I really enjoy competition. I remember the days of inny 1.0 where you could either sit at the WC spire like a neckbear or you could raid something with a wizard in every group during the window and as soon as it pops everyone teleports up instantly. I loved playing the bard that would selos to fountain, up to inny room hit DA song and rush back to east wall and then head north along the edge. Pop selos. Pop a blademail once or twice, pop another DA idol as you kite around the edge of the zone. Meanwhile everyone else is rushing to innies room trying to tag him first and blow him up without losing FTE and someone else getting it. DTs are going off and dps are scrambling to get in line while tanks mallet secure mobs. All the while the bard is owning the entire zone in a perfect kite that could last forever. Then clean up and bard caps after everyone ports out.

Everyone had a part in that raid. Everyone was on point. Everyone actually got to PLAY EQ and there was real competition.

What I don't like on this server is the 16 hours of sitting on a line with cheap crap like training other guilds in order to secure a mob for yourselves or sitting every raid member in a room to stare at a wall the entire fight.

That's incredibly boring. How many of your clerics have any idea what happens beyond the entrance room? I mean that has to only be fun for the monks and now maybe a few others who can FTE the mobs in the race.

The game feels hollow now. The adventure is gone.

Skewed rose colored glasses... Same exact shit was done waiting for that Innoruuk that your so nostalgic about. You waited 16 hours for a pop, someone trained mobs around, someone pulled the target out, and everyone else killed it.

It's been obvious for awhile that the staff here is okay with the status quo. If you want change, polite discourse and trying to work within the system won't accomplish that. If anything can get the admins' attention it'll take something drastic. Too bad only BDA is switching away; if half a dozen or so of the larger lower- to mid-tier guilds could get together and leave for awhile maybe the shock would be sufficient to induce action.

Seems to me, looking in from the outside (I don't really raid), that Velious is different than P99 was in Kunark. TMO lorded it over the server during Kunark for quite a long time, but it seemed like the mid-tier guilds held out hope that Velious would change things. Now it appears they see that Velious has changed very little--but with nothing else to look forward to and no source of hope.

Danth

The feeling of teamwork and accomplishment during raiding did not die with Velious. The competition you seek was always there in TOV before there were Sirken races, but even so success still requires alert raiders and not drooling zombies. Maybe you should come to Fear one day and try for CT.

Also it's really odd to see you eulogizing training half the zone in one sentence and then decrying it as the death of raiding in the next.

You did exactly the same thing in Class R, and I still say if you had not done that the raid scene now would be very different. I really don't think BDA can claim the moral high ground here.

I'm not sure it's hope as much as just the feeling that server is over, and contrary to the bleatings of certain RNF trolls IB/Rampage won. I mean, what's the point of getting full BIS gear when there is no new expansion on the horizon where that gear will matter?

Chest finally snapped?

Thats just it really. Now that there is nothing nostalgic left about P99s Velious and it can be seen for what it really is, it really feels hollow. Dead even. I cant really advance my main anymore, sure theres some gear with more mana on it but thats about it. I was one of those who defended this P99 timeline as the golden age of EQ in the past, but... I think it only felt that way because there wasnt better examples set yet. I *want* aa, and focus effects. Better zones and better raids, and so much more gear variety. I had already been sniffing at Phinny even before BDA leadership decided to try this.

A few months ago I would have looked at leaving P99 for Phinny as giving up the fight, letting our morale be broken and beaten down by rival guilds, for easier pixels. Not now. There are those who right now are smiling and thinking about how they have defeated a rival. That is not how it feels to me. At this point, I simply dont understand how literally anyone can think this situation here is better than any of the alternatives. Sirken's P99 is the absolute worst case scenario. It is relief above everythig to get away from his Vision. I think other guilds with strong internal community will see, or is already seeing the draw as we speak. A year from now theres a decent chance I'll be killing gods in elemental planes while guys here are still sitting in front of doors watching them open and close, open and close for sixteen straight hours... apparently Sirken's idea of healthy gameplay. I'm sorry, but when you look at it in that context, it sure doesnt look like the 'defeated' BDA is the one getting the short end of the stick...

ungrateful babies

I know it's always fun to talk about how the rotation fell apart, but it took two to tango. Maybe BDA/Div/Taken were being unreasonable, but the smaller guilds weren't making it easy either. That doesn't really matter now though.

The P99 raid scene isn't changing, period. If I want to see content without dumping in hundreds of manhours of my guildmates I can do it at Phinny with my guild. It's not P99, which sucks, but it's the right move for a casual playerbase, with an intolerable high end raid scene, and a GM that condones the entire thing.

Vote with your feet people. It's the only option you have.

I don't understand why you have this hard on for Sirken. I would have done things differently but I think Sirken is the only member of the staff who is actually trying to improve things, and there is only so much he can do without the keys to the repop machine or the ability to alter the game mechanics.

The root problem IMO is simply that P1999 is reaching the end of it's lifetime.