This event has made me sad during the Christmas season. It's made me look at friends I've known in
EU for about a year, some a little bit less, and see them make complete asses out of themselves.
Kill stealing, smack-talking, yada yada.
Prior to me finding out how effectively some of the ubers were hunting, I went out to find me some Atrox and see how good the loot was (decent loot at almost any time, btw
). First I try T3, managed to hunt a little bit without anyone being around. Then this person with some BLP rifle literally runs up to me, and shoots all of the mobs that I shoot. Obviously they didn't have a very powerful gun, because a Justifier mk3 w/A104 on it was outdamaging them, but I found it very rude and killed the few on me and teleported elsewhere in the LA. I didn't say anything other than, "Please don't KS my mobs", and after they ignored me (with a "nyah-nyah" emote), I gave up talking with them.
They sought me out in the LA again, this time dragging about 20ish trox on me. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can cluster-hunt with the best of them (eh, MS9?
), and can take 30+ low end atrox without a problem. Killed them all (much to the disappointment of the dragger - who was waiting for me to die!). Left that area and went to Ithica.
Never had a problem before in Ithica for hunting atrox. Plenty of room, plenty of spawns.
Until this time. I have never, outside of spider hunts, seen so many people simultaneously shooting atrox with plasma rifles. Then what's worse is a few well-known higher skilled avatars, armed with DOA's and ML-35's going through and intentionally stealing everyones mobs - even those that were just 'tagged', so that they wouldn't run off. I personally lost a few good looters, with one being a minor hof (~150 ped). I didn't really bother saying anything at all, as I knew nothing I'd say would matter to them. They were "competing", after all.
There was a movie that came out a few years back, it was a true story about a black basketball coach who took on the task of a lower-grade basketball group. He taught them (eventually, lol) about personal pride, respect in ones appearance, education - and what I saw as the most important aspect to any sports... he taught them how to be respectful of the OTHER team, win or lose.
Regardless of how it has been perverted in modern day, sports are a (sometimes) non-lethal form of combat, all with varying rules, regulations and goals. And in combat, the true "you" emerges. How you treat your "foes" is a clarification of your true character in LIFE, not the facade you attempt to hide behind 90% of the time. Perhaps there are those among us who should take a long hard look at how they have treated their "enemies" in this contest, and ask themselves this one question...
"Am I proud of how I acted?"
Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas, and I wish you all a Happy New Year!