Lord Bob working within the rules laid forth doesn't make them assholes. I can't speak for all of the R guilds, but from what I've gathered, R is mostly casual, cool players who like to play EverQuest in a relaxed fashion and don't like the idea that if they fail on a single attempt and Lord Bob succeeds right afterwards, they could get knocked out of that mob's rotation (if I'm understanding the agreement correctly). That's not relaxed and the fact that that pressure is being put on them, after every other raid capable guild has come to an agreement, fosters hatred.
This server is as close to classic as we'll ever get, but with the extended Kunark period and no progression beyond Velious, it makes things different than they were on Live. By the time PoP was out, at least on my server, "family style guilds" like the ones that are in the R tier (again, can't speak for them all), would be downing NToV dragons, ST, and Gods. Being casual, they got to experience the raiding of EverQuest without having to be online 16 hours a day. That's not going to happen on this server without this kind of raid policy going all the way through NToV/ST/VP at some point down the line. The fact that the guilds capable of killing these uber dragons/gods have come to an agreement on how everyone can do it (except Lord Bob who doesn't want to be a part of it) is really awesome.
If Lord Bob was smart, they would join the agreement until they were sure they could mobilize faster than the competition. It's still practice to mobilize as quickly as possible, except people actually let you kill the target. Seriously, does any player want to sit around waiting/buffing for any longer than they absolutely have to?
One of three things is going to happen:
1) Lord Bob is going to get the levels/resists/organization to mobilize quickly enough to hit their bag limit every time and get mobs from class R/FFA
2) Lord Bob's members are going to get tired of leaving exp groups, mobilizing, wiping, and getting blocked from getting kills so often that they're going to leave for guilds that actually get the kills
3) They're going to wise up and join the class R guild rotation agreement until they're strong enough and organized enough that they can beat every other class R guild by virtue of competition
I don't know Lord Bob's guild leader, but if his ego overcomes common sense, #2 is the most likely outcome. If they suddenly want to join the class R raid agreement, then #3 is probably happening. Otherwise, #1 is a long, hard road. Can they do it? Maybe.
I wish all guilds good luck in their attempts to down their targets, regardless of class. Honestly, though I hope Lord Bob burns out so that even smaller guilds than the ones in Class R currently can have an attempt or two at a mob, because I think the most fun in EverQuest is trying to overcome a great challenge with people that you like, and then doing it. The sense of satisfaction of growing with a group of people and helping them grow is unbelievable. I think that's what most Class R guilds are looking for, and I think Lord Bob doing what they've been doing threatens that, so that's maybe why Class R guild members generally don't like them. Anyway, enough ranting, no hard feelings, Lord Bob. Right now, you're just the right amount of competition.
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