Is this the end?
Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:22 pmWhat follows are my feeling and my thoughts, and I want to make it clear up front that my conclusions are not written in stone. If you would like to add, or provide further insight, please feel free. I also want to make it clear that if you believe what I'm about to say is a bad thing that I do not blame any one person and I am trying against my nature to not completely blame myself.
Since FF12 has come out, our linkshell has fallen below what might be called a critical mass or an event horizon in another field. Loosely speaking, I will define that in FF11 terms to be enough people so that there are always at least two people on at all reasonable playing hours. Once you fall below this point, you have the effect that Mayous and Almeada have already commented on where someone will sign on and find no one on the shell and leave. Last night, Mayous Suranx and I were all on at the same time but since no one was on when either of them got on they both left by the time I signed on.
FF12 obviously is a large reason for why this has happened. I know for a fact that Sephiros, Almeada, Lordofchaos and myself have been playing it more than FF11 lately. Those players alone would probably be a critical mass. It is not the only problem though. Just in the last few weeks we have lost Mikejones and found out we're losing Mayous to the army. We have also lost Esteban and Kolob to personal issues. Meanwhile the only notable recruit in the last six months who seems to be sticking with us has been Almeada.
I've said it before and I'll say it again now, the reason I decided to play FF11 was the FF. That's all. The reason I play(ed?) almost six hours a day was WanderingSouls. What made the linkshell great was the people that I shared a common goal with. In the beginning no one really knew what the goal was, but we knew we wanted to do it together. This blissful ignorance of what the heck this whole world was about served as a common bond. To an arguable extent, we were successful in that original goal. These days my goals are more obvious and so I find it hard to find someone new with whom I share that same bond.
The first members of the shell as I remember it were 1. Piraya 2. Kolob and 3. Myself. Within days this intrepid group grew with the addition of Aelfwise, Brixba, Deviltwo (Mikejones) and his brother Lydric, Friendlessvoice/Remedy, and Daedric. Many of them left quickly; others stuck around longer, but the only one left is Aelfwise. I don't think it should come as much as a surprise when I say that I consider Aelfwise to be my best friend in the game by far and hope to stick around him wherever our FF11 lives may leave us. I also felt a special bond to my recruits - the people that I invited who became important members of the shell. If I may draw a familial analogy, I should love all my Linkshell "children" equally, but the truth is I loved my personal recruits more. Both Ziquan and Lummox have left us so I don't even have anyone left with whom I share this bond either.
So where does this melancholic diatribe lead us? I still love everyone even if I don't share as strong a bond as I share with the people I listed above. I would be perfectly happy to sit on the shell alone until someone shows up if I knew people were going to show up eventually. However, I don't think it's fair for me to ask others to do the same. As I see it we have two options. We can either try to recruit again and try to rebuild WanderingSouls into the once great linkshell it used to be or we can evolve.
Recruiting is hard. Part of why I wanted to level Montparnasse and do all the annoying things again (Kazham keys, LB etc.) was a hope to recruit people with whom I shared this bond again. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I didn't need to share this bond. I could just ask Lordofchaos, Kaelsam, Aelfwise etc. for help. Secondly, though I had recruited as Claq based on personality alone my view on Montparnasse was already tainted. I was too acutely aware of what made a talented player and just couldn't bring myself to invite a n00b. Finally, the myopic decision of becoming linkshell leader instead of Aelfwise meant that I could never invite people directly as Montparnasse.
If it isn't abundantly clear by now, I think the better option is to evolve. I do not plan on breaking the shell or bringing down the site. The site costs me nothing and one inventory slot out of hundreds doesn't seem like that great of a burden either. I would hope that people would still check the site and keep in touch. Clearly Piraya, Ziquan, Tehya, and Kaelsam still feel the draw to post even though they have all long left the shell. The pundits may ask, "Claq, we could never plan an event while we were a linkshell what makes you think we could plan one if we no longer exist as a full time social linkshell?" I would have to concede that this is true, but I would argue that perhaps by going our separate ways we will actually expand our opportunities. If the leaders from our shell move on and become leaders in new shells we have a much larger possible audience to plan new events. This reasoning isn't completely without precedent. For those that have been around a while we shouldn't underestimate Tehya's role in making us great. She was a member of our shell, but she always had that shell of her own with which her true allegiance lie. Many of our "Linkshell events" of the past were actually joint events with her shell.
Now that I'm done with my magniloquent bombast perhaps I can summarize. I think the days of WanderingSouls being a full time social linkshell may be over for now. I hope that we can keep in touch and continue to enrich each others' playing experience. If you have any comments please feel free to post them, but please keep them positive and as my right honourable friend Bill O'Reilly would say keep them pithy (unlike my own comments).
Since FF12 has come out, our linkshell has fallen below what might be called a critical mass or an event horizon in another field. Loosely speaking, I will define that in FF11 terms to be enough people so that there are always at least two people on at all reasonable playing hours. Once you fall below this point, you have the effect that Mayous and Almeada have already commented on where someone will sign on and find no one on the shell and leave. Last night, Mayous Suranx and I were all on at the same time but since no one was on when either of them got on they both left by the time I signed on.
FF12 obviously is a large reason for why this has happened. I know for a fact that Sephiros, Almeada, Lordofchaos and myself have been playing it more than FF11 lately. Those players alone would probably be a critical mass. It is not the only problem though. Just in the last few weeks we have lost Mikejones and found out we're losing Mayous to the army. We have also lost Esteban and Kolob to personal issues. Meanwhile the only notable recruit in the last six months who seems to be sticking with us has been Almeada.
I've said it before and I'll say it again now, the reason I decided to play FF11 was the FF. That's all. The reason I play(ed?) almost six hours a day was WanderingSouls. What made the linkshell great was the people that I shared a common goal with. In the beginning no one really knew what the goal was, but we knew we wanted to do it together. This blissful ignorance of what the heck this whole world was about served as a common bond. To an arguable extent, we were successful in that original goal. These days my goals are more obvious and so I find it hard to find someone new with whom I share that same bond.
The first members of the shell as I remember it were 1. Piraya 2. Kolob and 3. Myself. Within days this intrepid group grew with the addition of Aelfwise, Brixba, Deviltwo (Mikejones) and his brother Lydric, Friendlessvoice/Remedy, and Daedric. Many of them left quickly; others stuck around longer, but the only one left is Aelfwise. I don't think it should come as much as a surprise when I say that I consider Aelfwise to be my best friend in the game by far and hope to stick around him wherever our FF11 lives may leave us. I also felt a special bond to my recruits - the people that I invited who became important members of the shell. If I may draw a familial analogy, I should love all my Linkshell "children" equally, but the truth is I loved my personal recruits more. Both Ziquan and Lummox have left us so I don't even have anyone left with whom I share this bond either.
So where does this melancholic diatribe lead us? I still love everyone even if I don't share as strong a bond as I share with the people I listed above. I would be perfectly happy to sit on the shell alone until someone shows up if I knew people were going to show up eventually. However, I don't think it's fair for me to ask others to do the same. As I see it we have two options. We can either try to recruit again and try to rebuild WanderingSouls into the once great linkshell it used to be or we can evolve.
Recruiting is hard. Part of why I wanted to level Montparnasse and do all the annoying things again (Kazham keys, LB etc.) was a hope to recruit people with whom I shared this bond again. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I didn't need to share this bond. I could just ask Lordofchaos, Kaelsam, Aelfwise etc. for help. Secondly, though I had recruited as Claq based on personality alone my view on Montparnasse was already tainted. I was too acutely aware of what made a talented player and just couldn't bring myself to invite a n00b. Finally, the myopic decision of becoming linkshell leader instead of Aelfwise meant that I could never invite people directly as Montparnasse.
If it isn't abundantly clear by now, I think the better option is to evolve. I do not plan on breaking the shell or bringing down the site. The site costs me nothing and one inventory slot out of hundreds doesn't seem like that great of a burden either. I would hope that people would still check the site and keep in touch. Clearly Piraya, Ziquan, Tehya, and Kaelsam still feel the draw to post even though they have all long left the shell. The pundits may ask, "Claq, we could never plan an event while we were a linkshell what makes you think we could plan one if we no longer exist as a full time social linkshell?" I would have to concede that this is true, but I would argue that perhaps by going our separate ways we will actually expand our opportunities. If the leaders from our shell move on and become leaders in new shells we have a much larger possible audience to plan new events. This reasoning isn't completely without precedent. For those that have been around a while we shouldn't underestimate Tehya's role in making us great. She was a member of our shell, but she always had that shell of her own with which her true allegiance lie. Many of our "Linkshell events" of the past were actually joint events with her shell.
Now that I'm done with my magniloquent bombast perhaps I can summarize. I think the days of WanderingSouls being a full time social linkshell may be over for now. I hope that we can keep in touch and continue to enrich each others' playing experience. If you have any comments please feel free to post them, but please keep them positive and as my right honourable friend Bill O'Reilly would say keep them pithy (unlike my own comments).
You have been a very good friend to me and done things to make me laugh so hard I cried. Take care buddy. Well this post has gone on long enough and I'm sure your tired of reading this so I'm going to end it with I'm sorry if I didnt directly name you off and Everyone in WS ls has made it a blast to pt, adventure, destroy mobs, get mpked, Lay face down in the sands, and just shoot the breeze with. I will miss you all and I'm a better person for having known all you awesome people. I can say one last comment to always be true