Hey, everyone! Big news here on the next step for us.
We are excited to announce that [TxR] and [Mercs] will be joining forces formally!
It's no secret that we have been working closely with [Mercs] Gaming Community for over 2+ years. During this time we have formed a very strong bond as allies with like-minded goals, strong leadership, and great members. We have decided that combining our two wonderful gaming communities would be mutually advantageous.
So you are probably thinking “what can [Mercs] do for us”?
Double our current active members (more great people to play with everyday)
Strong, consistent Leadership well respected by other gaming communities (Lepalose, Warbird, Nam, ect. along with Changes, PencilStick)
Long-term gaming community (over 12 years old!)
Same Ops schedule as us (Wednesday and Friday Night Ops)
Awesome Platoon Leaders in PS2
Give us a new 500 person TeamSpeak and good hangout spot
Cool dudes who share our culture and goals
Play lots of the same random games as us
Bright future in Star Citizen
So there you have it, a few of reasons (among many) for us to combine our forces.
It is important to understand that although we are becoming [Mercs] your leadership will remain. Changes and Pencilstick will be leaders/administrators and will be working as partners alongside the existing [Mercs] leadership. We still remain with our core beliefs of camaraderie, teamwork, and fun. [Mercs] and their leadership have almost an identical philosophy, this should allow for a pain-free transition.
Some quick notes on the future: Star Citizen will be our next major gaming focus. TxR has about 25 (probably way more) ships already purchased for Star Citizen by our members, and there's a lot of excitement for that game. [Mercs] currently have over 50 ships ready for launch day. Imagine, as a single community rolling 75+ fighters into enemy territory and unleashing our full destructive force on our foes. We, indeed, have a bright future in Star Citizen.
At the end of the day, we're all just looking for a cool place to hang out and play video games with other people that aren't shitheads or pubs. We like big, organized play, and we like serious play. We also enjoy branching out into side games, as fads or as long term engagements. We've collectively established a lot of genuine friendships, and the people we're surrounded with and sustaining that network are the most important part of this community.
It is for these reasons that we will be retiring the [TXR] Total Recoil name and integrating our community into the MERCS (although we will always be TxR in our hearts).
Some quick Notes about Mercs:
The Mercs have been around for 12 years now across multiple games, including Planetside 1 and 2, EVE, and Star Citizen in the future. We've had very good relations with those guys since the beginning, and after talking with them extensively, Changes and Pencilstick can tell we're all on the same page on this. Changes and Pencilstick will both join the [Mercs] top leadership team and represent us there. We will be using the [Mercs] TeamSpeak server, which is privately run, is free, and holds 500 people, saving us the cost of renewal in a few months time. Changes and Pencilstick already have administrative privileges over there, so we won't lose any freedom or control in this merge. Our Planetside leaders who are still active, whether squad leaders or platoon leaders, will continue to fill that role in [Mercs]. The rest of our members will get the benefit of bigger platoons, more active leaders, bigger ops nights, and a TeamSpeak that always has some people on to play. You simply can't play Planetside without a good group, and our main objective as leaders is to make sure you all have a great environment in which to game.
Overall, we don't expect much to change subjectively in our day to day operations or your experience with this community except the name and TeamSpeak. We were offered the opportunity to keep our name and be separate-but-equal and just use their TeamSpeak, but ultimately, we decided the best thing to do was to fully integrate. We want to be cohesive and have the opportunity to be a part of something bigger with leaders who also share our long term vision for the future. Further, talking to the [Merc] leaders, we where impressed by how they approached this, by how welcoming they were, and by how well they had handled similar mergers in their history. They fully understand that [TXR] will always be a big part of our identity because they also identify with prior communities that have integrated into [Mercs].
Some Key Things that will change:
Our Name will change to [Mercs]
Our New TeamSpeak address: ts.theterranalliance.com
We will be joining [MERC] in Planetside 2
The Forums ([Mercs] working on revamp soon)
Sharing the channel/TeamSpeak with new people
No more inconsistent Ops nights or empty TeamSpeak
Changes first used the word "integration" and not "merger" to describe this, and I think it's accurate because TXR isn't really going anywhere. We're just taking these existing communities and combining them. Their leadership and ours are 100% on the same page about all this, and will be jointly and equally running this improved and expanded Mercs.
Leadership is in unanimous agreement about this, and we hope you will be, too. If you have any questions or input, we'll address it, just post here.
What do I have to do?
Log into New Teamspeak: ts.theterranalliance.com
Find someone with golden shield icon and ask for your new Teamspeak badges (we will be setting people up all week)
Save New Teamspeak as your default
MERC Outfit invites will be handed out 3/6 during Friday Night Ops :D
Get to know all the new peeps!
We will have our first unified Friday Night Ops next Friday (03/06/15 @ 6pm PST) when the Merger will be officially complete! Looking forward to seeing you all there!
Can we snag invites before the 3/6 FNO? I tend to have an hour or two on sat afternoons/sunday evenings to play now but I still tend to be at work during our FNOs.
Also, I know many of us have played alongside Mercs in various games. For those of us that haven't; worry not, Mercs are some awesome dudes.
Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum. - Motto of the PS2 Medic.
On TeamSpeak, you can get set up any time by anyone with the gold "MERC Command" shield. I've got mine and I'll be idling in there while I do schoolwork, so poke me and I can do it.
In game, you'll have to message a pre-existing MERC leader, but yeah, no reason you have to wait.
What does this mean for those of us who don't mainly play Planetside anymore?
Assuming it's still kosher for us to join their TS/get tagged, etc., I can't see anyone when I join. Just tells me insufficient permissions, and shows it as empty.
What does this mean for those of us who don't mainly play Planetside anymore?Tarz
If you aren't playing Planetside much anymore you will still find plenty of people to hangout and play a multitude of games with. Treat it just like you would use our teamspeak.
Assuming it's still kosher for us to join their TS/get tagged, etc., I can't see anyone when I join. Just tells me insufficient permissions, and shows it as empty.Tarz
First time you visit you will have to be set up with permissions. Just hang out in the lobby and someone will help you.
Changes Forum Admin replied
553 weeks ago