Who in their right mind would give the one person responsible for the initial major decline of Asheron's Call the title "Savior of AC"?

 

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A bonehead?

Well....did Elgarl code something into the client that caused perma buffs. There were quite a few people that left after that.


Did Elgarl code the plat exploit that flooded the server with pyreals, forced a rollback, and how we got pack dolls?


Did Elgarl cause the billing issues that resulted in double XP weekends?


Did Elgarl force Turbine to use older hardware and cause the unbearable lag we experienced before they finally upgraded?


Did Elgarl develop World of Warcraft, Everquest, or any otehr online games out there that slowly took people away?


Did Elgarl code the spike exploit to flood the serers again with MMD, Pyreals, and plats?


All those examples are one way exoduses. Yes some poeple left because of UCM, of which Tank was the first easy to use method, but those UCM's also stayed in game. Before Tank, there was UCM, but only available to few, Tank took it public. Even then, it is just a tool, people had to make the conscious decision to UCM.


Saying ElTank is why poeple leave and will cause the end of AC is a phallacy. El Tank is now done for, using your logic, nobody will leave AC again?


You are actually causing a self fulfilling prophecy. By crying about the doom of AC and how full of "cheaters" it is, you are preventing people from coming and playing, and lending more to the end than any one tool does...and there are more than one tool available.

Vellus: there have been other things that have caused people to leave... that isn't what the problem is.


The problem is.. as soon as Elgar brought UCM to the masses, it lead to a huge problem for both the players of AC and Turbine. I could go on and on about the butterfly effect and what his plugin caused, but I've been over it all before many times, and I'm frankly just tired of saying it, and I'm sure other people are tired of listening to it.


To put it shortly, UCM in comibination with XP Chains ruined the game. It's as simple as that. And yes.. I personally put Elgar straight into the cross-hairs for the blame on that considering there was always macroing, but it wasn't until ELTank that it was given "freely" to everyone. I use the word "Freely" very very loosely for obvious reasons.

Ok Drak. Nothing against you personally, or Gouru, or any other Decal dev over time, I have used Decal, never UCM'd but did plat/cash macro heavily. ElTank, LifeTank, Warbot, any number of ACTool combat macros, all have one thing in common, they all use Decal. So is it not Decal that brought UCM to the masses?


Elgarl, Crelic, Paraduck, anybody could not have coded UCM/ACM plugins without decal (not to the level of sophistication they are at now anyhow). So it is your product, Gouru's, etc that led to the ruin of AC. Buffbots are something people are saying ruins/dumbs down the game, trade bots and the resulting marketplace ruined towns, sixth sense ruined the thrill of hunting since it found everythign for you, plat macros, applesauce macro, potion macros, etc... all possible from Decal, all reasons AC is seen as cheaters paradise, all running off Decal.


So I can understand not wanting to take the blame for upkeeping Decal and saying it is what ruined AC, but to say anything built off it is the problem and not acknowledge your part of it....

Decal provided a framework for plugins to function within AC.


We provided a set of morals and ethics for which these should be used.


We told Elgar not to do it. We've told MANY people not to do it. We can't do much beyond that, nor should we really.


Decal might have provided the gateway (just like ACTool) but it is ultimately the plugin developer or script developer that is at fault for their creation. We are at fault for creating Decal.. for both the good at the bad that DECAL itself can do.. but ultimately the ethics of designing plugins lays squarely on the plugin developer.

I left AC for other reasons than Eltank being available, now I'm back I'm sorry to see it has folded and Elgarl has left (for similar reasons I did - billing issues).


It's a shame that so many blame Elgarl for turbine and MS's deficiencies in running this game and the customer care they have offered.


Having used Eltank for free I will always be grateful to Elgarl for the functionality he gave me and which enabled me to CARRY ON PLAYING AC, without it I would never have stayed as long as I did. I did play the first two years without even having decal let alone eltank and to be honest would never play AC without the functionality they give. Most other games have very simplified loot systems-so no need for corpse/loot scanners, and combat is so simple compared to AC that you can one click to attack and just have to ram food down now and then-so no need for a combat macro.


I'd lay money that the vast majority of people that have left AC over the years didn't leave because of Eltank.


I could be surprised, and now it's gone those that did leave because of eltank may now return. But I definitely won't hold my breath in expectation of the servers becoming full again.


I wish Elgarl all the best in whatever he does in the future.

 

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Ok Drak. Nothing against you personally, or Gouru, or any other Decal dev over time, I have used Decal, never UCM'd but did plat/cash macro heavily. ElTank, LifeTank, Warbot, any number of ACTool combat macros, all have one thing in common, they all use Decal. So is it not Decal that brought UCM to the masses?

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Actually, they have more than one thing in common, they all use AC. So is it not AC that brought UCM to the masses? Or maybe it was Visual Basic which El Tank and Lifetank were written in.


That fallacy has been repeated often enough it ought to get a special pedestal in the Fallacy Hall of Fame

Gouru, that is like trying to say being born is the leading cause of death, or marriage is the leading cause of divorce, funny when you say it, but nothing to do with the question.


UCM is generally regarded as something not designed by Turbine and the AC Client.


As the history of AC has shown, not everyone will agree. Do I think El Tank contributed to some of the problems in AC...yes. Do I think it is the only thing that contributed..no. Do I think only things that Decal can do, or facilitate, ruined AC...no. Do I think it is one of the components that did...yes. Do I think that if there was no Decal or any other third party aps, that AC would be the highest played MMO out there..no. Do I think that the fact that it is seven years old is what is leading to its decline...yes.

If there is a single person reading this text right now and thinking that Turbine designed Asheron's Call with the intend to have it macroed to death by AFK bots, then I reserve the right to call that person "stupid".

 

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