Celebrate the life, Cherish the Memories

[Alawen]

When FE first appeared last fall, I was discussing potential outcomes with several of my friends on the server. What we came to collectively agree is that there has to be a winner and a loser in these massive manpower clashes. Simply put, whichever guild does not acquire the majority of loot will atrophy and be unable to compete.

In this particular instance, I knew a little bit about Shinko and Sloan before they formed this guild. Their inclination to repeatedly award loot to themselves and their inner circle made the situation even more difficult for FE. Complaints from disillusioned FE members made it clear that this was definitely the case. In contrast, TMO's inner circle is already well-geared, so much of the newly acquired gear passes to other members. Even relatively recent recruits are quickly rewarded for their efforts. FE's only chance seemed to lie in the possibility of a large number of TMO losing interest and leaving the server.

As we've seen, this didn't happen. The writing is obviously on the wall for FE. It's been interesting for me as an insider to see these dynamics play out. I am honestly surprised that the competition lasted as long as it did when I consider the fact that TMO has been able to monopolize all of the top raid zone while roughly splitting the other sought-after kills--this gives TMO somewhere between two and three times the loot (read:motivational rewards) available to FE.

The basic tenet of FE, hating TMO, was surprisingly effective in getting started with recruiting. I think everyone who joined FE expected a hard fight with TMO, but I suspect they also excepted a chance for raid loot along the way. Unfortunately for FE, the greed of their inner circle quickly alienated those recruits. From my short time in BDA, this same error is also what I saw cripple their efforts to compete with TMO.

It will interesting to see if another rival appears to compete with TMO, and whether that leadership team will learn from the mistakes of FE and BDA.