Hey everyone!
I wanted to make this thread regarding the recent decision to open DMS to the public. We made this decision because it was always our intent to one day have this area open for all Gaians to enjoy. The Bloodstone Amulets and Gems were head-start items to allow their owners to have first access, but not exclusive access, to this area. For 11 months, and 2 weeks, you had just that - first access, and we hope you enjoyed it!
At this point, we felt that enough time had passed and that finally opening the area to the public would be a good thing for the Gaia community. We had previously stated the following in an announcement from Sept. 2011: "But there may be a way for everyone to explore Dead Man's Shadow: if the Gaia community comes together as one to perform positive deeds, the the curse will be temporarily lifted, and all Gaians will be able to freely enter the area for three days. These good deeds include things like making Bloodstone Amulets available on the Marketplace, posting in the zOMG! forum, and bringing heroic new players to register for the game through zomg.com. If enough good deeds are performed, the curse may even be lifted permanently." We felt that enough good deeds and community spirit has been shown to open the area forever!
Now, all of this said, we do understand why, if you happened to buy the Bloodstone Amulet or Bloodstone Gem within the past week, you might be upset that you didn't get a larger amount of time to explore this area before it became public. If, within the past week, you purchased either the Bloodstone Amulet or Bloodstone Gem from the marketplace for gold, or used Gaia cash to purchase either of these items from the cash shop, we'll remove the item from your inventory and refund you the gold or cash you paid for it. You'll need to file billing ticket through our Help Center, however, to have the issue addressed.
Hope this helps, and we hope that you can make even more new friends as they come into the area.
Take care and have a great evening!
Sisky