Posted on UOHerald.com

The Event Moderator Program
Jeremy Dalberg
17 May 2007 13:52:44 EST

UO has had a long and illustrious history of small-scale official events, created by initiatives like the Seer program, IGMs, and the current Event Moderator program. These events are enjoyed by the players who can participate in them, and have done much over the years to add richness and depth to each shard’s history. However, they have limitations, being manpower-intensive and necessarily small in scale. While they are great fun for those who get to participate, large numbers of people will never even know they happened.

In addition to the EM program, the development team has made an unprecedented effort to create large-scale events that all UO players can participate in. We have been very pleased by the player response to these events, and feel that they have been an effective way to add interest and create the feeling of a truly dynamic world, as well as experiment with different types of content.

After spending several months reviewing the impact of both of these different types of event, we have come to the conclusion that our community is better served by focusing our attention on developer-created Live Events. The EM program (which has been on hiatus) will not be restarted this spring. This was not a decision easily reached, and if, in the future, it appears that small-scale events will once more fit into the framework of the world, we will certainly reconsider.

We are grateful to the Event Moderators for their contributions to the history of Sosaria. May the Virtues guide their path.

Sad news... I did enjoy the EM events when I got the chance to join them. Goodbye Victor!

Agree with Ally, it is sad news ...

I really enjoyed participating with as many EM events as I could. I didn't fight but could help with coordinating efforts (like cookies, bandaids, gates, rez's). Sonoma was blessed with having EM Masara for a few years and then in Nov, I think it was, she headed off to be EM for SP and we welcomed in EM Hazel. However, we didn't get a chance to really know him since they went on 'break' shortly after he arrived ...

Alas, I hope someday they bring back the mini events ... and Masara, you know how we feel about ya

*rolling pin salute to all the EM's who did their best in bringing excitement and fun to their shards.

This is a terrible loss - especially to the role players of Europa shard who finally had an EM who was both willing , capable and happy to participate in our player run events and who brought a lot [and I mean a LOT] of joy to the dwindling player base of UO.

SO Elendrik we will miss you enormously and I think the outcry will be enormous.

This is awful news the characters played by the EVMs really brought a unique feel to UO which no other game has.

Is there any way we can voice our thanks to Elendrik/Jordan Jurrel for the work they did ?

Bad, bad decision.... and I'm sure done for reasons of 'efficiency' in the sense of 'cheap'. The EM programme was one of the big influences for my staying with UO, with that gone there are fewer and fewer reasons to prefer it to any other game out there.

Big mistake

First off, let me say that the first quote is complete rubbish and simply written to make people feel better about the situation.

Aurelius, while I generally will give people the benefit of the doubt, I think you have put your finger upon the crux of the problem.

The EM's will be sorely missed by many people. They brought something special to UO that is non-existant in any other MMORPG out there.

"After spending several months reviewing the impact of both of these different types of event,"

And did they ask us? The players who pay the subscrition fees what we want? How did they "review" the impact? What did they analyse?

Pah - th emore I think about this the crosser I get.

The EMs and their events - even though I only saw a few - gave this game a real edge over the competition. What are we left with?

Its pathetic all round.

really.

I think unified player pressure on EA might be something to consider? let them know how we feel?

I think they all ended up in jail.

Its good to see EA taking positive steps and moving forward with events. The EM program had moments, and shined on a few shards, with new changes and motivation, we may see events on all shards and a regular basis.

I never saw anything the EM's did on Great Lakes work out well. It was all lag and griefers. I would much rather see more scenarios like we used to have. My all time favorite scenario was the Solen invasion. It was fun, well organized, brought permanent new creatures/dungeons into the game. (the Jukas were ok but the Solen was just a lot of fun)