The entire external forum is just a glorified circle jerk. People who are currently the king of the hill come on here to announce how great they are and stroke the egos of their allies.
To sum the entire server up: Pride comes before the fall.
The Oxin Venorus/XpertGreek/Aesur/Firebrand Period:
[SPR]These guys would mark their territory on your forehead just to let you know they could. XG and Aesur were the forum divas and craved recognition. Same with Oxin/FB. Where are they now?[/SPR]
The Interim Period:
[SPR]This was the transitional phaze after Dark Elite dissolved and Manifest Destiny started. Most of the initial start ups fizzled out during this period and some of the stalwarts in the core began their downward spiral. White Tiger Emporium, Hell Hounds, Tequila Mockinbird, The Uglies, Lords of Olympus, etc etc... All of these changes were directly a result of the ongoing battles among the core powers. Infection/SoulCatchers vs MD/Mercs.
All the while the rim alliances are stockpiling defense in the rear guard (mamluks). Mamluks just now passed Infection in total DBP which is pretty telling. [/spr]
The Great Consolidations:
[SPR]Mercs 2 branches off from Mercs w/ TWP and re-brands their image. TSF is born. MD and INF stop bludgeoning each other and join forces. The Collective is born. Boondock Saints and a few other southern alliances band together. Vigilate is born (technically happened prior to the other two).[/SPR]
Fast forward to where we are now....
[SPR]Who/What are/were the catalysts? Where to begin....I think most people have beat this dead horse enough. However there are a few glaring omissions specifically relating to TSF/Mercs/TC/Mamluk/KOTR.
The first was the drama surrounding xxxAlicia and her constant quitting/returning and the division it created between those who thought Clint did a good job of stopping the losses to Inf and those who were loyal to Alicia. Cliques form...
This situation was compounded after TC/Mercs ended the pact with TSF. Some in mercs understandably refused to attack. This situation paralleled the popular thought about Lamia at the time which was that is was a big love fest of pacts (which was the alleged reason to turn TSF red). Vigilate was also affected by this after they ran into a red flag shortage. This in turn led to simming, which led to loss of interest and inactivity.
The next factor would have to be the continued division of TC after the merge due to lingering bad blood between Inf/MD. I will admit this contributed to my own period of inactivity after growing tired of trying to make all sides happy. The same thing was also happening in Mercs.
All of this reached a climax when the war between TSF and KOTR ended in a pact. This was followed by Cranky withdrawing from our pact citing all the strife and accusations in the shared forums on top of colonies on the 55/65 border. Then 1map takes his lackeys and goes to TSF and we get bombarded on 3 sides from TSF/KOTR/Mamluk resulting in massive losses on our side.
Only after this does our leadership learn that King Rootin Tootin was actually xxxAlicia the entire time. "He" inadvertently reveals (prior to us knowing her identity) that "he" has known about 1maps intentions for weeks. "He" tells us that 1map has been prepping his cities for the day he makes the move knowing full well we would be very angry and attack immediately. After dropping the bomb shell that he/she knew this entire time, Skyreaver (TC co-founder) decides to inform me he also knew of KRT's identity and all the details but did not mention it. Skyreaver then ghosts all of his cities and a large number of our players based in the far south, far north, and far east all go into VM to prevent massive losses during the onslaught.
We then start to pick up the pieces and transition from offense heavy to defense. All of these players who go on VM come out at roughly the same time which just so happens to coincide with the random inno mass bans.
No excuses made and none needed. We have been in the middle of the fight since day one. Adversity and external perceptions aren't going send us running for the hills.. Quite the contrary...It gave our two factions (MD/Inf) something to rally around while exposing those who were simply using us as a shield. A month from now we can revisit and reflect
[/SPR]