Thank you, Boro, for your sanity check.

As one of the aforementioned and much maligned Harbingers of Doom I say this after reading most of this thread, combined with Boro's insights: awesome. Oh also, capitalism works.

I get into these arguments all the time on my server, as there are a number of 'power players,' including myself that got together to form an unstoppable guild. Why?

Because we wanted to be an unstoppable guild.

Each spending hours researching forums for rune/form combos, testing them out on each other. Amping talents and weapons upgrades. Wild cred rolls in tavern to redeem spirits not for what we could get, but to get what we wanted. All for the ability to dominate. There are a number of ways to fight against such a power guild, including joining them, or more interestingly form alliances against them. We've had some of our best times being challenged 2 or 3 times simultaneously in guild wars. We've lost cities, taken cities, sunk ships, etc.

I've been asked many times if I would be willing to give up my number 1 arena slot or start losing cerb/baal to let someone else 'have a chance.' My answer: come and take it. I've heard alot of whining from players who feel it's unfair, or there should be a power cap or even a handicap, such as for every day you're not in the top 5 in arena you recieve some kind of power bonus that over a period of days/weeks might allow you to topple the power players.

What alot of people fail to understand is that Tynon is a business. It's a great game, but don't fool yourselves into thinking the dev team is constantly working out of the goodness of their hearts. Everyone has to eat. Far from 'killing' servers, power players are the only ones keeping them alive, allowing freeloaders to take advantage of the game without actually contributing anything other than time. That's the best deal you will find out there, yet just like life there will always be a 'cap' at what you can achieve without investing tangible recompense in exchange for services or a competitive advantage.

If you go to a car dealership and say 'I want the best free car you have,' you can't complain when they hand you the keys to a '95 Geo Metro and leave the Audi in the display lot for someone willing to shell out the cash. A .95 cent package of Top Ramen is quick and easy, but will not be as nutritious or filling as a more expensive, well rounded meal. That's life. If you want free handouts, go somewhere with a communist/socialist dynamic.

Yes, some people leave servers like fish swimming before sharks. Those that stay find a way to make the system work to their advantage, again through alliances, investments or savvy application of their own skills. Or simply learn how to adapt to being powerless among the powerful. There's been guilds that have asked for truces like 'sink-free saturdays' to get the gem rewards, or guilds that have dissolved to merge with other guilds and make a more powerful and unified whole.

Personally, I find 'emptier' servers to be much more dynamic because the quality of opponents increases while quantity reduces. I don't need to switch realms and step over 1800 'nonplayers' to find the opponents I'm eager to fight against. I'm past the days of being part of guilds where I have to explain why you don't waste Righteousness on a mage. I want to log in after a hard day's work and be around people who intensely share the same interests in PVP warfare via this medium, rather than the juvenile chat room trolling or girlfriend searching that takes place on most new servers before the fat gets cut out.

And yes, I want freeloaders to nerd-rage about 'rolling me up rl,' then jump realms to stomp on their heads. That makes me warm and fuzzy inside.

So the rest of you...run! Haha.

Warmest Regards,

VIP6