ROM: New Live Event Arrives

I’m not big into Live Events.  I liked the in scenario ones in Warhammer Online.  I had a good time when the Dark Portal opened in World of Warcraft.  As for the holiday events – the run me here and there types, I can’t be bothered.

When I logged into Runes of Magic this evening the only thing I had in mind was completing a quest or two.  I was minding my business in route to Rumpus Mines to deal with my last two goblin quests when I saw a couple of players fighting a huge frog.  I’d heard that there was a Live Event but hadn’t bothered with the details.

I stopped for a second and watched a Warrior charge in and get turned into a frog himself.  I laughed.  Then someone else jumped in the fight and became a frog.  The two alone weren’t doing so well against the level 30 Elite even though one was level 50.  I dismounted buffed myself and chucked a few heals their way, which of course, got me turned into a frog too.

I figured the fight would be over soon enough so I hung around to heal.  Too bad for us the big ole frog had other ideas.  He kept healing himself.  Every once in a while he also spawned some mates that attack whoever was healing his enemies – namely me.  The fight was stretching on and I hadn’t been prepared to heal while I was out and about.  I was in the wrong gear and didn’t have many mana pots.

I put out a call in guild chat for anyone in the area to come join the action.  Other passers-by dismounted and joined in on the fun too.  Within a few minutes we had a full raid going and still couldn’t take the green bugger down.  Determined not to be bested by some toady we kept at it.  More players showed up.  Someone gave me some potions and I healed my little Priest/Warrior heart out.  Finally the big frog went down and we all cheered.

I didn’t get any of the novelty items that dropped.  Boo!  I had fun nevertheless and was glad that I happened to be passing through.  The frog de-buff lasts 15 minutes and is cast on attackers every few minutes, along with a fear de-buff.  Lucky you, you get to stay a frog even after the fight is over.  It sucked hopping my way back to the nearest portal so I could go home.  *Smile*

Comments

[Muckbeast]

What do you think the RoM's live events compared to say, WAR's?

Are they more involved?

More story?

-Michael
Muckbeast - Game Design and Online Worlds
http://www.muckbeast.com

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Muck - I'm sure there was some light story in there somewhere but I couldn't tell ya anything about it since I tend to ignore live events. One of them I picked up in Varanas by mistake which was a delivery thingy with a timer that I immediately abandoned. I hate run-me-around quests disguised as something special. For that reason I didn't bother looking into what was supposedly going on.

I will say though that the fact something was going on was OBVIOUS. I got embroiled in two of these events while trying not to be bothered with them. It's like the Daily Quests, they put things easily in your path to make participation easy and casual.

When I ran into the Frog King quest it was easy to participate. You just jumped into the fight and game on!
After we defeated the one in the pictures I posted, we hopped up the road and wailed on another, then headed to the Distillery and beat a third. It was rather funny having to hop from place to place since the frog debuff is cast repeatedly during the fight, you're like to have a full duration still on you when the fight is over. That was cute right up until I wanted to go do something else and couldn't mount my horse. *Smile*

So while the WAR DQs have a more compelling story and tie into the world much better all the events they had while I played that were outside of Scenarios were hard to find, difficult to trigger and left me feeling frustrated for not being able to get any aspect of them done. Sometimes you can be too clever for your own good. I think WAR suffers from a bit of "too clever for enjoyment". You can add their crafting and harvesting mechanic in that same boat.