A discussion about gm events.

I started this thread so people can share their views about GM events since it was derailing the discussion on this page:

http://www.takproject.net/forums/in...dok-2-0-ct-innoruuk-and-dracolich.3791/page-2

Not that my opinion matters any more than anyone else's, I see no problem with hosting GM events once in a while and giving away any kind of items the GM's see fit to distribute. I have no problem at this time even with what quality of loot they give away. If a GM wants to hand out epic weapons like candy, I'm ok with that too. I do not share the view that someone else needs to "earn" an item the same way I did because I earned mine the hard way. If I spend 6 hours camping for Jboots and a GM happens to give away a pair to someone else, good for them, that's time they didn't have to spend. I do agree that it should be done in moderation and we can't be doing such things all the time, but a few times a year wouldn't be drastic.

Throughout my time in game, I've seen too many people get pissed because someone received an item from a GM event that they had to work for. I don't understand this kind of thinking other than it's jealousy maybe? During the SOE era, GM events were a way to show appreciation to the players, I don't agree with tying their hands in what they decide.

I am interested in what everyone else thinks though.

Zek

 

So far I've earned 2 GM rewards, both are handy and aren't balance changing in any way. I earned both of my rewards by continuing to test the alpha server with my wiz even when I was the only player logged into the server for hours at a time. The GMs are very careful to select GM rewards that are useful but not game changing. GM events will probably step up the type of reward you can get, but rest assured it will be era appropriate and highly useful.

 

I'm down for illusions or w/e but I really disagree with anything that's a power boost type thing. Also creating GM events takes time away from devs doin other things. Unless devs find it enjoyable themselves to hold such events i don't think it's needed until a later date. But at the same time if devs do find enjoyment in such events, let the events flow(honestly don't even need to reward people with stuff, events in general could be fun for both the community and devs).

 

GM events do some great things for the community. It gives the GMs a chance to interact with the community which is always fun, a lot more fun than staring at a monitor full of confusing and conflicting code. It gives the community a chance to do some interaction with the GM NPCs and a chance to roleplay a bit and get 'into character' for a little while, which is one of the funnest parts of this game IMHO.

The rewards should be an afterthought, role play enhancement/enjoyment should be the focus for any GM event.

The GMs here on TAKP are far more active than the Sony GMs ever could be, expect BIG fun for the Kunark Launch event coming up.

 

I think GM events are great if the staff chooses to host them but not necessary, at least not on a regular basis. I don't think there even has to be a reward. They are nice to see from time to time and rewards can be fun though.

If rewards are given I much prefer to see cosmetic or inconsequential type things. Starting with titles or that type of thing. Maybe up to decent items like Jboots, but preferably only items that are relatively easily attainable. If we had a vote I would definitely be against awarding anything that is functionally better than anything ever attainable on the server.

Suggesting that the Devs should hold a conveniently timed veteran reward GM event to hand out pre-nerf versions of items that never dropped on AK screams of entitlement IMO.

 

I'd like to see GM events/itemization stay in the same tier as Al'Kabor stuff. Illusions, titles, worthless items and bags, occasional fun toys. I think those that had Al'kabor titles should have them reinstated as an homage.

I heard legend of Al'Kabor even having a small handful of manastones floating around, but I don't think I ever got to see one. Guktuk had a sweet Dwarf illusion clicky. Hobart never would give me The Butcherblock Hammer. I WANT IT

PVP events/contests seem the easiest to manage. Lock a zone and Best of the Best it up.

I could even see a Capture The Flag event working with ground spawns, npc handins, and inventory-lootable corpses.

 

I second shorty's motion for title reinstatement. I miss mine and it's The only thing I'd ever seek from a gm event.

AK did indeed have a couple of mana stones. Also I like clickers and illusions. I spent a fair amount of time roaming around as a dark elf ranger.

 

That is an awesome hammer, never seen it.

I've pretty much made my opinion known but i'll say it again for the sake of upping my post count.

I think it would be cool to have at least a couple of GM events as a Veteran Reward to those of us who have been around for classic with some neat stuff like illusion items/titles before this server population blows up, which it will at some point

The lame part about GM events is that they usually take place on holiday weekends, so a lot of people miss out on the chance at something unique and fun. But if it's an event and it lasts longer than 1 or 2 days, thats cool.

 

And I say that as someone without a title. I just miss seeing Elcid's.

 

OMG BoTBs plz!

 

Some good points made, I definitely agree that the GM's shouldn't feel obligated and let it take spare time or time from other work they want to do, unless they want to. I do kinda worry about burnout and I hope that they take at least as good care of themselves as they do the game and the rest of us. I would much rather see them take personal breaks once in a while than see a GM event tbh.

 

The thing about working on something that you are passionate about, is that it doesn't seem like work

It's great to see folks enjoying the fruits of our labors, that is a great reward in and of itself.

 

I found that most GM events on Live EQ were just too chaotic to enjoy, but that was just my experience.

The only GM events I really loved and have very fond memories of were the Halloween events that occurred only in certain zones and only at certain times throughout the month of October. I want to say that the first I remember was about 2001, but may have started sooner than that. The sky turned red, zonewide spooky music began and all mobs despawned; then, in very short order, the zone was populated with all sorts of undead. It seemed very random, but it occurred often enough that I don't think many people missed out. If you happened to be online when it occurred, word spread fast and you could run to whichever zones it was happening in (seem to recall it was EK, WC, NRo and maybe Butcherblock?). Towards the end (after maybe an hour?) a boss mob of sorts would spawn and everyone would band together to kill it, but all the undead mobs throughout the zone dropped nice random loot, stuff you couldn't get any other time. Which meant it could be fun for duos, soloers, groups, whatever. I just loved those. Even years later, I would go thru my bank and have great recollections of when I acquired those unique items

I don't believe there was actually a GM in every zone every time it flipped, but I think on occasion, there was a GM controlling the boss that would spawn. If I recall correctly, it was all pre-programmed so that it required less direct involvement from the GM's, other than putting the event together in the first place. If I had to guess, I'd say it occurred approximately 2 or 3 times in a 24 hour period over a few weeks, but totally unpredictable. It was the unpredictable part that made it so fun, you may have been the only group in the zone when it began. Pre-announced events used to get insanely crowded with people waiting for the event to start, and people even used to be impatient and not so nice to the GM's when there were problems (like insane lag, death loops, etc).

I guess I just liked the surprise events, not the pre-announced ones. And I also think having the event trigger randomly (RNG?) over a 3 or 4 week period meant that everyone got to participate at some point, but it avoided the insane crowds.

 

Same here, of all the things I had and lost when AK shut down, I think I miss my title the most. Everything else can eventually be replaced.

 

Believe it or not, having played EQ for a long time - I was actually a guide on both EQ and EQ2 for a while. I took the EQ2 experience to another whole level and I actually worked doing quests for players. We were encouraged to roleplay with them and interact the best we could. All of the rewards we'd give out were entirely cosmetic in nature and didn't really "do" anything beyond making people look good.

But, that reminds me of a story...

When I finally learned you could group and such, I went and rolled a rogue. I think I was around level 29 when Kunark launched. If you guys played on live and remember the launch, they had some GM events involving elementals running all over the place and some other cool things. When the expansion dropped, SO many people rushed to Kunark that it was a bit crowded and overwhelming to me at first, so I stayed behind and played my rogue peacefully picking apart things here and there and getting groups where I could.

I remember being in the Najena area but I confess that I don't remember why...probably working on a quest. Anyway, some things started to be weird and it was clear that there was a GM event going on in the Lavastorm Mountains. I started interacting with the NPCs/GM and working on the quest - which turned out to be some sort of puzzle involving pieces of this shattered door that a wizard wanted to use to lock the dangerous elementals back in their fire plane near the template of Solusk Ro.

It seemed like the other players were SO concerned with just blindly killing everything that they weren't actually reading and helping out. So I started running around, scouting - gathering up all these fragments and wooden shards. I remember shouting about not sure what I was supposed to do with all of these door fragments, when the GM popped in and told me to give them to him so he could repair the door. I handed them over, and then he said he needed the nob, and the knocker, etc. So I started looking around again, and someone else found the knocker but I got the knob.

Anyway, this story is getting a bit out of control - so in an effort to wrap it up: When the players would kill the elementals and the GM-spawned mobs, they would drop those Enchanted Fine Steel Rapiers, sort of like the ones that dropped in bloody kithicor, etc, and some other things. Most everyone got these. Well after the event was over, the GM told me that I had done the most to help repair the door and that Solusk Ro wanted to reward me and he told me to check my backpack. In my backpack was one of those Enchanted Fine Steel Rapiers, along side a nifty looking red cape, called the Cloak of Flames (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=2190). I remember it was before it even said "Haste" on it.

My rogue was my first melee and level 29 me had no idea the significant value of the item I just received... I received a LOT of hate tells and the rest of the players sort of turned into an angry mob after that. I was happy to have gotten the item, but it caused a lot of stress for me and I didn't want to play my rogue for a few weeks after that. I think I would have been a lot happier with a title, lol.

 

That's the big boss mob, I remember that name, Tishe Virm... big snake

At least that was the boss in Oasis (or maybe NRo, I thought). I heard there was a Dracholiche skeleton type boss in EK. And yeah, the event also occurred in Rathe Mountains, forgot about that. The random items from trash mobs were class specific and no-drop, the boss mob had some decent gear also (haste items for melee, etc).

Love seeing that old UI again, brings back great memories. I used that until the release of Luclin... I didn't even realize there was a Velious upgraded UI until SoL came out with a bunch of new stuff and someone showed me how to get Velious UI upgrade. SoL release was a bit of a disaster as I recall, too many changes and tons of graphics glitches... took them a week or so to get it all working properly. They even had to fix some unintentional nudity

 

Those are some great screenshots Elroz! Makes me want to look thru my old hard drive (which I still have tucked away, from 15 years ago!) and see if I might have any early ones

This is very cool. If they exist in the database, I wonder if they could be resurrected for GM events here on TAKP?

Looking over those, I clearing remember getting the Bolster Belt of the Gracious, Silken Slippers and the Mask of the Mentor I was pretty damn excited. Never got the chest item or the monk weapon (think those dropped off the boss).

 

Just realized my post on a different thread maybe should have been here. It's kind of a response to Zeklen as well. I agree with the rest of you. I don't support your theory that "Jealousy" is why anyone would have an issue with it. Part of the reason this server is so beautiful is because they don't just "hand out epic weapons like candy" like you said you wouldn't mind happening. Then you speak of it being okay so long as it's in moderation. Don't confuse jealousy with people being a little bit upset because it's bad for the server and makes TAKP less legitimate, which was and is a big goal for them and this community. I don't care if everyone in the whole game has their epic or anything else but me, as long as they got it how they were meant to, how game was meant to be played. It also would cause unnecessary dramatics regarding raid power among other things.

I know they'll never actually hand out epics on this server, and I've never played a ranger, but if you spent 6 weeks farming hate trying for the corrupted emerald or whatever it's called and it still hadn't dropped, and someone spent 35 minutes yapping at a GM event and got an earthcaller are you telling me it wouldn't chap your ass a little? C'mon man, we're all human and almost all of us have insane hours spent on this game.

My thoughts:
http://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/artifact-items.3908/

 

Illusion items and titles are fine. They dont signficantly effect gameplay. There are a few items like that as well. The devs here are responsible, I trust their judgement on handing these out. Giving awards to a few of the more dedicated testers is legit.

 

I'd like my title to be

Master Yoda Gandalf Oiwon Kenobi of Middle-Earth

I think more people would be inclined to help test things if they knew about it. I try to report things that don't seem right or at least make them known.
But i'd definitely spend more time on the Dev server or further contribute in other ways if I knew help was needed in those areas.
Please feel free to let me know if ya ever need a crash test dummy!

 

Ok, ok, maybe just a bit.

Handing out epic weapons would be a drastic thing to do, it was an example. Truthfully if I was a GM I wouldn't do it myself, if someone else did, that's their decision. What I was getting at is that I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Mitya's story being a good example, if someone happens to be in the right place at the right time so to speak and "wins the lottery" once in a while, they have my congratulations not my scorn. That's the message I was shooting for.

You bring up a good point though, handing out high end items like candy wouldn't help the legitimacy of the game and I can't disagree with that.