I was part of the Amandine Trial, myself. I sat as a member of the jury on my alt, Ceinwyn ab'Arawn. I took the spot and participated after being asked to by the Awesome EM Bennu, but only because there were spots open and apparently no one was jumping over the falls to get them as much as you would think. I don't remember if I was Stratics staff at the time, I probably was. But, I was also a respectful player and role player when it came to the EM Events. I wasn't some schmuck shouting out "How many rewards did you give this time??" so that I could turn around and sell my fab new item at the bank for 100 million or whatever ridiculous amount. I took the events and the EM seriously and helped where I could. I was never afraid to email my EM, and I was aware he didn't get near as many nice emails as he did negative ones. Any time I could email him something positive or encouraging you better be damn sure I did. As any self-respecting player ought to do for their deserving EM. We went through so many before we finally got Bennu. Look how many of his partners have not stayed, for whatever reason. It was like that with the EMs before him on Atlantic. I have sashes with names long gone.
I have applied to be an EM a few times. I felt it would be a good fit for me, considering I've hosted a ton of events in my time and I know most of the lore behind the game. EMs do have a very fine line to walk, as they said above. Not only do they have to plan an event and host it, they also have to do a good deal paperwork about it later on. They cannot EM on their home shards, either.
If people are showing up and supporting the EM with participation, good sportsmanship, and all around non-jerkiness, then there isn't any harm with the EM returning some of that love by showing up as a roleplay character/npc to a player run event. A professional EM wouldn't show favoritism during their own events, regardless. And an EM can't bless anything, like the old Seers could, anyway. That seems to be some of the fear I have heard people have speak of when they rant about why they don't care for EMs showing up to player run events. No one is missing out on any rares, if you want to attend, attend. But, for the love of all that is holy, please stop crying about it. Favoritism is another word that a lot of people like to throw around when someone else gets something that they didn't. The people who have these issues are usually the greedies that show up with their hands held out waiting to be rewarded even if they didn't participate.
Here's some perspective:
We had a bad EM on Atlantic years ago, when they first brought in the EM system. His events made no sense lore-wise. Being an addict, I wept inside at this. Every event we showed up to was find, kill, collect. Find, kill, collect. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Just always random monsters. Oh and from each kill, like 5 people got a drop. I am not exxaggerating when I tell you that one beast was a dragon creature, with an aura DP poison damage. The ONLY build that worked against it was an archer build, and it took these guys ( like so many from one guild went in and basically crowded everyone else out from the top drop spots ).. it took these guys 10 hours at least to kill the damn thing. All of his events were like this. Find the beast or get gated to it, kill it, the top 5 get the item I want and turn it in to him for reward. As far as I can recall, he never ever touched UO lore. I stopped going. Then they nixed the EM events. I never told EM Bennu or even EM Eris this but when they brought the system back, I cringed, thinking it would be that guy all over again.
I am so so so so thankful for the amazing EMs we have had. When I am active in UO, I am active at their events. I do go to show my support. They bring more color and fun to the game. Think of it like this, you want your team to win, so you show them your love. Otherwise, they may quit and where would we all be, then?
