my view on this is jaded.

it comes from the early days of live. Many pe's were just self serving events to further a specific group,faction, person, etc. rather than to tell an intriguing story and help the community/game.  just my opinion but one i feel was backed well. eventually it got to where i didnt even care to look at what was going on.

the leg10n vs prophet of the martyrs pe was a lot of fun because it was kept quiet and simple. few outside factions knew of or were involved in it. it easily kept 25 or so of us occuppied for an evening and it led to my eventual fall from zion and re-birth in leg10n. the problem being, it could not have been done as well or been so easily adaptable on the fly if it had been org wide or involved massive amounts of people. and roleplaying a zion spy caught invading a machine meeting was just too much fun

the other side of it:

i still remember when player actions did change the storyline. small events could happen at any time of the day or night on more than one server at a time. maybe frag collecting during big events sucked but at least an org had a chance to change things and maybe the shapers event didnt matter as much in the long run but at least some org had to take the win. maybe neurophyte was a LET creation but at least it came from the top and was open ended enough to feel like it mattered. once things like that were left behind, for good, the entirety of the story lost some meaning for me. now it was just any other game

over time, i have come to enjoy the story again and even tried to get back in to the roleplay circles but the final problem with the rp is elitism. wear the wrong tag for a few months/years and people will not work with you. not jumping into "their style of rp" and they will ignore you or push you off. and then lesig is and will always have corruption tied to this elitism. yes, i did benefit from such things as well. leg10n got to be the first to say anome was a villian and i jumped at the chance to share that with the community. and maybe leg10n used some insider info to get back at some elitist machines, talk about player events gone wrong woooha, but it just goes to show that any player event can be suspect while a live event is by design to be the story.

it just an issue that cant be resolved without financial investment from sony to bring in more LET and give the players back the game and let the professionals entertain us. player events would actually gain more meaning with a larger scale story evolving before our eyes again and not just coming up like messages in a fax machine. it would provide a sturdier backdrop to build pes within and help eliminate two years of rp going down the drain over a technicality. it would also give more options for let at pe's. which in the early days was truly amazing to have a random party and someone "famous" walk in. especially when it happened to more than just the large favorite factions.

This is what I think:

Player Events were awesome back in the day because there simply wasn't anything else to do.  In that year long gray period where we had no live events, no story progression, and no LESIG...  we had really kick *CENSORED* player events to keep us occupied.

Now that we have almost daily live events and LESIG storylines to pursue, the need for player events to keep us occupied as dwindled.

I may not agree with the above, but I think that's honestly why it's hard to run a player event nowadays.  We have so much more to do than we did back then.

That said, I love player events, but I usually don't have the patience or interest to deal with ARGs and puzzles.  I enjoy them for the RP aspect.  The events we have in The Trust generally effect only us, any maybe another faction or two, like Davo was saying.

EDIT:  I think I realized what I don't like.  Most player events these days are ARGs or puzzles that take place outside of the game.  While that's a cool concept, I prefer events that take place solely in-game...  CountZero's Matrixulated and the Kings of Never's Cypherite event come to mind.

I'm going to touch on the reinsertion issue very quickly.  If you believed reinsertion was possible from the movies you are clearly not that familiar with Plato's Allegory of the Cave - which The Matrix is primarily based off of.  My point being: I don't thing we should assume things to be possible if there is little proof for them, and then be upset whenever we are proven wrong.

The problem, I believe, is simply that people are to comfortable in being miserable, and complaining about the lack of RP.  Nobody cares to join something they might like, because they don't want to bust a hole in their own argument.

The only player events I've really been in tend to be very long and drawn out or extremely boring.  In RP my character is a lot like me OOC, he likes to fight, that's his thing.  Seems most of the time RP'ers shy away from PvP even of the RPvP sort.  the few times I've gotten to fight in a PE I've been flamed and sent hate tells telling me to go back to Mara.  So yeah, in Live Events I actually get rewarded for fighting, being in character and following interesting storyline, so there you go.

Besides that you'd be surprised how similar the jerks are in RP as well as PvP.  Which is why I really enjoy when RP'ers call PvP'ers out for being unintelligent *fruitbats*.  The only difference I've seen is that the RP'ers don't use leet speak and type full sentences, but it's all saying the same thing.  So please, stop the god-modding and talking *poop* back and forth for hours on end and RP might be more enjoyable for those of us that would like to participate but haven't due to being turned off to it right from the get-go.

I'm not going to beat around the bush when it comes to describing Player Events. (call out/rant post)

The majority of them are crap. A lot of them if you don't follow it from the start, you get lost coming in to the middle of it, and you just say, "Mmm, 'k no thx." And then there are some that are just straight-up wannabe LESIG. They copy LESIG, then turn around and complain about LESIG, and I know that a lot of people in A:B are either ex-LESIG, or people who think LESIG is horrible, and basically just want to run the show the way they think it should be run. They'll do whatever it takes for their events to seem "official" or whatever. That's really just on the border-line of annoying. It's the reason I never actually cared for that Player Event, and yes, I will forever criticize that little organization of RP just because of what it does. I mean, they had "The Architect" give out the same exact little pieces of picture that you saw in the .gif in Broadcast Depth to those on the A:B forum. RPing as the Architect? Are you trippin' balls or something?

It's not just A:B though. A:B was just the first to make their *poop* seem like it was official. The other PE's are usually exclusive to one server, small, and usually pertain to or revolve around one person. That's another thing that's a little annoying, is when the player events themselves, just turn into a ego-boosting event that revolves around one person. If that's what you're into, be my guest. Remeber those celebrity alts? Man was that ever disgusting in my eyes. I've heard everything from Killcode frag grenades to people who use incinerator chutes inside of office buildings (*CENSORED*?) to those who pretend they're exiles or whatever, when Rarebit has said himself  (and intended in the game as well) that everyone is basically a pod-born operative. You're not a program, you're not a lupine, you're not a bluepill. RPing that is fine, but to me unless it's a certain circumstance, just doesn't cut it.

I'm the sort of person who gets discouraged if you use crappy spelling. Your ideas don't flow with the canon. You just want to hold PE's so you're the center of attention. You want to "revive" RP and when people don't come, you turn around and complain that RP is dead. You use the /e for the most trivial things, or completely god-mode out the *CENSORED*. You have a really *CENSORED* name(I mean seriously, someone with a name I can hardly pronounce I just avoid). You make up ridiculous scenarios that would never happen in the Matrix universe and for the love of god if I hear the phrase, "leave neo alone" one more time when rp drama arises I will snap. It really stopped being funny a long time ago*waits for someone to quote and say it again*.

So I guess overall, I'm really, really picky when it comes to RP. I usually don't out-right tell them that it's horrible and just ignore it, but jeez. I mean, seriously people. Bad guys that never die, or seem to "flag" just as they dash to the hardline with a shield so they can say on their main that the people did get a chance to fight back and that he didn't god-mod. Not like it matters, because people can just resurrect seemingly due to the EJP, which sort of takes the serious and deadly tension out of RP.

Of course, the first response would be, "Well if you're so perfect, why don't you host your own PE?" Which is precisely why I don't. So all in all, I'm sorry, but the only one who makes events that are seemingly interesting and actually pertain to the storyline are created by LESIG and Rarebit. Granted some of these events are boooring but I like it better than standing at Tabor West, where everybody stands there and says nothing except for the occasional b-*CENSORED* crack or insult. At this point, there is no other Player Event RP-wise that catches my eye and probably won't for some time.

-EDIT

And thank you for bringing up the RP-PVP arguement, Tenshi, because from what I have seen from both sides, PvP and RP both have village idiots. The difference is RPers never PvP, and PvPers never RP. Polar opposites, and when one of them riles the other up, it's a big debate over something completely pointless. I've seen PvPers deliberately try to get RPers riled up, but the RPers are guilty just the same. When I first started this game to until I was just getting near 50, I was an active RPer. I RPed a lot, and it was fun, back when there were some interesting things going on, etc., and after I hit 50, I wanted to experience the PvP side of things. I mean the majority of this game is just watching your avatar kick the *poop* out of the other avatar, so why not experience that to the full level? PvP is definitely enjoyable, the trash talking is admirable to a degree, and it's just all-around fun unless someone's just being a complete *CENSORED* or PvP stops and the bitching begins, but wait, does this sound familiar at all? RP is definitely enjoyable, the trash talking is admirable to a degree, and it's just all-around fun unless someone's just being a complete *CENSORED* or RP stops and the bitchings begins about god-mod or whatever, and in PvP it's clothes stacking or zergs, so like I said, they both really are similar, yet different.

Because Player Events, while they can be amazingly done and brilliantly performed, and beautifully written by there directors, hold absolutely no weight at all when it comes to the official continuation of the story. I play this game to be apart of the Matrix Universe. Not to write/be in a fan-fiction about it.

And that's not even getting into the motives of players events. Some, like A:B, are for everyone, but a lot are only done to boost the egos of those hosting and at the end of the day you know its going to go their way and you really have no say in it.

Something like the Runtime Bit but for different NPC's would work nicely. Hint hint, Rarebit.

Hmm.. nice topic, and nice to see some good points brought up on both sides.

I don't have much to contribute, but I'll toss my opinion out there anyway.  hehe  Basically, to me, PE's are both good and bad... and even the best ones touch upon both sides.

PEs allow creative players to not only showcase their talents but to, in the better PEs, really get the community involved.  The problem is some of those who create PEs don't really have the talent to bring a PE to life.  Sadly, having a good idea isn't always enough especially if you're trying for something grand.  Another issue here is that many PEs simply end up as slideshows where you go from one "scene" to another with little or no actual RP or interaction.  It's best when there is some sort of plan in place, and some level of structure, but there should also be room to RP.. and there are choices to make and chances are taken.  Without a plan, events can drag on pointlessly forever and get boring very quickly.  Without some freedom, you may as well just be watching a youtube'd MxO player video. (some of which are extremely cool, of course, but there's no "event" to them).

I also have to touch upon getting players involved.  If you only use the boards to "create buzz" for your event, you're automatically excluding a huge portion of your potential participants and, as said, it's already often difficult enough to get people involved after you've started without them.  Just using myself for an example, I don't mind taking part in PEs, but I don't read the Next Rene and Player Events sections often.... and I'm someone who's on the board a decent amount.  Just imagine someone who never visits the board at all and how completely clueless they're likely to be.  Base most of the event out of game and this just gets even worse (though I agree it would be great to have more tools available to PE creators who do want to do things in game).

As for the issue of story and how official PEs are.  This is a tough issue.  Generally, it's best to stay out of the way of the storyline because many many players do consider the official storyline to be king.  I have no problem considering a PE to be "official" as far as player storylines are concerned and, quite frankly, they can certainly be more interesting than the official storyline.  There's a lot of room to maneuver when it comes to creating your own story and for players who've been around a while, those storys are really what makes the city feel alive.  Also, playing around as LE characters is a huge no-no, and creating tension by being able to create kill codes and death viruses at the drop of a hat is very very tired.

Basically, creating PEs is hard.  Creating good PEs is even harder.... and that's coming from someone who hasn't even done one and is just talking from a participant's viewpoint.  I'm sure the reality is even harsher than it seems from "the outside." 

Edit:  Oh, and just to chime in on the Cyph Reinsertion issue.  I think there was certainly valid reason for many to consider it at least plausible given the source materials.  While I like to laugh IC at the Cyphs on this point (and many others), and many have been able to just roll with the storyline punches, it was still a bit of a low blow.