Christmas Eve Event

Agreed. However, constructive criticism rarely works unless a person actually sees they made an error or realize their approach is in error. That is the perspective my posts have been written from, trying to get EM to understand/see. Sadly that seems to not be the case here. The meetings after events, chat and boards have always been highly vocal of these "impromptu" events. To keep simply defending the decision to continue them and not move away from them is wrong imo. I think people have definately made their opinions known on how they view events held along the lines of #3 in EM Bennu's post. If this is truly "our" EM Program then shouldn't it be time for those type fall by the way side?

Think about how much drama could be avoided if all events were announced the way that was laid out during the in-game discussion on them. If they were all anounced that way then maybe even the "conspiracy theory" folks would not have a leg to stand on, and that too would fall by the wayside.



*personal note to EM Bennu*

I do want to thank you for taking to time to discuss this situation with us all, ESPECIALLY during the holiday season. There have been times in the past with previous EM's etc that there was not even a chance at dialouge when problems arose. When you tried to talk with them about it, a door basically got slammed in your face. I do applaud you for that.

I gave you my input.

Quit

So what, you're getting mad because a small event for a few PIXELS wasn't announced to your satisfaction? He had a bit of time and wanted to do something nice for those of us who didn't have anything better to do. It's not worth getting nasty over.

How is that proven? If Bennu didn't care what we say or how we feel, then why the hell would he be here? From what I've seen, he puts a lot of time and effort into trying to make events enjoyable for everyone. As he's already said, he's still new and has much to learn, but damned if you people give him a chance to!

To steal from Wikipedia:

'The Book of the Dead says, “I am the Bennu bird, the Heart-Soul of Ra, the Guide of the Gods to the Tuat.”.

The Bennu bird was the mythological phoenix of Egypt. It was associated with the rising of the Nile, resurrection, and the sun. Because the Bennu represented creation and renewal, it was connected with the Egyptian calendar. The Temple of the Bennu was well known for its time-keeping devices.'

The Crux Ansata is open to ALL of Atlantic. It is NOT exclusively RP. Yes, it can be RP intensive as times, but there is also much fighting involved, and quite rewarding to those that take the time to try it out.

When I first heard about it, I didn't think I'd be interested as a non RP player, but after the first event, I grew quite fond of the Crux Ansata. It's an interesting and different approach to the RBG of other shards, and I've ended up learning quite a bit about Ultima lore while participating.

Bennu is NOT Nestor. Therefore, you can't expect him to act like Nestor. He has his own unique style, and tries very hard to engage Atlantic. I've seen how some act at events that are advertised as hardcore RP. It's all gimme, gimme, gimme. Hell, I recall hearing that someone even went so far as to call the poor guy a vending machine.

Honestly, I'm not an RPer, but I do enjoy the RP nature of his events and find it a nice change from what I usually do in-game. I have actively interacted with Bennu while he's in character with Danica between events because it makes the whole concept more fun for me. Does the interaction get me more items at events? Hell no. The Tunics, the boots, the staves... I've missed them all. I'm not in it for the items (although they are a nice bonus!), I'm in it for the fun, the stories/history and the experience as a whole.

FYI - I saw him advertising in the CruxAnsata channel before the event started.

Another FYI - Yes, I was lucky enough to get a drop, but of all the events that have had drops off monsters, that was my first. Yes, I have two other event items, but one was a vending machine style (the Zog relics) and the other (Codex of the Crux) was a lucky grab off a pedestal in the Wisp dungeon.

Further down you say "We want the event announced earlier than 20 minutes. Like say....through out the day? Like they use to when everyone was at brit?"

You expect Bennu to sit at the computer all day on Christmas Eve and spam that there will be an event? Yeah, sure, because he has nothing better to do with his time. I'm sure he's got other, far more important things to do in RL.



I have nothing else to say other than I agree with Smoot and Tazar:

I'm not even gonna bother with anything else. I'm sick. I'm tired. And now reading all this has gotten me annoyed.




*I hope you had a very Merry Christmas Bennu! I look forward to the next event and many more! *

Do you even know what an event announcer is?

apparently not so I'll inform you. an event announcer is an npc that announces stuff...about.... well...events. How funny huh? An event announcer npc.....announcing events......brilliant!

Now....do you know what an npc is? Apparently not so I'll inform you of this as well. NPC stands for a NON PLAYER CHARACTER and Mr Bennu doesn't have to do jack **** but put in the text for it to announce.

Now imagine this for a second. Mr Bennu wakes up, eats his oatmeal, drinks a cup of foldgers....and then logs on for like 5 minutes to input the text to have the announcer say it throughout the day. Then logs off. If he has time to pull some of the **** he's been pulling he'd have plenty of time to do that.

Let me know if you have trouble reading anything else before you post again.

Bennu, I commend you for wanting to become an EM and doing your best. It is people like you that keeps the EM program going. I certainly understand how much work the EMs put into it and I personally believe that its the passion for this game that makes each EM to take on this job and not the money.

Here is my take on this, and I hope they hold some value since I've attended over 2,000 EM events since season 1.

Items are very important to majority of players whether it be to collect or to sell. Although there are those who claim that items are not important most of them are hypocrites (try asking them to donate it back to their community after they've gotten one and they'll recall out of there faster than any speed-hack program). There are but a few who are truly selfless and would donate the item back or give to their friends who does collect if they gotten them. So with that in mind, the items you release to the public are very important. I am not sure if you knew the value of your dragon suits, but they are selling for 75-100 mil per piece right now. That's basically a 500 mil suit. So you can see why many people are upset for not getting an opportunity to obtain them. If you are not a rare collector yourself here are some general tips to judge the value of an item.

What makes a drop desirable basically depends on a combination of quantity, graphic, name, usability, and desirability. 3 full dragon scale suits with a nice name and being an wearable have the right combinations and thus fetching a big chunk of change on the secondary market.

When it comes to warnings for events, I've met over 100 EMs in my time and the current method you are using, i.e. announcing in chat 20 minutes prior, was actually practiced back in season 1 which got a lot of people upset because they felt it was more exclusive rather than inclusive. This was one of the reasons why they started using Twoncriers, and leaving other items at key places (lanterns, swords, or shields) announcing events days in advance. Now that you have chat, email, website in addition to those other methods at your disposal, there shouldn't be any reason why events are given such short notices unless the intention was exclusive. There is nothing wrong with that but you should at least let people know on your website that some events are inclusive while some are exclusive. However, if that's not your intention then you can incorporate a combination of warning systems so that most players can get the warnings well in advance (days). There is not a perfect system out there but this seems to be the best way to capture most of the players who wants to participate.

Hope this helps.

What an excellent post.

While I may not agree with all of the points noted, I can certainly understand the point of view and follow the argument he is making. I can also fully understand where he is coming from and his proposed solution to the issue at hand.

This is what Constructive Criticism looks like

Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback, it does help me out quite a bit.

I'm not sure about others, but I'm with Toad Town (A player run town) and we've thrown quite a few "player events" on Atlantic giving hundreds of mills away in contests, games etc. =D

Never would drop my kids or family for UO.

none taken Tazar. I have enjoyed reading everyones take on this, I believe Manti has had the best reply yet. After looking back and reading my posts I feel as though I ranted and raved in the wrong manner. Anyone who says event items are not important are full of crap, with the exception pf KK. He is an alliance member of mine and I know his stance on items, yes he likes getting them but mainly he shows up at events to participate. I myself show up for both reasons, I like the Crux but also I want items because as stated I collect, buy, sell. As for the Crux, I have been to every Crux event except 1(family stuff comes first), and I showed up knowing that more than likely there would be no drops. As for player run events, I held auctions for awhile till some asshole scammed people using a char named after me and that kinda turned me off of that. My guild and I have been discussing some things to do for community but won't be active until after the holidays. Stay tuned to forums and stratics for more info.

First of all, Bennu, AWESOME job being a new EM. I have not been around UO very long, but you put an amazing amount of effort into events, announced or otherwise. You have always responded to me when I sent you an email and I feel your events have been very pleasing not only to my play-style but also catered to others.

Now for the people that are upset and are saying there is a "select few" that Bennu favors. I am not an RPer but I enjoy the Crux events intensely. As I have said I am new to UO, and I was somewhat spoiled when I happened to get the golden heart in my first ever event. I didn't even know what it was or why there was a timer or anything. I lucked up and got it. That item had a timer on it, so it was pointless for me to keep, but that's irrelevant. I never received anything for that item other than "points" for the Crux. Other than that I have never gotten anything from an event that wasn't given out to everyone, until the Christmas Eve event. Yet again, I happened to loot something special, albeit on an entirely separate character than my Crux knight. A set of gloves from the dragon.

I GAVE MY GLOVES AWAY AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT TO SOMEONE SPECIAL.

Without this person, I wouldn't even know what UO is, along with many other things, but that's getting personal.

So I would suggest that you stop jumping to conclusions as to how someone received an item and thinking anyone is somehow special. There is no inside group and its utter idiocy to think otherwise. How neglected were you to project a feeling of being left out onto someone that works almost tirelessly(IMO) to please you and include you?

NEWSFLASH

WE will all be left out at some point. WE will inevitably miss things, regardless of how much it gets broadcast, and not everything WILL be posted everywhere. There are different kinds of events and different levels of public knowledge of these events at different intervals of time before the events.

If you were not part of this event, you obviously had much more important things to do. The number of people that DID participate means that it was open to plenty and broadcast through appropriate channels. Having a 20 minute window of announcing before and UNANNOUNCED event is actually doing you a favor. There is a reason its called UNANNOUNCED.

So by my count I have had a total of 1 thing from an event that you missed, which I chose to give away. And even if you were at the event, there's a good chance you wouldn't have gotten anything other than participation.

If you don't feel the EM does an adequate job, and only want to rant and berate him, I suggest you host your own events, because he's doing his best I'm sure and has always been completely open to constructive criticism.

/rant

*gives up*

I think this has been discussed enough and now it is no longer constructive.