Player Run Events

[Mentiras]

More specifically, Player Run Events in Tram. While I was playing after returning for the (*counts on fingers*) fifth, maybe sixth time, I discovered what I really loved to do was host and design player run events. The major problem I ran into aside from being on a low population server was that a large portion of my target audience would not come to Fel for my events. Even with the insentive of the absolutely insane rewards I offered regularly. Compounding that was the fact that at least half of my events required players to be able to flag (go grey) or out right attack each other. My most famous and widely liked event that follows those problematic themes is my Paintball event, where teams would bombard each other with explosion potions.

A complete breakdown for those interested can be found below.
The Fluffy Bunny Event Guide *completed* | Stratics: A Career Path in Gaming

I would like to propose a "possible" solution to this for myself and all other event moderators (because even though we dont hold the official position, that is what we are at heart). If players were given more powers inside their own homes events would be much easier to run. For example if while designing our home we were given an overlay that could toggle the ability to attack players on or off this would allow for player run pvp arenas, and paintball arenas in tram as well as fel. To counter people trying to grief with this new found power, players would drop no loot while inside a home, even uninsured items would stay with the player. Banning would teleport the player and their body outside.

Another option is to allow players to "skin" items, basically take the look of item A and the stats of item B and make item C. This way event moderators could offer more "unique-ish" rewards without going thru the expense and hassle of buying full fledged rares. This is just one possible suggestion, because one of the biggest things that draws people is having unique items to give away to players, id love to hear other ideas along this line as well.

Lastly and I've been trying to get this in the works for ages is player run events need a way to reach the masses, short of having a town crier spam everyone for days on end, there needs to be some way to let everyone know who does not read stratics that a possibly worthwhile event will be held on such and such date and time. Im open to ideas here, all I know is there needs to be something along these lines for players to take advantage of.

 

[Queen Mum]

... Lastly and I've been trying to get this in the works for ages is player run events need a way to reach the masses, short of having a town crier spam everyone for days on end, there needs to be some way to let everyone know who does not read stratics that a possibly worthwhile event will be held on such and such date and time. Im open to ideas here, all I know is there needs to be something along these lines for players to take advantage of.

Over the years I have organized or helped to run many, many, (probably one to many ) player events and still find that you just can't reach everyone. However, things have improved with ways to get the word out ... On Sonoma (a small populated shard as well) we do what is called 'mail deliveries' where we will drop an event announcement (journal) into player mailboxes that are security set to be able to do so. We have created a mail route which consist of at least 4 full rune books of these homes who like getting the announcements.

Another way is to post on all forum sites like UO Guide, UO Forums, any guild sites that give you the thumbs up to do so, and create a facebook page dedicated to your shard for player ran events (as well as EM events & UO News) ...this is ours for Sonoma:

Ultima Online Sonoma Community (Facebook)​

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And twitter is a handy place to remind folks ...

Also be sure to submit items as a news announcement to your shards Stratics News Dept and post on the calendars of each forum you do post on.

Of course you can try to drop books the day of event and prior to event around the gates and banks but get use to the idea that you might run into what we call the bookworm (a player who just runs around picking up your event announcement books and eats them) but don't get discouraged by that.

Also you can announce at your Shards House of Commons meeting (ours is once a month) or ask your EMs for time to speak during one of their player meetings. Plus don't forget to ask your in game friends to pass the word ...

Another good one is to have a bonded pet where you can change the name to whatever your event is called ... example: use Lizard Chickens to promote a bi-weekly chicken battle ... giving them names that reflect the date of event and name of event .. etc ...

Last but not least ... the day of event ... (I usually do this about an hour before event starts) send out a mass IM (icq, yahoo, ... etc) reminding folks about the event for the night starting at ....

Hope that helps a little ...


*cookie hugs*

 

[ShadowTrauma]

This is actually a really good topic that isn't brought up very often and I'm glad Mentiras posted this. I recently read the transcript of the "Massively: Rise and Shiny Revisit: Ultima Online" and one of the things the majority of the developers talked about was that in UO you really can do almost anything. As well as how impressed by the players they have been with the things we manage to do with whats available to us.

I am lucky enough to call Mentiras my brother and have played a small part in helping come up and execute the "Paintball" event. Please allow me to illustrate some of the hurdles we had to jump thru to make this insane idea of ours funtion. First we needed to find some mechanic that evened the playing field and had little to no RNG involved (our first thought was archery), we ended up with explosion pots which didn't require anyone to have certain skills and only involved good timing. The second thing we realized we needed was a flagging mechanism; Our first idea was warring guilds (Red team/Blue team), but was quickly scrapped due to the fact many of our attendees might be in a guild already. From there the only option was to move the arena to Fel, thus consequently removing a large portion of our potential playerbase. Next we needed an arena, so an 18x18 in Fel was the best option to ensure the most flexibility. This gave us the rough blueprint for our event, we still have a few lingering issues such as: Some flagging can wear off if the players evade combat long enough, ressurecting players can be a hastle with "beneficial acts", not to mention some of the other point Mentiras touched upon in his post.

I know I am partially biased in regard to these issues of having more control in our own homes, but I think it possibly could be done without being abusive. Mentiras gave some good examples of things that would be helpful to non-EM event organizers that didn't seem unreasonable to me. One of my crazier ideas was to try and make a large scale battlefield by combining multiple house plots (wheter it was used for paintball or some grander thing was yet to be decided). Where I got stuck was: First it is incredibly difficult to design a balanced "arena" on an 18x18 and have it be different, fair, and functional each event. Three plots next to each other seemed like a stroke of genus, but how to connect them all for a fluid event is/was the biggest problem (not even saying I am guaranteed to find such an ideal location). I had hoped some sort of teleporters could be made to function as a bridge between the plots, but currently flagging prevents this. If there could be a solution to something like this it would be absolutely fantastic. As I was writing this up I was also thinking I would certainly pay extra for bigger customizable house plots, the thought of a castle sized plot make this player drool a little. We can all dream right?

Queen Mum - Thanks for responding. All the things you describe make my head spin. The lengths you event runners go is truly inspiring and I have a great deal of respect for you and others like you. Anything that could be added to make events easier for players to run and announce is a good thing in my opinion.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Fel is a playstyle most players don't want to participate in. If you hold a fel event, you make your event for a niche audience.

I do not think game mechanics can really impact this all that much, as it's an issue of customer preference.

-Galen's player

 

[ShadowTrauma]

I understand what you are saying Galen and agree, however the point Mentiras and I are trying to make is that you currently can only run certain events in Fel. The example given was his "Paintball" event and how if we had more freedom when it came to flagging in our own homes we could move said events to Tram to expand the potential participants. I realize my writing style might come off as walls of text, if I failed to make my point clear please let me know. Regardless thanks for taking the time to respond it is much appreciated.

 

[jopromol]

My reputation as a "event moderator" as mentiras refers to it, is limited at best. However, what I can say as being a very active player for the better part of 3 years now and some other on-and-off time throughout the years is that player-run events do not get the respect from the UO community (specifically the EMs) that they deserve. I've been to several events on Legends in which Mentiras has hosted and they are a lot of fun (I'm the Paintball King btw). What I never understood was why he rarely, if ever, had the support of the EMs who are very active on the shard. Perhaps more cooperation from them would allow for greater audiences at events as well as allowing for more freedoms for the player/creator of the event to really allow his/her vision to unfold(i.e. providing an "underground" arena for paintball in tram that would prevent griefing and more participation, a specially named/hued/stained/glowing item for winners who participate). I don't want to point the finger specifically at the EMs, I know they put a lot of time and effort into their roles on their shards (here comes the but) BUT, the time, money, and creativity that goes into the planning of events- at least Mentiras' events- is going unnoticed and unappreciated....
Well at least I appreciate ya bro ;P
I've noticed that any time an EM will post a message in gen. chat about meeting somewhere, or the idea that a "rare drop" is present, the roaches come crawling out from their hiding spots! A little love from the EM team may go a long way!