alas tis the end
Aug. 13th, 2001 11:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eustaciavye77It would appear that our beloved EQ guild DoU is splitting up due to some stupidity on Kelraz's part and general dissatisfaction among the members. Too many people found being an officer stressful, too few people found the game more fun with the guild. Now it remains to be seen what will happen to my character. Wyndam is taking his high level magician to one of the BIG guilds which just happens to be filled with a gang of wandering goofballs. However the rest of his characters need a place to go. We are trying to keep our characters in the same guild, and also trying to stick close to some of our friends. It is easier for him to find a place to go since he has a level 51 cleric but I will likely have a harder time. We're looking into one guild that is absorbing a couple of our other friends but they may not let me in. We could probably both go to ECoC but that would be just us. what a pain.
This whole mess got me thinking, what causes something fun like a computer game to result in this kind of huge mess? I used to hear about guilds breaking up and think it was ridiculous. It's just a guild, it's just you and a bunch of guys who have decided to play together. You play, you find new people and add them. If they are jerks you toss them out. End of story.
I think the problem is that a lot of people don't play it like a game. They play to "win" which is to say they play to collect as much stuff as fast as possible with as little actual effort as possible and those people want the guild to help them progress. The only joy they feel is from obtaining a new item or getting another level. So the purpose of a guild goes from "bunch of people you like who you want to play with" to "bunch of people who are there to help you meet you goals and if they can't do that they are useless." TO deal with this we found ourselves making huge numbers of rules and then pushing people to level faster and pushing the guild to enter encounters that we were not prepared for... all to keep people in the guild who couldn't just PLAY THE DAMN GAME. Those of us who played for fun were deemed weak links because we weren't "contributing to the guild" which really translated to "you can't help me get what i want waaaaaaaaaah!"
Now I have to battle that attitude to find a place for my character. I don't get how it happens. It's a GAME. It should be fun. It's not about power or acquisition. But I suppose that's the American way and most of the players are american. Far be it from us to do something we like unless we can use it to look down our noses at others.
I have neither the time nor the desire to play 8 hours a day. I don't even have that much time most WEEKS. I don't want CTS or eye strain from a casual hobby. I'm tired of justifying my choice of having a life to people who say "you don't level fast enough! You need to play more!"
Now I wait to see if Immortal Mercy will accept a level 25 character with no high level alts :P
This whole mess got me thinking, what causes something fun like a computer game to result in this kind of huge mess? I used to hear about guilds breaking up and think it was ridiculous. It's just a guild, it's just you and a bunch of guys who have decided to play together. You play, you find new people and add them. If they are jerks you toss them out. End of story.
I think the problem is that a lot of people don't play it like a game. They play to "win" which is to say they play to collect as much stuff as fast as possible with as little actual effort as possible and those people want the guild to help them progress. The only joy they feel is from obtaining a new item or getting another level. So the purpose of a guild goes from "bunch of people you like who you want to play with" to "bunch of people who are there to help you meet you goals and if they can't do that they are useless." TO deal with this we found ourselves making huge numbers of rules and then pushing people to level faster and pushing the guild to enter encounters that we were not prepared for... all to keep people in the guild who couldn't just PLAY THE DAMN GAME. Those of us who played for fun were deemed weak links because we weren't "contributing to the guild" which really translated to "you can't help me get what i want waaaaaaaaaah!"
Now I have to battle that attitude to find a place for my character. I don't get how it happens. It's a GAME. It should be fun. It's not about power or acquisition. But I suppose that's the American way and most of the players are american. Far be it from us to do something we like unless we can use it to look down our noses at others.
I have neither the time nor the desire to play 8 hours a day. I don't even have that much time most WEEKS. I don't want CTS or eye strain from a casual hobby. I'm tired of justifying my choice of having a life to people who say "you don't level fast enough! You need to play more!"
Now I wait to see if Immortal Mercy will accept a level 25 character with no high level alts :P
