Yeah, I was an Advocate. I even went on to become a Sentinel, too, although they canned the program before I fully got my ‘wings’ and was able to solo. Frightening thought, huh? The Kwip that everyone knows is a blathering idiot actually spent time helping people new to the game learn how to play? Mwuah hah hah – and you wonder why so many people were jumping off of bridges in Rithwic…
But now that the aegis has made a comeback, it has sparked more controversy than a well-endowed snow woman. We’ve got all sides of the debate pretty well covered: rabid fanatics who insist that to so much as mention the word ‘aegis’ is a mortal insult and they must duel you to the death to maintain their honor. And blindingly stupid ass-bandits who, no matter how many times they’re told, insist on reciting the story THAT DEFINITELY HAPPENED TO THEM when the Advocate teleported into the house they were waiting for and stole it… never mind the fact that Advocates never had the power to teleport… and were gone before housing was introduced…
But enough of me brandishing dangerous logic! Let us get in to the heart of the matter: will the re-introduction of the aegis cause me to go off on a rabid, disjointed and obnoxious rant! Well… yes, actually.
Okay, okay, that’s a bit of a lie. When I first heard about the aegis being back, my initial response was, “Hrm…” But now that I’ve had some time to think it over, I actually think it’s pretty cool. The aegis DID look damn cool. And it brought back TONS of memories for me – there’s more stories involved in me giving advice to people than you could possibly believe. So when I started reading about the quest, it really brought back a lot of memories about not only my own application and learning process to become an advocate, but the people I met along the way.
Yeah, once upon a time, I knew how to play the game. And it was pretty cool, let me tell you. The OLT (On-Line Team) was just such a cool bunch of froods. We had a ton of fun – I got to know a lot of people that have almost as twisted a sense of humor as I have. Almost.
And more than that, it felt good to be helping people out. Being able to provide someone with an answer about some wacky problem they were having with their interface or their paper doll not showing up or what have you – it was just fun to help people out. Did we exploit? Exploit what? Sorry, you must have us confused with people that had powers. The only plus we had was a chat channel and I vividly remember that being STRICTLY patrolled for game-related discussions – info sharing that could be seen as ‘exploiting the system’ – which was not allowed. I saw people get booted for violations. I don’t know who these jerkasses were that ruined the impression everyone seems to have of the OLT – well, no, I know some of them – but to say that was the way that most – hell, even a slight majority – of the OLT behaved is just wrong. Everyone loves to dwell on the bad guys, but that’s not even close to being realistic. The facts were, we were there to help, putting in our time for no more thanks than the feeling of doing something good.
And you know what? That was enough for me. When the Advocate program ended, I was sad that it ended – I think most people saw that was going to happen. But I was sad that there were so many bad feelings left over. So many people really knocked themselves out to be as helpful and as knowledgeable as they could be to help their peers, and they came away feeling they had been crapped on. Granted, that was probably unavoidable with the way things had to be ended, but I wish some people had made an effort to step forward and say, “Hey, we’re really sorry we had to do this. We hope you understand – can’t we all just get along?”
Some people did that, some people didn’t, yadda yadda. There were (and still are) a lot of hurt feelings about the matter and feelings of resentment by people that felt they were ‘left out.’ Hell, I’ve still got my OLT T-shirt. Oh yeah, that was another uber perk – those of us on the team at a certain point got free AC tshirts. SECKSAY AC t-shirts. That’s right, be jealous! Mwuah-ha-ha! If that makes you feel left out, sorry. But I’m feeling left out that Gillian Anderson’s not bringing me a pint of Chocolate Fudge Brownie right now, so we all have our spoons to bear, don’t we?
Blah. All this talking, and I never really made a point. I bounced back and forth between sides without coming down very solidly on one or the other, didn’t I? Well…that’s because that’s how I feel. I really, really empathize with the people whose feelings were hurt by the way the matter ended. But I also see it as a time past; we have our statue, and more importantly, we have our memories. I will never, ever, EVER forget WO Arbalister’s puns. No matter how much therapy I undergo…
Now…having said that… People that were never an Advocate and who feel justified in telling the Advocates how they should feel about this matter: piss off. Sorry, I tried to think of a better way to put it, but your obnoxiousness galls me. And then you have the audacity to accuse them of being arrogant? Good gravy. Get over yourselves. The Advocates busted their ass to help their fellows. You were the sort of idiotic whiners that insisted we tell you how to complete quests or other such dumb-ass comments. Advocates on Darktide, indeed. How about before you go making asinine accusations you check your facts a bit?
I guess what I would like to say is in three parts: 1) Thank you, Turbine, for bringing back the Aegis. It really made me laugh when I saw it – I thought I was seeing an ancient screenshot or something! What a wonderful stream of great memories you brought back. 2) MS, I know there’s some hard feelings by some of the ex-OLT. But I’d like to say, thank you for giving us the opportunity to feel useful and the ability to help our peers in a way that let us take a great deal of pride in our efforts. And finally, 3) Turbine and/or MS (whoever makes such a call), could you put the Advocates lore back in? It really was a neat part of the game. Let it be over, let it only be a memory, let those of us that served feel elitist, let those who resent our feelings call us the same, whatever – but let it be. It was a great part of the lore, and we miss it. Please bring it back.
Sincerely,
Advocate Wong Ku-Luc
Sentinel Wu
Bunny Master Kwip
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