Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

A good part of what makes fantasy gaming so appealing is the ability to step out of your own skin and for a brief moment in time be something that you could never be in the real world.  The virtual world is the ultimate leveled playing field. No matter who you are in your everyday life, the avatar that you create in this virtual world can be anything that you desire it to be with the only limit being your imagination…and perhaps the fact that you don’t play forty hours a week or hang with top notch raid guild, in which case you can only be about 70% what you want to be (percentage may vary).

Ahh, but this is a material world and I am a material girl.  This means that if all else fails, one can buy that other 30% (approximately) to coolness which is exactly what is happening with the awed after mythical class weapons in EverQuest II- the be all, end all of virtual godliness embodied in a shiny little icon of death.

We all want one, but most of us who play EQ2 will never have one.  If you are a ultra casual player then you likely won't even see the fabled version of the class weapon let alone hold even a glimmer of hope of ever wielding your very own mythical.  That is unless you happen to be one of the lucky few that are on a server with a guild who is selling raid slots to earn these priceless beauties, and then all you need is a solid stash of plat and a few free nights to raid.

It has been a controversial subject and for those who haven't been following the clandestine happenings on your own server, let me explain what exactly we are talking about:

• The Set Up:  Frank has been grouping his little butt off to complete the steps in his epic weapon quest line.  He's gotten all the way through the group and solo quests with the assistance of his small guild and finally has obtained his epic weapon.  It's shiny and super nice, but it just isn't as cool as the mythical version.  Unfortunately his guild is too small to do the raid content to get the mythical so if he wants to progress, he’ll have to use more unorthodox avenues.

• The Deal: Frank seeks out the Super Guild of Uberness on his server as he heard they will allow outside players in on their raids to get the epic kills that will get Frank his mythical weapon.  Super Guild of Uberness requests 200 plat for their guild's services which Frank pays up front and they arrange the days and times for him to join the guild raids.
• The Reward: Frank gets in on the raids with Super Guild of Uberness (likely with a few others who have paid their way), and they get his epic kills that complete his quest.  Angels sing, doves fly, and everyone on the server get the silly text across their screens to let you know that Frank is cooler than you.  Huzzah!  Now Frank can spend hours admiring his gorgeous weapon that will slay kittens in a single pass.

Illegal?  No.  Cheating?  Not even a little.  Tasteless and perhaps frowned upon?  Some believe so, but why?

Whenever we see another player making a gain that we don't think they earned we get more than just a little irked.  How DARE they side step the toil and turbulence that comes with unlocking tiers of end game raiding?  Who do they think they are? Frodo?  One doesn't simply walk into Veeshan's Peak!

Relax my hairy-footed little friends.  What we are seeing here is what I like to call a completely legitimate trade between consenting elves and trolls.  The guild that did do all the work to unlock raid tiers has every right to take coin for their services.  They earned it and if they want to hold belly dancing parties in front of Phara Dar then that is what they should do.  This is capitalism at its finest, but is there a line to be drawn and, if this is acceptable, then does that line get blurry?

The first bit of trouble comes in with the players who sweat blood and cried tears to help their guilds work up through the end game raid tiers.  Those that had to do all the pre-work in order for the casual players to buy their way in have their grand accomplishment diminished causing bad feelings all around.  It ends up being some weird status thing where original guild members are the “old money” and the guild borrowers are the “new money”.  They end up in the same club, but one will always look down on the other.  You know what I mean if you’ve seen the movie Titanic (and I know that you have!).

The next bit of trouble comes from those who start getting greedy.  A couple hundred plat isn’t always easy to come by and all of the sudden those flashy ads promising plat within the hour look just slightly more appealing.  Competition can bring out the worst in some and yeah, those mythicals are just that cool.

So what’s the answer?  There isn’t one!  I’m all for doing what you need to, within the confines of the game rules, in order to get ahead.   Those who paved the road to the upper tiers of raiding to earn their mythical weapon still are special.  Maybe not on the outside because mythicals are soon to be a dime a dozen, but they are special on the inside, and that’s what really counts, right?