As one of the most active newbies around currently, that appeared out of nowhere, and raised a clan to top 95 position from nothing just by myself and with the help of two other newbies, and some amazing friends I met in the game, I think I can talk for all newbies of L2 Classic.
I'm very humble, and we struggle every day to even obtain a small slice of the game for ourselves. For us newbies this event is the first thing that really help us in months (we haven't seen anything better, yet). Most of the free items you're giving (but fix that Valakas please!!!!!) are a mirage for us, as we feel constantly rejected by the bigger community, that occupy most of the game's surface and won't let us do anything, even in those areas where our gear is sufficient. We struggle to keep a 4-mob room in cata, we play without SS because we don't have money to buy them, we get PKed every time we position somewhere, or kill-stealed by stronger characters.
I do not feel like telling you "this event is terrible", because for me and for my fellow newbies it is not. But I see what the others are saying... I see their point. And I see how the worst grinders are trying to prevent us from getting our tickets by turning on a hundred of clients and keeping all places busy just to flood the server with their dolls later... there are people that can get the worst out of even nice things, sadly, and Lineage II as a "game of conflict" very often brings the worst out of people.
Nowadays, this format doesn't work anymore (just see the competition and what kind of games the other Korean developers are coming up with at the moment) and it's killing the mood of many people, and our mood to be social creatures (it's a mmorpg, which means conflict shouldn't be the only thing in it).
I hope every day that someday NC soft will wake up and see the truth. Bring us back the good things that you removed from L2 and that added pleasant content (quests, fishing with pretty rewards, PETS, coliseum events), gradually release the old zones you removed (Heine, Rune, Schuttgart all had a lot to offer), you don't even need to invent new stuff when the old stuff would fix many things! Rework the beautiful and huge L2 area so that we can use it fully again like many years ago. Make ways for the big ones to spend adena in a worthy way to reduce inflation, but please, stop reducing the drop rate where newbies farm, because we're killing us while they survive.
And last but not least in this thread Event related. Bring back those beautiful fancy items! Pom poms, music instruments, those cute transformations from that very old Summer water park event that personally I LOVED. Make Classic, the game we used to know and love AND you may be free to add new stuff later on. It takes love to Lineage II to make it shine again.