Umm... well...

After reading this, I have to say I am quite pleased that Defiar is gone.

I'm very surprised that Defiar felt the need to quit the game by posting such a defamatory post about The Kindred... Going out with a bang?...

Everyone is entitled to their opinion... It just so happens that Defiar has been fighting against everyone's opinions recently...

None of us had any idea that Defiar was so unhappy in The Kindred. It now appears that he is rather two-faced. It is very true that Annie, Elharith and myself are the most active players in The Kindred. But I don't understand how or why Defiar thinks we control anything? - Recruitment? - No, we love everyone to get involved in recruitment... I don't even know what the "etc" is supposed to represent...

There isn't really anything that needs 'running' in the guild - other than dealing with defamation like this... Which people will expect to see my reply to, because I'm always open to sharing my opinion.

Elitist? - Absolutely not. Some of us are highly competitive players, but that doesn't mean that because we spend more time on the game, that we think we're better than anyone else... We want and encourage others to get involved in our community.

When Defiar wanted to join, I questioned if he had read our philosophy and understood what we were about? The second line in our philosophy is "We are not elitist and nor are we exclusionary." - Because Defiar wanted to join, sure, we've never turned anyone away...

In guild chat, Defiar did indeed mention that VDBai might want to join also. He said that he thought VDBai wouldn't fit in here because he was 'elitist'. Annie and I were very happy to discus any concerns Defiar had about VD, but we were on our way to bed... But I did say to him not to worry, that he wouldn't be able to force control over anyone here, and he might not like it and decide to leave again... But by the time we got up in the morning, someone else had already accepted VD - Which I was fine with (again, because "We are not elitist and nor are we exclusionary."), and I never heard Defiar complain about it.

Well, again as it says in our philosophy:

"If you believe that you are better than others because of your rank or are a person who imagines that elitism is the way to be, you may not like it here. The Kindred is a community aimed at civility, friendship and a calm and relaxed manner of game-play. If you have no sense of humour or are a puritan - you may not like it here either."

I think they didn't like it here. - Having been used to being part of an elite few that were always involved in discussions concerning and controlling other players. - We don't do that, or even discuss possibilities of enforcing rules in The Kindred, we have no rules. - We're a community of equals that respect each other.

Defiar complains that "Annie kept attacking Dieeasy and trying to take his number 1 spot", despite our 'guideline' (not a rule), that states:

"[This is] a philosophy of flexible guidelines. Don't get annoyed if everyone don't always follow them, they are completely voluntary."

and...

"It's only natural to have a little bit of an ego... Everyone likes to see their name at the top of the Arena... I believe we can show how Kindred we are by not knocking other Kindred members off the #1 place. Be proud that one of our members is being seen at #1, and don't take it away from them - there's plenty of other players out there that will knock them down soon enough! Also, don't get annoyed if one of us doesn't follow this guideline... It may have been an accident, or they might have decided you've been there long enough ;)"

Dieeasy was actually asking everyone in the guild to attack him and try to beat him... Defiar actually replied many times that dieeasy was the only person that he couldn't kill... I can only assume that Defiar was annoyed seeing that Annie, after multiple attempts, could.

As for whining... Last night, yeah, Annie was complaining in guild chat about wizard being so weak (again - I tell her to put her rants here, on the forum, so the devs can read them)... Defiar was arguing against her and winding her up even more; by saying that she just hasn't found the right skills for killing the troll yet... And that she needs to play around with skills more to find what works... Well, he doesn't know what he's talking about, because he has never played a Wizard character, and doesn't seem to understand (or believe) us when we tell him we've tried everything. He just doesn't realise that wizards have no useful skills that can be used to kill the troll. He was winding her up by ignorantly arguing against her.

Before the balance changes, he used to whine all the time that wizards were OP and rangers were the weakest class. - Everyone sympathised with him and agreed that the class balancing needed to be looked at.

Since the balance changes, Defiar has been arguing against (border line attacking) everyone who was complaining the balance changes swung too far in favour of the ranger.

I'm not elitist... I'm a moralist, and I stand up for the rights of others.

I'm not expecting Defiar to read or reply to any of this, since he's made it very clear that he has quit the game and deleted his character...

I have written this reply because people expect to see a reply from me here... But if Defiar does come back to reply and further post defamatory things about The Kindred, I believe I've said everything (above) that I possibly could on this matter.

Last time I am coming to this forum but I assumed there would be a response from Andaho because, as he mentions, he would be expected to.

Andaho - Honestly, my biggest problem with Kindred ultimately is Annie all around. And it wasn't until Annie went from OQ to Kindred that Kindred changed in my eyes, although it was from an external perspective. But it was clear to us as we in OQ of course discussed Kindred fairly often, that Kindred was suddenly going back on things they had said in the past. The weird thing was, I always liked Annie in OQ. Somehow in Kindred, she was intolerable. It was like she had changed somehow.

As far as you (Andaho) go, my biggest problem has always been you speak against elitist but have always been an elitist. When I said this to you directly, you agreed. I have always been open and honest with you, we have challenged each other's views directly on a multitude of things, and have always respected the other's ability to put forth their points. I still hold this respect.

El - It isn't a stab in the back to state the truth. You know me, and know I am fairly open and generally can't keep my mouth shut about things I feel. When I say "control", it is not meant that you were a controlling individual. What it means is that despite the open concept, there are natural leaders and those people are leading. I'm not calling it a dictatorship by any means nor do I mean to insinuate that you are. You are one of the kindest people I have ever met online.

To the members (officers) of Kindred - The above isn't meant to insult you are individuals. It is a view of how I saw Kindred to function. I think many of you are truly wonderful people to talk to, play with, etc.

Annie - You ruined Kindred for me, and I suspect you had a great deal to do with the way it changed from what Andaho first envisioned. I can say he was true with what he said that if he felt someone else could leader, he would let them. Your name as guild leader (last I saw...maybe it changed) was a blight on the guild.

Andaho - As far as the class thing goes. You agreed Rangers were under powered. I of course fought to keep them strong but agreed the wizards took to much of a hit and shouldn't have taken a hit at all. I also wrote a post in favor of the wizards asking for secondaries, univ, etc. to be reconsidered in light of potential benefit to Rangers only. My biggest issue is that Rangers and Warriors although asking for it to be changed, continued to fight on and didn't threaten to quit, etc. incessantly. When I gave an example of how a wizard could be truly awesome, you and Annie both replied P2W. Then after complaining like crazy and Annie openly telling people about you have a gambling problem and how that is impacted by refining, you both went forward and refined anyway. You became extremely strong and then still complained about quitting.

All three of you has known me as someone who says what I feel. I said about the complaining in guild. I have challenged you in the forums. I have challenged you in world chat. We have discussed at length many topics in PM. Call me a backstabber, a sensationalist, whatever you like. In your hearts you know I have never back downed from a hard conversation.

Peace out. I wish you all the best and suggest you all quit the game. It hurts you all to much.

Nothing personal guys, but in the future lets try to keep the guild drama to your own thread or PM's.

Well I quit too because I stopped having fun.

I was in fact too elitist in OQ and did get pushed out as a result.

Hindsight is 20/20 though.

In my opinion, being a member of both guilds, Kindred is just as good as OQ.

Best of luck to all of you. Cheers