A Day I Thought Would Never Come: A Streak Greater Than The Undertaker's -- OVER -- 3,166 - 1.

Interesting week. Heavy lifting will leave a mark -- pinch bruises on both my biceps and the right one does not look pretty.

Finally getting a breath or two after a very stressful first calendar quarter.

Quick update:

WHM legs +1, RDM hands +1 (completely through Dominion Ops), 8/10 Monk Level 2 Merits (3 Formless Strikes, 5 Invigorates), 83 WHM, 62 PLD, and 1060-something/1600 bynes for my 2nd Relic polearm update.

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And now I must mourn the death of an FFXI game mechanic.

Besieged is now officially dead as a game mechanic. Siren has lost it's first Besieged, finally the last server to do so.

On Sunday, April 10, only eight days short of the five-year anniversary of the release of Treasures of Aht Urhgan, Square-Enix reports that the Astral Candescence on Siren has fallen, and the long-standing record of Siren is now 3,166 victories, but now one defeat.

It has been little secret that the explosion of XP in Abyssea has largely rendered Besieged irrelevant, but this action probably, more than anything, kills the mechanic once and for all.

It was disturbing, after the suspension, to see the Besieged records reset -- but this basically might be the last real action for the Siren server before it gets merged in the major update next month.

I moved to Siren because I felt the Besieged record indicated players who would work hard for the betterment of all -- and it really started that way.

Until the Asura Disease creeped in, little by little...

But now Abyssea has basically eaten Besieged once and for all.

R.I.P. Besieged. I might help out occasionally to visit your grave.

Well, in all my XIII playing, I see I missed something very important...

Quick dispatch from the President and founding member of the Leggy Vanille Fan Club -- can't get enough of her, but they stick her with that dork Sazh????

Congratulations to Siren server on Besieged win #2,500. Two thousand five hundred undefeated wins!!

This is what happens when you have a server who gives a damn...

... and not too many me-firsters at 3:20 AM in the morning, PST...

Doing a middle-of-the-night Besieged, keeping an eye on the weather while my roomie sleeps (expensive computer equipment for Net projects + lightning = too much chance for disaster!). Trolls come in to the undefeated server of Siren at 3:21 AM.

They leave at 3:38 AM!!

SEVENTEEN MINUTES -- _FIVE_ item refills... This for (obviously) a max-force Besieged...

So what's the quickest victory you've ever seen?

You bring that Asura Disease shit to Siren...

... and I will make you fucking regret it.

They will have to ban me at that point.

Well, _that_ only took two days...

1) My first Besieged /blacklist victim. Asshole.

2) A building Dynamis linkshell, roughly the same times I ran on Leviathan (slightly earlier Wed., slightly later Sun.). We'll see how it goes. Participated in an attempted Behemoth camp with them tonight.

Congratulations, Leviathan... The Besieged Pigfuckers Have Won...

The TROLLS, no less!!

I knew it.

I knew it.

I knew it.

I knew it.

I knew it.

Well, that makes it official: My Dynamis shell ever breaks or I'm found unwelcome there, and it's off to another server. Again.

Oh, and, on edit: No guts, eh, asshole??

Some jackasses need a little "education"...

Crystilady, Jesterking, and all you other sad sods from that last exchange in Al Zahbi, this one's for you:

Had another round of the good ol' "I'm just in Besieged for the fucking skill-ups" brigade...

You know, Leviathan used to be a proud server, until some of you shitheads basically overran it with that it was all about "Look at me and my skill-ups. I don't care... The game will make sure we win!!"

It's like you're making them do it for the rest of us -- and then, when it can't make up for your sorry deficiencies, you count on the Japanese to get the Candy back so you can start your mighty little circle jerk again.

So I guess it's no real secret that the numbers of players in end-game events are down -- the winning streaks are evaporating -- and the game is turning into yet another abject joke.

If I were like you guys, the last freaking job I would take to Besieged would be a RDM to try to cure your sorry asses.

If you're not in Besieged to win, I got four words for you:

GET THE FUCK OUT!

Seriously. If all it is about to you is getting that last little skill-up so you can crow it to everyone else that you are so fucking leet and don't really care one way or the other, figuring that Square-Enix will have your backs to bail your asses out, then, please, just don't bother impacting the rest of us.

Oh, and Crystilady: I still don't trust your ass any further than I can throw it -- GM me if you dare.

ON EDIT: Heck, forgot a good part of the rant...

1) I don't play this game to make friends.

2) I don't trust much of anybody to be playing this game without cheating or otherwise abusing either the system or the other players.

3) I haven't had fun in this game in over a year, now. (Maybe a moment or two, but not consistent "fun".)

4) The only reason I still play is, as I said in January when some of your heroes got banned, to spite you.

I was about 15 minutes late for Dynamis last night...

... and I usually don't do this for any in-game stuff at all.

But last night was a historic moment, as of about 6:15 PM PDT.

Leviathan became the fourth server on FFXI to reach two thousand Besieged wins.

(And, this morning, we got #2,001.)

Did I just give a nudge to Square-Enix there???

(And, if not, this allows me to make a post I should've made last week -- as a follow-up to a previous post I made on the blog...)

Congratulations to Siren server on it's 2000+ win winning streak.

And, YES -- though a few days late -- Square-Enix did put it on the official site!

I like how they closed it, and I will emphasize what I believe to be the take-home point:

"We would like to offer our heartiest congratulations to all the denizens of Siren World, and wish good fortune to those in all worlds who do their part in the frenetic defense of the Imperial Capital, Al Zahbi."

I wonder if the official site will do an article on THIS...

I don't think so -- and that's why I mention it here.

Decided to go to the Wiki and update Leviathan's new winning streak (36), and noticed something.

This week will mark a first in the history of Vana'diel.

Siren has been undefeated in Besieged since Treasures of Aht Urhgan has been released.

Sometime this week (it'll take two more cycles for it to do it, so probably sometime either Friday or this upcoming weekend), Siren will become (barring disaster) the first server in the history of Vana'diel to win TWO THOUSAND Besieged battles.

It stands at 1,996 now.

-- We interrupt this blog post to bring you a special rant. --

OK, FUCKERS!!  THAT'S ONLY THE FIFTH RMT TELL I'VE RECEIVED BETWEEN MY DYNAMIS RUN YESTERDAY AND WHEN I'VE BEEN ON TODAY!  GO TO JAIL, YOU RMT FUCKER SCUM!!!

-- And that's basically what I tell them before I blist and GM them.  (That one poster from BG was right -- they've really been upping the pressure during the Memorial Day Weekend.)

There's only one way to stop this.  No trial accounts on the main servers.  Trial accounts get their own server and an automatic transfer to the main servers once they shed trial status.

It took them, with 24 calls, precisely SIX MINUTES to send back the "multiple call -- thank you" post.

Now, returning you to your more peaceful blog post. --

Siren is only four wins from the magic 2,000.

I wonder if Square-Enix is going to give that server the props they deserve.  Probably not!

Looking over the list, Lakshmi and CaitSith are battling it out tooth and nail for the 2nd and 3rd servers, Leviathan fairly safely ensconced in 4th.

On the other end, unless Fairy has gained one more loss, there is only one server in all of FFXI which has lost the Astral Candescence 50 times.

Take ONE guess.  (The Asura Disease is alive and well, and they can go piss on themselves for it.)  Asura has 52 losses as of May 12th, when they secured loss #52.

Congratulations, you fuckers went and did it!

I had a feeling that this was the griefers' intent in Leviathan, and they finally did it.

In the last 18 hours, the 500+-win winning streak of Leviathan in Besieged was ended by the Undead Swarm.

Congratulations.

Yep, the Asura Disease Nearly Got Leviathan's Astral Candescence...

We just had (for what has to be the first time in ages) a Last Stand at the Astral Candescence on Leviathan.

Doubleheader -- Undead got Mihli and ALL the healing supplies.  Mamool Ja pretty much cleaned our clocks.  But the Last Stand held, and we're still holding the AC at 478 consecutive wins.

And _again_ people were asking for non-Besieged parties...  Even after it should've been evident to anyone we were in trouble...

--

Quick Update:

Still DRG 74.  Too pissed off at the fuckers to grind the last 20K.

MNK 61.

Completed Dancers in Distress and about to plant Cerrunos. (the bulb)

Wednesday Dynamis:  Sandy.  Declared for DRG with one other, both of us got drops.  (Now 4/5 in Shadow Lord Dynamis zones.  (only head if left, but that's Ice, and we haven't done more than an Ice farming run since I joined, and I didn't do that one...)

Whee, I get to flame people some more...

Tonight's Besieged on Leviathan did not go well.

And I _know_ I made some enemies tonight.

Why?? Because Leviathan's players are getting Asura Disease. That malady that causes players to decide to go into business for themselves during Besieged and get parties and do all that shit, and when people decide to try to get the group on task...

"It's just a game..."

"No one plays like that... You won't get far with that attitude..."

"Your family would be proud if you found a high cliff and jumped off..."

(To which I openly dared the last idiot to send me off the nearest one...)

Look... My position is clear. If I'm here, I'm here to win the damn Besieged. If I want to be in business for myself, I can just go continue to level my freaking Monk, which nearly has gotten FOUR levels this week through Fields of Valor-Beaucedine and my Adventuring Fellow. I can go Campaign if I want to go into business for myself and fast-track my Dragoon (now at 65 and lottable) to 75 or my Dancer to 65!

Yeah, I /blisted about a dozen people after that noise, and doubly so after I found out the guy who started it openly admitted he didn't care whether we kept the Astral Candescence or not, because he never plays in Aht Urhgan (other than Besieged -- I only rarely do), and he (like more than a few people I'm more than honked at right now) just take Besieged as one big skill up party.

Take that shit to Asura, for all I care, then!! Go into business for yourself over there!!!

I almost wish Squeenix would do the same thing to Besieged they did to Campaign -- no skill ups.

Of course, just saying what I've said here probably is going to draw flames.

What I'm about to tell you will draw ten times more, especially from the jingoistic USA crowd...

American -- gamers -- suck.

I've had that attitude from the early days of my playing FF11, long before I started playing it regularly (as I have in the last year). It's one of the reasons that I took the recommendations of a couple players to join a more Japanese-centric server (Leviathan) very seriously.

I'm going to tell you two stories of things I observed while I used to live in San Francisco to help make my point.

First: There used to be a gaming/computer center in the middle of downtown (wrong place for it, IMHO) which decided to hold a Counter-Strike tournament. Bunch of teams, including some pretty good ones in Northern Cali at the time, came. The center had a bit of a meeting room off to one side of the bathroom and the main gaming computer room.

A few days before the event, I had actually seen articles on Counter-Strike gangs -- real gangs, just organized around team Counter-Strike events. The concept was laughed off by the owner of the center.

The team local to the center and a team called "Red" got into it. Words were exchanged, and everyone was in that room. I looked in just to keep an eye as to what was going on, and one of the "Red" people just walked over, without a word, and slowly closed the door, as if to say "You do NOT want a part of this."

30 seconds later, as I walked away, screams of "FIGHT!" were heard. One of the local players got his shoulder broken. At least one Red player, if not two, attacked the owner of the center. Blood all over the place.

"Red" was, I maintain to this day, one of those gangs. I didn't know of that beforehand. The tournament was called off, and the center closed a couple months later, probably another casualty between the economy and parents concerned (and rightly so!) as to what and who was going on down there.

Second, I was an attendee at the World Cyber Games a number of years back when it was in San Francisco. I did some of the advertising seminars ("Motherboard audio sucks!" ;) ), attended some of the events (including actually meeting, and getting my ass kicked in Unreal by, Fata1ity), but I noticed something:

It's probably rather common knowledge that, in Asia (esp. Korea and probably, to a lesser extent, Japan) that pro gamers actually are a very respected, idolized, and _honorable_ lot. The WCG are basically the Olympics of pro gaming. There are medals and there is prize money, but this is about a lot more than all that. For example, the motto of the San Francisco event was "Beyond the Game".

Nary an outside spectator to be found. No one cared. Why?

Because American gamers -- the attitude that they purport as a culture (not necessarily all individuals, but the culture) is all about "ME!!", "pwnage", "1337", and what can I get for myself???

Back to Final Fantasy 11 now: Square-Enix wants to build this as a cooperative venture. Fine -- but don't expect me to get involved with people who decide when they want to be cooperative or when they don't. They can take that and go find the highest cliff themselves for all it matters to me.

Me?? If I can't find enough people who won't dick around and play for themselves, then I guess I won't get to everything the game has to offer which needs groups -- and, frankly, I probably wouldn't anyway, given the attitudes I've seen.

Dear God, I hope this disease isn't catching.

Another rough week...

Started out with such promise too... And my friend got the most wonderful Christmas present I can think imagineable -- and then her glasses broke and I had to talk her off the ledge again. *dammit -- can't the world just lay the fuck off my friend for several millenia now??? PLEASE??*

Well, not much play this week:

Both Dynamis days didn't go off. They did Dynamis-Beaucedine on Sunday, and Wednesday, everyone was nestled with visions of sugarplums.

Then, I get in league with a couple of dicks in Moblin Maze Mongers, and then promptly get my Dynamis LS leader killed in another maze. *dammit again*

At that point, I took a couple days off FF11 and played some FF12.

Now, some promy runs and a double Besieged tonight, and hopefully a lot of rest for a weary friend.

Last night was my last night on Asura.

Game over, Asura. Game – over.

After another Besieged loss, some introspection, and a check on my December finances. I finally made the move.

Here's the account of my last material night on Asura.

We were about to go into a double-header Besieged. Maximum force level (a rarity for Asura, the last four months), Undead first, then Trolls.

About ten minutes before the Besieged, real life takes precedence. My friend and roommate (who is about on her last nerve with the entire planet, and no blame to her for it – with three people dead due to Black Friday, frenemies thinking they (or the NFL – I'm a sports fan, but sick of the corruption garbage) are more important than her grief over the loss of the one person who has loved her in the last number of years, and all that crap which has been imposed on her this year...) basically was being undercut and harassed by people in a simulated club that she is the assistant manager of over the last several weeks. She cares about this very deeply and works very hard there. And when she gets angry, she's worse than me, and not only is that saying something, but I don't want to see her like that. So she gets precedence over even a FFXI Besieged at that point.

Friday's event, she had been harassed, to the detriment of the entire club, by an idiot who basically thought it nice to basically (in pro wrestling terms) “go into business for himself”. He's more important than anyone else, and no one is taking the ultimate actions to get rid of this bastard. Basically, it's either people like that, or her. She can't take this anymore.

What does this have to do with Final Fantasy XI, Besieged, and Asura?

The same damn stuff happens there too.

Once I get my friend settled down enough that I can rejoin the game full-time, the Undead Besieged has been going for about 20 minutes. And, sure enough, party requests and all this garbage are going full-tilt. And my blacklist is filling quickly – I must've put 12 people on there tonight.

I'm also keeping the people abreast, in shouts, of the status of the generals. About 20 minutes after I rejoined, even with Wizard's Drink and a Convert, I run out of MP and rest just as I had told the people that Mihli was 100% health.

2 minutes later, Mihli falls.

15 seconds after that, Zazarg follows her.

Basically, at this point, people are STILL trying to recruit for parties, and the whole thing just begins to degenerate. Especially after about 3-5 minutes, Najelith bites the dust. It is now apparent that the Undead who can even one-shot the Serpent Generals themselves are doing so!

I shout to try to find out the last general's location (Rughadjeen), but, before I can buff up and run there, he's gone too.

Hall of Binding opens, and it's a tense 15 minutes to keep the lamiae and the like from taking the Astral Candescence. Basically, Lamiae #2 and 3 basically are having their way with us, but none of the Undead basically have the idea to just turn around, grab the Astral Candescence, and win the Besieged.

People were basically still trying to zerg (overwhelm) the damn Nemean Lion while the Hall of Binding was open. It was clear that a host of players didn't give two damns about keeping the Astral Candescence, and I let them have it for it.

We actually do “win” that Besieged, if you can call that winning – they did retreat.

Problem is: 2nd half of the doubleheader, Trolls. No generals left, Hall of Binding open, we are toast.

Finally, when it became clear we were completely toast, I lost it and basically asked how many of these players had basically cheated their way to all their Salvage gear.

15 minutes after the Trolls entered, they had the Astral Candescence, for the 49th loss of Besieged for Asura, the most (or 2nd most, depending on updates) of any server.

And the venom was flying. I got several very inflammatory tells from one player, and told him, less than politely, to go screw himself as a sanctimonious... Got a couple players to support me raising Hell, but I had finally had enough.

Well, anyway... At that point, I had to leave for some other real-life issues... But this is all the same thing. Everyone's into business for themselves – no regard, of any kind, for the greater good. Whether it's the simulated club my friend busts her ass for, the Wal-Mart where shoppers murdered this 34 year-old overnight stocker because they just had to have their fucking TV for $40 or whatever..., or this server's Besieged “tactics”, it's clear this is not an uncommon thing. I know I'm not perfect, but, for the dear love of God, at least try!!!

After I logged off, I had some time to think. Wait a minute... If my check gets direct-deposited today... At that point, I ran the numbers, and realized that all I had to do was wait for the check to get direct-deposited, and do some research on the World Transfer Service.

The only reason I had stayed on Asura this long was that I could not afford, because of tight funds, to leave. This month, I finally had enough wiggle to do it.

So... As of a little after 4 AM Pacific Daylight Time this Saturday, November 29, 2008 – I am no longer Starcade on Asura – I'm Starcade on Leviathan.

We'll see how it goes. I hope it goes well.

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.