Talent and Outliers by Malcom GladwellFollow

Tidwell showed me a link to an interesting writeup by Altaier of the AoC forums about why they think success has less to do with talent than most think. For those that haven’t played AoC, don’t worry, you don’t need to have played it to understand.


Personally, I think the contents are quite reasonable, however it focuses mostly on your own opportunities in regards to which teams you get to become involved with and the inherent bonuses that come with having such a team. In my opinion truly top tier status depends on not just that, but also another thing to accelerate the distancing between truly strong and just good.

Having multiple solid teams constantly pushing each other to the limits, constantly crossing new borders. This in itself is an opportunity which many do not get to take advantage of, and fits the “rich getting richer” thing. By being at the top level and competing and being pressured to improve, you are training even harder and getting even better, while people at lower levels are either getting crushed or not getting as much serious competition, learning and adapting slower or to an inferior level.

What is the logical thing to do when pursuing success? To wait for luck is almost like waiting for death for most people. So try your very hardest and look for every opportunity to break into the top percentile of play. Constantly seek out those strong or stronger to play with AND against to learn aggressively and grow instead of being content with being able to “beat up most people so I’m already pretty amazing, you can’t really get any better than this lol”, and proactively seek out ways to improve every aspect of your play.

I actually don't agree with this. as someone who has played at the top level in multiple games, it can actually be quite fun to teach a beginner with potential and see them grow and play alongside you.


don't forget about the many guilds that will either move over to, or make a division for Tera as more testing phases are had and also at launch.

oh Luci, you're so positive and nice. I just like having slaves.

I've played a whole ton of F2P and P2P Korean and Japanese games, various games of other genres, and also major MMOs with Western releases like Guild Wars, Aion, and now TERA. And it's not like I'm just taking in any random newbie, I only take in people who show a lot of talent, intelligence, dedication, etc. Just because they're new, doesn't mean they don't have potential. I don't run a mass guild, I run a small team of competitive gamers that do tourneys in multiple genres, so it's a bit different. Keep in mind that my rejection rates of applicants was so high we're now on an invite only basis.

yes, my team does intend on pursuing competitive play with Tera, mostly with a PvP focus, but we will do the PvE required for progression. I do plan on keeping journals and reports on my team's activities with Tera, achievements, successes, issues, thoughts, etc which would become content features on this site.

PvP has the priority. we will do any PvE necessary to be effective in PvP. if we have spare time, we will complete PvE challenges for the sake of achievements and time killing. otherwise, we're going for active participation in all forms of PvP and doing events and tournaments, or building rank/rating in organized play.

in my team I'm going to be rolling either archer or sorc because I'm taking the ranged dmg slot for our A team. we don't know what the popular sizes/formats will be for organized comp yet, but whatever main party we field, I'll be one of the ranged dmg classes on it. why am I doing it? because I've been training FPS skills and aim which relate well to Tera's ranged systems, hitscan and projectiles.