Turgenev

This. Good summary, Eva.

That IS something the submitters themselves could organize... any impetus for this? I wouldn't mind seeing the list of submissions for the contest. It'd be better from the rednames, but that's more work that doesn't give a direct benefit to Paragon Studios, and is more for community cognizance (which is why we'd do it).

They might lack certain advantages that we enjoy, but overall, yeah, they look and sound just like you and me.

See, a "lesser known" author or arc doesn't translate to "new"... If someone is a serial writer, posts a story, takes it down, posts another one, takes it down, etc... the whole "1 arc published" doesn't really stand on its feet. I don't think there's an elegant formula to this, beyond actual admission from the arc author - and then we'd be taking their word on it (assume honesty here).

My only suggestion might be by going from the "first published" arc? It focuses on "new releases" vs the relative experience of the author, yes, but it doesn't exclude them either. Either way, it's the "arc" that's arguably new in this case (unless, of course, you get someone who unpubs/repubs...), and that would lend itself to review, rather than focusing on the author.

If you needed a definition for "new author", I guess one set of criteria would be:

a. First arc published within the last 2 months
b. No more than three arcs
c. No more than 50 plays TOTAL across all arcs (the number is variable, but the concept is that the person hasn't been marketed well and could use the highlight)

1. Don't forget, you get a free slot with each anniversary of your subscription.

2. Buy five slots, just cuz. GR's coming around, and you'll want some buffer for new builds.

Tokyo, my compliments on this idea. If this were possible, I'd happily donate my transfers to the EU crew too.

"Happy Festivus, here's a gift to go visit some off server chums for the holidays?"

Don't knock visiting the French/German servers 'til you try it. Arrange some english-speaking cohorts on the boards, then go visit them, and feel some brotherly love that spans borders.

I'm in the US, so I'll be hopping my main toon around for the holidays. Why? Cuz I can. Look past your paranoia, and take it for face value. "Here's a gift. Go nuts."

I admit it. I'm a whooor like that. Thanks for the kind sentiments!

Doubt it, honestly. We have thriving groups for both. I guess the critical mass will be when server performance bogs down on a regular basis that the idea of transfers will kick in, but that won't be for a while yet. I don't think the free transfer window (for this period) is when you'll see any serious orchestrated migration to another server.

(Although if I did go somewhere, it'd be Champion. Nice people.)
(I'd rather all of Champion transferred here tho. :P)

Too slow. Grab the Tabasco sauce.

As an aside: The last few 2xXP events haven't yielded the otherwise-typical server lockouts on Freedom like they used to do. Whether that's due to "the other game" or some backend streamlining of the player management capacity is something for Paragon Studios to discuss, and I imagine they're not telling.

Freedom's less about drama and more about sheer noise, which is offputting to someone who's not prepared for it. Trust me, judicious use of /ignores for your first day or two is enough to get through most of the noise. We have a fair amount of organizers too, for massive TF runs, raids, what have you (although we don't have many "themed" events like Virtue has). It's very much a "run with the bulls" attitude there. Suits us fine, but might not be for everyone. Doesn't stop you from organizing such events, however, and we've had a few of those lately.

Hope this helps, good luck wherever you decide to head.

Hey, I remember you. Welcome to my house.

Dunno. There are three schools of thought out there:

1. Server X is my home, I ain't leavin'! (Which I certainly respect.)
2. OMG, server X is dead, get me to server Y NAO! (Which I certainly understand.)
3. Grrr, Server X is dead, I want to transfer to Y, but my mom won't gimme her CC to transfer my 20 toons! (Which makes me snicker a little.)

I think 1 and 2 are the major camps out there; and as such, camp 2 (which would have wanted to transfer) probably did so already over the last year or so. In terms of raw benefit for this holiday transfer gift, I think it'll be group 3 who'll take the most advantage of it, at least for transferring a few toons to test the waters.

I'll probably exercise the transfer and move Dr. Turg around for the holidays to say hi to everyone.

Freedom definitely had a history for this, but with the last one or two double XP events, it's been fairly smooth (yellow status only, no stress for logins, Virtue seemed to show similar behavior). Just FYI on this, it was my biggest /ragequit issues with the double XP weekend, but it's been very reasonable on Freedom.

OP, If you find yourself too invested in a toon on server X, you can always entertain the option of transferring that toon elsewhere. The process is pretty seamless (for a charge, of course), and I use that for my main when I want to visit a server population for the holidays.

Heh. Problem is, that "childish" response was pretty much right on all counts.

(Waits for someone to quote the whole "Emperor's Clothes" parable and take this in yet another direction)

My two cents: Love the booster pack, haven't noticed the issues you cite, although I haven't played much with the costume pieces yet. So, poor quality? From this subjective opinion, nope. Suits me just fine.

/e bringit

First, thanks for the kind words. And let me state publicly, I'm still working on Acts III and IV (got delayed cuz of a buttload of life issues), but I haven't forgotten about this arc series!!

...Yeah, I started getting odd comments over the last 2-3 weeks on the arc, but unfortunately a majority of them were vague; "omg all bosses ur sick" and what not. Unfortunately, I get comments sorta like that regularly (I usually respond asking for more info), so I hadn't paid too much attention to it until I got to talking with someone who broke down specifically what was actually happening.

Luckily, it SEEMS like an easy fix: Mish 1, the end "boss" is a boss/EB, with a group of Illuminati minions around him. For some reason, the minions were all replaced by ...the end boss... so you had a cluster of 3-8 boss/EBs, all masterminds...

Hoooah. Now, that's FUN when you have Deceive... but completely NOT by design...