey much better and longer consideration than I think you all can on a whirlwind tour of 40+ different zones in a few hours. At least there you can get a good idea as a participant to the tastes of the judges. Where as these in game swag gatherings are much more akin to a t-shirt toss.

Cool and all. But probably better not to advertise it as a costume contest!

Regardless, was neat to see enthusiasm so high that virtue had 7+ pocket D's running. Also was neat to see a few folks on live with the costume bits early. Love some aspects of this pack and looking forward to getting it myself next week.

I logged in, was in a Pocket D, and swiftly left. I was expected to be on my static team. As luck always has it for me, I decided not to attend the costume giveaway since I know I would not get the prize.
I'll get it on Wednesday from the NC Store. I'm guaranteed to get a code then.

All in all I think the event went pretty well. Yea, there were a couple of bumps, but you know what? It happens. You can't predict everything and there's only so much you can do with the resources you have and the limitations upper management places on you. You're never going to please everyone all of the time - that's a fact of life. You guys made a lot of people happy and I think the overall reception to the event was pretty positive. My only gripe was the Twitter post in that for a lot of people it didn't show up if they weren't logged in. Though, there were people who weren't logged in who saw it anyways - so I'll consider that more of an issue on Twitter's side :-P

Anywho, just one player's opinion on the event. I liked it. I thought it was nice of you guys to give free stuff. And I thought it was in good taste that you guys acknowledged the issues and responded to it.

Can't wait for the next event! (More costume codes please!)

[ @Zombie Fryer ][ @Zombie Smasher ]
| Home Server: Virtue |

Twitter: @ZFLikesNachos Save City of Heroes (Titan Network) [Successful "The Really Hard Way" runs: 4] [Click ^]

I truly appreciate the response from Zwil! I was in PD2 on Triumph at the designated time, and there were about 15-20 others there also. We waited, talked and waited some more. No dev showed up, but about 3 out of the crowd sported the 'animal instinct' yellow title above their heads after about a half an hour. Slowly, the crowd dwindled down to me alone. I would have liked to just get the title for showing up, even if I didn't get the pack code. Zwill's post was thoughtful, and helped me understand what happened.

bjooks,
First off, I'm liking the avatar. Not sure what that is from, but that's the best cupcake I've ever seen!

Also, nice feedback. I just wanted to comment about what you said about the feel of the "party" and such (and this isn't counter to anything you've said or anything like that).
The problem your feedback basically centered on (understandably) is that these types of events aren't really a party (not unless the community really comes together and makes it such, without the Devs or CR team). They're just a lot of people logging on in hopes to get one of the very few free codes being handed out.

With so many people turning up, and it not being a costume contest, it was more like a crowd of beggars running up to a visitor, hoping to get what they have. *Note, I'm not equating players showing up to get the Free Code to beggars in a negative light (nor am I putting any of this on the same level as the reality of needing to beg for food/money)... Haha... This post is more disclaimers than content.

So, yeah... the party aspect is lost and it feels more like a bunch of ducks and geese gathering around a person with a few pieces of bread.
Once the person is out of bread and takes off, they all waddle and fly over to the next bread-holder (server).

So, I suppose, if we want it to be different...
Either it should be done in contest form (they've done it in the past, but not with these numbers, I don't think).
Don't do it at all.
Or we, the players, have to take the opportunity to shape it into a true community event and have our own party that will be visited by the team, giving out their codes and all.

Anyways, just thoughts that sprang to mind from reading other people's thoughts.
Not a big deal, either way!



EDIT:
I should mention that there were indeed some people who were making it a community event and handing out their own prizes and doing their part towards making it a fun time for all.
So, yeah, I'm not saying the community was completely devoid of community, hehe.
These types of events just lose the fun when the focus is on the very few prizes, compared to the collective whole of those who turn up.
But what can ya do!

Well I showed up to the Freedom instances ( i say instances because i kept lagging bad and getting booted.) So i went from PD2 to PD3 to PD4, and eventually ended in PD5. I was in PD5 when the devs finally showed up. I have to admit that PD5 was more like people waiting for free stuff, than having fun, but the other three were actually fun. PD2 we actually had a point where Trollbruski (not sure if that's spelled right) and I had the jackhammers going and 'digging' a hole for another player. (looked funnier than it sounds being my toon (Shondowakai) is a 'Wolfey' toon. (dogs and their digging holes). All in all i have to say that it was fun, and some of the chat was.......interesting, being the word that comes to mind. I greatly appreciated the Dev's doing this, even if there was problems with advertising it and the actual implementation of the event. But Zwil's appearance here admiting they made mistakes and are willing to fix them for next time goes as far to show me why i love this game and continue to offer my patronage. But now i must go, Tomorrow the pack is released, must prepare!!!!!!!!!