Thoughts

[Thoughtz]

I have been on this server off and on for a year, and during that time I have seen the firm reign of TMO unanswered by the smaller guilds. I was around during the emergence of FE and saw at their peak as they tried to rival TMO, but failed, I sadly saw them jump the gun several times at Trak attempts, if only they had waited 30 seconds- 1 minute so many times....ah the what ifs. But anywho my point being even after they came close, they dissolved this summer due to a lack of personnel.

I personally don't care about TMO's reign, people are allowed to do what they want with their time, and if they choose to spend more hours than most raiding and batphoning that is their prerogative ...but at least these guys are successful at it, a lot of the now "casual" guilds are casual because their lack of leadership lead them to getting smashed into the ground at attempting to challenge TMO. Lets be honest, if anyone raids planes at all you most likely spend 15-25 hours a week on this game, the hours close to holding a part time job, so everyone who talks shit about TMO's pixel madness, guess what, we all play this game a shit ton...I am just sick of hearing the hypocritical bickering from all the people who want a shot at high end raiding but are unwilling to do anything about it...so this is where we get to the meat of the potato.

What is the problem? The monopoly TMO has now has created a stranglehold on end game content, and if you want to compete with their gear and alt army you have to play 50 hours a week and poopsock. What happenes is no one can play Everquest 50 hours a week for longer than a month without A-living in a basement or B-being a trust fund baby. So guess what, TMO wins everytime because of their influx of players. You can only raid hate and fear so long before people get really sick of it, every month a couple of people from the lesser guilds decide to join TMO, after having had their fill from straddling the line of mediocrity that is hate,sky,fear. Are there exceptions? Sure, Divinity has done this for a long time still remaining in tact, A-Team is now doing it which i think is badass(go solo artist) but at the same time I first hand know players who left Divinity for TMO, and A-team tries to buy VP loots from TMO for outrageous prices.(so i heard anyway shrug). Everyone is slowly losing members every month or so and feeding the monster that they are throwing stones at...I don't get it...

What to do? It's simple...merge or nothing is ever going to happen. Who needs to and is it more than one guild? I don't know. I would love to see TMO have competition though, and at this point I think they would welcome it, someone just needs to get the balls to start talking. It's just a numbers issue, don't know how many times i have been in Trak lair and watched people engage Trak before TMO and fail, so add another 10-20 people to those attempts, sure it may be zerging, but who gives a fuck, it doesn't matter if its 20 highly skilled players completing a task or 40, achieve your goal. Yes i know the problems of guilds merging, personalities, etc, and everyone is not going to be best friends with everyone...and that's ok...guess what you can still heal a player or click a dragon and nuke it...hard game right? Even if people just functioned under a banner in two different factions...it could work...and someone could finally change things on this server. I hope someone takes this and runs with it, if anyone does ill be in line to join, as im sure would a lot of others.

And please this post was made to rile up people under one banner, don't respond with bullshit blind hate, im just saying, lets give them some competition in a way we wont have to sacrifice paying a heavy tax on our RL for pixels.

[feanan]

Those that want to "be like TMO" have left their guilds to join TMO.

What you seem to not realize is the majority of people don't want to get woken up at 3am to kill dragons, or leave dinner with the family, or whatever other real life shit they have going on.

We can only wait and hope for velious really.

[Aaron]

Those that want to "be like TMO" have left their guilds to join TMO.

What you seem to not realize is the majority of people don't want to get woken up at 3am to kill dragons, or leave dinner with the family, or whatever other real life shit they have going on.

We can only wait and hope for velious really.

Exactly this. If I wanted to be like TMO, I would have joined TMO.

Take this to RnF.

It's not hard to get in a zerg guild:
1) be level 60
2) be available at all hours

[Pudge]

Join red. The PvP makes the game more fun and there are fewer players competing for all the lewtz.

[Raavak]

The laws of scarcity dictate that a rival force to TMO will rise again. TMO thrives because of competent leaders. The guild has not been without its struggles at times, but thus far has overcome. The leaders see issues and correct them.

One "weakness" of TMO is that with its size it can take a while to get a dream item. A smaller, dedicated, and well-organized guild could equip its characters faster. This in turn would start to rob TMO of good recruits. But to overcome TMO's size they would have to be hella-dedicated.

Its probably just easier to join TMO or wait until Velious.

[xCry0x]

What you seem to not realize is the majority of people don't want to get woken up at 3am to kill dragons, or leave dinner with the family, or whatever other real life shit they have going on.

We can only wait and hope for velious really.

That is not true.

TMO doesn't require you to wake up at 3AM. If you want to wake up at 3AM to kill a dragon you have that option with TMO... plenty of people I know attend what they can because they have jobs, families, etc. That is how EQ works though, on live we had to do the same thing otherwise the HK guilds would snipe shit in the middle of the night.

The argument that raiding with TMO is more time intensive than raiding with different guilds is completely false. Just as the OP said, in Rapture we spend 2-3 hours every Monday night in sky, 2-3 hours clearing hate, 2-3 hours clearing fear so that is easily 6+ hours a week 'raiding'. If you join TMO and attend nothing except trakanon while waiting for VP key you might spend all of 30 minutes a week raiding assuming you aren't getting trained/griefed when engaging.

The big difference between TMO and other guilds is that TMO has a steady stream of players who want to play the hardcore 24/7 play style so TMO has a mechanic to appease & reward them: Poopsock raid targets. You track targets, you get DKP faster than those that only show up for kills. Other guilds seem to be adamantly against the idea of poopsocking and so they make up all these bullshit statements like "oh TMO makes you raid 24/7, I have a life so I can't do that." No, TMO has a handful of people who "raid" 24/7 and then an extensive list of people who they can ask to log on when a target spawns. You don't see them log 300 people online every time Trak pops, you see them log in maybe 3 groups.

The thing I don't like about TMO is that you are just raider_0192 in a giant machine... Like a lot of people here I did the big guild thing and it is fun, but I also enjoy being in a smaller guild where I know everyone and everyone knows me.

This all will probably change for a while when velious comes out and TMO will have to invest some time teaching the masses of members the new encounters but eventually it will probably be more or less the same. Camp yourself at a target, log in when it spawns, kill it, log out (or move to next target to log out).

[Alarti0001]

That is not true.



The thing I don't like about TMO is that you are just raider_0192 in a giant machine... Like a lot of people here I did the big guild thing and it is fun, but I also enjoy being in a smaller guild where I know everyone and everyone knows me.


That is not true. The only players in the guild who might be "unknowns" are the ones who make no effort to be known. I would guess less than 5% of our guild is unknowns and that seems over-estimated.

[lecompte]

... All so interesting... I usually pity TMO. Isn't it boring at the top? I play this game to be challenged -- when it stops being challenging I will stop playing.

[xCry0x]

That is not true. The only players in the guild who might be "unknowns" are the ones who make no effort to be known. I would guess less than 5% of our guild is unknowns and that seems over-estimated.

Hey now, let me sit and say other people's made up reasons are dumb while having my own made up dumb reason!

Geeze. =P

[Alarti0001]

Hey now, let me sit and say other people's made up reasons are dumb while having my own made up dumb reason!

Geeze. =P

!!!!NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[Nirgon]

Nothing more devastating than the insisted upon made up reason

[Striiker]

There are reasons that people play a lot and remain in their respective guilds regardless of their guild's ability to take down the highly contested content. People stay in their guilds because they like the pace of game play / atmosphere of the guild, the people in the guild, the mindset of that particular guild, loyalty, etc. Those who want more, or those who place more emphasis on getting access to content and items thus far denied to them, leave the guilds to join the ones that get this content. I do see people leave my guild now and then and I always wish them well (when they have the courtesy to let us know they are leaving) and miss having them around. I often stay in touch with them and for the most part, they are happy with their choice because it aligns more with their priorities. Occasionally I hear of regret from some because they miss some of the aspects of the guild they left.
Sirken seemed to suggest that the other guilds should merge or that the hard core members of the other guilds should leave and form their own guild in order to get the dragons, gods etc. that they can't get to in their individual guilds and I disagree. I believe we saw this attempted already and while successful for a while (at challenging TMO albeit with questionable tactics), it eventually tapered off in terms of intensity. Also, it assumes that these members and guilds place a higher value on drops than they actually do. The guilds exist and continue to exist because the people like how the guild works and how it feels. It has nothing to do with ego or the need to do everything in one particular way.
So, as much as the various guilds would like to get more epics for their members and to experience more of the end content, they will not all fold into a big guild just to get these things as it loses much of the identity and feel that they now love in their respective guilds. Personally, I always feel badly for the players that can't complete their epics due to the select mobs being essentially unavailable to them. The guild rotations on Ragefire and to a lesser extent, Plane of Sky showed us all what is possible for guild co-operation by ALL guilds yet we have all accepted that this will not be the case for the other raid encounters. I see no reason why people can't discuss and ask for a change to how the system works. Many get frustrated and take shots at other guilds which really hurts the cause (this is the whining and bitching that was referred to). It's obvious however that nothing will change (at least via open discussions in the forums) as evidenced by the sincere attempts made by others seeking a change and how quickly it gets derailed and falls into taking shots at other guilds and members by the usual players etc.

[Nirgon]

In case you missed the memo this game isn't about pixels, its about the community and experience

Name one stick of loot that made you as happy as watching someone you hate's group wipe

Or a funny or otherwise memorable character name you saw

[xCry0x]

Name one stick of loot that made you as happy as watching someone you hate's group wipe



After months of doing royals without missing a kill and never seeing gloves drop I had to leave early because of my dad coming into town on short notice... Lecompte plays me for the couple of rounds I miss and when I log back in there I am with blue gloves on.

That was a pretty awesome pixel experience =P

Getting epic was right up there as well.

[lecompte]

Lecompte plays me for the couple of rounds I miss and when I log back in there I am with blue gloves on.

You. Owe. Me. Forever.

PS. I deleveled you to 52 to kill dragons sometime in the next few months. Corpses hidden around Norrath. Rez timer of 1 hour 30 minutes on oldest one. Goood luck.

[xCry0x]

You. Owe. Me. Forever.

PS. I deleveled you to 52 to kill dragons sometime in the next few months. Corpses hidden around Norrath. Rez timer of 1 hour 30 minutes on oldest one. Goood luck.

At least I am still high enough level to rez myself =P

[Alarti0001]

After months of doing royals without missing a kill and never seeing gloves drop I had to leave early because of my dad coming into town on short notice... Lecompte plays me for the couple of rounds I miss and when I log back in there I am with blue gloves on.

That was a pretty awesome pixel experience =P

Getting epic was right up there as well.

Thats not a pixel experience, that is a community experience and a good pal.

[Nirgon]

Yeah that's pretty amazing that he didn't argue that you had to put up half the cash or he won them on your character so they are his

I may want to /friend this fellow across games

[FenninEQaddict]

I have seen TMO and other high end raiding guilds on live compete and I am sure the TMO here isnt much different in they loved the competition.

Everyone plays this game for their own reasons. You choose what fits you. If you want to see the endgame in EQ and want to raid but hate TMO. Then form a guild and compete but expect to have to put in the same amount if not more effort in getting to where TMO is now. To beat them your going to need to put in 110%-150% effort and be willing to sit those hours and try to get FTE. From what ive heard its all about the FTE.

Dont complain about TMO locking down high end raid content then cry foul that you dont want to spend all your time on a video game. Not if you want anyone to take you seriously. Everytime someone cries foul that there should be rotation or that they should leave a raid mob up for someone else god kills a kitten.

There are the cold hard facts no one owes you anything or needs to give you anything. If you come into the game expecting that then you better also expect to have to set up your own server.

[Widan]

when one guild has all the unemployed people whats a server to do ??

[webrunner5]

when one guild has all the unemployed people whats a server to do ??

This. :D

[Rhambuk]

when one guild has all the unemployed people whats a server to do ??

There must be some rich people that play I know we have young doctors and young lawyers.

Easy answer they form a guild and hire people to play eq all day! Tell them quit your jobs we'll pay you more to get those targets! $100 bonus if we get trak to all attendees!

or would this be rmt?

[Naerron]

i feel like people forget how TMO started and the giant "unbeatable" raiding machine we had to chip slowly away at to make it to the top. TMO works because it has dedicated, experienced leaders, and dedicated, experienced raiders. We know when to hold off for the 1 minute on a trak engage and when not to.. This stuff was learned over time and often times ended terribly. That being said, the OP is right. TMO would LOVE competition and what TMO did to make it to the top is exactly what the OP is suggesting, we recruited tons of people and just made that shit happen. We saw many defeats, but it made our victories that much sweeter and those moments really kept us going.