When the Dust Settles.

Okay folks, time to the take off "Happy Go-Lucky" face and put on the serious face for once. There has been a really great reason why I haven't been posting many blog posts as of late. Most will notice a decrease from June to July to August to September. Here is your reason why:

There has been a large amount of stupid drama in my LS that I had to deal with and I have been surrounded by it for quite awhile. I did not have much motivation posting about my own personal ordeals because it all boils down to LS drama that shouldn't be happening in the first place.

So, to those reading this from my own LS or heck, my own server, here's the story of what has been happening.

It all started pretty well when the LS was erected. Got to meet people from FM and a whole slew of other people, even got to meet the famous Chinchilla. I still yet to believe that someone that comes out of my iPod would be someone I'd be teaming up to kill stuff in the game. Things are still going well and things have always been going well, at least that is what the eyes conceive. There are always things amidst going on, no matter what LS or organization you run. This thing has been bugging me for over 3 months. What upsets me is how long this ended up happening and how the fire did not stop burning for over a month.

Now, I'm not gonna get into details about what happened from July to September but I will start with what I thought "should" have ended the drama but it didn't.

Upon hitting the mid of September, it was the day that I thought I'd be rid of all the drama that existed in the LS. Of course, we all know that never happens, despite how close it is. What ended up happening was that one person who I hated with a burning passion was booted (not by me mind you and it was for legit reasons) and this other person (who was a sack and I felt was causing trouble in the LS) server transfered... took a Ridill with him but whatever, it's a toy item nowadays anyways. I think some of you guys might know who I'm talking about. It was gonna be that day, that day that I can say "whew.. shit is no longer putting me down, I am happy as fuck!"

That's where it should have ended... but it all got extended.

The result of that have triggered a minor rebellion where we had two select people (Medwyn and Bobbyray for those keeping track) pretty much going against us. And, this is where it just shocks me and I don't know why this had to happen, but it did and it ended like a stinky bomb tossed into a vent.

What pretty much happened was it started becoming personal to them. Of course, anyone that wants to have the perfect LS want to try to do anything in their power to make it the perfect LS. That becomes an obsession sometimes. An obsession where you do anything, even rebel the very leader who built that foundation just to make it perfect. An obsession where you become surrounded by the absolute truth that you created yourself that is the absolute right in your eyes and blinded by everything else. An obsession where you have no meaning or idea of what it means to others, only yourself. That is when your obsession becomes pointless. Instead, what become the obsession of Medwyn and the influence of Bobbyray... became their weapons to attack the foundation of this LS. There has been harassment, there has been attempts to topple over the leadership and there have been attempts to belittle greatly the integrity of the shellholder and the sacks.

Obsession is one thing that you should try to avoid in life. Obsession with perfection is even worse. What happened in the LS for the past few weeks have been a motive of obsession. They may be correct that there were some problems in the LS that needed to be corrected but there was lies being tossed in, there were jabs being shot out and there were a lot of threats being tossed up behind the scenes. All while having this being done in front of the LS, not because of the choice of the leaders but because Medwym and Bobbyray decided to draw it out there.

They made this obsession a personal battle. One that ultimately leads to no one being happy in the end.

Bobbyray was a friend to me. I talk to him on Vent or in-game about a bunch of personal stuff. But he let this obsession, this attempt to bring a perfect LS into this world and make everything completely perfect, trying to control something he limited control over, destroy friendships with not just me but with several other people. I'm just a sack in an LS and I give my opinions to the leader and I listen to the leader and carry out what is required from that leader, who just happens to be my girlfriend. I listen to people, I tell Lissy about it as that middle man. I know it annoys her but I give my opinions out regardless from these people. I listen, I don't order things unless I have to. Because of this, I get ignored from a person that I once called friend. Why? No reasoning was given and it just all felt like I was just packed into this group that "followed the leader" and now I'm branded as a bad guy.

Trust me, the past few weeks were harsh on me and a few others. In the end, both of them left the LS on some pretty bad terms. At least they decided to keep their dignity and walk out silently. Most tend to anyways.

Our LS isn't dying though. Nothing massive happened to cause damage to it and really, life will go on as it always does. This little battle has ended. It didn't end in the way that I wish for it to end it but I can put it behind me now... I'm just worried about what could happen next. If it does happen, will we survive it? I dunno but I'll keep going for as long as I can. I have no obsessions... I just have a loyal bond to Liseth, one that I intend to keep for as long as possible.

A New Month, A New Struggle

Well, things are rolled around nicely around here for my linkshell DownRightFierce and my own FFXI life. Unfortunately, due to a few problems involving my computer, I now have a dead motherboard and it was a fairly old mobo (about 3-4 years) and due to how we have transitioned to new technology really fast, I would have to buy a new processor and a new video card (it's AGP, not that new fancy PCI-E stuffs nowadays). This is gonna run me quite a bit of money so... yeah, being able to play FFXI on a reliable PC system is not a current option right now.

In the DownRightFierce side of things (and yeah, I have no screenshots of any of this on me), we managed to get quite a few things. We've been tackling a crap ton of HNMs and for the most part, none of them really dropped anything until recent. We managed to get ourselves a Seveneyes from Khimmycat (which went to Bobbyray) and Gaiters (which went to Zarion). We got two Algols from Cerberus (Fidelis and Iskara) and well, a bunch of Cerb Claws and Hides that went towards a bunch of things (Valk Breastplate and a few Hades Hands). I'm actually still sitting on a few of them that I intend on selling so if you're on Carbuncle and you want a Cerb Hide and I haven't sold it yet, bug me about it~ Claws maybe, we're thinking about what to do with them.

I haven't had the time to relaly sit down and play on my own leaisure, given the circumstances of my computer and losing all of my macros. I aim to hit all the elemental obis while getting my Uggy Pendant. I also need vicious mufflers... So many things I have to do on my BLM! So little time! ; ;

I should really look into how I can get those vicious muffler pop items... maybe that'll encourage me to work on it.

Ah well, FFXI on my laptop isn't so bad except for the inconsistant freezing that just seems to happen every other minute. :3 I'll get my computer up and running again... JUst need some spare money.

I'm a Repetitive Taru... really, I am!

Now for an actual, somewhat lengthy post!

Again, I keep forgetting to abuse my screenshot button, I really should map it on my controller or something.

But anyways~

SE and the Random Doings.

There's quite a bit of FFXI related news that has been tossed around, most of which I'm kinda late on the delivery of. The more important ones include the fact that Somepage, a huge database of FFXI related material, has malicious code somehow implanted into their website. I would advise (especially at this point because I don't even think they update their stuff as of late) to not even go to that website any more. This is kinda the second time that it has happened and I can probably say it is the more common websites to get quick item details and has a really powerful search function. However, as I have said, it is the second time that they had malicious code on their website and for the most part, it is probably nailing a lot of people.

I could go on and on about web security and how to protect yourself from such hazards but... let me give you some names of some programs to use to help yourself.

- Firefox
- NoScript Plugin for Firefox
- PeerGuardian 2 (btw: a bit of tweeking is required to get FFXI working on it as it blocks SE's website)
- Sygate Personal Firewall
- AVG
- Firefox

Anyways, Nomad Moogles being added in Mhaura/Selbina, more Fellow stuff, Campaign NPCs that heal you, and Outpost Warps get saved~

Would be nice if we could like... store Pre-25 Equipment Sets... but that's just me.

Paladin vs Paladin: Who Can You Hate More?

One thing I've been really frustrated about is trying to keep up with a PLD in my linkshell. The guy just holds hate so spectacularly that I can't figure out a way to keep up with him. Now, tanking usually involves the tank trying to keep their hate to cap and trying to outhate the rest of the DDs/Support/what have you. I think I'm at a point where I can get there but I'm probably doing something really wrong with my playstyle and having a hard time achieving such an effect. Granted, the PLD I mentioned has a lot better gear than I do but I feel that while enmity can do so much for me, I don't think I'm using it to its fullest potential, and that is what really irks me because then I know I'm not doing my job right. I also don't think it is a matter of "knowing" what to do, its executing it effectively, and that's skill right there. I figure that its something I have to fully devote my time to. As I keep playing, I should get better... but eventually, like in everything that people do, they hit a "wall" that they need to get around. I think that's where I'm at right now, I'm at that "wall," that limitation that blocks you in your mind.

The Wanderer: Taru Samurai Spirits

I got something pretty nifty the other day, despite all my PLD troubles. We did our first Jailer of Justice fight and we managed to get a Torque Drop on the first kill~

I manage to win the lot on the Justice Torque, which helps my SAM quite a bit with my TP Build. We also did a Jailer of Prudence which also dropped a torque and another Justice that didn't drop a torque. Needless to say, we were very lucky and I think most of it was due to the addition to Chinchilla to our LS. Great THF, probably a great RDM too but never got her to bring it. X3

My Samurai has been the focus of my attention for a bit, at least until I'm "ready" to take on PLD again. It is one of those "emptying your cup" situations where I want to take my mind off of it then go back with a new fresh view. But anyways, I decided to try to follow Xanthe's advice (minus the Not Tarutaru part) and try to get my hands on things that I'm able to at the moment. Currently, I'm messing around with KV... that's all I can really say about the subject. Lets just say I'm losing a lot of sleep over this NM. Ace's Helm would be very nice on my SAM as it would be 3 great things combined into one robo-cop helm. I can't refuse such an item! :3

I still need to farm my Flame Gorget items... been pretty lazy with that, especially when I'm trying to redo some of my merits. I finally hit 8/8 GKT and I've been wanting to parse my SAM for awhile without Acc Songs/Rolls.

I also been trying to work on a Damage Reduction Set for SAM again since I'm finding myself doing Salvage a bit more. Maybe in a few more weeks...

My First Mage Job: Black Mage

Managed to hit level 58 a few days ago. However, I am somewhat less motivated to level the job. The main reason is because I think 50 spoiled really bad because I can one shot Goblin Pet mobs assuming I don't resist. It had a huge negative affect to me in the sense that...

1. My enfeeb skill isn't increasing.
2. My dark skill isn't increasing.
3. I'm not learning how to be an "effective" soloer for later mobs.
4. Soloing in general isn't helping me be better at being a party person.

Needless to say, I'm gonna "fun" readjusting myself to be an effective BLM later on. By the way: I hate buying spells.


By the way: you can get some pretty decent XP out of Campaign if you know what you're doing. More on this in a later post.

Mog of Windurst: Warrior Within

I honestly have not touched this job in awhile and maybe its because of the whole DW to 2h shift that I have yet to fully transition myself to. WAR compared to SAM just feels so dry with 2h because I can't really play aggressive as much as I would want to. That's the problem I think, I try to treat GA WAR too much like SAM. I will probably need to read up on more things on WAR and look into other applications for it. As for right now, I'm trying to get the IS to get the Perdu Thingy and going to probably concentrate on getting GAxe merits up while demeriting my Sword/Axe Merits, which are now obsolete to me as I rarely use my DW build now.

On another note though: Rabbit Pies I heard were pretty good for tanking and DDing.

DownRightFierce: Tiamat Burgers for $4.59

We bagged our first Tiamat and... well, it dropped something but it wasn't anything uber. We've been doing really well with Sea/Sky/random HNMs/Dynamis/Einherjar.

Sea I've mentioned already~ Sky was a funny situation though! Someone apparently by accident typed /help instead of /heal (btw: he plays on the 360 so no plugins to prevent it)... which never made sense to me but ok. Anyways, they CFH Seiryu (which is no biggie) and it took us awhile to recover, it was a bit of a mess since it was really unexpected. He didn't drop any of the stuff I wanted... so meh! Screw that dragon! Next time!

Dynamis, luckily for DRF this time, didn't involve me MPKing people as I was not the one pulling. However, we did manage to get a few nice drops from Sandy such as 2 PLDs and a BRD hat. There were some deadly pulls... I wasn't joking when I said the pulls from the Ronfaure gates were a pain in the ass. If someone can help me figure out how to pull them, it would be great. ;_;

The Einherjar alliance with PPN (or is it PNN? Its one of those two) has been going great and we've been getting about 30 some people each run. Maybe we might end up fighting Odin soon...!!! I would really enjoy doing such a thing as many people have not really done it... Yeah. Though, I still would like to see what changes they plan to do for Einherjar in the later updates. 1000/15000 until I get a Ritter's... I got some time.

By the way, we got a mention from Chinchilla about our LS in the Pet Food Alpha podcast. :3 I think I'm starstrucked or something for having her in the LS... or somethin. You can hear a short tidbit about us in Episode 102: Garrison of Pet Food Alpha. Hey, any publicity is good publicity... I think.

And finally, here's a Mog in a Box.

I h8 Jailer of Temperance

No, it isn't because he doesn't pop for me... its because every time I want to do something else in Sea like farm Ghrah M Chips or help out with a mission, Lissy always says "Hey, lets try to pop Temp" and it ends up popping.

Yeah...

I hate that damn flying sex toy. :(

This week in DRF was pretty productive:

We got a Taru Molestor.



I found a Kirin behind a thingy.



I even fell asleep on an Aern!

For the most part, we're going pretty healthy and I can only see many more awesome adventures going on... as long as I keep remembering to hit the screenshot button.

As for myself, I've been working on BLM AF for the longest time. After constantly seeing people in the Pso'Xja camp (and ruining my AM one shotting fun), I decided to stop leveling for a bit to work on the BLM AF. Now, let me tell you people, before you go out and get your gloves, please realize the following:

1. Once you activate the quest, you can be on another job to open the chest (You know this one).
2. If you are on another job that is currently able to get AF from the coffer you are trying to get gauntlets from, that job's AF will take priority over your gauntlets. (You probably didn't know this one).

The reason why I point this out is because... I spent 2 extra hours refarming a key because I forgot my PLD AF was still active (due to AF1+1 and needing to repeat my gear) and instead of getting the BLM Old Gauntlets... I got my Gallant Coronet back! NIFTY! >:

Keep that in mind :3

At least Dark Spark was easy to solo.

Prior to all this though, I decided to get a party with Lissy since she wanted to level DRK and my BLM was close to her level. Because it was a chance to be with Lissy, I couldn't refuse! ;3 However... the exp was sorta ass for me, even though the party was doing a very good job. It mainly had to do to the fact that I was fairly low leveled (52 and I think highest was 54). Nothing an Anniversary Ring can't fix though! By the way, I used up all my charges, what about you guys? <.<;

Livin' Large.

Oh, we also did Dynamis yesterday. They made me pull...

I hate my job.

Actually, despite the fact that everyone is dead in that picture, we pulled a win with 300 some currency and quite a bit of Wootz! :3 Not a bad run at all I'd say~

And finally... Box for a Mog Head.

Until next time~

SE Interview - Nothing Really New

Read the Interview here.

Well, I wasn't really expecting much... I doubt anyone else was expecting much and certainly, this isn't really getting us anywhere closer to the questions we have.

I'll let the link speak for itself.

On the side note though: I hate Jailer or Temperance, had a good Omega run with a bunch of Tachi: Kokis being tossed around and I really hate the crap out of Promathia Mission 8-2!

Short post today, long post some other time~ Toodles!

Mog's Variety Week

This week has been a pretty busy week for me. I honestly don't think I've put this much effort into the game before, even more so than CerbDRF.

btw: From this point forward...

CerbDRF: The Linkshell I ran back in Cerberus which kinda blew up.
DRF: The Linkshell currently being ran by Liseth and which I am a sack of.

I think I've done a lot of cup emptying and relearning a lot of things. This is good because old habits I've formed before are gone and I can develop better habits.

HOLY SHOCK: Reviving the Luster of PLD

While I really wouldn't consider myself a Main PLD any more (been shifting towards SAM), I still keep up with all the other PLDs in this new LS. I kind of have to, I'd be damn dead jealous if I didn't. I've been exclusively using /NIN, so there's a lot of consider in terms of how I can maintain CE. People have suggested using some NIN Debuffs, others have suggested having an HP swap build. There are also quite a lot of nice PLD Enmity Gear that came about during the past few updates, many of which have flew past under my radar.

Some stuffs that I'd want for my PLD right now:

-Some stuff to get some HP slack in
-Bahamut Mask
-Jelly Ring
-Wivre Shield
-Trance Belt
-Defending... Ring

-Hades Earring +1...

On a side note: I killed the King of Turtles :3

WHAT'S THIS?!: The Return of BRD... Sorta

I have started playing BRD again, mainly because I'm really not in an LS that kinda uses BRD in such a way that makes the job completely boring. Unfortunately, I sold a lot of my original BRD gear and as such, I'm kinda reduced to picking up scraps and trying to get enough to do enough. Recently, I did get AF1+1 BRD Hands and a Kirin's Osode back in UF. Not bad for a return to BRD really... though I could use a Wind Torque and get rid of my damn Bird Whistle.

ANOTHER VERSION: Mogknight as a Mage?!

Yeah... I finally broke into a Mage Job (and BRD doesn't count). Currently at level 44, I've been soloing and partying my way up slowly. I intend to get this to 75 soon. With the Anniversary Ring making its return, it might help a lot! :3

By the way: this job is really lax... which is cool, it lets me play The World Ends With You on my DS while I EXP!

SOUL ON FIRE: Return of DownRightFierce

Life has been pretty great in terms of our new Linkshell. Within a week we managed to tackle our first Tier 2 Sea God and got some nifty items along the way~ So far, every battle we've been in involves some level of epic-ness. Now, one would assume when something epic happens, something wrong must have occurred for it to be epic. Well, here's what was "wrong" with most of these battles: They're all mostly small-maned.

It isn't because our LS is small (it is for now at least with around 16 some members), but the fact that we do a lot of our farming "on the go." We do plan these out but a lot of members opt to head straight to Sea or Sky whenever they feel like and tackle on these NMs. Pretty nice thing really, allows us to challenge ourselves and have the odds against us.

By the way: Trioing Despot PLD/NIN, RDM67, and BLM/RDM can have some hilarious results, especially involving another LS trying to get in your way while kiting. >:3 Too bad that couldn't stop the Mog.

Temperance on the other hand...

Actually...

If there was one thing that didn't go as planned: Failed HNM Limbus Run. :3 Hey, gotta have something imperfect to be perfect.

And finally: A CFH'd Charby

The drama for the Joytoy never ends.

As for random stuff that occurred:

- Epic Temperance Battle
- Almost snagged a Faust vs JP
- Diorite drop rate sucks
- Ix'DRG dropped a Vice... but Ix'DRK hates us.
- btw: Ix'DRK RR 8 times. So far the record is like... 19?
- Had a really smooth Faith run. Lissy was showing off her tanking skills.
- Took us about 12 Sharks to get an HQ right before we were going to do hope. Koki made NQ Organs drop like mad.

As for myself:

- Still wanting Usukane
- Running into a lot of random NMs lately
- Urge to level NIN rising
- Had a BCNM40 group get 2/3 on Peacock Charm
- PLD DD Build in the works. Need Askar Body. >.>;

And finally: Why not to play Galka in FFXI.

So that I don't have to go back to this again~

... Why do I hate Limbus?

!!!

To the uninitiated, Limbus is a little "battlefield" type of deal (really don't like that word to describe Limbus btw) where you can take up to 18 players to fend off enemies and reach the goal. Along the way, you'll encounter Ancient Beastcoins and various AF1+1 materials. Sea access (beat Promathia Mission 8-1) is required. Also, as far as I know, there is no level limit and there is a time limit of 72 hours before Limbus can be attempted again.

Limbus is one of those things where you can go through and just race to the goal but you'll end up with no coins or materials. Limbus is also one of those things where you can farm the crap out of coins and materials and never hit the goal. Of course then theres a way to strike a balance between the two.

Unfortunately, throughout my experiences doing Limbus, you either have one or the other. Back when I ran Limbus in the DynamisLordHNMLS days (on Cerberus), Limbus was new and trying to figure out things was fun. Fast forward to DRF days, most of our runs consist of just grabbing a bunch of coins. I eventually got all the AF1+1 I need and even a Brutal Earring. Though this is where it got repetitive, especially since Limbus was still 50k and coin prices were falling.

Then currently in UF, we bring a whole army to Limbus just to get chips.

... Nifty.

Its also pretty bad when it becomes a split run, then people who just suck will suck more because they're no longer covered by a huge army.

That's actually one huge complaint that I have with this LS. People that suck and keep on sucking in a sucky sucky suckiness like sucking way.

SUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK...

Going back to what I was saying. Eventually you'll hit a point where Limbus just becomes mechanical. Everything becomes prescripted and it just gets dry every time. Its not even a skill thing, its a boring bum rush. The only enjoyment I get out of it now is going in with a small group. Unfortunately, linkshells need Homam and Nashira. Smaller groups can't take down Omega or Ultima (unless they were really really good) and linkshells, being filled with sucky people, often restrict Limbus as being In-LS only. Well, crap. >:( If Moggie wants to do Limbus with Lissy, Moggie can't because UF will bite me in the ass for it!~

suuuuccckkk <.<;

Well, if anything, Limbus does have some nice items out of it and can be enjoyable... but with how linkshells run that stuff nowadays, its just garbage really. Personally, we (the players) have improved so much that Limbus is beatable with just a typical TP burn setup, even more so with the 2h update.

Moggie hates it still... but I'll still take my homams~ Thankfully, the only one I need left are the feet. Maybe I'll level THF someday that would warrant me wanting the body... but, that's way later from now.

On another note: The Feast of Swords event is currently taking place. Go smack some Samurai today... just not me! >:3

The Lament of DRF (3/5): Nuclear Halocausts Never Looked So Colorful

I think out of everything I've experienced in FFXI in terms of communities and linkshells falling apart, this is probably the one that could have been so easily avoided, so easily prevented. Yet the irony of it all befits the end of DownRightFierce.

I think it was towards the time where I was trying to chill at a friend's house (in real life mind you) and I wanted to check up on my linkshell to see how things were going on. Mind you, this was after Liseth left the game (and the linkshell) but before she came back to go to Carbuncle.

You know, now that I think about it, the "sacks" and "shell" and leaders and who is in charge... You can sort of, in a sense, call it a selfish reason to tell people what to do.

Anyways...

I was glad there were some hard liquor that night. Perhaps it is wrong of me to make a big deal about a game and a group of people that play with within that game, but when I treat those people as if they were a part of my own online family, it kinda sucks knowing stuff is falling apart, stuff is flying out the window, people are going bonkers and nuts over things.

Ever had the feeling that your own thoughts were simply implanted in you by your own peers, in order to make things peaceful and uneventful? I think I have this feeling all the time.

I think Nyanoh, being the sweetest mithracat that I know, probably got the very blunt end of all this among the sacks. I mean, you exit the game (which btw, if i recall, Thelan was pissing the crap out of her by requesting haste so damn much) and take a break to get married to the luckiest guy in the world (Pascale) and you come back and POOF, shit happens... that is just wrong to ask of a human to deal with, no matter who the heck you are.

You also have to sit down and consider what everything kind of means at this point. DownRightFierce became home to the lootwhores. At least, this is what I felt when even my own sacks were just throwing emotional fits over items. As stated before, I think a lot of people noticed this and thankfully, they left when they did. It was just going to boil up more inside them and worse crap is gonna happen. A good example was Synthetik, a fairly cool Mithra THF that I know and I respect the guy for what he does.

You know, I wouldn't want to be in DRF if I wasn't the leader of it, at this at this point in time.

Back to Synthetik. I think he left right around the time Thelan was leveling THF and I'm pretty sure, while not immediate, he left due to that fact among other things (I think Thelan was pissing him off quite a bit... see the trend?).

You know, anger is a hell of an emotion.

Thelan stepped over the line many times. Really he has. It has been pretty hard to keep interest in running the shell when I have to constantly keep an eye on the guy just to make sure he doesn't say the wrong shit. Heck, we had our arguments and I'm pretty sure that demoralized some people.

You figured I would have been just fine running the linkshell with Liseth and Nyanoh and just stick to my systematic way of going about things...

What sucks is that a lot of friendships and trust kinda blew apart in this LS. A bit of a sad thing considering where everyone came from.

So how did DownRightFierce end? A few said it ended before it begun, a few said it ended when Liseth left, a few said it ended when I left, many got to experience the actual ending when Thelan called it quits.

Lets refer back to those moments and you can decide.

August 13th 2007: Liseth leaves the game.

During the past few weeks prior to this event, Thelan was out with his family but struggles to stay in the linkshell, trying to do things with his limited computer. This caused a bit of drama among the crew, considering that Thelan, while trying hard to make events, often half-assed things though unintentionally. What really peeved off a lot of people was when we had 2 Kirins and we had 2 people set for W. Legs. One other person (I forgot who, sorry) and Thelan in that order. Thelan was not at all in the first Kirin but was pulled up for the second Kirin since the W. Legs would drop there and then. While I honestly did not care too much, many other people did.

It kept getting worse, they try to make it to meetings but a lot of the meetings end up being emotional garbage, either due to people being crabby or people stepping on the wrong foot. Remember when I said Thelan should shut his mouth sometimes? Oh, I didn't say it like that... maybe I should more actually. But yeah, Thelan should have kept his mouth shut and stop causing problems, as things were already in bad shape.

The tension between the sacks grew a bit out of control here, especially since Liseth and Nyanoh wanted to encourage more Sea based events but Thelan and Lillie, though a bit rough and emotional about it, wanted more Sky based events. I, being the person who wants progress and really wanted to satisfy what most of the people wanted (and that was primarily less Sky), I went towards Liseth and Nyanoh. What made it harder was the fact that I, at the time, was in love with Liseth though in no way was I influenced in my decision to do more Sea because of her. I wanted progress, I wanted the Linkshell to go places, I did not want to sit down and do what we have done for the past year.

(btw: It was all Sky, all the time)

One meeting, Thelan and Lillie decided to desack themselves. In a rage of panic, we all tried to convince them to come back. This, was perhaps, my greatest mistake and I regret this moment to this day. If I knew DRF was going to end up the way it was going to be, I would have easily cut Thelan and Lillie out of the picture.

You may be saying "Well Mog, you're pretty damn harsh about this, aren't you?" Well... I don't think I was harsh at all during my entire run of DRF.

Liseth pretty much didn't want to deal with it all. Understandable, it is just a game and bad politics is just not something anyone wants to deal with. It was a pretty emotional time, it was almost as if she was the forth coming of a new era in DRF but instead was shot down.

This was to be the thing that started my own down fall.

October 30th 2007: My exit and also my Birthday! :D

I always contemplating leaving the linkshell, leaving the game, leaving this stuff behind and moving on. It wouldn't be until 3 some months later that I would do that. Nyanoh left for WhirlingWind eventually, mainly due to how upset she was towards Thelan and Lillie about what had occured. I was down to 3 sacks. Homeslizzle was chilling, he knew it, he knew it pretty well that I was at my worst. Lillie and Thelan just kinda kept going for what it was worth. I was spazzing out all the time, going on emotional fits all the time.

Mogknight was no longer a leader at this point. I didn't want to tell people what to do, I didn't want to be that charismatic leader that people look forward to. I was an empty shell of my former self.

I left shortly before my birthday, when my classes were getting rough and everything just kept piling on me. Everything else beyond this point in time would involve me living in Carbuncle.

December 11th 2007 - The Death of DownRightFierce

I have nothing to really say about this, other than the fact that I know the community of the linkshell disbanded at this date. Who knows what went on other than those who were in DRF.

... I guess that's the bare gist of it all.

Now what the heck am I gonna talk about for the next 2 chapters...?

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.

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. >.>