So I love a good event chain, and the rush of possibly getting an item. I like to display it in my house and cherish the adventure I went through to earn it. I would never sell one. I love the RP aspect that EM run events give. It allows for so much immersion in the game, more than any new expansion with items from dungeons that anyone can get or raids that you get bored of after a month. The value of getting an event through my own efforts is incredibly satisfying. I love interacting with the folks on my shard that participate together to entertain each other and are sometimes rewarded for their efforts.
One of the best event chains we ever had was through EM Vincent's chain where the Partisans of Chaos and the Royal Guard were competing against each other in various ways to win the use of a keep in Moonglow. It required collecting the resources to build it as a shard wide donation first. Then the competition in different ways by guarding a bunch of lamas, and racing to the bottom of various dungeons to find chests. I guess I have to say perhaps I was spoiled in my early days of UO.
More recently however, for the last couple years, one thing I've seen on a consistent basis is that almost every event has been a giant slaughter fest. All that is necessary to do is build a character that deals tons of damage and then you get a percent chance to receive an item. They're just "warm body" events.
I can understand that to a certain extent, it limits the ability for EM's to abuse the system and it gives most people an equal chance. The trouble is, that equal chance is just an equal chance at mediocrity. There are no incentives to be involved in the RP behind each event, you just have to be a "warm body." While I know it is a tall order to try to breath imagination and creativity while also maintaining fairness into an event system such as what we have. I believe if it is accomplished, perhaps it would also encourage people to actually use the various servers across the world. Every server is all but empty and Atlantic is packed so full of people you can hardly do anything. People hop from shard to shard and eat away at the bonds people like myself cherished in a game like this.
I have returned from a long stent away from the game about 2 weeks ago, and while I have been back I have seen my shard has become rather sparsely populated. The first event I was able to join involved 95% people I have never seen online before. I cannot see anything that's on, and there is no way to really interact with the EM.
While I feel that yes, maybe there is a problem with giving too many freedoms to EMs, but I think that it extremely limits the ability for there to be a system that would draw people to play and be part of the world. That's what really drew me to this game 13 years ago, and that's something I dearly miss.
Eht
One of the best event chains we ever had was through EM Vincent's chain where the Partisans of Chaos and the Royal Guard were competing against each other in various ways to win the use of a keep in Moonglow. It required collecting the resources to build it as a shard wide donation first. Then the competition in different ways by guarding a bunch of lamas, and racing to the bottom of various dungeons to find chests. I guess I have to say perhaps I was spoiled in my early days of UO.
More recently however, for the last couple years, one thing I've seen on a consistent basis is that almost every event has been a giant slaughter fest. All that is necessary to do is build a character that deals tons of damage and then you get a percent chance to receive an item. They're just "warm body" events.
I can understand that to a certain extent, it limits the ability for EM's to abuse the system and it gives most people an equal chance. The trouble is, that equal chance is just an equal chance at mediocrity. There are no incentives to be involved in the RP behind each event, you just have to be a "warm body." While I know it is a tall order to try to breath imagination and creativity while also maintaining fairness into an event system such as what we have. I believe if it is accomplished, perhaps it would also encourage people to actually use the various servers across the world. Every server is all but empty and Atlantic is packed so full of people you can hardly do anything. People hop from shard to shard and eat away at the bonds people like myself cherished in a game like this.
I have returned from a long stent away from the game about 2 weeks ago, and while I have been back I have seen my shard has become rather sparsely populated. The first event I was able to join involved 95% people I have never seen online before. I cannot see anything that's on, and there is no way to really interact with the EM.
While I feel that yes, maybe there is a problem with giving too many freedoms to EMs, but I think that it extremely limits the ability for there to be a system that would draw people to play and be part of the world. That's what really drew me to this game 13 years ago, and that's something I dearly miss.
Eht