[GM event] Yarir brings his collection of books to the 3rd Arts and Crafts Fair

[LigH]

No panic. Of course the KS are interested. At least Erelenga should be available. Roled will try but can't promise. Cirerey is probably away... The rest did not yet reply, though.

Therefore I wouldn't mind a little support from other guilds who are related to poetry, art and crafting.

[Eardstapa]

ah. timezone differences mean that most of The One guild can't be represented at these fairs, unfortunately. we do try to help with publicity and organising, in a limited capacity.

[Candy]

I may or may not be there. It largely depends on whether or not I get to go see The Hobbit that day, but I wouldn't count on my being there.

The last fair was awesome, though, and I highly encourage anyone to get involved in this!

[Illysia]

If I may make a suggestion for the fair goers. Since there will be so many people at the fair, conversations will overlap greatly and cause confusion. Where you can, please try to include the name(s) of the people you talk to in what you write so that it will highlight for them and they can easily keep up with what you are saying. You might have to resort to an OOC [<playername>:] before what you write just to make sure it highlights for them.

However, this will make it a nicer experience for everyone.

[Illysia]

Sorry to double post here, but I would like to make a reminder that the Fair is today and will be starting at 20 gmt. That is less than an hour and a half from the time of this post.

[Venalan]

So, time for my little post event comments.

I think this went well, but it was not as busy as last time so it looked a little empty at times. So even with the NPCs advertising it much fewer people came which to me speaks to the importance of players helping to advertise the fair and get their friends to come. The peak for this event was counted at 31 (14 down from last time) and a total of 49 different characters were present during the during the event (18 down from last time). Assuming my data gathering was correct.

I'd like to thank Erelenga from the Knowledge seekers who again came and RPed and help run it. Its much easier with more people so if a guild/group wants to take the lead next time just post here or let me know.

The cooking competition was expanded from last time, at least in terms of reward. And our winner this time was Lanara, and his/her recipe will be made into a crafting book which will be sold in game as soon as everything is ready. I would also like to thank Dahserai and Kolela for taking part in the competition, I hope you come back next time as well and try again.

I would like to thank all the merchants who set up their stalls and increased the variety of the fair as like i said last time its players wanting to take part in these things that make them big and fun. We as Devs/GMs rely on you coming.

Thanks also go to Mordaan (Mirra), Sarva (Yarir), Eonwind (Danow) and Taya (Zahla) for running their individual stalls/characters.

I would like to thank all the following players/characters for turning up (I'm really sorry if I missed you when i was gathering names, anyone not on the list is not missed out on purpose, sorry in advance.)

Afelele, Alasia, Bagrik, Binagh, Bonifarzia, Churr, Ciginie, Dahserai, Damola, Danow, Darthar, Dharah, Dorbaine, Eina, Erelenga, Ezh, Firke, Geneo, Gerar, Gonger, Gorub, Haraun, Hromdair, Hulla, Jacker, Jilare, Kianis, Kolela, Lanara, Laros, Lingwelli, Lizzy, Medisi, Mirra, Nehala, Phadraig, Qed, Rasa, Rheos, Sanrai, Skelbellor, Wocib, Wolferz, Wrenn, Xola, Yallin, Yarir, Zahla, Zantatous, Zirkon

For the future, we will be having another fair some time next year. With the turn out we had this time i think we will keep the scale the devs/gms had with input the same.

If any player/guild has an idea for something they want to do please contact me and I'm sure we will be able to work something out for the next fair.

Thanks and Bye Venalan.

[Illysia]

I liked the fair, I think it was a lot of fun. I was also pleasantly surprised to see most of the stalls filled. However, I think the general populace could have RPed more to help build up the atmosphere. Some more "characters" haunting the place would have been nice. Anyone want to play town drunk or drama queen next time? And maybe a little more emoting while browsing and buying at the stalls. There is a variety of things that can be done between clicking the examine button and clicking the trade button.

However, I do have some suggestions for the fair. Although I kinda hate to suggest this, since I would like at least something to not center around combat related things, perhaps you would get more of a response if you repeated this kind of competition except use weapons instead of food. By that I mean a renamed item and description to let players make custom weapons. The downside is that they wouldn't be able to "make" them on the spot. It would have to be prepared in advance. To compensate, perhaps you could have players show off the weapon and describe it in front of the crowd.

The other idea would be to have a bar set up at the fair that would allow people to custom mix drinks. Maybe have a competition for that if there was enough interest in it. How about selling familiars? Can you change familiars to another one? I'm sure there are some people with yulbars that would rather have groffels and so on. Maybe selling exotic alchemy goods for RP and causing specific RP situations, a powder to change eye color, give longer ears, cure balding, enhance attractiveness, cause hiccups, turn people into frogs, etc. I had moderate success selling RP knick-knacks and I probably would have sold more if I hadn't been busy with the competition.

Another thing I noticed is that once you do the competition, the end of it is typically the end of the fair. however, I think that is kinda because players seem to forget that they can still keep RPing and doing things even after the blue names leave. I was prepared to keep trying to sell some more since I didn't get as much sold as I had hoped but everyone left like they were kicked out and to be honest it was kinda like that before the start. People didn't want to go before the absolute start time. It's like people think they are only allowed to muck around in the area when the blue names are around otherwise they have to stay away. Maybe it would help if a GM or dev reminds people that they can use the area before and after the GMs and Devs leave.

Suggestions aside, I think the fair was well executed.

[Eonwind]

Yesterday we've been selling perfume and fragrances to provide goods for people to RP with (note that most of them are functional items as well). But like you said Illisia why not selling hair dyes, or things like that. I'm in favor to sell stuff useful for day to day RP.

I think changing familiar is not something we can do, not that easily at least: basically I think it requires a direct DB change, something quite difficult to handle but I like the idea. [perhaps a possible solution could be running an auction to avoid having to change tents/hundreds of familiars]

Just a notice for everyone: the fair setup (stalls, crafting stations, pillows, ...) are there for all of you to use, RP with and such, so feel free to use it as you wish. NPC merchants/crafters are not there to steal players space so we (dev) would be glad if all the stalls are players run.

[LigH]

First a little excuse ... I wish I could have played again with two clients, bringing two characters to the fair. But the last time I already learned how much hustle that means; and this time, I was even more active as host. Furthermore, I even disappeared from the company christmas party to be there. 

I'm sure there are some people with yulbars that would rather have groffels ...

Most probably. 

... and so on.

Ehm ... what else?! 

A Bagga, maybe. If it was implemented. But Karyuu 

[Candy]

Probably the main problem with the low turnout was just that it's the holidays...

[Illysia]

Technically LigH you shouldn't have to play more than one character at a time so no need for an excuse.

However, I would think that the holidays would keep players out of the game not out of the fair. I saw a 76 player peak but there was only 30 something people maintained. Last fair it was a 78 player peak and 45 people maintained. I think it is more a drop in interest than preoccupation.

[Jilata]

I sadly missed the fair, as I have been busy with a Capoeira workshop that weekend. And there is nothing which can keep me from doing Capoeira right now... 

I hope I'll be able to attend the next time.

[LigH]

When you are able to come back, make Jilata in-game hold Capoeira lessons.

[Bonifarzia]

Don't let those player numbers discourage you, it is difficult to extract some meaningful information from such a small piece of statistics, and indeed people tend to be occupied with other things these days.

I think it is time for another big thank you, this series of events is well organized, and I cannot remember any events in the past where the coherence between players, GMs, prospects and devs was as nice as we experienced it here.

[Rasa Dhukhur]

Nice event, and I'm not just saying that to get my post count up to 10. I had an enjoyable rp, bought a shiny new book and made a future rp connection. However, my char was a wee bit put out there was no bar.

The bar faux pas aside, it was a pleasant was to pass the evening.

Thanks to all involved in organizing this. See you at the next one