Seven Images Of Highly Effective Raiding Schedules

September 9, 2007 theoryspot.com

Ciderhelm:

Would it surprise you if I told you that Nihilum, Death & Taxes, and many of the top guilds raid less than most raiding guilds?

For most people, thinking of the top tier of raiding guilds conjures thoughts of people who do nothing but play a computer game in a dark room somewhere. In fact, this is often not the case — time for career, family, and friends are still very much a part of their lives.

The key is in time management.
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MMORPG design

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Ban Galore

June 11, 2001 lumthemad.net

BMQ is Brad McQuaid of SOE/Verant. Itzlegend and Gtath are members of Conquest.

BMQ:

Hello,

After our first statement regarding the Conquest guild issue, several things happened. First, I began a dialog with two members of Conquest (the leader and an officer). Second, I began a very detailed investigation of what occurred. Third, the public interest in this situation continued with both public posts and well as emails to various Verant employees.

The following is a lengthy email exchange between me and the two guild members, and I’m releasing it (with their permission) as sort of a second, more definitive statement, in that much of the feedback we received and read indicated that many players were not satisfied with the depth (or lack thereof) of our original statement. That and, after further investigation on my part, there were a few errors in the original statement I wanted to clear up.
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EverQuest

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It Was The Best Of Events; It Was The Worst Of Events

December 8, 2000 zone.msn.com

Azeraphel is Nik Davidson of Turbine

Azeraphel:

December will mark the culmination of a twelve-month story arc, which has ranged from the icy caverns of Frore, to the tops of the Shadow Spires, to the enigmatic Nexus facility, to the smoldering crater where Arwic once stood. A war has waged over the entire last year, and countless casualties — humans, shadows, and even the poor Arwic cow — have been inflicted. Now, this war’s final battle is at hand. Bael’Zharon has been freed from his crystal prison of two thousand years.
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Asheron's Call
MMORPG design

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Sometimes Random Isn’t Random

July 01, 2002 ac.turbine.com

Turbine:

As we mentioned in last month’s Letter to the Players, there are two secrets about which we feel it is time for us to come clean. One we’ve suspected for a long time, but the issue proved ever elusive to track down (so elusive, in fact, that we wondered whether it ever existed, our own anecdotal evidence to the contrary). The other we’ve known about for awhile, but we were unsure what to do about it.
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Asheron's Call
MMORPG design

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A Thin Line Between Overpowered And Useless

March 5, 2001 lumthemad.net

Lum the Mad:

The Verant Spin Patrol was out on the Whineplay hustings, trying to make sense of the delirium, with Abashi playing bad cop and Absor playing, um, other bad cop. First, from Abashi, comes this explanation:

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EverQuest
MMORPG design
Quit threats
anti dev rants

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I Win! What’s My Prize? Answer: Suspension

June 5, 2001 lumthemad.net

Lum the Mad:

After an upgrade to the Velious uberzone “Sleeper’s Tomb”, Conquest on Lanys devised a strategy for beating the “boss mobs” that involved chain-resurrecting group members. After killing the 4th warder, “the sleeper awoke”. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t ready for the sleeper to wake up yet. So surprised Conquest members saw a raging human placeholder. (If you break something in EQ you see the default human animation instead of whatever is supposed to be there). Throughout Velious on Lanys fragmented story events sort-of happened as it became really obvious that a very ambitious, and very incomplete quest sequence was firing off. Sort of.
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Uncategorized

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Sour Grapes: Delicious

April 2001 tweety.bowlofmice.com

Tweety:

Doing the Journeyman’s Boots quest is one of those defining moments of the EQ experience. It’s a really simple quest, for those of you who have managed to play without coming across it or one of its victims. You get a ring from an Ancient Cyclops, a shadowed rapier from a Shadow Man, and a pile of gold (not 300+ plat, 3000+ gold pieces) and turn the whole mess in to a gnome named Hasten running around in Rathe Mountains. He talks a little like Yoda, and the whole thing is really pretty cute.
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MMORPG design

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Raiding Your Fridge

December 2000, tweety.bowlofmice.com

Tweety:

Sweaty, travel-stained, and bruised, I congratulated my army on yet another successful campaign against the orcs. I accepted their shouts of support and loyalty, wiped away a tear of pride, and began to set up my tent for the night. It was time to log into the Real World. It was a game I didn’t much care for, but it was somehow compelling. I felt like I had to do it ye gad, an addiction! I made a mental note to suggest forming a support group at the next Freeport Town Council. If I could become addicted to Real Life, any of my people could fall victim. Ten seconds, five, zeroquit, exit, exit, and all was silence.
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MMORPG design

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Server Down, Cloth Hats For Everyone!

November 2000 tweety.bowlofmice.com

Tweety:

“You may need to re-run the patch server, although there may be connectivity issues at this time.” When the play servers commit suicide, or someone forgets to feed the gerbils that power the game engine, guides are asked to log into the chat servers and help out - also known as “Please take some heat off our paid employees.” The rooms would be filled with weenies screeching about how much Verant sucked, how they were going to demand refunds if they couldn’t get in to play RIGHT NOW PLZ.
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EverQuest
The Business

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On The Subtle Nature Of Taunt

September 2000 tweety.bowlofmice.com

Tweety:

You had to know I was going to get to Ebay eventually. Before I start, let’s toss out the EULA. I KNOW Verant says it’s a no-no. Look at their actions, though, not their words. With a crack legal team taking care of such critical issues as whether or not a guide’s actions can affect their player account, don’t you think one of their dewy eyed young lawyers could have picked up the phone and said, “Hello, Ebay? Um, selling stuff is against our rules and stuff, it says right here on this sticky note that the stuff isn’t really theirs to sell. So how about taking down the section, mmmkay?” Ebay shuts down illegal sales all the time. The fact that they have not ceased to display MMORPG items and characters means it is in fact perfectly legal.
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EverQuest
RMT

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