Zeto1000

Until 2012, I've played a MMO called Taikodom. Defunct now, but the community was something else. Forget the game's story, the players infused their story inside the game. The rest did not matter. My memory is selective so it does betray me from time to time but I recall pretty interesting things from my days there. Like EVE, a spacesim game such as Taikodom had players organize themselves in corporations. The game dragged on for many years since 2003... devs had little money so they did what they could with it. It became really interesting in 2008. Back then, there was a single, anarchist, overly powerful corporation named Death Law. Players from that corporation would login day and night to mine, secure stations, and lock systems and/or prevent traffic from other players. Their 'dedication' to the game and corporation was so great,that many had given their cellphone numbers to the other members, in case emergency action in particular systems was required. For all my days as a gamer, I've NEVER seen an organization to that extent, forget TeamSpeak, these guys had the ZIP code of one another, and they swapped computer hardware and ensured that the corporation remained dominant, with every player fully able to play the game. However, as the devs tried to fix the game (and several exploits) some of the changes angered Death Law's leader, BORGUE. He eventually decided to leave Taikodom altogether, running to EVE, and beginning the schism (and ever lasting conflict) within Deathlaw. After much debate to the future of the corporation, no tangible agreement was reached, so Death Law split into several factions, and some of its players decided to join the existing enemies of Death Law (CONDUTA and The Illuminati). After the split was done, 3 corporations were born from Death Law: they were Infinity Space, Airborne Division, and the Corsairs. Airborne Division maintained the organizational tactics and strategy of Death Law, Infinity Space worked to change the face of the Taikodom Universe, trying to paint Death Law in a new, less pirate-like image (mostly idealism, they did almost nothing), and the Corsairs were a small assortment of the best players left from Death Law. Airborne, with the most players, began aggressive creation of new branches of itself, since corporation membership limit capped at 50 (if memory serves). In Taikodom, it was possible to obtain space habitats for spawning, and Airborne's brilliant (as much as it pains me to say it) leader managed to secure almost 60% of those habitats, effectively controlling much of uncivilized space outside the Core. This gave an edge to Airborne players, because they secured space with the best mineral resources XP-wise, and could breed an army of high level players. Airborne also maintained a rule of thumb, that was never followed, but it was there: never attack unaffiliated players below level 35. Nobody followed that rule, and it was because of Airborne players violating it, that I eventually decided to join the other side. That and the fact that they destroyed me, A LOT. Their goal was simple, control the game, the devs if need be, and ensure that only airborne players managed to play it completely. This goal simply did not resonate with me, because I could not figure it out for the life of me why they would undermine the game itself. IS or Infinity Space had infighting from the start. Without properly established leadership, their corporation lost clout and thereafter much of its power. Essencially, IS was a paper tiger. It wasn't until 2010 that there were enough allied forces on their side that the could properly assemble a fleet to challenge Airborne. Always the understudy, they had average players, habitats in uninteresting locations, and a policy of no engagement until critical mass was achieved. IS' attempts at disrupting Airborne operations were a joke at best. If anything, it would be a comparison of the FARCs vs the US full military complement (Airforce, ground force, navy, and intelligence). Guerrilla warfare was pointless due to the fact that in Taikodom what mattered was controlling nodes, tightly patrolled areas. Not expanding to every possible direction. To obtain or steal control from Airborne, one needed sleeper agents within their ranks to intercept cargo transfers to supplies for habitats. The dates, the merchants and the routes were all necessary information in taking a habitat from the enemy. Moreover, Airborne had foreseen this, and used Explorer ships, that carried much less than a freighter, but were unrivalled in speed, and therefore impossible to intercept. Such a technique had to be countered by guarding hypergates, and that was no easy task considering Airborne's power. Finally, the Corsairs, the group I was affiliated to. It took a long time for me to enter the Corsairs but still, I managed to climb the 'corporate' ladder and become one of the advisors in the corp. Our group worked with a simple yet efficient motto: if you can't defeat them, you can't stop them. Our corporation, despite being small and holding only 2 habitats, could hold its own against airborne and anyone else in our way. Comprised of no more than 10 hardcore players, we worked with any field advantages we had against Airborne, be it tactical superiority, battlefield use, heavily augmented ships/weapons, and no formal training. To enter the Corsairs, one had to be a great player prior. There was no training program, if someone couldn't keep up with us they were soon dropped from the corp, resulting in a small but tactically adept team of highly skilled assassins. Still, Airborne was a corporation that could easily outgun us 10 to one, and fighting was left only when they bothered us. By the end of the 2008 era, the final wars against Airborne were breaking out. Corporations like IS, Magedom, Benning, Corsairs, were turning the tide against them. We began to organize ourselves more, and work to calculate the timing of 'Concentrations', fields of asteroids with minerals that had a high XP value. By ensuring our access to those fields, we effectively threatened Airborne's grip in the outer, and more lucrative systems. Unfortunately, by working their agents and connections, Airborne managed to infiltrate a spy in our corporation, and by claiming to be a long lost friend of one of our advisors, he was quickly given a high title. I protested several times to the rest of the board (comprised of 3 other players) but for some odd reason they seemed hellbent in promoting the bastard. Two days later, all our habitats were wiped clean, and our message board was filled with boasting and slander. Where Airborne could not break us in the battlefield, they did it from the inside. We lost our habitat in Venus, leaving only the one in Europa, where supply lines could not be properly established due to the need to cross the Ceres Node, better known as No-man's-land. After that, the Corsairs broke apart, and the game had a reboot announcement. Airborne was bloodied, but not defeated. Infighting that I suspect was provoked by their agents within the other corporations fragmented our order of battle, and they retained their power. Amidst all this (rather simplified tale of the real events) was the game's lore, that in fact even had book novels and comics made, but paid no mind. The players wrote the story. The story of Death Law. Resistance is Futile. Expect our Neutron cannons. And happy birthday to you Ross, we hoped our cannons could reach YOU!