Project 1999 - Hey Xasten, alarti, portsche...old friends

Since I no longer have access to TMO boards I figured I'd post some personal memory tidbits and P99 observations here if anyone cares, which they probably dont, but ok.

So I'm here at west wall in fear killing phobos this morning with a new group of guys...and it brought some memories back of that time a small group of players wiped in fear during my first raid in classic. We had tried to break in with the skeleton crew of TMO. There was no DA, no jeremy, no zagum, no necrious. Met alot of you guys there I believe (at least Xasten, Portsche, zeelot, DMX, others) and received some great tips on how to improve as a druid from you guys. Good times.

Every raid we did together as TMO we saw ourselves get noticeably stronger and thrived on achieving new goals. We added many new valuable members through a leader with an eye for personality until we were in great standing by the time Kunark dropped. Loot was always an afterthought. A special time indeed.

On day 1 of Kunark I landed on the shores after the glitchiest boat experience EVER with Maxus and Cassin <TMO> and like 1000 other players lol. We headed to TT and got our trak teeth (with my then excellent druid tracking ability :)), and by that night I was lvl 51 fighting in Disco. We dropped Gruplinort and that wonderful Froglok Bonecaster Robe dropped. Damn we were in awe. I won the roll (this was when my dice actually worked lol) and sold it later that night for I think around 15k? haha. Those guys quit a few weeks later I think, but they were boss. Oh god it was amazing. Rinse and repeat.

The DA merge happened that July and it helped solidify TMOs raid core to compete with IB, since obviously, we wanted to be the top dogs (it's fun when content is new and you have something to achieve). We had a lot of catching up to do in regards to IB but were very successful once we tweaked our Trakanon strat that September and killed 9? in a row. Fast forward through the opening of VP, which took an eternity, to epics, Kunark has since gone on extremely long, and you can't blame players for that. There has been nothing new left to experience in the end-game of this server for the true P99 raiding devotees besides a revolving door of players keeping things afloat in an FTE-based, political, and now completely CSR-involved raid environment. This past years' needless mass hoarding of pixels in particular and forced merge with FE has honestly torn a big whole into TMO's heart. What ever happened to the friendships that built this guild? Well, to be quite honest, the majority of them are pretty much gone now.

TMO has been taken over by people who have very little idea of what makes EverQuest special - who didn't experience the guilds history on this server and have only existed in this system that others built. There are only a small few exceptions to this statement still left (title) - and I wanna know your thoughts. Would you take today's guild over then? Be honest now.

If I was wrong and there wasn't any truth in what I'm saying, then you wouldn't be seeing the widespread animosity between the current leadership / new FE core of this guild and the old core, or see numerous veteran members being marginalized and/or quitting for expressing their own opinions on things and getting ignored. TMO won the game in my book after we had nearly a year of VP uncontested. Yet the eternal struggle had to continue for these newcomers and the obssessed. In that moment of triumph where it was decided by Zagum we wanted to reform...we couldn't just take a moment be happy with what we had, which was strength in family, not numbers. The new leaders had to attack the old, and anyone who disagreed with their actions in place of coming to a guild consensus about big issues. Merging members of FE were treated better than several very old TMO players, that is a reality.

TMO has squandered it's heritage and I also think it's legacy on this server because of this. You guys may be killing stuff but I don't hear the same heartbeat and I think a lot would agree with me. New players, take my advice and build something yourself. Or help an up and coming guild. To the new TMO (FE) you are 100% replaceable (and not just because the roster is unprecedented in its size). It's the mindset of the leadership as well.

So I find myself again in Fear, trying to re-experience this thing called EQ and trying to help this new group of people, who actually want to play the game for fun and achieve what TMO has achieved. Anything is possible in this sandbox we call P99. Throughout all this time elapsed I've learned that this game is it's best when you're helping others, playing with friends, and building something with love. Thanks for listening to my rant. All the best to my former guild.