Sorry to hear it Talies. It is sad that Verant has had such an affect on
your love of the game.
But I'm glad you'll still be on the boards.
Sincerely,
Windleaf
At 04:14 PM 10/13/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Well, I just thought I would share with you the end of an era. Today (or
>pretty close, their records got messed up) marked my 6 month anniversary as
>a Guide on the Tarew Marr server. It also marked my last day as a Guide,
>as I felt that I could no longer in good conscience support a company that
>chooses to treat it's customers in so heavy-handed a manner with no
>consideration for the consequences. This refers to both the recent banning
>issues (more than just Mystere were banned over this), and the Bard issues
>thread. It is my belief that Everquest truly IS their world, and as such,
>I have no place being in it. I haven't paid Verant a dime in 6 months, and
>I'm not about to start today, so this was my last day on Norrath as a
>player, as well.
>
>I really believed that I could make a difference in Everquest as a Guide -
>not just by summoning corpses, but also by being a good source of input for
>things that needed to be fixed or changed. I'm well-versed in diplomacy
>(being the Herald for my local LARP Kingdom), and I was very eager to make
>the world a better place. Unfortunately, from day one, my rose-coloured
>glasses suffered some pretty potent tarnish. While in IRC, being given
>instructions on what NOT to do as a Guide ("no hunting, no looting, and
>above all, no fighting with players!!!"), I was also online on my other
>computer (Love having two windows machines!). As I was playing my
>enchanter, I heard the shout that there was a "Giant GM" on the loose in
>the Arena, so I invis'd myself and ran there. (why the invis? I dunno...
>Just didn't want to attract any attention to myself, and didn't realize at
>the time that GMs can see invis all the time.)
>When I got there, I saw the giant GM - 3 stories tall, at least!, and he
>was in the process of giving a warning to a rude player who was exploiting
>the arena (charming the lower level guy every time he tried to retrieve his
>corpse). While I grant that the player was being rude, and certainly
>deserved the warning, what happened next was totally uncalled for. The GM
>followed up his verbal warning with a spell (some kind of knockback that
>does damage), nearly killing the offending player. I was stunned. I
>immediately did a direct tell to a GM in the IRC room asking for
>clairification on this, and at first, until they heard the GMs name, they
>acted somewhat shocked. When they realized it was a programmer GM, they
>suddenly backed off and said that "well, GM's know what they're doing -
>it's not our place to question that."
>This, incidentally, was less than two weeks after several guides were
>banned for fighting players in the Arena. Even the Guides who were brand
>new and just following their leader were suspended, and removed from the
>Guide Program.
>Basicallly I guess what I'm saying here is that *even then*, the hypocrisy
>ran rampant, and that sort of attitude really ticks me off. I'm not going
>to turn into any sort of Tweety, but I'm also not going to candy-coat
>it. Verant's version of social engineering made me sick to my stomach, and
>I refuse to be a part of that orwellian nightmare.
>
>Another interesting note is that when I posted my letter of resignation to
>the Guide board (which wasn't nearly as vitriolic as this one - but it did
>include the phrase "rampant hypocrisy"), it was deleted inside of 3
>minutes. I had to severely water it down before I posted it again to
>ensure that it would stay up there. Way to control information, Big
>Brother Verant. Ignorance is Bliss.
>
>I will remain on the list as an active moderator, and to share Bard
>stories, perhaps even get some input on Bards for my new project, but my EQ
>career is over.
>
>Sweet Songs and Light Laughter,
>Talies the Wanderer
>formerly
>Jalviv the Just of Tarew Marr
>
>
>
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>with the subject submissions.