TMO Proving they Ruin project1999 Raiding

[Llodd]

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

I never played EQ in classic. I started playing in 2000 on Xev server in Kunark era. I was a noob, but my impression was that the top guilds were not pals. There was competition, there were winners and losers. There was gloating and resentment.

Then Sullon Zek opened and I switched servers. I think you all know what that was like without a retelling from me. I learned to love the race and the fight. I was addicted to new servers.

Luclin made EQ PVP very unbalanced and I moved to Kane Bayle where I focused on raiding. I was in the number two guild, Celestial Rapture. Krimzin and In Virtue had us under their thumb. Every move we made came only by fighting for it and every win was a cause for celebration.

Venril Sathir server opened and I started to two box. I joined up with Ruin and some of the evil ugly guys who had dominated Sullon Zek early on. They were good. Really good. No one else really stood a chance. When the server policy was changed and opened to transfers, they all quit.

Finally, Stromm. Sullon Zek was like living in a war zone, but for me Stromm was like training for the Olympics. I teamed up with Hutto and Thorrs/Hammr. We focused, we strategized, we did everything we could to be the best. We thought we had joined up with like-minded people in Enraptured, but it turned out that the leadership was flaky and incompetent--exactly the opposite of what they presented. I moved to Cypher for a long list of server firsts. When Faite's favoritism and RMT corruption started to affect the guild, I joined Realm of Insanity and continued to excel.

This is my experience from live. It was not about holding hands and sharing. There were scarce resources. In every expansion, the best loot was extremely limited and everyone wanted it. There was competition between guilds and among the members of the same guild for best in slot drops.

Every server made a choice on what form that competition took, but it resolved into two forms. Either there was a guild free for all where a clear leader emerged or else there was a bigger cartel which even more effectively locked out smaller players. In no case was everyone invited to the party. The only difference between these two situations was how many players shared the pie. The more the scarce resources were divided, the less advanced any given guild be and the less distinctive those guilds could be in an even bigger competition to achieve game-wide firsts.

On servers where there was a conflict between the two approaches, it appears to me that the cartels were ineffective against rogues. Project 1999 is the ultimate clash of these two ideologies, and the jury is in: there will be no hand holding. Compete or farm platinum to buy what you want, because other people want those scarce resources as much or more than you do.

I like the Full Circle guys, too. They seem like a good crew who keep the drama under wraps. That doesn't mean TMO owes them anything. There was nothing at all inconsistent in TMO showing up to fight for Innoruuk this weekend. That's how they're the top guild. They want it more than you do. That makes you a loser. The endless taunts, insults, and accusations don't change the results, they just make you a sore loser.

Everyone playing on Project 1999 likes to kill the dragon. If we were going to turn this into some kind of democratic or socialist situation, there would be hundreds of people at every kill. You might never land a spell before the 32K boss mobs died. Your chances of winning any loot would be much less than 1% as the /random 100 lottery was rolled off. It's never going to happen.

I don't expect the drama to end. I don't even really want it to. Frankly, I enjoy all the rivalries and smack talk. If you want to be a force on this server, however, this isn't the way to do it. Shut up, level up, step up. Blue cons do not deserve the difficult epics or any other best in slot gear. Whining is no replacement for tight mobilization. This game is about scarce resources and competing for them as prizes and it always has been.

Much truth in that ,but lets have some perspective here.

There are a lot of people that came back to this server in the hope of experiencing the top-end of this game for whatever reason but unless they dedicate most/all of their spare time to it (whilst throwing what ethics they may have out the window) they still aren't going to see it.

It's pretty ridiculous that the cycle of this server seems to be taking on the worst elements of live back in the day. I don't ever recall top guilds on my server blocking others for such a long length of time in the name of 'competition'. In fact it just didn't happen nearly as much as it does here; yes that's mainly because of the time line irregularity, but it's astonishing, though hardly suprising, how immature some of the people here are.

A side effect of this is undoubetdly that many good people simply turn away, rather that even try to compete with the utter shite that passes for 'normality' on this server at the top end.

It's quite sad that the only solutions ever offered are 'step it up', or 'if you want the loot you have to sink to xxx guilds level'.

You know, would it be too much to ask for all guilds to come to some sort of compromise whereby for certain periods of the year a guild can take on and try to defeat a raid boss without xxx waiting in the wings pressurising them to use it or lose it or simply steal it. And then the rest of the time have it so it's a giant e-peen competition that so many love.