The fact that there always was such a table has gauled me from the start. I loved all the back stabbing. I loved seeing a house named "secret society" with players building skills on new names in preparation of taking over my idea's plans. Your roleplay buddies always did that, they always had to take things over and make it theirs with their stamp and direction on it. And it killed Yew, almost everyone who left, other than for the boondoggle that was Trammel, left because of them. Because if it wasn't theirs, they had to destroy it in and out of game.
I'm not certain how the entire Great Lakes roleplay community that existed from 1997 through to present day in various incarnations and with people coming and going all happen to have become "my roleplay buddies," much less how everyone I've ever been associated with somehow stole your ideas and made them their own... to be honest, I have no idea what specific incidences (much less which inspecific incidences) you're referring to.
Last time I remember working with you in-game was when a group of us all met in Trinsic to discuss the pearl necklace, I believe, and the various threads of possibility that went along with it. At that meeting, I didn't go out of character, which was some of a frustration to a couple of people present, but, the irony is, even though I disagreed with some of the ideas (such as Mythic/EA/Origin has ever kept much by the way of a plot bible), you might be surprised to learn that since that meeting, there's been in the private study of my house, be it in Dracona, or now near Compassion Grove, sitting upon my desk is a vase with a rose and a feather, and a pearl necklace that I looted from Melissa.
See, regardless of any of the OOC banter that was going on in the society at various points in time, I enjoy IC interactions, and that meeting was one of those RP turning points that went nowhere, but which I took to heart.
Hell, remember Alicia DeLong (I think was the name)? Remember how he/she tried like hell to keep some roleplay activity in Fel? Remember how your buddies completely decimated every event, and verbally abused that player on the message boards? Remember Mythra's efforts in Yew on the Town Council? That player stuck around through all kinds of crap for a long time.
Actually, no, I don't. Dracona didn't become largely involved in the roleplay community until the Dragon Knight/Chaos Knight plotline. Prior to that, I personally got involved a few times, and brought CAD with me to several events -- mostly surrounding Hebban Ollah -- but we were still very periphery. In fact, it wasn't until Dracona hosted the first couple of searches for the first books of Dragonkind upon which the Dragothan religion is based that anyone even, I suspect, took CAD seriously as a roleplay entity. Which was largely our fault because we were the biggest anti-PK guild on the shard (and for a short time, the biggest guild on the shard); CAD, like much of GLRP, took a huge hit after Trammel.
But as far as internal squabbles within GLRP, well, yeah, I know they exist. It's part of why I was successful in the role that I played in-game for several years... because I listened to people, took people seriously, and put community above all else. I won't swear I was always successful, and several times, I know I was misinterpreted, but at the end of the day, I was always -- and yet remain -- community centric.
I'm sorry that you moved around that table. It wasn't meant as that big of a slam, just a comment to try to get you to think like you used to.
I have not changed my style of thought, Treb... I've only enhanced the methods by which I express those thoughts. As for the two things I posted initially here... I was vocal last year about the lack of fanfare for the 11th anniversary, and long before they filled in years 7-10, I was asking them to do so.
See, I also spent many a year in customer service. From a CS perspective, Veteran Rewards are a very nice "thank you" for continued subscription. The game continues to exist because people like you and I have played for so long. Imagine what would happen if all the old-timers quit in the first year and never came back. UO would have long ago suffered the same fate as Earth: Above and Beyond, The Sims Online, or other MMOGs. UO is also not the only game that does this... I believe SWG and a few others offer veteran rewards. They're a light-weight loyalty benefit that, while not necessarily required, do give good face to EA/Mythic on the "Thanks for being a customer," front.
