Above and beyond "vids", any of the free shard offers would work. Grant it, some of those offers are not available in some countries. This is true. More to the point, the current lack of vids (compared to normal) has to do with the advertising schedule.
A bit off topic, but I really wish people would keep in mind that HCS does not control "advertising" in the shard sense. Shards are a monetary base that HCS "profits" from by receiving a portion of the benefits from advertisers that are willing to pay. That "will to pay" is a monetary aspect that advertisers decide, not HCS.
Just FYI, I've worked in advertising. This does not make me a genius. I'd call out to people to "think". Xmas is over... when would you spend a lot of money to advertise your product? Now?
If you are in a country that doesn't have as many shard offers as others (and I am), I empathize with you to a degree. However, I think it's silly to think it is somehow "unfair". HCS gets some portion of the revenue from these ads and players that do them see them as beneficial. Nothing about them are "free". It requires your time. What is more is that it is a source of revenue for HCS that helps support work they do on FS. So the flip-side argument is that you shouldn't be "against" something that supports the financial base for the game you play simply because you have no access to a portion of the profits.
The above logic, which I personally consider to be erroneous, would also lead us to believe that those donate real money to the game have an "unfair advantage". I often fail to see how people paying for my free game use could be disadvantageous. Personally, I'd love to see more of this "unfair advantage".
So apologies for the aside but I will reiterate: It is my belief that composing is great for the game economy and, from my observation of the MP, this double XP composing event is having a great benefit for all players based on gold sink... even if it may be short-lived. That has zero to do with where you live.
Again, I said back at post #5 that this event does NOT require stam per se. The fact is that players came out of the box to prove that fact. One person suggested watching vids to earn shards. I'd go even more extreme to just suggest using your gold gain per hour to do it. Sound ridiculous?
Maybe, but it is possible. Regardless, the proof was given. We'll see if somebody can step up and admit they're wrong.
Originally the point of my "per se comment" was that this event, like all others, requires nothing. You can take advantage or not take advantage. Nobody is forcing you.
I think it's good for the game for a couple of reasons: It reinforces the ideology to log in more often so as not to miss this if you want to take advantage (flash sales seems to be the same ideology). However short-term it may be, it increases gold sink (being debatable if it increases the player base willing to sink said gold and thus being better longer-term).
EDIT: a couple grammar fixes, thought there are probably more, lol.
Edited by Egami, 14 January 2016 - 04:16.