127239-morning-coffee-62-looking-to-the-future-edition

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Space age campfire coffee pot! AMAZING!
 
So, I've been thinking a lot about our guild the last couple of days - and I am curious how other people feel about the incoming rush of players as it pertains to your guild and/or guild experience.
 
Will your guild be accepting F2P players? Will your recruitment policies change? Will a person's pay-status make any difference to you?
 
For my part, I don't foresee much changing on our end. We've always been a casual, leveling-type guild - so teaching and helping new players is sort of our niche, if we can said to have such a thing. I love recruiting and meeting new people, answer questions and generally being as helpful as I can be.
 
At the same time, I expect we should change our free-wheeling, open-for-everyone bank access. It hurts my heart to think that we've gone this long without anyone taking advantage of our generosity, but with so many potential unknowns, I am hesitant to just throw open the bank to every day-one player who crosses our path.
 
You know what else will change? I'm going to really start paying attention to people's names. We don't have any "Poop Poop" or "Imma Killyu" players, though we do have some Green Crayons, Milk Duds and Chicken McNuggets. I have always felt that you can tell a lot about a player by the name they choose.
 
So, what you y'all think? Changes? Business as usual? Tighter controls and restrictions?
 
Have a great day, Nexus!	
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So all I've got on the docket for WildStar this week is a GA raid on Thursday. One year from launch and I will finally set foot in the first raid. Not slow at all!
 
In life news I'll be continuing to meet with corporate recruiters so I can continue the transition that I began when I first traded my soul for a gold-plated dollar sign. You wish to offer currency? I wish to accept it!
 
I'm also glad that our posts are still merged. I'm hoping the new policy is to put all of the funny pictures that Tex finds into my own posts, because I can't really upload any from my phone.
 
As for guilds, I'm sure that permissions will have to be a bit more restrictive, maybe keep new players in a different rank until they've shown that they are honest brokers.	
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Good topic Tex!
 
My main concern over f2p players is their commitment to the game. If their only threshold for playing a game is "free" then I'd have to seriously consider having them as part of a raid team that counts on the reliability and personality of each and every player. A lot of effort goes into recruiting and preparing players, and it puts more stress on the whole team with frequent turnover. That's speaking for raiding at least.
 
I have no doubt there are going to be tons of f2p players who will become great team members and guild mates and even friends. The trick will be figuring out who those will be!
 
Which, BTW, I decided to start a new guild! I want to build a group of people who want to play the game at face value... take the adventure as it comes, don't optimize the fun out of playing, don't refer to databases or guides, that kind of thing. Not sure what kind of traction it will get, but it's how I want to play these days so hopefully I can find some like minds! Currently writing up the charter/manifesto.
 
This week I'll be playing a new Dominion character (haven't played dommie ever in live) with friends Arawulf and Sarcan... maybe soon we get Anhrez back in the mix :) We're playing this characters only with each other, we all picked different classes and paths than we knew and that each other have picked. It's a ton of fun so far...
 
So while the guild isn't officially formed yet, if you're interested in this kind of laid back play style and want to join in for some fun sessions, hit me up in a PM here!	
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I think my guild will not be as restrictive in the beginning - hell, we're just getting off the ground ourselves - but bank access will definitely be restricted. We had a couple of bad experiences in our SW:ToR days with some people we invited in. But we will be actively recruiting now and well into the F2P transition and beyond.
 
P2P, F2P, will make no difference. A few of my friends and SW:ToR guildies are actively waiting for F2P to make the transition. I'm hoping I can convince them to sub before 6/15 thru the transition so they can go F2P and have the four months of signature time. One is considering it, the rest are saying they will wait.
 
I agree, Tex, that you can definitely tell a lot about folks that have obviously trollish names. We'll give these folks a chance, but they will be on a bit tighter leash with regards to what we will put up with. Myself and the GM have a no tolerance policy for drama and BS, and will have no qualms about booting trolls at the first sight of these behaviors.
 
Myself and the other 3 charter members have known each other for quite some time and actively speak to each other outisde of the game so expectations are already set. 
 
All in all, things will be pretty open for a while until we have a stable member base built, then things might start getting a bit more restrictive, but that will be a while down the road yet.	
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			This is a topic I've been thinking a lot about. We generally take 2 kinds of players, people who just want to be part of our community and raiders. When managing a raid team, you have to be really careful not to over-recruit and then end up sitting 10 people a raid, but at the same time, you want a few extra people for when real life interferes and a player has to be out. Our guild is also incredibly VOIP oriented, with most things going on in mumble, which I think can be isolating to our members who don't VOIP. I don't think I want to restrict recruiting based on whether a player is f2p or not, and will certainly accept all kinds of casual member. As for our progression team, we'll just have to see what plays out and skilled players are always welcome regardless of free or not. 	
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I also think it would be wise to restrict bank access from newer members come transition. No one can fault a guild for being concerned about a very real problem.
 
I'm not looking forward to the influx of weird names; I already eyeroll enough at them. >_< In past guilds I've run, I had a general policy to deny the applications of people with names that were too awful, especially those that brushed up against the line of naming violations (not that Blizzard or EME ever cared about those things...). But hey, it was my guild, my rules, and I didn't really enjoy seeing those kinds of names in zone chat, let alone gchat. xD
 
I'm marginally concerned about effects this may have on the roleplay community, but we shall see. In Rift and TERA, the RP community took a significant nosedive immediately following their F2P transitions and never recovered (the latter becoming little more than a refuge for erotic guilds that were "rp" in name only...). I hope the incoming new players don't drive out the roleplayers (or drive them further into hiding in housing), but we shall see.
 
In other news, yesterday the husband and I got our Dominion alts through the second biodome. When we next log in, it will be onto the moon proper! Also I painted a thing and I'm super proud of it.	
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Yes. 
 
Yes. People will now have to apply to the guild to get any benefits in guild (guild bank resources, repairs) just to show commitment to the guild and that they care. If they don't they are welcome to be in the guild and partake in the regular guild events and fun times, just not take the things that will be shared across more members.
 
No. I've met loads of great free to players, and also some awful ones.
 
I have pretty stupid names in game as it is as well as a lot of people in my guild (Prepare Uranus, Drew Peacock, Sir WOOSH, pew pew) but I'm very hard when it comes to people messing around in guild. They will be punished and removed.
 
I'm quite open to new people but they have to prove themselves to get anywhere. I'm not that worried to be honest, I think it's going to be a good thing for my guild in particular (pvp is always a popular aspect of f2p games)	
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Think that i general people will be a tad more cautious and being more strict in places that could damage the guild like permissions for invites and bank. While "freebots" as ive come to like callign them(very good term actually, yay marketing!) can't do invites per se, I being the paranoid little man I am can see boxers as possibly giving a small rise to warranted caution too. Really I don't see BDS treating people differently and instead would just keep being helpful as can be.
 
However I won't lie I will just outright ignore and report names like "poop poop" and some rather ummm "special" names I've come across more lately. You can report names that you feel are innapropriate, spammy or otherwise of course offensive in some way. A name like "Coooooooooooooo Coooooooooooooo"(not an actual person, but I've come across several names like this recently) is against the ToS and lets face it I'm never going to type /join or /invite that name.
 
I can't see people restricting based on if they're freebot or not and if they are it's not a group I'd want to be around. Long as they're good people, able to have fun, and wiling to learn stuff without throwing a tantrum(like a really bad pug hehe) I feel they should be treated like anyone else...after they shine my highwayman boots.(im kidding)
 
I was really hoping for the patch to fix red flashing today, but was let down -_- I am getting some help though, friend of mine is leveling with my medic healer and so when a holdout type event triggers they'll take over and let me know when it's done.(sad I have to dothat, but whatevs). I've mostly been palying splatoon though and having an absolute blast with it and dear lord those ranked matches they added last night were some fierce fights.	
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Good morning from a class room.  Attending a demonstration/lab/class on a new FPGA product which came with a cool little board that will probably do a ton of things I don't ever fiddle with.
 
Launched into System Daemons last night.  It's a more interesting fight I think than Initialization Core and we got right up to the first pillar phase with a lot of sciencing along the way.
 
Hope everyone has a great day.	
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However I won't lie I will just outright ignore and report names like "poop poop" and some rather ummm "special" names I've come across more lately. You can report names that you feel are innapropriate, spammy or otherwise of course offensive in some way. A name like "Coooooooooooooo Coooooooooooooo"(not an actual person, but I've come across several names like this recently) is against the ToS and lets face it I'm never going to type /join or /invite that name.
 
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Will your guild be accepting F2P players? Will your recruitment policies change? Will a person's pay-status make any difference to you?
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Good morning from a class room.  Attending a demonstration/lab/class on a new FPGA product which came with a cool little board that will probably do a ton of things I don't ever fiddle with.
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I've never been a fan of no-app guilds. 
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Your posts always make me die a little.  I've always wanted to work on the hardware side of things but life's stuck me firmly into software.  I'd have to take a large pay cut to make that sort of career change at this point in time.  ( Don't stop, I live vicariously through your experience :lol: )
 
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Hello everyone :)
 
Personally, I don't like applications for guilds. Maybe it's just I have had bad luck with them in the past. Who knows *shrug*.
 
I see changes happening when we go f2p, they all ready are happening now. Little by little people are coming back. We have some spammers, some rude people, some crude people, some nice and helpful people, etc. This is what makes our community up. As a whole our community is awesome. Yeah, we have some bad apples, but there is always ignore. :)
 
I am choosy when it comes to recruiting for our guild. I do talk to people before I invite. It may not be a lot of talking, but I do talk to them. I also watch the lfg and zone channels to see how they are. You can tell a lot about a person by what they say. Some names I find very inappropriate, which I have reported. Some names I find, in my opinion, dumbass names. Some, I find to obnoxious. It's my opinion on how I perceive names.
 
Limiting guild bank access is a good thing to do. We are all ready set up on that front, just need to adhere to a certain amount of time before promotion. Like a trial period. *Makes note on list of things to discuss*
 
Our guild is moving forward with some things. I have made a brand new website for us, http://blazingsaddles.shivtr.com/ , go check it out. Just be aware it is still under construction, so may not have all features at this time.
 
Hope you all have a great day!	
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I will take some time this week to make us some nifty graphics, if you don't mind. My boss is gone all week, I am all caught up and I have time to kill.
 
Thank you, again, for taking the reigns and making a new site for us. :wub:  I shall go register directly.	
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I will take some time this week to make us some nifty graphics, if you don't mind. My boss is gone all week, I am all caught up and I have time to kill.
 
Thank you, again, for taking the reigns and making a new site for us. :wub:  I shall go register directly.
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			:O We have a website now?	
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 :o We have a website now?
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Oh yay! I'm such a forum hound. *will surely post in all the things*
 
Never used this "shivtr" before...	
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A little on-topic application discussion.  I'm not against website apps, but I would suggest they filter against people who are good as well as filtering against your undesireds.  Anecdote from WoW.  My son started in the Cataclysm era and fiddled around almost entirely by himself for years.  He enjoyed LFR but really wanted to try his hand at something a little more... organized.  The guild we were in back in December/January was just a group we hooked up with due to the name.  Their attempts at organizing a raid though were rough.  He was getting very discouraged.
 
With my own experience in the past, I poked through the realm forums and found a guild that I thought would be a good match and mentioned it to him (my own criteria:  reasonable raid schedule, well formatted and well written post, identifiable guild lead, etc...).  He went to the website for the application and... basically just sort of shut down.  For whatever reason, the effort of filling that out made it feel off-putting to him.  I think it felt more like a job.  And this kid is really dedicated.  Even to the abortive raids, he was coming 100% prepared, consumables, research, all the real things.
 
This continued for a few weeks, and he was getting even more discouraged about this.  I quietly sent out a message over Enjin (their guild website was done through that service) and just suggested they invite him to raid, give him a spin.  She thanked me for the recommendation and they did a little trial run and he's been a member now for months and VERY happy.  He's a great performer in raids, he participates in their other group activities and attempts, alts, the whole shebang.
 
Anecdotal point, applications have their place but always keep an eye and ear out for the lost but dedicated.  I'm sure this will be true especially when the payment model switches.  There's always a chance you're dealing with an introverted person for whom even an application is intimidating and might respond better to impromptu conversation, or just inviting them and seeing how they mesh.	
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Thats a pretty impressive website Cirinde!
 
How easy is Shivtr to use? Been looking for a suitable place to host ours. I've never been a big fan of Enjin, it always felt clunky to me, even as just a member/user.	
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Thats a pretty impressive website Cirinde!
 
How easy is Shivtr to use? Been looking for a suitable place to host ours. I've never been a big fan of Enjin, it always felt clunky to me, even as just a member/user.
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Awesome, I'll have my communications officer check into it and we'll start working one up.
 
As far as applications go, I don't really see it as something I'm either 'for' or 'against'. Starting out and building a guild, they are obviously unnecessary. You're trying to get people in, make them welcome and comfortable. 
 
Once you reach a stable population, however, it's nice to at least have a small little questionaire for them to fill out. Nothing ridiculous, but just a few 'this is who we are, do you think you'll fit in and why?' Over time guild members become very comfortable with each other, especially running lots of content together and a sort of 'guild personality' starts to coalesce and you want to make sure that potential recruits will mesh with the current population, or that will augment and supplement it. I know we're not gonna be some hardcore elite raiding/pvp'ing guild, tho we will at some point be doing raids and there are a few of us that will participate in PvP and the eventual questionaire will not be there to weed out hardcore vs. casual, PvE vs. PvP, but just to have a little bit of info on a person who wants to be part of the guild.
 
On the whole, I really doubt it will affect our recruitment much at all, once that goes into place, we will almost certainly still recruit in zone chats and so forth, but having them go fill that out so we can ask questions can be a step towards having an idea about someone and whether they will be a solid addition, or someone we may not feel is right for us.
 
*Edit: Changed the wording in my second paragraph so it doesn't look like I am telling people what they can/can't feel towards guild apps.	
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I'm not sure how Delve Deep will be handling applications and the F2P transfer. We're a relatively insular guild I feel like, made up of a lot of people from the RP community on Dom side who have been here from launch. We also have a full raid team made up of those same people and even a few spares that we've included over time. Point being, while we do occasionally welcome new people into guild, its been slow and steady. We seem to be relatively cautious about letting new people in, especially since we've had a spate of bad experiences with people who were invited into the guild without a lot of scrutiny and who caused major problems.
 
Mostly, people seem to get in nowadays that we've known for weeks if not months already, and who have expressed interest in raiding with us at some point. People who we know from time and experience aren't problematic or just there to steal from our bank. 
 
So again, I don't expect much to change from the transition. We might get more applications on our website, but otherwise, I don't see us growing too quickly as a guild, and I don't really mind either.	
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Thank you! :)
 
It is very easy to use. I have used Enjin and Guildlaunch, and both are not user friendly. Shivtr is very user friendly and easy to manage.
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 :o We have a website now?
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The Saddles have had an underused Enjin one for ages :lol:
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I knew that, but no one ever used it so I wrote it off. :P
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			My guild is also a leveling/enjoy the journey guild as well. I probably won't discriminate against names (unless it's a name that really should be reported.) Instead I'll probably focus more on their attitude while in the game. We have a "sister circle" meant for our graduates who are in the attunement process, and any who prove to be an annoyance will certainly not be given an invite to the circle.	
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Same here. And when Scott left, he passed the rights to Vic. Now Vic has left and I don't think anyone knows how to contact him.
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Same here. And when Scott left, he passed the rights to Vic. Now Vic has left and I don't think anyone knows how to contact him.
 
So Fitchy took it upon herself to just make a new one. We're also gonna start an all-new recruitment thread once we're all sorted out.
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Shivtr is pretty robust and allows for a good setup if you're code savvy as well for custom look and feel. I'd recommend it as an alternative to enjin if you're not a fan of enjin.
It also doesn't feel quite as "clunky" to me. IT's gotten pretty good over time as well and has jsut as many features too.
 
My first introduction to it was with Warhammer guild we constructed a site for our alliance and I think it was very easy to setup, later used it for rift and while i was helping with skullkickers it all seemed to jsut work very wel over the years with no real complaints.
 
The only thing that I feel Enjin is probably superior to Shivtr in is that Enjin kind of lends it self a bit more toward multi-gaming guilds and people who are part of multiple guilds and such. It's like a facebook of sorts(best i can describe it, but it feels odd)
 
I'm having two problems...
1)I can't pick between heal slinger and heal medic. I'm loving human female, never thought I'd ever make a human, but they made them really well in this game. I do wish that exile humans and cassian humans shared the same hair styles though...
2)I apologize to anyone for me being cranky and on edge, I have a phone interview in a few hours that could be a huge step up for me. So nervous.....*shakey coffee hands*	
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Vic has left :o?!
 
What did I miss?
 
Hate being a eurolopp sometimes :'c
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Same here. And when Scott left, he passed the rights to Vic. Now Vic has left and I don't think anyone knows how to contact him.
 
So Fitchy took it upon herself to just make a new one. We're also gonna start an all-new recruitment thread once we're all sorted out.
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That really sucks. What a loss to the community :(
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			That really sucks. What a loss to the community :(	
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=[ I just got my mordesh to 50 too....
mordesh warrior couple, so kawaii!
 
That's unfortunate though, but just hope they have a good time whereever they choose to go. Who knows maybe they'll come back later after they see how things pan out...	
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On happier news:
 
JUST GOT MY ANNIVERSARY GIFT!
OMGGGGG 
 
SO HAPPY :D	
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Oh cool! Heading home in ten minutes myself. Started my patch this morning before I left for work!
 
I'm gonna put my giant cupcake right next to my giant cup of coffee!	
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I'm gonna put my giant cupcake right next to my giant cup of coffee!
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That made me realize I want a giant penny and a full size T-rex so I can make an accurate Batcave.
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That made me realize I want a giant penny and a full size T-rex so I can make an accurate Batcave.
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Could make something fancy with the bunker interior, build a manor on top of it and then stuff the entrance to it behind a clock or bookshelf or I don't even remember anymore. Waterfalls with bluelight tables work with the proper rock placement. Who knows, could be fun!
 
So, good afternoon everyone! Haven't done much, though I did get to run through ULTIMATE PROTOGAMES™ a few times. I can never get tired of that dungeon, although the Prototentiary is still a jerk. Also got some gear for my medic, which is cool. I just wish I could get into more runs, I love those Ultimate Protogames.	
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Meet Bob and Daisey. They are getting ready to enjoy the cupcake!
 
Enjoying some Dance-Plosion on my lot with Daisey. :)	
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That made me realize I want a giant penny and a full size T-rex so I can make an accurate Batcave.
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The Saddles have had an underused Enjin one for ages :lol:
 
 
 ;) The problem with my copious spare time is that it ain't so copious.  I've played with Arduino in the past (even did a presentation at work about it) and quickly abandoned their IDE for straight up avr-gcc for my own project (replacement keypad controller for my garage door opener).  It's not that I don't have the skills, I just don't have the professional experience that would justify my current salary level.
 
(For my next trick I'm gonna build a HID footpedal to use as a PTT button.  ARMs are getting super cheap so some day I'll get around to making a VOIP answering machine.)
 
 
While I appreciate apps I avoid the over-the-top ones unless I know the group well.  I'm not interested in world-first progression raiding and if you're not doing that you don't need a detailed resume.
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I don't see huge changes to our recruitment process. Heck, we've had so much interest in TCC lately that it's been a pretty good test run of what more people will feel like! LOL My little guild is not so little anymore. We see 30+ on regularly and close to 50 on at least 3 times/week! We did a bit of internal restructuring and formalizing of officer roles to help keep us organized and make sure new members don't get lost upon joining. Outside of that, I expect our process will remain the same. Personally, I don't advertise in Thayd, zones, etc. anymore (and haven't in probably 6 months or more). We are mostly word of mouth or people that find us through the forums, Twitter, and our streamers. An invite generally involves chatting with an officer or recruiter for a few minutes to outline expectations on both sides and make sure they match. I've never been a fan of inviting people with openly offensive or really ridiculous names (Pooop Pooop would have been told no by us too. Sorry!) We ask all members to sign up for our website, but it's only required if you want to take part in events.
 
One thing we're working more on is looking into having more guild events beyond raiding. We've got some ideas we're working on that should give more members stuff to do for fun, prizes, and TCC forum titles :D	
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			Hmm, my update for WildStar is 666.0 mb. I'm not sure if I should download.	
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Hmm, my update for WildStar is 666.0 mb. I'm not sure if I should download.
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Hmm, my update for WildStar is 666.0 mb. I'm not sure if I should download.
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I had been wondering where VIc was just a few days ago.  It is a shame to see someone so dedicated leave
 
who is going to TLDR the livestreams for me now 
 
I'm just a lowly member in two guilds and I guess they will just carry on as usual. I don't see F2P players as a bad thing really. It does bring in trolls but its not like the game doesn't already have its fair share of those. the worst will be low level zone chats from past experience I will be wanting to avoid those like the plague.
 
In other Wildstar news I started a new Warrior alt. because 5 alts I ignore is not enough. meet  Vladd
Vladd's mission is too level as far as he can using only the 3 abilities he came off the arkship with and without spending any amp or ability points. I did this a few times in beta but only until I got to Thayd at around level 12 - 14. The one year anniversary seemed like a good time to do it again and see how far I can go. So far, its.. well kinda boring. I did manage to solo the 2+ NPC Grommash the Lopp crusher. That was fun
 	
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