The Lament of DRF (1/5): The Beginning

Well, before I start going into the present with how my life in FFXI is right now, I feel the need to let go the past. Best way for me to do that is to write about it. Now that my old LS back in Cerberus broke apart (DownRightFierce), I think I'm more open to write about things, as the only real thing that will happen from this will be fairly insignificant to the point where no one cares. Of course, no one probably would care for what I'll be writing here (and for the next 4 posts after), but I consider this my moment to explain that moment in Cerberus.

==In The Beginning==

The time before I created DownRightFierce was when DynamisLordHNMLS has gone down and a new LS was formed: Thunder. DynamisLordHNMLS (or DL) was a linkshell that was concentrated towards Dynamis. However, it had a problem of trying to do things outside of its own jurisdiction. DL did Sky events, Sea events, and Limbus as well. For the most part, while DL did what it did well, when it came to other things, it became a huge mess. This was not a lack of skill but rather a lack of an understanding of how the linkshell was meant to be ran. As stated, DL was meant for Dynamis and was known as a Dynamis linkshell. However, when it started to reward players for doing Sky events or Sea events and so on, that is where the floodgates began to overflow. When players expect to join a dynamis LS, most expect to join a LS where they spend 3-4 hours out of two days to do Dynamis and thats it, no catches or anything.

Eventually, the linkshell leader lost interest, mainly for the reason that he was most likely overwhelmed by the crap he caused and had other things that he feels is better to focus on. I can't blame him, with all the things that did happen, I don't care if playing WoW is the excuse to leave and quit. If a person needs to get out, they need to get out and while there are many people who can't respect that, I, at least, do.

To this day I still respect the leader of DL. Sometimes, you just want to just sit down, play the game and have fun with it and not give a crap about what items fell to you and so on. I kept this mentality going (for the most part) throughout most of my end game career (and I still do now as a social player). But at the same time, you have people that need tending to when you're the leader. Sometimes, you will just break under pressure and end up tripping all over yourself, regretting making decisions and often times, not able to retreat those decisions. This was probably one of my bigger problems in running DownRightFierce. I made a lot of bad decisions and held a lot of regrets.

We all treat the word regret as a way to say that we made a bad decision and therefore, we look back upon it in a rather negative way. Sometimes, you hold regret in two directions, where you soon realize no matter what decision you pick, it will both end up in an equally bad situation. That's one situation you just don't want to be in your life but it happens all the time.

DL, while having many great memories (along with bad ones) in it, was not the main influence in why I decided to step up to the plate and create DownRightFierce. DL rewarded me with great ideas, but it was the various situations of what I have encountered in both DL and Thunder.

You see, at this time, I was bored with the game. When you lose your main LSes, it kinda happens unless you can find another LS. There were no LSes that I believed would have worked for me after the end of Thunder. I was also sickened at the progress of Cerberus. At the time, server transfers were not introduced, so I was generally stuck with what I had at Cerberus. Cerberus just felt like it was many years behind, which had many reasons behind it really. I do believe the general populous of Cerberus are too lax, too family based, too afraid to step out of that box. I do complement one linkshell to this day though that is actually trying to do something for the people that just don't want to join WhirlingWind or KoN(Now Progeny), that LS being CaptainCaveman. I think out of all the linkshells I've seen in Carbuncle thus far, I can tie it more towards CaptainCaveman than any other LS. Do I think CC is doing better than WhirlingWind or KoN? I can't say because they are of a different caliber.

I really don't have too much to say about Thunder. The reason being is because Thunder, in the long run, did not accomplish too much that I would really say is worth talking about. It isn't to say Thunder was a bad LS, it was more or less the same thing as DL but with less emphasis on Dynamis. It did lack a clear system of what to expect in terms of items. It made it difficult to keep attention of the players as well. All in all, there really isn't much to say about the LS, except after when the LS broke apart.

One night, after the leader of Thunder announced his leave of the game, I was leveling up my WAR while on TeamSpeak with Eugene, Lillie, and Thelan. I don't remember the conversation all that well but all I know is that I said something along the lines of giving people their Haidates and working hard enough to get a full Kirin set. I guess I was angry at the time. RMT were ravaging Sky, the added competition from all the linkshells that were starting just made things harder, and keeping people interested in trying to attempt Sky again and again just made things almost impossible. Did I really keep my words and do what I intended to do?

I knew one thing for sure though, eventually later that week, I was discussing what to name the LS with Thelan and what color the pearl should be. DownRightFierce, in a blue "chi" like color. What was the goal of the LS?

Most importantly, where was I going with this idea and what did I want to achieve?

The only thing I had in my mind was "I was going to make a small linkshell that will be so great."

Was it that great?

Find out next time. >.>