Postby Caedym » Sun Sep 01, 2002 4:52 am
Lemme break it down, sorry if this seems long, but it’ll help you to see my point as clearly as possible.
You’ve a young evil.
You’re not in a guild.
You don’t get to zone with CC or OD, because for all they care, you don’t exist until you’re level 46 or higher, or in the case of shamans with gheal level 41 or higher.
You spend most of your time leveling up with other unguilded folks, or those guilds who don’t care about your class or level, but the person playing the char, like Blood Raiders have always been, and Evil Alliance & Brigand were before they disbanded.
You make some good true friends who enjoy your company, true friends because they don’t care what your class is at this point it’s just your company they like, and the game is fun for you.
You eventually make yourself into a char with some levels under you and some minor eq, mostly hand downs from those you’ve exp’d with, buying it yourself in WD, or the occasional small eq run with your exp buddies. Sometimes you get lucky tho and a guilded person or a higher level hands you something nice. How endearing of them to be so generous, they don’t even ask you to join their guild if they’re in one. They just gave you something nice. Life is good. People like you for who you are.
Now things change.
One of your close friends starts attracting the notice of an evil zoning guild, you’re happy for them. How could you not be? They are your friend. It’s good to see friends get lucky.
Your friend starts zoning a lot with the new guild and shortly after they have nice equipment dumped on them and they join this guild. You’re worried that things will change between you. Will they have time for you now? They assure you that things aren’t going to change, you’re just being silly, they’ll always be there for you, they’re your friend. You are happy.
Time goes by.
Your friend is doing well.. so well that is.. they don’t take time out to talk to you anymore, unless off course they are so bored and you happen to be in the room with them. But they are your friend, you make it a note to understand that perhaps they are very busy now, and a busy person has a lot of spam to deal with.
Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and you and your friend drift apart.
A lucky day comes.
You’re asked to zone with your friends guild, and your friend is even in that group! Oh happy days these are! What could be better? You’re ready to test your meddle and show these zoners what your made of.
Then you methodically watch as you are screamed at for not knowing what to do every second of the zone, because well you’ve never done it before. What did they really expect? You’ve been doing exp groups primarily for the last 40 something levels, and how you act in an exp group is entirely different then a true zone group.
You suck it up and deal with it, and make sure not to say anything derogatory about those members in the group who did less then their jobs, or who were even worse at their jobs then you at yours. Perhaps they were having an unlucky day, and when they were new, they got this treatment too. This could just be some kind of initiation. One thing you do remember though, is your friend doesn’t stick up for you at all, instead they choose to join in on harping on you in gsay with everyone else involved. Something doesn’t feel right, and a seed is planted within you.
The split comes. You don’t know what stats the items have or what you should bid on, and most people won’t tell you, you have to ask repeatedly for stats until someone answers you. Unfortunately because you’ve been talking a lot around a split, you have accidentally developed a bad rep for someone who gripes about splits, even though that’s not what you were doing. You finally bid on something, and it’s a crap shoot because you have no idea anyways. The split happens, and the leader hands out the best items to select members, almost all are entirely within the same guild as the leader. But looking at them, you realize they for the most part put in more time and effort in the long run, and judging by their eq, they need it and deserve it more then you. You wait for your next chance. You are happy.
The next day comes, and no, unlike what a lot of these guilded people say on the BBS, they don’t ask you to zone again the next day, but they are more then happy to take any classes they currently need out of your exp group to zone with, and they quickly return them once a guilded person of the same class logs. Lucky you. No, they don’t ask you because you’ve somehow manage to develop a bad reputation (the specifics are different for each person, but regardless the fact that your friend never stuck up for you only contributed to this development. After all, if you were a solid investment, why didn’t your friend stick up for you?)
Days and weeks go by before you’re asked to zone again, and when the opportunity arrives, you jump at it. You’re lucky enough to help someone of a guild get a quest item or finish a quest to receive a new spell. That felt good. You did a good dead without even realizing it. That person is so happy, they thank you personally in a tell. Life is good.
More days or weeks go buy, and you find yourself never asked to zone unless it’s to ‘help some guilded person get a quest item or spell’, and sometimes if you’re really lucky, they don’t even tell you that’s why you’re in the group in the first place. You’ve an evil, and they are an elite evil, you should be happy to contribute to the bettering or your betters. Hey, don’t complain, or they’ll never take you zoning. You should be happy to help someone else get ahead, or I should say ‘futher ahead’ then you.
Nothing changes, this goes on for weeks and then months. You’re only being called on to help someone else. The call is never made to help you. But they must know you need help. They must know your condition, because they love to say how everyone in evils is so close knit and knows each other, so they must know? Shouldn’t they? They say they do. So why aren’t they noticing you? Where is the call to help you for once?
You don’t complain, you instead make it a note that the next zoning group you are a part of, you’re going to go above and beyond the call of duty to show how good you are.
That day comes. During the zoning, you stand out above all others for doing your job above and beyond the call of duty, supporting the leader, never giving crap, and helping assign duties. You’re not just the vice president of the group, you’re the goddam MVP and everyone knows it. You get praised in tells. Well done.
When a spank happens because of guilded folks not doing their job or being afk when something bad happened, it’s you who survived by rising to the occasion and preventing a complete spank. During the reorganization of the group, the ‘elite’ people act like children and bitch and moan. You turn a blind eye to it and continue doing your job and even taking control of a bad situation to bring things together. Because of you, the day is saved.
The split comes. No one gives a dam about what you did. They are just pissed they died, and of course want to pin it on someone. They don’t look to reward who did their job and more, they want to dump on someone. You are forgotten. You are not rewarded. You watch as the one item you wanted, which you’ve wanted for months now, goes to one of 6 other people who don’t need it, and this particular person helped to cause the spank in the first place. For the most part, only your non-guilded friends in the group notice how wrong this is and send you comfort tells, no one else gives a dam.
You’re unhappy. But lo to he who complains! Don’t do it! The worst heresy of all! Don’t even mention a sigh or a disappointment in how the split went, or it’ll be another 1-3 months before you get asked by that leader again. Shame on you! How DARE you not be happy!?!?
So you don’t. You let it slide. Life goes on. You’ll deal with it. It’s a good thing too, because you start to get asked to zone more often now. Unfortunately you keep watching the equipment go to the same group of people over and over again. You are not happy, you’re frustrated.
You get tired of the charade and decide to follow different leaders for a time. You start to learn even more zones and get a nice reputation for once as someone who knows what they are doing or that can scramble in an emergency without loosing their head.
Time goes by. You decide to give those old leaders another spin. It’s been a while now, and unfortunately a lot of people in that group now have alternative characters, even multiple ones. You remember how the leader always did handouts to those folks who were in most need of the equipment. You look at everyone in the group who runs in it regularly, and see that the most needed person is pretty much.. well you. Hey things look good for me. I might get something. Life is good. You also notice how much better your performance is on a regular basis then some of your old friends and wonder why you haven’t been approached for guild membership. You are an excellent player after all. Aren’t you?
The split comes. The leader now decides to lotto everything, they never did this before. Remember? It was always handouts based on group performance and need. You systematically watch as every good item goes to people who don’t need for their current character, and in the worst instances, they just want it for an alternate character they haven’t even rolled up yet. Oh but they plan on it.. some day.
This keeps happening to you. You start to notice other things. Like.. why won’t said guild help me get this quest spell? You ask them. They tell you, “you don’t need that, it’s a waste of time”, but.. you notice.. everyone of that class in THEIR guild has that spell. Why do they need it and you don’t? Or they tell you how you need to get this spell now to be of any use in a zone, but unfortunately you can’t complete that quest without a zone group, and you can’t get into a zone group because you don’t have that spell. It doesn’t matter that they are doing the zone you need a quest item from. You can’t get the spell without already having the spell.
You start to think they say you don’t need it because only players in their guild need it?
Perhaps only players in their guild need that or certain equipment too?
Remember that seed? Oh it’s blossoming now baby. Boy is it ever.
Your frustration screams. If your situation doesn’t improve, you’re going to shoot someone. Things have to get better. You start asking for help from your old true friends, the guilded ones, but they never have time for you, and unfortunately they’ll drop anything to go zone with one of their guild leaders. You’re just not a priority enough for them. Eq for them or their second or third alt is ten times more important then you. Yeesh. Why’d you even bother to ask in the first place? Duh. Oh but they love to make assurances to you, but unfortunately they never cash it in. If someone pledges to do something for you, and then never does it, isn’t that the same as a lie? Hell, remember all those people you helped get those quest spells? They don’t even remember your name now.
How precious of them to be so completely different now and forget about that person who helped them get where they are today in the first place? It takes a true friend to step on you and then brag about how great they are, and subsequently better then you, on the BBS and to your face. You’re annoyance and frustration turns to anger. The game is no longer fun for you. Why should you even bother to log?
You try a different path.
You roll a goodie. From the first 5 mins of playing a high-levels drop in to say hi and offer any assistance. You’re amazed at how nice they are, especially after being ignored by high-levels until your 40’s as an evil. You start playing your new goodie more and more and find more and more nice people to hang out with. This is so much easier because of the immensely larger player base as compared to before. You’re old evil friends start wondering where you are. You tell them, “hey, come swim over here, water is great, and no sharks to kill ya!”
Months go by, you’re having a blast playing a goodie now, you’ve even made yourself into a reputable character with some reputable friends. You can even zone pretty much whenever you want. Sure there are the occasional snafu’s and jackasses, but all in all, life is good again.
You see a post on a board from some of those ‘elite’ evil players, the ones when you invested time into them it never paid off in anything but a headache. They are grumbling now because no one is around to zone with and don’t understand where everyone want. They can’t get those last 3-6 items to make their char in to eq perfection. Oh how sad for them. You and your former evil friends laugh at the matter.
Let them simmer in their own juices. Hey, they made their bed. Let em sleep in it.
You take some time out from time to time to log your evil char and chat with some old evil friends who are still grinding it away as an evil. Frustrated as usual. It appears that some of the evil elite leaders are threatening to ignore them as their alts, but they only rolled those alts in the first place because those leaders wanted more of that class. Your poor friends. You know the crap they’re going thru. Some other people wonder where you’ve been. What’s funny is they didn’t give two shits about you when you were around every day.
Some ask why you don’t play so much anymore or zone with evils now. Well, why should you help people, who don’t care about you, just to eq their alts?
FUNK DAT!!
While you’re on with your evil some frustrated goodie sends you a tell asking what it’s like to be an evil, they are considering rolling one. You tell them the truth. They cringe. You then tell them about your goodie and log em on. You two group and eventually welcome them into your goodie circle of friends. You picked up a new friend to mud with. Life is great. You ask yourself why on earth did you ever bother rolling an evil in the first place?
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I watch this happen time and time again, and I’m more then happy to add any former evils into my groups/circle of friends. Keep it up guys, you’re only giving me more people to zone with and share my time with. I just thought you might want a clue to your current dilemma since you asked.
Caedym Shadowhock –some dude working for Oghma
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Either that was a joke or some twisted version of a one-sided story.
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