Depressing day

[Zeralenn]

My best EQ friend left EQ today. Permanently.

She said she has to go back to RL and I understand perfectly, but it didn't make it any easier to say goodbye. It came rather suddenly from my perspective -- one day she was there, acting quite usual, and the next day she has announced she's deleting everything, and would I please help her strip her characters and give some specific items to people?

My God. I feel like my friend died in a road accident and I was left executor of her will.

I understand that once she made the decision, she wanted to move quickly. All her characters left the guild at once, which makes me believe she did what she said she was going to do -- delete them permanently. Before she left, she had my necro friend (my best RL friend) sac her 55 paladin down until she had a few stacks of essence emeralds. She offered to let her sac her 65 exarch cleric down too, but Mene (my necro friend) couldn't bear to do that. Mene and I were with her when she logged out the last time, on the Plane of Tranquility. She didn't want a fuss and she wanted to end it quickly.

Just ... gone.

< sigh >

...Zera

PS. The fact that my halfling went on later to (finally) break her tailoring bad streak and after 78 combines went from 194 to 195, and then got 196 on the very next combine, somehow didn't feel quite as cool as it should have.

[Lilosh]

/mourn


-Lilosh

[Verdandi]

UGH I've had plenty of friends leave but none so abruptly, yet...although I do know of other folks who have. That's a terrible thing to have to watch, helpless to do anything but help them leave...

*wraps her paws around Zera and squeezes gently*

[Iannyen]

One of my friends did that. He was back within 6 months.

[KyrosKrane]

/comfort

It's never easy to lose a friend. Some folks may belittle online relationships, but we know that when you meet a true friend, the medium doesn't matter. EQ, chat rooms, your local Starbucks or bar, school or the office ... it's the same. A friend is a friend, and their loss always hurts.

[Idara]

Exact same thing happened to a friend of mine a few weeks ago. He just made the decision to leave and was gone. Didn't even say goodbye in game just logged on very late at night and moved some things to the guild mule and then removed all his characters and was gone. About a week later another friend left the game. He at least said goodbye and handed out some of his stuff to some of his friends. Then he posted a wonderful roleplay goodbye post on the board and was gone.

I do know how you feel. When the first friend left, it was so sudden and unexpected that I honestly felt like I'd had a friend die. It took me all day, a good night's sleep, and an email from the friend the next day before I could settle down and come to terms with it all.

[Serenya]

It's hard. I've had several good friends leave over the past few years, some abruptly others slowly, just dwindling away I suppose. Sadly, no matter how good a friend we were (phone calls, emails, what have you), once the tie of the game itself was gone the friendship slowly diminished as well. I rarely receive a response to my emails, and thus I rarely send them anymore. Yet, I can't really complain -- so called 'real world' friendships have drifted off in the same fashion. As we no longer live the same type of life in the same part of the country our bonds dwindle, until one or the other of us ceases to respond (and it's just as likely to be me as my friend).

Still, I know it hurts, especially as you in many ways really are acting as executor of your friends will.

/comfort

[Zeralenn]

This just keeps getting better

Thanks for all the /comfort.

I am having a VERY bad week.

Not only has my best EQ friend left EQ, but one of my closest friends in RL just told me that she and her husband are splitting up.

On top of all that, I have to go to the airport in a couple days to get the pedigreed cat I gave them as a wedding present five years ago. They're shipping her back because the young daughter is allergic to her and the husband, who will not have custody of the daughter, doesn't want the cat.

<hits head on desk a few times>

...Zera

[Eowenna Celerdain]

/comfort

Ouch.

Brace yourself then ... bad stuff has a distinct tendency to come in threes.

1. A friend leaves EQ, and you must aid in distributing goods.
2. A friend's marriage ends, you get custody of the cat.
3 ... may be incoming.

This is one of those times, for your sake, I hope that pattern breaks.

/offers comfort again, wishing there were more she could do

[Zeralenn]

Well, it happened.

My stepfather went in for emergency cardiac surgery today.

Hopefully that gets my three out of the way for awhile.

...Zera

[Torum]

*big long hugs*

That sucks, I'm sorry to hear that.

*gives you a big cookie in a vain attempt to cheer you up*

Gondir Androctus, Trade Mule of E-Marr

[Sanna]

oh lord, zera! >_<

/a thousand hugs

-- sanna
suddenly no eq for the past 2 months doesn't seem that harsh at all... ~_~

[Mystrice]

friends lost.....and gained again!

that should end the three..

that just leaves room for the good! Once you hit bottome there's no where left but up.

As for the EQ friendship deal, I've had two leave eq...one was my brother (55 shaman) and he gave up his account and was about to sell everything off. I told him I'd take the account and hold all the stuff and two box him with my monk. He said "ok you can have the account, just sell everything off and equip your monk". Of course I couldn't do that a low and behold my bro got the eq addiction back 4 months later and asked "did you sell all my stuff?" I told him no and gave him his account back (+ one level).

The second being my girlfriend, She attempted to give all her stuff away which I promptly interfered and took over her account. She didn't want to play eq anymore and told me the same thing that y brother had told me. You can have the account and everything on it. Well from the brothers experience I knew that one day she'd come crawling back to EQ just like the rest of us w/ the Evercrack addiction Well sure enough about 2 months later she wanted to know if I still had the account, well of course! and so she got her 54 druid back.

Just remember, if you do have a friend that's intent on quitting his account, maybe you could be the one to pay for account for a little while if the friend is worth holding on to. They always get bored with "real life" *grins* and come back to good Ol EQ. Don't let em give there stuff away...if you're truly a good friend then grab that account and hold it for them. Hey if you have two computers then it even works out to your advantage.

You may leave EQ, but EQ never leaves you...

*hugs*

[Eowenna Celerdain]

Nuts, I'd hoped I was wrong.

/comfort

I also hope, with you, that this means serious trouble has done its worst and will leave you be for a while.

-----------------
By the way ... it is possible to run 2 EQ windows on one computer if you have it set in "windowed" mode instead of full screen. (Nope, you don't need EQWindows, just the inherent option.)

Patch, login to account #1, wait till you see "server select" screen.

Run patcher again, login to account #2.

When Account #2 shows server select screen, alt+tab to Account #1, and "play EQ" (Enter key should work if mouse is stuck in other window).

Once it starts downloading, Alt+Tab to Account #2 window and initiate download there also.

Once *both* accounts show character select, you can choose the characters and begin login.

Alt+Shift+R releases mouse ... sometimes you have to do it twice, then click into the window you're currently using.

I can only use a very few Luclin models, but my old dinosaur computer with only 256 RAM handles dual sessions ... on a dial-up connection. Zoning is painfully slow, but it gets the job done.

Drawback to this method is that you can only see *one* session at a time. Other screen is directly behind the one you're using, so you have to alt+tab to check on it from time to time. Since I only have one computer, this is my only option.
------------------------

My second account came to me when my adopted brother died 3 months ago; I'm still perfecting dual session techniques (when it doesn't make me cry). He can't come back ... it's possible that your friend(s) might.

I've seen some leave, because of becoming infatuated with another game. They most often return in disappointment, sooner or later. I've held gear for up to 6 months, in case others returned. Some did, one didn't (serious wife faction problems there, I realized that "no return" was a possible outcome for him.)

Hopefully your friend's characters were not deleted ... but even if they were, should your friend return, there are ways to help restore what they lost. Including starting a new toon and growing with them till their new toon is in range to play with your usual toon(s).

Hopefully your friend won't do what the guy who proposed to me over EQ did. He left EQ when I said we needed to know each other outside EQ before I could make that decision. We learned very rapidly, via Email, that about all we had in common was EQ. I recently learned he's back in EQ, but on a different server.

Some people ...

... anyhow, back to your regularly scheduled topic ...

[Zeralenn]

I am NOT a drama queen

I broke the rule. Bad things came in fours.

My cat was just diagnosed with chronic kidney failure.

I think I need some serious feng sui or something...

...Zera