EM run Verses Player Run Events

[TimberWolf]

Now I have run my fair share of player run events, I have helped at many more. I have attended and participated in even more over the years. Almost without exception all the events have been well run and the participants very well behaved!

I have attended few EM events, mostly because EM's have been "offline" for a few years. But from my experience and from what I have heard, EM events seem to be problematic. Some Participants ( normally a small but disruptive group) like to attend and be pains in the Royal behind!

Between spamming spells and whining and begging for items most events come off feeling :tainted" at least on some level.

So what is the difference...and is it limited to our normally friendly and considerate shard?

 

[RichDC]

Unfortunatly no it isnt limited to your shard, I have attended a fair few player run events on GL and they always go smoothly. The only EM event i went to was a shambles.

I think the problem is due to a few things:

1) The items given by an EM will be rare and the beggers just want the gold they can sell them for whereas player run events give gold or something in game already.
2) player run events are inherantly smaller affairs wheras EM events are meant to involve all the players
3) Player run event operators are not afraid to ban people from the house (or manage the crowd is what i mean) it appeared that either the EM's werent given the power or where too "scared" to ban people for fear that the events would be a failure.

I think that the first problem shouldnt go, the EM events should offer something different to the attendees as it is a unique event, the second i wouldnt want to see fixed its nice to see so many people in one place on a "dead" game.

But the third could be fixed and i hope that in the future the EM's will be given powers to stop this (squelching speech banning casting in non combat areas etc) i think this owuld make the events run alot smoother.

 

[Vallend]

I know it is not just limited to EM events many of the RPing guilds ask me not to report their events because greifers show up and ruin them. They prefer that anyone attending remains in character and many of these players just refuse to respect their wishes.

RichDC is very correct in all his points the EM events brings you the greed filled members of the community out. They come out in the hopes of getting items that they think they can sell for millions of gold. Many do also show up to spam and act a fool too at EM events because they know the EMs do not have the power to boot or jail them.. yet. (Rumor is the Dev team is looking into expanding the EMs powers to handle these disruptive players. They just got to make it so that these powers are not abused is all.)

Most player ran events do not give out rewards that are worth millions such as EMs do so that is why less greifers go to them. Also the majority of player ran events are in private homes that problem players can be booted from. So there is a huge difference between EM events where everyone is welcome and player ran events where you can control who comes to it.

 

[TimberWolf]

great reply Rich, very valid points.

Now as far as spell spamming a good part of it could be accidental. Many players have spells attached to letters so as they type words they unfortunately spam spells.

Personally I use alt, ctrl with the letter combos for exactly this reason. Regardless I think it is lazy and inconsiderate for players not to adjust macros so we all don't have to see their spam.

Slightly related and funny story:

I somewhat large alliances was sued for entry by another group of approximately the same size. The groups had fought with and against each other at various times in the recent past, so a meeting was set up by all the GM's involved for the troops to meet up and get to know each other.

One such player bowed and attempted to thank the Host GM ( in fel) for entrance to the house and to compliment her guild members for their honor and skill in pvp.

The poor guy got about 2 words into it when he accidentally tripped an area effect spell damaging everyone in the house. The fight was on immediately with gray robes appearing everywhere.

Once the air was cleared and everyone was rezzed we all had a good laugh about it! But the individual quickly adjusted his macros!

 

[hawkeye_pike]

I think the major difference between the two is that EM events attract most players on a shard, while player-run events are less popular and only a dozen or so players will show up.

If an event is "official" and gets such an attention, people participate for all kinds of reasons. Many players just come and behave accordingly in order to be seen, to feel important, to be recognized. This causes all kinds of strange behavior, from spamming to EM bootlicking.

At player-run events people show up for a single reason: To have fun!

(I like both kinds of events. I like the EM events, cause Event Managers have much more possibilities to make an event interesting. They can summon monsters, they can set up clues anywhere, they can teleport anywhere. The possibilities of us players are unfortunately much more limited.)

(By the way, I haven't had any bad experience with other players disturbing player-run events yet. I guess I must have been lucky?)

 

[Farsight]

I think the major difference between the two is that EM events attract most players on a shard, while player-run events are less popular and only a dozen or so players will show up.

If an event is "official" and gets such an attention, people participate for all kinds of reasons. Many players just come and behave accordingly in order to be seen, to feel important, to be recognized. This causes all kinds of strange behavior, from spamming to EM bootlicking.

At player-run events people show up for a single reason: To have fun!

(I like both kinds of events. I like the EM events, cause Event Managers have much more possibilities to make an event interesting. They can summon monsters, they can set up clues anywhere, they can teleport anywhere. The possibilities of us players are unfortunately much more limited.)

(By the way, I haven't had any bad experience with other players disturbing player-run events yet. I guess I must have been lucky?)

You do realize that some people could consider that an invitation...

And trust me Pike, they will come.

Anyhow, there are two differences between an EM event and a player event.
1. The EMs have more tools to make things interesting.
2. The EMs have more obstacles to overcome and rule to abide by.

Both have already been discussed in detail here, I won't go deeper.

 

[DPudding]

I've been involved in several dozen player run events...always enjoyed them. Generally speaking, though....the events were always supported by the same group of players. That's not a slight on the event! It's actually a good thing! If I experienced a disappointment from the events....it's that more people with limited game experience didn't take part. I guess the feeling is...player run events are less organized and the risk of total failure is greater! Well....the latter is certainly a possibility in ANY event....but the former has never been the case...at least in my experience.

Honestly....after recent bouts of bad behavior at EM events....I prefer the Player events remain less populated. A controlled group of well behaved persons is much more agreeable to my sensibilities.

 

[TimberWolf]

I am not sure size is the issue. Now they haven't existed for a while but back when Anne ran the Friday night hunts it wasn't unusual to have 30+ show up. And nights like Carolling the dark fathers, or naked dungeon runs would often have closer to 60 show up.

We use to have massive taming events on this shard for the zoo. I remember one such event were every single drake and dragon in Destard had 3-6 people surrounding it spamming tames and casting heals and peacing.

Then the was the grog fest....Run for life...etc etc etc.

Most of these events aren't in a house where people could have been booted, people just behaved well.

My guess as to why is this. When we hold an event, we all work hard to make it a great event. You will find many Loner players in the middle of the mix helping everyone around them.

Conversely when EM's hold an event there is a sense that it is run by EA. We pay EA so we are free to do what ever we want.

I also think greed is the factor as well. My initial reaction to the new award system was negative but in hindsight I hope it will limit the "item beggars".


Just my thoughts sitting here thinking it over..........

 

[Shioni]

I think the major difference between the two is that EM events attract most players on a shard, while player-run events are less popular and only a dozen or so players will show up.

If an event is "official" and gets such an attention, people participate for all kinds of reasons. Many players just come and behave accordingly in order to be seen, to feel important, to be recognized. This causes all kinds of strange behavior, from spamming to EM bootlicking.

At player-run events people show up for a single reason: To have fun!

(I like both kinds of events. I like the EM events, cause Event Managers have much more possibilities to make an event interesting. They can summon monsters, they can set up clues anywhere, they can teleport anywhere. The possibilities of us players are unfortunately much more limited.)

(By the way, I haven't had any bad experience with other players disturbing player-run events yet. I guess I must have been lucky?)

hehe The EM even showed up to your story telling event, I'm not sure you can get anymore official then that unless they where handing out custom prizes.

If you ask me all people do stupid things and some people just out shine the lot of us.

For instance someone makes a random spam button because its funny and hits it during an event. Then everyone spend a good 5 min yelling at him when they can simply move em to the ignore status.

 

[Corvak]

Most of the events done by UP have methods of removing unwanted guests - like having them in a house, where 'I ban thee' is a quick solution.

Or the skirmish, where an offending person can be booted from the guild.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Most of the events done by UP have methods of removing unwanted guests...

...which never was even necessary. Which speaks very much for the Catskills community, when you take a look at the long list of our events during the past 12 months:
http://www.aschulze.net/ultima/pirates/eventhistory.htm