Xynwen, with all due respect, please consider as far as tobacco and teas: Its not about the FLAVOR available. We asked to keep our teas and tobaco/cigars mainly because of the PACKAGING and LABELING of such. You can look in our prize closet (Sphere and Scythe)to get examples of how yes, we used off the shelf flavors but got to design custom packaging for it. No one would question where one of our teas or cigars came from if they were familiar with our MHO at all. So just something to consider, its NOT the flavor of the items but rather the uniqueness of the packaging that can identify an MHO. I'm perfectly fine with the cost aligning with the "off the shelf" tea packet pricing, or even being a little more. But please consider the uniqueness of the packaging that we're trying to preserve.

Are we ever going to get the long term benefits we qualified for but never received? The GM said she would contact us when it was our turn. I've had my structure for probably four years and never even got in line for LTB.

Jastalynn Dragorth
Chairman, Fenog's Regulars

I'm seeing far too little spoken here; it doesn't reflect the word I'm hearing on the streets.

I want to encourage people to speak their minds here constructively, rather than throwing the hands up, clamming up, and giving up.

I am definitely fine if someone wishes to voice additional concerns. I have, as James mentioned, a copy now of the prize closet requests, and I will review later. I am also going to get the prize closets finished, those backlogged items done (LTBs, structures), update the numerous MHO system scripts, then turn my attention to the future -- looking at things I can add that will be benefits for being an MHO without recreating the problems we had under the old system (it was very convoluted, involved way too much manual tracking, too much manual upkeep, and became completely untenable on the GM side). I know it can be hard not seeing those sorts of new ideas now, but it's not possible until everything is caught up and there's some breathing space to see how it is all working. I've got a huge list of ideas from you guys and myself that I want to be able to tackle. And of course, I want to open the system up to new applications, which I can't do until the backlog is cleared, otherwise we'll be another ten years getting you things you are owed, and that's just not right.

>>As for the other updates, it feels almost like cheating going to two event credits a year versus the previous six, while in a group that previously clocked double digit event credits for consecutive years. It feels (feels being the keyword here, because incendiary remarks to follow and perspective is relative) like rewarding groups who do the barest minimum while giving nothing back to the community.

While I totally get how it can feel that way, here's how I see it -- the Paperwork Reduction Act of 2021. In addition, it would hardly be fair to keep the convoluted and high event requirements while taking away some of the benefits like LTBs and structures.

1. MHO officers have less paperwork now -- run 20 million events if you want (and yes please do!!), but you only submit 2. Less paperwork, more time to spend on events and doing MHO stuff = a win
2. MHO GM has TONS less paperwork now, because we've got to do a bunch of steps for every PER for every MHO.

Here's how I have to process these:

1. Receive an automated email notification a report was made
2. Open up the GM MHO tracking spreadsheet and find out what the last # PER entered onto the spreadsheet was [every one ever submitted is kept, and the notification doesn't tell you what # it is, so we have to track this so we don't lose our place as there are over a thousand submitted]
3. Go to the report website, navigate to individual reports, navigate to # you found in #2
4. Review the PER to see if it meets submission requirements
5. If it meets requirements, add it to the GM MHO tracking spreadsheet
6. Repeat for every new PER
7. Update the GM MHO tracking spreadsheet with the # of the final PER you handled, so you know where to start the next time
8. Go into the game and add to each MHO's event count so you have credit for that event and officers can tell if they've satisfied requirements

For 2020, I continued with tracking all of them, no matter how far above the required 1, 4, or 6 you were, because that's what previous GMs did. However, it's very unnecessary, in my opinion, to receive and track additional ones -- it's extra work for you and for me, so I'm going to just track the 1 or 2 required. That doesn't mean I don't love that you're doing events, but that I love that I don't have to spend my time on paperwork and can instead spend it on improvements.

Under the old system, in addition to the above, don't forget, the GM also had to track:

1. Did they do enough to meet their current tier requirements?
2. Did they do enough to meet requirements to advance a tier?
3. Have they done enough over the last X # of years to meet the advancement requirements?
4. If they're T3, did they do enough to meet requirements to earn a structure? What about LTBs?
5. If they're T3, did they do them at the right time? (3 in the first 6 months, 3 in the last 6 months)?
6. Were they joint events? If so, how many joint events have they done in this year? Have they done enough qualifying single events so the joint event can count?
7. Is it member only? If so, did enough people show up? (requirements were higher for these)

The spreadsheet a previous GM created was insane (but way better than any other method I can think of) and it was pretty time-consuming just to enter 1 PER. If you got behind at all, it could be crazy. Now, the spreadsheet is much, much simpler and much less cumbersome as a direct result of the new system.

Anyway, just wanted to toss some "examples from the GM side" onto that bit. And again, let me reiterate, I am fine with anyone expressing their thoughts. I'm not sure I'd be able to get permission to lower any of the prices or change the material component, but I'm definitely willing to listen. None of us know everything, and we are also all human and may forget things or overlook things, so hearing an additional opinion or rationale or desire can help.

--Xynwen--
World Team, MHO GM
>Emails for MHO business should go to GS4-MHO@PLAY.NET
"My real name is Mephistopheles, but you can call me baby"

5. Tea: Since I do not find any MHO-specific tea designs in the brewing system, I'm going to suggest you look at the various tea shops to purchase brewable teas for now. The teacups are the drink container, so they can stay. The tea flavourings need more research. I'm allowing them in for now but need to dig deeper on how we're considering these, since they are part of a larger brewing system. There are several locations to purchase tea packets and flavourings.

---

1. Non-combat, unscripted fluff such as clothing and jewelry: 30K for non-wearable items, 40K for wearable.
-- Exception: If you have a totally unscripted card/paper prop, I will match the price of the scripted stationery.

2. Banner/Flag scripted item: 70K
3. Candle/Incense scripted item: 30K
4. Containers, unscripted: 60K
-- Exception: If you have an unscripted envelope container designed to hold 1 item of 1 encumbrance and is unwearable, then I'll match the price of the scripted stationery.

5. Containers, scripted: 80K [the container script works with backpacks, pouches, satchels, sacks, packs, bags, and cases]
6. Darts: 40K
7. Dice: 50K
8. Drink Container: 50K
9. Flippable Coin: 30K
10. Giftbox: 10K
11. Huggable toys: 30K
12. Insignias: 10K
13. Lifekeep Flask: 30K
14. Magic Item, Blank (Imbeddable): 50K
15. Mirror: 30K
16. Stationery: 8K
17. Yoyo: 30K

---

Xynwen,

On the subject of tea flavorings, we asked to keep 3 flavorings that were sold in festival shops, one multi-use and two that are single use. We didn't request our own flavors because that was not allowed. We were told they had to be existing flavors that had been sold in the past so we requested ones that were no longer otherwise available. (We asked to keep 2 tea flavors to brew that are no longer available, as well, but you disallowed those.) Multi-use tea flavorings run about 10k in both year round and festival shops. Single use flavorings run about 50 silvers. You priced them identically.

As for other items and their stated prices:

Why did our insignia go from 5k to 10k when CHE pins are only 2k? Our insignia do not teleport our members and are not ESP items, they just show affiliation.

Orb gems in CHE closets are 5k, not 50k. If we give them out at events, is the increased cost of MHO orb gems going to be reflected in their valuation when used for spells such as Holy Receptacle? If they are going to work like 5k gems when used in spells, they will hold less mana than they would if they work like higher priced gems.

I don't so much mind our very personalized and elaborate candle being priced at 30k but incense? It can't even be fancy. All you can choose is a color and a scent with no special messaging. I thought our previous closet price of 10k was expensive enough for something so simple (especially since it is an item you burn and then it is gone) when the highest price I can recall seeing even in a festival shop was 2500 silvers.

I also don't understand why 'a totally unscripted card/paper prop' should cost as much as scripted stationery. 8k seems high for a bit of paper that does absolutely nothing, though I suppose it is better than pricing it at 30k. Of course, 8k seems high to me for a piece of paper to write on when it was priced at 250 silvers per sheet at the Festival of Lumnea just last year. Even asking the merchant to give you 10 sheets of personalized stationery did not end up costing 8k per sheet!

In addition, please remember that clothing which holds less than 2 pounds or only 1-2 items is classified as non-functional fluff clothing. As such, I would suggest that it should be priced as wearable fluff clothing rather than as an unscripted container. I would hope this would also apply to jewelry with a tiny capacity in it.

Teacups and mugs run between 1k (year round shops) and up to 5k (some but not all festival shops). 50k seems a tad high to me for all drink containers. If I wanted to take the time and chase the right visiting merchants, I could still get teacups for 26k each: 1k for the teacup and 25k for the alteration (sometimes less, depends on the merchant!)

While I can understand making our MHO personalized items cost more than the generic versions sold in shops, is the intent to make all our items so expensive that we can’t afford to use them as props during events or hand them out as prizes in any quantity? Please reconsider some of these prices. One of the benefits of having a prize closet in the first place is to have items you use often readily available when needed without having to buy several dozen of something you liked at a festival and fill your locker with it or otherwise store it until it is needed.

Many MHOs are totally funded by the officers, who already donate their time and their coin to create fun experiences for all participants. These prices make me think a lot of MHOs are going to die because their officers don't want to pay such high prices in our limited closets for props and prizes and don't have the time to run around getting dozens of alterations in order to get them more cheaply.

Jadzara

I was pretty surprised at the pricing when I first learned of it. Then they increased substantially this week - AFTER the deadline to submit items.

I do not understand why the groups who are putting the work in to support the game are being charged a bunch extra for the few prize closet items.

MHOs should be on a discount plan, not an UPSELL plan.

~L.

--
ESP TUNE TOWNCRIER or ;tune towncrier
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<<One character can whip out 1M pretty quickly

Not my characters! I hate hunting!

Jadzara

I don't like being argumentative, really I don't. I try to avoid it like the plague most times but sometimes I just have to say something, I'm sorry:

On the prize closets, the spreedsheet madness was to indicate that it didn't need further work if you guys had just grandfathered in existing items from the current MHOs and offered no additional prize closet items, period. My MHO is over a decade old and I know most leaders of other MHOs and at least a good majority of them would have been fine with keeping only what they already had - including relatively newer MHOs. Any MHO created after would need to follow your guidelines but in essence years and years and years of acquiring, designing, being thoughtful on events - items have just been trashed. That is horrible!

Prices: I'm sorry but there are A LOT of people who can't whip up 1m in silver easily. ESPECIALLY, org leaders because their time is taken by managing the org! Personally, I do what I need to do but I really am over hunting again and again just for silver or essence etc, I don't do it often because of a number of factors the biggest one being I have a life outside GS. So assuming the officers or whatnot can just throw a mil here and there into the endowment for over priced items is wrong. There is a top level of player that hunts and has all the power items etc and the game often caters to them - but the reality is the majority of the pop doesn't do that and cannot gather as much silver as you think to toss away into an endowment instead of saving it for their own personal use. And I am telling you as a player who has been around a long time - it's the officers who support these endowments with a few exceptions for rich and kind members.

Regarding script owners; it is my understanding that at the time of the individual requests it was made clear what the item design was and where they would be put. I do no believe any super powerful crazy script was ever put into an MHO prize closet but I could be wrong and that can easily be handled on a case by super script basis.

You know I run a CHE and I know the difference between CHE and MHO prize closets over the years. MHO had many many more restrictions than a CHE by far. Stopping prize closets where they were without losing old prize items and upping prices to an unreasonable point could have made most satisfied. It would've eliminated the need to work on prize closets further for the Guru; the MHO that put the work in wouldn't have lost all that work and everything would go on with events, etc without much resentment. (I just saw a fellow leader with smoke coming out of their ears btw) There really is a quiet but super upset resentment out there that just don't want to post because of fear of backlash. Personally, if I get backlash for speaking my truth so be it.

Moreover, I can completely, 100% appreciate the need to streamline the MHO system and make it easier for one Guru to handle but in doing so stuff that wouldn't take up more time - like existing items - (I'm a dog with a bone) should have been left as a courtesy for all the effort put into creating those closets. SO many MHOs have specific items they use for events they are losing and it's hard on them and us and the price hikes makes it harder. But the rest of it, the spreedsheets, the event count etc - there has to be an automated way were reports could count and instantly check off some MHOs requirement for a given time. Almost like a time clock or something and I know automated versions of those exist online. I am just throwing out stuff because I am not a programmer etc but I can't imagine with all the nifty stuff computers can do that it would be soo hard to automate something.

I do appreciate the burden of being the Guru of the MHO system and I am not opposed to a change, changes (ch ch ch changes) but why do we have to throw the baby out with the bathwater too? Changes can be made with thoughtful consideration, with a scalpel instead of an axe. This is the main reason why SO MANY MHO people believe there is a concerted effort to kill off the MHOs.

>One character can whip out 1M pretty quickly

::coughcoughcough:: Umm, maybe for people who can spend hours and hours in a day playing, most days of the week, yeah...

... the more casual players among us, though, it might take upwards of YEARS to garner just a few million. I'll take myself for example, I only have just shy of 20mil in Cylnthia's bank account, and that's mostly from selling off two decades worth of dust-gathering locker stuff. Before the insane amount of locker sellage, I was averaging about 5mil in my bank account most of the year.


~Cylnthia Kythnis Ardenai
~Inquisitor of Kuon
~Rose Guardian, House Sylvanfair

It amazes me how adverse people are to paid perks and microtransactions after paying for their account(s) for 20-30 years. Especially people paying for Premium accounts, or people who've enjoyed some of the paid events over the years.

Prize closets should just be abolished and replaced with certificates or whatever that allow MHOs and CHEs to take ordinary, unscripted items -- from a shop or the treasure system -- and add their features or approved scripts to it. Maybe combine some of the colors or features of the original item to make them more unique.

Woooo, girl. You know I do not like posting on the forums, I do not even like reading the forums. Hard as heck to find anything around here. But after venting to anyone who would listen about my opinions on all these changes, they convinced me I needed to write a post. And because I am pretty sure Katara was referring to me, when she said a fellow leader had smoke coming out of their ears.

So, what have I been venting about? Let’s start with this.

<<"the endowment is a collaboration between the MHO members to donate and assist in receiving items like the prizes"

Prizes in the closet are not for "members". They are "prizes" for events. Asking our members to pay for our prize closets, when we cannot just give out prizes to them willynilly, is not right. If we do not charge for an event of some type, most of that money comes out of the leaders' and maybe 1-2 other officers' pockets, as has been said. And aside from that, as previously mentioned, I know we all have lockers full of stuff we bought for future events and use, because we cannot have them in our closets. That is even more money that we forked out for an MHO system that seems to be in the process of a long, drawn out torture, leading to eventual death.

<<"Back when I started, sure that was huge, but now? One character can whip out 1M pretty quickly -- collectively, that should not be difficult."

I had a good chuckle about this. I am sure there are lots of GS players who can “whip out 1M pretty quickly”. But some of us spend more time RPing, planning MHO events (and even some of us double up by doing CHE duties, too), and stressing out over all these MHO changes to come, we do not have time to “whip out 1M pretty quickly”. And I honestly do not even know how to “whip out 1M pretty quickly”, unless I start selling off locker items.

<<"some highly coveted scripted items (like jeolas)"

CHEs have these same things in their closets and they do not rotate. And might I add, CHEs have had a lot less requirements and restrictions in the past. I completely understand that the CHE system is different than the MHO system, but my point is, with all the restrictions and requirements MHOs have had and will have, a couple highly coveted scripted items do not seem too much to ask to keep in a prize closet that the MHO has worked to have.

<<"Prize closets were broken. Don't get me wrong, I am not blaming any of you with robust prize closets"

This may be the case, but it seems very much like MHOs are being penalized for a broken system that we did not design or break. Please remember, MHO leaders did not create the prize closet list. We just had to use what options were available to us. I do not agree with penalizing MHOs because of the robust prize list from which we had to choose. And as Katara said, it seems like more work to pare down the prize closets, than to just leave them be.

MHOs have SO MANY requirements (or did under the old system) with very few rewards. Our rewards were our structures and our prize closets. And if you met those or even exceeded those for every year you were in operation, you got rewarded with 15 prize closet items. And kudos if you have 200+ items. That means you put a ton of work into your MHO and kept it alive for YEARS AND YEARS. However, now, all that hard work is being chopped, scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, and capped.

I absolutely disagreed with the idea that MHOs that have worked so hard over the years, stayed loyal to Gemstone IV and kept their accounts active and their MHOs equally active, are losing all the rewards they earned for their hard work. And do not ever believe running and keeping an MHO active is not hard work. It takes a lot of time and effort, both in and out of game, to come up with fresh ideas that will keep the GS population interested. Because without interest, we do not get the participation we need to meet our requirements. And the items in our prize closets, no matter if there were 15 or 200, were part of that draw. A lot of people want a little appreciation for the time they took out of their normal GS routine to attend an MHO event. And rightly so, but cutting down the already existing prize closets that people have worked so hard to design, and limiting the future prize options, just seems like it is going to be even harder to entice people to attend an event. Especially when those props and fun RP items that were designed in the past will no longer be available.

I have told you almost every time we have interacted, I appreciate the hard work you are putting into MHOs. I cannot even imagine the burden it is stepping into someone else's shoes and trying to fix years and years of "broken" and/or complicated systems behind the scenes. I just think a lot of those who have posted about all the MHO changes are not feeling the same type of appreciation for their hard work. After all, they had to deal with the "broken" and/or complicated systems to get their MHO off the ground and keep it active and thriving to accrue all those prize closet items. And I know it seems a lot of MHO leaders and officers are pretty salty right now about all the changes, but I would bet the turnip farm that we all would have appreciated having our opinions considered before any changes were finalized. You kind of came in like a wrecking ball.


Lady Dirvy Britbane

---

Matriarch of the Britbane Family
Executrix of House Sovyn
Chairwoman of ICICLE

http://www.housesovyn.com/
https://gswiki.play.net/House_Sovyn

https://sites.google.com/view/icicle-imt/home
https://gswiki.play.net/ICICLE

I think the "million silvers" discussion is largely dependent on what you hunt, and where, and how.

Recently I have been using my daily (Premium) access to Reim for two-hour runs, and netting "fair" coin thereby. (Plus/minus some variance, they seem to be coming out around the 250k per run, round it to 120k/hour, or 2k/minute in silvers, assuming I go the whole run.)

Before that for several months, I would just run it straight through, finish out the royal pair as soon as I had access, and leave to absorb. (Since last evening's run brought me to them about 45 minutes in--only about 37% of the time used--this obviously would have produced much less in the way of loot.)

.

Why are officers ponying this up out of pocket? Put out a call at a House meeting, "If everyone present is interested in adding a prize, we are asking for a voluntary gift to the House of 500 silvers per your current level. An Officer will be at the House clerk momentarily." There is also the 'tune house' channel of the amulet, and I keep seeing these Discord notices when I login with a House member. There are plenty of moneybags types out there. Ask them to cough up.

Dirvy, I totally appreciate what you are saying and am glad you stepped forward and shared, because I believe it is important.

<<"the endowment is a collaboration between the MHO members to donate and assist in receiving items like the prizes"-Me

>>Prizes in the closet are not for "members". They are "prizes" for events. Asking our members to pay for our prize closets, when we cannot just give out prizes to them willynilly, is not right.-Dirvy

Just as clarification -- when I say receiving items like prizes, I don't mean the member being given an item, but that it is part of being a member to contribute to the MHO so the MHO can receive the prize and then use it in the appropriate manner.

I don't think it is untoward at all to have members donate to the endowment to help cover the costs of things like events and prizes out of the closet for those events. That is the point of having an endowment. It is also one of the points of being a participant in an MHO or CHE.

>>I would bet the turnip farm that we all would have appreciated having our opinions considered before any changes were finalized. You kind of came in like a wrecking ball.-ibid

I do want it to be clear -- I didn't write up the new changes. They were ready before I took over and were going to happen whether I took over or not. The changes were announced at the same time I was announced as the MHO GM, so I know it is very easy to think that I came back as a GM, wrote up a massive set of MHO changes, and implemented them on the day I took over, but that was not the case.

Yes, I am executing the plan, but I am also listening to your feedback and seeing if I can find some middle ground on a lot of it. If I weren't here, Elysani would be here doing the same thing.

BTW, I know the point has been brought up a few times that it would be easier and less time-consuming to just grandfather the entire prize closet in and not make any changes to the existing ones. However, that option was not on the table. As mentioned, the closet system was broken and needed to be fixed, and this is part of the fix.

--Xynwen--
World Team, MHO GM
>Emails for MHO business should go to GS4-MHO@PLAY.NET
"My real name is Mephistopheles, but you can call me baby"

And I'm still hoping down the line CHE's can absorb MHO structures as an annex to CHEs. That way you can remove the prize closet completely from the MHO side, put in some lockers, changes some names and allow a larger annex for CHEs. For me, it would give SG a great presence in the east as or main structure is in the Landing and would give the building a new purpose. Again, that's me specific :).

Is there a specific reason why old MHO closets couldnt be left as is?

I dont run an MHO, but this thread really shows how much intense love some people have for their years of effort to make the community of GS happen. I can understand their frustration.

Add my support to many of the points raised in this latest round of posts. I have nothing much to add other than I find this transition to be extremely disheartening. Many of us have worked hard over the years to make a contribution to the game but it seems to mean very little to the PTB (unless that contribution has a $ tag).

---

>>https://gswiki.play.net/Rohese_Bayvel-Timsh'l

I mean, to Rohese' point, it is disheartening as stated, to take it a step further though, I know many folks, myself included, may not play this game at all anymore if it wasn't for their involvements in MHOs. I'm only in two myself, and one is more of a social club, but that has kept me engaged with the game tremendously over the years. I also work with Luxie and the TC as an officer there, and while I'm not the most active, running events with the TC and doing fun stuff with the folks there has also contributed to my engagement with the game.

While MHO's may not directly raise money for simu, they do a lot more than I think those in charge realize, when it comes to retaining players, not only for their acct fees, but also the pay events they buy in to.

Sure, I could easily finance prizes and event support costs for all the events I run (A number of other members very generously chip in with prizes and their time as well), and for the most part, I have been. We tried to make some fun prizes, and maybe some silly stuff to hand out with our list, however... for the cost of an unscripted sack from the prize closet, I'll stick to large sacks dyed at the dyer tent, as that isn't even 1% of the cost of a basic sack container though the closet, thanks.

It just frustrating to hear GMs and those in power "praise" well run and fun player events, and then rather than support them and prop them up, treat it as a burden and try and limit tools. This is a big part of why I've taken to designing my own games to run that don't rely on anything simu provided, because I can design something better customized, and run it cheaper, than the tools and resources simu would provide for us. Simu can always just copy players work then and monetize it, like what happened with the pupper script on lich that took over a year in the making, then the EG after it was released publicly, GM's just went and ripped the idea and concept of it off.

Dear Mister Wyrom:

The TownCrier is a newish MHO, we did not lose much except some awesome plans when the prize closets were gutted, but I felt the shock and dismay of many other groups. I really appreciated the consideration given to our hard-working TownCrier Newsies when our new structure was grandfathered in. We totally felt like we had dodged a devastating bullet.

That said, parts of this MHO-redo feel like a polar knee-jerk reaction to ... something/s which I am not privy to. Because otherwise, it makes no sense.

Instead of building out infrastructure for the MHOs, and putting the options in place first, it feels like GemStone decided to slash and burn first.

As others have voiced, I took one look at each of the announcements as they have been made since late last summer, and I figured Great Houses were next; then when the next shoe fell, I wondered what other player-centric things were going to be wiped out.

I'd like to remind GemStone that player-run groups create roleplay, services, and events that GemStone does not pay for. In fact, quite the opposite, GS makes money on it. GemStone makes money:
- in dollars every month from the subscriptions of all the members and officers involved
- in silvers from the constant update and support many groups continue to spend in-game for events
- in dollars again when people buy items from special events
- in time because GS does not have to spend time filling the calendar slots that would otherwise be empty without player-run events.

Instead of being considered a silver drain center in the business of GS, player-run groups should be considered partners who add value to the product. We should be offered discounts for our simple needs, not price-gouged because there is nowhere else to turn to for the specific bits of text to enhance an event.

If a GM is overworked because the groups are that successful, by all means, streamline the process, add a few assistant GMs, make small adjustments in the policies going forward to cut back on those things. Add a few administrative assistants, maybe there are things here that do not even require GMs.

If there are abuses, cut them off, fast. Make it public, so that everyone knows there are consequences to bad behavior.

If GS needs the groups to fundraise their own silvers to support the inflated prices of custom text items for events or prices, please add in ways to do that. Raffles, Donation Boxes, Storefronts, Telethons, or Candy Sales, for crying out loud. (Raffles were removed as options in the first announcement, by the way.)

When several very generous individuals wanted to donate for the new TownCrier structure, I learned there was no way for them to do this directly at the MHO Hall. Only an officer can add money to the endowment. Why is this? Any character, member or not, should be able to make a donation to a group any time they want and choose to make it anonymous or known. I was very grateful our benefactors trusted me enough to hand me the coins with the expectation I would do the right thing and deposit it into the endowment.

If there are not enough staff members to put 6 events on the Google Calendar a year, find an administrative assistant who can help with it. No GM training even needed! On top of that, you can bulk upload to Google Calendars without Dev even having to scratch the surface of the API. I realize it may be more like 6 events per group in a year, but ... the point remains.

Days go by where I have to decide whether to put my effort into the TownCrier or into RP. Hardly any songs, personal events, blog posts, or anything else in Luxie's personal RP has happened in the last 5 years because of it. And those are all things I love, too.

I am fairly confident that I am not the only person in the only group who makes these kind of decisions to help make GS a better place, because I see it reflected in the time and attention to detail that many other groups approach their outreach, too.

The care, consideration, exquisite GM teamwork, and concern for players that the GemStone staff has towards its players are the hallmarks that drew me here and allowed me to thrive and tarry. It was such a breath of fresh air after what had become of DragonRealms. I am hopeful that the concerns raised in these messages will allow a second look at the new rules for player-run groups in GS.

Signed,
She who is the soul of Luxie

--
ESP TUNE TOWNCRIER or ;tune towncrier
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But is there an actual reason why the prize closets couldn’t have just been left as is for existing groups? Im one of those players that rely upon the exceptionally hard work of the MHOs to find little pockets of player organized RP to participate in. I dont have a stake in this, other than I think its a decision made that is upsetting the 1% of players who are willing to run community events. Many of them clearly feel unappreciated as part of the draw of the GS player base and additionally unappreciated for their time spent improving the game for others.

It seems extremely clear that of all the changes, the gutting of existing prize closets has caused the most anger in the MHO community.

I haven’t seen any single reason why the existing closets needs to be reduced so heavily. Was there abuse? Was it widespread? Is it a data/lag issue? Were they considered to cheap? Is it because players were having them altered and selling things? Is it too heavy if a logistical burden to evaluate each item for acceptabiliy going forward? Is there some heavy load of work that existing items create?

What is most concerning to me is how hard and fast this all seems, which stands in contrast to what I’ve seen from all other aspects of the game since I returned. In every other facet, feedback is taken in and, in many cases, reasonable ideas often get traction and see implementation. If something isnt or wont be implemented, it comes with some reason why. It’s not just ‘no’. The tone of it really strikes me. Has the MHO system been widely abused to create illegitimate ways to generate wealth? This whole particular part of the change seems intentionally punitive, like a previous wrong that requires correction. Why?

I think if you helped these officers and organizations understand why their closets MUST be reduced, why their existence now isnt harming the game, but their existence ‘tomorrow’ would, you might find more people willing to be a partner in this experience.

I have still been staying very quiet and trying not to scream DIEEEEEEEE at a whole new system before it had a chance to get born.

Strangely enough, it helped that my sister's grandbaby did die in the past 2 weeks, and was dead even before the mother had to go through many hours of labor to expel this poor lifeless child from her tummy. She dressed that tiny deteriorated body in pink and held her tenderly, and took photographs, and did not want to let go of this little girl. We were all devastated, all who knew this mother, all who saw these photographs.

I really don't want to scream DIE at any baby right now - not even a "new MHO system baby." I don't want it to die before it gets born.

A system was made that has died. When it died, it left a whole game devastated. Maybe some of us seem crazy to you, but the loss of the existing MHO system is as devastating to some of us, as the loss of the baby was to my family.

What I want to say most is... it's not the prize closet or a structure that mattered most to me. It's the people who mattered and still do. And the prize closets mattered to most of them.

And most players would not (for lack of conceit, in most cases) tell you how very much they meant to all the rest of us players over those years that they painstakingly and wholeheartedly and thanklessly worked to benefit people in the game... nor could they tell you how devasted we would all be to lose them.

That is my main fear: that no one above us, is worried ENOUGH about losing these people who have so served us over the years. I'm not sure I have enough energy left in me, to say this convincingly enough: Please stop hurting my friends.

I don't even have the luxury to know TO WHOM I am saying this. No one accepts responsibility for these problems. It feels like talking to the wind.

Soliere's player
weary and hopefully still coherent