The Lament of DRF (2/5): The "Real" Beginning

I honestly do not remember when DRF was created. All I remember is this:

- I spent the 8k to buy the shell
- It was from the Windurst vendor
- I was hungry at the time
- I was excited
- It was sometime in November

The original idea of this linkshell (which, by the way, did not go as planned at all) was to make a group of 18 players and live off with that. You can do anything with 18, well, almost anything with 18. If I remember, the few original members that stayed from beginning to the end (at least, when I left) was:

Myself
Thelan
Lillie
Yonekura
Homeslizzle
Madsic

And... I honestly think that was it. There were probably one or two more people and I apologize if I forget your name. Doesn't mean I think less of you though. It was, after all, a whole year.

As stated, the original goal was to create an LS of that small size and to rock with it. What eventually happened is that we ended up with players who would not show up to events or could not show up to events. Having 18 people to share a huge time slot was difficult, probably impossible with how today's lives are being ran. The idea soon tore up and a new plan was to be launched.

I think it was when I was sitting in Aht Urhgan Whitegate where I suddenly felt the urge to shout out for members. Probably the most stupidest idea I've ever had thought up of to find members but I really did not have too many options. Oddly enough, I managed to get quite a bit of people. I think more people started joining in on the fun of shouting in Whitegate for LS members. Oddly enough, I didn't get laughed at or flamed at, still not sure why.

So what was the plan? What did I do to get people in on our linkshell of love? We made it into a Sky LS. Too bad there were already 10 other Sky LSes flying around, so why would people be interested in this one? I used a silly tactic which I was really trying to get to work. I made a Contribution Point System, probably the most crappiest thing I've ever created in my entire life. I'll explain why:

The system was to promote fairness by giving players points based on how much time they spent doing Sky events with us. Now, this little concept alone can work pretty well for a linkshell that is motivated enough to do Sky and does only Sky. here is the problem though: There were other events and we had people that had huge disagreements on who should get what items.

I think this alone is what brought down DRF's reputation for a lot of people. We judged people on a item system that was not meant to be used for judging. Why did I agree to this system? Pretty much, I had to or wouldn't have a working administration. I really did think the idea of having to change who gets what based what "we" think of them was bullcrap. Sure, we can hide it as a measure of skill or a measure of how constantly they did events with us or how late or how early they show up to events or how their attitudes were like. We put a lot of concern for this, I can see why we put a lot of concern about it and I honestly can see why I had to try to hide it for so long.

So, that numeric value I had for people? Didn't mean a single thing, at all. We eventually stopped keeping track of this value and for the most part, people didn't seem to care about it, which I can see why because eventually after trying to cover it up so much, it would confuse ANYONE to not even question it. Though the fact that this was completely missing and omitted wasn't the biggest problem that made DRF fall, it was what came from the abuse that took us down a lot of notches.

We tried to bring back this system once or twice before, but it ended up not being used at all, again, due to disagreements and complications.

A question I ask myself constantly: Would DRF be a better place if I had a working point system with no upper management abusing it? I keep telling myself yes and I probably would have lasted a lot longer. I, personally, like to work with solidified stats, with concrete numbers and having things static. When you start trying to factor in who deserves what based on opinion, that is when I don't make the best decisions. I'm really not good at buying gifts for people for birthdays or Christmas either based on their personality, I really need a wish list for that.

There were also some safeguards to that system I created, namely the Wish Lists and the Main Job Priority System.

Honestly, when I think back to these things right now, I want to vomit. It was just a huge mess of trying to please all the sacks and the "important" LS members. Sometimes, I really do wish I was just the one and only leader person and if no one likes what I do, at least I can see quite well that it is my fault and that I can fix it without having to talk to a 2nd or 3rd person.

The Wish List system was pretty simple: Put what you want in your Wish List. Anything. Right now, I can see how bad of an idea it was, but at the same time, that is where the Main Job Priority system would come and fix the day... too bad, the Main Job Priority system (that just sounds so federal) was probably the most unstable thing in the whole system.

Anyways, I'm going to stop going into details about our lotting system. I hate it, I really really hate it. It was twisted in so many directions that we might as well just say that we decided everything.

I honestly hope it was apparent to a lot of people and I'm glad that a few people left the LS when they knew it was happening, left when they did. I agree, it is stupid and abusable and any real fix that I wanted to do would have just ended up being a heated argument and nothing would have gotten done.

Eventually, as time went on, I met a lot of interesting people, made some very interesting alliances and did many interesting things.

Slice/Madsic

The two black Elvaans in my linkshell. The guys were chill, they were there for fun, and while they may not be the best players in the game, at least I can say they had the right attitude going into it. Being around the two, it helped me realize that the game is not all serious gear and playing the game at the absolute best. It was being able to play well without stress and worry. We'll all admit, they made their fair share of mistakes, I made my mistakes, everyone has. In the end, why cry over spilled milk? Especially when this is all just a game and once you cancel your account or sell it or what not, everything you have done will all just be a fragment of your memory, and maybe a few dollars in cash. Slice eventually became a sack.

Liseth

The love of my life. I could sit down and repeat this story as many times as I want but for the sake of this and trying to be fairly unbiased about what I'm posting here, I'll keep it short and maybe I'll decide to give the whole public story later, perhaps in my actual life blog rather than this FFXI blog.

I found Liseth randomly, while walking around in Whitegate. We started chatting, she said she wasn't too satisfied with Aftermath (Are they still around?) so she joined my LS. Eventually was made into a sack. To be honest, keeping this little pepper in control was probably one of the harder tasks to do in the linkshell. "ZOMGS, did Mog just say that about his lady?!" Well, yeah, yes I did. I pretty much had to keep an eye on her and made sure she stayed in our LS. Yes, I was worried she would leave for another LS, every single second that she was in there. Why? Because I knew that DRF could never ever give her what she wants. It isn't about gear whoring or anything like that, it was how open we want the game to be. Liseth did help me strive to bring the best out of our members. I wanted really hard to be able to get to the point where me and her, along with everyone else, can be happy and satisfied with how the LS progressed. This was not a bad thing at all, progress is progress. However, it was very upsetting when part of the sacks... crucified her for what she is trying to improve on in the linkshell.

Yes, I chose some really powerful words there... wooo~ I bet you're thinking "That Mog, he's just sucking up to his lady!" Yeah well, that wasn't all. More on this later.

The KnightsTemplar Sky Truce

Our original schedule for our LS was (Before Sea was introduced into the LS):

Monday: Break
Tuesday: Sky
Wednesday: Break
Thursday: Sky
Friday: Sky
Saturday: Gods
Sunday: Dynamis

Now, you may wonder "Why are Monday and Wednesday break days? It's not balanced at all!" The reasoning was that Pent, the leader of KnightsTemplar and friend, had Sky runs that were going to conflict with us. Rather than going against his LS (on top of many other LSes), we tried to avoid ramming into each other, so we took advantage of their break days or days that they were not going to be in Sky.

Eventually KT broke, we ended up sticking with two break days for quite awhile.

The DRF/CC Vrtra Alliance... AKA "The 10 guests I brought a long because they were bored"

You know, I find it really funny that people would justify not hanging out with people because they "may" have hacked or they "may" have botted. I find it ridiculous and almost shameful when people refuse to do things with other linkshells because that linkshell is a fusion of other linkshells that MIGHT have had 1 or 2 members botting in it.

Did I mention I'm glad I left Cerberus?

However, it was a fun fight, though being up that late at night was a bit demanding for most of our members. Zizka is a great guy though. I hope him and his LS the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Now that I think about it, the fear of drama is probably worse than being tossed in drama.

First Kirin, First Kill

It took about 1:45 if I recall. Eh, I think it is a great time for the first time. Not sure if anything major dropped from it... and not sure who got what from it. I don't recall if Osode dropped on our first run though.

I don't remember anything from it actually... Did I even kite the thing?!

Well, tune in next time where I'll be diving into the meat as to how DRF went from a pretty good LS to be in... into a cesspool of hatred and lies! All from a cuddly Canadian Cat to the departure of perhaps one that could have been the savior of mankind... I mean... the linkshell.