Curse

House Caribdus · Dec 22, 2009, 12:14 AM // 00:14

Dwayna's wings sweep the sky and reveal a starry sight...

Grenth's cold winter Moon broods, but shines ever so bright...

And the little children pray and wonder: "What gifts will the Lady bring us this night?"

------- Ascalonian Wintersday children's rhyme

Esteemed Ambassadors,

I bring you greetings and well-wishes on behalf of Her Grace, the Countess Talia Caribdus of House Caribdus and the island nation of Callisea.

With this missive, I have the honor and pleasure to announce that during the Wintersday Season of this year 1078AE(1588CC), Her Grace's servant, the Lady Patrisha MacFarlane, Callisean Ambassador to Kryta, will once again be reprising her role as "The Winter Lady", and will be again traveling the nations of Tyria on a gift-giving tour of goodwill. During these nights, the Lady Patrisha will be giving away many gifts of value to the citizens of Ascalon, Kryta, Cantha, and Elona. This is the 5th Winterday Season that the Gift Giveaway has taken place and Lady Patrisha is hoping it will be the best yet.

Patrisha's traditional first and last stop will be in Ascalon City, in Ascalon, our House's nation of origin. The exact schedule is as follows:

Ascalon City, American District 4, December 27th at 6pm Pacific time

Lion's Arch, American District 4, December 28th at 6pm Pacific time

Shing Jea Monastery, American District 4, December 29th at 6pm Pacific time

Kamadan, American District 4, December 30th at 6pm Pacific time

Ascalon City, American District 4, December 31st at ****5****pm Pacific time for the final giveaway and a year's end farewell.

If District 4 is, for whatever reason, not open during these times then Lady Patrisha will be appearing in the next district down (3,2..etc). The purpose of this is to avoid the "Market Districts" of each city.

All gifts given are of course free, and are intended to favor the new, young, and less fortunate heroes of our lands, but gifts will be available for veterans as well. Each person opening trade with Lady Patrisha will receive one profession-specific item (if possible) per showing. Attempts to fool Lady Patrisha usually fail miserably as she remembers names very well. Holiday items and mini-pets maybe substituted if profession-specific items have run out at that time. Each showing usually lasts for 60-90 minutes or until items set aside for that night are gone.

Those with questions about the event may ask here, may send a missive to our Diplomatic Center, Events Branch ([email protected]), or may contact Patrisha MacFarlane in-game when she is available. I will take the opportunity to answer each season's most common question now: Yes, she accepts donations to the Giveaway, and Yes she will most certainly accept those wishing to join a "Group Giveaway" to give away gifts of their own during her event. The more givers, the better!

A Blessed Wintersday Season to you all!

Chen-po Duan, Chamberlain, House Caribdus

Burning Freebies · Dec 22, 2009, 09:20 AM // 09:20

I think this sounds great. But:

*Why do a "showing" on Wintersday itself, in Ascalon, where they dont give hats? Surely every one will be getting hats in the districts of Kamadan and LA?
*What are the actual prizes you are giving away?
*Because a lot of the people on this particular forum are from Europe, will there be any time conversions for us?

Thanks!

Patrisha MacFarlane · Dec 22, 2009, 09:41 AM // 09:41

We aren't doing a showing on Wintersday itself. Wintersday begins on the 1st of Jan at 12:01 AM PST.

Gifts given are profession-specific items of green, gold, purple, and in the case of very new players, very nice "starter" blue items. We attempt to give players items they can actually use.

Pacific time is GMT -8 hours... so that means first showing is 2 AM GMT on the 28th if my finger counting is right. As far as doing a showing at a time that is more accessible to Europeon players, I can certainly try but right at this moment I cannot guarantee anything. If our stock of items significantly increases in the next couple days I will try to make something happen along those lines.

gnr rules · Dec 22, 2009, 05:51 PM // 17:51

Hey, glad to hear you guys are doing an event like this, it sounds cool and awesome! A couple Qs if you dont mind though

1. Can we determine what we want, or is this just a random, hope for it and be lucky type of thing?:P like im a collector of mini's, and im a dervish and i alreadyy have my fair share of good endgame scythes :P. So is it allowed to ask for a mini instead, or something? Just wonderin!

2. Can there be a time post, so that we all know? Is this starting pacific time, or what?

3. What if one of these places, such as kamadan and lions arch, are full all the way from 1,2,3 and 4? Then you would have to go up i guess/think, but no one would know D:.

4. Is this one per whole account, or character? Can i get 8 different presents for different people on my account, or is this all just 1 gift for 1 account? It seems like a stupid question, but you never know :P, and it rules out any people trying to be sneaky with that.

Thanks ahead of time, i cant wait to be there!!!

Patrisha MacFarlane · Dec 23, 2009, 06:06 AM // 06:06

1. Within limited means, yes. I strive to get people what they need, if I have it. Some people wanna hem and haw for 10 minutes about what they are gonna get while lots of other people are waiting. I don't go for that. In the past I've even had people argue and lose their temper over what they were given. Those folks get ignored right away and if it gets out of hand they get reported, of course. But most people realize that they are getting a free item out of the kindness of a handful of hearts and are happy with whatever they get.

2. Times are listed by the OP

3. Well, I've never encountered a situation where Dist 4 was full during a time when I was trying to get in to do the Giveaway, but if that were to occur, I would keep trying to get in until I did. My concern this year is that, due to lesser numbers of players, AC Dist 4 or Shing Jea Dist 4 may not be there. Usually we pick up a significant number of new players after Christmas, so that concern maybe unfounded.

4. I would prefer that a player only visits me once per showing, per account. That way more players will get gifts. Of course, you can always hit the next night's showing!

gnr rules · Dec 23, 2009, 10:46 PM // 22:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrisha MacFarlane

1. Within limited means, yes. I strive to get people what they need, if I have it. Some people wanna hem and haw for 10 minutes about what they are gonna get while lots of other people are waiting. I don't go for that. In the past I've even had people argue and lose their temper over what they were given. Those folks get ignored right away and if it gets out of hand they get reported, of course. But most people realize that they are getting a free item out of the kindness of a handful of hearts and are happy with whatever they get.

2. Times are listed by the OP

3. Well, I've never encountered a situation where Dist 4 was full during a time when I was trying to get in to do the Giveaway, but if that were to occur, I would keep trying to get in until I did. My concern this year is that, due to lesser numbers of players, AC Dist 4 or Shing Jea Dist 4 may not be there. Usually we pick up a significant number of new players after Christmas, so that concern maybe unfounded.

4. I would prefer that a player only visits me once per showing, per account. That way more players will get gifts. Of course, you can always hit the next night's showing!

awesome!!!thanks for telling me of all of these...and whats the OP?:P im not quite sure of what that is. and helk yes i am going to try to make every showing, so ill hopefully see you there!

...and thats horrible how people get mad, thats just wrong 0.o. anyways, thanks again for answering my questions!

Patrisha MacFarlane · Dec 24, 2009, 12:50 AM // 00:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnr rules

awesome!!!thanks for telling me of all of these...and whats the OP?:P im not quite sure of what that is. and helk yes i am going to try to make every showing, so ill hopefully see you there!

...and thats horrible how people get mad, thats just wrong 0.o. anyways, thanks again for answering my questions!

No problem.

Oh! OP= Original Poster or Original Post

Patrisha MacFarlane · Dec 28, 2009, 03:18 AM // 03:18

Reporting tonight's Giveaway (Dec 27th) went really well. Lots of people where there, including some of our European brothers and sisters.

I had to use Dist 2 though, Dist 4 was not open, and Dist 3 did not open until after I started.

82 items, most of them gold, were given away. Included were a handful of purples to lower level folks, a few minis, a few tomes (mostly monk), 4 survivor insignia, and two slices of pumpkin pie to a level 12 "Charr" who was really hungry! :lol:

A few people were kind enough to bring me flowers, which was really neat.

Tommorrow night ( Dec 28th ), I will be in Lions Arch.

gnr rules · Dec 29, 2009, 12:06 AM // 00:06

im reserving a gift here >.> for tonight. im on its 6:05 and no ones at lions arch, and i gtg eat. so i might miss it because of this...argh. so im reserving my gift!

Patrisha MacFarlane · Dec 29, 2009, 12:12 AM // 00:12

You're two hours early.....

Patrisha MacFarlane · Dec 29, 2009, 03:35 AM // 03:35

Tonight's giveaway in Lions Arch was the best yet! There was a huge turn-out that I would say was the largest in the past five seasons. Literally dozens of players were attendance when I arrived in LA.

Unfortunantly, I was a couple minutes late due to a connection issue, and the increased number of people meant that items set aside for tonight went very fast. I also learned that a mistake was made on the Guild Wars.com announcment that reads that my first showing was the 26th. This was a mistake somewhere as the first showing was not until the 27th, as you can see by the post made by the OP here. I want to apologize for the miscommunication.

In all, 94 items were given away. Monk and Necro items went the fastest and Tonics were substituted when needed, and we made a 9 year old player very happy by giving her her first mini-pet! That really made the evening.

Tam Rit was a huge assistance by donating a huge stash of green items at the end of the showing. These items will be given out in the next two nights along with others already set aside.

Tommorrow night (Dec 29th), I will be in Shing Jea Monastary dist 4 (if there is one, dist 3 otherwise) at 6 pm Pacific. Rit and Sin items will be given away with others.

gnr rules · Dec 29, 2009, 05:10 AM // 05:10

do i still get my reserved item?:P i also suffered a connection issue, so sadly i couldnt donate. i hope ill be able to tomorrow though!0.o

Patrisha MacFarlane · Dec 30, 2009, 03:11 AM // 03:11

Tonight's giveaway in Shing Jea went very well. Immediately the are was flooded by players and well-wishers and items went quickly. I had my largest supply of daggers to date and there were many assassins in attendance to receive them.

In all 78 items were given away, not counting tonics and runes and party favors when profession items ran out. I still had lots of warrior items left, bu since I ran out of virtually everything else, we went ahead and pulled the plug after an hour of rapid-fire gift-giving. The only downside: there was no dist 4 or 3, so I had to dot he giveaway in dist 2. I've decided that for next year I will do Ascalon City and Shing Jea showings in Dist 1 so to avoid this problem.

Tonight, we also received about 20 items in donation, most of these green, which are being added to tommorrow's giveaway.

Speaking of which, tommorrow night I will be in Kamadan American Dist 4 at 6 pm Pacific. Dervish and Paragon items will be added to the mix, although I gotta warn you, I do not have many scythes at all.

Till then!

Patrisha MacFarlane · Dec 31, 2009, 02:07 AM // 02:07

Kamadan showing is a bust!

I simply cannot cope with the 20k average ping lag and hope to get it done. Everyone in Kamadan is totally lagging out with pings as high as mine or worse. It's been like that for a couple days and hasn't been fixed. Hopefully it is fixed by the time of the Wintersday Finale.

To compensate for the lack of a showing in Elona, and in anticipation that the lag issue will not be resolved soon, I will take this train back to Tyria and ADD a day to the schedule.

On the 1st of Jan, I will be back in Lion's Arch American Dist 4 and 5 PM Pacific. I will attempt to get it done for our Paragon and Dervish players before the 6 pm Finale event.

Patrisha MacFarlane · Jan 01, 2010, 02:49 AM // 02:49

Tonight I was back in Ascalon City, but again there was no district 4 open so I did the showing in district 3. Next year I am definantly going to do AC and Shing Jea showings in district 1.

The crowd was alot smaller, but AC crowds usually are. In all, just over 60 green, gold, and purple items were given away, and we held onto dervish and paragon items for tommorrow night.

Due to last night's difficulty, we'll be doing a final showing in Lions Arch, dist 4, at 5 PM Pacific. The finale will be then, and the special finale gift will be given. Getting into district may be difficult due to the Wintersday finale and the tons of AFK players. If you don't get in right away, just keep trying.

If I have gifts left over, and I probably will, I will be going to Kamadan district 4 immediately after the 6 pm Dwayna vs. Grenth Finale in Lions Arch to give those items away.

We've encountered alot of district, lag, and communication problems this year. More so than any other year, but I am determined to work through them and make it happen for our great player community!

Patrisha MacFarlane · Jan 02, 2010, 09:22 AM // 09:22

Tonight's (and the season's) last showings went really well! I had a rough time getting into LA, and wasn't able to get into Dist 4 until afer the 6 pm PST Event, but once I got in alot of people were in attendance to receive gifts. I had alot of pm's asking how I was handling that situation and I was happy for them. If you don't know/aren't sure what's going on: ASK ME

Alot of people just assumed that the problems prevented us from doing showing and missed out on gifts, so I hope next year, whether we are here or in GW2, people will just ask me if they are unsure about something.

Despite all of that, things went really well in LA. 66 Items, not including tonics and minis were given out. I then dropped into Kamadan dist 4 to giveaway all remaining items including our finale items. 123 items were given out, as well as the last of the tonics and the last mini. All of the two dozen Paragon items went, as well as the limited number of Dervish items we had.

Two finale gifts were given out at the end of the Kamadan showing:
The first was a Sundering Grinning Recurve Bow from the Fissure of Woe that went to I Can See Ghosts

The Final Gift was a Travellers Icy Dragon Sword that went to Kei Fenrir.

That's it for this year and this will be my last post on this thread. A big THANK YOU to all that made the Giveaway fun and successful and especially to those who donated to the cause!

Wintersday Blessings to you all!