On It's Feet!

This is an illustration of when ingrained learning kicks in. :)

I love Abyssea. It is really fun. There seem to be so many aspects to it. So many things we can't even really explain yet. Like, why did Turul and Ovni start aggroing all of a sudden? Are the "!!" really random? How do all the Abyssite drop? At some point though, all of this information just gets to be overwhelming. Why are there so many questions that remain unanswered? What are we supposed to do to try to figure all of this out? Why can't SE just give us some straight forward content.

I am not saying that there is something wrong with Abyssea itself. As I have already said it is challenge and rewarding content. I am just concerned that instead of content we are getting randomness. One of the reasons that I liked Salvage so much was that it was a riddle but it was one that we could figure out. Sure there was the normal drop rate issue, but it felt like if you did it long enough it would all average out in the end.

I look at Abyssea and I see a huge jumble of events. A little Limbus, a splash of Salvage, the old Sky/Sea combo, finished with a dash of Kings. It's very interesting and fun, but it seems all a bit scatter brained (not like I am one to criticize, my posts can end up rambling on forever). The tiers don't seem symmetrical. It seems more like a hodge-podge of previous end-game content mixed with something all new.

It's not bad at all, it can just get confusing sometimes. Sometimes it's nice to have content with some obvious solution to it. There is some comfort to be found standing on a dragon's feet. It's a whole new world, but that doesn't mean that SE has to steal my security blankie. :)

<a href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/baby_faf.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/baby_faf.png" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 275px;" /></a>This is an illustration of when ingrained learning kicks in. :)<br /><br />I love Abyssea. It is really fun. There seem to be so many aspects to it. So many things we can't even really explain yet. Like, why did Turul and Ovni start aggroing all of a sudden? Are the "!!" really random? How do all the Abyssite drop? At some point though, all of this information just gets to be overwhelming. Why are there so many questions that remain unanswered? What are we supposed to do to try to figure all of this out? Why can't SE just give us some straight forward content. <br /><br />I am not saying that there is something wrong with Abyssea itself. As I have already said it is challenge and rewarding content. I am just concerned that instead of content we are getting randomness. One of the reasons that I liked Salvage so much was that it was a riddle but it was one that we could figure out. Sure there was the normal drop rate issue, but it felt like if you did it long enough it would all average out in the end.<br /><br />I look at Abyssea and I see a huge jumble of events. A little Limbus, a splash of Salvage, the old Sky/Sea combo, finished with a dash of Kings. It's very interesting and fun, but it seems all a bit scatter brained (not like I am one to criticize, my posts can end up rambling on forever). The tiers don't seem symmetrical. It seems more like a hodge-podge of previous end-game content mixed with something all new.<br /><br />It's not bad at all, it can just get confusing sometimes. Sometimes it's nice to have content with some obvious solution to it. There is some comfort to be found standing on a dragon's feet. It's a whole new world, but that doesn't mean that SE has to steal my security blankie. :)

Real Life Happens to Other People: Obsidian Above and Beyond!

Obsidian Linkshell is most likely to be the oldest, consistently performing dynamis ls on the Odin server. It is by far and away the most successful North American dynamis shell, despite having gone through its own amount of internal turmoil it has always managed to hold together with one of the finest points system databases in FFXI.

New horizons are potentially rumbling through as the leadership takes a possible look at expanding the ls to cover a few more end game events outside of just Dynamis. An idea that grew from a small seed, it could be worth watching to see if this becomes a successful transition, Obsidian has a huge memberbase it can draw from for this, even though a large number of its members are from other endgame ls'.

While a largely casual player base, everyone has to start somewhere, most people only need a bit of experience to adapt to endgame and its various rigours. It is definately worth keeping an eye on developments to see if we have a behemoth rise from this!

<a href="http://einherjar.obsidianls.com/images/obsidian-einherjar.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://einherjar.obsidianls.com/images/obsidian-einherjar.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; cursor: pointer; text-align: center;" /></span></a><br /><br />Obsidian Linkshell is most likely to be the oldest, consistently performing dynamis ls on the Odin server. It is by far and away the most successful North American dynamis shell, despite having gone through its own amount of internal turmoil it has always managed to hold together with one of the finest points system databases in FFXI.<br /><br />New horizons are potentially rumbling through as the leadership takes a possible look at expanding the ls to cover a few more end game events outside of just Dynamis. An idea that grew from a small seed, it could be worth watching to see if this becomes a successful transition, Obsidian has a huge memberbase it can draw from for this, even though a large number of its members are from other endgame ls'.<br /><br />While a largely casual player base, everyone has to start somewhere, most people only need a bit of experience to adapt to endgame and its various rigours. It is definately worth keeping an eye on developments to see if we have a behemoth rise from this!

Don't Break The Shadowbind!: The balancing act.

>Don't Break the Shadowbind! is our Wed-weekly column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. In this post I want to take a look at how you actually structure events to please both the veterans and the newcomers of your linkshell.


Every linkshell tends to fall into tiers. At the top is your leadership hierarchy, then you have your top end linkshell members, who come as any job, are keen, dedicated and good at what they do. Then you have the middle layer of membership. These are members who are slightly less polished than your elite players but generally make up the bulk of your ls. They show up to events, carry the weight and help you get things done. Finally there are the floaters. The people who you can't quite work out why they are in your ls, they don't really care and can be more a hindrance than a help.

What ever tier you fall into, at some point you are either a noob or a veteran of the linkshell you are participating in and everyone (particularly Americans) have their opinions on their rights and entitlements within the structure of the linkshell.

To a degree, this is correct, while we have no official charter drawn up that states what rights your members have in your democracy/dictatorship/senate (My linkshell is run on the benevolent dictatorship theory)for a linkshell to succeed you need to minimise the amount of corruption at the top therefore allowing the members to believe they are getting a good deal from the situation.

There are things I feel you are morally obliged to do when you decide to be a linkshell leader. Of course not everyone adheres to things like this but that is a personal decision and potentially leaves a lot to be desired about your personality. Screwing over other people is never a pleasant thing whatever the "justification".

I have always believed that to be a good leader, my members come before me. Which is why when people leave Versus getting angry at me, it is always intriguing as to why they are very upset at me, which is invariably the case. Presumably because I am not giving anyone favouritism. Another thing I wish to avoid at all costs, whether you are the person who started last week, or the member who has been in the shell for 4 years, I expect everyone to be a valuable member of the linkshell.

Of course I will tailor my expectations to be flexible, there is a learning curve you can allow for the newer members that you would haul your older members up for, but I don't shy away from admonishing veterans who does stupid things. Being in the linkshell for a long time should not excuse you from silly mistakes and errors, you have been there long enough and really should know better.

In amongst all this, before I digress too much, heheheh, is the tricky act of balancing your events. You need to do events tailored to both the Veterans of the linkshell AND the newer members of the linkshell. The interesting point about Versus currently is that we have been doing things for so long now that it is very easy to get the easy stuff very quickly.

Its the ultra-rare drops there is a queue for. This can cause an air of dissent, the Veterans want to be entertained and not made to feel like all they are doing in your linkshell is playing catch up to a bunch of noobs who may or may not remain in your linkshell after getting that 1 drop they have waited 3 months for.

Sadly we have had a LOT of members who have used the linkshell as a stopping point to clean up and move on, you can't predict who is going to do that and it is very hard to be vigilant against such abuses. It is frustrating, however the best thing you can do is move on.

The thing I think I struggle with the most is the senior members who think that doing certain zones, such as Sky, is an event that is beneath them. I don't agree with them at all, I think that encourages an attitude of complacency, and just because you do Salvage/HNM/anything fancier or more expensive than god abjurations, doesn't mean that it isn't the best gear for other people until they can hit the same stride as you.

The decision to pick what is best event wise for the linkshell is hard as you will receive a lot of pressure from those ensconced veterans who are like Waldorf and Statler from The Muppets. Crotchety old men who like to heckle about how it wasn't like that in my day. Don't let them cower you into submission, remember ultimately you are still the boss.

You need to find a path that juggles everyone's happiness so that you don't have people leaving or causing problems, its a narrow path to walk but it is possible. Good luck its a fine line but if you do it well your linkshell will follow you anywhere.

><strong>Don't Break the Shadowbind!</strong> <em>is our Wed-weekly column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. In this post I want to take a look at how you actually structure events to please both the veterans and the newcomers of your linkshell.<br /></em><br /><a href="http://www.mwtb.org/images/interactive/balance/balance_q.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.mwtb.org/images/interactive/balance/balance_q.jpg" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 384px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" /></a><br />Every linkshell tends to fall into tiers. At the top is your leadership hierarchy, then you have your top end linkshell members, who come as any job, are keen, dedicated and good at what they do. Then you have the middle layer of membership. These are members who are slightly less polished than your elite players but generally make up the bulk of your ls. They show up to events, carry the weight and help you get things done. Finally there are the floaters. The people who you can't quite work out why they are in your ls, they don't really care and can be more a hindrance than a help.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />What ever tier you fall into, at some point you are either a noob or a veteran of the linkshell you are participating in and everyone (particularly Americans) have their opinions on their rights and entitlements within the structure of the linkshell.<br /><br />To a degree, this is correct, while we have no official charter drawn up that states what rights your members have in your democracy/dictatorship/senate (My linkshell is run on the benevolent dictatorship theory)for a linkshell to succeed you need to minimise the amount of corruption at the top therefore allowing the members to believe they are getting a good deal from the situation.<br /><br />There are things I feel you are morally obliged to do when you decide to be a linkshell leader. Of course not everyone adheres to things like this but that is a personal decision and potentially leaves a lot to be desired about your personality. Screwing over other people is never a pleasant thing whatever the "justification".<br /><br />I have always believed that to be a good leader, my members come before me. Which is why when people leave Versus getting angry at me, it is always intriguing as to why they are very upset at me, which is invariably the case. Presumably because I am not giving anyone favouritism. Another thing I wish to avoid at all costs, whether you are the person who started last week, or the member who has been in the shell for 4 years, I expect everyone to be a valuable member of the linkshell.<br /><br />Of course I will tailor my expectations to be flexible, there is a learning curve you can allow for the newer members that you would haul your older members up for, but I don't shy away from admonishing veterans who does stupid things. Being in the linkshell for a long time should not excuse you from silly mistakes and errors, you have been there long enough and really should know better.<br /><br />In amongst all this, before I digress too much, heheheh, is the tricky act of balancing your events. You need to do events tailored to both the Veterans of the linkshell AND the newer members of the linkshell. The interesting point about Versus currently is that we have been doing things for so long now that it is very easy to get the easy stuff very quickly.<br /><br />Its the ultra-rare drops there is a queue for. This can cause an air of dissent, the Veterans want to be entertained and not made to feel like all they are doing in your linkshell is playing catch up to a bunch of noobs who may or may not remain in your linkshell after getting that 1 drop they have waited 3 months for.<br /><br />Sadly we have had a LOT of members who have used the linkshell as a stopping point to clean up and move on, you can't predict who is going to do that and it is very hard to be vigilant against such abuses. It is frustrating, however the best thing you can do is move on.<br /><br />The thing I think I struggle with the most is the senior members who think that doing certain zones, such as Sky, is an event that is beneath them. I don't agree with them at all, I think that encourages an attitude of complacency, and just because you do Salvage/HNM/anything fancier or more expensive than god abjurations, doesn't mean that it isn't the best gear for other people until they can hit the same stride as you.<br /><br />The decision to pick what is best event wise for the linkshell is hard as you will receive a lot of pressure from those ensconced veterans who are like Waldorf and Statler from The Muppets. Crotchety old men who like to heckle about how it wasn't like that in my day. Don't let them cower you into submission, remember ultimately you are still the boss.<br /><br />You need to find a path that juggles everyone's happiness so that you don't have people leaving or causing problems, its a narrow path to walk but it is possible. Good luck its a fine line but if you do it well your linkshell will follow you anywhere.<br /></span>

Don't Break the Shadowbind! - The man, the myth, the flavour: An interview with Donnie from BBQ.

Don't Break the Shadowbind! is our Wed-weekly column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. An insight into a different method of leadership and a successful linkshell on Odin, Omoikitte talks to Donnie from BBQ about how the cogs mesh in this successful end-game linkshell.

We have heard me pontificate at great length about how my opinions on how a linkshell should be run. Today I am going to diverge from that path and explore the inner workings of a different linkshell, it is famous, it is infamous and it is undeniably a success in its own right. It’s a flavour, an out-door activity and a horde of gamers in FFXI. Welcome to BBQ.

The Essentials

The Man
Handle: Donnie
Orientation: Male
Age: 29
Origin: Bahrain, but lives in the UK now (*editors note – an enlightened man then ^.^
Ls Member: 5 years and counting.

Snapshot
Omoikitte>> How long have you been a part of BBQ?
Donnie>> urgggh
Donnie>> sad
Omoikitte>> LoL I’ve been running Versus for 5 years.
Donnie>> 5 years
Omoikitte>> So don’t worry I won’t judge.
Donnie>> yea lol
Donnie>> LOL
Omoikitte>> LOL

The Linkshell
Average Active Membership: 35-40
Leaders per Member base: 7-8

The Conversation – WARNING – LONG POST

Omoikitte>> Hellooo
Donnie>> Hellooo
Omoikitte>> Are you busy right now?

Donnie>> Not really, /sea all Donnie.
Omoikitte>> Still willing to do that interview? It was tactical asking.
Donnie>> Sure.
Donnie>> Its ZNM week and I am bored from taking pictures lol
Omoikitte>> It gets old after the first 10mins of taking pictures, a necessary evil.
Donnie>> Yea.
Omoikitte>> Mostly, I just want to talk to you about your opinions on running an end-game linkshell, what you think about how things should be done what its like being a part of BBQ, owning the shell etc etc. Points systems, a different perspective on running a long living ls other than my own.
Donnie>> Sure, ask anything, there are too many things to consider so if you ask specifically in each aspect, I will give a better answer.

Omoikitte>> Sooo, you are the big cheese, the main man as it were, of BBQ correct, you own the actual shell itself?
Donnie>> Not really, for a good reason BBQbank is the shell holder.
Omoikitte>> Oh? Do you retain executive control over the bank?
Donnie>> No, 2-3 people manage it, and if someone can’t do anymore, someone else does. The reason behind it mainly is just in case I quit, the LS won’t end. There were times that I have taken a break and it didn’t affect the LS. From the beginning our target was to have a system that everyone followed, not a person.
Omoikitte>> *amused* That has come up in the past, do you find it odd that you can go away for a long time and come back and everyone is just that slightly more engaged than before because you are there?
Donnie>> I felt happy it works.
Omoikitte>> Our? Was it a committee that decided to create BBQ?
Donnie>> We had a mission statement that everyone that joins must read, I never say I, lol I know it sounds cheesy but again, the mission statement was that we are not a HNM ls, and if you think you are joining a HNM ls, you are in the wrong ls. We are a group of “friend” that do end-game. So if you look at it from this perspective, it changes a lot of things. For example, there is no main leader, although people would come up to me in some cases, but it’s those cases that 50% say yes, 50% say no. I have to have the final say.
Omoikitte>> People still see you as the final point of arbitration correct?
Donnie>> Yea. But, if I am not around, it wasn’t a big issue either. They solve it through the system. W never have the same rules. Any suggestion or dilemma goes to leaders’ sub-forum. They discuss it and vote on the solutions. If there is a majority yes or no, then it is solved, if it’s still not solved, it is posted in BBQ public forum and all members vote, if it’s still not solved and there was no major agreement it’s where I step in.

Donnie>> I actually stripped myself from any role, so that everyone else is empowered and feel part of the linkshell, so you don’t end up having sub-groups within the ls that works for their own interests etc.
Omoikitte>> You definitely get that impression from the membership base, as quite a few camp out on our Vent server. (*editors note Vent = Ventrillo, peer to peer voice chat program)

Donnie>> Yea, so this way, even if the leader quit, it will have no impact on the ls.
Omoikitte>> You say you have a leader forum, how do you go about electing a new leader for the ls?
Donnie>> There are job descriptions for every role. There are no leaders for the ls, every event has a leader, and that leader is only the official one. For example, sea events has a leader that keeps a sheet of all pop items, managing the event, posting lists etc. and there is a sky leader miscellaneous leader, banker, recruiter, and every one of those roles have specific things they manage which we stated. There are also ZNM leaders. What else.. umm.. aside from all of that, everyone can lead any event. He has to report to the official leader for the farming results etc. and we give a bonus points to people that lead and take lists, to motivate members to lead rather than follow. There are 4 weeks rotation, Sea>Sky>ZNM>Misc.
Omoikitte>> So you have almost a mini network for each event that virtually self-regulates itself? What safeguards do you have to prevent abuse of that system?

Donnie>> Its 2 things. Since points are shared from all events, the item list states who gets what and it’s done automatically. This way, event leaders can’t choose who gets what and do what they please. If in some cases they do, members can revoke him as a leader and it happened before. Not because that leader abused the system, but because he actually cannot lead, so I asked him to step down and let others lead.
Omoikitte>> In a lot of ways this sounds very similar to the Roman senate, in its idealized form of course without the despotic Cesar.
Donnie>> lol Never though of it this way, but in all honestly, I take no credit for all this development in the system.

Donnie>> I can no go on how we actually formed…
Omoikitte>> Everyone enjoys a good “we came from this” story /grin
Donnie>> BBQ was a social LS before all the end-game shells here, and it consisted of about 8-10 people. Those people have joined Metoera, which later broke and reformed as CRX. Once it broke, the people in that shell decide to be in our own ls and make sure everyone joins are a friend or a friend of one of us. Metoera had a lot of problems with mass recruiting and shouting to get members. I was originally in LB, (*editors note LB = Limit Break) back when main NMs were Serket and Roc.
Omoikitte>> Ah the good old days LOL.
Donnie>> But I moved to Metoera because all of that ls were my friends and they were in rival ls. So to fast forward I wasn’t leader of the ls. The leader of that ls moved which was called UnitedBBQ, so we end up needing to reform.
Omoikitte>> To a different server?
Donnie>> Yea, Remora, because they hated CRX leader Jyuzax and don’t want to be near him or whatever.

Omoikitte>> That’s where a lot of the CRX US players went when they opened it up, to start afresh, but it panned didn’t it.
Donnie>> It didn’t go well.

Donnie>> Anyway, the guy was very strict etc, no fun, its “real” challenge etc and refused to recruit members, I don’t blame him. He was trying to be very small Ls, with very skillful players but it just doesn’t work and I had conflict with him in that issue where he left the server and I made BBQ.
Omoikitte>> Speaking from experience here, that comes with time and you can never force it you are correct.
Donnie>> Yea, the problem with small Ls’, one guy don’t log on that day and you can’t do anything and you know back in the day, its rare to find someone with 2 jobs lol.
Omoikitte>> LOL seriously, it was a big deal to have 1 job at 75.

Omoikitte>> Now BBQ has been through quite a number of reformations in its history hasn’t it.
Donnie>> It didn’t go through reform, its not like I quit or something, it was just a periodical thing we did, every time we want to clean ls from inactive members and that sort, the system remained the same. Anyone that comes back has to go through application.
Omoikitte>> And the undesirables?
Donnie>> Not really, although some I don’t like, not as their person but as their skill, but we never actually told them not to join again, that is a very important thing that I enforce many times so that every leader knows it.

Omoikitte>> Personal opinion doesn’t really come into it though, I have had times when people in my ls rub me completely the wrong way, but I don’t let it affect my decisions to use them in the ls, or to penalize their right to lot. I guess I mean more those people who were a negative aspect of the ls, rather than just someone you didn’t like.
Donnie>> If you let personal feeling comes in your way, you are due to over react or abuse the system but they do know that I can’t kick them from the ls, and this is very important. So we respect each other in events etc and actually OK with no. We are not really “friends” or let’s say online friends; anyone who thinks everyone in the ls likes everyone else is delusional.
Omoikitte>> More like work colleagues in a way then.
Donnie>> Yea
Omoikitte>> LOL agreed!

Donnie>> But you have to put a line where it doesn’t get blown out of proportions if you know those 2 don’t like each other, you must talk toe ach and/or invite them to a PT and it works really well. Many of them actually became friends and would be doing things from morning until nights. At the end of the day, most of those who don’t like each other would be because of a stupid incident happened years ago or something. All it took is someone to say sorry and it’s done.
Donnie>> Once BBQ started, the one I lead, I put the mission statement immediately on how its “friends” ls and everyone has to have this mindset, because you will never have a perfect system and you will end up in a brick wall sooner or later. If you are not strong together any issue or dilemma that happens will divide the ls.
Omoikitte>> Now on that point, BBQ does tend to have a reputation for being a bit possessed by the drama llama. What are your thoughts on that?

Donnie>> It’s a huge ls, if I understand you correctly; you mean drama within the ls or drama with other ls?
Omoikitte>> Both.
Donnie>> Oh, ok. Every ls has drama but believe it or not, everyone that came from a different ls or in similar situations, have said that BBQ has the best environment of all the ls’ he has been in and to add more, most people who left BBQ for other ls’ tried to come back and I am talking 99% of them. I only know 1 person who didn’t come back and stayed in the other ls. So there is drama but it’s not what people say and it happens rarely, and the best part of it, it always doesn’t mean anything.
Omoikitte>> Which is the inevitability of the gossip monger.
Donnie>> One you get people playing together 24/7 they end up fighting with each other sooner or later, not each other but I mean 1 of them will pick a fight with another player but they would laugh about it 10mins later. It’s like how family behaviour does.
Omoikitte>> Yes, people will understand that concept spins from any linkshell that is successful, otherwise it just falls apart.

Donnie>> Recent example would be last week where someone was angry because other player told him that he is slow in refresh order, so he left lol. So we knew he is having a bad day, 3 hours later he comes back in the ls and says he is sorry. We don’t /tell him asking him you will get kicked because you did this or you breaking the rules. The mindset is still we are group of friends. As for drama with other linkshells. Every ls had it and mostly the new ones. LB was a nemesis to TK (*editors note – TK = Team Kannican) and they ended up teaming up. We were nemesis to both of them and end up teaming up in a lot of events.

Omoikitte>> What do you think of your teaming with TK and LB? How profitable has it been for your selves and for the other ls’?
Donnie>> It does profit every ls socially if you have many cross friend the ls’ bond more together. Our team ups really on AV which was successful lol, recently in PW which is also successful because not 1 ls can get 40-50 people for that event. So although it’s a mutual benefit the one that drives it is because we have too many cross-over friends. Also we have been in agreements with all other ls’.
Omoikitte>> Do you think potentially that has arisen from the fact that rivalry between ls’ on Odin has never really been that aggressive in comparison to other linkshells, which in turn has allowed for these bridges to be forged?
Donnie>> It was Aggressive. But I have talked to Masago back in the day and other leaders to try to change this. People used to say “this ls did this to us”, we want to say “that person from that ls did this to us” and it works.

Omoikitte>> How long did it take for them to come around to the idea that it would be better to bury the hatchet?
Donnie>> Honestly I don’t know, it began maybe from a stupid thing tat no-one is allowed to use /say in camps and every ls leader should deduct points if someone does that. Believe it or not, it was a rule.
Omoikitte>> I have had that rule standing in Versus since day one. It comes with a warming that I will kick the member if they rise to any heckling from other linkshells, and I always enforced a rule of polite behaviour to other linkshells, so it isn’t that strange of a concept.
Donnie>> Yea, true.
Donnie>> Then the other effect happened after so many end game events emerged, Einherjar, Salvage etc. it made a lot of cross-ls’ linkshells. But to see that rule all other ls leaders agree on is what was strange. Lol. We were to a point where we random before each window to decide who claim the NM before SE patched the delay in spawning. You know ironically enough, I can’t find an Ls now that we have a rivalry with.
Omoikitte>> But that is definitely a positive step towards linkshell co-operation, a sense of fair-mindedness rather than obstructive behaviour, and really actually merging to work as a team for certain events was just the next step along the path in that respect.

Donnie>> The true test of any team is not when they are successful, its when they fail at something or reach a brick wall.
Omoikitte>> And how they deal with it.
Donnie>> Yea, I remember one point, where I went to Odin’s Chamber as PLD/BLM, yes you can laugh -.-, and made the ls fail, timed out on 1%. The members took it lightly and laughed about it, you can’t expect a success rate of 100%.
Omoikitte>> You actually need the failures to remind the membership that you are not invulnerable, as a point to retain perspective.
Donnie>> Yea, that reminded me of how members contribute, one of the main things I found in beginning of ls, there is no way 1 leader can handle everything for the ls, in 1 case, he can abuse it and in another case, he will get burned out. So I split the events to leaders.
(*editors note – I actually paused for a moment at this point to point out that I very much run the linkshell with a pyramidal structure of leadership rather than a committee)
Donnie>> I think it all has to do with changing mindsets towards admins, for example not to call them admins but to call them leaders up to a point where people would be confused who is the leader and find out.. there is no leader, it’s the system that leads everyone.
Donnie>> We are in the matrix!
Omoikitte>> LOL
Donnie>> lol
Donnie>> There are many instances where new members don’t know who is the leader, it was funny. But from the same point, its how our system developed, suggestion form was always filled with options to improve and we continued to vote on this and that until we finally arrive here.
Omoikitte>> Tweaking and refining what you do.

Donnie>> To explain to you the ls rules now would be 10 pages of text or more, but its from years of developing. There was no ls doing point system back when we started, or at least as the way we do it, and I never heard of anyone using item list + point list. We had point list as a matter of value and then we have PP list, which is a formula that is used on the point system to give you a value for items. This formula includes bonus for
1. How long you been waiting for that item.
2. How many points you got… and something else, LOL even I can’t remember now.
Omoikitte>> LOL
Donnie>> And then you get penalties such as 1. If you get a critical item recently, this penalty vanish over time so we don’t get 2 person to leech items, also penalty if you are below 20% activity, but a bonus if you are 90% active.
Omoikitte>> It equates to an even distribution of reward amongst the members.
Donnie>> Thos bonus values though, were tweaked until the item list produced was fair, at the beginning we gave high bonus for criteria that messed up the item list, so it took us some time to adjust all those values.
Omoikitte>> Did you vote each time you tweaked the rules?
Donnie>> Yes, in leaders forum, if leaders do not agree, it goes to public forum where all members vote.

Donnie>> Then we go into the banking thing, there are two channels of money.
Omoikitte>> I know you recently announced a big shake up on how you do the banking in the ls.
Donnie>> Yea, this is a perfect example, first the reason behind leader forum and not putting every single action to vote. It’s because you need speed, if you put things in public as you just showed, it gets huge and takes more time to solve. So if leaders agree, it certainly means members agree, but if leaders divide, then members should come and give their input. It’s like taking a sample vote, or taking a full vote.
Omoikitte>> That makes sense.
Donnie>> Now for the BBQ money, it started when other ls’ began to show up relics here and there. So some leaders started saying why don’t BBQ sponsor relics like other ls? I was on the other side refusing that matter.
Omoikitte>> Why?
Donnie>> Because it’s a narrow view, “this ls has relics more than us!” it’s very childish in my opinion lol, and it shouldn’t be the comparable aspect between ls. In fact I don’t find anything to compare between ls.
Donnie>> Who got the most HNMs?
Donnie>> Who kill fastest?
Donnie>> There are too many ways to list your achievement and argue that you are the best, so the best thing to do is not to compare your ls but rather just feel happy on what you are as a group and what you have accomplished. I mean its funny how people used to say “we kill more” then it changes to “we killed with less people” then it changes to “we kill in this amount of time”.

Donnie>> The other main reason was I am not sure how you can take 150,000,000G and give it to 1 person where everyone worked for that amount, doesn’t make sense. Other ls’ are mostly the leaders who get relics, so that’s a “?” mark, what kind of example would you be setting to your members if your leeching all the money to yourself? I bet you the main reason people would stay on those ls’ are just to get item, there is no feeling that they are having fun with friends, it’s just a job and then they do other miscellaneous events with their friends.
Donnie>> Anyway, we put it to the main vote and people suggested the idea of splitting the gil each month then another person suggested another thing, we end up having a really nice idea. 50% of the gil treated as bonus purely based on points accumulated per person each month, has nothing to do with PP or activity, and the other 50% would remain till auctioned off every Sunday 30p/500k. So every active person in the end would be receiving about 4-8 million a month and that doesn’t come with a deduction of points, just a bonus, this way we removed all the excess gil on the bank. Just keep “working capital” for each month.

Donnie>>For recruitment it’s sad, because I had 2 people who are my friends wanted to join the ls, but they couldn’t, and its good because no-one can be blamed. LoL
Omoikitte>> Why couldn’t they join?
Donnie>> 2 sponsors, fill in application, discuss it for a week, close that topic, open poll for a week, need to get 70% to join.
Donnie>> One of them I think because he didn’t have good jobs, in fact he only had DRG and no merits >.>;
Donnie>> The other was close, he had 64% yes.
Omoikitte>> HEY! Nothing wrong with Dragoon!
Donnie>> Exactly lol
Omoikitte>> There is a lot wrong with no merits, that is just idleness.
Donnie>> Yeah I told him to work on his merits at least and apply again, you can apply again.

At this point we got completely off topic and just started waxing lyrical about how cool DRG is as a job, and how bad DRG are a travesty. Thank you to Donnie for spending a few hours chatting to me about various aspects of his linkshell. I hope you all enjoyed this small window into BBQ.

<span style="font-weight: bold;">Don't Break the Shadowbind!</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> is our Wed-weekly column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. An insight into a different method of leadership and a successful linkshell on Odin, Omoikitte talks to Donnie from BBQ about how the cogs mesh in this successful end-game linkshell.</span><br /><br />We have heard me pontificate at great length about how my opinions on how a linkshell should be run. Today I am going to diverge from that path and explore the inner workings of a different linkshell, it is famous, it is infamous and it is undeniably a success in its own right. It’s a flavour, an out-door activity and a horde of gamers in FFXI. Welcome to BBQ.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 102);font-size:130%;" >The Essentials</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">The Man</span><br />Handle: Donnie<br />Orientation: Male<br />Age: 29<br />Origin: Bahrain, but lives in the UK now (*editors note – an enlightened man then ^.^<br />Ls Member: 5 years and counting.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0); font-style: italic;">Snapshot</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Omoikitte>> How long have you been a part of BBQ?</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Donnie>> urgggh</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Donnie>> sad</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Omoikitte>> LoL I’ve been running Versus for 5 years.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Donnie>> 5 years</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Omoikitte>> So don’t worry I won’t judge.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Donnie>> yea lol</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Donnie>> LOL</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Omoikitte>> LOL</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">The Linkshell</span><br />Average Active Membership: 35-40<br />Leaders per Member base: 7-8<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Conversation</span></span> – <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">WARNING – LONG POST</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Hellooo<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Hellooo<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Are you busy right now?<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Not really, /sea all Donnie.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Still willing to do that interview? It was tactical asking.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Sure.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Its ZNM week and I am bored from taking pictures lol<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> It gets old after the first 10mins of taking pictures, a necessary evil.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Mostly, I just want to talk to you about your opinions on running an end-game linkshell, what you think about how things should be done what its like being a part of BBQ, owning the shell etc etc. Points systems, a different perspective on running a long living ls other than my own.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Sure, ask anything, there are too many things to consider so if you ask specifically in each aspect, I will give a better answer.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Sooo, you are the big cheese, the main man as it were, of BBQ correct, you own the actual shell itself?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Not really, for a good reason BBQbank is the shell holder.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Oh? Do you retain executive control over the bank?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> No, 2-3 people manage it, and if someone can’t do anymore, someone else does. The reason behind it mainly is just in case I quit, the LS won’t end. There were times that I have taken a break and it didn’t affect the LS. From the beginning our target was to have a system that everyone followed, not a person.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> *amused* That has come up in the past, do you find it odd that you can go away for a long time and come back and everyone is just that slightly more engaged than before because you are there?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> I felt happy it works.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Our? Was it a committee that decided to create BBQ?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> We had a mission statement that everyone that joins must read, I never say I, lol I know it sounds cheesy but again, the mission statement was that we are not a HNM ls, and if you think you are joining a HNM ls, you are in the wrong ls. We are a group of “friend” that do end-game. So if you look at it from this perspective, it changes a lot of things. For example, there is no main leader, although people would come up to me in some cases, but it’s those cases that 50% say yes, 50% say no. I have to have the final say.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> People still see you as the final point of arbitration correct?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea. But, if I am not around, it wasn’t a big issue either. They solve it through the system. W never have the same rules. Any suggestion or dilemma goes to leaders’ sub-forum. They discuss it and vote on the solutions. If there is a majority yes or no, then it is solved, if it’s still not solved, it is posted in BBQ public forum and all members vote, if it’s still not solved and there was no major agreement it’s where I step in.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> I actually stripped myself from any role, so that everyone else is empowered and feel part of the linkshell, so you don’t end up having sub-groups within the ls that works for their own interests etc.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> You definitely get that impression from the membership base, as quite a few camp out on our Vent server. (*editors note Vent = Ventrillo, peer to peer voice chat program)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea, so this way, even if the leader quit, it will have no impact on the ls.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> You say you have a leader forum, how do you go about electing a new leader for the ls?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> There are job descriptions for every role. There are no leaders for the ls, every event has a leader, and that leader is only the official one. For example, sea events has a leader that keeps a sheet of all pop items, managing the event, posting lists etc. and there is a sky leader miscellaneous leader, banker, recruiter, and every one of those roles have specific things they manage which we stated. There are also ZNM leaders. What else.. umm.. aside from all of that, everyone can lead any event. He has to report to the official leader for the farming results etc. and we give a bonus points to people that lead and take lists, to motivate members to lead rather than follow. There are 4 weeks rotation, Sea>Sky>ZNM>Misc.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> So you have almost a mini network for each event that virtually self-regulates itself? What safeguards do you have to prevent abuse of that system?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Its 2 things. Since points are shared from all events, the item list states who gets what and it’s done automatically. This way, event leaders can’t choose who gets what and do what they please. If in some cases they do, members can revoke him as a leader and it happened before. Not because that leader abused the system, but because he actually cannot lead, so I asked him to step down and let others lead.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> In a lot of ways this sounds very similar to the Roman senate, in its idealized form of course without the despotic Cesar.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> lol Never though of it this way, but in all honestly, I take no credit for all this development in the system.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> I can no go on how we actually formed…<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Everyone enjoys a good “we came from this” story /grin<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> BBQ was a social LS before all the end-game shells here, and it consisted of about 8-10 people. Those people have joined Metoera, which later broke and reformed as CRX. Once it broke, the people in that shell decide to be in our own ls and make sure everyone joins are a friend or a friend of one of us. Metoera had a lot of problems with mass recruiting and shouting to get members. I was originally in LB, (*editors note LB = Limit Break) back when main NMs were Serket and Roc.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Ah the good old days LOL.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> But I moved to Metoera because all of that ls were my friends and they were in rival ls. So to fast forward I wasn’t leader of the ls. The leader of that ls moved which was called UnitedBBQ, so we end up needing to reform.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> To a different server?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea, Remora, because they hated CRX leader Jyuzax and don’t want to be near him or whatever.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> That’s where a lot of the CRX US players went when they opened it up, to start afresh, but it panned didn’t it.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> It didn’t go well.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Anyway, the guy was very strict etc, no fun, its “real” challenge etc and refused to recruit members, I don’t blame him. He was trying to be very small Ls, with very skillful players but it just doesn’t work and I had conflict with him in that issue where he left the server and I made BBQ.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Speaking from experience here, that comes with time and you can never force it you are correct.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea, the problem with small Ls’, one guy don’t log on that day and you can’t do anything and you know back in the day, its rare to find someone with 2 jobs lol.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> LOL seriously, it was a big deal to have 1 job at 75.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Now BBQ has been through quite a number of reformations in its history hasn’t it.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> It didn’t go through reform, its not like I quit or something, it was just a periodical thing we did, every time we want to clean ls from inactive members and that sort, the system remained the same. Anyone that comes back has to go through application.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> And the undesirables?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Not really, although some I don’t like, not as their person but as their skill, but we never actually told them not to join again, that is a very important thing that I enforce many times so that every leader knows it.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Personal opinion doesn’t really come into it though, I have had times when people in my ls rub me completely the wrong way, but I don’t let it affect my decisions to use them in the ls, or to penalize their right to lot. I guess I mean more those people who were a negative aspect of the ls, rather than just someone you didn’t like.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> If you let personal feeling comes in your way, you are due to over react or abuse the system but they do know that I can’t kick them from the ls, and this is very important. So we respect each other in events etc and actually OK with no. We are not really “friends” or let’s say online friends; anyone who thinks everyone in the ls likes everyone else is delusional.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> More like work colleagues in a way then.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> LOL agreed!<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> But you have to put a line where it doesn’t get blown out of proportions if you know those 2 don’t like each other, you must talk toe ach and/or invite them to a PT and it works really well. Many of them actually became friends and would be doing things from morning until nights. At the end of the day, most of those who don’t like each other would be because of a stupid incident happened years ago or something. All it took is someone to say sorry and it’s done.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Once BBQ started, the one I lead, I put the mission statement immediately on how its “friends” ls and everyone has to have this mindset, because you will never have a perfect system and you will end up in a brick wall sooner or later. If you are not strong together any issue or dilemma that happens will divide the ls.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Now on that point, BBQ does tend to have a reputation for being a bit possessed by the drama llama. What are your thoughts on that?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> It’s a huge ls, if I understand you correctly; you mean drama within the ls or drama with other ls?<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Both.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Oh, ok. Every ls has drama but believe it or not, everyone that came from a different ls or in similar situations, have said that BBQ has the best environment of all the ls’ he has been in and to add more, most people who left BBQ for other ls’ tried to come back and I am talking 99% of them. I only know 1 person who didn’t come back and stayed in the other ls. So there is drama but it’s not what people say and it happens rarely, and the best part of it, it always doesn’t mean anything.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Which is the inevitability of the gossip monger.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> One you get people playing together 24/7 they end up fighting with each other sooner or later, not each other but I mean 1 of them will pick a fight with another player but they would laugh about it 10mins later. It’s like how family behaviour does.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Yes, people will understand that concept spins from any linkshell that is successful, otherwise it just falls apart.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Recent example would be last week where someone was angry because other player told him that he is slow in refresh order, so he left lol. So we knew he is having a bad day, 3 hours later he comes back in the ls and says he is sorry. We don’t /tell him asking him you will get kicked because you did this or you breaking the rules. The mindset is still we are group of friends. As for drama with other linkshells. Every ls had it and mostly the new ones. LB was a nemesis to TK (*editors note – TK = Team Kannican) and they ended up teaming up. We were nemesis to both of them and end up teaming up in a lot of events.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> What do you think of your teaming with TK and LB? How profitable has it been for your selves and for the other ls’?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> It does profit every ls socially if you have many cross friend the ls’ bond more together. Our team ups really on AV which was successful lol, recently in PW which is also successful because not 1 ls can get 40-50 people for that event. So although it’s a mutual benefit the one that drives it is because we have too many cross-over friends. Also we have been in agreements with all other ls’.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Do you think potentially that has arisen from the fact that rivalry between ls’ on Odin has never really been that aggressive in comparison to other linkshells, which in turn has allowed for these bridges to be forged?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> It was Aggressive. But I have talked to Masago back in the day and other leaders to try to change this. People used to say “this ls did this to us”, we want to say “that person from that ls did this to us” and it works.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> How long did it take for them to come around to the idea that it would be better to bury the hatchet?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Honestly I don’t know, it began maybe from a stupid thing tat no-one is allowed to use /say in camps and every ls leader should deduct points if someone does that. Believe it or not, it was a rule.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> I have had that rule standing in Versus since day one. It comes with a warming that I will kick the member if they rise to any heckling from other linkshells, and I always enforced a rule of polite behaviour to other linkshells, so it isn’t that strange of a concept.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea, true.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Then the other effect happened after so many end game events emerged, Einherjar, Salvage etc. it made a lot of cross-ls’ linkshells. But to see that rule all other ls leaders agree on is what was strange. Lol. We were to a point where we random before each window to decide who claim the NM before SE patched the delay in spawning. You know ironically enough, I can’t find an Ls now that we have a rivalry with.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> But that is definitely a positive step towards linkshell co-operation, a sense of fair-mindedness rather than obstructive behaviour, and really actually merging to work as a team for certain events was just the next step along the path in that respect.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> The true test of any team is not when they are successful, its when they fail at something or reach a brick wall.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> And how they deal with it.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea, I remember one point, where I went to Odin’s Chamber as PLD/BLM, yes you can laugh -.-, and made the ls fail, timed out on 1%. The members took it lightly and laughed about it, you can’t expect a success rate of 100%.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> You actually need the failures to remind the membership that you are not invulnerable, as a point to retain perspective.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea, that reminded me of how members contribute, one of the main things I found in beginning of ls, there is no way 1 leader can handle everything for the ls, in 1 case, he can abuse it and in another case, he will get burned out. So I split the events to leaders.<br />(*editors note – I actually paused for a moment at this point to point out that I very much run the linkshell with a pyramidal structure of leadership rather than a committee)<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> I think it all has to do with changing mindsets towards admins, for example not to call them admins but to call them leaders up to a point where people would be confused who is the leader and find out.. there is no leader, it’s the system that leads everyone.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> We are in the matrix!<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> LOL<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> lol<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> There are many instances where new members don’t know who is the leader, it was funny. But from the same point, its how our system developed, suggestion form was always filled with options to improve and we continued to vote on this and that until we finally arrive here.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Tweaking and refining what you do.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> To explain to you the ls rules now would be 10 pages of text or more, but its from years of developing. There was no ls doing point system back when we started, or at least as the way we do it, and I never heard of anyone using item list + point list. We had point list as a matter of value and then we have PP list, which is a formula that is used on the point system to give you a value for items. This formula includes bonus for<br />1. How long you been waiting for that item.<br />2. How many points you got… and something else, LOL even I can’t remember now.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> LOL<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> And then you get penalties such as 1. If you get a critical item recently, this penalty vanish over time so we don’t get 2 person to leech items, also penalty if you are below 20% activity, but a bonus if you are 90% active.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> It equates to an even distribution of reward amongst the members.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Thos bonus values though, were tweaked until the item list produced was fair, at the beginning we gave high bonus for criteria that messed up the item list, so it took us some time to adjust all those values.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Did you vote each time you tweaked the rules?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yes, in leaders forum, if leaders do not agree, it goes to public forum where all members vote.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Then we go into the banking thing, there are two channels of money.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> I know you recently announced a big shake up on how you do the banking in the ls.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yea, this is a perfect example, first the reason behind leader forum and not putting every single action to vote. It’s because you need speed, if you put things in public as you just showed, it gets huge and takes more time to solve. So if leaders agree, it certainly means members agree, but if leaders divide, then members should come and give their input. It’s like taking a sample vote, or taking a full vote.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> That makes sense.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Now for the BBQ money, it started when other ls’ began to show up relics here and there. So some leaders started saying why don’t BBQ sponsor relics like other ls? I was on the other side refusing that matter.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Why?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Because it’s a narrow view, “this ls has relics more than us!” it’s very childish in my opinion lol, and it shouldn’t be the comparable aspect between ls. In fact I don’t find anything to compare between ls.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Who got the most HNMs?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Who kill fastest?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> There are too many ways to list your achievement and argue that you are the best, so the best thing to do is not to compare your ls but rather just feel happy on what you are as a group and what you have accomplished. I mean its funny how people used to say “we kill more” then it changes to “we killed with less people” then it changes to “we kill in this amount of time”.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> The other main reason was I am not sure how you can take 150,000,000G and give it to 1 person where everyone worked for that amount, doesn’t make sense. Other ls’ are mostly the leaders who get relics, so that’s a “?” mark, what kind of example would you be setting to your members if your leeching all the money to yourself? I bet you the main reason people would stay on those ls’ are just to get item, there is no feeling that they are having fun with friends, it’s just a job and then they do other miscellaneous events with their friends.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Anyway, we put it to the main vote and people suggested the idea of splitting the gil each month then another person suggested another thing, we end up having a really nice idea. 50% of the gil treated as bonus purely based on points accumulated per person each month, has nothing to do with PP or activity, and the other 50% would remain till auctioned off every Sunday 30p/500k. So every active person in the end would be receiving about 4-8 million a month and that doesn’t come with a deduction of points, just a bonus, this way we removed all the excess gil on the bank. Just keep “working capital” for each month.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>>For recruitment it’s sad, because I had 2 people who are my friends wanted to join the ls, but they couldn’t, and its good because no-one can be blamed. LoL<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> Why couldn’t they join?<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> 2 sponsors, fill in application, discuss it for a week, close that topic, open poll for a week, need to get 70% to join.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> One of them I think because he didn’t have good jobs, in fact he only had DRG and no merits >.>;<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> The other was close, he had 64% yes.<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> HEY! Nothing wrong with Dragoon!<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Exactly lol<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Omoikitte</span>>> There is a lot wrong with no merits, that is just idleness.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Donnie</span>>> Yeah I told him to work on his merits at least and apply again, you can apply again.<br /><br />At this point we got completely off topic and just started waxing lyrical about how cool DRG is as a job, and how bad DRG are a travesty. Thank you to Donnie for spending a few hours chatting to me about various aspects of his linkshell. I hope you all enjoyed this small window into BBQ.<br /></span>

Morning in Vana'diel: All That Is Yet To Come.

So, I was perusing the comments from last week and I spied a comment left my Celestria, who as I have professed before is probably the smartest person on the planet. She noted that while she loves Salvage for the challenge and the bonding even those that are fully in love with it like her can still get bored of it after time. That time is usually when you are just grinding to get more gear, rather than challenging yourself as much.

This is what Celestria had to say:

Salvage has been my favorite for a long time, but the hundreds of repeats needed to get everybody the ultimate gear is starting to get on my nerves. Still, it's a great bonding experience and a fun test of skill. Looking back at how Salvage was figured out by a huge community effort on BG, that was an amazing thing to be a part of.

I hope there is a next big event. With the total lack of effort we've seen SE put into WoG and the mini-expansions, I wouldn't say a new endgame event is guaranteed. But if there is one, I hope it's for small groups like Salvage, and has new and exciting puzzles like Salvage, and no cells or artificial restrictions like Salvage. Bonus points if it's released before FF14. :)

When thinking about what is left to come before FFXIV we can look at what is already out there for us to do. First of all we do know there is Castle Zvhal Keep and Baileys, including the Throne Room. Now, my guess is that these will not be so much end-game activity areas as they will be similar areas to what we already have in the Beastmen Strongholds. That doesn't mean that there won't be end-game mobs or treasure and loot to be gotten in those areas, I just don't think it will stand out.

I do think we will get a real end-game area in the form of the Walk of Echoes. It has the feel of an end-game area; it's a completely separate zone, it's broken up into separate areas, and it just looks like an end-game area for FFXI. There are a huge number of different but very large islands in the area. It is really had to tell if it is going to be broken up into something like Einherjar or if it is going to be something that is done collectively like Sky or Sea. I personally am hoping for the latter because we haven't really gotten anything like that in a while.

I doubt we will see the Walk of Echoes in the next update because SE still hasn't opened up Castle Zvahl yet. That means we probably wont see it until the Holidays at best. Hopefully, once these mini-scenarios are out of the way we will be getting something a little more interesting for the rest of us.

So, I was perusing the comments from last week and I spied a comment left my Celestria, who as I have professed before is probably the smartest person on the planet. She noted that while she loves Salvage for the challenge and the bonding even those that are fully in love with it like her can still get bored of it after time. That time is usually when you are just grinding to get more gear, rather than challenging yourself as much. <br /><br />This is what Celestria had to say: <blockquote>Salvage has been my favorite for a long time, but the hundreds of repeats needed to get everybody the ultimate gear is starting to get on my nerves. Still, it's a great bonding experience and a fun test of skill. Looking back at how Salvage was figured out by a huge community effort on BG, that was an amazing thing to be a part of.<br /><br />I hope there is a next big event. With the total lack of effort we've seen SE put into WoG and the mini-expansions, I wouldn't say a new endgame event is guaranteed. But if there is one, I hope it's for small groups like Salvage, and has new and exciting puzzles like Salvage, and no cells or artificial restrictions like Salvage. Bonus points if it's released before FF14. :)</blockquote><br />When thinking about what is left to come before FFXIV we can look at what is already out there for us to do. First of all we do know there is Castle Zvhal Keep and Baileys, including the Throne Room. Now, my guess is that these will not be so much end-game activity areas as they will be similar areas to what we already have in the Beastmen Strongholds. That doesn't mean that there won't be end-game mobs or treasure and loot to be gotten in those areas, I just don't think it will stand out.<br /><br />I <span style="font-style:italic;">do</span> think we will get a real end-game area in the form of the Walk of Echoes. It has the feel of an end-game area; it's a completely separate zone, it's broken up into separate areas, and it just looks like an end-game area for FFXI. There are a huge number of different but very large islands in the area. It is really had to tell if it is going to be broken up into something like Einherjar or if it is going to be something that is done collectively like Sky or Sea. I personally am hoping for the latter because we haven't really gotten anything like that in a while. <br /><br />I doubt we will see the Walk of Echoes in the next update because SE still hasn't opened up Castle Zvahl yet. That means we probably wont see it until the Holidays at best. Hopefully, once these mini-scenarios are out of the way we will be getting something a little more interesting for the rest of us.

Morning in Vana'diel: Hijack!

Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Where are they now?

I've been going through all the old Versus archives recently, which means flicking through musty bits of paper dating from the middle of June 2005 when the linkshell first started. I actually didn't keep any official records until August and BOY was I a messy archivist back then, LOL I've spent some time looking at what I recorded going.. umm.. what was I REALLY aiming for here.

Maybe not a perfect advertisement for my record-keeping, although it has VASTLY improved since then with inclusions of different bits of data, although this was birthed through necessity when Devious quit and I had to look after the ls bank. Payment details require detailed records to back it up, AS does the lotting systems. As soon as they became my responsibility my information explodes.

The most fascinating part of all this is undoubtedly looking back at all those old players and wondering where they are now?! Butcher was one of the original leadership team in Versus and the first member to get haidate from Byakko. Still playing and branching out, it is with some amusement I look at his much wider variety of jobs as he used to SWEAR that MP would never go above 0 on any of his jobs, he lives in BBQ now. Jokerr another former leader now seen rattling around in Limit Break.

The lists go on and on, those who have quit, those who still play, the good, the bad and the intriguing. It is a wonderful snapshot of a bygone age of Versus and a study in how we have progressed, evolved and changed into what we are now. Versus so much has been used as a stepping stone for a lot of people into HNM shells, which is the only thing we won't do.

Similarly we provided a refuge for those who no longer wanted to be in the angst-ridden world of HNM camping. It is fun to be nostalgic for a little while, it really can give you a bit of perspective on what you have achieved, and how far you have come in the game. Memories are after all what en-rich us both in real life or online.

<strong>Morning in Vana'diel</strong> <em>is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Where are they now?</em><br /><br />I've been going through all the old Versus archives recently, which means flicking through musty bits of paper dating from the middle of June 2005 when the linkshell first started. I actually didn't keep any official records until August and BOY was I a messy archivist back then, LOL I've spent some time looking at what I recorded going.. umm.. what was I REALLY aiming for here. <br /><br />Maybe not a perfect advertisement for my record-keeping, although it has VASTLY improved since then with inclusions of different bits of data, although this was birthed through necessity when Devious quit and I had to look after the ls bank. Payment details require detailed records to back it up, AS does the lotting systems. As soon as they became my responsibility my information explodes.<br /><br />The most fascinating part of all this is undoubtedly looking back at all those old players and wondering where they are now?! Butcher was one of the original leadership team in Versus and the first member to get haidate from Byakko. Still playing and branching out, it is with some amusement I look at his much wider variety of jobs as he used to SWEAR that MP would never go above 0 on any of his jobs, he lives in BBQ now. Jokerr another former leader now seen rattling around in Limit Break.<br /><br />The lists go on and on, those who have quit, those who still play, the good, the bad and the intriguing. It is a wonderful snapshot of a bygone age of Versus and a study in how we have progressed, evolved and changed into what we are now. Versus so much has been used as a stepping stone for a lot of people into HNM shells, which is the only thing we won't do.<br /><br />Similarly we provided a refuge for those who no longer wanted to be in the angst-ridden world of HNM camping. It is fun to be nostalgic for a little while, it really can give you a bit of perspective on what you have achieved, and how far you have come in the game. Memories are after all what en-rich us both in real life or online.

Don't Break the Shadowbind! The Joys of Pizza.

Don't Break the Shadowbind! is our Wed-weekly column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, tantalising tastebuds mmmmmm.



I was strolling home the other day thinking about HOW good pizza is. Its so great it even gets a +1 in FFXI with Marinara Pizza +1, a pizza that provides vast amusement to myself as it is a fish pizza, or as I like to think of it a Tuna fish pizza which apparently most Americans seem to think is a travesty of a pizza, but personally I think is delicious.

Feeling hungry yet? The perfect pizza should have a light fluffy golden crust that is does not cling to the roof of your mouth and is infact crisp with olive oil to give it just the right amount of moisture without creating an overpowered flavour to enhance the topping.

This should be a lightly smeared tomato sauce to ensure the base doesn't dry out and to give your toppings something to adhere to in cooking, and what a wealth of toppings you can choose from. Whether you prefer simplicity itself in the margarita pizza of mere cheese, or extravagantly experiment with the heady delights of alternative flavours and tastes, onion, extra cheese, olives, anchovies to name but a few of the more traditional toppings.

When we went to the Fan Fest in Hollywood, CA this year, Ring, Iz and I ate out at the California Pizza Kitchen which as a pizza chain I very much enjoy when I am in the states. The pizzas are cooked to perfection and they offer a large selection of more avant garde flavours and options to whet your appetite to a fine edge. An even better option would be to go with many people and order selections and share, then everyone can dip into an assault of giddy heights on the tastebuds.

It used to be a while back, that you could buy ready frozen bases from the supermarkets here, and you could then add on your own toppings, I used to LOVE doing this. A small pot of tomato sauce usually reserved for eating with pasta, a tin of sweetcorn and half a block of cheese. It was gooey, it was overload but it was soooooooo yummy, unfortunately the business of selling their own "home made" pizzas took over and the bases vanished from the shelves, I suppose I could make them myself but that is a fairly intimidating prospect.

The best way to cook a pizza at home, whether frozen or fresh made is on one of those aerated baking trays, that lets the base cook without just being sat on a circle of heat, much better flavour and less chance of drying out the base, which is so easy to do with frozen pizza. Mostly frozen pizzas fall down on the base preparation, but if you hunt around you can find some that can be nearly as nice as that fresh out of the oven feel in a pizzaria.

At this point I am sure you are wondering what does this have to do with end game, leadership, linkshells or any/all of the above. Other than possibly as a menu guide to what the typical gamer eats when engrossed in that fight against X monster. However in reality it has nothing at ALL to do with FFXI, or end game, or linkshells or membership problems or and of the other minutae that build up around running an end game ls.

THAT IS THE POINT! Let go, remember life isn't only about your linkshell, relax your grip and keep perspective, you will enjoy it and so will your membership.

<strong>Don't Break the Shadowbind!</strong> <em>is our Wed-weekly column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, tantalising tastebuds mmmmmm.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pizzahutpizza.com/menu/_images/3_pan_pizzas.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.pizzahutpizza.com/menu/_images/3_pan_pizzas.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 362px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 365px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /></a><br /><br />I was strolling home the other day thinking about HOW good pizza is. Its so great it even gets a +1 in FFXI with Marinara Pizza +1, a pizza that provides vast amusement to myself as it is a fish pizza, or as I like to think of it a <em><span style="color:#3366ff;">Tuna</span></em> fish pizza which apparently most Americans seem to think is a travesty of a pizza, but personally I think is delicious.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Feeling hungry yet? The perfect pizza should have a light fluffy golden crust that is does not cling to the roof of your mouth and is infact crisp with olive oil to give it just the right amount of moisture without creating an overpowered flavour to enhance the topping.<br /><br />This should be a lightly smeared tomato sauce to ensure the base doesn't dry out and to give your toppings something to adhere to in cooking, and what a wealth of toppings you can choose from. Whether you prefer simplicity itself in the margarita pizza of mere cheese, or extravagantly experiment with the heady delights of alternative flavours and tastes, onion, extra cheese, olives, anchovies to name but a few of the more traditional toppings.<br /><br />When we went to the Fan Fest in Hollywood, CA this year, Ring, Iz and I ate out at the California Pizza Kitchen which as a pizza chain I very much enjoy when I am in the states. The pizzas are cooked to perfection and they offer a large selection of more avant garde flavours and options to whet your appetite to a fine edge. An even better option would be to go with many people and order selections and share, then everyone can dip into an assault of giddy heights on the tastebuds.<br /><br />It used to be a while back, that you could buy ready frozen bases from the supermarkets here, and you could then add on your own toppings, I used to <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">LOVE</span> </strong>doing this. A small pot of tomato sauce usually reserved for eating with pasta, a tin of sweetcorn and half a block of cheese. It was gooey, it was overload but it was soooooooo yummy, unfortunately the business of selling their own "home made" pizzas took over and the bases vanished from the shelves, I suppose I could make them myself but that is a fairly intimidating prospect.<br /><br />The best way to cook a pizza at home, whether frozen or fresh made is on one of those aerated baking trays, that lets the base cook without just being sat on a circle of heat, much better flavour and less chance of drying out the base, which is so easy to do with frozen pizza. Mostly frozen pizzas fall down on the base preparation, but if you hunt around you can find some that can be nearly as nice as that fresh out of the oven feel in a pizzaria.<br /><br />At this point I am sure you are wondering what does this have to do with end game, leadership, linkshells or any/all of the above. Other than possibly as a menu guide to what the typical gamer eats when engrossed in that fight against X monster. However in reality it has nothing at ALL to do with FFXI, or end game, or linkshells or membership problems or and of the other minutae that build up around running an end game ls.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#9999ff;">THAT IS THE POINT!</span></strong> Let go, remember life isn't only about your linkshell, relax your grip and keep perspective, you will enjoy it and so will your membership.<br /><br /></span>

Don't Break the Shadowbind!: Its GREAT to be back!

Don't Break the Shadowbind! is our Wednesday (or as close to as can be) column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, beach analagies abound as we discuss those troublesome floating members every end game linkshell attracts.


I have internet again, I am sooo happy. LoL after the drought it is a veritable flood of delight to be back in the swing of things and knee deep in FFXI. Infact I logged on and straight back into a Versus event for Limbus. It was marvelous!

I can't think of a neat and sassy way to lead that into what I wanted to discuss today, it is far too early in the morning and my brain is slowly petrifying from the sheer monotonous boredom of doing the data processing required at work, there is an end in sight, but I've already done around 5,000 forms, I'm getting very bored with it all now.

The thing I wanted to cogitate on today was what to do with those members of your linkshell who are serial linkshell hoppers. I am sure everyone at some point comes across them.

They tend to fall into two distinct categories. The Driftwood and the Useful although sometimes it can take a little while to figure out which is which.

The Driftwood are like the dead pieces of wood that float in on the tide, and float out again with it, unafraid to get all covered in that nasty scummy froth that can be made. These players apparently have ants in their pants with serious commitment issues, unable to settle on one linkshell in particular they hop from one to the other bringing their erratic and unhelpful behaviour into your linkshell.

It is not that uncommon for these particular types to be invariably only in it for themselves making it easier for them to but down no roots, they may live in your linkshell for a considerable period of time, but it does not disguise their own self interest enough, eventually they will get what they came for then they are off again.

Others in the driftwood category manage to alienate virtually everyone in their linkshell and so can't set roots due to the fact that everyone else is tearing them up again. These people may run around with the air of being "hard done-by" or "put upon" by the evil villany of those who fail to appreciate their rather unique approach to things. So they drift from community to community until the entire server hates them, their own attempt at setting up a linkshell fails and they migrate to Remora.

These members are easy to deal with to be honest, you can either not accept them into your linkshell in the first place, with a bit of judicious asking around into their past behaviour and attitudes. If they do end up in your linkshell most of the time they won't last long, if everyone else hates them enough it will make them move on that much quicker, although you do run the risk of causing a lot of discontentment within your loyal members over the acquision of gear and whether it is worth the effort they are putting in to reward these freeloaders.

The problems come with the second type of floating ls member. The somewhat useful members who when in your linkshell are good/great members of the team. But for what ever psychosis/misunderstanding/paranoia/all of the above, they quit, regret and want to rejoin.

Usually their method of leaving will be fairly drama laden due to the fact that they tend to want to go that way, they LIKE being in your linkshell but other things keep getting in the way of functioning, such as unrealistic expectations or if its the second time around, a paranoia that everyone hates them for quitting in the first place.

Fears which are hard to allay when you aren't listened to, particularly as good members of the linkshell are always welcome, regardless of whether they left the first time around in bad blood. People are very willing to forgive and forget and just get on with the business of end game if they feel that you are a valuable member of the linkshell.

The biggest problem I have encountered with these people is that they ARE essentially good people, they aren't really trouble makers, their own neurosis just get in the way a bit and sometimes I am just a little too preoccupied to deal with it. They provide good support in the linkshell, they are dedicated and consistent its just their Achilles heel is a pretty darn big one, Colossus of Rhodes size infact.

Knowing when to just say no is important, otherwise they just consistently think it is ok to up sticks and leave you in the lurch every time they get into a humph about something and leave you all alone at the prom without a ride home, and that creepy kid is grinning at you again.

These are hard decisions to make, personally I definately don't like being jerked around like that, do it once too often and you pretty much burn all bridges with me and I will just point blank refuse to even entertain the notion it is a good idea to have you back. You could be the best player on the server with the creme de la creme of gear and I still wouldn't say yes because I am tired of being played.

As I see it, my job is to provide a consistent and stable framework for people to do end game, while juggling unusual decisions with keeping it as fair as possible in the broadest sense, as you can never please everyone. It is NOT to sit there blowing smoke up someones rear so they can feel that little bit more superior to everyone else. I understand that you need a good rapor with your members, however it is still a balance, you need to retain objectivity and not let your judgement become clouded because of X, Y and Z. And THAT is extremely difficult to do.

<strong>Don't Break the Shadowbind!</strong> <em>is our Wednesday (or as close to as can be) column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, beach analagies abound as we discuss those troublesome floating members every end game linkshell attracts.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://p6.hostingprod.com/@treks.org/06yu1061driftwood.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://p6.hostingprod.com/@treks.org/06yu1061driftwood.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /></span></a><br />I have internet again, I am sooo happy. LoL after the drought it is a veritable flood of delight to be back in the swing of things and knee deep in FFXI. Infact I logged on and straight back into a Versus event for Limbus. It was marvelous!<br /><br />I can't think of a neat and sassy way to lead that into what I wanted to discuss today, it is far too early in the morning and my brain is slowly petrifying from the sheer monotonous boredom of doing the data processing required at work, there is an end in sight, but I've already done around 5,000 forms, I'm getting very bored with it all now.<br /><br />The thing I wanted to cogitate on today was what to do with those members of your linkshell who are serial linkshell hoppers. I am sure everyone at some point comes across them.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />They tend to fall into two distinct categories. The <strong>Driftwood</strong> and the <strong>Useful</strong> although sometimes it can take a little while to figure out which is which.<br /><br />The Driftwood are like the dead pieces of wood that float in on the tide, and float out again with it, unafraid to get all covered in that nasty scummy froth that can be made. These players apparently have ants in their pants with serious commitment issues, unable to settle on one linkshell in particular they hop from one to the other bringing their erratic and unhelpful behaviour into your linkshell.<br /><br />It is not that uncommon for these particular types to be invariably only in it for themselves making it easier for them to but down no roots, they may live in your linkshell for a considerable period of time, but it does not disguise their own self interest enough, eventually they will get what they came for then they are off again.<br /><br /><a href="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/Flanda5000/Icons/fault.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/Flanda5000/Icons/fault.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 100px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 100px" /></a> Others in the driftwood category manage to alienate virtually everyone in their linkshell and so can't set roots due to the fact that everyone else is tearing them up again. These people may run around with the air of being "hard done-by" or "put upon" by the evil villany of those who fail to appreciate their rather unique approach to things. So they drift from community to community until the entire server hates them, their own attempt at setting up a linkshell fails and they migrate to Remora.<br /><br />These members are easy to deal with to be honest, you can either not accept them into your linkshell in the first place, with a bit of judicious asking around into their past behaviour and attitudes. If they do end up in your linkshell most of the time they won't last long, if everyone else hates them enough it will make them move on that much quicker, although you do run the risk of causing a lot of discontentment within your loyal members over the acquision of gear and whether it is worth the effort they are putting in to reward these freeloaders.<br /><br />The problems come with the second type of floating ls member. The somewhat useful members who when in your linkshell are good/great members of the team. But for what ever psychosis/misunderstanding/paranoia/all of the above, they quit, regret and want to rejoin.<br /><br />Usually their method of leaving will be fairly drama laden due to the fact that they tend to want to go that way, they LIKE being in your linkshell but other things keep getting in the way of functioning, such as unrealistic expectations or if its the second time around, a paranoia that everyone hates them for quitting in the first place.<br /><br />Fears which are hard to allay when you aren't listened to, particularly as good members of the linkshell are always welcome, regardless of whether they left the first time around in bad blood. People are very willing to forgive and forget and just get on with the business of end game if they feel that you are a valuable member of the linkshell.<br /><br />The biggest problem I have encountered with these people is that they ARE essentially good people, they aren't really trouble makers, their own neurosis just get in the way a bit and sometimes I am just a little too preoccupied to deal with it. They provide good support in the linkshell, they are dedicated and consistent its just their Achilles heel is a pretty darn big one, Colossus of Rhodes size infact.<br /><br />Knowing when to just say no is important, otherwise they just consistently think it is ok to up sticks and leave you in the lurch every time they get into a humph about something and leave you all alone at the prom without a ride home, and that creepy kid is grinning at you again. <br /><br />These are hard decisions to make, personally I definately don't like being jerked around like that, do it once too often and you pretty much burn all bridges with me and I will just point blank refuse to even entertain the notion it is a good idea to have you back. You could be the best player on the server with the creme de la creme of gear and I still wouldn't say yes because I am tired of being played.<br /><br />As I see it, my job is to provide a consistent and stable framework for people to do end game, while juggling unusual decisions with keeping it as fair as possible in the broadest sense, as you can never please everyone. It is NOT to sit there blowing smoke up someones rear so they can feel that little bit more superior to everyone else. I understand that you need a good rapor with your members, however it is still a balance, you need to retain objectivity and not let your judgement become clouded because of X, Y and Z. And THAT is extremely difficult to do.<br /></span>

Don't Break the Shadowbind: Lazy Days and Sunshine.

It is blazing sun outside, I am at work, and my room at home is a bombsite due to the impending chaos of moving on Friday. How is this all relevant and connected? AHA!

Well, I am definately feeling lazy today and I generally believe that the sun has 2 effects on people. The first, is to affect a certain air of disgruntlement and idleness amongst the masses who would much rather be outside enjoying the clement weather than being cooped up at work, the second is bring every dried-out, emotionless crone, every ill-tempered and highly strung waif and every slightly insane and demanding loon out from out under their rocks, that they hibernate under for the winter months and inflict them at large on people in the service industry.

I suppose this impending air of restlessness is stemming from my forced absence from FFXI for the next two weeks as the slow cogs of bureaucracy edge into position to breathe life back into my internet connection after moving.

It throws into sharp profile an interesting point that every linkshell leader needs to consider. No one person should ever try and shoulder the entire responsibility of running a linkshell, you will burn yourself out if you do that.

However, the path to chosing a new sack holder in your linkshell is a delicate and difficult path to follow. Your choices should not be spawn from obsequeious fawning or a misplaced opinion that it is a fellow members given right to that postion.

Instead you need to pick a team you can work with, and who can work with you equally to keep your linkshell running smoothly, whether you are there or not.

Inspiration for your leaders might not always come from the most likely sources as far as the linkshell entitiy is concerned, but as a leader you can single out those who have caught your eye or your attention for a particular reason.

It might be that they are reliable, consistent and communicative, or have some quality that lends you to believe with enough coaching and support they can become a fully functional and stable leader.

Leadership is a responsibility as well as a privilage, one that your sack holders need to be aware of, as the prime leader your decision IS final, regardless of what anyone else says, but you have to make sure that it is a situation of give and take.

Respect your team's opinions, even if they run contrary to your own. It is a good thing to have a melting pot of opinion and people who are prepared to stand up and say I disagree with what you are doing. Of course at the end of the day they do need to understand that if you decide against their favour, they have to accept that and equally if it becomes devisive, you have to accept that it could result in the person leaving.

Personalities are a complex thing to harness and use to their full advantage in a situation like this, it is about delegation of responsibility so your team feel like they actually meaningfully contribute, while you pull the overall strings that keep the linkshell on the straight and narrow.

Leaders have come and gone in Versus over the 5+ years of its history, through one means or another, all in their own respective right brought something positive to the linkshell at one point in time. What is interesting is seeing how some choices prove excellent, while others flounder and mire themselves in horrible detail and problems.

Not everyone is suited to the task, it is a mine field, but one that you have every capability to cross if you wish, after all you retain the right to change your mind on a decision. As hard as it can be, if it is having a negative impact on yourself and the morale of the linkshell you need to reverse that decision.

Cater to your needs as well as that of the linkshell, and swap and change the scenery until you have a stable, commited team and you will enjoy a much smoother and happier linkshell.

<a href="http://www.stardel.com/graphics/fractals/fractals005/sunflower.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.stardel.com/graphics/fractals/fractals005/sunflower.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; cursor: pointer; text-align: center;" /></span></a><br /><br />It is blazing sun outside, I am at work, and my room at home is a bombsite due to the impending chaos of moving on Friday. How is this all relevant and connected? AHA! <br /><br />Well, I am definately feeling lazy today and I generally believe that the sun has 2 effects on people. The first, is to affect a certain air of disgruntlement and idleness amongst the masses who would much rather be outside enjoying the clement weather than being cooped up at work, the second is bring every dried-out, emotionless crone, every ill-tempered and highly strung waif and every slightly insane and demanding loon out from out under their rocks, that they hibernate under for the winter months and inflict them at large on people in the service industry.<br /><br />I suppose this impending air of restlessness is stemming from my forced absence from FFXI for the next two weeks as the slow cogs of bureaucracy edge into position to breathe life back into my internet connection after moving.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />It throws into sharp profile an interesting point that every linkshell leader needs to consider. No one person should ever try and shoulder the entire responsibility of running a linkshell, you will burn yourself out if you do that.<br /><br />However, the path to chosing a new sack holder in your linkshell is a delicate and difficult path to follow. Your choices should not be spawn from obsequeious fawning or a misplaced opinion that it is a fellow members given right to that postion.<br /><br />Instead you need to pick a team you can work with, and who can work with you equally to keep your linkshell running smoothly, whether you are there or not.<br /><br />Inspiration for your leaders might not always come from the most likely sources as far as the linkshell entitiy is concerned, but as a leader you can single out those who have caught your eye or your attention for a particular reason.<br /><br />It might be that they are reliable, consistent and communicative, or have some quality that lends you to believe with enough coaching and support they can become a fully functional and stable leader.<br /><br />Leadership is a responsibility as well as a privilage, one that your sack holders need to be aware of, as the prime leader your decision IS final, regardless of what anyone else says, but you have to make sure that it is a situation of give and take.<br /><br />Respect your team's opinions, even if they run contrary to your own. It is a good thing to have a melting pot of opinion and people who are prepared to stand up and say I disagree with what you are doing. Of course at the end of the day they do need to understand that if you decide against their favour, they have to accept that and equally if it becomes devisive, you have to accept that it could result in the person leaving.<br /><br />Personalities are a complex thing to harness and use to their full advantage in a situation like this, it is about delegation of responsibility so your team feel like they actually meaningfully contribute, while you pull the overall strings that keep the linkshell on the straight and narrow.<br /><br />Leaders have come and gone in Versus over the 5+ years of its history, through one means or another, all in their own respective right brought something positive to the linkshell at one point in time. What is interesting is seeing how some choices prove excellent, while others flounder and mire themselves in horrible detail and problems.<br /><br />Not everyone is suited to the task, it is a mine field, but one that you have every capability to cross if you wish, after all you retain the right to change your mind on a decision. As hard as it can be, if it is having a negative impact on yourself and the morale of the linkshell you need to reverse that decision.<br /><br />Cater to your needs as well as that of the linkshell, and swap and change the scenery until you have a stable, commited team and you will enjoy a much smoother and happier linkshell.<br /></span>

Don't Break The Shadowbind!: The Thin Line of Responsibility.

Don't Break the Shadowbind! is our Wednesday column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, Omoikitte reflects on what it takes to be a good leader besides lots of shouting and loot whoring.

Its a funny thing, being a linkshell leader. I mean, sure you might have started out with noble, or spurious intentions, depending on your character stock, but look where it has gotten you now.

I know when I started out, it was more of a vague saunter than any real predisposition to want to lead an endgame linkshell, curiosity and slight amusement at the request to spearhead the linkshell "because all the good linkshells have female leads" - Lordlotuskiller, was the primary spur behind investing this amount of time into Versus.

I didn't really know what I was getting into at all, certainly nothing would have made be believe where it has lead me to now. Some of it is definately for the better, I can't help but feel that some of it however has been to the detriment of my personal character.

I used to have an almost undentable belief in the best of people, regardless of the situation, I would always find some reason or way to allow the mitigating circumstance of their life to influence my reflections and handling of situations and currents around problems or issues.

I am definately more jaded now, something that leaves me feeling sad and a little wistful for times gone past. I am sure there are those of you who whole-heartedly believe that its time I grew up and lived in the "real world", but honestly, the real world is only what you make it to be and nothing more. If you expect ghosts and hostility in every action, you will find it.

I still do strive to maintain a balance between fairness and resonable responsibility when approached with matters that require my attention, I don't think I am always successful in that but the willingness to engage is still there. I definately am more prone to be a shade more cynical about things these days though.

Running the linkshell has given me an excellent grounding in a practical work ethic I have found. The need to constantly be prepared to deal with a lot of difficult situations, personalities and records for so long consistently and effectively to instil confidence has instilled in me a deep need to be honest and scrupulous about my dealings with other people, whether in life or online, at the end of the day it is still a living, breathing human being with feelings, thoughts and emotions that you can stir to happiness or tear down. Words are still words whether spoken behind someone's back at the water cooler, or over an online game, they can quicken the pulse and emotion like no other, as much as we would like to disassociate ourselves, words DO affect us. Why wouldn't they, it is a fundamental method of communication?

The longer the linkshell runs, the harder I find it to ever really get time to not be responsible, there is no break from me, I can't sit back and do something else, without feeling as though I am letting other people down. Perhaps this is down to pride as well as my own crazy stubborness, for those less well ken, it would be assumed to be an addiction that I am unable to let go of and that this is unhealthy, maybe it is unhealthy, I CAN go out if something specific takes place, like dinner with my sister, or a BBQ at work. But I can't sit there and read a book at home knowing that my linkshell is doing events. That to me as a leader feels irresponsible to the duty that I agreed to shoulder, however unwittingly when I agreed to sign up for leadership of Versus.

If you do this, don't expect to be the same person who went into it at the beginning. It will change you, the question is whether it is for better or for worse, and whether you chose to embrace these lessons learned.

<a href="http://www.fau.edu/freshmanadvising/images/thought_balloon_hmmmm_hg_clr.gif"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.fau.edu/freshmanadvising/images/thought_balloon_hmmmm_hg_clr.gif" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 350px;" /></a><strong>Don't Break the Shadowbind!</strong> <em>is our Wednesday column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, Omoikitte reflects on what it takes to be a good leader besides lots of shouting and loot whoring.</em><br /><br />Its a funny thing, being a linkshell leader. I mean, sure you might have started out with noble, or spurious intentions, depending on your character stock, but look where it has gotten you now.<br /><br />I know when I started out, it was more of a vague saunter than any real predisposition to want to lead an endgame linkshell, curiosity and slight amusement at the request to spearhead the linkshell "because all the good linkshells have female leads" - Lordlotuskiller, was the primary spur behind investing this amount of time into Versus.<br /><br />I didn't really know what I was getting into at all, certainly nothing would have made be believe where it has lead me to now. Some of it is definately for the better, I can't help but feel that some of it however has been to the detriment of my personal character.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />I used to have an almost undentable belief in the best of people, regardless of the situation, I would always find some reason or way to allow the mitigating circumstance of their life to influence my reflections and handling of situations and currents around problems or issues.<br /><br />I am definately more jaded now, something that leaves me feeling sad and a little wistful for times gone past. I am sure there are those of you who whole-heartedly believe that its time I grew up and lived in the "real world", but honestly, the real world is only what you make it to be and nothing more. If you expect ghosts and hostility in every action, you will find it.<br /><br />I still do strive to maintain a balance between fairness and resonable responsibility when approached with matters that require my attention, I don't think I am always successful in that but the willingness to engage is still there. I definately am more prone to be a shade more cynical about things these days though.<br /><br />Running the linkshell has given me an excellent grounding in a practical work ethic I have found. The need to constantly be prepared to deal with a lot of difficult situations, personalities and records for so long consistently and effectively to instil confidence has instilled in me a deep need to be honest and scrupulous about my dealings with other people, whether in life or online, at the end of the day it is still a living, breathing human being with feelings, thoughts and emotions that you can stir to happiness or tear down. Words are still words whether spoken behind someone's back at the water cooler, or over an online game, they can quicken the pulse and emotion like no other, as much as we would like to disassociate ourselves, words DO affect us. Why wouldn't they, it is a fundamental method of communication?<br /><br />The longer the linkshell runs, the harder I find it to ever really get time to not be responsible, there is no break from me, I can't sit back and do something else, without feeling as though I am letting other people down. Perhaps this is down to pride as well as my own crazy stubborness, for those less well ken, it would be assumed to be an addiction that I am unable to let go of and that this is unhealthy, maybe it is unhealthy, I CAN go out if something specific takes place, like dinner with my sister, or a BBQ at work. But I can't sit there and read a book at home knowing that my linkshell is doing events. That to me as a leader feels irresponsible to the duty that I agreed to shoulder, however unwittingly when I agreed to sign up for leadership of Versus.<br /><br />If you do this, don't expect to be the same person who went into it at the beginning. It will change you, the question is whether it is for better or for worse, and whether you chose to embrace these lessons learned.<br /></span>

Don't Break the Shadowbind!: The distribution of rewards.

Don't Break the Shadowbind! is our Wednesday column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, Omoikitte considers how to distribute the loot without pissing everyone else off.

Loot! We all want it, we all need it, we all covet it in the depths of our hearts. Even if you "are not interested in lotting and just want to do end game because you miss it" you want in on the loot! Whether its just from monetary rewards to those highly prized and sought after pieces of gear there is something there that keeps you coming back for more.

What usually spawns from this is a system of distribution, that varying from linkshell to linkshell can be labyrinthine in its complexity or relatively simple and easy to use. Often the simplest of systems require the most planning out before hand to make them run smoothly, what you see on the front as a user-friendly interface in reality is run off a much more complicated and sophisticated engine, such as Obsidan's bidpoint system for dynamis.

There are a few things you want to consider when creating a lotting system for your linkshell, whether you decide that points are the way to go or whether you are just going to make everything free-lot, you should consider how you plan to action this.
Consistency.
This is extremely important. If you are going to create a system, make it apply to everyone. From the newest member of your linkshell up to the shell holder, rules need to be relevant and apply to everyone. The more inconsistent your linkshell is when it comes to the distribution of gear, the less likely it is that people will want to stick around and be an active participant in what it is you are attempting to achieve.

Accountability.
Make sure that your leaders, your friends and your sycophants are just as accountable to the rule system as everyone else, it doesn't do to create divisions of favourability within the linkshell, are you doing this because you want something or because you want to help others? If you plan on just rewarding the few who perhaps have not genuinely earned it, be prepared to accept that you will quickly lose your best players to other linkshells who are more willing to share the rewards evenly.

Accessability.
Make sure everyone can understand your rule system, if only you can understand it, there is no transparency in what you are doing, that will only lead to rifts and suspisions when members disagree with your decisions. Lotting above all else is core to your linkshell being successful, creating a system that just confuses your members will result in arguements and resentments which can result in a rift in your linkshell.

A lot of thought, time and effort can be put into deciding how and what type of lotting system is appropriate for you linkshell as is right, this at the end of the day will be the grease on the wheels that keeps your members coming back to your events until you gain that core loyal membership. Even after that it is still important to remember that everyone in your linkshell has to like the system or at least accept it as being the rules that govern your events.

The Systems

The Points System
Points systems are one of the most common ways of distributing gear. Set a value against an item, and a value against the time and effort you put into the linkshell, accumulate said points and spend on said item. The premise is fairly simple when broken down. However add in the human equation and suddenly it can become considerably more complicated.

Obsidian has one of the most sucessful bidpoint systems I have seen ingame. Gawayne has created a very well-run database containing all the information any Obsidian leader would need to maintain, administer and run their events, while on the front end, is the actual bid interface. This of course is a very sophisticated bid system and one that is not available to everyone, maintaining records of your points is important whether you do it in ink or digitally.

Tiered layering, generally is something you should try and avoid, it makes it a lot more complicated for people to understand, you want your points system to be as accessible and understandable as possible or it will just engender resentment and suspicion.

Pros - A very simple premise to use and maintain your linkshell with. Accessible by all and a clearely deliniated progression path for those who wish to know where they stand within a linkshell.

Cons - Points punish those who are unable to play often, not everyone is available to play constantly and will be rapidly left behind by those who have considerably fewer commitments outside of FFXI.

The Free Lot System
This is rarely used in big events, mostly being found in dynamis shells, particularly now where AF is considerably more widely available. Essentially you have no points you have no ties, you just show up, state your preferences and then lot if it drops.

This can put you in direct competition with everyone else, whether they have been there for 1 run or 700 runs, its all in the luck of a random and nothing more. Generally this type of system is a bit unstable for anything outside of dynamis. Drop rates fluctuate wildly from linkshell to linkshell on the more desirable items and as a result these items tend to be more coveted if rarely seen. This can lead to strife if people start thinking more about what they are not getting over the general effort of the linkshell. As long as you can maintain that equilibrium of desire and commitment this system can hold its own quite successfully.

Pros - Everyone is equal, you show up and have a chance to win. Its all down to Lady Luck.

Cons - Rarer drops can polarise opinion and create divisions of trust and commitment over ideas of "ownership" of drops and who should and shouldn't get what.

The "Other" Systems
While the majority of linkshells fall into the first two categories, there are a few that run outside of these systems, instead running on a more varied lotting agreement, such as Versus where attendance is the main drive for lotting, or relevance to jobs you have for the gear you wish to lot.

Not everyone can deal with these slightly more vague guidelines, that are more often tied to the leadership of the linkshell than able to be run as an independant entity from the linkshell.

Pros - Rules in the "other" category tend to be more forgiving of individual circumstance than points, allowing members to progress faster than normal.

Cons - Extremely open to abuse if your leader allows themselves to be compromised, it takes an iron will to maintain the rules without allowing personal preledictions interfere with the decisions that need to be made.

This is an extremely basic guide to looking at rules and guidelines for running a linkshell, but it is a start to be expanded on, whatever direction you chose to take when running your linkshell, ultimately resposible decisions are needed to govern and maintain what is happening. You will never be able to please everyone, but finding the medium and giving the broadest coverage from that is the safest way to make sure that you are getting the most out of what you are doing at events.

<a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/PrayciousAnjel/Treausure%20Chest/treasure_chest_2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/PrayciousAnjel/Treausure%20Chest/treasure_chest_2.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 213px;" /></a><strong>Don't Break the Shadowbind!</strong> <em>is our Wednesday column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, Omoikitte considers how to distribute the loot without pissing everyone else off.</em><br /><br />Loot! We all want it, we all need it, we all covet it in the depths of our hearts. Even if you "are not interested in lotting and just want to do end game because you miss it" you want in on the loot! Whether its just from monetary rewards to those highly prized and sought after pieces of gear there is something there that keeps you coming back for more.<br /><br />What usually spawns from this is a system of distribution, that varying from linkshell to linkshell can be labyrinthine in its complexity or relatively simple and easy to use. Often the simplest of systems require the most planning out before hand to make them run smoothly, what you see on the front as a user-friendly interface in reality is run off a much more complicated and sophisticated engine, such as <a href="http://www.obsidianodin.com/">Obsidan's</a> bidpoint system for dynamis.<br /><br />There are a few things you want to consider when creating a lotting system for your linkshell, whether you decide that points are the way to go or whether you are just going to make everything free-lot, you should consider how you plan to action this.<span class="fullpost"><br /><strong><span style="color:#6600cc;">Consistency.</span></strong><br />This is extremely important. If you are going to create a system, make it apply to everyone. From the newest member of your linkshell up to the shell holder, rules need to be relevant and apply to everyone. The more inconsistent your linkshell is when it comes to the distribution of gear, the less likely it is that people will want to stick around and be an active participant in what it is you are attempting to achieve.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#6600cc;">Accountability.</span></strong><br />Make sure that your leaders, your friends and your sycophants are just as accountable to the rule system as everyone else, it doesn't do to create divisions of favourability within the linkshell, are you doing this because you want something or because you want to help others? If you plan on just rewarding the few who perhaps have not genuinely earned it, be prepared to accept that you will quickly lose your best players to other linkshells who are more willing to share the rewards evenly.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#6600cc;">Accessability.</span></strong><br />Make sure everyone can understand your rule system, if only you can understand it, there is no transparency in what you are doing, that will only lead to rifts and suspisions when members disagree with your decisions. Lotting above all else is core to your linkshell being successful, creating a system that just confuses your members will result in arguements and resentments which can result in a rift in your linkshell.<br /><br />A lot of thought, time and effort can be put into deciding how and what type of lotting system is appropriate for you linkshell as is right, this at the end of the day will be the grease on the wheels that keeps your members coming back to your events until you gain that core loyal membership. Even after that it is still important to remember that everyone in your linkshell has to like the system or at least accept it as being the rules that govern your events.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">The Systems</span><br /><br /><em><span style="color:#ff0000;">The Points System<br /></span></em>Points systems are one of the most common ways of distributing gear. Set a value against an item, and a value against the time and effort you put into the linkshell, accumulate said points and spend on said item. The premise is fairly simple when broken down. However add in the human equation and suddenly it can become considerably more complicated.<br /><br />Obsidian has one of the most sucessful bidpoint systems I have seen ingame. Gawayne has created a very well-run database containing all the information any Obsidian leader would need to maintain, administer and run their events, while on the front end, is the actual bid interface. This of course is a very sophisticated bid system and one that is not available to everyone, maintaining records of your points is important whether you do it in ink or digitally.<br /><br />Tiered layering, generally is something you should try and avoid, it makes it a lot more complicated for people to understand, you want your points system to be as accessible and understandable as possible or it will just engender resentment and suspicion. </span><br /><p><span class="fullpost">Pros - A very simple premise to use and maintain your linkshell with. Accessible by all and a clearely deliniated progression path for those who wish to know where they stand within a linkshell.</span></p><p><span class="fullpost">Cons - Points punish those who are unable to play often, not everyone is available to play constantly and will be rapidly left behind by those who have considerably fewer commitments outside of FFXI.<br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>The Free Lot System</em></span><br />This is rarely used in big events, mostly being found in dynamis shells, particularly now where AF is considerably more widely available. Essentially you have no points you have no ties, you just show up, state your preferences and then lot if it drops.</span></p><p><span class="fullpost">This can put you in direct competition with everyone else, whether they have been there for 1 run or 700 runs, its all in the luck of a random and nothing more. Generally this type of system is a bit unstable for anything outside of dynamis. Drop rates fluctuate wildly from linkshell to linkshell on the more desirable items and as a result these items tend to be more coveted if rarely seen. This can lead to strife if people start thinking more about what they are not getting over the general effort of the linkshell. As long as you can maintain that equilibrium of desire and commitment this system can hold its own quite successfully.</span></p><p><span class="fullpost">Pros - Everyone is equal, you show up and have a chance to win. Its all down to Lady Luck.</span></p><p><span class="fullpost">Cons - Rarer drops can polarise opinion and create divisions of trust and commitment over ideas of "ownership" of drops and who should and shouldn't get what.</span></p><p><span class="fullpost"><em><span style="color:#ff0000;">The "Other" Systems</span><br /></em>While the majority of linkshells fall into the first two categories, there are a few that run outside of these systems, instead running on a more varied lotting agreement, such as <a href="http://versus.omoikitte.com/Rules/rules.shtml">Versus</a> where attendance is the main drive for lotting, or relevance to jobs you have for the gear you wish to lot.</span></p><p><span class="fullpost">Not everyone can deal with these slightly more vague guidelines, that are more often tied to the leadership of the linkshell than able to be run as an independant entity from the linkshell.</span></p><p><span class="fullpost">Pros - Rules in the "other" category tend to be more forgiving of individual circumstance than points, allowing members to progress faster than normal.</span></p><p><span class="fullpost">Cons - Extremely open to abuse if your leader allows themselves to be compromised, it takes an iron will to maintain the rules without allowing personal preledictions interfere with the decisions that need to be made.</span></p><p><span class="fullpost">This is an extremely basic guide to looking at rules and guidelines for running a linkshell, but it is a start to be expanded on, whatever direction you chose to take when running your linkshell, ultimately resposible decisions are needed to govern and maintain what is happening. You will never be able to please everyone, but finding the medium and giving the broadest coverage from that is the safest way to make sure that you are getting the most out of what you are doing at events.</p></span>

Don't Break the Shadowbind: People management.

Don't Break the Shadowbind! is our Wednesday column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, we look at the complicated issue of people management in the linkshell.

Whether you like it or not at the end of the day, your linkshell needs people in it to function as its intended purpose. Otherwise you just wasted 8k to not look like an RMT. In an endgame linkshell you need a large pool of raw material to pull from to effectively achieve anything. The raw material being the players of FFXI.

These are your team to back you up on your grand schemes and plans, in the constant effort to strive for better gear, monitary rewards, new titles or just for the simple pleasure of a fight and kill well done in an accomplished manner, there are many many reasons people join linkshells at end game.

Understanding the moods and currents of opinion in your linkshell is vital for an effective leader to be able to predict how far you can push your membership and when to slack off, as a leader your duty is to balance both the stern and authorative figure as well as knowing when is the best time to bend like a reed and sublimate your own personal opinions and give way to the popular opinion.

Knowing that you can't force anyone to do something is paramount, you can only be a guide, what your linkshell ends up being is a collection of individuals who are willing to be guided by you and trust your judgement or tactics to win the day. There is of course frictions and undercurrents of opinion that you will not always be aware of, the disgruntled few, but in a solid linkshell, those few dissenters have a way of working themselves out of the linkshell and on to other things reasonably quickly and you have a strong core still with you.

Flexibility is extremely important in any situation when dealing with people, regardless of your personal opinions, you shouldn't be letting that cloud your judgement or you end up undermining your own position of authority and it is extremely difficult to come back from that.

You need to be able to remain objective and clear-minded, accepting that your linkshell is a melting pot of personalities and opinions, not all these opinions will be parallel to your own, nor will you be joined at the hip with every single member in your shell, but that is not a good reason to ignore or neglect the other members, making sure they still feel appreciated or a part of things is just as important as them showing up to events. Without them, your linkshell isn't going to be doing anything except soloing rarabs outside Windurst, and you want to be reaching for the sky and tearing down AV instead!

Inevitably, you will run into problems with people, over time this is just the nature of what happens, simple misunderstandings that are easily resolved in person are more likely to be blown out of proportion online where a whole facet of human communication is missing, the minute interpretations of body language, tone, pitch, eye contact and non-verbal signals are no longer there as a safety net, so as a leader it is important to be prepared to overcompensate for that lack and be slightly more sympathetic, it is your job to look at the whole picture and not mire yourself down in irrelevant detail that at the end of the day is only preventing you from doing an effective job more than it is assisting you in directing the linkshell forward.

Open lines of communication with your linkshell and keep them open, the membership will feel cut off and ignored if they have no-one to talk to and that will result in a lack of interest in events and participation. Even if that means that they will talk to your sub-leaders rather than you, you still have the responsiblity to deal with the issue in a delicate fashion, charging in there guns blazing is more than likely to inflame the situation than fix it if there is an issue, look at your options and consider the best way to move forward, plan ahead if need be but don't ignore it or you will have a far bigger problem on your hands over time.

If you as a leader are going to do something controversial, make sure you have a good reason to do it, one that is justifiable, not just "because I said so". That will never be good enough and lead people to desert your linkshell. Even if they don't like the reason, it is still an authentic and verifiable reason and most of the time that will be enough. You will inevitably come up against the 1 member who really insists on making an issue out of it, but as long as you keep a clear head and a cool tone and don't allow things to escalate it should never become an issue.

We are all in the end, doing the same thing for very similar reasons, part of the excitement of being in a linkshell is that you ARE a part of a smogsboard of cultures, attitudes and opinions, as a leader, accept and control the situation rather than trying to force people into an unnatural method and you will end up with a far healthier linkshell, at the end of the day it is another person behind the pc, with real feelings and real emotions, and while we are limited to communicating over "a game" what you say still has the power to cause delight or pain. Effective leadership recognises the time and the place for each of these and when you should, and should not abuse the situation.

You are going to get critisized, you are the leader, as silly as it sounds if something goes wrong YOU are responsible, there can be varying reasons as to why you ended up at that point, but you are the person who is struggling to get to a goal and taking everyone else with you, the longer your linkshell exists the less likely you are to get people who say happy things about the linkshell and more likely to complain about why something hasn't happened for them yet, it is just an effect of human nature, what is key to surviving this is to not make it personal, remain objective and above all, don't let it break your spirit. More often than not it is more likely to be some unexpessed frustration and you just happen to be in the way at that time, the worst thing you could do is get frustrated back. Try and reason, hold your ground and remember that it is never a bad thing to make an ls member feel important, treasured and vital to the cause, every single member in your linkshell is important.

<a href="http://www.pharmalot.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/angry-eyes.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.pharmalot.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/angry-eyes.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 76px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 76px" /></a><strong>Don't Break the Shadowbind!</strong> <em>is our Wednesday column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, we look at the complicated issue of people management in the linkshell.</em><br /><br /><p>Whether you like it or not at the end of the day, your linkshell needs people in it to function as its intended purpose. Otherwise you just wasted 8k to not look like an RMT. In an endgame linkshell you need a large pool of raw material to pull from to effectively achieve anything. The raw material being the players of FFXI.</p><p>These are your team to back you up on your grand schemes and plans, in the constant effort to strive for better gear, monitary rewards, new titles or just for the simple pleasure of a fight and kill well done in an accomplished manner, there are many many reasons people join linkshells at end game.</p><p>Understanding the moods and currents of opinion in your linkshell is vital for an effective leader to be able to predict how far you can push your membership and when to slack off, as a leader your duty is to balance both the stern and authorative figure as well as knowing when is the best time to bend like a reed and sublimate your own personal opinions and give way to the popular opinion.</p><p>Knowing that you can't force anyone to do something is paramount, you can only be a guide, what your linkshell ends up being is a collection of individuals who are willing to be guided by you and trust your judgement or tactics to win the day. There is of course frictions and undercurrents of opinion that you will not always be aware of, the disgruntled few, but in a solid linkshell, those few dissenters have a way of working themselves out of the linkshell and on to other things reasonably quickly and you have a strong core still with you.</p><p>Flexibility is extremely important in any situation when dealing with people, regardless of your personal opinions, you shouldn't be letting that cloud your judgement or you end up undermining your own position of authority and it is extremely difficult to come back from that.</p><p>You need to be able to remain objective and clear-minded, accepting that your linkshell is a melting pot of personalities and opinions, not all these opinions will be parallel to your own, nor will you be joined at the hip with every single member in your shell, but that is not a good reason to ignore or neglect the other members, making sure they still feel appreciated or a part of things is just as important as them showing up to events. Without them, your linkshell isn't going to be doing anything except soloing rarabs outside Windurst, and you want to be reaching for the sky and tearing down AV instead!</p><p>Inevitably, you will run into problems with people, over time this is just the nature of what happens, simple misunderstandings that are easily resolved in person are more likely to be blown out of proportion online where a whole facet of human communication is missing, the minute interpretations of body language, tone, pitch, eye contact and non-verbal signals are no longer there as a safety net, so as a leader it is important to be prepared to overcompensate for that lack and be slightly more sympathetic, it is your job to look at the whole picture and not mire yourself down in irrelevant detail that at the end of the day is only preventing you from doing an effective job more than it is assisting you in directing the linkshell forward.</p><p>Open lines of communication with your linkshell and keep them open, the membership will feel cut off and ignored if they have no-one to talk to and that will result in a lack of interest in events and participation. Even if that means that they will talk to your sub-leaders rather than you, you still have the responsiblity to deal with the issue in a delicate fashion, charging in there guns blazing is more than likely to inflame the situation than fix it if there is an issue, look at your options and consider the best way to move forward, plan ahead if need be but don't ignore it or you will have a far bigger problem on your hands over time.</p><p>If you as a leader are going to do something controversial, make sure you have a good reason to do it, one that is justifiable, not just "because I said so". That will never be good enough and lead people to desert your linkshell. Even if they don't like the reason, it is still an authentic and verifiable reason and most of the time that will be enough. You will inevitably come up against the 1 member who really insists on making an issue out of it, but as long as you keep a clear head and a cool tone and don't allow things to escalate it should never become an issue.</p><p>We are all in the end, doing the same thing for very similar reasons, part of the excitement of being in a linkshell is that you ARE a part of a smogsboard of cultures, attitudes and opinions, as a leader, accept and control the situation rather than trying to force people into an unnatural method and you will end up with a far healthier linkshell, at the end of the day it is another person behind the pc, with real feelings and real emotions, and while we are limited to communicating over "a game" what you say still has the power to cause delight or pain. Effective leadership recognises the time and the place for each of these and when you should, and should not abuse the situation. </p>You are going to get critisized, you are the leader, as silly as it sounds if something goes wrong YOU are responsible, there can be varying reasons as to why you ended up at that point, but you are the person who is struggling to get to a goal and taking everyone else with you, the longer your linkshell exists the less likely you are to get people who say happy things about the linkshell and more likely to complain about why something hasn't happened for them yet, it is just an effect of human nature, what is key to surviving this is to not make it personal, remain objective and above all, don't let it break your spirit. More often than not it is more likely to be some unexpessed frustration and you just happen to be in the way at that time, the worst thing you could do is get frustrated back. Try and reason, hold your ground and remember that it is never a bad thing to make an ls member feel important, treasured and vital to the cause, every single member in your linkshell is important.