I apologize for angering anyone who was not a part of this stupid little
flame war. I worded my second post wrong, as it was not intended to
attacked anyone not a part of the "hmm...lets attack Ranth's buisness
techinques" group. This subject has now boiled down to, well, worthless
crap...for example:

"Hmmm BTW what age are you ? if you could read then you would have noticed
that
zinken aint a player IT�S MY E-MAIL DUMBASS!!!!!!!!!"

this is completely irrelivant to anything that is supposed to be discussed
here, and i apologize for zinken/askur.(i incited him to write this).

Focasa and Vapn, i was not trying to be self-righteous, and i see now that i
in fact came off that way. i am in no way better than anyone else.
Ok...well...enough of this. Check this out..i laughed my ass off:

I got this off of everquest.com from somoene who got it elsewhere...i
figured i should post it here ;)
Verant Headquarters, the near future:
Brad McQuaid sits at his desk, sipping a coke and reading the
alt.games.everquest newsgroup. Suddenly cola shoots from his mouth and
nose as something he reads makes him sputter and choke. He sits still for
several seconds in stunned silence and springs into action

He leaps from his chair and runs to his bookshelf, and pulls gently on a
book
titled: "Customer Service Fundamentals"

The book is fake, of course, as such a text would never be present on a
bookshelf of a Verant employee. The book slides out one inch, and stops with
a
"click". The gentle hum of machinery is heard and a section of the wall
slides
open, revealing a table. The table is bare marble except for what appears to
be
a rectangular block of obsidian, set on the table at a 45 degree angle.

Brad takes a deep breath, and steps forward. He places his right hand upon
the
obsidian block. It is warm to the touch. Suddenly, the stone flares hot for
an
instant and a soft disembodied voice proclaims "Aradune Identified. Welcome
Mr. McQuaid."

Brad hesitates, fearing and dreading what he is about to do. His hand leaves
the
obsidian identification panel and he clenches his fist and stares down at
his
reflection in the smooth marble. A single tear drips down and slightly
distorts
the image. "No, I must!" he shouts "Its for the good of overall gameplay!
Its for
the good of overall gameplay!"

With new resolve, his hand slaps roughly against the obsidian panel. Again,
a
hot flash, and the same voice announces "Aradune Identified. Welcome Mr.
McQuaid"

"Computer. This is Aradune. Activate the Nerf Protocols"

A white aura speads around Brad, and the door shuts with a loud slam.

Immediately around San Diego, pagers begin to beep. Scores of engineers
become pale, and the one common thought among them is "Oh no, for the love
of God no. Not again. Not now!"

They soon arrive at Verant headquarters and file slowly into a meeting room.
The eerie red alert light of the Nerf Protocols makes the water cooler seem
to
be filled with blood, and despite their thirst, nobody is drinking.

A man dressed in what appears to be green metal enters the room. The
engineers' last hopes that this is a drill fade. The man sits in a chair and
the
room waits in silence for several minutes. Finally, one brave programmer
speaks up timidly,

"Umm, Brad, why a----"

"WHO IS BRAD????" the man booms, rising from his seat in anger.

"No!! No!!! I mean Aradune!! Aradune!!"

"THIS IS A ROLE PLAYING GAME, FOOL!"

"I am sorry, Aradune! I meant no disrespect! We just wish to know why once
again, the Nerf Protocols have been activated?"

"Why don't you ask Thomas?"

The entire room turns twiftly to focus in on Thomas, a young level designer
for
Everquest. The blood drains out of his face and a look of pure horror
spreads
across his features. The engineers on either side of him slowly begin moving
their chairs away.

"W--w--what did I do?" begged Thomas, "I've been working on the Hole, and I
helped out on that new patch program, I haven't started too much other stuff
since I finished up the plane of hate, and-"

While Aradune says nothing, the flair of his eyes says more than words ever
could.

"NO!! NO!! You approved of the Hateplane! Don't you remember? We took items
from the POF? We actually managed to charge a 200pp toll to get in there!"
Thomas was openly weeping now, the tears flowing unchecked down his face, "I
remember how you laughed when I told you we were just going to kill everyone
in a zone and call it a 'GM Event' "

Aradune waits for the sobbing to fade then speaks, dangerously quietly

"Do you know how the Plane of Hate was described on usenet?"

"H-h-h-how?"

"POSSIBLE"

The room gasps in terror, and they know Thomas' fate is sealed.

"How can we keep our L50 customers, " says Aradune, trembling with anger,
"if
the opening of a new zone doesn't immediately make them loose three or four
levels???"

"I'M SORRY!!!!" Thomas screams

"I know, I know, " Aradune sooths, leading Thomas out of the room. The other
engineers look at each other, hoping that this time will be different.
Suddenly
the sobbing turns into a shriek, and is abruptly cut off.

Aradune re-enters the room, along, washing his hands on a towel. Several
engineers begin crying, quietly.

"Say It!" Aradune demands, and the engineers repeat the prayer they've come
to learn too well.

"Thomas was nerfed for the good of everquest. For the long term enjoyment
of the players, and the viability of the company, it had to be done. There
never
was a Thomas."

The engineers knew by tomorrow that Thomas' cube would be empty, and all
records of his employment would be gone. Spontaneously, they began shouting
over each other trying to impress their leader. "Lay Hands can Fizzle now!"
"Lifetaps are resistible!" "Yeah, well, i'm in charge of ROGUES!"

Aradune quiets them all with a sharp wave of his hand.

"I have already repaired the problem. The new wizard teleport point is
directly
between the legs of Innoruuk. We'll keep it that way for a few days until
people
tire of losing their corpses, then we'll try to fix the mistakes made by the
One
who is No More."

The engineers left the room slowly. Each of them felt as if they had aged 10
years in the few hours they had been in the room. They each swore to
themselves that they would never repeat the mistake that Thomas had, for
they
feared the wraith of Aradune.

Whats everyone else think?