KGB enters its 9th year : State of the Nation

The KGB Oracle

It's official. KGB is 9 years old.

On 6/3/1997 the KGB Tanarus Team was formed. Some of the original KGB Webpages are still available:

The screen shot is of KGB's site on 6/3/1997. You can see the first JetStar logo below from 6/3/1997:

By July 1997, the KGB system was in place and KGB had grown to several dedicated members:

The beginnings of the KGB ranking and awards system can be seen early on:

Some of our early victories can be seen here:

It was KGB 5 Star general SOULSCREAM that convinced me I had the skills and the resources to lead the best of the best in statistics of the first real open PVP online gaming world on the internet.
That is exactly what we did, as KGB lead in combat by up and coming leader Drek in points and standing.

KGB began to thrive in a clear set of rules. PVP against all clearly definded enemies. I continued to record success and victory unlike any other organization. Competition developed amoung our most gifted PvPers, and KGB thrived.

On we would go. UO, EQ, DAOC, and beyond. Here we are!

At present, I am struggling with my OU Hybrid character. A chance to play with many I have never met in game, as well as something to hone our skills as we prepare for the futute.

1) Our new Prime Minister.
I see it like this. Romeo Montague, KGB Paladin and Prime Minister serves as my liason to our forces engaged in direct combat and Commander in Chief of our members involved in direct combat. Romeo carried the rank to make the nessassary decisions to make us successful in combat. Prime Minister Elph, KGB Chief of Staff for many years, carries the responsibility for all administrative aspects of KGB. Membership process, and observance of KGB rules and guidelines are her primary responsibility.

Article 2, Section 1, Clause 4 of the KGB Constitution clearly states: The Prime Ministers is authorized to carry out the duties of the High King in his absence. This position has all the powers of High King in accordance with the wished and duties assigned by the High King. The Prime Ministers is second in command and his orders should not be questioned.

We all know Prime Minister Elph and Prime Minister Romeo. Both of them are sworn to the KGB quest. I have much to say regarding the two of them and the positions they hold in our Nation.

Romeo Montague is actually a refugee from our UO conquest of the BYZ organization. He rose to power long ago with his balance of PvP skill and ability to lead at a very high level.

Prime Minister Elph started in KGB amoung one of our most historic generations. Immediately recognized by the High King as a gifted administrator, she was promoted quickly despite the objections of our veteran membership.

Elph brought a no bullshit attitude to administration, resisting her tendancy toward restraint and kindness in the enforcement of KGB law and the code that had kept us focused for so long.

Then Prime Minister Elph assisted historic KGB military leader and KGB Warlord Raekwon in the administration of our presence in the world of DAOC. It was during this period that KGB would experience some of it's greatest respect and combined skills. Several of our decorated paladins and most skilled PvPers formed the KGB xTeam. A spec group with some of our most skilled PvPers were very successful and made a name for KGB PvP once and for all.
During a time of vaccuum in leadership, my personal choices in KGB control would turn out to be disasterous. In Shadowbane, which proved to be our final political struggle, KGB Paladin and High Chancellor Binbs turned things around and once again showed KGBs ability to compete and succeed. (Prime Minister Romeo Montague played a key role in this victory).
The departure of the xTeam, which was made up of some of KGBs finest and the promotion of KGB SWG High Chancellor Jedule proved to be a fatal mistake in the advancement of KGB and its new focus on multi-game and multi-faction success proved to be a serious set back in the KGB organization.
Anarchy proved to be the popular form of government. No rules, no guidelines won over.
Despite our respectful defeat, KGB SB factions under Binbs, Romeo, and Holrom rose to the occasion and made a name for themselves during this dark time.

There are so many I have left out. It is so worth reading the KGB news archives, even though we are still adding many historic but lost articles.

Personally I am struggling to learn UO Hybrid and get out there with you all once again. I have not lead in combat since our presence in SB when our understanding and peace with COS was broken because we were learning and rising to be a challenge to quickly.

I long to lead KGB in combat once again in the future.

In my research, I have counted well over 2000 KGB members in the 9 years we have been a presence in online gaming. I hope to work with each of you on a personal level to make KGB the best it can be before our next endeavor.

I

each and everyone of you in your commitment to this organization and ideal. I hope to see you in person soon.

In your service on this amazing 9th birthday for KGB,

awesome post jet, man my best times in KGB was the few mos I played on SP before joining KGB and after shortrly before DAOC came out.

Then the all time best I've had being as member of KGB was coleading the Andred factio with raekwon we had a fantastic group of people and had an awesome time

Very nice post High King, even I learned some things about KGB's start that I hadn't known before!

I'd also like to add that there are many great leaders (military and political) that were not mentioned in the article; and even some of the games we were in went unmentioned. But knowing from many personal experiences, typing a large "timeline" sort of post is a very difficult task; and for every one person you honor in it, you hurt the feelings of five others.

So... without mentioning any names, I’d like to add to Jet's article by saying well done and we'll need you in future games (like DFO), to the many great leaders small and large KGB has had over the years. To the masters of the 2D shards in UO Pacific and Siege Perilous, guarding dungeon and city entrances; the brave commanders of DAoC Gawaine and Andred, willing to build a ram and storm a keep in the frontier; the organized captains of war in Shadowbane, who could led zerg armies and small strike forces depending on if we needed to storm a city or just kill an enemy exp group; the starry eyed galaxy generals of SWG Bloodfin and Flurry, keeping KGB alive even with a lead destroying their own city; the dreamers of WoW Archimonde, we tried hard to bring good old fashion PvP to WoW, but the game is about instancing for gear and even the BGs were a farming for points.

We've also had many great leaders willing to put together groups in other games like CS, Guildwars, and Eve. Sometimes these games and the players in them were all KGB had keeping us in the lime light during these periods between big MMOs.

Now we stand at the event horizon of what will be KGB's next big and likely biggest conquest (or perhaps a long series of struggles that we eventually rise to the top in.) Darkfall Online promises all the true empire building features SB tried to offer as well as many other features that will certainly help make the dream of the ultimate MMO come true... Naval battles finally, city and land ownership that truly means something since it grants you access to scarce building resources, and one massive world to hold all their players so all our old friends and enemies will be there separated only by rivers and mountains instead of servers that we can't cross.

Anytime a thread is started with KGB's name in it, the posts from friends and enemies alike never stop coming. We are damn near a household name in MMORPGs... KGB is not only known but expected in every major MMO. Love us, hate us, but like a girlfriend (or boyfriend) they still want us around; because a MMO isn't the same without the Knights of Glory and Beer!

Former Warriors and Leaders as well as future ones will all be needed to continue KGB's illustrious name, and maybe one day it'll be our guild's name printed across multiple major gaming magazines and news articles!

Strength, and Honor.

Long live the KGB!

Happy B-Day KGB! I remember the first day I saw a KGB tag over my head in UO, one of the proudest moments in my MMO life.

Huzzah!

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Happy B-Day KGB! I remember the first day I saw a KGB tag over my head in UO, one of the proudest moments in my MMO life.

Huzzah!

i remember that for myself,back then it took a few mos to even get nto KGB & Jet personally would Knight ppl

Happy Birthday KGB!

I look forward to getting the "Recruit" tag removed from my UO:Hybrid character and joining your ranks officially!

Ready for duty!!

-Taxman

Salute

For the Glory and the Beer

Happy birthday KGB

Cheers to all KGB veterans past and present.

Wow, I remember those first days of KGB. We had the greatest team ever created in Tanarus, then moved on to UO to create the greatest guild in UO history. My history with KGB ended with UO so I do not know of the other games KGB has been involded in, but I do know so long Jet picks the leaders he picks to lead this guild KGB will always be great in anything it does.

Regards,
XxxSpeedy1

*salute*

*raises his mug of beer*

I would gladly fight alongside any of of you in any world.

Romeo said:

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I would gladly fight alongside any of of you in any world.

So, where are you an Hybrid, sucka?

Happy Birthday KGB!!
Yay, KGB hmmm....KGB....KGB.....
Damn, I can't remember when was my first tagged with KGB in UO, but I remember the moment. It was a hot day when me and my Buddy PLaSmA was dueling to sharpen our skill. Then some KGB came along as we duel some more...after that I was tagged KGB by Romeo... It was so confusing because I hang out often with TDP guys (Bryan, Rex, etc) before and was about to join them because not long after KGB somehow went to war with TDP.... hehehe

When KGB name appears in my head these names appear automatically in me: Romeo, PLaSMa, Ice Viper, En Sabah Nur, Josh (a.k.a ryu), ken, Heidi, Heaven. I have so many great memories among them which mostly happend in UO world...

The "bastards" that I admire: Leader of Clan blood (can't remember ur name buddy), Ryan of CB (cant remember ur nick old friend), Yaz (fast and deadly - ex KGB), Yakov (great team fighter - in UO SP), Michael (ex-KGB, fast deadly and smart fighter, awesome leadership and written skill), Rex of TDP (Great leaders and great duelers), Bryan TDP (awesome team fighter..miss you man), Marah Paxton (great team leader and have a heart of bull), Romeo Montague (very smart fighter, how can you stay alive when you got 20 on your tail? heh), Raekwon (Pasionate leader in UO SP), En Sabah Nur (great leader, fighters and very reliable team mate yet great friend..), Jet (Charismatic leader and good tactician)

Thank you Jet for keeping the KGB alive and for letting me be a part of great history. Romeo, thank you man for letting me in to a great things and you are a great leader and friend. En Sabah Nur, for all those years of great fighting.... I bow to you all...

Salute to all KGB !!!

I think we should plan an event to celebrate 10 years of KGB; a reunion/get together or something. I think it would be a blast to actually meet some of you nutballs in real life.

Well my next vacation is in Oct. my dad and I are going to Germany to drink beer and eat greasy food. So we could all meet up there and get sloppy drunk off real Ale! That or i'll sneak you on the base in Iraq

I'd love to make babies with Val on the 10th anniversary of KGB.. :P And your brother can hold the video camera!

Garal, maybe I need to give you a little talk about teh burds and teh beez.

lol well the 10th anniversary has come and gone, we were suppose to do something on hybrid but it didn't quite come along.
Oh well either way happy birthday to KGB!! belated obviously

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lol well the 10th anniversary has come and gone, we were suppose to do something on hybrid but it didn't quite come along.
Oh well either way happy birthday to KGB!! belated obviously

Yeah, I imagine this is mostly my fault. I had a RL set back that has really ruined my KGB time as of late. I am still going to play some Hybrid as I get past this.

I hope some of you are still there.

Gratz all, and /salute!

Good to see that KGB is still alive and kicking.

Jet, we still have to have another drink-a-thon @ the local bars again sometime!

not your fault at all Jet. I think it has alot to do with it being summer

KGB

Ive been a member of KGB since Jan 1999 – Back in Ultima Online. Even tho UO had many aspects to it, certainly the most interesting aspect in that MMORPG was the player vs player (PVP) aspect. Wether it be guild vs guild or head to head combat, the pvp system in UO proved to be a lot of fun and hard to master.

KGBs role in UO was that of the good guy. KGB was the anti RPK guild. I didn’t know that much about KGB history when I joined, but I do know that KGB was in a low period with lots of inactivity. This changed when they started recruiting ex-RPKers and pvpers. Derid and I joined around the same time. I think he joined about 1 month before me.

I remember the reason for me joining KGB. You see, even tho I was known as one of the evil players who would go around attacking people for their loot, I never really tried to attack new or bad players. Fighting competition was much more fun and I found myself more and more drawn to a guild like KGB. I was against being in a guild at the time because I wanted to enjoy the liberty being guildless brought. In UO you didn’t have to be in a guild, unlike games like Shadowbane, WoW etc.

However being as one my good friends Derid was in KGB at the time I decided to join as well. Even tho there were some people in the High Council who were against recruiting ex-RPKers, after a few hurdles and 2 applications and some help from General Wildcard, I was able to get myself in as a sub-member. Basically a member on probation type of thing. They gave me the title mercenary. You can see the division I was in at the time at this page: http://www.the-kgb.com/uoaf/skpage.htm.

KGB quickly started to become a force to be reckoned with as the pvpers started to play a greater and more active role on the Pacific server. Since then, KGB has never really looked back.

Other people saw the light as well - Nightmare Clan defector Michael switched sides and after a short period, began leading KGB forces against the evil guilds of the server.

It seemed that whenever a level headed PvPer lead KGB, things would go well, while other times KGB could not always match the sheer skill of video game kiddies who massed together in small pvp guilds,

KGB Siege Perilous was a good example. Since most of the KGB PvPers were on Pacific, when SP opened KGB would get hammered every day by the pvp guilds of the server. As soon as the pvpers moved over to Siege, everyone had a look at what KGB really had to offer. And KGB took the number one spot as anti RPK guild of Siege Perilous. All the time Jetstar would be renewing different clauses and make changes to the KGB Constitution to make sure that KGB would thrive and live on.

You see KGBs strength had always been its willingness to change and adapt to certain conditions. After KGB UO factions kinda died down, I myself took a hiatus from KGB and played Asherons Call. Another great pvp game which seemed very hardcore compared to other PvP games.

I never really got into DAOC or SWG. So I never got to know the Coors Company Crew – Nor did I wish to spend the time trying to understand the conflict that had caused them to split from KGB. From DAOC, KGB would move on to Shadowbane. Probably the most interesting and dynamic personal experience for me with the guild.

Im not sure how many people are still around from back then, but you should remember that KGB had already a reputation because of Ultima Online/DAOC, so we became one of top targets for the best organized SB guild at release - Covenant of Swords. KGB would get their asses handed to them time and time again. KGB was one of the big guilds at the time, but the constant pressure from CoS did cause damage to the membership and most of all, to the leadership. Even the faction leader ended up quitting in disgust, and KGB was left with not so much hope in the harsh gaming environment of SB. But the thing that drove KGB were the people who wouldn’t give up.

KGB was the first nation during release to defend its city successfully against the CoS war machine. This caused a boost in KGB moral and probably the single most important event to ensure the survivability of KGB in Shadowbane.

Even tho KGB soon after lost their first city of Sanctuary to CoS because of a 2nd bane, KGB began thriving again. KGB would grow and grow and a few months later known as one of the powerhouse guilds on the server. Even tho KGB was thriving, Shadowbane was not. Unisoft started closing servers and giving people the option to migrate to new or old servers.

Again KGB started anew on a server called Corruption. Here leveling was harder and even tho KGB had a good start, activity dwindled down a lot. Seeing as the server restrictions were causing inactivity I decided that we move to a different server where the xp flow was at a normal rate. This was luckily a good move and we ended up on a server called Vengeance. And what a server that turned out to be.

KGB was thriving and growing again. Despite being schooled several times by small RPK guild near our city, we grew as a guild and our leaders were forced to learn more and more about pvp to be able to compete with the other top guilds.

Fast forward to summer 2004, KGB had turned from a medium sized guild to a superpower of the server with over 100 members online during peak hours. KGB cities covered 1/6 of the map. KGB also went thru a tremendously difficult war with multiple nations. Fighting powerhouse guilds such as Guardians of Destiny, LoD, HoE, EB, LKK and more. And KGB did lose at times. KGB capitals were lost and rebuilt several times.

That was the beauty of KGB, nothing would stiffen our resolve. Never have I been more proud to be part of KGB. Even thru the toughest of times, people would seem so motivated and committed to the cause. It wasn’t easy tho. Its never easy sitting there with 50+ people in Teamspeak and knowing that its your voice they need to hear, to motivate them after losing the most important city of the nation. But we pulled through.

After the massive war against our enemies, which also caused us to lose the dead weight. KGB peaked even more in pvp. The great thing about Shadowbane pvp is that its not individualistic. You don’t need 40 allstars in your force to make it work. You can have 40 average people and make sure that the leaders of the groups are good enough to make sure that the groups move according to tbe battle plan. This is also why KGB shined so much.

We were able keep our forced healthy even with a higher turnover than most other power house guilds, but because of great leaders in pvp, we were able to hold our own. I know lots of ppl say that KGB has no skill and were just zergers. The simple truth is that KGB welcomed any player with open arms, as long as they knew how to respect their fellow guildmates. And that is also what has kept KGB alive for so many years.

After I stepped down as August 2004, Camb took over lead of the KGB Faction, whereafter Holrom would end up carrying the torch for a while. Shadowbane was definitely the game where KGB really put its name out there as being a top player in the MMORPG universe.

What we have to remember here, is that the success of the guild really is dependant on the leadership. And in a game environment, not only are great leadership skills important. Understanding the game mechanics is very important too.

You cant just pick any old veteran because they know the game in and out. At the same time, you cant have a leader who is good at leading, but doesn’t know anything about the game. At least not without that person having someone else to assist them when it comes to game mechanics/PvP.

Its just as important to have a leader that is respected by the membership, but its also important that the membership support the leader 100 % when difficult decisions are made. I probably wont be playing Darkfall or any other game that requires hours and hours of investment. But I do know that making sure the leadership of the guild in any given faction is solid will result in a successful faction.

The burden of leadership is a heavy one, and not fit for everyones shoulders.

For Glory and Beer.

Binbs

Our High King definitely falls into the great leader but doesn't know game mechanics group

Not to be mean but the past couple of years have been a real drought as far as his actual in-game play time!

But that's the beauty of our system. As long as he stays the great leader he doesn't have to learn every new game's mechanics, after all, what High King has time for such minor details!

He has surrounded himself in great leaders and great advisors that have time to learn game mechanics.

However it's certainly Jetstar that holds it all together, even if he isn't present all too often. Without him the large number of "leader" types in KGB would break off and start their own guilds; which is the typical progression of things.

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That was the beauty of KGB, nothing would stiffen our resolve. Never have I been more proud to be part of KGB. Even thru the toughest of times, people would seem so motivated and committed to the cause. It wasn’t easy tho. Its never easy sitting there with 50+ people in Teamspeak and knowing that its your voice they need to hear, to motivate them after losing the most important city of the nation. But we pulled through.

Those were fun times.