News from Jun 10, 2008 - Our Forum - The One: A Thunderhorn World of Warcraft Guild

You may not realize this but anyone has the power to plan and organize instance events using GEM. That's right! GEM isn't just for raiding. If you'd like to organize a group to Magister's Terrace, you can create a new event in GEM, set the time, set the group size, and become your own facilitator. You have the PoWAH!

Creating the Event

So, how do you do it?

Open GEM either by clicking the icon around your minimap or typing /gem toggle.
Once GEM is open, click the New tab at the bottom (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: The "New" tab in GEM
Set up the "Where" location. You have four drop-down menus on the right-hand side (see Figure 2). One for miscellaneous events (Misc): PvP, questing, 10-person, 20-person, etc. events. One for Burning Crusade Raid Events (not relevant). One for Burning Crusade instances (BC): Caverns of Time, Blood Furnace, Arcatraz, etc. One for pre-TBC instances (Classic): Deadmines, Stratholme, Dire Maul, etc.

Figure 2: Choose Where
Fill in a comment with some additional information, like whether it's a guild-only run, whether you need specific types of players, etc (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Add a comment
Next, we need to set the time and date. Click on the "Choose" button. It will pop-up a little calendar (right) and some drop-downs (left) to choose the time. Choose the time first using the drop-downs, then click the date. After you click the date, the time/date picker will close.
Note: The time it uses is your local time unless you have previously ticked "Use server time" in the GEM Options tab.
Fill in the size of raid group/level range. It defaults to 5 people but the level range is 1 to 70. Set that appropriately. You can also stipulate a minimum and a maximum number (you can do one or both) of sign-ups for a given class. When a maximum is reached, others signing up of that class will automatically be subscribed as "substitutes".
Make sure you've chosen the right GEM channel and right character using the drop-down boxes at the bottom (see Figure 4). Then click "Create" to create the event in GEM.

Figure 4: Create the event

Other Notes

It's not really that hard, but there are some things you should think of in advance:

Make sure you post the event far enough ahead of when you want to do it that people have the chance to sign up.
Think about the group make-up you'll need. 5 random people probably just isn't going to do it! You can post specific requests for roles in the comment.
Don't create the GEM event when hardly anyone is online or your event won't propagate. GEM works by passing information between players. If there aren't any players around or very few, then the information doesn't get shared very well!
GEM Options: You might find it handy to change some of your GEM options to make it work better.
- I use "%a %d/%m/%y %H:%M" as my displayed dates format, which gives me events shown in the list as "Tue 10/06/08 20:30" for example.
- I have "Use server time" ticked. Any events I create are therefore in server time and any events I see listed are also in server time. That's the time that's common to everyone.
- I have "Use only listed events" unticked. The default for this is ticked. When it's ticked, you can't just enter whatever you want into the "Where" field by typing. It forces you to use a location from the drop-down boxes.
Don't forget your own event. If you create an event, make sure you show up to run it. Don't just assume that because no-one signed up, nobody was interested. Sometimes people don't sign up but are online at the right time.

Have fun with GEM. If you need help, your THB rep should be able to give you a hand or advice in setting it up or practical advice in running a group.