Ok. ive been reading through the forums and it seems to me that there is much confusion in naming a person a vet and what not.

So i ask:
What makes a player a vet?
What qualities does a vet hold that a new player does not?
Who are the active vets of obsidian?

Just a few questions to ask yourself. Feel free to tell me your thoughts on your definition of veteran.

A vet to me is someone who was here when I started, and is respected by other players. Vets have knowledge about the game. Vets also don't tend to classify themselves as such, unless it's pretty damn obvious (ie; someone who has been here for 4+ years). I still don't think most vets call themselves such though. Vets aren't all about age either. Skill and age combo IMO.
Active vets? Elleberation, Zur, Urza, I really can't think of all the vets, so please don't be offended if I didn't say the name. It's hard to think of "active" vets... Slug was the most active one I knew for awhile, then less and less, and now he is gone This is something I think about myself. People like bruiser have done so much more than I have so I give him credit as a vet, but at the same time, these now vets are still the new players I remember who still want to know where to hunt, how to train what, etc... I still remember bruiser's topic about him GMing blacksmithy and going around Scotland taking pics for ppl to support him.
It's all point of view I suppose, and I know everyone has someone labeled as something else. I don't see being a vet as a skill that over time people are like, "Oh look! He made it to being a vet today!" It just happens.

I belive a person who is a vet has a massive amount of knowledge of the shard, knows almost everyone, and has a skilld char.....the active vets right now are prolly urza,maybe bobo im not sure how long hes been playing but he prolly is, elleb, and zur.....ther are proably more i just cant think of them now

I tend to disagree with that last assessment of a vet. I don't know how many of you know Allhazardi, but he is definately a vet. He returned to this shard recently after a long time away, and his chars are not developed. He remembers the old guys, and was a phenominal vet when he was here. The day he came back to obsidian and made a char, he re-entered the shard as a vet, regardless of his noob char.
I would say that the bare minimum requirements for a vet are: They have to have been playing long enough to remember players that most people don't. They have to have played actively for more than a year. They have to have, at one point, had a developed acct. What does that mean? Well they could be all merchant chars and be a vet, if they had GM smiths, miners, fishers, tailors, tamers, that whole sort of thing. If a person is not primarily a merchant, they should have at some point had a char that the vast majority of people wouldn't want to tangle with. This means GM'ed combat skills, good stats, and above all good pvp ability. There are many active vets on the shard...... I just think that alot of the people somewhere in between noobs and vets don't always recognize vets because the shard has continued on and new people have come in their absence.
Many people would call a 9 month old char with 6 or 7 gm'ed skills a vet...... I wouldn't. Conversely, if most people met a guy named rhabdul who just made a new char today, they would think he's a noob. As long as the old rhabdul was sitting at the keyboard, I would call him a vet.

Sincerely,
Lord Freeze [Dragon Slayers]

A veteran, in my opinion, is not measured by thier character's skill, or thier own knowledge about factoids about the shards. I know veterans who couldn't tell you how to walk from yew to cove, and yet i also know vets with characters that couldnt' beat a liche. Doesn't mean jack. Sure a veteran USUALLy has these qualities as well, but it's not the defining point. A veteran is defined by how well they understand the shard itself. The shard is not just the items, maps, etc, but the people, the economy, the way everything interacts and works together. Any vet may not be able to tell you where an item came from, or where which town is, or how to get into the hidden valley. But I guarentee if you ask any veteran, "If xxxx happened, how would it affect the shard" and they'd be able to tell you. If you give a veteran a task, he can get other people to help him with it. If you give any veteran some resources, he can tell you what you can do with them.

Being a veteran isn't about character, skill, knowledge, power, wealth. It's about understanding the shard as a dynamic object, in economy, people, combat, etc.

You can have a month old veteran, or a four year newbie. It just depends on how well they learn.

_________________
Ano hi chikatta makenai koto.
"Give me an inch, and you've given me too much of a head start. "

It's a elitist, meaningless term that people throw around and assume you have the same definition as they do. People just need something to mark themselves as better than others.

thats not completely true... i dont need a term to know i'm better than you...

a guy who can handle himself, kows alot about the shard and all, kinda the topic of bobo where i agree with.
But can also be a guy whos been here for just half a year like bruiser,
he has acieved enoguh knowlegde, pvp skills aswell as craft skills to be called a veteran, rly heads off to him, for gming so much in so little time and having alot of fortune aswell from hunting.

it is true what freeze said, i agree with his opinion. vets that i can remember... elleb,kilo,zur,spyder,ice,athena,urza,impe,seph,skinny bones aka jorus, king,duo,madeleine,Allhazardi,rhabdul, and many more who played 4 years ago...


Ice.

But that is what I was saying. He was here for some amount of time and over time "became a vet," so even if he quits and comes back, he will still be a vet. I guess I didn't specify in that last part that someone who is a vet can leave and when they return they will still be a vet (to someone at least).

interesting answer you all came up with. i guess when i look at it... a vet is someone who noobs look up too. For example, when i first started a while back more than 3 years now... i looked up to madeleine, because of her abilities in both pvp and pvm. i pushed myself to become as good as madeleine... I guess you can kinda say that vets are role models for the new players of obsidian. I guess the popularity and the image that a player gives on obsidian also effects whether he or she is a vet or not. If a person stands out, you'll remember that player. I dont think im a vet, simply because i havent been a ble to log on... i havent been on obsidian enough as of lately to show any of you's what im all about. But players like me, freeze, zur, glad, slug, elleb (for a bit), emo, seifer, calypso, raab, atticus, Xes and the list goes on, all played at the same time. Each of us did look up to someone... or even hated someone who was better than us.. with is the reason why most of the players i just named are one of those players who stick out.

So if you want to become a vet, push yourself to become better then the current vets.

or just earn their respects also helps

love ya kilo

yup!

ima noob

I'm a boob...