Locked and Pining

A brutal agonizing expansion; Caer Cadarn, my guild, battled unfinished bugs enveloping Plane of Earth finally advancing to the puzzle that was The Rathe Council vanquishing what little morale left.

“Spit on it?” Treliden quipped, memorizing his spells for the fifth time today.

I laughed, “I’m done, and you know we can’t really shake on it.”

“Ugh, don’t be so serious!” Treliden replied. “I’m being sarcastic, if it will make you feel any better spit on your monitor.”

“I already did in disgust after that last wipe.” I was telling the truth even though I had missed the sarcasm as I sometimes do when my mind is docked in seriousness.

“Man… You can’t break it off, you are whipped my friend and besides think of all that loot that’s headed our way. We will be the first guild on the server to reach the Plane of Time. Besides, you’re the top assassin and can’t let Stryden take over. You know all that’s coming to you would end up on his plate.” Treliden smirked at the thought of riling up his good friend.

Treliden and I had never met in person, but it didn’t matter, we still had a kinship and a unique bond. The fabric of this other world was held together by bonded connections; eventually they end.

“Sorry, but I’ve had it so don’t count on it.” Treliden couldn’t see my frown, but I he knew what I was headed for.

I hit the bottom.

If Plane of Time had a flavor it was irony–I plunged as low as I could plunge; this was the end game. Leaving it behind had been unthinkable, and when I considered the consequences for that first time after clocking in inordinate amount of time all the rotten possibilities poured into my head blanketing me in utter disgust. All that time invested how could I justify quitting? I told myself I needed to take a few weeks off and come back, it worked during strenuous times in the past it will work again. An array of other pledged queries concocted with don’t-do-its, and no, you need to fucking-do-its festered making my thoughts opaque. This time it was different.

This was not the triumphant victory I had hoped for at the outset; it was fucking defeat, I was the rejected result from the bleeding edge. There was no rose tint to it, it wasn’t Treliden or the users, players, connections, none of them. It was the high end content, it still needed tuning and sure it would be fixed someday, but when? How long. I couldn’t deal, you reach a limit and either change playing habits or move on. The latter being more difficult and for most addicts it is a failed affair unless forced by some greater power or awakening.

After I departed, I was in dire need and sought another enabler; like any good recovering addict I needed to wean my e-opiate addiction. What better way to do this then indulging in mmog forums. I discovered the Vanguard forums recently launched and I admired the work from the original development team. I wasn’t pleased with EverQuest’s direction and knew that had changed after a few key developers left SOE and these were the guys starting Sigil, so I found the forums very fitting.

I followed them for two years.

It was announced six months ago or so they would be closed and they were two weeks ago. I laughed about it at the time, but when the announcement came they had been closed I was disappointed because I had wanted to save some posts. Thankfully the forums are archived but I didn’t want to take any chances so I saved some threads in word format just in case the archives end up nuked. (Lots of great theory craft took place on those forums during the first two years). It’s good to be able to laugh at some things, but in the grand scheme of things the forums shouldn’t have been closed.

Sigil has peeled the main outside social layer away leaving it up to the players to fend for themselves. Having those outside options is great, but when there are dozens of them all trying to serve the purpose of the official community forums it’s a huge mistake. I wanted to glean some fresh opinions about Vanguard’s launch and I encountered a dozen player run forums segmenting Vanguard’s outside community and it has left me pining for forums run by Sigil and not the uberguilds network or any other entrepreneur thinking they will make a quick buck later down the road after traffic builds up. Forums should be available in an official capacity for those who do wish to participate and there is a wealth of beneficial knowledge to be gained there is a team to sift through it and moderate. There is still much innovation in places like digg that should be borrowed and rolled up into a forum package to make the job easier.

Forums are an important lobby allowing outlets, sometimes for bedlam and filled with steaming garbage, and overtime they do quiet down and start dying, but they should be embraced and encouraged. I am very pleased to see other developers and community managers taking forward steps instead of back and utilizing thriving and evolving outside social trends or at least planning too: Turbine is catching on with LOTRO; SOE’s community team podcasts; and Paul Barnett’s thoughts on immersion versus imagination. All of that is fantastic and I really can’t give enough adulation to those responsible. For those like Sigil who don’t support this forward moving trend and decide to back-peddle instead, your fucking loss.

*Names changed to protect the innocent
*Any parts from this post may be used for message board theater