Yes, it's a game, but, as long as I'm here, I'm here to win it...

There's a reason I want to leave Asura. (The only reason I haven't is that the World Transfer Service costs $25 to change servers, and, being on a limited income and trying to help a roommate pay her rent here is an issue sometimes...)

A little background on how I'm playing right now, first: I have a 75 Beastmaster which I use, right now, for meriting in Campaign (and for anything which requires a 75 to complete). My 57 Dancer is helping my Adventuring Fellow (Sharlene, now level 57 herself) through her quests. My 54 Dragoon is farming Recollections and Memories in the Promivyons (and some of the Memories are quite profitable -- several hundred thousand gil in the last half-month or so).

(Hello to third Mog House Safe expansion, seventh Gobbiebag expansion, Garrulous Ring, Magi Coat and Silken Hat, several expensive 50-ish Red Mage spells, etc...)

And my 55 Red Mage (which I use as my sub for healing and buffing in Campaign) gets levelled in Besieged.

Therein lies the problem.

I now have about 40 players on my blacklist, and they basically all are from Besieged incidents.

Basically, what I have seen on Asura (historically, either the worst Besieged server of all the servers on Final Fantasy XI, or very close) is that the people do not actually care if they win the Besieged or not. They are more interested in the personal rewards or their own character advancement.

This is done in two ways relevant to this rant:

1) You can skill up your weapons and spells and skills in Besieged. (You can not if you are tagged as taking part in Campaign, for the record.)

2) You can basically try to recruit parties for various quests, missions, etc. you wish to have completed. Goes on all the time in Aht Urhgan.

OK. The problem comes in when it's clear that the players take these actions independent of whether the Astral Candescence is kept in Al Zahbi or not.

I mean, we're technically under Martial Law here, and all non-combatants were ordered out of Al Zahbi when the Beastman army breached the final defense line and entered the city.

That means: We have one task -- one -- until the Beastman retreat. Keep the Astral Candescence.

That means you take whatever actions you have to. Fight, a suicidal Diaga (which I've done more than a few, to try to get a mess of monsters off an Allied General), actually Raise someone*, Cure what you can find to be cured, etc.

You don't shout for something which has nothing to do with the Besieged and only to do with your sorry, greedy little character. If you aren't in to fight, get out of the Besieged.

*This also could apply to those people (of whom there are more than a couple in every Besieged, it seems) who die (as is quite expected in the Besieged), and then just lay there. Raises, which are not MP-cheap, are wasted on these people, and their presence takes up valuable resources which do not allow the players who don't have tricked-out computers *raises hand as one* to see all the relevant action going on.

I'm sick of it. If I see it, they MIGHT get one warning. But if a group of people are doing this, then they probably are going to go on the blacklist.

And then I'll let people know to get on task.

That leads to the other complaint:

"Chill out. It's just a game!!"

The fact that I'm a very competitive person is lost on these guys.

The fact that I find Besieged a wonderfully intense part of FFXI is also lost on these guys.

But the fact is: I know I'm in a game -- but, if I'm in the game, I'm here to win it. Otherwise, I can be doing something else (for FFXI, see above!). When the rest of the server decides they don't care whether we keep the Astral Candescence, it restricts my ability to advance in Besieged by helping Asura win and gain a winning streak. At that point, it is my business.

So, as was once famously said: "You play to win the game." In Besieged, either play to win, or get the f--- out.