Game On

Alright so I fell of the wagon there for a bit so to speak. After some self-loathing and general exhaustion from RL I’ve decided to continue my entries chronicling my dissent into madness… I mean MMOs. Is there a difference?

By late August of 2003 I was back on campus attending college which was really getting in the way of my new favorite pastime. During the week I would go to class and the evenings were consumed with trudging through the grind of DAOC, which I did fairly quick. I recall one particular evening where I skipped eating dinner in the cafeteria and quickly grabbed take-out before scampering back to my dorm room . My goal was to catch up with my friends and go RVRing ( Realm vs Realm combat) with Emerical. He had met a couple folks that ran a little group every Wednesday.

Though I did manage to retain some sliver of social behavior, I was in band so there was a fair amount of social interaction there. Though beneath it all the underlying sentiments were much akin to those goofy bumper stickers “I’d rather be fishing playing DAOC.” By this time we were all in a guild together, Emerald Myst a guild created by Emerical. Roughly around level 35 for my Mercenary there was a guild/alliance event which was near, interesting enough, an in game role playing wedding. -- Which I really enjoyed the enthusiasm people would put into staying in character while playing… something you rarely find these days with all the LFGs and WTBs…

The in game wedding provided a surreal environment considering….. event proceedings were intermingled with witty banter from the wedding party and official tone of the guild leaders. However I digress, the real excitement from that particular occasion would ignite a passion that would carry me through many an otherwise boring evening in game. The event I remember most lucidly was the dueling. They broke the proceedings into class ranges roughly 5 levels or so apart which was reasonably fair considering no one was really around the same level besides the guild leaders who were all top level respectively.

The first duel I remember was between Xandryll and Zernax, I remember the duel lasting an unreasonably long amount of time considering the level gap. Xandryll was roughly 45 at the time and Zernax around 38. At one point the duel spilled into the small church much to the displeasure of the ardent role players. Xandryll was ultimately the superior however it would foreshadow later events of his dueling prowess.

Our guild leader Emerical made comically short work of top level Mercenary named Eliath who I had an strange man-crush on thinking he was one of the best Mercenaries in the game, or something of the sort. I annoyed him with quite a few giddy pestering asking what specialization he used etc. etc. Also even more ironic would be his respect towards my prowess in the class. - - Which was another thing I enjoyed back then there was a comradely between people who played the same class, everyone was really friendly and a wealth of information.

However once again I digress, I was now up at bat so to speak… It was my turn and I was up against an armsman named Lendar, he had a couple levels on me, I was pretty sure my disadvantage would lead to a quick defeat. I treated him like any other mob I fought in the game. I used the tools at my disposal and came out triumphant.

I suppose it was familiarity I felt from playing fighting games, to this day I still get a bit of an adrenaline rush from the thrills of testing my skill against another combatant in the grand arena…. Ok so it wasn’t quite as grandiose as that yet it would be the closest I can imagine to being a character from movies like Gladiator or shows like Spartacus.