Hearts A'Flutter ...?

[trovan2]

So, what are the rewards? I haven't been able to do it becasue of huge wait time. <img src="/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> EDIT: Also, what are any other quests/things to do with the event? And when does it end?

[Ruut Li]

<p>The first prize is a choice of four types of lilies in pretty vases. If you are unlucky like me you are in a server where this game is used for money-making. Its heavily farmed in both cl and ant, 50 harvested essences is about whats needed to win on my server. To get that many you have to find the right path to harvest by either luck the first time you play or keep returning every 1 hour 20 mins (LOL) to try and learn where the f theres the most essences. Or you can buy the lilies from these erollisi farmers, on my server they cost 20-30 plat. Happy erolisi day! Ching!</p><p>In North Qeynos theres a quest NPC at the claymore. Its an easy quest and gives a fun spell and a book as reward. I dunno where this dude is in FP though sorry.</p><p> I think Erollisi ends this week.</p>

[Dragonz]

F.P dude has same name, find him bottom of docks near gate on side with bells

[irish]

It ends early this Friday morning.

[tagg]

I really wish the devs would  have gotten smart on this and limited the 1st place win to 1 per toon, and make the prize no trade. The same person on my server keeps winning over and over and over with 50 plus.  I am sure its all about $$$, but honestly I would be nice to limit the greed.

[Meryddian]

<p>It would be nice if the events would last through the holiday weekend... since it went live so late. :</p><p>Devs, any chance the timer will be shortened today? Over an hour is a crazy-long wait time, especially when the Christmas one ran what, every 8-10 min?</p>

[KerowynnKaotic]

<p>While we are on the subject of the "Hearts A'Flutter" game .. </p><p>I think I will give my quick feedback on it .. </p><p>#1 - Timer!  Way too long.  30 mins MAX! next time.  Every 15 mins is best.</p><p>#2 - 1st place prizes.  Lovely items!  </p><p>Farmed on nearly every sever by someone. <img src="/smilies/0320a00cb4bb5629ab9fc2bc1fcc4e9e.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I think I would have preferred either the items be NO TRADE or like the Halloween Items being "un-available" after you had won all the prizes in that section.</p><p>#3 - Instead of Harvesting the item.  I would have preferred a "run-through" method like the Frostfell Candycanes.  </p><p>Reason being is that anyone under lvl 23(@) were handicapped during this game since if the mob even conned light green and argo'd on to the player; they were unable to harvest. </p><p>#4 - Would have rather have had the "consolation" prize be something other than the same item that we got "spammed" to us in the mail system.  </p><p>(lesson:  Never repeat prizes! Use different and distinct items in each sub event for a holiday) </p><p>#5 - Game Status: ( X signed up, need 2) .. </p><p>Ok, after pondering this for several minutes most people figured it out meant:   X have signed up.  Game needs 2 to start. </p><p>Wouldn't it have been better to just say in the RULES section.   Game needs a minimum of 2 players to start.   ??</p><p>---- </p><p>All in All I did enjoy each time I ran this race!  There was a definite feeling of "competitiveness", which I don't usually feel.   (I'm rather laid back in competitions).  I actually surprised myself by winning a couple times!  <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </p><p>Good Job Devs! <img src="/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Loolee]

<cite>irish wrote:</cite><blockquote>It ends early this Friday morning. </blockquote> <span style="color: #ff00ff"> Oh no!!!  I've had to work all week and haven't had time to play around with the events.  I was hoping to do it Friday for all my toons since it is the one day I am off.  </span>

[Calthine]

AAHHH!!  Me too! /neglects children for lillies in a vase!

[Ashlian]

Yes, it would have been really nice to have been able to have the event last through the weekend at least, since this has turned out to be one of the busiest weeks of the year for me. Worse by far than Christmas. And I think the rewards have turned into farming opportunities on pretty much all the servers for a few toons who occasionally lose to a lucky normal toon. Nice to know that if I were willing to pay 120 plat, I might be able to own all the rewards. I would far rather have seen some quest like Frostfell where the house rewards were obtainable through a series of quests, and I could actually have stood a chance of obtaining them.

[Moederette]

<cite>tagger wrote:</cite><blockquote>I really wish the devs would  have gotten smart on this and <b>limited the 1st place win to 1 per toon, and</b> <b>make the prize no trade</b>. The same person on my server keeps winning over and over and over with 50 plus.  I am sure its all about $$$, but honestly I would be nice to limit the greed. </blockquote><p> I totally agree with the no-trade prize or limits per character.  The high score list is filled with the same few people.  Every race I try, the same person is there and sitting AFK until the next race starts.  Really, how many flower vases do you need?  Good luck to anyone wanting their own vase...you can buy one in a couple months for many, many plats.  <img src="/smilies/0320a00cb4bb5629ab9fc2bc1fcc4e9e.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Other than the very annoying race, the rest of the Erollisi's Day stuff was fun.  The race would be fun too, if people weren't so greedy and the timer wasn't sooo long between races. </p>

[Kaidy]

I kind of agree w/ the idea of a limited number of wins for each character... Same guy is always listed as winning on my server, too... He must have a full florist shop, by now..<img src="/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  And it is too high lvl for some of my alts to even try to run w/ a lot of the hearts located in the middle of linked mobs... And as a few others have stated, why not let it run through the weekend for those of us who couldn't be on that much and that late during the week... Especially w/ the <u>REALLY LONG</u> wait time in between runs.. /sighs.  I agree to 15-30 min wait time, max..

[Oxie]

<p>Like others have said:</p><p>Shorten the timers.</p><p>Make the rewards no-trade and lore. They are currently selling for 50p+ on the brokers.</p><p>Or better yet, make it a knock off of the Halloween Trick or Treat race. Just run around the city and hail NPCs. If they give you a certain type of "Valentine", you get so many points to turn in for the lilies. This way, you can do the quest on your own time and not have to wait on more people to show up to do the race. You'll then be able to collect every option of flower (like you could on the Halloween masks) if you want to spend hours running around and hailing NPCs. Instead, we have to wait on timers, full race groups, and fight the greedy people. </p><p> I'm amazed that the plat farmers are not setting up their 6 group tank/wizard/wizard/wizard/wizard/healer groups to better their odds at winning one of the lilies.</p>

[Ganlu]

Just because they're on the broker for some insane price doesn't mean they're going to sell.  Even baby dragons sell for less than what I've seen people trying to sell the stupid flowers for, and at least the dragons provide a tangible benefit.

[Mystfit]

I thought the Errollis stuff ended today, but I saw the flutter game NPC still up in Antonica (all the familair names there as well-do you guys ever sleep!!!), did they decide to extend it?

[einar4]

<p> The delay between games is the really sad part.  The delay means that many people who have limited time online were not able to get into the race, or enough races to compete with the "regulars," and so had to miss out over an arbitrary decision on the part of a wooly-headed dev team. </p><p> I don't agree they should have been no-trade, though.  The farming led to alot of people getting disappointed from the greedy folk, but to me the reason to win the 1st prize was to give them as gifts (it's for valentine's day after all).   I think making them Lore would have been more appropriate though, so you wouldn't have people winning the races over and over to make plat. </p><p> I think a nice touch would have been a "Won by..." line in the description, similar to the line shown in the crafted items descriptions.  </p><p> It will be humorous snap to the farmers if the next update includes these flowers as craftable items, as the fireplaces were.  But I guess the only thing to really do about these plat farmers that monopolized the races is just not to buy their stuff, note their names and avoid all of their goods on the broker.   Boycotting them is about the only way to effectively fight the plat sellers and farmers. </p>

[Lyriel]

I am usually very much a fan of these events, but this one was disappointing on almost all fronts. It was such a short duration that I only managed to log in once the entire stretch due to RL. I did do Dalron's quest, on one character only since my time was limited, and it was cute and enjoyable. However, the Hearts A'Flutter game was extremely frustrating - I didn't know where the 'hot' spot was so there was no way to win the single time I could play it due to the execrable wait time between games. While I like my 'loser' prize, it would have been nice to have played more than once and had a shot at some of the others. To top it all of, I only received the email touting the events <b><i>this morning </i></b>- what kind of marketing campaign is that? All it did was frustrate me by saying "Oh look at the fun event you can't play!"

[SecrAtive Girl]

it absolutely kills me how SO many are complaining about the people who won a lot but NO ONE bothers to /tell them and ask how they win or for tips and advice or even if they would be kind enough to pass on a vase to them. and you all just ASSUME that if someone is winning alot they are farming. maybe they JUST LIKE THE DARN RACE and are passing out the wins to other people. GRRRRRRRR i just want to see other peoples suggestions and screenshots, but every gosh darn thread it's the same stinkin' thing. i have to stop reading these erollisi day threads. it's really ticking me off <img src="/smilies/2e207fad049d4d292f60607f80f05768.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.

[Kitsune]

Who said we didn't ask? And perhaps the reason it is ticking you off is your conscience - for winning it 22 times, you said, when many couldn't win at all because folk like you were doing your thing, getting your enjoyment 22 times over - at the expense of those who couldn't win! I'd like to think it was your conscience pricking you. Now as I said, I did win once, so it is not jealousy on my part complaining about the game. There is no justification in a game like this, with such a long time between events, running for such a short time, to be that selfish as to win 22 times because you "JUST LIKE THE DARN RACE". That is selfish, that is "<b>ME </b>before anyone else! <b>I want it</b>, I want to be seen as Lady Bountiful, graciously handing out <b>MY</b> rewards." Personally, I'd have refused you, and given you an earful. You are not a credit to your Guild. I know what my Guild Leader would have said if I had done that! It does not matter that YOU gave the prizes away. People like me wanted a FAIR SHOT at winning ourselves. Note that, fair shot. What is FAIR about people who can play it so often they are immediately at the hot spot before the game begins 22 times? Where is the COMPETITION in that? It's a foregone conclusion. You didn't <b><i>win</i></b> 22 times, no one else on your game had a chance against you! And you enjoyed that feeling? Wow.  And don't say you invested time to get that knowledge so deserved to "win" that often, sure you did, and one or two wins, even 3 is fine. But 22? You <b><i>enjoyed</i></b> beating people, having them <i><b>ASK</b></i> you for your prizes, ask you for advice... a truly altruistic person, and there WAS one, would post her information on the board in a thread like this for others to follow early on so they could go there and do that. Did you? No. You posted <b><i>after the event</i></b> to gloat you had won 22 times and given away a lot of your prizes. And you still can't see anything wrong in that. Hat off to the person who Posted that we should go to the McWhiddle (can't spell it right now) Farm for a good spawning ground of essences!

[Caliga]

The selling and questing NPCs are gone, but you can still play the game.  I finally saved up enough money at the flower vendor to go all out, and he was gone.  <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> 

[SecrAtive Girl]

<cite>Kitsune wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Who said we didn't ask? And perhaps the reason it is ticking you off is your conscience - for winning it 22 times, you said, when many couldn't win at all because folk like you were doing your thing, getting your enjoyment 22 times over - at the expense of those who couldn't win! I'd like to think it was your conscience pricking you. Now as I said, I did win once, so it is not jealousy on my part complaining about the game. There is no justification in a game like this, with such a long time between events, running for such a short time, to be that selfish as to win 22 times because you "JUST LIKE THE DARN RACE". That is selfish, that is "<b>ME </b>before anyone else! <b>I want it</b>, I want to be seen as Lady Bountiful, graciously handing out <b>MY</b> rewards." Personally, I'd have refused you, and given you an earful. You are not a credit to your Guild. I know what my Guild Leader would have said if I had done that! It does not matter that YOU gave the prizes away. People like me wanted a FAIR SHOT at winning ourselves. Note that, fair shot. What is FAIR about people who can play it so often they are immediately at the hot spot before the game begins 22 times? Where is the COMPETITION in that? It's a foregone conclusion. You didn't <b><i>win</i></b> 22 times, no one else on your game had a chance against you! And you enjoyed that feeling? Wow.  And don't say you invested time to get that knowledge so deserved to "win" that often, sure you did, and one or two wins, even 3 is fine. But 22? You <b><i>enjoyed</i></b> beating people, having them <i><b>ASK</b></i> you for your prizes, ask you for advice... a truly altruistic person, and there WAS one, would post her information on the board in a thread like this for others to follow early on so they could go there and do that. Did you? No. You posted <b><i>after the event</i></b> to gloat you had won 22 times and given away a lot of your prizes. And you still can't see anything wrong in that. Hat off to the person who Posted that we should go to the McWhiddle (can't spell it right now) Farm for a good spawning ground of essences!</p><p>you couldn't be more wrong about my motivations. i enjoyed the competition. it was exciting for me. i raced every single day since the first day during my waking hours - doing my daily activities in between. so think about how many races that is. htat's a heck of alot of races and considering how many times i raced... i lost a WHOLE LOT MORE. the hot spot i used (the southern graveyard in the commonlands) required at least one other person to be there, or the hearts would not respawn, and since i was always telling people where i collected my hearts there was almost always at least one other person there, usually more. so it sure wasn't me camping a hot spot that got me those wins. it was mostly luck, and the time to compete in so many races.</p><p>and i did not have that sort of attitude little miss. i just wanted to compete. it was darned fun, and after i got 1 of each vase for myself, i didn't need the winnings which is why i passed them out. i am ususally the one loosing all them time. i'm always lower lvl, i always can't find the collection pieces, i always can't afford the nice house items, i'm always behind. i just wanted to compete! so this better-than-thou-attitude you have assigned me is ridiculously inaccurate. perhaps that is how you would have felt in my place and the reason you are assigning those feeling me.</p><p>i did not post to gloat. i posted to let SOE employees looking for feedback hear from a person who won alot HOW they won alot - with a suggestion as to how it could be made easier on those who didn't have time to race over and over should they decide to impliment a similar race in future events.</p><p>and as far as i am concerned you DID have a fair shot. i didn't use any magic tricks or cheats. had i been in your place, i would have asked around until someone told me how to win, and i would have kept trying until i did. in fact when i am after something i can't get, that is exactly what i do.</p></blockquote>

[Kruqk]

<cite>einar438 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p> The delay between games is the really sad part.  The delay means that many people who have limited time online were not able to get into the race, or enough races to compete with the "regulars," and so had to miss out over an arbitrary decision on the part of a wooly-headed dev team. </p><p> I don't agree they should have been no-trade, though.  The farming led to alot of people getting disappointed from the greedy folk, but to me the reason to win the 1st prize was to give them as gifts (it's for valentine's day after all).   I think making them Lore would have been more appropriate though, so you wouldn't have people winning the races over and over to make plat. </p><p> I think a nice touch would have been a "Won by..." line in the description, similar to the line shown in the crafted items descriptions.  </p><p> It will be humorous snap to the farmers if the next update includes these flowers as craftable items, as the fireplaces were.  But I guess the only thing to really do about these plat farmers that monopolized the races is just not to buy their stuff, note their names and avoid all of their goods on the broker.   Boycotting them is about the only way to effectively fight the plat sellers and farmers. </p></blockquote><p>Sure, but make sure that those that are showing up as winners are ACTUALLY selling the vases on the broker before you assume the winners are farmers.</p>

[Kruqk]

I did not participate in the racing as I really didn't have much interest.  However, based on what I have read in these forums, secrativegirl really didn't do anything wrong.  It just seems that she had time to participate in all the races.  Don't we all wish we had more time to play.  If she had time to participate in all the races, 22 wins is not that many.  And also, as far as I can tell, she is the only person who won alot and posted about how they did it and how it could be made easier on people who don't have as much time to play as she does.  I think if I was in her place, I would be a little upset too.

[SmCaudata]

I didn't have time to race and I guess I am okay with that seeing the posts.  Seems to me a holiday event should not be like the cometition for a contested spawn where those with the most time to sit at their monitors and run the race over an over will win.  Poor design is the first problem. Secondly rewards should be as such. <ol><li>Win one race and you get a LORE and NO TRADE house item saying you won.</li><li>Then have consolation prizes based on how many points you get in teirs like the halloween masks that are also LORE and NO TRADE.  That way if someone choses to keep others from winning, at least the people that can only take one or two shots at the race can still win something and the winner doesn't get a bunch of items they can make a potential profit off of later.</li></ol>Edit: As I didn't play I am not sure how the prizes worked out these are just suggestions based on the tone of this thread painting the game as an all or nothing and what I would have liked to see if I did run. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[dawy]

I was a bit disappionted with the valentines day quests this year,still cant win everytime i suppose

[KerowynnKaotic]

<cite>Kruqk wrote:</cite><blockquote>I did not participate in the racing as I really didn't have much interest.  However, based on what I have read in these forums, secrativegirl really didn't do anything wrong.  It just seems that she had time to participate in all the races.  Don't we all wish we had more time to play.  If she had time to participate in all the races, 22 wins is not that many.  And also, as far as I can tell, she is the only person who won alot and posted about how they did it and how it could be made easier on people who don't have as much time to play as she does.  I think if I was in her place, I would be a little upset too.</blockquote><p> She may not have done anything wrong, per se.   She was, however, effectively '[Removed for Content]'.   Doesn't matter really if she was giving away the rewards or not.  She was still keeping many other people from winning, for themselves.   That's like a robot winning a marathon and then handing the prize to the human that came in 2nd place and saying: "Here.  I am so much better than you I don't need this and you do! ".</p><p>She wasn't the only one either.   Just about every server, I am sure, has someone doing the exact same thing.   Whether they are doing for 'the fun' or 'the pretty rewards' or for with an eye towards 'the mega plats' on the broker doesn't matter much.   The point is the reward vs people playing were very low from this contest.   </p><p>The issue with this particular event was the fact that with the LONG timer .. only those that have 'little to no life' .. could even stand a chance to figure out the best route(s) for the most hearts.   Because after a few dozen runs .. yeah .. even I noticed there were larger concentrations of hearts in a few areas.    Those areas might be dryish the next run but more than likely the run after would have them back .. sorta in a cycle.   Plus, you could figure out areas that had little to no chance of a heart pop and therefore know to skip that area .. because there were several areas that looked like the Devs forgot to salt pop spots in places.  </p><p>Took me nearly a full day (@ 15 runs) to sort out a few 'sweet spots'.    I was home sick and the event suited my attention span, actually.   I was pretty loaded up with cold meds so having to be aware only @ 15 mins every 1hr worked out good. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />   But, the average player isn't going to be home and playing for a full day.   There were a lot of un-happy 'runner ups' in this contest.  <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>There were times on my Server that had the same 8 people competing over and over again.   Most of us were talking and such to make the time go by.  Most of us didn't so much as say 'grats' to the person who after the 6th time THAT DAY!(<i>being the same person that has won for just about every other race since the event started</i>) won 1st place but boy did we go nuts when someone ELSE won!   </p><p>My hubby & I won exactly (<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> times.  Spread out through the whole event.  4 for each of us.   Though, in some cases it wasn't so much as a "win" as a "win by default" (we are late night players - no one was but us were even in the zone a couple times).</p><p>After we had won our (4) prizes.  We stopped playing.   Though, I did log in my 'shill' every once in a while and help out a lone player getting a game started.   I have A LOT of 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th prizes and a butt load of 'red roses'.  </p><p>The thrill of competing really wasn't there after we got all our prizes.   </p><p>After, the 4 is done, it's really about the thrill of being better than the other person(s) and lording it over them.   And, I don't find that to be fun. </p>

[Ruut Li]

<p>Secrative girl how do you know that all people who are feedbacking in these threads do not ask for advice??</p><p>Also why are you so offended by the feedback threads? people dont like that the game is used by farmers who want to make in-game plat. if you are one of these farmers then accept the fact that you arent gonna be popular. if you are just playing a lot for the fun of it, which you say you are, then whats the matter?? </p><p>And I totally disagree that everyone has the same fair shot at winning because this is a TIME-consuming game. As I told you in another thread far from many people are able to log in every 1 hour 20 mins and then play 10 minutes. Maybe they come home from work in the evening, and after dinner and family time they might have 2 hours to play = thats Maybe one game.</p><p>Note that many people check the win-list and check the broker and see with their own eyes that the game is being farmed for plat. Your mad coz we dont pretend that farming isnt there?</p><p>If you had problems with rude people on your server then take it up with them, dont come here and yell at ppl for feedbacking. Nobody has named your name and accused you of wrong-doing.</p>

[DngrMou]

Ruut Li wrote: <blockquote><p>If you had problems with rude people on your server then take it up with them, dont come here and yell at ppl for feedbacking. Nobody has named your name and <span style="color: #ff0000">accused you of wrong-doing</span>.</p></blockquote><p> Everyone here that has responded to her, accused her of wrongdoing.  That's putting it mildly....she's been called a plat farmer, a bad person, a greedy person...you name it.  I don't see her as being any more 'greedy' than any level 70 player out there that raids the same instances over and over again.  She had time to play the game, she played it.  That does not mean that she enjoys some special advantage to winning a given game...there has been at least one thread that explains in some detail how to play this game to win...it takes all of five minutes to find it, read it, and learn it.  I played three times...came in third once, then found that thread, and won first prize in four of my last five games.</p><p>Yes there are the usual people out there that are farming this non-stop, with an eye to eventually selling the vases for a lot of money.  We've got em on the AB server too.  You can beat them at their own game...follow them out, find their fave starting places, and compete with them one on one for the hearts.  There's nothing stopping anyone from hitting the same 'sweet spots'.</p><p>Overall, I liked the game.  I think they should have had it occur in a mobless instance of Antonica, so lower level players could compete on equal footing with those who greyed out the entire zone.  And I would have made all three top prizes unique, not just the first prize.  I liked the competitive nature of this game....it's a multiplayer universe, I see no reason to limit events like this, and make players compete only against themselves.</p>

[PonderStibbons]

Well, that was fun, as a sort of sideline distraction. Didn't take me more than a couple of attempts to notice that the higher spawn rates were further up the zone where there were more high end (for the area) mobs.  While I was harvesting one pile of essences I'd look round for the next nearest and get ready to head there. OK so I never got better than 2nd place but it was fun. Just ticked that I forgot when the whole event finished as I wanted to go buy some cushions etc.   /le shrug Some thoughts on how to make it better in future...  don't stick the spawns in the high end of the starter zone <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  My lowbie toons ended up sitting the races out as the first half of the zone was picked clean and there was no way they could get past the wolves and gnolls without having their wings chewed off. The high end toons who were merrily working the far fields weren't bothered by the mobs there as they conned grey anyway, so no loss if there were no spawns up there but a slightly higher level in the lower regions. Make the timers between games a bit shorter. Over an hour till the next game sign up starts? Meh, I'll go off and quest and then forget and then am not going to sit and wait another hour plus for the next one coming round.  Yeah, it's a game, but RL does tend to complain if we are spending too much time not paing attention to it <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Oh, and post the leader tables to eq2players. Nice ot see which servers were doing the best, etc.

[Ruut Li]

<p>Dngrmouse, no nobody named her name and accused her of anything <b>before</b> she started yelling at people for telling the truth about the flutter-game. Now that she has "confessed" to farming for fun and kindness there are people who disagrees with her behaviour. But the true problem with the situation is that the game itself allows a small number of "farmer-winners" since the wait time is huge. Players that cannot play as much get frustrated and frustration can lead to personal attacks.</p><p>There is no good reason to defend a game that allows a small number of ppl to win a majority of the games.</p>

[DngrMou]

Ruut Li wrote: <blockquote><p>Dngrmouse, no nobody named her name and accused her of anything <b>before</b> she started yelling at people for telling the truth about the flutter-game. Now that she has "confessed" to farming for fun and kindness there are people who disagrees with her behaviour. But the true problem with the situation is that the game itself allows a small number of "farmer-winners" since the wait time is huge. Players that cannot play as much get frustrated and frustration can lead to personal attacks.</p><p>There is no good reason to defend a game that allows a small number of ppl to win a majority of the games.</p></blockquote><p> The truth of the matter is that people with more time to play will always have more things in game.  This contest did'nt change that.  She pays her money just like everyone else, and enjoyed this game.  That does not make her a bad person.  The game itself does not even favor those with more play time, it favors those that learn how to play the game...through practice, through asking questions, or through reading these forums.  There is no one game you can say she, or anyone else won, because she, or they, have more play time. </p><p> The game itself is fun, I enjoyed it very much.  I liked racing after the hearts, planning my strategies on the fly, (grab the multi color now...or wait and clear an area first, to use it's speed buff to get to the next area), trying to outwit other players working the same area.  It was just fun.  And this game no more favored a small number of players than any part of EQII does....some people just have more play time.</p>

[Beamox]

<p>OK i have to put my two cents in here because this whole post cracks me up. I know for a fact people on my server hate me because my name sits in severalof the top 10 over all spots. this game is fun it keeps me up late to play again, and i will continue to play as long as it runs. yes im #1 and 4 and 6 and 7. im no farmer and dispise those who are.I win because I see how to. let me explain.</p><p>#1 - understand the physics of the game.</p><p>  A - the multi colored nodes are speed buffs. clear an area and harvest the "runners" last to aid in moving to another area.</p><p>  B - There is no MAGIC PATH ( i have placed first starting in areas all over the map) there is however a fundimental way to know were to be. nodes spawn more often were harvestable spawn. eg. crater lake in antonica has no regular harvestables therefor you will find few to no spawns in this spot and others like it. (beetles north of NQ bridge, forest around ant rings, ect.)</p><p>  C - you dont have to start near the race starter.. once you sign up you can move to anywere on the map wait for the race to begin. dont zone you can get bugged and the race wont start for you</p><p> D - you receive credit for a harvest before the audio ding, and visual disappearance of the node. learn when its ok to start moving away from a node. it seems like a miniscual amount of time but it adds up big time over 60 harvests.</p><p>#2 - being were the nodes spawn is far less important than being were other racers aren't. If you see another racer grab the nearest "runner" and go the opposite direction. places like the farm tend to be favorates of farmers and newer racers avoid them unless you know noone will be there. when an area is clear.. at least in my experience it doesnt respawn so stay away from other racers.</p><p>#3 - turn down general graphics to high performance but turn up <i>'partical level of detail (FAR)',</i> you can move faster but see nodes at a greater distance to help you plan a route to end with maximum harvests but hitting a 'runner' last so you can move on with haste.</p><p>#4 - Run boustrophedon insted of in a straight line (when no node are in sight) instead of in a straight line.</p><p>But honestly there is nothing to winning like pure dumb luck. my high score of well over 60 was acheived not by a single one of these hints but simply because i ran a race were 90% of the nodes i came across were 'runners' i didnt once run at the 0% speed debuff.  I moved from orical tower to almost gnoll slayer keep in one race do the math thats alot of nodes.</p><p>Some Amens though to some previous posters</p><p>first 1.5 hours between races is rediculas</p><p>second my first top 10 placing was 6th so i raced again and got 1st why is my name still in 7th a character shouldonly be able to hold one place on the top ten. the very next race i tied a guy for race first place with a score that also tied my over all first place, the game gave ME the first prize, gave him second then on the over all gave me second and him thrid. leaving me holding the first and second place spots, thats IMHO pretty lame and unfair.. and i was the winner</p><p>One more thing. For St Patties day should be Norathian "Dwarftoberfest" and the race should be picking up mugs of alchohol,reduce alc tolerance to zero to level the field and place increasing alchohol effects on racers as they proceed. 'runners' could be coffee to sober the races up, and have special hardcore mugs that cause a 3 or 4 second fd effect on the racer.</p>

[Mystfit]

I don't agree that winning the race over and over is the same as those who farm isntances day after day as the word instance implies a zone they have all to themsevles and aren't monopolizing content.I think there were nice people winning who kindly passed on vases to those less talented, but I can't help but feel that monopolizing a race cause you (whoever that you is) thought it fun is pretty selfish in a game that has more then you (whoever you are) in it. Enjoy yourself a bit, yes, even more then once or twice, then step off. But, there are many aspect of this game that seem to bring out the competetive or whatever word you want to use nature of people to the extreme and this game was one of them. If a person didn't see after a week of playing that their narrow focus denied others the fun of playing too, this thread won't help. And now, I'm not picking on SG, but generalizng to all who sat for a week in one spot playing over and over and over. I won a first place, was given a first place of another type of vase by one of the constant runners. I have no axe to grind. I'd of loved to have filled up my house with 'em, but that wouldn't hve been fair. (and I wasn't that good anyway! tehehehee )