You're doing it all wrong; join Serenity

[Faerie]

What was your EQ live experience like, and why did you like it so much that you decided to play an emu server to recreate it? Really, I'd like to know. Share [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

For me, I think it's a combination of things. The pvp battles over raid content were epic, and the group vs. group stuff was always a blast. Solo pvp was ofc awesome too. I don't think I'll ever forget this one fight I had, with an epic dark purist rogue. I beat him by jousting with Selo's on my bard (and using regen, DS, dots and stuff), and after I killed him he thanked me for the great fight, because most bards outdoors would just kite melees around.

But more than all of that, I liked feeling that there was a reason for me to be fighting, and I liked that there were reasons for others not to fight. TZ and VZ had what I felt were cool teams/FFA hybrid servers, allowing sort of a RP base for us players to build on. A friend of mine got me playing, and he was an established raiding member of the "Light Team", which was composed of most short/elf/human team players, and was probably the server majority team. He wanted me to join him from the day I was introduced to the game, but as I leveled, talked to people and started to get a feel for things, I began to change my mind.

I felt bad for the dark team. We would always kill them on sight, and I wondered why. I mean it made sense with the lore and everything, but my name was yellow and I was exping with purples and blues while kosing oranges. To group with an orange would make me a "crossteamer", but wasn't that a little hypocritical? So I decided I'd become a bad guy, and I started to kill the purples and blues; especially the dwarves and their lame faces.

And it really did make me a bad guy! People would angry at me, for killing what they felt were the wrong people. I was like a traitor to my team; humans and shorts would hunt me down and even other elves would refuse to group with me. A few times over the course of my EQ life, I'd kill some "lights" grouped with elves, and then the elves would talk shit to me. It was great. Eventually I was picked up by a group of like-minded elves, and together we did a pretty top-notch job trolling Norrath.

Did you guys know that there was once a guildwar on VZ, between <Illuvitae> (evil elves) and <Elven Royal Guard> (light team elf-only guild, allied with other elf/human/short guilds)? Elf on elf action, over hardcore videogame ideals. Tunare wept, and the Faydark was never the same again.

That was my early EQ experience, and I think by contrast it expresses nicely what is wrong with Red99:

YOU GUYS ARE DOING IT WRONG!!

I'm not saying we should split into light vs. dark teams to emulate what VZ did right; what we should be doing is making efforts toward creating our own unique sandbox experience here. The great thing about sandbox games is that they offer limitless opportunities for fun, and the blah thing about them is that people impose limitations on themselves because we're all unimaginative and lazy. I think Nirvana composed an entire album about the plight of sandbox MMOs; you should look into it.

This is a recruitment post, sort of, for <Serenity>. Serenity is a lot of different things for a lot of different people. I can't speak for all of them, but main reason I wear the tag proudly (other than the friends I've made in guild) is that we're something unique, that the server desperately needs.

Our population is kind of low, even after we got the pvp text and xp increase. It's my belief that we can improve our population, but it will require some nurturing. I'm taking off my murderous elf hat, and putting on my princess tiara now. I'm here for you.

People love classic EverQuest. The success of blue server is evidence of this. Many bluebies (and former Red99 players) have made the claim that they would like to experience EQ pvp, but are held back by the newbie griefing and poisonous attitudes of the playerbase. I think they see the ooc spam and get a sort of one-sided view of who we are, and I don't believe we're all that bad. But someone needs to show them that, if we're to get any of them to make that jump in earnest.

What you do wrong is, simply: grief. Or if you don't grief yourselves, you support it by allowing your friends and guildmates to. Your grief and your apathy hurt the server, and I'm here to tell you that you can be better, if you choose to. If you'd like to join a guild that recruits absolutely everyone that applies, and likes to CC, bindcamp, scam, strip chars, and train random newbies when bored, you're free to join Force. Or Nihilum, or Azrael, or FoH. Really they're all the same, with leaders and members that simply don't care about the plague eating away at the population.

And I'm not trying to badmouth any of these guilds; we're allowed the freedom we have for very good reason, and it's very okay to be the bad guy. I was the bad guy once, and I had a lot of fun doing it. The difference here, is that you're all bad guys. Rallos was FFA, and they had a really interesting anti vs PK dynamic. You're not fighting for any nerdy and awesome ideal like I did on VZ; you're all the same, and it's boring. Nihilum, Force and Azrael could all swap guild names, and what would really be different about them? As far as I can tell, nothing. I know EQ emu pvpers traditionally like to maintain the status quo, and prefer not to do anything that might set them apart from their peers, but I guess that's just not me.

So I've chosen not to join the bad guys this time, and am decidedly a Good Guy. Serenity takes this a step further (without even intending to lol), and is a really great group of people. Goodness grown naturally. I'm of the opinion that it's easier to face grief if you've got some friends with you, and I hope we make more good friends as we level up and make our way into the higher end content. I want to see the server grow, not just in numbers but in societal depth and playstyle variety.

I'd love for you to join us. Being a good guy here is actually really easy; all you have to do is stop letting your friends and guildmates treat people poorly. Serenity isn't an anti-PK guild; we actually love pvp. We're just anti-grief, which simply means following the Golden Rule. Bring the pvp, hold off on the bind camping, training and such.

<Serenity>
Not just Good Guys; Friendly People

let me know.

[Faerie]

I should practice my brevity, lol.

Grief is bad. Variety is good. Red99 has lots of grief, very little variety. Serenity Now!

[Num1RecommendedByDentists]

tl;dr

[Agatha]

i endorse any and all of the princesses actions.

[Nune]

rollin on that endo, gamecube nintendo

[big league chew]

yeh def ooc fault should take that nonclassic bullshit out imo

[runlvlzero]

/ooc been horribad lately... /agreed even though I like to say shit in it on occasion.

But this goes beyond /ooc, I wish you luck <Serenity> too serene for my tastes though. I will remain one of the 'bad guys' - Not out to grief, but I'm not out to hold any hands either. And I'm not fighting fair in any slums... I don't like fighting too fair.

*Edit P.S. Winning at all costs is the same thing as loosing by a different name.

But you are right. Good luck....

[Bazia]

I considered joining a few times but the guild name is much too effeminate.

[mostbitter]

basiah you're a piece of shit anyway they probably wouldn't want ya if they knew anything about you

[big league chew]

whats even grief anymore
i slay kids all the time they just keep playing
not even fun