Fist de Yuma - May 7, 2002

Thoughts I was watching a TV show and was thinking about how the writers came up with great story after story. It was Star Trek 2g I was watching at the time. Then that thought combined with the ideas of appreciation of talent I talked about last week. The actors get a lot of praise and fame from playing the roles. Who knows the writers? If the scripts were bad would Star Trek have lasted a single season? Long ago actors were looked at as scum while playwrights and writers were held in high regard. So in the scheme of things it is not only talent, it is timing. What does this all have to do with AC? On DT the players hold themselves above others. Because they choose to play a different, and admittedly harder, game they feel superior. They feel free to look down their noses and call the majority of players, "Care Bear". What I'm trying to bring across is no one should feel superior for playing a game. If you treat others with disrespect you are asking them to treat you with distain. There are some who would relish that distain as a badge of honor. I pity them. The rest I ask to stop using this insulting term. Lies and dam lies I'm not sure who said this but someone stated there are three types of lies, "Lies, Dam Lies and Statistics." We are daily bombarded with studies that prove lies. I would like to say this is mostly a left wing tactic but I catch it on the right as well. Of course if I see a liar I tend to start ignoring everything they say. The problem with many studies is they fail to take into account outside influences. Sometimes this is just ignorance on the part of the researcher, others a deliberate attempt to deceive. Studies done in one town may not hold up in another. Take it out to different countries and cultures you find that what is true for one is almost never true for another. A big error a lot of people make is to localize a problem. If you have never been in a high crime city you may not think crime is a problem. If you have never been harassed by a rogue police officer then you might think all officers are good. There is also observer error. Observer error is where people see trends where there is none. For a long time we have been convinced that Turbines random number has a big problem. I'm still convinced myself. Nevertheless I understand observer error could be a big factor. Last week someone use a survey to prove that there are more PK players than not. Therefore Turbine should do more for PK and forget the rest. Anyone is even a small amount of experience in this game will know this is not true. There were two ways this lie was proven as fact. They did not use a random sampling and they misinterpreted the results. They invited people with an interest in the subject to fill out the form. Well guess what, more people who had been or are PK had an interest in doing the survey than those who where not. Even then a neutral analyzer would not have come to their conclusions. By their figuring, if you had ever been PK at any time, you are PK. There are very few people who for one reason or another have not at least dabbled in PK. In this survey that meant you are a PK. So you have a study with so many errors as to make it worthless. Nevertheless you will see this survey quoted over and over again to prove a point. I wish it were only untrained people trying to push an agenda in the game who did this. Over and over again I see flawed and discredited studies being used to prove points on TV. Most people don't have to time to go over these studies and take them at face value. Where I get my burn is the so-called neutral press who we count on to not present lies as facts. Need more Editing time. I made a mistake last week. I should have taken out that part or at least re-written it. As it was I contradicted myself badly. I started out by saying what you are having fun with is more important than templates. Then in another part I criticized a patron because of a 35lvs template his vassal has. The reason for this was the 35lv seemed to have a template that was given to him without the training to use. He was not having fun and was in for a long hard time. I have great doubt he will play much longer if something is not done. This was my criticism. A BM or Og is a very hard template to create. It takes skill and understanding. A BM is extremely frustrating from 30 to 45. Without a clear understanding of this difficulty they will end up in the boat of this 35lv mage. The poor guy was camping four very weak Lugies. By 35lv he should not even be in the Citadel as there is little xp and even less adventure. By be camping such a weak spot he is gaining none of the skills necessary and very little to almost no xp. I'm talking maybe 10k a buff here, at most. I can understand he was having trouble with Tuskers. Tuskers need a good skill balance and a lot of banning at his level. The drain health/stamina, vulns and blasts is a dance that takes concentration and at times a bit of luck. It is great training that will stand with him at all levels. Without my training as a no war mage in the Citadel I would be in trouble when fighting multiple Vapor Golems and Virindi. This person was not using banes that I could see. He was not sliding out of the way of the rocks and did not drain stamina to recover mana. It was pure vuln and blast. Vuln and blast have their place but if that is all you know you're in trouble. So I'm sorry if it seemed that I was trying to have it both ways last week. I wish that guy well and if I had the time I would try and teach him. As is his patron has some work to do. Vengeance There is a well know grief player in MT who has had a habit lately of jumping the island quest. After getting a respectable level in a chain he is using his skills to grab up any time slot he feels like taking. He had destroyed weeks of work by others several times. The guy is not a slouch. He is a skillful player with a bad attitude. Some people with good programming skills created a decal program to get even with him. It spasms him repeatedly and does a few other things to create him grief. While I understand the feelings this immature vengeance could well be the death of Decal. At this point all Turbine is banning anyone caught using the program. It only targets one person on one server so if nipped in the bud will not cause too much trouble. I can foresee some kid using a hex editor to make it work with other names. I can see other programmers making something along the same lines to cause grief. I can only hope that this program did not spread far. I hope the people who used their considerable talent to create this keep the source code out of public hands and do not let any more stuff like this out. If they don't Decal would be in trouble. On the up side Turbine really got the point on grief players. I would not be surprised if the bad abusers get kicked soon. Update Ordinary I would not put a name in the column. This is a special case. Stay Puff is interfering with so many peoples game play that his not being banned is a travesty. Stay Puff, the grief player's grief player is really got people goat now. He has one player hang around the Relic town fighting. When a party spawns the last part of the Island quest he logs in Stay Puff and kills the lady. He cannot pick up the scroll because it is on a timer. He is doing it to prevent anyone from completing the quest but him. Fours plus work all for nothing. There is far too many documented things this nasty child has done for Turbine to tolerate his presents. Vengeance II This was not really vengeance, more proving a point. There are those who automatically do stuff that they would never want done to them. They will even have the gall to get mad as someone for doing what they did. I was in OHN with Deadeye. I have decided to run him without buffs. This means only gear that he can use and no magic spells. With good Creature armor, a composite bow and level IV protection items he is just able to stay alive. The advantage is no down time for buffing. His melee defense if fairly good (317) but needs to be a lot better. He can face four Soldiers if lucky, any more than that and he needs to some maneuvering to stay alive. I hope to add five points with an Observers Mask. If I don't get one from the family I'll have to pull mage up and go hunt them. (His patron Rizean got him one.) I figure I'll have to be close to 350 to do what I want to do. I was hunting there in constant fights. I'm doing a lot of maneuvering to cut down on the amount of Olthoi that can hit me. If I'm trapped anywhere with five or more I have a good shot at dieing. Drinking a health elixir generally gives me big hits so falling below healing is bad news. I was in a hallway fighting two when a gang of players come up the hall and attack what I'm fighting. I would not mind them jumping the free one but two attacked that while two more attacked mine. After this I thanked them for setting the rules for me. I don't think they understood what I meant. I learned quickly in OHN that having a few melees along really helps. When fellowed with two melees I could be in battles with 10 or more Olthoi without any risk. Having a nice gang of melees to block for me while I shoot over their shoulder is nice. Of course they had not verbally say this was ok, their actions did. I would never have done this if they had not jumped my battle. I followed them almost to the end of OHN before one of the players started to bitterly complain. I said them jumping my battle told me it was ok to jump theirs. Instead of apologizing for the actions of his group he kept complaining. I kept waiting for an apologue but none was forth coming. I left him with a warning that if he wanted respect he had to show it. I'm not sure if he got my point but I made up my lost xp by over 1000%. I will say that my vengeance was wrong. I was trying to prove a point and expected them to get it a lot sooner than they did. Unfortunately there are a lot of players who expect respect but never show it. When that happens you have to give them examples. I'm sure that many will take this as me being a grief player. I admit it was grief play. I was only doing it to get my point across. I could have gotten just as much xp doing what I was doing before they showed up and have a lot more fun doing it. Thorsten Cragstone's Armor quest I had seen many people have that great looking set of armor in their villa or mansion. It is a bit much for a house so I was not really looking to get a set. Then Fire-lady showed me that the armor was worth 100,000p and only 50 bu. That beats a 45k 200bu robe all to hell for a death item. If I had time I would have tried to do this quest without any help at all. After doing it with help (a guide I printed) I can honestly say I would not have finished it without help. There were far too many twists, turns and hidden passages. It would have been pure chance if I got any of it down. I admire those who figured all this out. First thing was to get started in Cragstone. From there I ran to Eastham and found a chest. That got me a few parts to the quest. From there I ran to the next part. I did not take the route recommended but got there fast enough. I met Annunaki the sad and another person buffing up to fight the Tummies. They cleared them and I just sort of stood around as I did not want to jump into their fight. That got me the next few letters I needed. They asked me if I wanted to join them on the quest. I said yes, just for the company if nothing else. I had no idea how hard the last part could be. I did a /lifestone to get to AB and took the portal to Baishi. That got me the wax and I needed. Next was to find the armor to and return to Baishi. I think I need to return all the letters I have to Cragstone but I'll read about that later. I had heard that there were a lot of undead on this quest. Annunaki the sad said there were only Mosswarts. We searched around the hidden city for a while. Finally I checked my instructions and found there was a hidden passage by the tome. This is what I never would have found as there was just to many walls and did not even know to be looking for a hidden passage. Annunaki the sad was buffing and waiting for her friend to find the tome. I was buffed so I started in. I figured they would catch up with me. I started with just a Fire weapon buffed. After facing a bunch of golems I buffed my blunt attack as well. You might say that after 116lvs I have really got defense down. Well for a place like this anyway. They were not going to hit my 430+ melee defense and my 289 magic defense was holding up well. The few spells that did get through my level V and VI protects diluted. Of course against higher magic monsters and de-buffs I will not fair as well. I found that I could walk into the center of a large group of golems and Lich Lords without any worry. There we a few times I had to heal but very few. This was very good because let me tell you, there are a whole lot of golem and Liches there. I will hastate to try and solo this with Jr. He has better protection but has sorely neglected his magic defense. They might not hit for much but when you have a dozen or more attacking they add up. Mage has even higher magic defense so this will he a walk over for him. Despite my guide I was lost in a hurry. This is a very confusing maze and the lag and battles did help any. I also think the guide is wrong for this part. I'm not sure if Annunaki the sad never caught up or if she passed me in the maze, both are possible. I came to a door that needed a switch. I misread it and though I needed a key. I was searching bodies with no luck in finding the key. While looking for another route I found a switch. I hit the switch out of pure habit. When I found my way back to the room the door was open. I figured Annunaki the sad had used a key to open the door. It also had a line of Golems in front, totally blocking the route. I was afraid the door would close before I could fight my way in. The golems and Liches cannot hurt me much but the low damage out put of a UA means all battles take time. I finally killed enough golems to make an opening and rush into the door. I was sure I was going to be lag pulled back but I made it. From there I spend another 15 to 20 minutes wondering around the maze. I finally lucked out and found the armor. I got the wax impression and was headed to Baishi. As I headed into town I removed all my protection so as not to waste mana. As is I'm burning mana stones badly with Jr and Deadeye. Trying to cut down on expense as much as I can. Oh Oh, statue golems, big ones. Well my weapon still had buffs and my Creature buffs were still running. In hindsight I should have put my Life protects back on before jumping in. I was doing ok. I was not hitting for big damage but felt I could ware one down in a minute or so. Two or three war spells later I was flying back to AB. That was a surprise. No time to rebuff, especially with vit. I charged back in. This time I did a little maneuvering so I only had to fight one. I guess their worth good points because it cleared a point of vit when I killed it. By this time reinforcements were poring in. I was lucky to get a second kill and also lucky that it had a different item than I got on the first one. I don't know what you can get for these, my archer will find out tomorrow. Darn, 15 items drop when I die now. I had not died in a while so I did not know. It is good thing I have a lot of death items or my weapons and droppable armor pieces would go. As soon as I finished up with the battle Annunaki the sad sent me a tell. She had lagged out right at the armor and died. The person with her was far too low to clear and loot the body. Without her there he was lucky to port out before dieing. I was very tired by this time but felt we could get there a bit easer now that we had done it. Maybe if I had been with someone who know the route I might have learned the path but my wondering around the place did not teach me much. We met up in Underground City and started in. I had the route down to the tome so we did not spend much time on that. With Annunaki tossing imperil and me hitting them nothing stood up to us. At the room with the door we finally guessed that it was the switch that opened it and not a key. We back tracked a bit and found the switch. Then we made a fast run back to the door. The line of Golems guarded the door again. I tried to trick them away from the door so Annunaki the sad and I could just run into the hall. I did this by running up on them, standing for a sec and then running to a corner away from the door. If I was fast enough I could run around the golems and into the now exposed door. This is tricky as it is easy to get trapped in the cornor. It would have worked, and for me did, if Annunaki the sad had not been lagging so much. By the time her lag cleared she was stuck in the center of the mob of golems. She was running in place against the golems. I don't know of her running was a lag run or if she was just trying to get past them. I was able to kill the three who blocked her and she ran into the hall. The next obstacle is a room with another horde of golems and Liches. I was able to run through this room in my last trip. Annunaki the sad had lag problems again and I had to kill a few Golems and Liches to help her out. In the hallway after the next battle I saw her running against the wall with three or four Liches and golems beating on her. As a mage they will hit her. Maybe not for much but it adds up fast. I tried to get a heal on her but the golems blocked me. Luckily she came out of lag and was able to heal herself. From there we ended up in a room that sure looked a lot like the route to the armor I found before. It was similar but not the same room. This cost us more time. While back tracking past the room with a lot of Liches she lagged out again. She got back once more and then lagged out completely. It seems she had to change computers to get back. Meanwhile I got rebuffed and an archer who know me showed up. I asked him to join us and show us the route. He agreed and I put him into the fellow. Annunaki the sad finally got back and we were ready to give it one more try. We had been really close at one time. I know the route now so I should be able to guide the quest. We were only one passageway away from the last big fight before the armor when we backtracked. After another good battle they started buffing. I went into the room and cleared it. They were lagging and Annunaki the sad could barely move. We tried killing all the Liches, even the ones below, to help with the lag. Finally she was able to loot her body but it was getting very bad for a while. After porting out Annunaki the sad and I talked for a while. I had not id'ed her before and saw she was a 105lv. I hope we match up time wise as the two of us worked well together. A melee and a mage team is much more powerful than the two apart. Reported changes There was a developer's chat this week. Much of what they said had been rumored but it was nice to see it confirmed. There is going to be special packs that will replace comps. We will still have a cost, near what we currently pay. A single scarab will replace the sundry comps we currently purchase. Next is really good news for everyone but a handful of no buff players. The times on spells is going to be extended. VII's are going to last and hour, VI's forty-five minutes. I believe the rest will be at half an hour. Lastly the economy will be replace by a personal economy based on skill. This is great news for my Og mage who had very high Creature skills. I expect to have a base Creature of 325 to 330 by then. I'm currently putting all my points into War but that will change in a few weeks. Trade skills replacing the current assessment skills is very good news. There are a lot of old time players who will gain from this. There are a bunch of people making BM's with an assessment skill vs. spec'ing leadership right now. They expect to get two credits back and get creature at 40 or with work 35. I'm not sure if they will get the credits. If so my BM on WE will get that benefit. I did not plan on that but that is how it worked out. The trade skills will allow you to improve items. Armor will be able to add to armor, weapon to weapons. Each time you repeat the process will need greater skill requirement. I will take a strong look at the effect of these trade skills. I have been expecting to take Healing at 115 with Mage. If the skills are what I expect them to be I may take the trade skills instead. Fist has seven points. I expected him to take Bow at 125. Right now my debate is to take Xbow now and a trade skill at 125 or even just trade skills. Weapons skill will really be nice. I have a bunch of weapons that would be been "to die for" stuff only a few months ago. 2-7 with great plus's were rare items. Now they are not so rare and the current need is for 3-9 weapons. These are so rare that I only have one. I expect to take these 2-7 weapons and try to enhance them. I was saving them for future family members who want to start a UA. Now I have something that if the process fails I will not be hurt. I expect to be putting hundreds of millions of points into these skills. I got a bad feeling that any skill below 400 will be breaking a lot of stuff. Learning a magic spell on the fly is going away. Fortunately the replacement is not that bad. You just go purchase a scroll to learn the spell. VII's of course will still be hard to find but it will be VII scrolls we get so we should end the long boring runs. This is a lot to absorb. There are still a few questions that were not answered, such as will the magic economy be based on base or buffed skills. I'm betting base but we will not know until some asks them. I might propose the question on the Turbine site and see of they will answer. We should see these changes in two months. The time line they gave us was June/July. Given the current problems I would be very amazed to see it in June but I hope to be surprised. Rebuttal There can be a lot of reasons a person fights below there apparent abilities. This letter I got points out a few of them. I don't agree with everything he said but I'll let you judge. Normally I dont write emails or frequent network boards. When I participate in the gaming community it is normally directly through the game itself, although I enjoy keeping track of what is happening on the various fan sites and in the popular columns associated with the game. I am 34 with a wife and two kids and have been playing Asherons Call since it went gold almost two and half years ago. I currently play a level 68 Og on Solclaim. I have been an avid reader of your column from the start and have taken great pleasure in following your exploits and learning from your adventures. I have noticed, however, throughout the life of your column several recurring themes you keep coming back to. One of these is the problem of people hunting in dungeons or areas way below what is normally accepted as challenging for them in the game. You have made it clear time and again that you find this practice not only pointless, but actually irritating and a detraction from the enjoyment of others in the game. I disagree, but rather than flame you or rant at you, allow me to try and explain the reasons why I disagree and why I hunt below my level occasionally. First off there are the obvious reasons why one will find level 40s in the Citadel or level 60s in the BSD. Working off vitae is a valid reason to hunt below your level, as is helping out a vassal. I personally agree with you that powerleveling vassals takes away from their learning curve and enjoyment of the game, but thats another issue. In the meantime you are going to find people hunting below their level for these two reason on a regular basis. Another valid reason to hunt below your level is that you are too gimped to do otherwise. Poppycock you say? Think again. Take my trade mule for instance. He is specialized in all four trade skills, uses his racial weapon skill to survive, has no magic, no arcane, and no melee. I personally have no desire to run him from the casino to Samsur over and over to turn in mnemosynes, neither do I feel good about putting him in an xp chain. My remaining option is to take him out and hunt. What that means is that he hunts far below his level and I take a constant barrage of flak for doing it. I assure you the constant tells of "what are you doing here?" or "my god! Your level 22!!! Dont hunt here!" are every bit as annoying to me as it is for those people to see me hunting below my level. They think I am cutting into their xp gain. If they paid attention they would see that my skills are such that I am not taking from their xp any more than another lower level character would. In fact more often than not it is their super twinked, streamlined, 8th level archer of death that is cutting into my xp far more than my poor gimped level 22 trade mule will ever manage to cut into theirs. Beyond vitae, vassaling, and uber gimpedness, there are other reasons to hunt below your level. In the two and a half years I have played the game I have noticed two things: one, the level at which one is considered "high" level has steadily increased and has taken with it the bar to which one compares the strength of ones character. What was once considered appropriate hunting for level 20+ is these days considered appropriate for level 5+. I see level 5s taking on hordes of zombies today whereas two years ago you thought twice about fighting them at level 15. Two, I have noticed that the play style of most people in the game is a glib mix of devil may care and damn the torpedoes. It is fun for most people to die and die and die over and again in the process of leveling to the point that upon reaching level 30 their death count rivals the battle of Gettysburg and becomes a bragging point. While the game has indeed evolved and while most folks enjoy a more aggressive style of play it doesnt change the fact that there are those of us who play differently and have just as much fun doing it. You mentioned in your last column that you didnt want to take your BM into a higher level dungeon through a back door because you felt that Turbine had placed a level restriction on that dungeon for a reason. You might have noticed that Turbine also fails to put a level restriction on many dungeons, including the BSD and the citadel. I believe there is a reason for that as well. Not everyone wants to take a level 26 into the BSD. The same spectrum of play that accounts for aggressive styles also accounts for cautious styles, and I believe Turbine recognizes this. While it may be profitable in the long run to hurl your level 26 uber dagger character at a wall of tuskers, you are doing so with the understanding that for the next 15 levels or so you will be spending a great deal of your time at the lifestone and in return gaining xp faster than Bill Gates is gaining interest. In two weeks your aggressive style of play will garner you more levels than a more cautious style of play will in a month. You trade the annoyance of frequent and bloody deaths for large amounts of xp. You also trade the enjoyment of hanging around at a level for awhile and experiencing the game from a weaker perspective for a quick boost into the higher levels. Its all good but although you might enjoy this style of play you have to realize it isnt for everyone. I am not surprised so many people grow bored and burn out. They burn through the game so quickly and so aggressively that they never take time to relish in the gains they accrue. Some will argue that those who play below their level make no xp. This isnt true. My level 68 Og makes an enormous amount of xp in a good coral golem fellow, but the truth is if I put that same Og mage into a tusker fellow at the BSD he can still make quite decent xp. Maybe not the most efficient xp, but not shabby either. Sixteen thousand xp a pop is nothing to sneeze at, even at level 70. I concede there is a point at which your level puts you in a position in which killing rabbits is no longer worth it so to speak, but just because you dont subscribe to the same idea of what constitutes good xp as everyone else is no reason for you to be harassed in the game or to be labeled a coward. Just because you are more interested in a living character than one with vitae is no reason to endure persecution in game. Just because your play style is different is no reason to have to defend it on a constant basis. Sometimes it is just fun to play for an hour in a setting in which you are the big fish in the pond. Sometimes it is a delight to spend an evening sending Lugians to the lifestone instead of the other way around. Sometimes it is nice to be in a position to actually help that poor level 30 get his corpse from the bottom of the BSD without having to worry about leaving your corpse with his. You shouldnt have to level to 126 to be able to do this. You ought to be able to do it at level 10, or level 30, or level 70. The price of your admission to the game should be 10 bucks a month, not 10 bucks a month and a good reason why you are playing the way you are playing. The next time you see someone hunting below their level resist the urge to harass them. If they are playing nice, sharing the kills, hunting civilly, then by all means give them the same courtesy, dont go off on them just because they are 30 levels higher than you. Let them play the game. I am reminded of a particular encounter I had one evening in the BSD. The place was empty of tuskers and players alike and after running around for a while it became apparent why. There was a level 95 sword character clearing the place. He followed me without a word for awhile and without kill stealing any of my kills he cleared away every other tusker. I played along and soon he spoke and asked me why I hadnt gotten angry at him and left. I replied he had just as much right to hunt here as I did and I didnt begrudge him the tuskers he was killing. In fact he was making it easier for me to hunt as I didnt have to deal with 7 tuskers at once, only one or two. He was thoroughly surprised and his attitude toward me changed instantly. He began to let me have more tuskers and occasionally threw a heal or buff my way. In the process he explained how he had been dealing with people being rude to him all night because he was level 95 and how he had finally gotten sick of it and simply started killing off everything in sight just to get rid of people and have some peace. Although I disapprove of the way he handled the rudeness, I had certainly been a victim of it myself in the past and I understood his frustration. In the end I made a friend and a decent chunk of xp as well. Whats more, what started as a possible confrontation and lousy experience turned into a pleasant evening of hunting. You said yourself the real point of the game is to have fun, and if my idea of having fun is hunting Lugians at level 90 then why shouldnt I be allowed to hunt Lugians at level 90? Assuming I am leaving plenty of critters for lower levels to kill then what is the problem? It stands to reason that as a character hunting below your level you have an obligation to play nice. But then you really ought to feel you have an obligation to play nice regardless of your level. Otherwise your days in Kindergarten were a waste of time. Besides, the streamlined, efficient, twinked way most players level these days a level 90 isn't going to kill Lugians any faster than a level 20. Give it a week and that twinked level 20 will be level 90 through his friendly neighborhood chain anyway. Im not really sure why we see it as necessary to segregate higher levels from lower levels to the point that we jump all over higher levels for being in a lower level dungeon. I have always looked at my progress in levels as my ticket to go more and more places in the game, not as a barrier to prevent me from going to less and less places as I level out of them. If eventually I can only hunt peacefully on the ML plateau then what have I gained out of the game, the right to sit peacefully in the BSD and hand out buffs? Fat chance. I want to be able to own everything from rabbits to crystal lords. Eventually I want everything I hunt to be below my level. Too bad theres a level ceiling. (sigh) maybe in AC2? I hope this gives you pause to reconsider and begins to explain to you why you see people hunting below their level. I hope it also gives you some insight into the mindset of a different play style. Cautious players are rare but they arent non existent. They certainly arent cowards just because they are cautious. I look forward to the rest of your columns and hope you will continue to write them as I enjoy them immensely. Sincerely, Jeden Fey 68 level Og mage Dark side of Darktie I have collected a lot of letters pertaining to DT. I made the comment that I had talked to a lot of former DT players and that was were most of my knowledge on it came from. This set of letters counters the set in support of DT from a few columns ago. This is from D C who points out that the term "Kids" may be better off as "Kid Like". His maturity level is far above many people far older than him. Hiya, I have been a reader of your column for some time now. Ever since my dad started playing AC to be precise. Recently DT has become a big issue. Most of the people on the server are a bit rude to say the least, but there are those of us that arent. DT has been my main server for two, almost three years now. I have a level 89 BM, 76 OG mage, and a lvl 32 Archer/Mule. I started playing when I was fourteen, I am sixteen now. People say that kids as young as me are the problem on the server. Yes I will admit that a lot of young players are on the server...but so are a lot of adults. During my time on the server I found that adults fight just as much as kids do. Recently I got tired of it and moved to SC were I am known to some as Darkhaven II. For now I have no intention of going back to DT, the fighting is out of hand. I really do hope that this kind of stuff stops. Just like you I play for fun, and try to cause no problems. Keep up the good work on your column Fist I do enjoy reading it. In the next one...perhaps you could mention that its not just the kids being dicks on the DT server...cause adults are part of the problem as well. ---------------- This letter from Zorn is typical of the letters I get from people who no longer play on DT. Hi. Saw your email address and thought I would drop you a line. I was posting on your board as Zorn of Arathorn, hope you did not think I was raining on your parade. I feel we share many of the same views. I'm in my 50s too and enjoy playing Asherons call. I did have a pretty good character on DT and the first year or so it was not bad. I started in December 99, after some persuasion from my UO friends. We had an anti squad on UO and they want to do the same on Asherons Call. So I started up with them, also running some characters on Havestgain where some friends from work also played. The first year and a half was ok, the bloods were just a bunch of kids, but we had teamwork, they were just bunch of individuals. We regularly kicked their butts, of course we could not go where they had real numbers, but we regularly hunted them and some other groups with great success. That was until the cheating started. Every blood we saw was running speed hack in a matter of weeks, along with all the other cheats they were doing, lots of duping. I remember one week we killed a bunch of them and all dropped the exact same armor. None of my group would ever think of cheating like that, we tried to hang in there. Any tactics were useless against the cheaters, it gave them too much of an advantage, no skill involved at all. I was banned from the DT board. The mod there is or was, not sure if he is still there the absolute worst mod on any board I have ever posted on, very immature and totally out of control. Anyways after a month of that most of my group left AC. I stuck it out through the summer mostly playing on Harvestgain. My good friend there passed away in RL and I just quit for a while. I did meet you in game once, had a spear lady I was trying out on MT and you hooked me up with one of your friends as a Patron and no. That was the only female character I have. I was just experimenting and thought I could get better help if I needed it as a female character. With your monarchy that was not the case everyone was extremely helpful. I tried out the new game Dark age of Camelot. It had some nice graphics but with 5 dungeons and only a small map it rapidly got old fast. The PvP side of it was very lopsided to certain character classes none of which I was interested in playing. Anyways I have returned to AC. It might have dated graphics but still has great playability. You would think I would have some great characters after playing for 2+ years but never really concentrated on anyone character. Well the DT guy was almost 50. I got mad one day at the cheaters and just deleted him out of frustration. So I think the highest I have right now is a 42nd dagger on Harvestgain, but then again I have characters on every server out there. Anyways I have always enjoyed your weekly discussions. I feel like I really know the island even though I have never been there. Far as I am concerned you hit the nail on the head about the DT server. I should know, the kids ran us off. Yes there are still some decent people there but there is also a significant group of griefers amidst the bloods and a couple other monarchies out there. They still take advantage of any cheat they can get their hands on. Could not believe one actually nonchalantly admitting he was using fast cast in your story when you posted some rebuttals. Those kids are amazing, they really have no clue how low they have sunk. So please keep posting those stories and dont let those kids get to you, that is exactly what they want. Maybe someday we will meet in game somewhere. Hope I have not taken up too much of your time. Wynn... Oh yes, if you are curious Purpledragon was my first AC character and yes he still exists. He is a wizened level 26 UA character that was gimped beyond all belief hehe. I still take him out once in a while and play him. I guess none of my characters on Harvestgain at least have a good template. I started my swordsman Dullblade with 80 stamina. Hey did they not do something with stamina lately, might have to get him out of mothballs. Anyways take care.