I tried to have a part in the hypocritally named "Unity" shard, hard. But apparently my generation of players is out of luck nowadays.
I tried hard to roleplay, to stock consigners, to help and teach newbies, to keep the forums and the in game players updated with the most important IRC chats.
It all started few days after the merger, when I warned that undercutting was becoming rampant at glowing essence orbs.
It was not the fact "per se", but the subtle change in the general behavior I sensed that alarmed me.
Of course me and the others after a while ceased to consign these things. While I could earn at least 1 easy gold a day doing mithril I felt like to spend some hours gathering no exp no gain orbs for all to enjoy.
Now, even those who undercut me and the others by 1c stopped consigning them because other even worse ones undercut them in a circle that lowered the price to 25c.
In a real life economy maybe this could be "nice", but here we are not. Here we should attempt to have some respect for the other's spent time doing boring andthankless work.
And soon after the first signs came the next. The self proclaimed Channel Cops. And the Forum Cops.
If you talk what they want it's fine. But if you sway and i.e. joke a bit or report what's up in IRC they take the piss and pull out the guns.
Likewise, the Forum Cops want to hear just their vision, which is either completely bleak or completely overenthusiastic. And will flame on purpose not conforming posts till they get locked or moved to rants, knowing in advance how to manipulate to this end the moderators.
I used to post IRC transcripts and it's even painful because the IRC program can only copy and paste a sentence at a time.
If fact the only ones who bother doing that are me and Aamer Kahn.
I have been so much flamed, so much treatened, so much jabbed for doing this that I am stopping at once this "service" I was doing.
Likewise after the latest channel cop flamed me up I am stopping on the IRC chats too.
So much for the many willing to be informed. No one pays me for this hassle.
And too many PMs and tells about me willing to play "know it all" just because I transcribe what's told by developers.
Not to talk about the recent "harassment" event, where I copy and pasted what others said and decided and have been slapped in game and so heavily flamed on the forums that Dangit had to republish my transcript under his name.
After seeing newbies begging for spells I for extended periods of time on market, I used to tell to bring me the bricks and I'd make the spells for free.
And since long time I used to make and store newbie spells at New Brommel.
Lately I have been contacted way too many times about how I am so greedy and I rob the market to newbie spellcrafters and ruin the market making them free with materials given.
So I am dropping all of this too not to hurt the precious sensibilities of those people.
And dropping spells III too since my price of 3s (2.5s for multiple spells) provoked fits enough to let me be publicly declared a sort of greedy thief.
Maybe I should start making everything for free so the leeches can level up 2 tiers a day and cheap. And teach them how to exploit the open holes, which are still several.
And what about the old things, the pride of ICE, that is public buildings? Last time a dragon alt alone and level 30 is building the lava tube. With all the time and deaths involved for a level 30 in a tier V mobs place.
And the simple mining? I get killed, the usual 100 x 5 uberped passes nearby and goes on. With no ress even if they could. Then after a while but only rarely a level 60 crafter passes and resses me, dodging golems that would toast him on place.
Likewise when the said uberpeds understand that pulling 20 golems maybe is too much, they come at me (in craft scales and 0 armor) and sprint away and the golems aggro me and splat!
And what about anchors? And the blighted stuff? No one but 2 or 3 I know will waste their precious time cleaning the blighed nodes, go to the good ones and will just leave them to me.
I could go on for hours, like i.e. why grouping (when someone bothers grouping me that is - I had a full grand total of three "spontaneous" invites since merge vs the 3 a day of before) when I cannot loot fast enough due to size and I am left without ANYthing?
"but you already are given exp and hoard" is what I am told. Sure, useless exp for me capped at level 100 and an "hypothetic" hoard item that usually does not drop and even if it drops does not cover even what I spent in that hunt.
Or the dirty and community devastating techs V "event". Where I am contacted by tech mongers (they buy many techs to resell with gain) or backstabbing people that go: "I know I should give this to XX guildie but if you offerY it's yours".
Plus the constant accusation of wanting to grab all techs IV and thus stab the tier IV crafters.
Like we still have tier IV only crafters or that they can remotely afford up to 200s for a tech IV.
Or the constant harassment by dyslectic leeches ("pliz pliiiiiiz tkx gz yw m8"), the continuous leech-invites and those who raise them as a job or as a one-task guild.
Or those who skip everything because they: "I got Paypal".
Of course, I will be told or I could convince me that all of this does not exist.
I will be told to or I could leave the channels not to see the crap. I could put tons of people on ignore. I could leave the forums.
I should basically go in single player mode, blind and deaf to all.
What an accomplishment for a massive multiplayer game.
Notice how in all of this I never mentioned the game (bugs or not) or the class balance.
Because even the best game in the world is worth nothing with no good community.
So in the end...
- GEOS cancelled.
- Spells I-III cancelled. Unless I am requested explicitly. And I will warn that I am a thief, a public enemyin advance.
- IRC posts on the forums cancelled.
- IRC excerpts on the in game chat cancelled. Too bad, they were talking about fixing the "too few hotbars" situation, but I "disturbed".
- Newbie isle stocking cancelled.
- Grouping with people cancelled.
- Clearing anchors and nodes cancelled.
- Autorenewal cancelled.
Every day for me is harder to log in and today for the first time I logged off after little time and don't feel any desire to relog in "game". Cooking my lunch gave me more satisfaction.
My massively gone guildies call me from other games, I logged in my old games and found old friends still here ready to help me "return".
I urge all those who have open commissions or desire odd or rare teched scales to contact me as soon as possible.
I don't know for how much longer I will stay here. And, most of all, why.