Rants and the Ranters

Ok, I’m sick and tired of the ranting :) This coming from a guy who runs his own Rant Site :)

As most of you know I play a game called Dark Age of Camelot. I have been playing this game for about 3 years now and I have seen a lot of stuff happen. For those who don’t know what DaoC is, it is an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) where 3 realms are in constant struggle to claim dominance. They battle in an environtment like PvP but know as RvR (Realm vs Realm). The company that created this unique style of PvP is Mythic Entertainment.

I’ve seen a LOT of rants regarding class imbalances, realm imbalances, combat imbalances, etc. I’ve seen people bitch and complain about the Midgards. I’ve seen them complain about the Hibernians, and of course the Albions. This game has taken a lot of turns over the past 3 years. Only those who have been playing for as long as I have will understand the power shifts and see a definate pattern. The problem with DAoC is population imbalances.

Let’s say you have a server with 3 realms. Let’s say 10,000 people decide to play on this server as their “Main” server. Let’s say 50% of those individuals decide they like the old Knights and Arthinian Lore and decide to join Albion. Right away you have a population imbalance. Population is a huge deal in RvR, and typically the realm that has the most players wins the battles. Right now, since the release of Mythic’s latest expansion (New Frontiers) we (The Albions) have been winning. There are a lot of “reasons” why, but I feel the biggest one is population. On almost every server, Albions outnumber both Mids and Hibs combined (that the 50% I was talking about). As a result of this, players (Hibs and Mids) are crying Nerf!

We (Albs) have a lot of things going for us these days. We have ALMOST always been the underdogs in RvR warfare; fighting against enemies who seem unbeatable. I remember going out into the frontiers and being overwhealmed by the numbers of our enemies. Now that the gauntlet is on the other hand, they enemy can’t take it. It’s sad TBH. I think the game could have had a lot more potential with New Frontiers. Instead it’s turned out to be a bunch of cry babies who want things back they way they were or they’ll /cancel. I say let em! This game is about change! Plain and Simple!

You either keep up, or fall behind.

Cheers

I Like Rusty Spoons

For those who haven’t had the pleasure of viewing Salad Fingers By David Firth, I suggest you drop by and tak e a look :)

All I can say is “wow". Either this guy needs to win an award for most bizare flash animation, or he needs to be locked up! :)

If you like that one, you’ll LOVE his sequals

Salad Fingers Episode 2 “Friends” - By David Firth
Salad Fingers Episode 3 “Nettles” - By David Firth

It’s messed up, so don’t blame me if you have nightmares or something :)

Some People

Gaming communities can be a great thing. Like Real Life, they can also be pretty bad.

I won’t name names, but there is this certain individual who I know in-game that I used to always consider a friend. I remember when he first started playing DAoC and he was in my old guild (Hands of God). We used to hang out together all the time and I assisted in his climb up the exp ladder to 50 on his first toon. I’ll call this guy Bro for now.

Today I was on an ML2 raid led by Sash. I felt the raid was going well, everything was in order and we managed to get from start to finish (minus solo step) in just over 2hrs. We had some difficulty getting the final encounter down, but that’s expected with the amount of lag we’ve been getting in ToA these days. During the raid, Sash went LD and as a result, BG Loot was off. I picked up a 98% qual Trident during one of the kills and was asked to give to Sash. I attempted several times to give to him, but he was always in a trade session. Then he ran off and we continued on with the raid. He said in the BG he wasn’t going to worry about loot.

People started to bicker about this and finally he said to hand the Trident to him. I went to hand it to him yet AGAIN, and he was in a trade with someone else. I tried several times and then a battle broke out (Step 9 of ML2). During the fight, the trident was forgotten about and we moved on to step 10.

After all was said and done, we decided to head back to Stygia to roll for loot. I decided to take off as nothing dropped I would be interested in and I had to get my kids ready for my daughter’s 2nd birthday party. Then over BG someone asked about the Trident and wanted to roll on it. Sash mentioned he did not have the Trident and my name came up as having it.

Everyone thought I was gone, when really I was just getting my ML2 credit finished off. Bro decided it would be best to slam me in BG and call me a Jerk (thinking I logged or was gone). After a few other “slams” from other players, I piped up in BG and told them I was still there. I ported back to Stygia and gave the Trident to Sash and went about my business.

I had totally forgotten about the stupid 98% qual RoG piece of shit, but everyone gets so bent out of shape over something so fucking stupid, it makes me want to just give up on the game.

Bro (who I thought was a friend) and I always got along and had some great times in the past. We’ve gone through some hard times and loads of good times in-game. I’m not sure when the tables turned, but it would seem I’ve offended a lot more players than just him. Since the general repsonse I received from the BG was I was unreliable and disloyal.

Perhaps it is time I move on.