What to choose, what to choose. So many disappointments. How about this one, cause in a matter of minutes, thousands of people's hopes and dreams were crushed in to oblivion: the day Sony had the 'big reveal' of the kind of game EQNext was actually going to be. People had invested so much time and energy into those forums - exactly like this one. Everyone was excited, everyone full of hope. I myself had become ingrained in the community and made many friends, some of whom I still communicate with regularly.
Then it happend: the realization that EQNext was basically a combination of WoW, GW2 and Minecraft. I was gutted. Anger and confusion from the community followed. The guild I was in split in too many directions to survive. I'm still gun shy to get too involved around here for fear of another let down. It was just a few days after that disappointment that McQuaid announced Pantheon - whether it was coincidence or not, it sure seemed like he was stepping in to save everyone after that bitter betrayal by Sony.
I'm going to leave names out of this to protect the innocent. I was leader of a large guild just after EQ came online. I had a young Paladin (15 irl) in my guild who was smitten by one of the female guild members who was saucy and very feminine (yep.. you know where this is going). After months of 'dating' they were married in game to much fanfare. The next day young Paladin was in my group in LowerGuk. He typed some distressing stuff and said there was an emergency in his life.. and that his life was basically over. He left our camp and went to a safe area. And just sat there. I followed. I thought maybe he'd lost a loved one. He couldn't type he was so distraught and obviously was crying and having a meltdown. He told me that the woman of his virtual dreams had just disclosed that he was actually a man and had ridiculed young Paladin for his stupidity. He'd been part of a long elaborate ruse. He said the worst part was the dirty things he was talked into saying. Young Paladin said a few things that indicated he was considering suicide. With a lot of effort I talked him down. He reported the guy, but I don't know what came of it as young Paladin wouldn't speak of it again. In the end he was ok and recovered nicely from the ordeal, but I doubt he ever sparked up another online romance.
I'd rather be a platoon leader at war (yes, been there too) than to ever be a Guild Leader again... a thankless worrisome heartbreaking task it is.
Non-nerf heartbreak, I'd go with hitting 250 in Jewelcrafting in EQ1 and then failing like 9 of my first 10 combines of blue diamond velium stuff with the worst RNG streak ever. I sat in a building in NFreeport where the girl on the first floor sold platinum and gems, and every night with my LFG flag up, I'd sit and JC, sometimes on a "no groups doing anything" night I'd be there for hours. Finally ding 250, master JC, guild finally has one. Woo hoo, let's get some velium blue diamond bracers going!! Except, RNG hates Venjenz, and fail fail fail. EQ1 just felt harder after that. I never had a bad streak like that afterwards, but it was a gut punch at the time.
Seeing WoD canceled was sad, and the quiet from EQN is hard. The design seems so brilliant, but the drought is real.
Empathetic heartbreak: A friend of mine rage-deleted an EVE character of his due to an ISK debt. I think it had about 25 million skill points.
WoW - :( Vanilla was fun, TBC was great (i had a great guild and very good friends). I acheived 'loremaster' - basically completing all quests (including the ridiculous to find ones) and they nerfed the game into the ground gave away epics and RESET all zone quests to accommodate new palyers. They removed all the chain difficult quests oh it goes on.
I kept playing because of above mentioned friends until - PANDAs
After that it has been dissapointment after dissapointment - some game may have worked and had great appeal - TSW/SWTOR but with a tight group they never took off for me :(
Watching Vanguard slowly die and my guild (Exile), whom had really become more like family, slowly leave the game. We still keep in touch, but not having a game to gather for regularly was pretty disheartening. Strange how you can bond with people over a video game, but you certainly can. I was as close to those people as anyone I ever played sports with or worked with.
Jitai said:I'm going to leave names out of this to protect the innocent. I was leader of a large guild just after EQ came online. I had a young Paladin (15 irl) in my guild who was smitten by one of the female guild members who was saucy and very feminine (yep.. you know where this is going). After months of 'dating' they were married in game to much fanfare. The next day young Paladin was in my group in LowerGuk. He typed some distressing stuff and said there was an emergency in his life.. and that his life was basically over. He left our camp and went to a safe area. And just sat there. I followed. I thought maybe he'd lost a loved one. He couldn't type he was so distraught and obviously was crying and having a meltdown. He told me that the woman of his virtual dreams had just disclosed that he was actually a man and had ridiculed young Paladin for his stupidity. He'd been part of a long elaborate ruse. He said the worst part was the dirty things he was talked into saying. Young Paladin said a few things that indicated he was considering suicide. With a lot of effort I talked him down. He reported the guy, but I don't know what came of it as young Paladin wouldn't speak of it again. In the end he was ok and recovered nicely from the ordeal, but I doubt he ever sparked up another online romance.
I'd rather be a platoon leader at war (yes, been there too) than to ever be a Guild Leader again... a thankless worrisome heartbreaking task it is.
This bummed me out, and I agree. Guild-leading is a thankless job.
On that note, I'd say my most heart-breaking moment was the disbanding of my own guild, Retainers of Dol Amroth, in Lord of the Rings On-line. It was my first guild leading experience, we had a good run, but I quickly realized that you just can't expect the same level of dedication from mmo players these days as you could in EQ.
-Tralyan
I couldn't play Vanguard - my PC wouldn't run it but that was just a let-down not a heartbreak.
For me there wasn't necessarily one bleeding heartbreak but rather "death by a thousand paper cuts"...
One of the most painful moments was after two-box camping a tome in HateB for, literally, a month! the mob spawned finally. A group appeared in the zone, ran over and killed my mob then ported out.
We were in a huge family guild called Lions Of The Heart. With alts, we had over 1000 members. We were trying to start POP flag raiding and right when we would finally get to a point ready to raid a few key folks would abandon the guild for an uber raiding guild and faster progression. That would set us back several weeks and we would all regroup , remain loyal to the guild family and try again. Then it would happen again. This went on for over six months. After the guild leader, I was the longest remaining person fighting and begging people to stop bailing out.....the day I finally gave up and unguilded even myself was a bad day.
I can't tell you how many times In Via Damnum (my only second guild ever) wiped to Xegony. We wiped the entire guild raid probably 20 times. It was horrible. This one was so bad we didn't even feel a sense of accomplishment or joy when she finally died.
The day the couple that ran IVD (inherited the guild from her RL father) quit EQ was a very bad day.
The day they put the new bazaar in and ruined the open air market of the old bazaar.
I took every dumbing-down nerf as a mini heartbreaking moment (instant travel, obsoleting the boats, instances, maps, etc).
The day we found out Ambassador Chris Stevens had been killed In Libya. We were setting up for a massive raid when someone broke the news that Chris AKA Vile Rat had died. He played the game like he lived his life foraging allainces and using Diplomancy like very few people did but he was also a great fleet commander. New Eden was silent for a night in rememberance. In a game where alliances fight hourly fleets raiding other bases the pilots of New Eden decided on a galaxy wide moment of silence
Jitai said:I'm going to leave names out of this to protect the innocent. I was leader of a large guild just after EQ came online. I had a young Paladin (15 irl) in my guild who was smitten by one of the female guild members who was saucy and very feminine (yep.. you know where this is going). After months of 'dating' they were married in game to much fanfare. The next day young Paladin was in my group in LowerGuk. He typed some distressing stuff and said there was an emergency in his life.. and that his life was basically over. He left our camp and went to a safe area. And just sat there. I followed. I thought maybe he'd lost a loved one. He couldn't type he was so distraught and obviously was crying and having a meltdown. He told me that the woman of his virtual dreams had just disclosed that he was actually a man and had ridiculed young Paladin for his stupidity. He'd been part of a long elaborate ruse. He said the worst part was the dirty things he was talked into saying. Young Paladin said a few things that indicated he was considering suicide. With a lot of effort I talked him down. He reported the guy, but I don't know what came of it as young Paladin wouldn't speak of it again. In the end he was ok and recovered nicely from the ordeal, but I doubt he ever sparked up another online romance.
I'd rather be a platoon leader at war (yes, been there too) than to ever be a Guild Leader again... a thankless worrisome heartbreaking task it is.
Was this on the Nameless?
I had forgotten to mention it but I was pretty bummed out when I had heard that Kerwyn (leader of Bladesworn in VG) had died. He was such a great guy and so enthused about the game even in spite of the fact that he played a rogue. Pretty sad.
Friends that died I knew on EQ, I suppose.
Knew several ...
One guy apparently didn't tell many, if any, he had been battling an issue.
Didn't complain publicly, not one damn bit.
He was an officer in my guild, and dealt with guild drama and BS right up til the end without flaking out on anyone at all.
Then ... dead. Like, didn't compute at all initially. Just way too fast. But that's how it goes.
Knew 2 people off-hand. Maybe more. The other I know died in a car accident. Took a bit to process as well. Had played with them for years.
In the end, it really is just a game. The people playing it on the other hand, they're real.
So before we freak out and go bat#%@ on these 'internet people,' take a moment to consider how you would like to be treated, and if they warrant some corrective action on your part then by all means, but at least initially think about it.
Other than the loot that never dropped and the countless unachieved achievements...
I would say that not doing a better job staying in touch with some of the really great friends I made over my playtime. Some of it was joining the Army. Keeps you busy and unavailable, but the large part of it was just me not doing what a good friend does. That makes me sad.
VG. Not in the way most people think tho.
VG died for me before it launched. I was one of the few that actually knew about the money issues, investor issues ect. And i knew what would happen shortly after. Even my beefy rig back in the day strugeled with the game on release and i could not enjoy what was a hidden gem. I knew it could have been awesome and what we got was nowhere near that.
All my friends jumped boat right away and i had to follow them obviously. When i returned a year later stuff got better, but the game was already pretty empty.
I did enjoy VG with my soon to be wife about a year ago tho. We had some great fun, even tho the game was even more empty. Also performance on our PCs of today still did not make us happy,... sad to see it go. But even more sad about what happened pre launch.
I hope you can regain your trust with Pantheon Brad. I know how it went back then, i know it wasn't your fault. Really sad the broad masses never saw what really happened :-(
Actually, Obscure. I was in a Socially Active Guild in The Secret World. We were tight, close knit, active and just having the best time farming group content and chatting, and being amazing at our classes without resorting to cheating (like a ton of PUGGERS were .. all .. the..time). I was having the absolute best social experience I ever had in an MMO, Mainly because I was so involved in the core group of friends (get out what you put in). Any way , some Offhanded, innocent, albeit slightly tactless joke riled up one of the guild officers who dismantled all of the social connections we had made between different groups of awesome RP'ers, drinkers, musicians, and left the guild and server in disarray. Suddenly people stopped logging in, more F2P crowd started Glitching certain impassable dungeons and fights and I just logged off and never could go back.
All in life is balance I suppose. Take the good with the bad, and be thankful for the good.
I'd have to say my most heartbreaking experience in a mmo came from SWG when they introduced NGE (new game enhancements). I was already pretty upset with the CU (combat upgrade) they gave the game but I was adjusting, however when they rolled out NGE I just quit on the spot. It just wasn't the game I grew to love anymore, It felt like they threw all their loyal playerbase to the curb to try and be like other more widely successful games. I remember going back to it a few years later because my memories of the game were so great, and I was craving what it once was, but I played for a few hours and quit again because of utter disappointment.
Rachael