from allyson to everquest

_____

interview:

so the allyson thing

(yeah fuck allyson. you know what? im gonna do myself a favor right now, and get rid of allyson from my fucking life. fuck allyson. 'cause you know what? i look at this now, i really believe allyson is the reason why i ever thought about braking up with. and here's another thing, of all the relationships ive been in, you're the only one i've said i wanna break up to. so it's like ,allyson fucked me over, she fucked up my mind, and i don't like that. so i'm getting rid of my facebook, probably changging my phone number, blocking her on facebook, and getting rid of her number .and i dont wanna see her or talk to her again. 'cause i don't think... that anybody who... is... so willing to sabotage my relationship... is worth keeping in touch with. especially when i know that my relationship with you is the best relationship ive ever had, the best relationship youve ever had, and there's nothing wrong with our relationship. its healthy, i love being around you, i love talking to you, we have fun, we're trying to be body friendly. and... why would i wanna get rid of that. this is a little bit of our relationship and there's so much more. and once... i... get on some kindof a regular schedule we'll be doing what we want to do every day. this apartment will be organized. we'll be where we want to be. you and i have plans that last for the next 8 years .i don't wanna do anything to chop that plan off. i like that plan with you. i like being with you. and anyone who is encouraging me to just end it with you, i do not wanna beinvolve dwith them. i dont care about them. i care about you.)

yeah i mean like. thing is... she basically like... all that nonsense to me about her... that she was trying to tell me the day i was talking to her. and she had the fucking nerve to tell me i had a problem. i think she was basically assuming that you hadn't told me about this. because if you had then that conversation would've gone alot differently

(and the thing i just neve rput the pieces together before. 'cause she said something to me so early on in the relationship that i just didn't think that it really was significant. and then... looking back now, it's like, the many times that i've said i've wanted to break up with you is just rediculous and i honestly think its because of the one time that she said that she thought that i should break up with you. and you'd think that if somebody says something like that itts just a one time thing it doesnt matter you know. but like then in the back of your head you'rre always tihnking about it. especially when they're maaking a point. like me ,im a columbus girl i was born ehre i was raised here andd... basically like... i haven't gone outside of my city really. and then... i have friends here... like everythings here, friends family. and then when i leave it, allyson was probably one of my closest friends at the time who could actually keep in touch with me. so she had the most influence on my decisions i guess. i just didnt know it. and whe nshe brings up, oh, youre gone now and youre ignoring all of your friend snow. and i want people to like me. but they wont like me if im not trying to do anything with them. but she also is trying to ruin my relationship with you. i dont know.)

thats the part that i dont like. like basically, for me, its like... this person whose like a friend of yours. whose birthday i paid shit for. i fucking convinced people to pay for her fuckin birthday. and like... if our relationship was successfully sabotaged, i dont know where i would be. maybe still in dayton. maybe in england. but certainly not in a relationship. or maybe i would be in a relationship with another person. i mean it would've been two years. but honestly like... if i was in a relationship with another person, i don't think that they would be quite the match that you are for me. i mean we're like the fuckin perfect match. i've dated my fair share and i've also had crushes on my fair share. and there's something about you, its more than the simple facts about you. its like... i dont know you hit the right spot for me. and thats kindof rare to find that really. like i dont think ive ever found that before. maybe i would find that again maybe i wouldnnt i dont know. but the thing is of all the people ive known youre pretty much the only one whose been lke you. and then to tihnk that allyson this person who i was nice to... and like... its funny because i didnt get along with her anyway

(and this is why. i dont like how it took me so long to figure tihs out.)

well i mean like, i like the way youre looking at it,, but i think that like i uh... well the thing about allyson is, there's more than one thing that's wrong with her.

(oh yeah.)

i mean like, i feel like she basically was trying to keep you single and available for her.

(oh like uh...)

she's into you. and maybe when you said she was a close friend, maybe she wanted to be more, and maybe she felt like you guys were getting closer. all i know is... all i know is she has had her fingers in your fuckin bowl... and then she would like talk to me like she was your girlfriend, you wouldn't even see her ever. and she was still talking like you were basically her girlfriend. its like to me i kindof feel like she's kindof scarey.

(well like anyone whose out to ruin you rrelationship with me is gonna be intimidating. as well as anyone whose going to try and ruin my rellationship with you is going to be intimidating to me. im not gonna like it youre not gonna like it. and i think those people need to be avoided. they need t obe gotten rid of and outright avoided. theyre' not worth my time, they're not worth yours. they don't ned my sympathy they don't need yours .i'm not dealing with them anymore you know?)

and like for me its like... the reason why i would sya she's kindof scarey... is because she's probably the type of person who would stab me

(i would kick her fucking ass if she ever laid a hand on you. i don't care how fat she is.)

because i mean like... for her to be so kindof like... manipulative... like... whats that word socio...

(sociopath?)

yeah. i feel like she's a sociopath. she's conservative, she hides her intentions, she's sneaky, and she feels like you and her are in love with each other

(well she's got it all wrong.)

and like imean... the thing is... she's just like... she's got this fantasy in her head... and like... i don't know. she was willing to defend that fantasy by destroying our relationship. and in a wa ythat kinda scares me how far she was willing to go. because imean like... this is somebody from your past who you didnt tell me about. this is the thing you probably should learn. when it comes to people from the past you always have to explain everything. because like i mighta been able to figure this out a year ago. as sharp as you and i are i think i probably would.

(thats why im just like surprised that i didnt just like put these two pieces together .like the whole breaking up nonsense and what allyson said to me s olong ago you know? 'cause i know that you're smart and im smart. and i know when we talk we come up with thigns that make sense. i just dont get why i didnt... if i thought this like a year ago? i would've avoided her. and anybody like her.)

but i mean like... yo ujust didnt trust me enough to let me know. thats ok. i was a stranger to yo uat the time. at the time she was someone who you felt more comfortable with than me. that would explain why you didnt tell me.

(but i just feel bad about it.)

well you shouldnt. we should just be happy that we're this open with each other now. we've gotten to the point where we can be this open.

(yeah and its nicce. sorry.)

but the thing is, again, when you make mistakes, dont basically kick the shit out ofyourself for doing it.

(ok. i wont. this is my relaxing day anyway. im not supposed to kic the shit out myself today. maybe tomorrow.)

here's the thing. you need to learn this. school will be easier. our relationship will be easier. moving countries will be easiier. iff yo ujust stop being so fucking hard on yourself.

(you're right. 'cause like... i'm hard on myself with my grades on school. and the thing is that like... you and i both know that im smart and im capable of good grades. and i work hard at the last minute. but during the rest of the week i just)

play fable

(play fable. like idont have a plan. i dont have a plan for the week... to uh... i dont have a certani place of time where its just that specific period of time is dedicated to me doing schoolwork and... actually im scheduling it in my phone right now since i think its a good idea. im making a time where i specifically am only doing homework. and then i tihnk i should make anotehr time for cleaning... well yo uhave a schedule made for tomorrow. after we're done wit your schedule ill start on mie. hows that sound. my schedule being me doing homework. 'cause need to get into the habit of doing that.)

i think you should stay away from the word habit. it should be basically part of what you do. here's how i think about it. there's a couple things that got me into a rountine but one of the most recent and strng ones was the guidl. because when i was in a gild not only was i doing a routine but i was enforcing it on other people too, when i was like leading and in the leadership. like i wish you could've seen me when i was ii ncharge. because i had alot of fun with it.

(yo ushould've shown me when i met you because thats when you were doing it. im actually surprised you didnt do it. you probably thought i wasnt into gaming.)

actually i wasnt doding it at that time

(oh well that spoop then huh.)

i stoped basically when i came t columbus in 2008

(thats the year that we met)

and like... in dayton it was basically a major thing i did to psas the time. but i had headphones a microphone

(did you talk through it.)

yeah we talked to each other to make the raids happen the right way

(so like that youtube that you showed me. you know what im talking about right?)

basically its more like EQ2sday

(oh. well i was more excited with the youtube clip. 'cause i thought that was really fun and really exciting. and the thing abou tthe guy that ran that everyone got mad at. i could see that person being me.)

you'd be a hardcore player i'd say. especially being my girlfriend i wouldn't let you be the tard.

(oh no i'dbe the tard in na different world. specifically to be theone in the raid who just... i wanna do a raid. i wanna d oa fuckin raid man. we should bring those damn laptops back foor our one week vacation andjust fucking raid. i miss everquest. and guildwars and... ugh.

here's the thing. the reason i dont use those laptops is because of the fans

(lets get new ones)

exactly

(you got a new one though. its in beavercreek.)

its not good neoug. i need liquid cooling systems

(thats gonna be like 5,000 dollars. well OK, if you got... lets say you got um... a laptop and i got a laptop. both were liquid cooling systems. would yo uraid with me? 'cause thhat's one thing i've never gotten a chance to do in everquuest. i've joined a guild, so maybe i'd like to join a guild with a bunch of other people too. and sold stuff and bought stuff. made my character look pretty cool.)

her'es the thing anita... im not sure i wanna commit my time t oplaying that much MMO anymore. 'cause the tihng is... it takes shitloads of time. for me as a leader, here's what i would have to do. firstly my character would have to be fuckin decked out. the reasons were... well first i was competative with the other people in my class... and like... besides being competative, there are abilities that you needed to do certain strategies. so i would have to get those. and like... there were resists and other statistics that i needed on armor. so in everquest they had augments. you needed all of the best augments. because of competativety. but also because it made you a better tank. like... whe nyou tank, youre taking hits. you know what tanking is like by now

(oh i know i wanted to be a tank.)

thats what i was for like 8 years

(with the paladin right?)

yeah

(i love the wizard. i love being the one who just casts shit. but what is the one... th army... the melee attacks. swords and shit.)

well there's a couple classes that do that.

(well i like those too. but those are my two favorites.)

well those are pretty much your two options.

(either magic or sword.)

well thats dumbing it down more than anyone else does, but yeah.

(i dont like the healer dude because i ccouldnt do that .thats actually taking care of people in your group. and i dont wanna be yelled at by people who are like yo ulet me die. i died because of you.)

actually you know. for me i liked healing and ill tell you why. paladins are hybrids. so hyrbid means theyre a mix of two classes, in everquest it was two. and so the paladin was a hybrid of cleric and warrior. the cleric would heal. the warrior is a tank. warriors have the best bonuses for armor.

(thats what i was trying to call it ws a warrior. i just couldnt think of it.)

and like.... so with tanking, its all about your armor.

(youve gotta get the best stuff. you know what? we could totally make our own podcast. like our podcast could be us talking right now and me talking about how we could have a podcast.)

thats why i do these fuckin interviews.

(well i was thinking that you know how the girl and the guy they talk on EQ2sday. like uh... and they probably just do that once a week every tuesday. we could totally do the same fucking thing. they just sit in the room with microphones, push record and talk for two hours. and theyre done .and they get paid for that. i think. no? well... they have fun doing it. and i have fun too. i like talking about everquest, it makes me wanna payu. and i would love to drive to dayton right now and play everquest.)

but the point is... in uh... with tanking. so tanking was all about armor and hitpoints. armor is what you wear. and you also have armor naked too.

(you mean you could be naked with armor?)

well. you would have a base amount. because youre not defenseless naked, youre just nowhere near as defendedd with steel. so like... basically... as a tank you want the attention of the mob. so in everquest there's lots of abilites to get the attenttion. so once you have their attention then your second purpose starts. your second purpose is to take the damage and survive doing it. so the idea is, you wanna make your guy strong.

(mmhmm)

and you also, wanna make your guy pretty attention grabbing.

(like by looks or how they play.)

this is just simply talking in terms of the abilities of a tank

(so you want him to look badass... well if he's going to be a tank he should look like he can take alot of damage right?)

no youre in the wrong direction here

(oh i tried.)

but its like... you have an ability to get their attentioin, it sa button you push.

(ah. its a handy little button. wish i had that button in real life.)

and bsaically. with that ability, and its not just one ability, you tend tohave two to five different choices. and the thing is, if you really want their attention, yo umight have to use all five.. or if there's five different guys and you wanan get their attention quickly, then basically you cycle through and use one ability per guy. they have refresh timers too. which means how long dose it take before you can push that button again. and the thing is... its not always instant. to be able to balance the game right the coders put in delays on the buttons. and that way you cant always use a super powerful abiltiy every second. if you could then the game would be too easy. and they dont want an easy game, they would a challenging tactical and technical game. so the idea is when you have a raid of say forty people, each person has their own set of abilities, but you could think of them as tools. and when youre trying t ofight something rather powerful, they design it so that you can only defeat ti when yo uhave a group of forty. to the perspective of a single guy, the damage would kill you in a second, from this monster. but... when you have a specialized damage taker... and not just one but maybe say five... so that means if the first one dies you still have four more that can handle the damange.

(so basically you need your own group of four or five. and then you can kinda start raids? i dont get it im lost.)

because its cmoplciated.

(so youre saying 5 paladins or warriors as tanks, right?)

yeah and the thing is, the way they've designed the three tank classes, the shadownknights, the warriors, and the paladins. the warriors are the only onesthat can typically handle boss mobs.

(so would you say that if there's two warriors two paladis and one of the... was it shadowknight, would that be a good mix? because i think paladins can heal too right?)

paladins can heal but here's the thing. the healing of a paladin can't keep a warrior up on a boss mob.

(so what if you had 2 warriors one paladin and two shadowknights. in a raid grou a group of forty like you said. those're the five tanks.)

well let me explain a few more things because you kee guessing and you dont know enoughh to get thewhole thing.

(well i like guessing, and i like feeling like i know something. it make sme feel nice.)

ok so anyway. we used to be able to go to 72. then they reduced it and its jus 52 now?

(people in the raid.)

yeah this is the limit on how many you can bring in.

(72 sounds way more badass than 52. 72 people fightin ghte same battle sounds fuckin awesome. i mean come on, yo ucould be your paladi nthing, i could be my wizard from tihgn... i think im a frog, you know i dont remember it might've been a mercenary. and we could fight together with 70 other people. you cant even bump into 70 people in one day. you would be talking to all those people from playing a game. and i na way thats just awesome. maybe youre not in the same room witht hem but who caares .youre playing the ssame game and youre a fucking team. teamwork and communciation. i wanna raid.)

so like, they dont do 72 man raids anymore in everquest. the old shit is too easy. the new shit is designed for about 36 to 42, and they even have 24 man raids, and 12 man raids.

(that sound spathetic ok? that sounds so pathetic. likeok... here's how i see a raid. i fee llike a raid is basically a aprt of the game wher elike... you absolutely need a shitload of people. and i dont mean like ten other people, i mean like 50 other people. and whe nthey make new raid things or whatever... with like... you know uh... the amount of people you'll need is like thirty, it still sounds puny. and it makes me not understand why they wouldnt put the effort into making a new one that required like... a group of 60.)

well here's the reason why they did that. it seems like its an industry standard now, which they all got from everquest 'cauuse WoW creators were everquest players.

(i didnt know that. why didnt they just try to make everquest better. stupid WoW creators. now they have math teachers who are balding.)

see here's the thing, you make a good point, and its basically just disloyalty in the industry. money talked and money was more important than making the game better.

(well you know what? if i were the creator of the game industry, i would kill world of warcraft and i would... give back the dungeons of everquest... where like you start off in a dungeon, and uh... for the higher level people, i would make shit harder... and uh... for the raids i would... require like 60 people a raid... and uh... whatever else you can think of that uh... would make everquest better, i would throw i nthere too. 'cause you've played it long enough to know the flaws.)

here's the thing, back to numbers, the reason why the numbers got smaller in everquest... well basically... its one expansion... see before that point they didnt have really raids. when everquest first came out they didnt first have raids.

(did people just make their own raids.)

pretty much, uh... the thing is... there wasnt much to raid. they didnt design bosses that would take raids. but they put them in there because people were playing that way.

(well its cool that they were doing htat. that right there show sth ecreators of the game actually cared about how people played. they didntt just like... make a gamebased on peoples complaints... they made a game because they wanted it to be awesome. they wanted people to love it. and as more people played it they observed how they played it with larger groups and they made it better with the raids .and i like that. i dont like how... former players of the game decided to just... make a new game... instead of making everquest better, 'cause that totally could've happened.apparently they were qualified to make a game. why couldn't they make the game better .*sigh)

yeah i mean, it is sad how everquest went but it still is good

(i wanna play it right now, or watch youtube videos of everquest. wanna play eq2sday?)

well let me finish what im saying her e'cause you haven't let me finish

(sorry.)

so the thing is, the raids, they were large, they got smaller. first they didnt exist. then they put in things to kill. and they had shitlaods of expansions. i could probably talk to you for an hour on each expansion heh

(mm)

because there are so many memories and edtails and facts that yo ucan just go into that much detail. but here's the thing. the basic concept of raiding is this. raiding is basically, a team to heal, a team to damage, a team to tank, and a team to lead. maybe a team to kite, and ill explain that later, maybe a team to handle tthe adds. maybe a team to mesmerize things. maybe a team to pull. the yalways hav ea team to pull. and so the creators of the game, they would expect players t oplay like this, because they made the content tbased on how they played. so each team, in a raid, would have a set of challenges ahead of it. the tanks would have challenges, the healers. and so heere's the thing, i like to think of it this way. the healers and the tanks thats the damage team, thats the damage taking team. some people like t ojust have a channel for the tanks. and honestly that's "less to worry about." but i find that boring when i play. and the heales would have their channel too. now the thing is, witha channel, only people who were in that channel could read what was said. so the idea is, you have, each team has its own channel. but when you play, all you see is what the raid leader says, unless youre in a channel because youre ona team too. now the damage people dont hav echannels but sometimes the yhave class channels. when i was in charge we had a knight channel. you call the shadowknights and the paladins the knights. some people would want shit for the paladins, but they would put shit for knights to do.

(so like they made the raids where each class would have sometihng specific to do. that only that certain class could do. thats kinda cool.)

and like, yeah youre right, but they didnt always do it so cut and dry like that. sometimes there wouldn't be something to do for the knights. and when it comes to the damaging classes they were all pretty much looked at the same

(thats why they call themtanks.)

no tanks dont do damage very much.

(they dont? i thought they were... oh they take dmage)

the damage makers, were the rogues,

(wziard)

no you'd call them a caster.

(well meh.)

because... casters and the melee damage were seperated

(yeah thats why i thought it was cool to get the wizard to hit alot of melee sometimes)

no here's the point... the reason why they were seperated is because shit might get resisted that was casted... where maybe the damage would not from melee. spell damage and melee damage would have different resists. for like the casters, there were different types of magic. they would have different types of resist. cold fire poison, magic. these kinds of things. and there were a few more, disease and corruption i think. so the casters spells were divided by those categories. and you might hav ea boss who was weak to disease. and maybe he had a damage shield so high that if you hitit twice you would die with yor melee. so in that case you would probably have all of your melee stand back and range fiight it with bows and arrows throwing daggers and axes ands tuff... and they would pertty much sit the fight otu 'cause their damage is gonna be pretty low. and if they really wanted to be twisted with the raid, maybe every time someone died, a monster would appear. s othe idea is you dont want anyone on your raid to die because if you do you have more shit to fight. so... since the damag shield would kill people fast, the melee would just do the range damage so they wouldnt die. now... what'll be interesting, is for the tank. because the tank needs to keep the attention of the monster. but basically... for warriors, they get alot of their aggro, which is how you measure how much attention yo uhave, they get alot of their aggro from their weapons. so you would put procs on your weapons. procs are spells that fire off every now and then from yor weapon. so you have hate-inducing procs on the warrior weapons, and thats one of their main ways to hold attention. when a caster casts a spell, it builds hate. if the casteer hate is higher than the warrior hate, then the caster will get aggro. if the caster gets aggro, the mob will move to the caster. and probably kill the entire raid. which means 15 to 20 minutes of recovery, and reorganization. because everybody has to ressurect, loot, get their spells right, get their maan and their health all the way back, report in to their teams, their... sometimes they have 20 minute timers on strong abilties required for fights. plus people need to go to the bathroom get a snack get comfortable. so when you recover the raid leader re-gives the instructions you set up and try again. but you realy dont wanna fuckin wipe because it is a big pain in the ass. imagine forty different people have to ressurect loot get mana. 40 people 40 computers have to do that. you can say stuff by the way.

(i know.)

because i know you want to

(no i dont.)

yeah you do you really do

(no i dont, prove it.)

becausei see you sit there and almost say something and holdback

(well i forgot what i was going to say so its alread ypsased, continue.)

feel free to say whatever yo uwant whenever you want, because i like wwhat you come up with

(well i ususally wait until you pause)

pauses wont happen if im basically trying to explain raids to you

(i know thats why im letting you talk.)

so anyway like... so youve got the boss. sometimes youre fighting more than one boss. they basically always love to mix it up. they wanna keep yo uguessing they dont wnat you to know what to do. and they do whatever tey can to make it a little bit disguised. its kindof like puzzle solving.

(can you watch somebody else raid? like lets say there's a gorup of people 40 or 50 people and theyre all raiding. is it possible for you as an oustider of that group, walk into that same room thatthat grop is raiding in.)

well you used tobe able to. then they made instances and you cant.

(would you like to?)

well there's another reason why you dont wanna do it. standing in the wrong place at the wrong time can entirely wip ethe entire raid

(well thats why i was thinking what if thre was this group that was about to raid rightt? and then like... one person just runs off as like an outsider runs off into te whole raiding thing and then comes back.)

thats called training and also called griefing

(that scalled training? thats not training.)

its derived from the word train

(oh.)

so you sa yyouve got a train of mobs. and its called griefing 'cause it puts people into half an hour of work that they wouldn'thave to do

(well i was imagining if i got on everquest and fucked somebody's raid up. like i made a character just to fuc kup peoples raids nad i never would use that character again.)

honestly i really wouldnt like if you did that

(yeah nobody would. who ilkes the person who fucks up their raid you know?)

i mean thats just outright being an ass. and people who are considered asse sinteh game? they dont get groups. they dont get in their guild.

(they wouldnt get anything 'cause nobody likes them. the asshole gets shit treatment because the asshole is an asshole.)

but you dont even nuderstand they will ercord your name put it on the internet

(thats why i was saying i would never use that character again.)

whatever. anyway, moving on.

(you feel like hating me. i feel like you just put a wall up. you just picked upa pile of bricks nad built a wall. alright.)

its just so unnacceptable for you to even consider doing that

(i wsa just jooking i would never do that, oh my god.)

alright well anyway, so with raiding, the basically center of the raid is like the leadership core. now some people are stupid and they make dumb people officers in their guild. and then all the officers expect to control the raids. so if youre a raiding guild you only wanna have officers that're good raiders. another thing, nobody is going to trani you tobe an officer. so if youre going t osuck at being an officer, youre going to be shitty as fuck and everybody will know it. i mean it is a fucking brutal expereince to make a mistake as an officer. because like i said so many people depend on you to do your job right. so like... basically with everquest the name of the game is splitting up the responsibility into smaller teams. basically like... when it comes to actually making the strategy... unfortunately only a few pepole, or in some cases, only one person makes it. that means that most of teh guild will not get the experience of making a strategy. another unfortunate thing, people post their strategies once tey work. and unfortunately most pepole seem to tihnk its ok to use someone elses strategy. so sometimes nobody gets to make the strategy. even though in my opinion that is the most fun part of the game. so whenever i was in charge i would always discourage people using other strategies. like... i was pretty firm about that. and alot of people didnt like that because they just wanted a quick win. like would you like it if every time you played a game you had a strategy guide with it?

(no.)

so thats basically what happened to raiding. but anyway like... when you make strategies, you wanna try and observe the raid. somee people would parse themselves, and parsing means theyll get all the data. how much damage does this thing do. and like... how much healing are we gonna need to keep the guy alive. then you figure out where youre getting that amount of healing from. andd like i mean... there's other parts of the guild too. how do you hand out the rewards. that's like the thing that gets the most attention. some guilds would do officer awarded. people dnt like that because they might get their friends done first. other peopple might do DKP which i always tried to get my guild to do and a year after i stopped playing they finally started using it. DKP stands for dragon kill points... and the idea is, you get points for every time you help with a raid. and then you can use thos epoints to bid for items that drop. do you have any questions or do you wanna stop talking about this?

(no i dont have any qestions im just listening.)

i think i did what i did earlier today and ive reduced you to a sleeping boerd girlfriend. so lets stop talking about this, and lets change things up to make it a little bit more interesting. OK?

Source: http://roquebruneinterview.blogspot.com/2010/08/from-allyson-to-everquest.html