Live Player Events Article

[Bovive]

This article was written for mmorpg.com but it just wasn't long enough for publishing. Instead of letting it go to waste here ya go:

Live Player Events

Brian Turner

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking part in a live player event on the Starsider server and was quite entertained. While sitting at the keyboard and pondering what to do, I received a system message saying that the city of Coronet was under attack and to report immediately. Having never taken part in a live player event before I was not entirely sure what I was getting into, but I knew it was going to be big.

After arriving in Coronet I found myself fighting battle droids and super battle droids along with several other players. I quickly notified my guild members to join in on the fun. After several minutes of droid killing along with an increasing number of other players, I found myself face to face with a very tall GM (Game Manager). This was when I knew things were about to get interesting. Suddenly we were attacked by a mass of droids and jedi who were all either silver or gold elites. This stage of the battle finished with extremely large doom bringer droids, whose smaller counterparts can be found at the second instance of HK-47’s Droid Factory.

We then fought rebels and imperials (depending on your faction) and some more jedi. Once we saw the event was coming to a close players decided to request giant NPCs in spatial chat, and the GMs complied. For the next twenty to thirty minutes we fought giant krayt dragons, jawas, ewoks, NK-Necrosis, and yes even Jar-Jar Binks. The live player event came to a close with a duel by two very large GMs. Bets were taken and one was defeated with great humiliation. Players that participated received up to two accolade badges for participating in the event.

The event lasted less than an hour and was interestingly unannounced prior to the event itself. The general consensus of the crowd was great approval, which makes me wonder why these live events are not held more often. In the past live player events were held with greater frequency and with an announcement made ahead of time. Obviously manpower is going to play a role in the distribution of events; however live player events could be an easy way to provide content in between chapter releases. The storyteller system does create opportunities for players to create their own events however the tools available to them are much more limited than that of a GM. Experienced storytellers do create immersive and enjoyable events, but usually with a much lower turnout than the live player events which are announced via a system message.

The event was fun and it left me craving more. Live events can be an excellent way to keep players interested and occupied in SWG. When I login to an MMO and feel that I have nothing to do, I tend to stop playing that MMO. Hopefully in the future we will see more events that appeal to the majority of players.