I had originally posted this under the Character Issues subsection, but I believed that it warranted a feedback thread, seeing as how this could potentially impact future decisions on either cash shop implementations or event prizes. The image above is a screenshot of the item I won for being a part of the team that placed first in Around the World a few months ago. At the time I was offered a choice of a few rare NX items; I did not particularly like any of the prize options, and so I chose the prize that I saw as being a unique item on the selling forums - this Military Fur Hat (although a bit ugly, I had literally never seen this thing before). I realized just today that along with the last major cash shop update, this item had become donator NX, and was no longer tradable - it was before. I was confused as to why previous event prizes were allowed to become RP items in the first place. A big part of why I chose this item was because I could use it across my characters or sell it for mesos, but ultimately it became an item that is untradable and is able to be 'purchased' by anyone who makes a donation. Personally I didn't understand the logic behind this move, as event prizes should only be obtainable by participating and winning in an event - the effort that's involved in the process is a part of what establishes its value and rarity. I understand why this feedback thread can be seen as petty, but I also hope I made clear why I was slightly upset upon finding this item in the donator tab of the cash shop. Perhaps there can't be much done about this item now, as it has been a donator item in the cash shop for about 2 months. However, I do feel that this is a valid point to make for potential future updates to the cash shop. If this item was implemented in the cash shop without the staff's knowledge of it having been handed out as a prize, I can understand - there have been so many various prizes handed out by GMs in past events that it can be hard to keep a track of what has been an event item and what hasn't. However, if this item was intentionally made a donator item despite knowledge of it having been a prize item, I question the logic behind such a decision.
I'd like to also comment that one of my items from that specific ATW event has also been implemented in the Cash Shop as a regular NX item. Here is an item that was a one-of-a-kind (maybe 3 others in server prior to the CS update), but is now purchasable for 3.9k nx. While it seems too late to remedy this particular case, I share Kevin's sentiment that the event prize's value has been reduced to near zero, which seems a bit unfair for players who spent time in event preparation/participation. Now don't get me wrong - I'm loving all the new NX that wasn't previously available, as I personally think designing my characters' looks is one of the more fun aspects of the game, and the new NX has opened up a variety of different potential outfits. However, the inconsistency in keeping event-exclusive items out of the cash shop is an issue.
This is definitely a mistake, I know I added the Military Fur Hat myself and I had no idea it was an event only item. The event only cash equip list is outdated and many of the items on it has never been given out, far as I can tell you were the first one ever to request that hat, unfortunately it was not noticed beforehand. For the gumball hat we did remove 2 of them that were in Cash Shop on the Open Beta, nothing has been mentioned of the Green Knitted Gumball which is why that one was overlooked. Definitely possible to solve the situation, I can see 2 options, delete these items from everyone, remove it from Cash Shop and refund everyone the NX, or keep it this way and let you select a new prize. First option would very likely not happen before the New Source, either way it wouldn't be very difficult to do it and this should be corrected.
I really appreciate fast turnaround and suggested solutions. Personally, I would prefer the option of picking another prize that is event-exclusive if that is indeed an available solution. Thanks for understanding
There are 5 Creampuffs tagged Green Knitted Gumballs on the server - I will accept those five Gumballs to be traded for an NX of choice. There are 2 Creampuffs tagged Military Fur Hats on the server - if you own one of them and would like to have it changed to something different, please make a thread in Character Issues to have it changed, as since it's now a Donor item it will not be tradeable.
Apologies to those who received said items, even though I only hosted the event I know participation itself was a bit stressful, as well as long. The decision was clearly made sometime after I had left staff otherwise I would have brought something up. My apology can't really stretch any further than this considering I can't personally switch out the items for each individual effected but I definitely can't help but feel bad that this happened.
Why feel bad? You couldn't have predicted this. Also, it's normal for certain event prizes to become easily obtainable later on in a game. It happens a lot. Several of the chairs I won in GM-events became very common due to certain events. Personally, I don't think these items should be allowed to be exchanged for new ones. They still have the GM-tag so they still have some sort of uniqueness.
There is a big difference between an item being used in an event and being added to cash shop, you won it in an event and then it became available in another event, that's not the same as starting to sell event items, especially not when it happened by accident.
