Now what I most most in modern mmos compared to the old days when mmos where somewhat a newish thing are events that are actually conducted by game masters.

In daoc for example we had this one event where at the end of tons of challenges/puzzles etc (all narrated by a gm) 4 gms played the four horseman and attacked the combined zerg of all three realms.

Uo had tons of events too even week or month long quests done by a gm in person.

I really liked these kinds of events much much more then the fairly generic "its christmas so we have added some npcs with generic quests" stuff.

Is nowadays the number of players just to large to do such things? Is it just too expensive? Or maybe some form of entitlement by the players ie they would cry forever on forums because they missed it?

Anyway I would really love to see something along those lines be brought back to the mmo world!

it would be nice if this returned, but unfortunately it probably wont.

TBH, with the advent of the f2p model, I would expect GM-run events to be in a sub-based game now. If I'm going to pay a monthly sub I'll expect:

- a significant amount of high quality 'free' content at least once or twice a year (though too often, like monthly, is likely to result in low quality);

- at the very least 'adequate' in-game support;

- the occasional GM-run event.

It's exactly because of these extras that I prefer the subscription model to the f2p one.

I know it's a bit off-topic, but a monthly sub AND an item shop (as opposed to service shop) is a no-no for me. That's where I personally draw the line for game charges.