I've been playing Lineage II since 2006 or 2007, I don't really remember. The first one I've ever seen was C5, the oldest one I played was C4. I could never afford to play on official, which made me a bit sad, but I didn't know what I missed, so I accepted the facts easily.
Ever since, with some exceptions, I've always played, and still playing with my best friends. We had good times, we had bad times, we had them together.

Since I've been playing for an adequate amount of time, I value parties over... mostly over everything. We had castles, fortress, good gears, high levels, excellent role play (well, I could use much, much more of this), subclasses and nobless quests.
I learnt so much through the easy way... then the hard way, I learnt to depend on my clan, to help them, to give everything I can. In return the taught me how to play, how to make the best use of myself and my character. I'm still far from being the best, but again, I learnt to think in "us" not just "me".
Still, despite all the good and bad things that happened to us, I've always missed something.


About three weeks ago I began playing on the official, now F2P server.
And yesterday (or rather, today) I had one of the best raid boss parties ever.

We went to TOI 10, then 11, accidentally killing a boss in the process.

Of course we died sometimes. Of course it was easier since we had mentors' buffs. Of course everyone had Top A Grade stuffs (except my Doombringer with his S Grade). The mood was light, there was no badmouthing, NOT A SINGLE ONE. We played for hours, and it was just awesome. When somebody had to go somewhere, no one complained, everyone did his or her best.

And that, my dear audience, was one of the best ingame experience I've ever had.

I suspected that the official server and the private servers are quite different, but I didn't know that this difference is THIS big. The above describes mostly the whole atmosphere of the server. Sure, there are asses, complainers and/or simply noobs, but the rest is tolerant. You have to work in parties to achieve quests, kill bosses, or just get exp.
When I go back "home", where my one true clan "lives", these differences are like a slap across the face.
People don't cry about things on official. The most of them are friendly or just indifferent.
I've been playing there for just three weeks, and I've already killed a boss with a party, been to Kamaloka for countless of times, participated in parties and campaigns, joined clans, met tons of sensible and mature player. Of course I've seen some of the rest, but compared to the private servers... this place is like heaven.

Don't get me wrong, I love to work hard or looking forward to something, but sometimes I just want to play.

The only thing, I REALLY and TRULY regret, that I can't share this pure joy with my friends.