EM Drosselmeyer from Chessy

   When you first started what impression did you have about doing events, is it harder or easier than you expected? Did you get nervous and do you still get nervous?

   When I first began with the EM program I had the honor and privilege to be taught and trained by some of the best the program has to offer, and so I was well prepared for when I started events…It took a very short time as the people on Chesapeake can tell you before I started taking a page from EM Dudley’s book and trying more and more ambitious undertakings with events, and the hardest thing with events in my opinion is making sure to keep them as fresh as possible, and if we are going to reuse old ideas, we do our best to spice them up in some way. As for nervousness, I’ll admit there are times it’s a bit nerve-wracking sometimes when we run into an issue that went unnoticed until 5 minutes before the event starts, but we’re usually pretty quick to have a backup plan. Those first few events, if it hadn’t been for Dudley I’d probably have lost it.

   What is it like working with the EM team and Mesanna? What do you think about the structure of the program?

    The EM Team is amazing, and we have a huge diversity of talents on the team, and people from various walks of life and even different countries help us to have a large pool to draw on for ideas if we ever run out of our own, or need feedback. There’s not nearly enough praise that we can heap onto Mesanna, and it’s been through her working extra hours and pouring her blood, sweat, and tears into this program that we have something that is able to keep the players engaged and having fun in this way. The reality that’s behind just how much Mesanna puts into the EM program and into UO as a whole isn’t really seen a lot, but I can say that in my opinion we’d be lost without her…from my perspective as a player or an EM. Structure wise, I think things are at this point very streamlined and well defined, and we have Mesanna and the Elder EM’s to thank for that, who trudged through the rough times at the beginning of the program to make it into what it is today.

   Can you describe the training you have to go thru to become a EM?

   Luckily I came into the program with some slight knowledge of how things worked, and all the other EM’s were very eager to help train someone who wanted to learn. I’d like to give a special mention to Faine Morgan and Dudley, who spent a lot of time putting up with my special brand of annoying little quirks and questions.

   If someone wanted to join the program, what would be the first thing you would say to them?

   Be prepared to work hard. Be prepared to be pushed, and to push yourself; And always, always be ready to learn. 

   Would you like to have a little more control over the player base at events?

   This one covers a lot of possibilities, but I’m going to have to say no. One of my favorite things with some of our open-ended events, the investigation ones in particular, has been to see the ideas that players have supplied and the directions to go that I would never have suspected. If there was anything I could say to the player base who attends our events, it’s that you guys are awesome, and do your best to get more involved and interact!