And the winners are...

Okay, here's how I came up with the winners....

1. I took the list of survey-takers and looked up their purchases both inworld and in XStreetSL, since Mer Betta's inception in 2007. I didn't find transactions for two of the survey-takers and they didn't respond to my IMs, so I had no choice but to cut them out to be fair to everyone else.

2. I filtered out the non-tail purchases, such as add-on packs and the SkimSurfaceSimple script. I ended up with 104 transactions sorted by customer name.

3. I created this randomizer script that would randomly choose three numbers between 1 and 104.

4. I had two (unrelated) people click the prim containing the script. The second drawing was in case there were dupes in the first one. The numbers that came up were 40, 43, 56, 70, 38, 42, in that order.

And the winners are:
#40 - Maia Beltran, for purchase of the Mer Betta Byzia Gold Delta v3c on 2010-04-06.
#43 - Melvin Starbrook, for purchase of Mer Betta Eione Midnight Version 2c in XStreetSL on 7/26/2009.
#56 - Peaches2U Camino, for purchase of Mer Betta Galene Orange v2c on 2009-09-14.

If you didn't win, keep reading below.

Instructions for winners
You can do one of two things:
a) You can go ahead and purchase the Series 5 tail you want at the Fantasy Faire and send me a notecard with the transaction record and I'll send you a 700L refund.
b) You can send me a notecard with the color/name of the Series 5 tail you want and I'll send you the base pack directly.

Instructions for non-winners
If you are a qualifying survey-taker (i.e.: you had at least one Mer Betta tail purchase prior to Apr 12 and you filled out this survey), you're eligible to receive a rebate on your first purchase of a Series 5 Mutation Alpha add-on pack. Send me a notecard with the transaction record and I'll send you a rebate of 200L.

Survey results
Most of you prefer the built-in editing tools and some had no preferences, so I'll leave the items modifiable with no resizing scripts. If I choose to include resizing scripts in the future, the items will still remain modifiable so you can remove the scripts, and the scripts themselves will offer an option to be deleted.

I've responded individually to most of the comments. Thank you so much for the great feedback.

And thank you for participating in this survey.

Fantasy Faire 2010 - All systems go!

All done!!! I've just finished setting up the Mer Betta booth at the Fantasy Faire. And, as promised, here's the SLURL.

There are two levels to the Mer Market sim this year, and the focus is in the abovewater area. Apparently, it was because the mer sim didn't get much attention last year. I guess people saw the water and thought there was nothing to see there. So this year, we're above water with underwater sections.

Here's how the Mer Betta booth is set up. The abovewater area is dedicated to the new Series 5 tails and is set up somewhat like a fairytale castle with a pond in the middle. You'll find the familiar mermaid sculptures, the pet seal, and the hungry pelican and his wife, all hanging out around the pond. The pond is actually the opening to the underwater area, which has the Series 3 and Series 4 tails and is set up like a cave.

All the underwater sections under each booth are interconnected so you can go as a mer and never get out of the water.

But if you want to just hang out and watch people go by, you can also flop your Mer Betta tail into the chandelier.

Mer Betta is mutating

The Series 5 tails are packed and ready to go, as well as the add-on packs. Here are the names of the new tails:

* Mer Betta Grenikos Green Patina Crowntail
* Mer Betta Istros Lemon Halfmoon
* Mer Betta Kaikos Aqua Orange Halfmoon
* Mer Betta Sangarios Red Black Rosetail
* Mer Betta RFL2010-Owain Purple Rosetail, which will be available only for the Relay For Life

And here's a teaser:


I know, I know, it doesn't show the whole tails, but it wouldn't be a "teaser" if it did, would it? ;) If you click the picture, it will take you to Flickr and you can view a larger version and squint your eyes and imagine the missing parts. ;)

But the pièce de résistance is the new Mutation Alpha™ add-on pack. It will be available for each Series 5 tail, as would the Crescent Intimates™ pack and the Merkini+Bettakini™ packs. Mutation Alpha add-on packs for Series 3 and Series 4 tails will be available in May/June.

All these new products will be available only at the Fantasy Faire while the faire is going on. I'll send the landmark to the Mer Betta group and the HippoGroup after I set up the booth. And the RFL tail will be available only while the RFL fundraising is going on.


NOTE: If you participated in the survey and you can't wait until after the Fantasy Faire to get your Series 5 tail, you can go ahead and purchase your favorite tail(s) and I can just refund you the purchase price if you're one of the winners. The raffle prize only includes the base pack, and the RFL2010-Owain tail is not included in the prize selection.