Part Four : Factions - If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them

[Gypsy Keja Mimi]

If you can’t beat them, join them. Never was this cliché put to a truer test than Saturday Night.

Imagine the surprise of the members of YAD when checking the base they found all of the sigils on the monoliths in all their multicolored glory. How did they get there? As far as they knew, no one from YAD had taken the sigils for COM, could it be a new COM member did it alone?

As they were trying to figure out this phenomenon, they noticed another. COM base in Magincia was being guarded... BY MINAX!

What??? "Is that a misprint Gypsy?" you have to be wondering.

YAD spent quite a while scratching their heads too. Minax was killing COM members to keep them from getting into their own base. In the meantime, it was noticed that a Faction Commander Election was underway.

For those who don't know, once a faction has control over towns, a Faction Commander must be elected. Because a faction can be made up of many different guilds and non-guilded characters, a leader is important. It is the Faction Commander that appoints all people who do anything in the towns such as setting the faction vendors.

Hours ticked away, and there were some minor skirmishes, but nothing major. Everyone was still scratching their heads. Then someone realized after a while, COM members were being killed to keep them from voting for TorAnn as Faction Commander.

It took a while to figure out that Minax was trying to conqueror COM from the inside. They had stolen their own sigils and put them in to the COM base, and added a member to COM and they were going to vote that person in as leader. Late into the night, blue characters began to arrive and they were seen joining COM. They would then go in and vote for the competing leader against TorAnn. If they were not known by the Minax defenders they were promptly killed as soon as they turned orange, (faction enemies show orange to each other, not blue or red) so that they could not go in and vote.

It was a brilliant strategy. With the sigils owned by COM they could not be stolen by YAD, YAD would have no where to take them and you can not steal your own sigils.

In the mean time, the sigils corrupted, and one by one over a period of several hours, with lots of death on both sides, COM managed to get the sigils out of the base and placed in the towns.

For those who are wondering what happens once a sigil has been held in a base for the 24 hours successfully this is what happens.

(This is called corruption. The sigil is corrupted by the defending faction, this is the goal you are striving for holding them for 24 hours.) A thief from the successful guild steals the sigil from their own base, and has to either take them to the town they belong to and put them on the town monolith, or hand them off to another in the faction to place them on the monolith pillar in the town. Once someone has the sigil on their person, they turn purple.

Bright Purple, so that everyone knows you have the sigil. If they can kill you before you get it back to the city it belongs to it can be looted by anyone and either the defenders succeed in placing it in the town back on the pillar at their base or the attackers get it back to their base and if they hold it for an hour, they retain the sigil. If it isn't in one of those places within an hour of being stolen after corruption, it returns automatically to the last place it was legitimately placed for the required length of time. If it can be placed on the town monolith the town belongs to the corrupting faction for 3 days before it can be stolen again.

Minax put up a terrific and tough defense and offense, and they were extremely hard to beat. There were many many deaths on both sides, but in the end COM held both the towns and the vote.

So COM owned the cities. Victory for them at last, after months of trying and lots of frustration. The battle did not stop there, however. In addition to running around with the kill or be killed still in force heavily, YAD managed to begin the process of making good on their promise to the people of Sonoma.
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First order of business, TorAnn took the present COM members to cities and at each of the eight cities, she added someone as the sheriff. Each member can only hold one office in any faction city at a time. For those who were added on the city stone as sheriffs were now able to place faction guards. A faction guard is a guard that is placed in a city to defend whatever from rival factions. They are most often used to help guard sigils from being stolen by rival factions. They don’t keep them from being stolen, but they definitely make it harder for a rival faction’s thief to get to them. There are 4 different levels of guards able to be placed, and they each cost progressively more silver to be hired. The more expensive they are, of course, the stronger they are and better able to defend. Up to 10 of each level guard can be placed in each city for a total of 40 guards. Of course this is insanely expensive in silver. However, COM went and hired guards near the sigils in victory celebration. They were immediately led away and slaughtered by Minax but that could not dampen the celebration of COM.

The other special player character that can be set in towns by the Faction Commander is the Finance Minister. It is the job of the Finance Minister to set the Faction Vendors, as well as adjust the prices of items for sale. No player can be both a sheriff and a finance minister. The finance minister then can set up faction vendors. They can have up to 10 vendors of each type at a time, plus 1 stable master for the sale of faction horses. A note about faction horses, they can only be ridden by a faction member of the same faction as the one that placed the vendor in a town owned by them.

In celebration, YAD then set up reagent vendors, faction horse breeders, ore vendors, board vendors, and bottle vendors. Vendors can be found at Minoc, Trinsic, Britain, and Skara Brae in Felucca. They may be adding more soon so keep an eye out. Like they promised these are for EVERYONE. It has been years since the people could enjoy faction vendors, and YAD worked hard to get them for everyone. All resources are set to 30% cheaper than normal NPC prices. This works out to only 2 or 3 gold pieces per reagent. YAD would like to invite people to enjoy the bounty while it is available. You never know what tomorrow will bring.

So this concludes my series on Factions. I hope everyone has learned a little about how factions work, what faction vendors are and just how hard they are to get. Keep that in mind and try not to take them for granted if you enjoy the good fortune of their existence. Faction vendors are a great thing, and they are worth all of the hardship to obtain them, no matter what the owning guild decides to do with them. In the end, the ones who bleed for them should have the right to decide what to do with them. Support the faction that best represents your view.

There is so much needed, even if you are not factioned. There is a way for every player to help. If you are able to, please support your local factions.

Yes, it’s great fun, great reward, and a great way to add another facet to your game. I would encourage anyone interested in factions to contact the person who organizes the faction you are interested in. Rogue (non-guilded) faction members are just as valuable as guided faction members, but it is important in factions that everyone is on the same page. By finding out from the person who guides the faction what is most needed that you are able to provide, you help yourself as well as helping the faction. Factions are TEAM sports. There is no 'I' in Team. If you truly wish to help a faction, this is the best thing you can do to ensure you help to achieve victory.

With some creativity and support, factions can be exciting and playable. It isn’t perfect. In fact everyone knows it’s a broken system, but it should not be discounted because of that. This victory would not have been possible had a small group of people looked at the odds stacked against them and then gave up. Thousands of people in UO make it work every day, why not join them?

I look forward to bringing you more faction news on this shard, so that it is not left in the background any longer. I am hoping soon to have an interview with some Minax to get their view on things. I will be bringing that to you if I can manage to catch one of them willing to do it.

Special thanks to those people who snagged me screenshots during the day: Anson, Mo, TorAnn, Obnaidys, and Eldamar. I can not be everywhere at once, and this helped me more than I can say.

There are a lot of pictures in this article, but many more were taken. I was given over 38 great shots. I will work at getting them up so that people can see them who are interested.

Good Fortune!
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[brokensaber]

"added a member to COM and they were going to vote that person in as leader. "

Ya sounds like something they would do. They are very underhanded and it doesn't surprise me a bit.

Im glad YAD won the towns but I wouldn't let my guard down. They all will probably quit minax and join COM in 7 days. They always want control of the resources no matter what..

 

[FreeBird]

due to the balance programing in factions they would have to load up TB and SL and Minax befor they could join COM.

Odds are they are filling all the Factions with off sharders to gain control off all the Factions.

Then even IF YAD took/held sigils they could not have a Faction Leader to control the vendors and guards.

Its a numbers game , and if Sonoma is enjoying the vendors now , then Sonoma needs to consider joining the Faction War

The war is far from over - this is just one battle won . . .


*OSI needs to balance this sort of thing further and allow one Char per account into Factions.*

 

[Alarcon]

All the more reason to stock up on the regs while you can. It appears that the ingot, bottle, and board vendors are still subject to the new code that incriments the cost by 1gp for every 1000 sold, so you have to catch those ones right after the finance minister has "fixed their prices". Regs on the other hand, work like a charm. Hopefully I will be able to get enough not to have to buy for a year or so.

 

[Shawnsa]

is suddenly reminded to "go fix some prices"

 

[Lady Vixen]

Wow another great report. I been shopping in Felucca nice to see friendly priced vendors there.

 

[EFL]

The balance doesn't go into effect until there are about 200 members on the stone if I remember correctly.

So there can be 1 member in minax, and 200 in COM and there still wouldn't be a problem.

 

[Syrus_Rane]

It was JennyCOCO that was in CoM and he was in CoM and tryed to take control of the towns before YAD existed. He was the one who stole the sigils when you guys said you logged on to find all of them in the base. He was the guy in minax killing CoM because he felt he did alot of the work and got none of the credit so he'd take another way and just attempt to kill everyone and he get some of his friends to help.

 

[Bronwyn]

Good tactic and he worked hard...he his hard to kill.

 

[FreeBird]

It was JennyCOCO that was in CoM and he was in CoM and tryed to take control of the towns before YAD existed. He was the one who stole the sigils when you guys said you logged on to find all of them in the base. He was the guy in minax killing CoM because he felt he did alot of the work and got none of the credit so he'd take another way and just attempt to kill everyone and he get some of his friends to help.



get off the pipe - it rotts yer teeth

 

[Anson]

OK I'm confused here. Are you saying that JennyCOCO is a thief and in CoM? He is definately NOT in CoM or he wouldn't have flagged orange to CoM. If he's a thief then hes wasting points on a PvP template which I find VERY hard to believe. As to him doing a lot of the work... What exactly did he do to take control of the towns? Log on an alt thief character that's in CoM and take the sigils then place them? LOL That's a WHOLE LOT of work there. Try defending them for 18 hours only to have them snatched away by "The Gods" Better yet, how did he work to take control FROM MINAX? Simple. He didn't. He worked FOR Minax. Don't try to muddy the waters. Minax tried an underhanded tactic to keep the towns for themselves and failed.

 

[Guest]

Phew you have no clue what you're talking about. He has a Minax char and a COM char and he put a char in Minax to KILL you guys since he did 17 hrs sitting the sigils ALONE. He wasn't working for Minax. Perhaps you should do a little...erm...reporting before you send out a report. He has been trying to get the towns for a year, often helping SL with his guild (I know this because he worked with my guild). This was a very misleading post to say the least. No wonder you're padding the stone to keep the CL.

 

[Lord Delekhan]

Obviously the reporter didn't do their job when writing the story. The title reporter isn't just a title you got to actually do some...ok here is the catch.."reporting". Yes it's a hard concept but I'm sure with a little bit of work and some effort you can do a better job.

 

[Lord Hunter]

Im kind of wondering why this post was even allowed.

I mean, its kind of like saying, Haha Minax lost all the sigils and com kicked your ass!

Wouldnt it be considered like a flame? or maybe saying names or a guild like YAD, if we cant talk about EFL how come we can talk about YAD?

Not that I dont think that CoM did a good job, and i am more then happy yhat CoM now has the sigils but I dont see why a post on this matter was allowed, and a report by a reporter! This shows up on the main page of stratics, why was it allowed?

 

[VeishaSaine]

I will say one thing. Keja put alot more effort into this report than anyone I Have ever known reporting. You must remember we do this on a volunteer basis. She made a character and started out not knowing anything about factions only willing to learn. All she reported on was her experience. Much like a reporter behind the lines in a war would report what they observed. Is it the whole story? No. Because we dont know what it was like in Minax camp. we dont know what the SL cmap was doing. This is one of the most oustanding series I've ever seen done by a reporter because of one thing. She didn't wait for an event to happen. She went out and got into it, learned about it. And then reported her experiences.

If that offends anyone I am sorry. But the way I see it is she posted what she saw happening. And yes she did mention a guild in her post. Should that be censored? Perhaps. But she was merely stating what guild it was that took her newbie character and taught her to fight in factions.

I only hope I can learn from Keja's example.... I wonder if Minax has room for a pyro ^_^

 

[Gypsy Keja Mimi]

Hunter, I was very careful that no names were mentioned. This post finished my faction series. It was news, and I named no names in it at all other than TorAnns. Minax wasnt flamed and I said they did a great job and had great tactics.

Sides are mentioned when any other pvp event goes on... Fight Night, Capture the Flag, Cleansing of Felucca, etc... names are mentioned, winners and losers are mentioned, sides are mentioned. And I merely reported the facts of the battle. If there was a party who was doing something else other than what it appeared to be, then they need to make sure I know it... I merely told the facts as I observed them. The fight, the battle, and what was done.

Nothing else. If anyone else brings in names or says more about what happened, that isnt me. I merely reported news. Factions are news and they will be reported on. I have no problem reporting both sides, and the tactics I described above are the ones used that day.

However, if people complain about these types of events being reported on, perhaps all PvP events would cease to be reported on since reporting losers can be considered flaming? Ummmm... perhaps... lets push it along those lines and see if stratics news doesnt end up being about non-pvp events. And that would limit all of them, EM events if they ever come back, dungeon crawls, gold caravans.... come on... there are winners and losers and they all come back to fight another day. I reported CoM's defeat when it happened too. If no winners can be mentioned or losers, the news will end up being pretty darn dead.

Good Fortune.

 

[Guest]

While this may be true, it was still an inaccurate post. Anyone that knows JennyCOCO at all knows this is bordering on slanderous (not sure if that's the right term for this) and misleading (that most definitely IS the right term).

 

[Guest]

whoa there! let's all calm down now. Come on...deep calming breaths *smiles*

Now let's look at this. Gypsy joined factions in order to do a reportive series on them. In her reporting the only people/groups she named were who she was with and who was against the group she was with.

I would hazard to say this is usually what any reporter would do (can anyone remember the days of US troop movement in Iraq? - exact same principle - exactly - and that was good reporting as well).

Now - let's see where JennyCOCO's name came into this:
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Syrus_Rane
(Lore Master)
02/03/04 06:12 PM
Re: Part Four : Factions - If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them [re: EFL]




It was JennyCOCO that was in CoM...

<hr></blockquote>

Hmm...Looks like Syrus is the one to bring the name into the fray here and unless I'm missing something, Syrus isn't a reporter and isn't linked to Stratics (sorry Syrus, just pointing out what's going on). So to get mad at Gypsy for something that she didn't do and no Stratics reporter *did* do is a little over the top don't you think?

So...if you disagree with her reporting, that is fine - and you're welcome to tell her so (although please be curtious in doing so). If there is something else you want to see in the news, feel free to suggest that as well. I'm quite sure that Gypsy is interested in how everyone feels about her reporting and is willing to listen to both good and bad on it.

Now as for this thread - I think it's time that we all stopped bandying about JennyCOCO's name, especially since there is disagreement about what he did and did not do in regards to this event. You're right in that it's bordering on flaming and it does need to stop.

Come on everyone, please please calm down *smiles*

 

[Anson]

I may be wrong in this but I think Gypsy asked some Minax for an interview and was turned down. Why don't some that participated over this timeframe come forward and be interviewed? Why doesn't JennyCoCo go and tell his side of the story? I for one would be VERY interested to hear it. Unfortunately I cant stand on the same screen as him without getting dropped like a bad habbit so it's kind of hard to start a conversation.

 

[Malachite El'Ren]

Syrus...
Why didnt JennyCOCO make any attempt to CONTACT YAD or other CoM if he stole the sigils and needed assistance with the defence?... YAD would have been more than happy to defend along side him... You, nor him, nor anyone else can be mad at YAD for not having help with defending when no one was informed that he was going to steal them nor was anyone told he had stole them. When YAD got there he was orange as orange can be, he was Minax.....

 

[ApollyonDA]

actually, I heard from a very reliable source that JennyCOCO is in fact a secret member of Al Qaida.

Now we have heard things in this thread that are equally rediculous. I dont know JennyCOCO, nor many of the members of YAD or CoM, but I do know one thing. From the perspective of the reporter that wrote the posts, it is the truth. Remember, she reported on what she saw, not what she heard of from a friend, who got it from a friend, who used to date the great grandson of a Minax faction-member on Baja. I think as the story is well written, and only covering the ground she herself covered, it is worth a lot of kudos. Whether or not her visions of the fighting were, in fact, the truth of the bigger picture, is neither here nor there. Battlefield reporting is done from (and about) the battlefield, not the politics that got the battle started in the first place.

Well done to another UOSS reporter.

Dread Lord Dyvim Tvar

 

[Tionne of Siege]

I will not say any names but tonight while looking around CoM base there was an indivdual who said he was CoM but a spy in the minac camp, {after I ask why the trap hit him when he enter CoM base, I got that part (spy)} Since he was minax and a warrior I left the area not getting that charactor on the CoM stone, but I did get my tinker on it early /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif I did enjoy the CoM guards chasing him around the Tavern near there, that was funny to watch as 10 guards chase one lone warrior around and around.

 

[Solirosa]

Personally, I enjoyed the articals quite a bit... I never bothered to learn about pvp, much less factions, and this opened up a whole new world to me... It's great to hear whats its like to be in a faction, and the kind of things that go on. Even if the details weren't entirely accurate, its enough that I want to learn more and possibly join in... so right on Gypsy... thanks for putting in the time to do all of this :]

Also... if someone in the factions would be so kind as to tell me more, (differences between guilds/factions, the kind of characters that are best, etc., or at least direct me to the person to talk to to get this information without dying lol), I'd appriciate it.

Dragon

 

[Ravencroft]

I really think that it was largely due to the first report from Gypsy on factions that intrigued me enought to also pludge into a char to join in the fun.

Hats off to you Gypsy for sniffing out a story and reporting your findings for us to enjoy and think about.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Lord Hunter]

Sorry gypsy I was just jumping to jennys aid along with everyone else.

If jenny were to post here im sure he would be offended.

 

[Guest]

look, as far as Jenny COCO is concerned. I gaurded the sigils for 20+ hours at least 5 times this last summer. He was trying to take back the sigils from minax well before this and unfortunatly his crew consisted of random brit gate people which just didnt cut it. Near the end of summer Jenny went back to college and couldnt play regularly if at all. He came back and saw that people were basically taking over the faction that he worked so hard on and prided himself on. He then attempted to take control of the faction etc etc. I don't know what the deal is between him and Minax but I know as a fact that he hates them. Hopefully this can all be straitened out. YAD did a fine job.

 

[Gypsy Keja Mimi]

I am sorry too Hunter that you or anyone else are offended, but I only have reported the facts. The facts were :

1. The sigils were in the COM base. I never said who put them there, only the person/people who did it know who they were.

2. Minax was defending the base to keep COM out of it. Doesnt matter what other characters they had, the people attacking the COM defense that day all were orange and had Minax or Shadowlords titles. ALL of them.

3. A voting war was going on. It was admitted to. Blues were joining COM and if they were obviously known by Minax they were let through to vote. If they werent, they were killed as soon as they turned orange.

4. Any time a new COM got through to vote, the other person who was running for Commander's vote went up by one. I made no speculation as to who that other person was. I only showed it was a voting war, and both sides played that game.

5. My article was about how factions work. After YAD got the victory I reported on how vendors were set up, how guards were set up, and how some things work within the system. The election actually allowed me to show how that worked too. I had posted my intention to do just that in Part Three of the series, so it wasnt like I just threw it in. That is all, I reported on the facts of how factions work and the actions of the people I was witnessing. In any PvP event, the winner celebrates and the loser gets over it. Even at NonPvP events... is it flaming to say that someone won an item at auction and all the other people who lost are being ridiculed that I said the winning party was happy?

6. I actually praised Minax in the articles as well as COM. It was well played, it was a great tactic, and it almost worked. I said time and again how tough Minax was to beat. I said time and again how many times YAD had lost to them no matter what faction they were in. YAD werent mad at me for saying they had been beaten dozens of times for months on end. I dont think I said anything derogatory about what went on that day, I merely said what did go on. The before or after I got there, didnt factor in, as I couldn't know it.

I am not sure where the offense is coming in to play. I dont know if it is anger that the tactic was reported on, I dont know if it was anger that Minax didnt have a chance to tell their side, but I have offered to write for them as well and no one will bother to answer me. If their side is not told, it is not because of my unwillingness to write for them, and I truly did everything I could to let them know in this article how impressive a show of force they were. They were not easy to beat by any stretch of the imagination.

However, I am only allowed to say certain things under the guidelines of my job (non paid, volunteer job too I might add) with Stratics. Did I say everything that COM/YAD wishes I could have said? No.

There is a line I have to watch, and I was very careful in this series of articles. I almost didnt do it because of how controversial I knew it would be. And I realize through all of my edits, I may have misworded something that caused some to take offense. But I need to know exactly what it is, however, this board is not the place to do that.

I would ask that if you truly have a problem with the way I reported this to send in an email to my editor, Vladimir Taltos, who will review the series, and will have higher editors review it, and if I am found to have reported things out of line, then they will deal with me I am sure. If you wish I am sure you can bypass Vlad and just send the complaints to Joshua Rowen. The email for them is [email protected].

But I honestly did no more or less that I have done for any other PVP event I have ever covered, except that I tried to make a very difficult and frankly intimidating system within the game a little more real and understandable to the masses.

People cry for participation in Fel. People cry for reports of Fel events. People of Felucca are constantly saying how no one will participate, how sad it is to see it just dying, and I, a 'Trammie' reporter with no ulterior motive of my own attempted to revive some interest in this dying facet and within a dying and broken system. And I did it for the people who play factions.

I personally had nothing to gain from this series of articles. I am not a PVPr and everyone who knows me knows that. I became faction so that I could see how it worked. I reported from the side that offered me the chance to see what they did so that I could see it first hand. For that I am grateful, but I have had to say things in my articles I am sure they were not thrilled about seeing in print. And I know there were things they wished I could have written about that I had to decline to add to my articles. Things that I can not as a reporter say.

I attempted to tell the story presenting only facts, no names, only factions and the only direct guild mentioned was YAD. I have not heard anyone say any obvious fact other than what I have reported that I could possibly have known as just an observer to this battle. And I realize you are sticking up for a friend. But I never mentioned the friend. And when I saw that friend he was Minax. Nothing whatsoever wrong with being Minax. I even encouraged in my articles for people to look into factions and join the one that best represented their personal views.

I am getting hung here but I am not quite sure why. I would encourage you to figure out exactly what I said in the articles that were derogatory toward your friend, write my editor an email explaining your grievance and he will speak to me about it. If I was wrong in my facts, then please tell him and I will print a retraction to any fact I had in error that should have been obvious to me from what I was looking at.

Good Fortune.

 

[Bronwyn]

First of all there is a lot of stone padding going on on both sides. One a reaction to the other, plain and simple. CoM characters are not orange to other CoM members.

There were lots of oranges, a lot of the same ones we fought when we were SL. So, orange means not CoM, if I understand correctly, and those oranges were killing CoM members. And I didn't see any of those other 51 CoM members helping defend against, well let's call them the oranges. All I saw was YAD. If I am wrong about this, please explain.

Personally, I think Keja's report is good, it is very hard to take an emotionally charged thing like this and report it without someone taking issue with some part of it. It has brought factions out into the open, explained the process and in the process identified the parties who have been involved. I don't think it's biased. Heck, people take offense when players start selling things at a price they think is unfair...so they were bound to have problems with parts of this.

 

[Guest]

I am very well aware of the padding as I was assisting Jenny and will always do so. He is one of my closest friends in game and we back each other up constantly. I am not new to factions, and I assure you, I am more then well aware that CoM wouldn't be orange to another CoM. I've been in PkP and UGK and we were in CoM as well as SL for years. We are the ones that succeeded in taking the sigils/towns 2x from Minax and held them for 7 months. I am more then familiar with how factions run and assisted YAD (and they assisted &gt;U&lt; as well) with one of their sigil stands a few months back.

Now, while I have no problem with the stories up til now, I just felt that perhaps Jenny should have been interviewed as well. He has read these posts as I sent him the link last night and we discussed them. I think it offends his friends more then it offends him and that's why he isn't replying (my guess). I can assure you that Minax DOES have spies in factions...this I know because we had reds in guild just to take care of those spies. We all know who they are as well, and they know we know /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif It's more of a cat and mouse game I guess. I would have loved to have participated with Jenny but I've been playing Siege mostly for the last few weeks and I'm sure he was hesitant to ask for my assistance.

Friends back up friends.

 

[Syrus_Rane]

Ok first off I want to say sorry to you Keja if you think I was downing your reporting because I was not. I know its not the easiest job and you can only say what you see. I was just trying to say something that you reported about but didn't know much about. Or at least thats the way I felt when you said something about oranges being inside CoM base guarding the sigils and you didn't understand it. But I have been involved in factions several times before and I have spent 15+ hours waiting into the dead of night only to get overrun by hordes of minax. I could say more but to try and keep flames down which i'll probably start doing if I keep going about how I feel about some things i'll just stop.

 

[imported_RepoMan]

Well no matter how this post degenerated because people got their feelings hurt, I found the entire series quite entertaining, and educational from an outsider's perspective. It also gave myself, and others a new inspiration towards factions. I am glad this reporter took the time to do this.

 

[VeishaSaine]

Clio I understand your sticking up for your friend. And you think he should have been interviewed. Now at what point what a reporter find out about his existance? In this report you can see that keja was only writing about what she experienced and saw. I saw Coco at Magincia the night I went, and I had no way of knowing what part they played. And when watching a blurr of motion of people playin factions the first thing to come to your mind when you see yet another person riding through earning a kill is not, "Oh I should interview that person".

Keja went the extra mile trying to get involved and trying to learn what was going on. But one person cannot learn every detail of faction and every person involved in the short time she was. As for Jenny, they could have easily mentioned to Keja, whom had already been posting her series that 'Hey I did that sigil thing and I'll tell you the reasons why.'

As I stated before. We do this on a volunteer basis, and she put in alot of effort as it was. I am certain if Keja had known prior that JennyCoco was the person heading up that sigil thing, she would have asked for an interview if time allowed.

I will say one thing. If anyone here wants to submit articles about how factions are going, or events ingame you are MORE than welcome to submit them so we can post them.

Keja... you are doing a great job and dont you dare stop... let the blood baths continue!

 

[Vladimir Taltos]

Right... I can see I dont need to rush to Keja's defense seeing how she can handle herself... *smirks* As for her Faction series being out of line... (or whatever label you'd want to out on it) I think those of you who have their emotions involved need to put them aside and re-read the four part series... the idea is to get people involved in Factions, not changing their minds because some one failed to get "credit" for something here or another person feels slighted because the victors "gained" the spoils... Kejas post was quite neutral, thats my opinion and Im sticking to it... And if you dont like it, Oh well...

The whole thing was an enjoyable read and an invaluable insight on the mysterious workings and behind the scene actions of the ever so scary "Factions" aspect of the UO game... Hmmm, I did say game... another novel concept... *smirks*

<blockquote><hr>


I would ask that if you truly have a problem with the way I reported this to send in an email to my editor, Vladimir Taltos, who will review the series, and will have higher editors review it, and if I am found to have reported things out of line, then they will deal with me I am sure. If you wish I am sure you can bypass Vlad and just send the complaints to Joshua Rowen. The email for them is [email protected].


<hr></blockquote>
Im stating this now... Keja wasnt observed to have posted anything out of line regarding this little series... intentional or not... Keja put forth a great deal of Free time and Effort to shed some light on an interesting aspect of the game... Im not going to go on and dig up a dead horse thats already been beat into the ground by everyone else already, so I can pummel it back into the terra firma...

All Ill reiterate is that she did offer Minax to shed some light on their side of the factions scene and all they have to do is accept her invitation, if they think they werent fairly represented... Another thing to keep in mind is that as reporters, we're not omnipotent... If we were, Im sure we'd not be spending time in UO and would probably be betting large sums of money at a nearby horse track or parlay club... But unfortunately, reality has got us down and all of us need to keep things in that perspective... We cant be everywhere at once and sorry, we dont see everything to know everything... Oh yeah... I did mention this was game, right? *smirks*

Now... regarding any further responses on this matter related to how Keja reported on this topic... if youve got a problem with her, or any other reporter for that matter, let me know and we'll discuss the matter as it should be, behind the scenes... If you have a problem with me... *shrugs* you can send Joshua an email...

Ill also take the opportunity here to mention that the Sonoma News Team does hold a monthly event inviting ALL people to attend to discuss these types of topics, issues, etc in a non-hostile and completely level headed intellectual stand point... In case youve not seen it, its called "Meet the Press"... The monthly MTP thingy are going to be held on the last Sunday of the month, at 2pm PST / 5pm EST... The idea is to meet up with us reporter types and talk about how the news is being handled, what youd like to see done besides whats being done, and so on and so forth...

Now if youll excuse me... We Stratics types have to get back to taking over the world... since some of you feel that is the only reason why we exist... oh yeah... and for the nifty title and good parking spot... Not... Just because there may have been some bad experiences or ill feelings gained from another Stratics type doesnt make all said types "evil"... But we do have to attend Diabolical Laughter school... *smirks*

Alright... so... shall we move on, please? Thank you...

 

[hiai]

Thank you, Keja, for a job well done. And thank you, as well, for keeping your cool under attack, as bewilderingly misguided as the attacks may be.

I hope your feelings are not hurt over this, for I believe that almost everyone truly appreciates your efforts, no matter what the vocal minority has to say. And if they don't, at least I do... /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif And since I'm the center of the universe, that's all that really counts, right? lol ;D

Keep up the good work!

 

[Dor of Sonoma]

Bringing this back to the front page, due to current events interest.

 

[Sen'si]

im sorry but at first this thread was interesting but has turned into a giant soap opera.
imo, everyone has the right to post their opinion but please save the drama for yo moma, facts are good but the schoolyard BS has got to stop.

 

[Sagan_1]

um, sen'si before your post... the last post on this topic was in 04. I think the school yard drama stopped.

 

[Cobra_Commander]

Very Nice Story

 

[Lord Hunter]

Wow, this is old lol.

Ya I believe the school yard drama has stoped on this subject, but im sure if you check other posts you will see this is nothing compared to them =D

 

[Rapier]

Hmmm. Guess this sorta brings light to why, somehow not with my doing, I was "quiting factions" last week just as the sigils were corrupted and I should have been moving them. Weird things are happening and theres a conspiracy to keep the best sigil runner out of it?? (ok ok so I'm paranoid!)
Let's see, its long been known that Minax has in the past been basically TB's aliases, so them trying to force a takeover of CoM isn't that far out. So, who is in SL these days?

 

[Guest]

Were you in a guild that *had* been in factions but pulled out 'as a guild'?

That may have inadvertantly pulled you from factions without your consent.

 

[Rapier]

<blockquote><hr>

Were you in a guild that *had* been in factions but pulled out 'as a guild'?

That may have inadvertantly pulled you from factions without your consent.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, who knows. There was a guild made up of two guys that were trying to guard the sigels and I joined them for communication purposes. They did say they were not going to quit. And I can't imagine anybody quiting as soon as you have all the towns corrupted and before they get run. Then again, I haven't seen either of those guys since. Maybe they were also TB in disguise and that was just a lame tactic to prevent loss of sigs.