Before I became head of marketing for Level Up, I was head of Community. My job then was designing and running in-game events for almost all of our games. It was loads of fun, something that I don’t get to do today since I’m busy handling 5 out of the 7 titles in our portfolio.

And even before that, I was designing events for our own Ragnarok guild, The Fellowship (at Chaos and Odin). This was way before – in 2003. Now, I am training the new crop of Community Managers to take on the challenge of making and implementing new and innovative events for our players.

In-game events, or what we call “IGE” at work, are always a hit among players. If planned and properly executed, the rewards are endless – happy players, happy community, happy bosses (the office kind, not the monster kind, kk?)

Take this old 2005 event called “The Royal Cure”. In this event, the king (Tristan III) of Ragnarok is sick and he needs helps from the citizenry. It’s a quest type event where the players gather stuff to save poor old me.

More after you hit jump

We have an old archive of events in the RO Community webpage. That’s where we keep old screenshots and ‘recaps’ of the actual events. Sadly, this is not yet updated for 2007. Mental note to self – tell the CMs to update this.

I really miss the good old days where I craft a story and tie it up to the event. Perhaps my love for traditional “pen-and-paper” GMing shows.

Meanwhile, here are some of the “formulaic” in-game events that we run.

•  Story-Arc events – RF is famous for this. When I handled RF as the Community Manager I made sure that those who would replace me would continue the same plans for events. Now with the help of the Vanguards, the events are constantly updated. Story arc events are a combination of the various types of events tied up to series of plots. The players influence a huge part of the story and their actions determine the outcome of it. One of the most unforgettable series I made was for RO during the Amatsu and Kunlun love triangle.
• Summoning - This is one of the most easy to plan and implement. You simply figure out a nice background story for this and map out where you summon the nasty beasts. I had fun doing this during the Tzerero series. Do you guys remember that?
• Bring Me – This is a simple “quest type” event where the GMs ask the players to gather stuff (usually loot) and then give prizes and rewards to those who do so first. The Royal Cure above is a good example of this.
• Puzzles – This where you ask questions, puzzles or codes and then ask the players to find the GMs in far-away maps. In RO, we usually have the answer as our passwords in the “pub” or chat box. The first few players to break the code(s) get prizes. Simple lang but loads of fun.
• GM Assisted Battles- back in the old days, GMs were permitted to participate in Agit sieges. Now that is prohibited as per our policies. But the concept of GM assisted battles or fights continues. In RF Online, for example, I was personally handling GM assisted Chip Wars where I become the Archon’s slave for the night. He tells me where to augment their racial forces with summons.
• Submissions – This is where we ask our players to submit stuff. The most effective are a screenshot contest, caption naming or even submissions of fan art, loading screens, wallpapers and others. RF has moved up a notch with their music making contest. Kudos to Keith and Cydie!
• NPC Based - If we’re lucky, the developers will release a pre-made event via NPC. This is really good for my brand teams and the community managers. Not much to do but just announce and promote this. An example is the recent Nokia event for RO and FlyFF’s Nescafe Quests.
• Tournaments – last but not least (and also one of the most complicated) are tournaments. The biggest we have of course is LIVE 2007. But there can be smaller game or server-based tournaments depending on the plan of the CM and the BM. The BTA or Boss Time Attack is always a winner and we do this often.

So there you have it. The types of events that we run. Do share your thoughts on any particular event that you enjoyed and tell me what other possible events you would like to see in the future.

I’d be waiting for your comments.

Til next time, check out your favorite LUG games and always participate in the in-game events!

GM T