There is/was an Event!?!

So, I'm going to start by saying this is my first MMO. Ever. So, any responses of "you should know how to find the event because this is how it was in WoW" are next to meaningless. This game should stand on its own and not rely upon players knowing how to play an MMO.

I've been playing every other day or so since the beginning... tend not to go back to the fleet as there doesn't seem to be a reason to. The level 50 daily quests aren't on the fleet... they are on Corellia, Illum and Belsavis. Right now, I've done Correllia a few times, so that's where my character sits. My alts are mostly under level 10... with the second highest at level 18 - also not on the fleet as there's nothing on the fleet for him either.

Anyway, middle of last week, my character got this weird disease from a pvp game... figured it was some strange darkside power I hadn't seen before... shortly thereafter, I logged out. A couple days later, I logged on and exploded in the middle of a daily on Correllia. Got some dna sample that said "Sell on Tatooine." Huh... that's interesting.

So, I go to Tatooine... I'm wandering Anchorhead looking for vendors... no one seems to have anything for my dna. I don't see any signs, there's no messages pointing to anyplace on tatooine to go in particular. There's a news broadcast, but it doesn't say where to go, just avoid Tatooine. Huh... big desert out there, and no clue where to go. I expected to see someone with a quest sign over their heads to tell me where to go... no such luck, so I logged out.

Then, today, I'm reading theforce.net's weekly SWTOR update (was busy this weekend, so I read it today)... there's a link to a guide regarding the event. Hey, there's an event?? Who knew? So, I go to the guide... turns out I'm supposed to go out to the Dune Sea and find a crashed ship. Sure would have been nice if I had been given a quest or something at the start of the event telling me where to go, rather than waiting for a fan site to tell me about a newsite that figured it out. Anyway, the event guide goes on to say that the event ends tonight. Neat... the day I learn where to go to even participate in the event is the LAST DAY OF THE EVENT.

I hope that for future events, there could be something in-game to tell players how to participate in the event. Maybe a quest that you can get from listening to the broadcast? Maybe a quest you can get from the ship's comm. station? Maybe an in-game letter telling you where to go to pick up the quest? There would seem to be a lot of options to help players learn about the event other than waiting to see if they get the plague, bother to read the fine print on the blood sample, and then care to devote however much time it takes to re-explore the entire planet of Tatooine looking for a vendor to sell the stuff to.

Of course, it'd be nice if this event could be continued so I might actually be able to play out the rest of it (as I understand it, you can only play so much of it in a day... since my day 1 was the last day, I'll never be seeing days 2 and beyond).

I understand where you're coming from. The fleet was inundated with info and, by avoiding it, you would be mostly oblivious to the event.

I'd say check the SWTOR website every few days to see if anything's new, as it was on here as well.

I know this may sound rude, and I am sorry if it does. But why didn't you just ask people around you. There is absolutely no reason that the developers should have to hold our hands through every aspect of the game. The fact that the whole thing was sprung on us in game and that no waypoints were given gave those who actually like to explore their surroundings something to do. It was a very welcome addition to a genre that usually has very sparse exploration.

Its very easy to use general and just ask others what the DNA was or who you traded it into. I know everytime someone asked about that when I was on there were at least three people willing to help. I know I was always one of those who would answer the questions myself. Taking part in the community and just asking for help is a perfectly reasonable thing for the developers to expect us to do.

TBH i cant wait to see the back of it, and im glad you missed it, that means there is at least 1 player out there that might buy my expensively crafted +41 crystals now.....And i might have a chance to make some of my credits back from buying the pointless schematics.

Personally i cant wait for the next one, Im sure they will grant Artifice another new lightsaber or Enhancement schematic, then open it up so everyone can get a better one free, via some stupid daily.

of course you could have simply asked in general chat....

Front page of the website, announced in fleet every 5 minutes, all over the forums, all over chat, etc.

I'm sorry, but they can only do so much to get the information to you, at that point it's up to you to do your part.

Additionally, announcing anything via in-game or even out of game mail is just not feasible. It takes them at least a week to send mail to everyone in the game. Just look at the Taun-taun pet, the window to get the email is nearly 2 weeks. It's just too many mails to process through.

I came by the website... but I honestly didn't see anything that said "Go to this spot on Tatooine to participate in the event."

The link on the main page regarding the event goes to a video which doesn't tell you anything other than that there is a rakghoul plague. Nothing on where to go. Nothing on how long the event will last. Nothing.

I got emails that Corso was getting bored when I took a couple weeks off to move. I got emails telling me I'd get a free tauntaun for having an active account... but no email to say "hey, we have this event going on, and if you want to participate you should play between (start date) and (end date) and go to this place to pick up the initial quest."

Why not? Would an email in game or out of game been that hard to send out?

Only the announcement in the fleet tells you specifically " To not go to Tatooine ".
Its confusing, when the designers of the event warns you not to go there, and then players on forums tells you the opposite.

"Visit the in-game News Terminal, located on Carrick Station or Vaiken Spacedock, to discover the mystery behind the spreading plague and begin the mission to earn a Rakghoul Pet!"

That's right above the video.

OMG, really?

/facepalm