This is what my wife and I tend to refer to as the "It's all about the cheesy poofs" principle.

If we're not here to enjoy ourselves, what the heck good is it?

Noola is awesome. Let's leave it at that.

There are a few incidents of theft but they're usually pretty isolated and fairly small (biggest I really remember was someone stealing a load of credits from a guild, think it might've been Somaria, not sure.), now that the admins made it so unless you own the shop (or help run it) you can't pick things up it's very difficult to steal if you're paying attention, at most you might lose some clothes from one of those phobias. Hell, with a lot of the theft incidents it seems that people get guilty (or just fearful of the complete and utter shunning they'll get IG) and give the stuff back.

As for the people... Well there are a lot of seperate social circles and sometimes those circles don't really get on well with each other, that actual people themselves are usually (Well, sometimes, well, occasionally, ok, Just Noola) pretty awesome though.

This is supremely true, and always has been.

I remember several years back when I was a snuggly, mudsexing Seren teenager, Mag had raided EtherSeren. Somewhere in the mix I lost my helm. Shortly thereafter, Kaervas gave it back to me. I would like to note, for those who don't know, Kaervas was one of the big-baddies way back when. His character was the type who would quote Conan the Barbarian while raping your mother in the ear, so I think him giving it back says a lot about how the community (despite our griefing, lulz, and sometimes contempt for one another) is, and always has been.

Kaervas! That's who took Narsrim's transfix gem.

Carry on.

Kaervas helped make this game great.

Going back to the whole group combat thing. Is it more of just 2 massive groups of people staying on either sides of a map, waiting for one to enter the area and then just doing ranged attacks (like kai choke and blackout and doppie attacks in achaea?) Or is there a lot of close, in room combat that goes on as well?

Very few guilds even have ranged attacks, so you'll see mostly close combat. Mages/Druids have demenses and a ranged staff attack, but other than that, there isn't much. You'll have 2 big groups sitting in adjacent rooms/areas coordinating, and then there'll be a big attack from one side or the other usually. Possibly attempts to summon people away from the larger group. But it almost always devolves into melee.

90% is upclose combat.

Wooohooo! I love it already...now if I can just learn the super complicated game I would be happy....

Now are the sides mostly equal? Or has one side/city/commune whatever you call them been dominating the pvp?

It always eventually changes. So if you get in on the winning/losing side now, it'll eventually flip on you.

Well, if you haven't heard, the bird is the word. Also Shuyin is the savior of whatever organization he happens to be in (i.e. that org is dominating).

The groups don't even usually stay together. Most fights are a frantic flurry of each group splitting the other one up and usually running around avoiding actually standing head to head with anyone. There are a lot of skills to move each other, and even more skills to get away from the far-fewer hindering/trapping skills, so combat is always very mobile. But there are relatively few ranged attacks, and not enough to really take down that many people; most fights make relatively few of them.

Demesnes have huge impact in group combat. If both sides have mages or druids, fighting usually focuses around destroying the opposing side's demesne and making sure your own sticks. Up-close combat revolves around timed instakills (usually 12 seconds from beginning to end), conditional instakills (1/2 mana, etc.) and splitting up the enemy group (Rad, Fearaura, etc.).

Let's not forget gladiator style with good old fashioned damage.

I want to damage people to death.

Aww?

You're awesome too!