Back in the early days of the MMO, there were games in which game masters would occasionally come online to tell a story to the players that were currently playing. They would take control of NPCs and monsters to create a dynamic experience, and sometimes even hand out unique items to a select few players who performed admirably throughout the event.

In more recent years, it seems like companies stopped doing this altogether. Too many servers, not enough people would get to experience such events (leading to jealousy) and the employees spending their time on this cost money, which they would rather spend elsewhere.

To me, it's sad that GM-driven events have not been explored more. It's something that can easily make a subscription worth it, and allow a game to stand out from the rest. These events make for a memorable experience. It's something people would remember and talk about for a long time to come, websites will document the events and role-players in particular will feel that the world is just that much more alive.

"Do you remember when King Emeric was slain?"

"Of course. That's when we attacked that dunmer village at the Morrowind border that was harbouring the assassin. A week - and probably a few torture sessions - later, it was revealed that he was enlisted by a political opponent within Daggerfall itself, who was an agent of Boethiah. The traitor was unmasked and we brought him and his daedric allies to justice... by the sword."

Scripted events can only deliver so much.. they feel a lot more artificial.

"Do you remember when King Emeric was slain?"

"You mean in that quest with the dark elf assassin? Yeah, I did it on my alt yesterday."

The megaserver system eliminates some of the problems MMOs in the past might have had with this. Most notably that you had to have a character on a specific server to be able to participate. Another advantage is that the ZO in-game staff (most likely community managers and in-game tech support people, NOT developers as some people might expect) are not divided among servers, which means they'll have a team that's large enough to occasionally miss one or two people without risking being undermanned when it comes to helping people with their in-game problems.

On the other hand, the mega server introduces a new issue. Even with various "phases" of the megaserver and having the communities divided among 3 alliances and 2 megaservers (US and EU), it might get very crowded, making it difficult/stressful for a game master to interact with players directly. Therefore, it would most of the time only be feasible to tell stories with a predetermined outcome (maybe 2, if player combat is involved in a win-or-lose situation), and only let the players tag along to see it unfold and engage in combat when appropriate.

Examples of things that could be done:

A town crier could shout through a zone when something interesting is about to happen

An innkeeper might be sharing some gossip with another NPC in a tavern

Important NPCs (such as faction leaders, fighters/mages guild members and even known villains) might have a public conversation/confrontation with one another

Powerful enemies might attack a town, and players will have to take part in the defense

An NPC might show up to a group of players and ominously drop hints of things to come

Note that all of these things can be done with existing assets. It would require no time from the developers, who keep working on improving the game in other ways. That doesn't mean the events have to be inconsequential by themselves; they could be used to introduce changes to the game world or completely new content. For instance, if Zenimax Online wants a town to be overrun by daedric forces, there could be a GM event where this attack takes place in which the defending players and guards are ultimately destined to lose.

Anyway, I think there's plenty of ways this could work. Question is, would you like to see these sort of events return in TESO?

I never did get to play any MMORPGs that had these, and I always felt I missed out on something grand; actual RP support from the devs.

My only issue with such events is scheduling, Living all the way down here in Australia these things are likely to occur at very inconvenient times.

It would kick ass.

But if the game does well they would need an army of GMs.

But then again a game with a sub should take the risk and hire a team of "storytellers" to work daily on the game just like you hire a team of coders, modelers etc...

Its not even technically difficult, just takes some balls

Not a good idea. The potential for abuse of the privilege would be too high, for example using gm privileges to help an in-game friend. If any of their actions affected the outcomes of battles in Cyrodiil, the losing faction(s) would certainly qq. Another example would be if any gm action tilted the score which led one person to become emperor.

However, the game should definitely have random events triggered by rng to throw in some unpredictability like bad weather or random hostile npcs. Just as long as it isn't triggered by a human.

I know Runescape does holiday events and community events that sound a lot like this. I don't attend them, but many people do.

That was one of the things I loved in DAoC and playing on Pendragon.

If there was one of these events per week I'm sure that would justify the monthly sub for many who remain unconvinced.

I answered yes, yes, paid in-house staff.

One time events are bad very bad see the gw2 forums for the karka event and the LS, dc during it can't get back to bad! Got to work but pay the sub for content to bad! These type of events just causes more issues than the gains.

Yeah, this is pretty much my main issue. As I said I'm in Australia so scheduling would be a pain for me even if I didn't work. I don't exactly have the option to use an oceanic server.

I would think such events would need to run for a month, with the same basic GM show occurring multiple times over that month so as many people as possible are able to experience it. A one time deal, especially if it's giving out unique items as most people here seem to want, just would not be fair in the slightest.

I am just plain embarrassed by such things. Real advlts pretending to be NPCs, which flies in the face of logic and common sense, and having to deal with the responses of players who would much rather exploit the awkwardness for "humor" rather than participating in the fantasy. No thanks!

the reasons these things dont exist anymore is because players and gms all of which are human beings did what human beings like do best and exploited and took advantage of the situations ruining it for others for all time

GM's could appear as Aedra and make quests, spawn massive npcs of death, and really really make a step up within the immersion of RP elements within the game.
Have events like arena events, I forgot which game I think it was Aion, but the GM's would fly around and talk to people sometimes, fix bugs, root out player disputes, make quests, make events, give rewards and do things that only the gods could do.
So, I voted yes.