The 6th Annual GNamer Christmas Goodwill Gala~! *a3HeadedMonkey IS A SMELLY BASTART*

Nintenduck!

Rum!

Glad you enjoyed your plush - spotted you liked Bulbasaur in a previous thread, so hoped you'd dig the lil guy. I also took a gamble on hoping you liked rum enough to include it in your username, and I think you've said on here that you're a fan of the Bioshock series, but that was more to complete my really dumb joke.

Baubleadeer wrote:

I think that's the present I'd most like to receive (besides mine, natch ).

Clearly a success if it's impressed both the gift receiver and an onlooker then!

Muss! Who hasn't posted in this thread so I am anxious that he hasn't received it. I posted 1st class on the morning of the 19th, though, so I'm hoping that was enough time for it to arrive?!

I thought it was you Jay! My flatmate said "it's someone from [insert Jay's hometown here] and I thought "who the jiminy fricket would that be?" and then I saw "RR" on the envelope and I clicked! But yes, I have played and loved every game in the Bioshock trilogy, so you done good. And also, considering we live pretty close to one another, maybe we can be best friends one day. I haven't met any of the Scottish contingent (largely because I have gone AWOL from the forum for many moons at a time, I suspect).

...Masofdas! The handwriting isn't great: that's because I held the pen in my fist like a child. Given Riceyboy's run of form, I'll take comparisons to him as a compliment. Hope you enjoyed the gifts sir! Liquid Shadow is at his most comfortable around high-grade military hardware, it touches his heart like no human/hedgehog contact ever can.

The Cappuccino Kid. Hope you get good use out of everything. It was also extremely tough to not to take that Banjo Totaku for myself.

Balladeer!

I went down the route of trying to cram in as much stuff for fifteen quid as I could, like I usually do, as folk seem to like that. I always get my recipient a game too - personally, I think that's worthwhile to do on a gaming forum Secret Santa.

Thing was, I was a bit limited with what I could get games-wise as you don't have a PS4, XBox One or a working 3DS, and you'd slagged every other Secret Santa threshold Switch game in various threads. Scribblenauts Showdown then, for the fact it was the only choice, and a few other bits and bobs.

Rum Rapture wrote:

I thought it was you Jay! My flatmate said "it's someone from [insert Jay's hometown here] and I thought "who the jiminy fricket would that be?" and then I saw "RR" on the envelope and I clicked! But yes, I have played and loved every game in the Bioshock trilogy, so you done good. And also, considering we live pretty close to one another, maybe we can be best friends one day. I haven't met any of the Scottish contingent (largely because I have gone AWOL from the forum for many moons at a time, I suspect)

Yeah, they wouldn't let me send the gift without a returns address, which was naff! And considering that there's only a few Scottish forumites, I figured you'd work it out.

We've always talked about having a meetup with the rest of the Scottish forumites at some stage, we've just never got our finger out and actually done it!

Thanks Cappa!

masofdas wrote:

Yours have to be from Cappa, Balla as I tried to get a Switch game for mine and it was hard to do under £15 without anything else on top...

Mastradamus strikes again!  There were a couple of other clues, for instance the fact that I was the first recipient.  Makes sense that the organiser would try and be prompt.

You've given me some (occasionally blunt) feedback on my gifts in the past Cappa, so I don't think you'll mind me saying this: I'm generally a quality over quantity chap.  Getting nice presents is nice, but what I want most of all out of an SS is to think that the gifts have been tailored to me.  Without at all tarnishing the rest of the haul, which includes some top stuff (see below), my favourite bit was the note about Showdown being better than XC2.  Nonsense, natch; but nobody else on the forum would have got that.

That said, I appreciate you describing your thought process, because it shows the thought and personalisation that went into the rest.  I know I'm a difficult person to buy games for (bloody borked 3DS...).  Will have to find some time to give Showdown ago, when I'm not drowning in Smash...

And, as mentioned, Percy Pigs are always quality.

You can easily work it out now that I was Jay's, who was easy and hard to get for as from the past 6 years, I know what he likes and doesn't. I was tempted to get Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection but that was most of the budget that I went for something in something he likes eg he likes anime, so AoT drinks thing for his water whilst doing DDPY and so on

I got this in the form of an art print, and a keyring like this which came in a nicely wrapped Red Bubble tube.

Here's the beef: you can get prints off Red Bubble from £7, and custom prints off Zazzle for £6, and keyrings like that don't cost more than a pound. There's nothing in the rules that says you have to spend the full £15, and I don't think anyone should be expected to, but the rules do quite clearly suggest gifts should be personalised and I don't think that print has anything to do with me (maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's some reference I've not picked up on?). I know we've never really interacted, but I have made hundreds of forum posts and the elfster site lets you ask questions anonymously. You have had every opportunity to try and come up with something personalised, I think you just chose not to.

But the real kicker is that in lieu of an actual Christmas Card you inserted a lined A4 paper that had a gag about us being close relatives, which was fair enough, but the text also apologised both for not having an actual card and not including a frame because you "didn't have enough time," which is just plain bullshit. You had the same amount of time as everyone else, and places like Wilkos do frames from as little as a quid or two. I genuinely think the reason those items weren't included is because it would have inconvenienced you to package it. So instead I'm expected to spend money on a gift that's not funny and which has nout to do with me; sorry mate, that's pretty fucking tight. Especially considering the tube had tons of real estate for stocking fillers and there's no way that cost £15 including postage. And I worry that you posting it on the penultimate shipping date shows that you just threw any old stuff together.

I want to believe you had good intentions, I respect that your note said you enjoyed the print a lot, and I don't want anyone to feel like I don't want them on this site, which is partly why I've chosen to stay quiet instead of blarting it all out. I don't want you to feel terrible. You are a valued member of the GNamer community. I'm drawing a line in the sand and saying I won't bring this up again elsewhere. I just can't help but feel like your gift giving was pretty much an afterthought.