[Hollee]

I'm a relatively new member to <Dark Ascension>, as my trial period has just completed last week, and I've been online both times that we got informed of our raid suspension. Both in guild and on ventrilo is sudden confusion and immediate questions. No one knows what happened, and no one knows who is responsible. We wait to see what the officers find out through speaking with the GMs that issued the suspension.

There has been a lot of theories and conjecture thrown around this forum. True, it is Rants and Flames, but that doesn't mean people can't be intelligent and informed when making statements.

Personally, I'm not a forum troll. I very rarely come to these boards, but when things like this happen, I can't help but hear guildmates commenting on the threads and I get curious to see what is being said. That being said, I'd like to touch on a few things that were mentioned in this thread, and the one started by Raren.

For starters: The issue that Durison is aware of this cheating and surrounds himself with a core circle that do the same and are aware. For the most part, Durison doesn't even make all the calls in the guild. Often times, he's not even on the raids we're doing. Depending on the hour of day or interest of the guild, our raids are lead by differing officers or experienced members and sometimes Durison will join us after it's begun. He may be the guild leader, but I have seen nothing that points toward him doing anything or condoning anything to do with cheating. All of our leadership is actually rather adamant to the contrary (yes Koota included).

This is not to say they are perfectly innocent. I can't claim that. Then again, I also can't claim that my immediate family is perfectly innocent either. Human beings are rather adept at keeping unwanted information from one another regardless of the medium.

The issue that staying tagged to <Dark Ascension> is condoning cheating in general. This is nonsense. I, myself, have no idea how third party programs even work (though Abacab gave me an insightful glimpse on Koota's flame thread). That being said, I don't support it in any way. Why do I stay tagged in <Dark Ascension>? Likely the same reason you would stay tagged in your guilds if someone was caught duping/cheating/training/etc in yours. Because despite that one person, the rest of the people in the guild are phenominal people to hang out and raid with and the bad apple has been removed, so there's no need to leave.

The issue that we don't police/screen our members. This is ridiculously unfounded. As has been addressed on this forum in multiple people's posts, even the smallest guild can allow a dishonest person membership. There is no fool-proof method to screen. And the suggestion that we don't police is ludicrous as we haven't any means to. One must first detect the dishonesty to be able to address it, no?

The issue that past actions state that <Dark Ascension> are known cheaters. Guess what. The past is exactly that. As stated above, I'm relatively new to the guild, and I'm not privvy to this 'sordid' history of the guild. Do you know why I don't bother looking into it? Because it doesn't matter. What matters is how the guild is handled presently, and what I see is a well-tuned group of people that work damn hard to accomplish all that we do. We have a team of trackers that spend countless hours watching for raid targets to spawn. And no, I'm not talking about Koota. I'm talking about our Bards, Druids, Rangers who sit there for countless hours hitting the "track" button. Or our Monks, Necromancers, or Shadowknights who FD on target spawn points to watch physically to see the mob. I'm talking about people like Jayko who will sit endlessly just waiting to DIE in order to know the target has spawned.

Everyone's history holds skeletons in the closet. Look at your own, personally, and tell me you don't have a single thing that you'd rather was left forgotten. It's the past. Forget it.

"But you're still cheating!" will be the response, I'm sure. To pre-empt that, let me state that though individuals are being caught cheating, they are acting independently from the wishes, knowledge, and rule set of this guild and if we had had the means to somehow know what they were doing, they would have been removed without hesitation.

You can call me a blind sheep following the herd if you wish. You can call me ill-informed if that'll satisfy you. None of it will change the fact that these are good people. I have never once seen or heard of a <Dark Ascension> member acting as if they were superior to anyone else on the server or behaving as if they were entitlted. We all work hard to manage what we have accomplished on the server, and to have it tossed aside for foolish reasons is frustrating, so naturally some tempers will flare. Just try to ignore the h8.

My name is Lorelae D`Clerizard, and I'm a proud member of <Dark Ascension>. Regardless of whatever sordid past history the guild might have, the members of it now are a great group of people, and I will stay tagged until this guild and continue to be the person I am. If you want to hate on me for that, by all means, just don't be too disappointed if I don't rise to the occasion.

Originally Posted by Pheer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...keep letting zerg force recruits and an inner circle of cheaters surrounding durison get you suspended from raiding...

Originally Posted by Pheer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You're pretty naive if you don't think DA leadership was aware of koota's SEQ use. Durison is one of the shadiest guildleaders I've ever seen.

Originally Posted by Pheer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...make assumptions with 0 evidence all you want...

Isn't that exactly what everyone on this forum is doing?

Originally Posted by Cyrano [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...Jesus Christ if you won't police your own members someone has to...

If you would kindly supply us with the means, we will happily employ them. As of right now, we don't have a system to detect 3rd party programs installed onto our members computers.

Originally Posted by Cyrano [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...You guys harbor cheaters and griefers...

Originally Posted by Cyrano [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...We have known SEQ users? Ummm from everything I can tell it's 1 person...

No one is innocent, it seems.

Originally Posted by Cyrano [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...Your guild has a history of rampantly breaking rules, training, ksing, and cheating...

Which sounds exactly like what is also said about <Inglorious Basterds>. Though if you stop to talk to anyone about the situation, you'll hear a different perspective from the other side. Visions are slanted through angry eyes.

Originally Posted by President [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Can't possible believe an alt in guk got a whole guild raid banned. Sorry.. don't believe it.

Neither do we.

Originally Posted by Alienorg [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There are always going to be bad people and they will find ways to get into good guilds but as a guild u have to try your best to prevent this. ie: making it hard to get into your guild/disbanding people in your guild that you find are doing something wrong or you will have to suffer for the faults of your members as a whole

The current application process has several steps to it and is a minimum of one month in duration with certain requirements that need to be met before the application is approved for membership. If this isn't "hard" I don't know what is.

As for disbanding people that we find are doing something wrong... well, we need to be able to find that first, don't we? These comments are based on the fact that the guild as a whole is in the know regarding who is doing what at all times. Can anyone tell me what your immediate family is doing at all times? That's a maximum of 10 people to keep track of... surely it can't be that hard to know where they are and what they're doing at every hour, right?

Originally Posted by Trimm [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...However, when someone uses ShowEQ to track a mob (lets say Cazic Thule) when they otherwise shouldn't be able to gives the entire guild an unfair advantage over another. Raider X, Y and Z receive loot that might not have been possible without the actions of the cheating player. In this case, I believe the entire guild being punished is justified.

We fully agree with this exact sentiment as well, which is why we accepted the punishment alloted to us when it was one of our officers caught using a 3rd party program to track for a raid target. Personally, I also think that if we HAD gotten said target as a result, it would have been fair to revoke the loot received from the kill as well.

Originally Posted by Stefen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...Do you honestly think DA leadership has no idea what's going on?...

Yes, I honestly believe DA leadership has no idea what's going on, because I listen to them on ventrilo when things like this happen and they are just as flabbergasted as the rest of us.

Originally Posted by Daymar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

lol @ how DA members are defying all claims against its honor with supposed ignorance...

It's not 'supposed' at all. Some of us just don't care about the past. The past doesn't effect the present, it just leads us to it. My mother says, "There are no mistakes, just learning experiences." There *is* a reason for rehabilitation in prison, you know... because once an offender, doesn't mean always an offender.

Originally Posted by saucer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...their actions lately have shown that their history and reputation is continuing to plague the server...

Only because people don't seem able to move on and feel the need to dredge up the past of a few people. The Nazi's destroyed countless lives, but we don't blame all Germans. I'm not saying what happened was right, but I am saying that what happened wasn't the actions of the whole, so why hold the whole accountable?