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"If it's not fun, don't do it."
Karlach
God of Kittens.
The title of this story is my mantra to gaming, I first adopted this attitude after leaving a rather toxic raiding guild in Warcraft about 7 years ago, and it's served me well ever since.
The hardest part of this however, is to accept the following as an inevitable truth if you wish to follow it. There are things in gaming you'd like, things you want, but if you don't find the necessary tasks required to obtain these things fun, and more to the point the opposite of fun, accept that these things are things that you are better off without.
Ultimately nothing in a game is worth your personal happiness, and more importantly your well-being.
I've toyed with telling this story now for some time, afraid it'll come across as a self serving "I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am" boast. I hope people can look at it in a different light than that, this isn't a post about "How effing great was I?" where I'm asking for your plaudits and compliments. It is simply a timeline of events from my perspective, and the challenges I believed I faced at the time, the backstory to put things in perspective, and the method to an awful lot of madness.
It's been a year since I first started making plans for this year's Ascension. Was it premature? Probably. Was it overkill? In hindsight, absolutely certainly. Was it fun doing it? Most of the time it was a blast.
If I could go back and do it all again would I do it exactly the same? No, I'd certainly go back and try to win it again, but I wouldn't do everything the same way.
So for anyone who's eyeing up next February and thinking "I want it." Here's my story of the last year, perhaps some it'll give some people inspiration, but more hopefully people will learn from my hindsight as to what's planning and what's simply overkill.
Last summer was pretty crap, in the real world I'd fallen out with my mother and stepfather, an argument that meant I wouldn't properly speak with either of them for several months, and the story of my dad has been well chronicled here already. So I would escape life and throw myself head first into the game, except the in game scenario wasn't exactly a bed of roses either. All the old senior combatants had got jobs or stopped playing for various reasons, except Synkarin who'd gone to Hallifax. It was at this time Glomdoring elected to raise Morkarion as a VA.
It was exciting but terrifying at the same time. Glomdoring was lacking experienced combatants, Gaudiguch was in the same boat and Magnagora had gone on summer vacation. Morkarion had been raised as a symbol of leadership, at the time it (personally) felt like Glomdoring was cashing in its chips on a single roll of the dice. No pressure, right?
My play time during this period shot up, I'd be on every day, around the clock, I shifted my hours to deal with when we'd be most likely raided, and then stick around to when we'd most likely have people on to gain some measure of success. I would forego sleep to watch revolts and flares like a hawk when they were due, I'd attempt to steal domoths the moment they came off flux if the time was right, who cares if I should have been in bed? Small victories, anything to install momentum and confidence, I was still learning a great deal about group combat myself, target calling and mechanics. I felt like a guy who had been given a promotion maybe too early, and was bluffing his way to try and get a lucky break.
In hindsight I've realised I was given the tools to grow into them, and any expectation of immediate delivery was entirely self placed. A lesson for anyone who steps up to the reins, anyone who expects immediate overnight success can quit whining and start leading themselves, the rest of your group will appreciate someone willing to step up and learn.
I learned that most people didn't take aetherflares that seriously. Last summer you could solo a flare most hours of the day, competition was low and preparation was terrible. I made that my focus, we couldn't take revolts with such lack of numbers, so let's go conquer aetherspace! Over time victories started to chain up, we didn't just win flares in Glomdoring but we helped out Gaudiguch and Magnagora. There was one point in the summer that despite holding no domoths or villages, we completely wiped the north of the aetherspace politics list.
Now I can't take pure credit for all of this, the people who had confidence in me, who supported me, who stepped up and learned to fight, people that I could rely on. People like Kio, Feyda, Chade, Alary, Tacita and Uruk who were with me week in, week out. People like Vadi and Shuyin who, despite entering the world of real life employment, helped out when there was time spare.
So what does any of this have to do with Ascension? Well, I had a three part plan.
1: Win a seal - This was already something I'd been working on, it was a plan I'd been formulating since roughly 3 hours after I lost Death that year, when I should have been sleeping and couldn't. It became an almost unhealthy obsession.
Between the bitter determination of not wanting that feeling of disappointment again, and the later fear of my plan failing at the first hurdle, I would revise this plan time and again, mock runs, theorycraft, and character investment in the necessary artifacts to be on the bleeding edge. In the end the plan worked, better than I ever expected at the time. I can only say in hindsight I would not have lost sleep over it the way I did. Logging on at random hours "just to test" something I could have done the next day.
I won't go into details of the actual plan itself, because what isn't already common knowledge, is stuff I plan to teach anyone from the south who is making a serious push for it this year.
2: Be the clear choice candidate, not just for Glomdoring but for the entire south. This was the part I was working on, not just the fighting and getting results, but the politicking the planning and handing drama. Ideally Glomdoring would repeat the previous year and not only have the lion's share of the seals, but the south's entire threshold. That was something I spent a lot of time on (and was actually rather fun!) both as pre-prep and during Ascension itself, I never missed a single event this year, and whether I was encouraging people to spar for War, debate for Justice, setting up shrine areas for Chaos, running through Tacita's plan for Uruk before going shattergrief with Synkarin for Harmony, or being on the losing side of a surprisingly well co-ordinated Life victory, I turned up to every event. One piece of advice I'll give anyone who wants to put their shot in for TA, make sure you're supporting your side at every event you can make, people aren't going to be inclined to follow someone with an "I've got mine, screw you all, see you in a few weeks." attitude.
But Glomdoring having total seal control wasn't something I could rely on, and in the end didn't.
In fact I'm not sure if this ever made public knowledge, but in the end a gentlemen's agreement was made between myself and Eritheyl: first to the staff wins. Gaudiguch had their first ever seal bearer, and it was understandable they weren't going to surrender their shot willingly.
There are so many "what if's" when you go through a plan to win Ascension, what if I'd lost Death, what if Eritheyl had grabbed the staff, what if Synkarin had stayed in Hallifax, if Shuyin/Viynain/Vadi and the entire of Magnagora hadn't returned a few months later and instead Veyrzhul/Malicia/Nydekion/Shedrin all returned instead?
Ultimately you cannot plan everything, and some things will be left to chance. You can calculate probability and likelihood and be wrong, so focus on affecting the outcomes that you do have an impact on, and making sure you do what you can to get a favourable result.
That being said..
3: Eliminate the competition. This is the biggest regret I have of my all my planning, and I'd love to say it was planned from the start, but in truth it was born out of consequence. Synkarin moved to Gaudiguch, Magnagora's population gained a massive upswing, Hiriako moved to Glomdoring, and as I had banked, several combatants in opposition retained their status as fair weather fighters and left when the going got tough. The South once again had the upper hand, villages, domoths, flares, nodes, I could sit back and probably catch up on sleep, right?
Except I'd seen over the summer what the slightest sniff of morale had done and didn't want that opportunity to return. I spent a lot of time building bridges with other combatants, mostly while griefing the north. Realms were raided, guards were slaughtered, Celest got almost all of their statues pulled down and the Pool had a tainted meld running all over it. It was absolute overkill, unnecessary and in hindsight the wrong thing to do, did it kill morale before Ascension? Certainly. Maybe not in everyone but in enough people that with the exception of Life, it was a more one sided affair than the year before.
If I ever had to go back and do this all again, this would be the biggest "do not repeat" element of the whole plan. I too often take to conflict with a very "total war" esque attitude, and won't be satisfied with knowing an opponent is beat until they clearly can't get back up. While that's great for people on your side, it sucks to be on the receiving end, losing is bad enough, being ground into the dirt till your resolve is broken is the point where people go find another game is just ugh. I know, and should have known better because I'd been there before, and it's all too easy out of fear of being on the receiving end that people come down heavy on opposition before it has a chance to form.
Everything in Lusternia is temporary, villages revolt, bubbles flare, domoths flux and nodes reset every 2 weeks. Ascension is a once a year event, not a once a life time, while you're sat there stewing for another year (and in the case of some people in this game they've been biding their time now for several) the opportunity will come again. It's easy for me to say it now, I know, but nothing in this game is worth driving other players away.
I can't say for certain if my actions did or didn't, I'd like to hope the latter but would accept the former if that's how it turned out for some people, and I'd like to take this moment to say I'm sorry. I had a goal, a focus, and an obsessive drive to achieving something.
If there's any other advice I can share, it's that I never took anything for granted. I may have had some b.s. notion in my head that no one deserved it more than me, prior, but despite what others were saying, I never assumed it was a done deal that I'd win Death, or Ascension itself. Assuming x person will be there for you, while y person won't show up for them will throw a spanner in your works if your plan is rigid on setup. Don't assume who is or isn't there till they log on. Never get cocky and presume you've won till the challenge is over and your name sits at the top of the scoreboard, a lackadaisical attitude leads to oversights and mistakes, and there's very little room for second chances.
Oh, and sleep for the love of god, even if it's the night before your big day, sleep. It's not worth panicking over, honestly. And when you wake up, eat and have something to drink. Running on adrenaline and caffiene is not healthy, especially when you start hallucinating.
And ultimately, it's never too early to start planning and practising. For some seals, Anniversary games are but a few months away. Make the most of the time you have now, and don't do it all last minute.
Good luck.
And ultimately, it's never too early to start planning and practising. For some seals, Anniversary games are but a few months away. Make the most of the time you have now, and don't do it all last minute.
Good luck.
The divine voice
of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations,
Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
12
(c) Iron Realms Entertainment 2012.
Comments
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?
If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
It wasn't zero though, if it was zero, people wouldn't have tried for seals, Death and Justice were among the last seals to be decided and Celest still showed up. For Ascension itself, people from Celest showed up and fought right up to the fight was over, that's not what you do at zero morale.
Also Hallifax didn't exactly avoid the indiscriminate violence. It's actually really hard to facestomp an organisation that doesn't focus on PK as a mainstay. Aerys had a plan for Life that worked, and it paid off, meanwhile Justice and Knowledge are events down to the individual.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?
If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?
If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
This is me pretty much every Ascension. From the day of the first Seal competition until the Staff is claimed, I tend to be pretty scarce, but not because of getting my face ground into the dirt, but because that time brings out the worst in players, the most lag, and the most frustration. So I simply don't participate. I have 0 fun during any Seal competition except Knowledge, and -0 fun during the Ascension itself. I'll probably have to show up this year, though.
I feel like this year, they made a ton of adjustments for people outside the normal time zones. For the first time, there were events going on at times way outside the standard ranges (previous years it has always been something like 8pm EST for every challenge, or midafternoon- 4pm-ish).
Just don't use the fulcrux routes.
Edit: I've been corrected on this, apparently some people do declare hinder on prime. The only actual killing takes place in Fulcrux though.
Edit of edit: Huh, actually turns out someone is daft enough to do a one time kill on Prime during Nature... that's makes you about as much use as a chocolate radiator really when you can't do anything to impede them afterwards.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
Gather everyone you can and work out your best shot, and start helping put a plan together for it. I've noticed Seren of late has a more "can do" rather than "do for me" attitude to things.
Quite frankly, if Seren/Mag get a seal this year and break their duck streak, it'll be for the better.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
So nobody's really absolved of the "Ascension cruelty", which is ironic because in the end we're all working together to punch Kethuru in the face.
I absolutely hate the idea of "if it's not fun, don't do it." That can only lead to selfishness and hedonism (maybe I've been playing in Hallifax too long)?
But if everyone really did that? You'd be looking at a dead Lusternia right now. It would go back to being 3 orgs in a freeforall -- Magnagora, Gaudiguch and Glomdoring. Because the north would just stop playing. Because it really was that bad.
People that lived through the Magnagora stomp last summer: can you really tell me you logged in because you were having fun, or because you were trying to anchor your city's place in the game? To give the notion that "hey, we still matter, beware us in revolts and aetherconflict". That's how it's been in Hallifax, at least for myself. I gather that it was much of the same way before Lisaera came in and was so awesome that Serenwilde surged in population again.
We all make sacrifices for this game, from staying up for revolts/flares to spending millions of essence in a domoth fight that is difficult to find victory in and wildnodes.
Tacita and Kiradawea -appeared- to want to change the dynamic of Ascension and make it less of a cutthroat killfest, but apparently we weren't ready for that.
EDIT: Basically, I don't understand. Mork, you said you had a "blast" doing all of this. So you're having fun. And doing it. Are you advising us to not go as far as you did for Ascension or...?
Rather than a sort of do as thou wilt, I'd read the post as encouragement to avoid burning out or ruining your own surroundings.
If you're one of those people who only has fun when they're winning, then sure it'll lead to you being selfish, and we've a lot of fair weather fighters in the game. Ultimately those are not the people with the mentality to win seals in the first place: "Why bother if I can't guarantee I'll win?" Those really the kind of people you'd want as TA? However, there's plenty of people in this game who don't need to win to enjoy themselves, a solid losing effort and the value of hindsight for next time is enjoyable, moreso because you can take what you've learned and turn it into a win next time.
Though what Sidd is saying is also rather different to what I'm talking about, I'm discussing the, excessive, efforts I went to to win, he's talking about people who go "Why bother even turning up to help our side win events?" With the exception of War (which I still don't understand why no one entered) the north had people competing in every single seal. In the PK related events (Chaos, Death, War) XP loss is free, nature is easier the more people you have helping solve riddles (and take the initiative to be a quick teleport target for your competitors), Justice is an "any given sunday" and Knowledge and Beauty are down to the individual. The only two that need co-ordination and aggressive play are Life and Harmony. Harmony had Kelly constantly inquisitioning Uruk while Sidd and I were shattering Ryboi and Pejat, and other people going for Ixion. Life was the North playing rough and it got a result, but a result wasn't guaranteed beforehand, infact in the early stages Anita built quite a lead.
Sidd's right, people in leadership going "Oh why bother" are being poor examples to follow. The things I regret doing weren't during the event, they were in the run up to it. Ascension itself I did nothing I'd regret, except the lack of sleep. I got so nervous, especially after Life when Death was the next day, that I didn't sleep at all.
Thing is "fun" is subjective. What one person finds fun, isn't another person's cup of tea. What I'm saying is, don't go beyond what you find fun, to win Ascension, because it might be overkill, but it will certainly burn you out. Anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention to how often I play will tell you that until recently, I've been on nowhere near as often as I use to be. Not even as much as I use to be before I got the idea in my head of going for TA, and that's because I wore myself out unnecessarily.
You're also selectively quoting there, the phrase was "most of the time." And most of the time, it was. However, there were incidents where I did go too far, and it did become overkill. There are things I did that, in hindsight, were unnecessary and with hindsight I'd not go so far again. That's what I'm trying to pass on here, that yes, what I did to win worked, but you don't need to go that far, at all. I know there are people possibly already making plans, coming up with ideas, trying to tug at the strings and shift odds in their favour, and that's great. The people who prepare are the people who give themselves the best chances to win, and I encourage that.
I just wanted to give my own insights from what I did, which was excessive, some of it was unnecessary, preparation is key to Ascension and I will encourage people to prepare. But don't sacrifice your own personal well-being, and in the long run, some things are going "too far." Would people be going "Don't bother, what's the point?" before Ascension if they weren't talking from the perspective of their face still in the mud under a boot? Some would because the game would still be too much conflict with no guaranteed win, but I'll be honest I don't really care for those people, on either side, at all. But some people who do fight, would fight, look at Life as an example of what happens when the North gets its shit together.
I didn't get to see much of the fighting in Death but I heard in the FFA brawlfest that was going on while Kelly and I were chilling in untouchable icedigger pits (still needs fixing) the North had the upper hand in the early fighting. It's just a pity there was no way to capitalise on that because the plan made me untouchable for a good 20 minutes. Come Ascension itself I was one perfect fifth away from being a dead man at 3500+ points, which could have lead to the most amazing "what if" scenario. The chances were there, and having a gameplan of wiping out the competition before it starts is limited in effectiveness at best, because people still came, and the effect it has in the long term does more harm than good.
If you want a TL:DR for Ascension, here it is. Play to win, just don't play to win at any cost.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
Btw Sidd is right. New Lusternia it's way more tame than before but it was also livelier then.
Btw no one played I'm war because team pfifth into deathsong is unbeatable. Please let me keep getting 500 credits every year. It's all I can get!