Thank you Funcom! Funcom DOES have the ability to run an event!

[ktyak]

Dear Funcom,

I would like to thank you for the successfull "Protect a caravan" event that was organised last night between omni-clan participants.

I know that in a game like AO it is difficult to control the movement of people but last night you managed to keep the numbers of people involved at reasonable levels and once we set off the pace was kept reasonably high to avoid picking up ininvited guests etc.

More of this sort of small event, done at frequent intervals with differing levels of players would certainly be welcomed by me.

The nice thing was that I even got paid "in-character" for participating.

Regards,

KyTak.

[______________Scorus]

How does funcom bring characters into this event? Do GMs just show up in a place and recruit or is it broadcast over the leaders channels or what?

Scorus

[ktyak]

Actually, I was just walking through the center of trade on my way to help a friend with a mission and noticed someone with a green text full name (not just a nickname) without the usual (ARK) extension or GM Prefix.

I went up to them with intention of asking if they were a different sort of ARK and before I said anything I was promptly invited to join their team. Once in the team I was told (in team chat) that the purpose of the team was to "Protect a caravan" and that we would be paid for doing so.

At this stage that was all the information I was given. I guess they wanted to keep the numbers. Anyway after about 30 mins our team had been filled and other teams had arrived along with a couple of gunships. (First time I had seen one of those).

I won't go into the details of what actually happenned during the event as they will probably appear in the story line / news I guess and will be told in a much more in-character RP fashion than I can manage . Also I wouldn't want to ruin the fun for anybody else should this be staged again in the future.

Regards,


Kytak

[Lumin]

usualy you will have to be in the right place to the right time to be lucky and enter an event .. FunCom does have good events from time to time .. too bad their servers crash when they do something big .. but it doesnt help when they begin to rename the creatures in the area "We Crashed Newland" once people are let back in

[Kzak]

Yes, unless you have the right contacts who can inform you when an event is taking place, the chances of partaking in an event aren't very big.

I partook in a few events - a rescue mission to TLR in December, and the 'peacekeeping' mission to Sabulum in January. Both by pure chance, stumbling over someone RPing in the first case, and them catching my interest, or receiving a /tell from a friend, in the latter case.

I understand that if the events were declared openly on major channels, the lag would be so bad the event couldn't possibly be held. Thus, it's not really such a bad thing to limit the # of people attending. I remember the attack on Four Holes and the chemical factory - two minutes delay on my character's actions once the action started. And 40 seconds after my character ran out of hitpoints, he finally lay down and died properly. Ah well.

Lag of that caliber is something I want to avoid, as most people would.

Events are happening, however, to those at the right place and at the right times. So keep your ears perked, people.