1st - Rules are not 100% clear, many non-native english speakers can misunderstand this (...)
It would be only fair to at least compensate him a little. Again, just because rules can be easily misinterpreted by non-native speaker. Come on MA you can do that!
Can you give an alternate interpretation of these rules, that is because of different language grammatics that isn't too far fetched?
1) Each participant is limited to a maximum of 40 hours in the Halloween event instances
2) Do not abandon the mission! If you abandon the mission for any reason, either intentionally or accidentally, all points earned up to that point will be lost forever.
As a non native English speaker, I make the following interpretation:
1) You can be at most 40 hours in the Halloween event instances.
2)
. a) A direct call not to abandon the mission. If you "disobey" this, ie you do abandon the mission despite the wording telling you not to abandon it, you have taken responsibility for the repercussions.
. b) If you do abandon the mission all Points earned will be lost forever. Note that it doesn't tell anything about the 40 hours, or even if you are allowed to sign up for mission again.
To assist, here is a google translation into russian:
1) Каждый участник ограничено до максимум 40 часов в случаях Хеллоуина
2) Не отказаться от миссии! Если вы отказываетесь от миссию по любой причине, намеренно или случайно, все очки, заработанные до этого момента, будут потеряны навсегда.
Translating russian-swedish, and Swedish-English (all using google translate) gives following English text again:
1) Each participant is limited to a maximum of 40 hours for Halloween(*)
2) Do not give up the mission! If you give up the assignment for any reason, either deliberately or accidentally, all points earned up to that point will be lost forever.
(*) In Swedish, the first paragraph became a bit odd, because it translated "Haloween event instances" Word-by-Word (translation became something unlegible like "in case Halloween"). Though, if you sign up for the mission, you probably was aware what "Halloween event" and "instance" ment in this context.
Again, the thing that was unclear, was if the timers were reset if you abandoned the mission as it abandoned the Points; but paragraph 2 above says the Points gets reset; and without mentioning about compensation for loss of time within the 40 hour time frame.
I can agree with the need for a timer, especially if things happen like server-downs, disconnects and other unforseen events that makes it hard to Clock exactly how much time you have consumed. Maybe it's hard to make a "realtime timer" though.
My guess is that MA keeps a log of 1) The time you enter the instance and 2) The time you exit the instance, or the server detects you are not in instance anymore; and add this together for a time-frame during the event. It's also very likely, that this logging can't "see" when you signed up for mission and when you abandoned it; so theoretcially you can sign up for mission and abandon it as many times as yo like; nevertheless the time that will be used will be the sum of the time you have been inside the instance between a certain start-time and a end-time.
If you now read the rules again, and Think about how MA would time it with access to server logs, it makes sense that restarting mission wouldn't automatically give you "additional time" (more than 40 hours inside the event time frame).
