Post by randomdead on Feb 4, 2007 15:21:05 GMT -5
I started playing on August 8th 2005 with my zombie and created my human a few days later. Ahh wow you are right, I do have a huge task ahead of me. I have been reading the threads made on the something awful forums and I am only up to a few days before the attack on giddings mall. I have read about 5 threads already and each one was on the verge or actually over a 1000 posts each. Just looking ahead I realize I still have anywhere from 5000 to 7000 more posts to read 
. If I did this in game it could easily take 2 months to say everything that needs to be said.
Well I guess I will start with a little backstory. It is well known that the members of the Something Awful forums were behind DARIS and The Many. They tend to refer to themselves as 'goons" for reasons which will become clear when I get to the politics of the matter. The interest in Urban Dead on the awful forums started a few days after the game was first launched. Most of the goons started humans and formed the first "goonbase" out in Shuttlebank. A few goons also realized that PKing could be committed for easy XP and the lack of any consequences. Thus the first true PKing group was formed by players calling themselves "The Kindergarten Cult" or "The Wiley Clan". Members of the cult could only be distinguished by having the last name Wiley. They had huge success early in the game since Malton was completely lawless and unorganized at the time. The Wiley Clan became the foundation of DARIS and later the backbone since most wileys were high level humans before Shearbank was taken in the name of the populat.
It did not take long for the goons to start attracting attention. All the PKing did not go unnoticed and a bunch of players not affiliated with something awful were attracted to the goonbases, safety in numbers I guess. Soon many zombie groups were posting the current location of the goonbase on the unofficial urban dead forums. While the threat from the zombie groups at the time was very low, it was the unaffiliated public players with their grief over the wileys and their general boneheaded banter that started to piss the goons off. Soon a new goonbase location was found in a particularly lawless and open suburb, Shearbank. Around August 13th, goonbase alpha was moved to the Ranahan Library, about two blocks away from Stickling. At that time, Stickling mall had never been in the hands of the humans. Around 10-12 zombies drifted inside the mall but it was easily taken and barricaded in 2 days. Within a week there were around a hundred inside the mall and 60 in the Ranahan Library.
Displeasure with the quality of players that were attracted to Shearbank ran at a fever pitch on the forums. It was suggested that Shearbank be claimed in the name of the something awful goons and be off limits to the general population. However this was easier said than done. Shearbank would have to be evacuated by the goons and then a zombie group would have to completely wipe out Shearbank. But first any other groups looking to make a power grab in nearby suburbs would have to be eliminated. The only group that was remotely organized was the Octopus Overlords based in Millen Hills. They numbered at about 50 members and had been targeted several times by the wileys already. Since OO members were crying over all the pking centered around them on the unofficial urban dead forums, they made an excellent target due to the fact that they would raise a huge stink on the forums over a coordinated zombie attack against them. If we were to have any success, we needed people to sow fear among the general population. In order to keep people out, we needed Shearbank to look as dangerous as possible.
Thus The Many were formed and named in tribute to the zombie like members of the hive mind in System Shock 2. They were given unlife in order to cleanse the homeland and pave the way for the rise of DARIS.
Next up:
The rise of The Many
. If I did this in game it could easily take 2 months to say everything that needs to be said. Well I guess I will start with a little backstory. It is well known that the members of the Something Awful forums were behind DARIS and The Many. They tend to refer to themselves as 'goons" for reasons which will become clear when I get to the politics of the matter. The interest in Urban Dead on the awful forums started a few days after the game was first launched. Most of the goons started humans and formed the first "goonbase" out in Shuttlebank. A few goons also realized that PKing could be committed for easy XP and the lack of any consequences. Thus the first true PKing group was formed by players calling themselves "The Kindergarten Cult" or "The Wiley Clan". Members of the cult could only be distinguished by having the last name Wiley. They had huge success early in the game since Malton was completely lawless and unorganized at the time. The Wiley Clan became the foundation of DARIS and later the backbone since most wileys were high level humans before Shearbank was taken in the name of the populat.
It did not take long for the goons to start attracting attention. All the PKing did not go unnoticed and a bunch of players not affiliated with something awful were attracted to the goonbases, safety in numbers I guess. Soon many zombie groups were posting the current location of the goonbase on the unofficial urban dead forums. While the threat from the zombie groups at the time was very low, it was the unaffiliated public players with their grief over the wileys and their general boneheaded banter that started to piss the goons off. Soon a new goonbase location was found in a particularly lawless and open suburb, Shearbank. Around August 13th, goonbase alpha was moved to the Ranahan Library, about two blocks away from Stickling. At that time, Stickling mall had never been in the hands of the humans. Around 10-12 zombies drifted inside the mall but it was easily taken and barricaded in 2 days. Within a week there were around a hundred inside the mall and 60 in the Ranahan Library.
Displeasure with the quality of players that were attracted to Shearbank ran at a fever pitch on the forums. It was suggested that Shearbank be claimed in the name of the something awful goons and be off limits to the general population. However this was easier said than done. Shearbank would have to be evacuated by the goons and then a zombie group would have to completely wipe out Shearbank. But first any other groups looking to make a power grab in nearby suburbs would have to be eliminated. The only group that was remotely organized was the Octopus Overlords based in Millen Hills. They numbered at about 50 members and had been targeted several times by the wileys already. Since OO members were crying over all the pking centered around them on the unofficial urban dead forums, they made an excellent target due to the fact that they would raise a huge stink on the forums over a coordinated zombie attack against them. If we were to have any success, we needed people to sow fear among the general population. In order to keep people out, we needed Shearbank to look as dangerous as possible.
Thus The Many were formed and named in tribute to the zombie like members of the hive mind in System Shock 2. They were given unlife in order to cleanse the homeland and pave the way for the rise of DARIS.
Next up:
The rise of The Many