@Riyana
while i partly agree with you, there is only so much broadsword can do. I think for most shards its a pretty good balance right now between those who come for the RP, and those who just want the item.
many shards list the "main event" (the drop event) specifically to allow those who dont care about the RP to just participate in the item event.
Your idea about seperating the 2 (items vrs story) is interesting but myself as a collector totally disagree with it.
to me for an item to be desireable it has to have at least some foundation in the UO lore provided by the EMs. We are seeing a shift away from this by active collectors, but it stands true for many classic collectors.
Another reason i would not seperate the 2 is that anyone can do RP. you dont need an EM to do that. all you need the EM for is to merge that RP with an item provided by mesanna/broadsword.
that is why i think the current set-up is working as intended.
Myself, if i want RP, i will RP myself (as ive done in the past being a part of some of the oldest and most well known RP guilds in the game) I think most serious RPers would say the same.
An event is totally different. Its for the masses. think a T.V. episode rather than a long, drawn out novel. While an item needs to have meaning, the longer and more complicated the EMs RP gets, it usually detracts from that items meaning because the masses just cant follow it (with limited time, jobs, shedule, etc)
On a side note, i have always said that ideally there should be more high end, limited time items spawning in the game to provide a gold outlet for those who cant attend the specific times, and also to just so solidify daily gameplay. high point, limited time vanity items as VVV rewards would be just one easy way to implement this.
currently, the highest end permanant content in the game isnt worth doing for static items (arties, rare quest rewards, etc)
while it is worth doing for global loot, the high end deco side is really only viable in the EM program.
That could be changed by doing limited time content (to maintain value) like say mid-level mobs similar to a crimson dragon strength (anything that couldnt be afk farmed) it could even be given a mild RP / reason to be there, and even tied into the EMs overall storyline. nothing in depth, just a few sentences from an NPC.
Take the last event on Catskills. This could have worked perfectly for this type of content, but was badly implemented. If the event were publically announced (lets say a week prior on UO.com, town criers & in Luna), and spanning over lets say a week it would have given the masses the ability to participate (still not ideal because it required stealing. i would have suggested it be a stealable but able to be stolen with 0 stealing skill)
Instead, it was poorly announced, at the very end of a very RP heavy event. even that "announcment" was cryptic at best. So only about 5 people got the items. most the players who got this item got mulitples. others left when the event was delayed, thinking the EM hadnt shown up.
To me, and i think to many players this type of limited time, high reward content would be ideal (if implemented well), however it would require more time and more consistent setup of these types of global, limited time content. I know Kyronix and Mesanna unfortunately said they Will Not be doing limited time global content, but concentrating on permanent content instead. which defeats the purpose of needing to keep these items high value to stimulate gold movement.