Authentic Old-School Mabinogi Experience
Just so you know, my girlfriend blacklists every smug member the moment she sees them, and so does everyone in my guild, and more. So if you're Smug, a good portion of the server doesn't even see you.
I think Smug ruined cats forever for me.
We love 卍！ (windmill)
Smug is the biggest guild in Mabipro, and yes, it is partially (now entirely) because of inactive users. This wasn't always the case though, and there was a verifiable time in the history of Smug that you could say it was truly the biggest and most active guild in Mabipro.
The creation of Smug starts on a small hill behind the moongate in Dunby. There were 5 members then, none of them actually played the game beyond the first expansion aside from Aristriea, the creator. A large majority of the internet death squad that would be joining smug at the time was already playing the game, so whenever the guild had expanded in playercount the guild would be immediately full and require another expansion immediately. There was initial confusion and scrambling over how Guild Points even worked at that time (some people thought guild quests would give them, turns out you just had to wait on your ass until you had enough points). Whenever the stone did upgrade past the first expansion, it was call for a feast and party near the stone.
A small point of clarification: Smug was still technically a private guild, i.e. we had standards for people who'd come in and wouldn't accept everyone's application. What were these standards you might ask? Well, you had to be a hired gun with a lot of loyalty.
A large majority of Smug's players had never actually played Mabinogi before. There were obviously veterans within the guild, but for many it was their first time ever seeing the game, and as such much confusion was had about the various mechanics. This led to a sort of guild-wide progression within the game, where as we all had started out we would all eventually rank up and complete things at the same time, sparking much discussion and cooperation within the guild at the time. This only served to reinforce the bonds of Smug and truly make the guild into the brotherhood that it stood as for the majority of its existence.
This is also, by the way, the explanation for the massive amount of parties Smug threw at the banquet. The first time we had ever actually heard of the banquet was from an off hand comment made by Aristriea that we should "probably go there for free EXP and stuff." Since then, it has been Smug tradition to go to the banquet every time and either:
1. Have a musical festival
2. Make a contemporary reference to something HIGHLY IMPORTANT*
* not important at all
I'd be lying if I said I remembered everything we did for banquets, but some highlights were the several bombings we did, the time we all celebrated our treasure hunt at Nekojima and praised the Cat Fuhrer, cosplaying as the League of White-Robed Gentlemen, "Windmill (卍) Creation", and the time Drahan assassinated us all for BTC. There was also the one time where we intentionally skipped the banquet entirely, instead having a private feast and festival on newly conquered and charted land.
As Smug began to grow, so did the amount of Smugs we would come to cherish and yet never see again. I have a few in mine own memory, some who have quit without saying a word.
Aristriea - The Guild Leader and top Smug. Came up with the idea for the name from seeing an animu that has a few smug lolis in it. Never really did much "guild leadership" aside from whatever the guild leader had to do (applications/signing the guild up for shit) and the one time we were almost shut down by the Budgeteers for "internet pedophilia" which never happened. (Don't ask me, I'm not 100% what went through their minds at the time either.) Irregularly plays.
Edit: Quote from Aristriea about the origin of the name 'Smug'
A little unknown history: I didn't know what to name it, so I asked the original other 4 members, and Asska said "smug". I would've named it something trite like Infinity.
Faget - The finest chef Mabipro has ever known. You could always find a hard working face behind his bucktoothed and bespectacled face that would be ready at a moment's notice to fight for the greatness of the culinary arts. Rode a poison horse. Left without saying a word at one point and we never saw him again.
Imouto - "Can you please stop stealing all of my shit?" said one guildy one day to Imouto. Imouto was known for taking anything they could find and shoving it into one of their several STORAGE chests, while not giving much in return to the guild other than assistance in parties. They left shortly after getting noticed, and it was only later on that we realized they should be back... but they were already gone.
Nikui - The guild blacksmith. Always perpetually low on materials but never low on spirit, Nikui would go on to forge Smug many great battleswords in our time. This also avoided us getting jewed by the blacksmith monopoly that was around at the time, one or two extra points of durability be damned. Eventually, they would craft an ultimate set of armor that shone throughout Maibpro... by its uselessness alone, as it never saw much use due to the fact Nikui got a job soon after. So much for our NEETdom.
Dartier - A hard worker and also the person who told Imouto to go fuck themselves. Among one of the few mages in the guild. Irregularly plays.
Ceres - the CUTEST Smug and incredibly shy. Not much more to say here, a good friend. Died without saying a word.
Shizu - I remember tutoring them when they were starting out, they would go on to make several of the VCs Smug would use over the entirety of their lifespan and several videos of minor Smug accomplishments (Ones where we'd beat normal dungeons. They were adorable.) His waifu was glasses bitch from Katawa Shoujo. Left without saying a word.
Motsi - My daughteru and also the most silent smug in the guild. They rarely say phrases aside from "Hello." and "Okay." The only true waifu within the guild as far as we're concerned, the rest of us are just posing as little girls wearing dresses. Also still plays the game, make sure to give Motsi a "Hi, Motsi!" when you see them.
Acros - He still plays the game, but I thought he was worth mentioning since he's the only man currently in Smug that made their account way before Smug was ever actually a thing. Just goes to show you that a lot of us had played for each other (which is a contributing factor to why the guild is now dead, but more on that later.)
Waffo - An honorary smug who would most assuredly have been accepted but never applied. Despite this, he had taught Smug the basics of the magic system and had offered help in running dungeons that were obviously far below his level. He had kept his association with Smug a secret for its entire lifespan, so I'll unveil the curtain here and say that he is, without a doubt, /ourguy/. Obviously he's still active.
And there were many more, but to elaborate on them would fill a novel. It is worth saying that once you are a Smug, you are always a Smug regardless whether or not you quit the game or join another guild. To my knowledge, we have yet to kick anyone out for inactivity or otherwise. (It might have been different when the guild still had a really restrictive cap on guild members.)
Some of the most notable things we ever did were:
1. Chart the entire island of Nekojima without outside assistance. Including how the dungeons worked. (This was mostly done by Rabbitbust, who is now entirely dead to my knowledge.)
2. Earn the ire of one guy who would eventually sperg out and shutdown his entire guild (the 2nd biggest at the time, Holyguardians)
3. Throw constant parties and feasts everywhere. (A common phenomenon was to throw parties at the sauna after the feast so we could get thin again.)
4. Create some of the best fashion in the entire of Mabipro. Thicc giants. Pink lolis. Little dolls that you just wanna throw up into the air. Animu cosplayers. We had it all.
5. Buy a castle for literally no other reason than to see "what would happen" (Nothing much at all happened, it was in the dead district. But a lot of Smug did find that they could buy houses now. Most of it was just used for storage.)
6. Causing massive terrorist attacks at a moment's notice. (B.)
7. Almost get banned over an accusation of Pedophillia from the Budgeteers, a no name guild that is probably all-now dead.
By the middle of Smug's lifespan, we were the BIGGEST guild in Mabipro. We had just finished getting the last expansion and now the guild wasn't full for once! The guild would have bigger outings than ever to the banquets and we were all moving away from the no-fledged know-nothing adventurers that we had started out as. However, this was only a portent for things to come. Already at this point, a few guildies we once knew had left for good and were never coming back (mostly due to boredom with the game or some sort of embarrassment). These guildies leaving had eventually made others leave once they were done with what seemed to be all of the quests they had to do. For Smug, there was eventually nowhere to go but down. (or autistically play the game forever but despite what we might seem we didn't choose that option)
Soon, the final banquet party to my recollection had occurred. The in-joke for this one was making fun of Jewish traders, but the turnout ended up being very few.
(We had taken up 5 tables with most banquets we went to, but in this one only about 5 people showed up.)
A majority of Smug was simply burned out on the game at this point, we had played for what seemed like months straight. Not to mention much of the new blood we had gotten at this point were flakes who would get burnt out on the game within a day and never show up again. A large majority of mainstay Smug had left around this time and never showed up again.
Smug had entered the twilight of its lifespan. We were still around, of course, but so few and far in-between that the guild was a shadow of its former existence. What little we did do comprised of AFKing in various cities, running dailies, or whinging and complaining about how Smug had died and was seemingly never coming back. Even I would eventually leave and forget about the game as a whole, until I had come back and realized that, even at peak hours, only 4 people out of the entire guild were on.
And so this is where Smug is now. A few of us still play, not all still under the name of our guild. If you find a local Smug on the streets, perhaps you can ask them to rivet on about the good old days and understand deeply the brotherhood that was forged within this guild. Even greater, perhaps Smug may one day make its rebirth and we will all play on Mabipro for one final time.
But that's all wishful thinking. For now, Smug, while not entirely dead, is in hibernation and the equivalent of life-support. Here is a screenshot taken at the time of writing this.
It was wonderful sharing this time with all of you.
In saecula saeculorum
I wanted to say, that I miss you Smugs. I miss you all so much. I could drown you in text, describing what I feel when i think of you all.
nevermind, figuring this all out isn't worth it, probably'd be more worthwhile to translate manga
bye forever again
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