Laments

Just for the record: having no money sucks. So does knowing money is on the way but not being able to use it yet (tax return). Anyway, that aside, I venture into a virtual realm.

As many of you may know, I used to be an EverQuest addict. Before I was employed full-time at ByteBenders, I played nearing 8 hours a day. Well, I wouldn't say played, so much as socialised with avatars of people I had never met. All in all, except for its addictive nature, a heck of a lot of fun.

Now, inside this game, we form guilds as players and go on 'epic' quests together. About two months into the game, I joined the guild Syndicate Ro and built up a fairly respectable reputation quickly. In fact, after three or so months within the guild, I had risen to the respectable rank of General. I was one of two raid leaders among the guild, and lead attacks on Dragons, among other things -- all quite successfully.

Towards the end of January, 03, I decided that playing the game was taking up too much of my time and I needed to quit to get my habit in order to get life reorganised.

What you must understand, is that after 8 months in the game, the members of the guild were as close friends as anyone I knew in real life. For me, parting the game would be the equivalent of moving to another country, with respect to my RL friends. It truly was a sad day for me, and the next three or so I just wandered around in a daze.

That said, I got my life together of the past four months, and I'm involved in a whole lot of things that I much enjoy. All in all, everything is going quite well -- except for the boring weekends (when there isn't a hockey game).

Now, while I was in the guild, we were experiencing a bit of a unique situation. The guild was founded by three brothers, you took the role-playing titles of 'Prince', 'High Chancellor' and 'Royal Bodyguard'. Prince Venefix was officially the guild leader, and had designed the website that I linked to above. He did a fairly decent job on the website, but had no presence in the game. We were lucky if he graced us with his Royal Presence once a month.

In wake of this, and the inability of his two brother to show any leadership traits, the guild formed a sort of rule-by coucil, controlled mostly by those that were highest ranking within the guild. Chief among the coucil was yours truly, and there were two others that were my lieutenants, so to speak -- although we never aknowledged rank among ourselves, but rather by our role-playing titles given to us by Prince Venefix. The two closest to myself were a Lizard by the name of Xarasiz, and a Elven Bard by the name of Trasque (truly, I do not know their real names...).

When I left, I donated all of my armor to the guild, such that I would continue to contribute (in a sense), even in my absence. I also checked out the website's message boards now and again, but never saw any signs of any problems -- it appeared that Xarasiz and Trasque were doing quite well in the unofficial reigns of the guild, while Prince Venefix continued to maintain the website, but have no real effect on the operations of the guild.

Now we on this 'coucil' of guild-members, so to speak -- the leaders that actually acted as leaders -- we had what I considered to be an extremely good sense of justice within the guild. We never acted unilaterally, and generally believed in second chances, but not thirds. If someone within the guild did something that brought shame to the guild, or tarnished the reputation of the Syndicate, we would suspend the member, and after two weeks they could appeal to get reinstated. If they did it again, they would be permanently removed from the guild.

One of my best friends within the game was a Dwarf named Grofrat. Grofrat was everything that Tolkein would have wished a Dwarf to be. Truly honest, without fail, and grumpy, but in an amusing sense. Whether the person behind the character is truly anything like that or not, I'll never be truly sure of; however, this Dwarf came to be my closest friend within the guild, and I hold him in the highest esteem. He has given me what I assume to be a fairly accurate of what happened in the game after I left. Here I will hazard to quote pieces of an email Grofrat (whom now I found out is really named Geoff) sent me regarding the situation.

There was escalating democracy, or at least that's how I see it. The members of the guild started demanding things, such as level requirements, that Venefix felt led the guild in the wrong direction. For a while, Venefix seemed to play the "strong-man" role, by not budging with certain policies. After a while, many people started attacking the prince for not playing enough, and Soggon for acting like a middleman. This got the prince very angry, so he posted a thread, asking Twedlit, Pryne, and Trasque to resign, and attacking Zino who had recently left. He later apologised to Trasque, but Trasque couldn't forgive him. (apparently the prince claimed that he had recieved 10 e-mails reguarding Trasque. Trasque said that he would rejoin the guild if Venefix posted the 10 e-mails. Venefix never posted them, claiming that he didnt want to post private e-mails.)

Okay, explaining some of the names mentioned: Trasque is the Elf I mentioned earlier, of whom I have nothing but the greatest respect for. Twedlit and Pryne are a RL husband and wife team that play the game together. They were among the respected members of this Coucil that ran the guild while the Prince was absent. Soggon and Zino are two of the first 10 or so members of the guild, and held the rank of Lord. They were both members of this coucil as well. Zino was by far the most experienced and dedicated member this guild had in its ranks, but was generally quiet when there were dissenting opinions among guild members. Soggon is a good-natured fellow and an excellent role-player, (and his wife Escharae also plays and was a good friend of mine in the game) and I won't critisize him, since he is simply being loyal the guild he helped found.

Shortly after being booted by the Prince, they started receiving support from within the guild. So, they turned around, and Twedlit, along with Trasque, founded their own guild. Bit by bit, my good friends of the great Syndicate Ro began removing themselves from the guild and joining up with the new one, Noble Blood. Foremost among them was the lizard Xarasiz. Now Xarasiz was my first friend in the game. He inducted me into the guild, back in June of 02, and we together were the guilds' raid leaders. Evidence of our history can be read here, before the Prince deletes it.

Anyway, I'm thinking about playing EQ once more, but now that I have things to occupy most of my time (work, baseball, etc.), so this will prevent the 8 hour stretches that I previously played. The real predicament come with merging back into a group in which I've been absent from for 4 months. Now again, like my analogy before, it's like I moved to another country. Sure I got email, and some news from inside, but it would be the same dynamics. Two of my close friends in game stayed with the Syndicate, even through its turmoils, but only two. The rest are now members of the Noble Blood guild, including every last one of the previous ruling council.

I now have to decide - granted, I am returning to the game, whether I simply flow into Noble Blood as a foot-soldier and work my way back to the top, or whether I accept a senior position right off the top, or on the flip side, I could maintain my membership with the Ailing Syndicate. Or, do I run solo, without a guild at all. Considering that I am playing a ranger in the game, I'm sure the latter could be quite easy to roleplay.

Nonetheless, it's an interesting politcal situation, for which I am partially responsible. I set up that coucil initially, and most members of the old guild respected my role as raid-leader. When I left, there was a bit of a vacuum, and this is how it all got sorted out. Now I'm returning, and will need to determine my role. It shall be interesting, that is for sure.

Anyway, thought I'd share that little story with you folks, whether you care or not is up to you. This could perhaps be an interesting study in sociology, since there is no physical interaction involved in the whole bit. Also, considering this is not driven by sexual tension, like most relationships among friends are, it's interesting to note certain aspects of personailities surfacing that would normally result from sexual tension -- such as driving to be the 'alpha male', so to speak. Anyway, Be safe folks.

Signed:

Jiilik Oiolosse, Wood Elven Ranger

a.k.a.

Me! :)