Southern Armada

Where did the last 10 years go?

I started playing EverQuest in June 1999.  It was the first MMORG I'd played.  I was aware of Ultima Online, but was never keen on the isometric view.  EverQuest caught my attention because it was in glorious 3D.  It looked pretty cool with my new voodoo graphics card doing the grunt work.  I would later upgrade my PC too many times to mention.

I convinced a work mate to start playing as well, and before I knew it he surged past me in levels, and was hooking up with a load of players who were heading towards level 30, while I'd only just hit level 20.

This was Kazzam, and he arranged for my guild invite to the guild.  Back in 1999, game mechanics were not quite as reasonable as they are in 2009.  To join the guild, you needed to be in the same zone as the guild leader.  So I needed to do a very scary run to South Karana.  This is when I first met Kezlar, Trikki, Trinni, Arradian & Ellyrion, who were all fighting gnolls outside Splitpaw.

Game mechanics eh? tell you what, the kids have it easy these days. 

A death in EQ at level 20 was like losing two hours worth of exp grinding.  There was genuine pain with death. 

Transport, none of this flying mount business or portals, if you needed to get somewhere, there was, unless you were a wuzard or hippy, only one way to do it, and that was running. 

To get from one side on the continent to the other would take more than 30 minutes, and you'd better map your route first, and even consider the time of day, because Kithicor Forest was nasty at night. 

Maps, there was no maps.  I printed hundreds of pages off the internet and made my own EQGregories directory. 

I've still got some great memories of EQ, probably with rose tinted glasses.  There was always a bit of controversy as well.

Kazzam and a few others left the guild after 6 mths to establish Talionis.  We had years of 'friendly'' banter as to who progressed in content, and who were the top guilds on the server.  It went something like this -

1.Nameless Order  2. Unity 3. Stasis 4. Southern Armada 5. Talionis

There was a guild roster / calender, so that each guild had an opportunity to take down named mobs and zones, which had a weekly spawn.  (Give or take a couple of days) For example the Plane of Fear or Lord Nagafen.  There was no such thing as an instance.  As with all communities, this was all very civilised until one guild - Stasis, decided to tear up the calender and gank anything and everything whenever they could.  We loved it.  While Stasis took all the scorn from the community, we suddenly had a game which needed military logistics.  Spotter characters were set up in all the hot spots, and we'd know when zones were due to respawn, or when a named mobs appeared.  Then it was a case of rallying the troops and getting to the right place in numbers and engaging before another guild could.  Kezlar and Genosin where the masters of making this happen.

I've got loads of memories of great game achievements, such as taking down Aaryonar to open up the North Wing of Temple of Veshan.  But probably the best ones are of the people.  Mewkus' rant about clerics, and joining the purple club.  The famous 'Burned Wood's episode.  Classics.  We've had some brilliant guild meets too- my favourite will always be at Sorcha's house, which was on the same night as the Rugby Union World Cup Final in 2004.  What a match.

So, Southern Armada was formed back in 1999 by a dwarf pally called Vanir.  He handed over the leadership very early on to Kezlar and we had great success in EQ.  We moved onto WoW 4 years ago, and have since split across various games.  Regardless of the games that we've played, Southern Armada is a guild of likeminded gamers.  We sometimes take it all a bit seriously, but mostly it's about having fun.  It's been a lot of fun over the past 10 years.