4th Annual Mysteria Gift Exchange

Location: Mysteria, in the park area at Blackbird Keep streetsign.
Time: Requests for gift boxes and submitting donations is active now.

Note: The event was moved from its old location to Blackbird Keep due to the amazing number of players joining the event and exceeding the capacity at the old park location for containers.

To Participate:
If you would like to add a gift box for yourself or a friend, contact Xrossfire Bugseye and your gift box will be set up in the park with add contents set to public.

All players can participate. Players do not have to be a resident of Mysteria to participate.

Players do not have to donate gifts to participate. Anyone who wants a gift will get one.

To Donate:
If you want to donate to a specific player you can locate the players gift box in the park and add your gift to that player's gift box.

3 Donations chests have also been placed for players that want to donate to random players. Donations can be made up to midnight NBT on the 24th. Donations made to these chests are distributed randomly. Due to the time it takes to distribute gifts, I will begin distribution prior to the 25th for items with a sufficient number of items of equal value that everyone gets a gift, and complete the random distribution on the 25th.

Players do not have to have a gift box set up for themselves if they wish to donate gifts to other players.

Notes for the Devs:
If you wish to post a yuletide or thank you note to the devs, a gift box for the devs is available next to the donation boxes. A backpack with blank paper is beside the dev gift box for those that come unprepared.

Gift Pickup:
A gift opening event with dancing and fireworks will be arranged for Dec 26th, time to be announced later. Gifts will be made available for pickup on Dec 26th or later, at your convenience. Scheduling pickup on the 25th is difficult due to family events for me and other players. If possible, I may have the gifts available for pickup on Dec 25th depending on when I complete the distribution of gifts and when I'm free from real life family stuff.

A bank is available close to the site if needed for players who become over encumbered with gifts.

Common Questions
Q: Do I place gifts in my own gift box?
A: You can, but generally no. Items in your own gift box are the gifts for you. Donations you are making for other players should go into either the specific players gift box or to 1 of the 3 donation chests that are in the park.

Q: I want to donate to everyone but how many gifts should I donate?
A: In the past we've had roughly 70 particapants each year. By no means is it necessary to donate enough items for everyone. You can donate to as few players or as many players as you like.

Q: I want to participate but don't feel I know what to give or don't have anything of value to give as gifts. What can I give?
A: Plenty of options.

• Crafted items that include the "crafted by" tag are always nice.
• Consumables like food, potions, scrolls, bait, are also a useful item, even to high level players.
• Publish a book or music in the game is a cheaper alternative with a personal touch.
• Raw resources or crafting materials are useful.
• Decorative items and dyes.
• Basically anything...

Q: I placed an item in a gift box or donation box by mistake and can't get it out, what do I do?
A: This happens from time to time but can be tricky as the logs only show items were added by a player and not what those items were. Please be especially careful with higher value items. I do try and keep a general idea of what items are in boxes so I have an idea of what items were recentrly added but I can't always determine what you specifically added. Please notify me (Xrossfire Bugseye in game, or Jakkal on forums) as soon as possible so I can try to identify the item before more donations are added and complicate the issue. I will try and return the item to you but this may not always be the case if I'm uncertain that you added what you stated you added. It's not that I don't trust players, but to be fair to the donaters I can't under these circumstances.

Q: I want to add a gift to a players box, where can I find it?
A: All gift boxes are under the large yule tree in the park located in Mysteria at Blackbird Keep streetsign. Gifts are roughly arranged alphabetically by player name from left to right around the tree. If the gift box is full; let me know and I'll add a 2nd gift box for that player.

Q: Why not mail the items?
A: The gift boxes tend to have a very large number of items, so the mailing fees add up to several hundred thousand gold. I'd rather put that gold and all donations into getting more gifts for everyone, than spending it on mail delivery. Plus it makes the gift a little more special to give the gift box in person.

Q: Can I request a gift for a friend?
A: Yes, definitely.

Q: What happens if I bring a friend to the gift pickup event who didn't participate?
A: Every year this happens. I create 3 extra gift boxes to give out to any players that show up late or request gifts at the last moment. If any of these 3 extra gift boxes are left over after the event, I distribute them to new players over the next few days.

If I run out of extra gifts and need more, you will see me run around like mad to create any extra gifts needed for these extra players. In this case the gift box won't have as many items as I cannot replicate every gift donation but I try to make sure the gift is still nice.

Q: I left gifts in the donation boxes but they aren't there anymore?
A: The donation boxes can get overloaded so from time to time I will move gifts to another storage location nearby. These donations are distributed among the gift boxes along with all the items in the donation boxes.

Q: How does the random distribution work?
A: This process usually takes a few days. Some items are easy. For example if 2400 scrolls are donated, they are split evenly between all gift boxes.
For other items, I seperate the donation items into groups based on roughly equivalent value and randomly distribute them to the gift boxes. In most cases where enough items don't exist to distribute evenly I will make up the difference by either crafting or buying whatever is needed to make up the difference. A few cases this isn't possible, like the gifting of deeds, where its just random luck who gets them.

Q: Can we watch the random distribution?
A: Unfortunately my pc barely handles the game and won't handle streaming of the distribution process.

Q: Why do some players have more items in their gift boxes?
A: 2 reasons, firstly players do not have to give donations just to the 3 donation boxes, they can add items to specific players boxes. Secondly, since the items are grouped based on roughly equivalent value prior to the random distribution their will be some minor differences.

Q: How do I know who the gifts are from?
A: I may not know. In some cases players who donate will rename containers or add a note with the items gifted. In other cases I may remember or have an idea who gifted items, but the event has a lot of donations and the log doesn't say what players donated what, so its impossible to know all of them.


If you have any other questions please contact Xrossfire Bugseye in game, or Jakkal on the forums.

 

Greetings Jakkal
Thank you once again for taking the time and expense of doing this. I have enjoyed the last 2 celebrations and plan to donate again. If there is something special you or another avatar would like to get as a gift please message me and if withing reason and I have it I will drop it in their gift box.

 

I've been looking forward to seeing this announcement! I'll be stopping by Mysteria later today, and I'm also looking forward to seeing the Christmas decorations at Emerald Cove

 

Yeah, my donation chest is very full and has to be moved to Mysteria... May I need an escort for a save transport... I hope the "special merchants of Knight Watch" doesn't read this.....

 

Done! My husband is coming this year too, can you please put a gift box for Albertakis?

 

Definitely. Next time I'm on I'll add you both.

 

Cici has challenged everyone by offering to donate coto's to the event. He will match new coto donations up to the next 7,537 cotos.

Updated as of Dec 3rd.
Cici's coto's have been 100% matched. Amazing generosity of players.

 

Greetings Jakkal and @CICI
I just mailed you (Xrossfire Bugseye) 2000 Cotos. Thank you Cici for the match.

 

Yup, got it. Thank you for the donation.

Including some other coto donations we've received 5,000 coto''s since Cici made the offer to match.

 

This community is amazing. The donations have been really great and a lot of players are participating in the event already, with a month to go. So many gift boxes that I may need to move the event to a larger lot that has a higher container limit. Don't take this as a reason to not join the event, I am very willing to move the event. I have a location available with tons of room. The more players the better. WOOT!!!

 

Since Cici's offer to match coto donations is complete and went so well I'm offering to match up to another 7,500 cotos of new coto donations.

So far 2,000 of these 7,500 coto's have been donated, as of Dec 15th.

Total cotos donated to the event so far: 23,737

 

wow, awesome.

 

When it is not possible to trade items that are in a container with a nother player, is it possible to place a container with items in it into one of the boxes?

 

Yes you can place containers containing items into the gift boxes. This is a nice way to let players know who gave the gift if you name the container "Merry Xmas from Conjurer Dragon" or whatever...

When it comes time for pickup, I seperate out these containers from the gift box and place everything in a chest they have permissions to. If I don't seperate the containers from the gift box it can get buggy and dump the items that were in a container out of that container.

 

Please note the event has been moved to Blackbird Keep streetsign from the park at Emerald Cove Market streetsign.

We had maxed out the capacity on the park location for adding gift boxes. The new location has a much larger capacity.

 

Greetings Jakkal
I am so impressed with your event each year. It keeps getting bigger thanks to you and your many wonderful Avatars willing to give gifts at Christmas time. Keep up the good work.

 

Ya it is amazing how it grows each year. We may break 100 players getting gifts. 86 so far with just under a week to go. Gift donations just keep rolling in as well, including a bunch from a few players who don't want a gift box under the tree.

Thank you all. You are AMAZING!!! I hope everyone has a super Xmas and New Year.

Jakkal (Xrossfire Bugseye in game)

 

Ho Ho Ho

The gift opening event will be on the 26th at 1pm NBT in Mysteria @ Blackbird Keep streetsign.

For those that can't make the gift opening, they can pick up their gift anytime after the opening event even if its weeks or months later by contacting me via the forum or Xrossfire Bugseye in game.

A Banker is located at the streetsign for those encumbered by their gifts.

Merry Christmas everyone
SantaXross

 

If you requested a gift for a friend, please let them know of the gift opening event and that they can pick up the gift at the event or any time after when I'm in game.

Xrossfire Bugseye

 

This year our friend Xrossfire has broken all records, he even had to move the event to a larger place to accommodate all the gift boxes.
The gifts donated have also been magnificent, the secret friends have been very generous.
And the avatars were so elegant to attend the event!

Once again, thank you all very much, especially Xrossfire for investing so much time and love to organize it