PostSecret Nod to EQ

[Ddrak]

Dd made my power go off by reminding me not to use reactive heals... actually maybe USING them is what cut power to my whole complex.

THANKS A LOT DDRAK !

Haha - was wondering where you went.

Dd

[Taxious]

Didn't need an Enchanter in a group.....that was just a crutch. A good Bard could fill in for any enchanter on almost any group content.

I actually preferred a bard over an enchanter in a group since I could just get on my friend's enchanter for buffs. Me, Cleric, Bard, Mage, Mage, Beastlord was probably the best group makeup I remember playing with. Excessive DPS always makes up for a bad Cleric if the tank is able to live through one mob.

I much prefer DPS groups over the classic makeup. To this date, one of the best (and funniest) groups I've been in was 5 mages + 1 druid. Spam nukes + air pets = shitloads of damage output and pretty constant mob stun. Usually a baddie wouldn't be able to make it into the camp before it was dead, and even if it did, whoever had aggro just ran around for a couple seconds.

Duoing, mage+druid is still one of my favorite combos. All you need is dps + snare.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

Yeah my power was out a good portion of the day on Friday and we were warned there might be surges and other outages lol.

I blame you tho ! Oh that's a nice move from Arathena to you, i was talking to him on AIM so maybe it really is HIS fault after all...

[Harlowe]

I don't feel it was an over reaction. It's not like I typed out a 6 paragraph essay or filled it with cursing and insults or anything. I'm just saying that Turaylon's use of the word skill seems out of place.

You said "I've never heard such a blatantly false statement in my life", oh really? That just comes off pretty melodramatic for what he said. It was just his opinion and that he dared use a word like "skill"in a way you didn't feel fitting.

I don't think any class in the game can be considered hard in the scheme of gaming. People burn out on clerics in EQ1 for a reason; because they are tedious and something tedious, is going to be harder to play than something you are having fun with.

But ultimately imo there isn't a hard class, I think a Bard requires more finesse than others, but honestly nothing in EQ is "hard". EQ2 and WoW are a great deal easier to play.

I think the only one I've come across that is really challenging - with regard to learning the game, was Eve Online.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Ok, so then what is skill? If skill is doing something well that most others don't do well, then playing a cleric took skill. Not an important skill in the context of real life, but I'd still say it took skill. But yeah, I'd file that under the category of useless skills like being able to twitch my ear lobes.

[Xican]

Ok, so then what is skill? If skill is doing something well that most others don't do well, then playing a cleric took skill. Not an important skill in the context of real life, but I'd still say it took skill. But yeah, I'd file that under the category of useless skills like being able to twitch my ear lobes.

Well, here's the way I see it... The difference is in whether people can't or don't do it well. If someone was a bad cleric... I highly doubt (its hard to prove because I wasn't standing over their shoulder, of course) they were giving it their all and just not meeting the strenuous pressures of online gaming. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say its because they didn't give a fuck. For that matter, I'd say the majority of clerics did play 'well' for the most part. I grouped a lot in my EQ career and even more now playing Shards of Dalaya and I think maybe 5 or 6 clerics stick out in my mind as 'bad'. That's gotta be close to about 4 years of steady gaming and I can't recall too many sticking out as poor. And for the most part, I think they're bad simply because they don't pay attention. I guess it depends on whether or not you consider enduring boredom/paying attention a skill. To me, it just isn't.

[Ddrak]

I guess it depends on whether or not you consider enduring boredom/paying attention a skill.

That's a fundamental skill in cricket! Most of the strategy goes around getting the other team into a pattern and then surprising them by breaking out of it now and then.

Pretty core to a bunch of other real-life activities as well, from long haul driving to being a sniper in the armed forces.

Dd

[Fenye HE Pal]

I shouldn't be surprised that after googling my Everquest character, my f'd up story is still being talked about. All that started 18 years ago and to this day has been the most messed up thing I've ever done.

It started out as a highly addictive game. I was a super awkward kid, socially shy and could not talk to women without feeling like an ass afterwards, so I decided to pretend to be one. I deleted my necromancer and started up a high elf paladin. The random name generator was producing some seriously hard to pronounce names, so I found one and shortened it to Fenye. Created my first guild called The Knights of the Magi and soon met my counterpart, Tanari. We played at the same time and devoted all our spare time to the game (much like everyone else in EverCrack). It wasn't long before I came up with the identity of "Lisa", and after awhile I got so used to being "Lisa" that my actual life didn't matter anymore. I was totally wrapped up in this persona and at that point only played the game to be with Tanari, who I assumed was another lesbian that was into me. She called herself Tracy, was separating from her partner and that was that. We kept this up for a very long time, neither of us actually calling each other. I guess I was either too stupid or I just really hoped she was who she said she was and that when the truth came out she'd be so much in love with me that the lies wouldn't have mattered.

We used to cyber all the fucking time, and it was actually on a raid in the Plane of Sky that Tanari put her text in general instead of /tell. Everyone laughed, she logged out in embarrassment but it didn't matter. None knew who we really were at that point.

It all started coming out when I began posting on the newly formed Brell Rants section on the Brell Serelis page. I was out of control. I'd start fights with anyone, burn bridges with people who were my friends, and generally became this hated personality. But I was stuck. I kept repeating these cycles. I'd get pissed and rant my head off for months, then apologize and try to behave for a little bit, but then I was right back at it. One of the dudes that played in the LAN cafe (where I first learned of Everquest) named Oemor posted and said hi, but he used my real name. I freaked. I tried to lie my way out of it and eventually stopped going to the cafe altogether. But the rumors were already circulating.

Now, I can't remember if I told Tanari the truth about me before that happened or right after, but I remember hanging out at the Freeport bank when I did. I told her I was a guy and I'd understand if she left, but I'd do anything to keep her. That's when she told me her name was Michael and he was planning on going through a sex change. It's fucked up, I know, but I was a bit horrified. I couldn't do the cyber thing anymore, but we tried to be friends.

After some time, he said he was moving up to Alaska, which was where I lived. Once he got up here, I met him, we hung out a few times, but I was finally waking up from this idiot fantasy. I wasn't gay, and even if he did turn into a woman it certainly wouldn't have been anything attractive. But we still tried to be friends, even through all the massively weird shit we did together.

I still hung around on the server for awhile, but because I couldn't keep my mouth shut no high level guild would take me. I had to resort to being a tag-a-long. I made some bad ass accomplishments in my time, but seeing Tanari get his pick of guilds to join made me jealous beyond sanity. He was still living the lie and I had been ousted. That reminds me, I saw someone mention the Lita Ford pic earlier. A little caveat on that: I was learning to play the guitar at that time, so I looked for a picture of a "blonde girl with guitar" and chose that Lita Ford pic. I had no idea who she was back then. I basically lived in Everquest for four years so I was sort of distant from the real world. But someone immediately recognized her and my lie, and it was pretty much game on at that point. It was very hard for me to convince people I was "Lisa". I had to rely on meeting people in game, who had never seen the Brell Rants page, and then only hang out with those people.

I even tried to out Tanari a few times when my jealousy was at its peak. He was very well mannered compared to me, and people believed him. He even had something I didn't: a friend who vouched for him to say they knew him in real life. Think she was a Druid named Foxxy or something. There was one time when she searched the phone book for my name and called my house line. I had to pretend it was the wrong number, but she knew it was me.

But eventually, even the people I was hanging out with found out my truth, and I had to leave in shame.


But...because I wasn't crazy enough, I did the same thing again.

It was when Dark Age of Camelot came out. I left Everquest to play that. Created an archer named Darkeve. It wasn't until I hopped around a bit (went from Albion to Midgard) and created the character Rhed, a skald, that I created a new lesbian persona named Reece. Although I never "hooked" up with another person in game, I was addicted to people thinking I was a female. People treated female players better. It was easier to be accepted. And once I got good, I became a novelty because well, most hardcore gamers were male. I kept this up for another two years. I'm kind of sickened at myself for all the lies, the content of my lies, and for not manning up and just being myself, but looking back, I was basically a grown man with the mind of a 13year old.

It wasn't until things like Ventrilo and Teamspeak started becoming widely used that I knew I couldn't lie like this for long. So I stopped. Over the past decade it really bothered me who I was, and why it took me so long to grow up and be a normal person, but here I am. While most people have cool things to remember in their early adult years, I stand as one of the most, if not the most, fucked up and remembered personality among the thousands that played on Brell.

And that, is truth of about Fenye.

[Morbidd]

This is un-usual story for sure. But one thing you can take from this Fenye is that you were remembered. Just like Sanornik, Morsereg, Debbie, Neno, Nadia, Planeswalker and so on and so forth. Some for great things, others for the chaos they caused but all are remembered.

For the rest of us....we just faded into EQ retirement and are most such as myself have long since been forgotten

Morbs.

[Ddrak]

Sup Fenye. Always happy to see people lurking.

Dd

[Fenye HE Pal]

I certainly have a million regrets about my time in Everquest alone, but I will say that I have never seen a community like Brell in the days following my departure. I played a few mmo games over the years but never found anything similar to those times, and I doubt you'd ever find anything like it again, especially in today's internet. I have to admit that it is kind of exciting to see familiar names, but then I have to remember who I was and what I was remembered for haha. Not exactly the kind of reunion you'd want to walk back into.


Hope everyone's lives churned out some awesome moments thus far

[Ddrak]

but then I have to remember who I was and what I was remembered for haha. Not exactly the kind of reunion you'd want to walk back into.

Uh, we're 15 years on from most of that drama. Anyone who still gives a damn more than "My God we were fucked up back then, let's reminisce over beers" has a serious, serious problem.

And yeah - EQ's societies will never happen again. They were created by what was essentially people taking refuge in company from shared psychological torture. WoW demonstrated there was far greater profit in catering to casual and not actively shitting on your own players.

(Not saying I didn't love the game though!)

Dd

[Morbidd]

Uh, we're 15 years on from most of that drama. Anyone who still gives a damn more than "My God we were fucked up back then, let's reminisce over beers" has a serious, serious problem.

Never a truer quote. I honestly cannot remember any of the issues from back then as anything more than part of the game that it was at the time. I look back on EQ fondly, it was part of lifes learning curve at the time for me and the social interaction was awsome.

I have no EQ regrets and certainly bear no bad blood for anyone that i met in game.....Good times

[Fenye HE Pal]

Lol truth. Im amazed Verant actually made a successful business model out of shitting on their players, as you so eloquently put it. I remember this one shaman....aaahh his name is in my brain somewhere, one of the more popular shamans on the server... Anyway. I remember he bound himself outside of Mistmoore but because he had been binge gaming he fell asleep at his keyboard and fell victim to one of the infamous zone trains. I want to say he lost about twenty-something levels and had to grind his way back up to 50.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

Well talk about a resurrection. Robyn and I both downloaded EQ yesterday after Psychosis posted something on Facebook about the 16th anniversary and we wondered if we were just holding onto the past and if we could even remember WTF we were doing. He asked me if i'd been by rants to see if anyone was still playing, or playing again... and here I am

Fenye, you were an asshole, flaming was your thing and people took everything personally. It doesn't matter any more. While your confession did more for you then the rest of the world Im sure, I applaud you for making it. That being said, dont sweat the past and if any of us stick around then Welcome Back

[Kulaf]

That was Rob.....Robiscus. I remember talking with him right after that happened.

He bound himself inside Mistmoore and fell asleep and the wandering guard killed him over and over, and all of his corpse that had nothing on them decayed in like 15min back then I think. So yeah he had to reacquire like 10 levels I think.

[Fenye HE Pal]

I think the worst de-leveling experience I had was a botched Fear raid and had spent many hours dragging my corpses around. I went from 50 to 45. A ranger named Balaam came to help and he lost a few levels, too. Nothing as bad as Rob though.

Curiosity got to me and I downloaded EQ again, and...wow. 21 expansions? The last one I remembered was Planes of Power lol. The game itself looks very different. My level one bard nearly died to a "Soft Fluffy Bunny". Guess those things took a lesson or two from Monty Python. But I was completely lost haha.

[Alluveal]

Hi Fenye. I think we all made mistakes and let the game burrow in deep in many ways.

I hope you're doing well now.

The drama back then doesn't even really seem to matter anymore to a lot of us. I recognize the name, but honestly? Can't recall any details. Don't need to.

Just keep on keepin' on. Be happy.

[Xican]

Just hearing people talk about death loops still hits a nerve with me. I still owe Ickhor a beer for saving my ass when I wound up in a vicious one after a Vox raid or something. Think I lost 5 or 6 levels, or something and this was pre-Velious, but post-Kunark when levelling from 50-60 sucked a big fat one. Oh, the hours I spent in Seb as a result...

[Raelesyn]

Bah Morb's I'll never forget ya pal! Lol Hows things? Havn't been on in awhile cause my connection blows..Att uverse is the suck...Going back to comcast so mabey I can get back into it but I still have the account and wish to play

Raelesyn