Even the Keep Lord got into the spirit:


Grats to Bertoxxulous, server first Zealot to 40.
Additional grats to Osium, server first Black Orc to 40.
Additional grats to Hiret, server first Sorceress to 40.
Additional grats to Penn, server first Shaman to 40.

TheMercs have declared war on Warhammer. We will be challenging the best and brightest on the Red Eye Mountain server.

Our first victim: LIONS OF JUDAH

Our goal is to prove evolution is more than just a theory, by violently sodomizing every bible thumper off the server and into a non-existant state, like your God.

Recently we were forced to "shed some dead weight" from the rosters. It should come as no surprise to those who have followed TheMercs over the years that we aren't playing games to make friends and allies. Every game TM has entered into as a guild, TM has left the game as the #1 guild. If man love is your thing, then you can follow the path of those who have more in common with the waterboy than the quarterback.

We don't do screenshots very often, because they don't give context. Some other guilds live and die by their screenshots, so we sometimes will cave in to their policies of "LOOK AT ME"!!

Yes TheMercs will be playing World of Warcraft.
TM has been Horde ever since late alpha and all through beta. We will remain as part of the horde upon release, our server will be the Central Player vs. Player server ( if there are multiple ).

You know what pisses me off most? When people ask for an update... it hasn't even been a year yet, what is wrong with guildfolk these days. So for all you whiners, dissidents, and those who thought we disbanded because we never pay attention to the rest of the website but the MessageBoard, here's your update.
Asheron's Call. Damn this game was fun. And not the random beating of newbies, the senseless acts of brutality against the poor role-playing folks, and those who just couldn't hack it. The game was fun because it was run, brutal, and didn't give a group any greater skill than a solo killer. When the game started, it was almost as if the game was an RPG Quake. Archers killing with one arrow, mages draining from across the screen, and melees hiding in caves waiting for a balancing patch. In fights, you had to worry about two things, hitting, and getting hit. If you got hit, you died, if you hit, your enemy died. 4v1 combat could be as quickly won by a skilled player as a 1v1. TheMercs, as always, were the best.
We had the best levelling spots, we knew the best combat techniques, we knew the best character templates. Nobody from our era on Asheron's Call denies that we were the force to beat. But then it happened...
Some people call it patch day, we call it "developer intervention". What it does is upset the balance of the game. From the start, there were three classes, mage, melee, and archer. Mage always beat melee, archer always beat mage, and melee usually beat archer (shields were a pain). How did this balance get upset? Turbine decided that it would be pretty damn cool to have ROBES. A mage could now protect his entire body with one defense spell, rather than having to cast on each body part. Archers suddenly saw their hits for 100+, scoring CRITICAL for 20. Mages became the dominant class. Combine this with the mage bugs, such as portal draining, leveling behind a wall, slide casting, jump healing, and mages were near Godlike classes. This addition was the beginning of the end for the Asheron's Call Darktide server that was actually fun.
The game turned into not skill, but numbers. Because of robes, you could no longer strike your enemies down quickly. Strength in numbers became the norm. Mages run in, 5 mages casting harm/drain 5 on you, and it's time to hit the showers. Is that skill, or is it a clusterfuck?
The game no longer was fun. Certain guilds (I won't mention Black any Rose names) would sit at portals and drain anyone that came through. Death without a chance to fight. Other guilds would bring a horde of mages to a town, fully buffed in faran robes, and drain or harm anything that moved. Was this skill, no, once again, clusterfuck, because there's not much you can do against 5-10 mages in bane 5-6 robes, except get MORE mages than them.
As Mercs, we were given two options. We could compete on that level, bring a shitload of fodder into the monarchy, and face the laughter when that fodder got killed in a separate clusterfuck. Or, we could take the memories of AC from when it was good, and leave. There was no competition to us. The guilds that were supposed to bring about our downfall cried for truces until they had more friends with them.
To make a long story short... what Asheron's Call became was not an Asheron's Call we wanted to be a part of, for the same reason Everquest was not a game we wanted to be a part of. It was fun, Turbine, hope you don't fuck up AC2, and I hope games in the future take note of what Turbine did RIGHT, because they did a good job until their one huge fuck-up.
What's in the future? Shadowbane? Sure, it sounds good, but let's hope they put skill before numbers. UO2 is another maybe, but we all know what Origin does when they put their hands on games. So for now, we wait...

My how time has flown. Almost a decade ago, Assassin and I formed TheMercs just to shoot the shit in paintball and Red Baron on The Sierra Network. Soon we moved into Yserbius, and have owned everything we entered ever since. I honestly can't think of any guild that has been more influential, and more capable than those who have joined and honored TheMercs with their presence. We've had idiots, we've had intelligence, and we've had psychopaths. But there aren't any members that I can really say didn't attribute a small portion to what TheMercs are today. It's always been an honor and a privilege to lead the guild into a game, no matter who was behind us, and who was against us. As a guild, we set the standard for what everyone strives to be. Be it in a game, on the web, or in IRC. Kudos go out to all Mercs, past and present. Whether you were booted, banned, quit, or retired. Every one of you deserves respect for what you were, and what you helped shape.
Now to end the bullshit, and onto real news. The old server died due to ethernet card failure. Despite some rumors, it had nothing to do with hacking, quitting members, the year 2000, or anything of a non-Linux being stupid nature. Vas is very busy, as well as I. The server has been moved to a different location, but the files haven't been retrieved from the old location yet. Thus, the board was emptied, and poor MercLord sits alone, staring at a board that never moves. Hopefully, everything will get back in order soon on that server soon.
For games, as most people know, Mercs are playing, and utterly dominating Asheron's Call. The excuse "the game sucks" is not viable with AC. Those who play it tend to enjoy it, until they cross us. The guild graveyard is already expanding from our battling in AC, and will continue to do so. There is NO new games of importance coming out in 2000. Shadowbane's beta MIGHT start at the end of the year, as well as Ultima Online 2's. There are three game choices: Levelquest, Ultima Online, or Asheron's Call. I don't think I ever heard one person ever say a good thing about Everquest, and Ultima Online is a rehash of a rehash of a lame game in itself. That leaves one item on the list, which, as always, your gods are dominating the top of the card, while all others pretend they are worth something while hot-chatting each other in their half-witted channels, or playing second rate games while attempting to avoid any conflict with the Gods of Gaming. These guilds know who they are, they know they are nothing... and that's all that we need to say on that matter.
Three new Mercs have entered the ranks. Mikey, Kalihan, and Rupture. Previously, we would accept "one game llama's" to buffer the ranks in games that would require numbers, no more. Without a viable excuse, any Merc idling is on his road to getting a pink slip. I'm lenient, especially this year with absolutely nothing coming out. But with the REAL millenium bringing so many choices, idling is no longer an option.
Mercs... a guild of action.
And that, my legions of followers, is the fuckin' news. WORSHIP THAT.
These are left for posterity's sake... some people just don't seem to remember.