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Around this time last year I was standing in front of the zi tah outpost holding a small crowd of goblin beastmasters on my red mage. I had found a creative (now patched) way to burn six pets at once by aga kiting around the outpost. The party had been going over ten hours, and by this point there were several afk players (discarded syncs) scattered around the area, and several shellmates afk asleep in the group soaking up the 30k/hr exp. Something suddenly happened that I was very much not expecting, I tabbed over to wing’s screen to find her in jail.
Back then there were a few players who were also GMs. One in particular had a bad reputation (even among the honest players) for abusing his power, and this was no exception. He was a shellmate of mine who had himself been leeching exp in the pet burns a few days prior. Now that he had leeched his subjob exp to completion he was ready to shut the book on the whole operation. These pet burn parties didn’t violate server rules per say, but Nas made it clear the following morning he didn’t want people exping using the method and that was the end of that.
I took something very important away from the experience. It made me really realize that it can be bad for business to have GMs and/or developers with a stake in in-game affairs. My initial reaction to being jailed was to get into opposite sides of the HNM scene with the GM in question (old time players will of course all know who I am talking about) and more or less shut them down. On retail that would have been straight forward enough, but the fact they were a GM was a real curveball. Back then HNM holding was against server rules and what was I to do if every HNM I claimed I would get @jailed as I held claim for my shell. This GM had been known for @jailing people and taking their NM even when they hadn’t violated rules, so it left me at a serious disadvantage and… I don’t think that’s good gameplay. There needs to be a level playing field among the players within the game. New players have no fear, this particular situation hasn’t been an issue in quite some time; however it has helped me see that there is another player now running around with the scales tilted in their favor… only this time it is me.
For those of you who don’t know: I have played a major rule in patching exploits and balancing mob behavior and gameplay. I would like it put on the record that for the most part I targeted fixing exploits, not finding people. There were many many instances in which I found people breaking server rules and just let it slide. Not always, there were a couple of people who vanished. On the whole though I would have trouble sleeping at night if someone’s ten thousand hour account was banned based on me ratting them out, so for the most part I kept my mouth shut and told Nas the exploits, not the exploiters. I’d also like to footnote that Nas tends to be quite reasonable when dealing with people who have broken the rules, especially on their first offence. He gives you a chance to play nice, it’s when you don’t take it that the problems start.
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When SE posted version updates, they never said “well we had X Y and Z problems with our code” they would say “thus and so has been adjusted” or “the moogle association of moogledom has brought thus and such.” Similarly I think it’s bad for business to discuss server code specifics. Even version update notes take away the “mystery” if you will of exploring and discovering the world of the game. Ideally the development is all done behind a curtain, and players experience the world they create. Sadly there is no paid development team to have that happen as flawlessly as we would all like. Sometimes the players have to peek their head behind the curtain and say “psst, thus and so doesn’t work right.”
I have been making several such contributions to the endgame space recently. I am hopeful that you all can play and enjoy the results of that work at land king HNM soon. It has, however, been difficult to lead the server’s dominant HNMLS and contribute to much-needed hnm development at the same time. Also, in the same way I found it very frustrating for a player to have a GM toon; I would be likewise be very frustrated if I was in an HNMls going up against a shell lead by someone who contributed to HNM development. The playing field would not be even, and claiming 90%+ HNM under that scenario would be, in my opinion, unsportsmanlike.
I love my team. I have never been in a shell I enjoyed playing with as much as Alpha, and as a group they have come a long way. Whether they keep the shell, or move to a new one, I am confident that the group will continue strong without me. I am also not totally discounting the possibility of returning as a player one day.
The flipside is that my IRC tab is coated with the names of people who have PM’d me. I get baseless accusations of exploiting every two weeks. I wake up to half a dozen tells each morning, and am almost always conversing with someone about something when I play. It doesn’t bother me, I actually like being in the thick of things; however I think being so involved in in-game life is slowing down what I could be contributing on the development side.
Nas and others have coached me in development to the point where I can really do some good for the server by working on development as my primary activity. Sitting to my left is a stack of blu ray disks filled with hundreds of hours of retail endgame/hnm screen captures. The player Insight was my retail wingman through late 2015 and early 2016 to help me collect the information to help era endgame live and breathe again. HNM/Sky/sea/enm/bv2. I think I’ve got what it takes. Nas had told me he is open and interested in utilizing such content if I were to produce it.
Coupled with incoming RL obligations, this forum post is to announce I’ll be stepping down as a player and endgame leader after the Dynamis-Jeuno win run this Sunday (3pm, all are welcome). I also am going to try harder to “stay behind the curtain” and help the world, without leaking any code specifics that might imbalance the endgame scene. I would like it known that my contributions are in no way out of self-interest. It is my hope that true-to-retail code will help level 75 player retention and make this the server of choice to experience the game in its prime.
Much Love ~Deadwing
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