Aradune Returns to EQ aka the EQ Nostalgia thread

Heylel_sl said:

Bristlebane's server drama seemed fairly tame by a lot of other server standards. We had the usual sniping between raiding guilds and what often seemed like an overabundance of manginas (until the recent forum incidents here and on FOH), but otherwise Bristlebane had a relatively close knit population.

Our biggest drama came fairly early on when the raiding calendar got blown up. The raiding population seemed relatively small at the time, but it was still more people than you could cram into a dragon raid so eventually the whole calendar system collapsed under its own weight. The server just couldn't reliably concentrate enough good gear into few enough hands to accomplish much, and folks got tired of it. Ring of Valor ended up the server villains for that one (for a while anyway), but in the end it was for the best.

Funny thing is, RoV wasn't able to stay top dog for long. Arch Overseers and Club Fu were the other two big guilds on the server, and RoV ended up a distant third after a while. I jumped ship to Fu when folks became a little too complacent. The driving incident was when we finally had enough people with VP keys to start making progress, and the leadership just wasn't there anymore. We couldn't advance past Hroshkar for weeks, and people started giving up. That was a low point, but the guild survived and even recovered somewhat down the line. I just wasn't a part of it anymore.

Still, despite the competition there really wasn't all that much bad blood. Everyone knew everyone, and guild tags would switch around with some relative frequency. We even had our little clique guilds like Brohamijarnimorinar, which was half mercenary, half private Club Fu chat channel. Those guys were fucking hilarious. Mairu, Shayp, Kappelheim, Barudin, etc. I have never laughed so hard at guild chat in any other game, and it made passing the time worthwhile.

I miss that kind of community. WoW never had it, and I don't think any game ever will. They're too focused on making these massive, anonymous games where no one has a reputation and everyone is a stranger. Something gets lost when you do that.

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You forgot zombie Xoleres for drama.

We (Ring of Valor) were king in Vanilla but that was about it. The deathblow was when a bunch of people left to form Succoring Winds with whoever was level 60 in Companions of the Gate. RoV regained some of its luster in Velious but by the end of that and basically all of Shadows of Luclin going forward, Club Fu was top dog by a mile. Arch Overseers was always "there" but they never really seemed to care to make a big splash after getting stomped by RoV so many times. I can't even remember when Club Fu really formed... I want to say it was just a bunch of people who didn't want to be in RoV and they slowly amassed a huge following over a couple expansions.

I don't remember ever hating anyone on that server except Whitemoon and Whitesun who claimed to be twin sisters but were 99% likely to be a couple manginas who got free shit from some of the more powerful players on the server who thought they were playboy models.

I remember zombie Xoleres, I just didn't recall all of the details so I didn't go into it. It's funny though, because at one point I felt like I knew the guy fairly well. As a matter of fact, he got me into my first raid with RoV. I was friends from irc with Diprimilas, who fell into a regular dungeon group with Xoleres in mid-late vanilla. This was before Fear opened, but after Vox and Nagafen were dying regularly. Dip was a pretty damn good enchanter, and I started doing some dungeon runs into SolB for efreeti boots back when the efreeti camp was actually pretty hardcore. It was Dip, Xol, Arturo, myself and two others who I can't recall (one was a warrior dwarf who raided for us a lot). Anyway, I must have done alright that day because I got pulled along for the fire giants and Nagafen, then started getting regular invites to stuff after that. I joined up to RoV when he was still guild leader.

RoV stayed pretty competitive into Kunark, actually. We were doing just fine with Trakanon etc., but Veeshan's Peak killed us. Succoring Winds was well before that time, as they were formed in vanilla. It split the raiding community, but not really RoV. They got Montys and a couple other folks, but it didn't make much of an impact. Succoring Winds was a footnote compared to Fu, which mostly just congealed around Pouty wanting to raid more often than RoV was able to muster. Little by little, RoV migrated over to Fu so they could get shit done in VP and early Velious. That's where I was at when Velious launched, and I stayed with them (or an offshoot like Broham) until I quit sometime around PoTactics.

Bristlebane just seemed to have this strong community bond that a lot of servers lacked. There were plenty of nights when some newb guild got raped in Fear or Hate and either RoV, AO, or someone else would come bail em out. Half the time it was a mix of different guilds, and I think that's part of why the bad blood stayed pretty minimal. There were some definite assholes, but even then they only got a pass if they were good at what they did. Derision for instance, could pull Hate like no one else alive, and Brewe was an absolute cocksucker but you could rely on him to mez half the plane without breaking a sweat.

Good times.

You remember the history a lot better than I do...

Xoleres liked me for some reason (I was not Eyashusa on BB, I just stole that name for forums for some reason... I was Thorondor) and gave me one of the first invites to RoV even though I was in the high 30s/low 40s when it formed and everyone else was level 50.

didn't Arturo take over for RoV after Xoleres "died" and then Derision came back as an Ogre Warrior and was the leader all the way through PoP?

My first server I rolled on was BB, was an sk in Innoruks Brood, then went to Grobb Skwad. Moved around a bit, ended up on Kane Bayle was in #2 guild evolutia for a while, then transferred over to bertoxx and joined Order of the Scattered Winds who was pretty top dawg ( on bertoxx at least ) at the time. I loved me some EQ guild dramas.

Eyashusa_sl said:

You remember the history a lot better than I do...

Xoleres liked me for some reason (I was not Eyashusa on BB, I just stole that name for forums for some reason... I was Thorondor) and gave me one of the first invites to RoV even though I was in the high 30s/low 40s when it formed and everyone else was level 50.

didn't Arturo take over for RoV after Xoleres "died" and then Derision came back as an Ogre Warrior and was the leader all the way through PoP?

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I had the same experience with Xoleres. I joined around 44, but I was also chewing through levels because getting linked up with RoV meant I had a full group on tap pretty much every time I logged in. I want to say I powered through the mid to late 40s in about a week, but I could be wrong. I know it was pretty fast for the time, but it was entirely because I kept grinding in groups deep in SolB, or Vox's lair etc.

Arturo became guild leader for quite a while, yes, but mostly during Kunark. I want to say Derision wasn't actually a RoV member in vanilla. I know he raided with us, but that was because he was supernaturally talented with the pathing mechanics in shitshow zones like Hate where one misstep could train a million summoned pets down on the raid (back when everything up there was a shaman, mage or enchanter and had a pet wandering around). I could be wrong, but I don't think he was really "allowed" to join because he was such an insufferable ass. No one wanted to put up with him in guild chat. I definitely remember him using shout on raids all the time, but that might have been due to a mixed group.

I'm pretty sure he ended up banned for being abusive to people and that's when he made his warrior, but I forget. I'm positive that's what happened with Troppo when he made Vabeker and subsequently became top dog of Arch Overseers.

Pandemonium on TZ caused some drama back in the day

Dandai_sl said:

Nobody from Tribunal? We didn't have much drama. The two top guilds merged at some point around Kunark (The Elitists and The Vagrants became Elitist Vagrants), though I wasn't in either so I don't know why. I was in the 3rd or 4th best guild (The Companions). Always a couple months behind.

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yeah i was on Tribunal, was good times, nice and mellow
I was in aussie time-zone guild so missed most of the drama, and we were always way behind progression that none of the drama really affected us or mattered

I was on the Tribunal as well. Good times

I wonder if the Arturo you BB guys are talking about is the same guy that transferred to Povar and joined Triton around LDoN/GoD period...a cleric I'll never forget. He was a giant fucking asshole, even by our standards. I eventually booted him after the third time he "accidentally" looted raid drops and pleaded his case by saying "no one told me not to".

Araysar_sl said:

Must have been Aurora Noctum. Other guilds of note were Elitists, Vagrants, The Companions, Sol Invictus and the zerg army over at <Legendary>

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What about the Swedish guild?

Astennu_sl said:

I wonder if the Arturo you BB guys are talking about is the same guy that transferred to Povar and joined Triton around LDoN/GoD period...a cleric I'll never forget. He was a giant fucking asshole, even by our standards. I eventually booted him after the third time he "accidentally" looted raid drops and pleaded his case by saying "no one told me not to".

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Arturo Fuente... he was a human cleric I think. He probably was the same guy.

He was our loot master in RoV, at least in vanilla... he kept track of DKP or whatever we were calling it on a private spreadsheet. This was all before /random was even introduced to the game. I remember something would drop and people would say they wanted it and then like 10 minutes later he would finally say who won. I'm sure there was much behind the scenes action going on there.

Dandai_sl said:

Nobody from Tribunal? We didn't have much drama. The two top guilds merged at some point around Kunark (The Elitists and The Vagrants became Elitist Vagrants), though I wasn't in either so I don't know why. I was in the 3rd or 4th best guild (The Companions). Always a couple months behind. During Velious we had a server rotation for NToV. Luclin was also pretty drama free. Emp opened up as soon as everyone in Eligrants got their VT keys. I don't know that anyone but them ever raided it or Sleeper's Tomb for that matter.

A couple months into PoP a new guild formed that was essentially the first PUG raid, at least on Tribunal. I don't remember their name (their initials were TDS or something like that but everyone called them STD). They were a zerg guild, and everyone who wanted to raid with them was welcome to, guild tagged or not. They always had something going on but the established guilds endlessly taunted and teased them in ooc.

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They were essentially the same guild. Why not merge?

Note: Never in their guild. Didn't even play on that server. I was just very good friends with guys like Quik who needed me to play their characters at times when they weren't around.

Zeus_sl said:

Ahh thanks Itzena. I didn't know that. Yea, Tigole got hired to, I saw that but it states Rob was the guild leader prior to Kaplan. That's not true?

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He was.

The views on him from old school LoS are mixed. Then again, the guild was consumed by cliques, and the view on any guild leader other than Draed (first one, whom was beloved by everyone) are mixed. That's a big reason why LoS never moved onto WoW as LoS.

Astennu_sl said:

I wonder if the Arturo you BB guys are talking about is the same guy that transferred to Povar and joined Triton around LDoN/GoD period...a cleric I'll never forget. He was a giant fucking asshole, even by our standards. I eventually booted him after the third time he "accidentally" looted raid drops and pleaded his case by saying "no one told me not to".

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Yeah that's him. He did a lot of that back in the day, but when he was an officer he got away with it. I want to say that's how he came by his Donal's BP. I know for a fact he had one of the earliest ones if not the first, and back at that point in time RoV didn't use DKP. It just had a loot committee consisting of the officers.

Eyashusa_sl said:

Arturo Fuente... he was a human cleric I think. He probably was the same guy.

He was our loot master in RoV, at least in vanilla... he kept track of DKP or whatever we were calling it on a private spreadsheet. This was all before /random was even introduced to the game. I remember something would drop and people would say they wanted it and then like 10 minutes later he would finally say who won. I'm sure there was much behind the scenes action going on there.

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DKP didn't come into it until well into Kunark, and it was primarily because RoV was bleeding recruits due to shitty and opaque loot rules. Arturo did keep a spreadsheet, but he claimed it was just a list of who had won things recently with dates and attendance. I realize that's fundamentally DKP, but it wasn't public, nor did it really track full data. A lot of people got fed up and split over it, and IMO that was a big part of why VP pushed our shit in so hard to start. Most of the quality had left.

Teclisen jumped ship as well, I believe to FoH. I'm 99% sure that was the name, it was a wizard that started with a T. We were cordial, but I wouldn't say we were good friends or anything. I just vaguely remember him being a newb who skilled up hella fast and then got a pretty enormous ego once he server transferred.

Heylel_sl said:

I'm pretty sure he ended up banned for being abusive to people and that's when he made his warrior, but I forget. I'm positive that's what happened with Troppo when he made Vabeker and subsequently became top dog of Arch Overseers.

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Troppo got banned for SEQ as far as I remember, to sure if that was on Tropp or Vabeker, ie before Vabtoo, it's a long time ago.

I played in AO from vanilla through to Plane of time days after moving from ClanUK although only really started raiding in Kunark. I think it was Moirane who got me invite at Aviaks in Karana. If I remember correctly after Troppo got banned and subsequently came back as Vabeker, True (Pally) had taken over guild leadership and membership as well as scheduled raids went to shit. In the end Troppo basically said he wants leadership of the guild or he was going to leave the guild and after a guild meet True handed over to him. We then started picking up the pieces and started raiding again, but ony got back into top tier raiding towards end of Vellious really, wasted a lot of time in East wing rather than going straight to NToV. To add drama, I blame Club Fu, releasing sleeper to clockblock us!!

AO is still going as well to a degree (on life support in any case) last played with them in SWTOR and GW2, and still some of the old crowd around such as Darkgecko, Vab and we see some people check in every so often or keep in contact such as Dragoonknight, Metawolf (metas), Abarus, Changg, Skibba, Gargano, Athunder, Coroleous, Ettu etc, that's who I saw in GW2 or posting on forums in any case. AFAIK everyone dispersed right now, with a loose plan to hook up in EQNext again, and usually get around 10 to 20 people from BB in the guild on various games.

Zacx_sl said:

yeah i was on Tribunal, was good times, nice and mellow
I was in aussie time-zone guild so missed most of the drama, and we were always way behind progression that none of the drama really affected us or mattered

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That'd be AN right? Your name sounds vaguely familiar. I remember going to a guild meet up in Sydney, some ranger hosted it but I can't remember his name. I was like 17 or 18 at the time, I've still got pics around here somewhere on an old HDD. I'm pretty sure I was a total dork and didn't say more than 2 words. I can't remember the guild leaders name.. someone told me to call him skeletor or some shit. Anyway, he and a bunch of others were gonna go drinking afterwards but I bailed to go home and play EQ. I can't believe what a social misfit I was..

You played a magician or wizard, right?

Anyway..

Before I transferred to The Tribunal, I played on Ayonae Ro. That server had some great drama. I use to team up with another druid (forget his name) and train Palimax's guild all the time. I joined his guild for a short time before being kicked out. This is before they merged into Vallis Aspectus or Vision? I can't remember, it's such a long time ago. I got kicked out of another guild, the GM was a member on the old FoH forum. Forget his name.. Gray something? guild name was Steel something or something Steel. I joined and complained they never did shit, I'm pretty sure I got booted for that.

There was also an enchanter I use to think of as Michael Jordan.. rimidalv.. took me ages to realise what it was backwards. I remember him abruptly quitting because of his parents and his play time or some shit and his account was ebayed/PA'd. Pretty sure he was a member of the old FoH forum as well.

Ah wow, the old Solusek Ro names...

The guild I was in (Wolfsclan) usually tried to not be dicks. Didn't work out every time but we tried.
Odisea was the spanish guild and they were not liked by many.
I remember the phone going off at 5.30AM for a Ragefire kill (in SolB). Had to leave for work at 7, and getting enough people on the batphone cost time, but in the end we made it.

I later (2004) applied to Magna Charta, and at the end of my trial period I quit because I met the crazy lady from the GWBYHT.
Should've stayed with EQ instead.


btw where's Ssssssssssssssorn and Bruuce