10 years of guiding brings with it 10 years of happy memories. Today we hear from some of our valiant guides who are sharing some of their fondest memories interacting with SOE game players and with each other.
Well I have been here close to 2 years and even in that short time frame a lot has changed. When I first arrived we had only 2 quest that were approved to be ran by the Guides of EQII, and now we have a great many to choose from.
I would have to say that in my time there have been many great memories, perhaps too many to share them all but there are some that do stick out. I remember my very first quest that I was helping in the running of in the Commonlands. Back then the quest actor's avatars were only a level 1 but we did have the ability to make ourselves neutral to all of Norrath's residents and creatures. Well, during this one quest, after the competition of the assigned task to the players a final NPC would be spawned to be defeated. This NPC would have the habit of attacking the lowest level in the area of where it was spawned. Well, as it turned out one of my fellow Apprentices back them failed to follow the instructions of our Senior and did not make themselves neutral. Well, as you can guess, when this NPC was spawned it went after the lowest level in the area and in a blink of an eye one of the level 1 actors was killed. Not knowing what had just happened he revived and came back to help continue the quest but when he had moved in close enough the NPC targeted him and down he went again. This happened yet one more time before it became clear that he had not properly become flagged as neutral. Let's just say that it made for an interesting start into my life as a Guide to witness this taking place.
Pabinee - Senior Guide
I have so many memories. Where do you begin when you have over seven years of memories? I originally come from Tarew Marr, which became Drinal. Memories flood my mind, like the time I zoned into the Temple of Veeshan to assist players stuck on urns, only to be blasted to death by the AOE of the dragon. Or the time I was talking to a huge amount of people and the server GM Zalumbus change the sex of my Iksar. People were giggling and I had no clue why. Throughout it all though, the best memories are the wonderful people I have met on the server. From meeting some of them in person, while I was being silly (anyone remember Atlanta?), to the countless people I have talked with, had fun with, shared moments of anguish with, and times of joy, nothing compares to them.
Kallimar - Guide
I have so many happy memories of my time in Guide Program. I have been in the guide program since January of 2004 and have seen so much growth and change in the game and most importantly in the Guide Program itself!
I would have to say that my best story would have to be one day just a couple of months ago or so. I was on Xegony doing a quest and it was of course one of those quests where the player really had 2 options... either attack the actors or role-play with them. Now, most players will gleefully start swinging the moment they see us and down we fall like pins in a bowling game.
This player however decided that it would be more fun to role-play with us!! It was so much fun to actually role-play with a player; this quest that we were doing is actually much more fun when you role-play instead of the Wholesale Slaughter of Drunk Giants =P
This was one of my favorite moments in the Guide Program most recently... I love to role-play and this player was outstanding at it! Way to go Shalkani!!
There really are so many awesome stories... but that one sticks out as it was the most recent!
Taerran - Senior Guide
I have only been here for about 4 months, but I already have had some memorable moments with some fantastic players on Nektulos. My favorite involves the Loresinger's Lost Voice quest from EQ2 where the actor plays a troubadour who accidentally turned herself into a scarecrow while practicing illusions - except now she can't speak so she can't undo the illusion! It was only my first full week as a Guide, and I was moping about as the troubadour in North Qeynos, wordlessly begging players for help. Many passed me by, to my great distress, but I quickly had a couple of players approach me to try to assist me with my plight.
A player named Karishma approached me along with two other players, Reshma and Rakshla. After much gesturing and them asking me many questions to try to figure out what it was I needed (which the quest essentially described as something to dispel the illusion on me), Karishma asked me to wait and disappeared into a nearby building. She returned with her solution: an aviak tongue which I could place in my mouth to use to speak! Unfortunately it kept falling out, so she returned another time with a filament to sew the tongue into my mouth with. I was absolutely knocked out of my boots at her creativity, but unfortunately I didn't feel it was the answer to the quest. Reshma ultimately was the winner of the quest - she provided me with a "Jester's Cap" drink, which I deemed could turn me back into an elf and would therefore work. I was also impressed with this solution, as with all the other times I tried this quest someone either purchased a low-level arcane cure potion or used a cure spell they had themselves. I awarded both Reshma and Karishma the "winning" prize for their ingenuity and their dedication to the quest, as well as their most excellent role-playing. They must have spent half an hour just asking me questions and trying to figure out how to help! It genuinely warms me up inside to see players so immersed in role-play and questing with Guides. It was one of my first experiences as a Guide, and I'll treasure it for a long, long time.
Artume - Guide
There have been so many great moments...
When I was an Apprentice, we did not have all of the means to get around as Apprentices do these days. We actually had to walk every where! Well, in Freeport there is a pit you can jump into, and it will take you to the Commonlands, in the process it will kill you. As a Guide, it doesn't kill you; instead you sit on the bottom of this pit staring up at the bright blue sky above. There I was, a little blonde gnome, dancing on the edge of the pit role-playing with some players, and I fell in. Much to my surprise, I wasn't ported to the Commonlands. Instead, above me the players can hear me calling for help, and asking if they had a fire proof rope by chance. I could not get out of the pit. Finally a CSR took pity on me and ported me out. A couple of hours later, some of my fellow Apprentices logged in, so of course I had to show them this great new place I found, which is where Senior Guide Siodhachan found us later, waiting for someone to let us out.
Some of the best moments have been with the players. I have lost count of the number of players who practically squeal in delight when they see a Guide or come across one of our events. A memorable time was as a Senior Guide on Kithicor. I was leading the Drunken High Dive event at the beginning of August 2008. A couple of players were aiming themselves to fall on the Guides as they took their leap off the cliff. The splats were fantastic.
Another event on Kithicor, involved a lot of baby dragons, and their mother who needed help. The players were looking after the dragons, and some of them were a bit of an evil bent. The players actually wanted to kill a few of us, so they could make dragon skin boots! The players role-played it so well, I was laughing while trying to respond in some way on my dragon that was appropriate.
Rosabel - Senior Guide
Over the little bit more than a year I've been with the guide program I've managed to have some great fun and have some great memories. A few that stand out recently.....
We did an event recently with baby dragons and a poor hapless pet sitter who was more or less accosted into the job then we ran amok. The poor person must have been at wits end. We were having an absolute ball but were a little concerned the poor soul we'd suckered into it was not too pleased with the whole situation yet we got a thank you for it in the forums which made me feel a LOT better.
Another bit of fun was my first in game orientation as training coordinator for Runnyeye server. It was a nightmare. Technical issues abounded. My macro file wasn't loading properly. The script word document was corrupted. So I had to take the script from the not working macro file, which though had the macros ordered properly it wasn't in script order within the file. So I winged it copying and pasting random bits from my file which seemed to make sense after each other. Somehow I got through it and though it was a nightmare at the time I could only help but laugh afterwards.
But one thing that really impressed me was when I was doing some role-playing and telling a story. After I finished the story a player then concocted an EPIC tale of their adventures and told it quite well within the medium of the say channel. I was really impressed and sat there as did a group of other players for almost an hour during the telling of the story. Everyone loves a bit of role reversal now and then.
Arnuad - Guide
There are two memories that came to mind.
The first one happened shortly after I made full Guide on The Nameless. I answered a petition regarding a camping situation; at that time, as you know, the Guides where the front line in just about everything. In this situation I remember two individuals wanted the same mob. Of course the mob took forever to spawn once it was killed. I can't remember the mob; I do remember it was in a cave on Luclin. There was one other Guide on the server and we discussed the petition before I went to talk to the players. The other Guide was ready to step in if there were any problems, since this was my first dispute. When I first got there and identified myself to each player, we formed a group to discuss the situation. Needless to say neither player wanted to give an inch and at that point neither player had anything nice to say about Guides/GMs in general or me specifically...LOL. After much discussion, some role-playing and joking around the two players decided it would be much easier if they joined up and killed the mob together. I stayed to watch and cheered them on. After it was all over I gave them cookies and milk and thanked them both for cooperating and making what could have been a bad situation better. Their final comment to me....it's nice to have someone listen. All in all, the discussion took about an hour, time well spent in the end.
The second one that came to mind happened in The Gray. I had just logged on and received a /tell from a player. It seems either a Guild mate or group mate, I can't remember which, had gone link dead in The Gray and died A LOT. At the time I was contacted, the link dead player had, according to their friend, lost a level. The link dead player was either level 60 or 70, whichever was max at the time. By the time I got there and went through the P&P steps to make sure, the player had lost two levels that I witnessed. After summoning the player out of The Gray to a safe spot, I sent in a petition requesting the player be given back the levels I witnessed them losing. I was contacted by the link dead player later. They thanked me and advised they had been given back the levels I saw them lose.
THIS is what it is all about. There are times that I miss this kind of interaction with the players, but times change and with that we change as well. Now, I tell stories of those times.
Stardanzer - Guide
In one week I will have been with the Guide Program for 8 years.
My fondest memories in the Guide program would be having to deal with the dragons. Before the guild lobby and the nifty corpse summoners, when Woushi decided to dance on your head and then camp your corpse, a player had to either wait for a Guild to kill her or ask a Guide to drag their corpse for them. That was always tremendous fun, to cast guide invulnerability on yourself, grab the corpse and run with Wuoshi in hot pursuit. The title I had chosen for myself was the Dragon Charmer, so when I became a full guide my Senior took me to visit the Lady Vox. I was so excited that I stepped back to take a screenshot of the Lady and my Senior, and accidentally hit /attack and got us both killed. My senior thought that was hilarious and as a guild was gathering to kill the Lady, he grabbed my corpse and dragged it through the buffing players with me in hot pursuit. Also when Kunark was introduced, Gorenaire had gotten stuck under the ground and would sneak up and kill unsuspecting players. One of the GM, my senior, and myself had the task of coaxing Gorenaire to come back above ground and play nice. The developers wanted Gorenaire to be coaxed rather than /killed, so we spent a couple of hours in the expanse in front of Karnor's Castle debuffing Gore to het him to chase us which got us chewed in the process. We all left about 10 or so corpses littering the ground and the GM finally declared it impossible and /killed Gore. His respawn played by the rules and stayed above ground, and the GM gave me my new title of "the Dragon Chewtoy" which I have kept to this day.
Dinae - Guide