"Redcap" is just a pet name, derived from his haircolour and a particularly malevolent little critter from English folklore; I suppose I simply like naming things. Essentially, though, this is the illegitimate child of one of Syko's old threads and an innocuous-looking thread from the z!F.
Enter:
However, the apple's a little farther from the tree than first glance might imply. While Syko's original idea involved orienting these mini-events around predictable, objective events - like lunar cycles - what I'm thinking of is more events that matter within zOMG!. Perhaps you can already see where this is heading.
Another recent thread asked the question, "How many times have we 'broken the curse'?" - resoundingly, "we don't know." The fact is, for players who already have amulets, or for players who simply aren't interested in DMS, 'breaking the curse' isn't a particularly important event. However, I think it's quite possible for us to make it one.
The basic premise here is the notion that 'breaking the curse' is a two-way street - sure, folks can get in, but baddies can also get out. For the three days that DMS is 'open', simply set the FrightWolf loose on zOMG!, similar to how Jack functioned during the old Hallowe'en event. You could make it a little more predictable - i.e. he spawns somewhere at random on each server every time it hits midnight GST - or you could stick with the simpler direct functional copy-paste.
This would achieve two primary goals: first, it incentivises 'breaking the curse' for players who otherwise wouldn't care about it; these sorts of mini-events appeal to a very different group of players than DMS does, and offer an incentive to amulet holders as well. Secondly, it draws attention to the fact that the curse is broken; it takes precisely one sighting of a giant glowing were-wolf-bat-thing for the fact that the curse is broken to be burned into one's mind. If this is intended to be a major occurence, the game should be drawing attention to it.
There are a couple of obvious issues, however. Firstly, as much as it draws attention to DMS from people who wouldn't otherwise notice it's open, it also draws attention away from DMS for those who are already playing it - this is exascerbated by the fact that DMS runs take a lot of time, and thus would functionally 'cost' a player several encounters with the FrightWolf; players interested in those encounters would thus avoid DMS during this period, making it potentially more difficult for those players hoping to take advantage of the lifted curse to find a good crew. The second issue is simply that it does draw attention to DMS - it follows that it will occasionally draw the attention of lower-level players who can't actually make use of the area. I don't think this issue is significant enough to justify having the event avoid low-level areas, however, because the fact that those players can't enjoy DMS shouldn't mean they can't enjoy this event either - it simply means the game would need to be clear in specifying the requirements for the area...
EDIT: The mockup just uses one of the few screenshots I had lying around, from zOMG!'s birthday celebrations as it were. Spelling zOMG! in Gaian bodies is neither Redcap's m.o., nor is it intended to be an effective strategy against him... sweatdrop
