My story is a long one, though not as long as some I have heard. It begins in June 2004. I had never tried an MMO before, although I was curious about the genre. I had seen blips on the news about the Everquest phenomenon , and one day, in my boredom, I went and searched it online. ‘Lo and Behold, I found out about Everquest 2.
The screenshots looked glorious. I knew that my already-aging Dell would probably not be able to make my own experience look so beautiful, but I was intrigued nonetheless. The draw-in point for me was the number and variety and races and classes. EQ2 has been criticized for this — lightly — at times, but I find it to be one of the game’s strongest points. I immediately was drawn to the Barbarian race – I fancied I would play a hulking brute wearing dented iron plate, splattered with bits of gore and bloodstains, raging through any battle.So it was that time passed and I made some personal decisions in my life — unrelated to gaming in any way –which led to strange circumstances come November. I found myself living in a new place, a very foreign Big-city Northerner in a Southern America Small-town. I was beside myself as to how I should keep occupied. It finally dawned on me, one evening at about 9pm, that I should go and try out Everquest 2, this game I had been loosely following now for several months. (I had even registered on the forums and joined in a few conversations over the summer!)
I remember making the trip to Walmart — BestBuy was closed at this point of the evening, although it would be my first choice normally as I find Walmart too … crowded — at around 11pm. I had just gotten out of work and I had several days off, in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday during which I would be working. The installation process was painless. I had read some horror stories, while waiting for the install to complete, of people not being able to log in, the game crashing, problems with the Station Launchpad … and so on. I dutifully ignored such gnawing fears — only a gamer understands this odd anxiety — and when it had finally completed and downloaded all patches (10 minutes! ah, the joys of getting in on the MMO at the early stages) I was whisked away into …
Something I cannot describe. There I was, my character, a barbarian fighter, bare arms and shaved head, covered in tattoos, floating along on the high seas, talking to goblins and rats and half-elven sailors, learning the basics on the sail to destiny.
Okay, maybe not quite so dramatic as all that.
After arriving at my destination, the Isle of Refuge (originally the zone was called this name regardless of whether you were good or evil, although everyone was still split as such), I picked my first weapon from a rack on the shore, and began my adventures. It was frightening — I was certain I would act like a complete idiot — I learned that the correct term was “newb” – or in more derogatory sense, “noob” — and make a fool of myself while trying to talk to some other player. Well, that didn’t happen, not quite. I DID make a few chat mistakes until I learned about the chat bubble icon. I couldn’t figure out how to switch chat channels and so I would speak in OOC regardless of whether I was in a group, in public say, or anything else! It was disastrous. Finally, some nice half-elven lady instructed me how to talk: “look in ur chat window and click the talk icon, see it?” It was like learning to speak another language, but eventually, I got the hang of it. I even learned the shorthand commands and for many months would use those exclusively … until I learned that I could separate channels or hide them entirely! (Tabs were not a luxury to be added until much later.)
My first group experience came when I had to kill an orc inside a cave (again, the early Island was quite a bit different than what we know now). It was a “Heroic” encounter … and good god let’s not get into my confusion with the use of the term “mob” vs. the meaning of the actual word … and as such it required a group. Well. There it was … I had to badn together. I was a nervous wreck. I am NOT, by nature, an anti-social, or anxious person. In fact I love going and with my friends (my general annoyance with humanity as a whole is a rather separate issue!) and socializing to meet new people. However, finding myself in a foreign social setting, in a virtual world, I really felt impeded by my lack of skills. I wasn’t a particularly fast typist, I didn’t know much internet slang or jargon, and I was completely new to this world of MMO. But what I did have was a passion for gaming and fantasy, and luckily, that was all I needed.
The group went smoothly. We completed our tasks, did a few more, hunted some skeletons — oh those bone drops were hell in the early days! — for about 2 hours, my first experience with “grinding” gained me 2 or 3 levels. I was still only level 6 because at that time, you couldn’t gain past level 6, although your experienced would be stored up to 220% beyond that, or in other words, you could gain up to level 8 before leaving the Isle, but this wouldn’t occur until you completed your citizenship quest in one of the city districts! It was fascinating to me.
So there I was, in Qeynos. Graystone Yard. My first memory was seeing a name in pink, instead of green, and wondering how that player got his name to be pink. I wanted a pink name! Of course, he had done it with the /role tag – but I didn’t know that until about 2 months later! He was directing new arrivals to various sections of the city. I wondered if he was working for SOE, or just doing it for fun. How nice, I thought! I could definitely get into this. I knew nothing, then, of the flip-side of that coin.
So it was that my young barbarian ventured into the village, stocked up on quests, and then headed into Oakmyst Forest. And wow. My head was turning at allthe lush sights and sounds. Even on my mediocre settings, I was in awe. The light streaming through the trees, the water rippling in the afternoon shade, the sounds of birds and critters, and everywhere – everywhere players dashing about! (In fact I can’t forget that in those first weeks, Oakmyst usually had 8 instances, and Antonica sometimes 10!) I was hooked. I spent several days working on quests in Oakmyst, the Forest Ruins, the Caves, and Qeynos itself. Leveling was much MUCH slower then than it is now — and I don’t call that a bad thing — so making it to level 10, and FINALLY choosing my subclass, a Warrior, (remember the hierarchies? Fighter > Warrior > Berserker/Guardian … yes, we are all so happy those are gone now!) — then I made it to level 12 and felt I was ready to leave the city.
I ventured into Antonica. Here the experience wained. I felt lost and overwhelmed. There was so much to be done, so many places, and traveling was so slow, I had no map — eq2map did not exist yet! — other than the in-game version, no idea at all except vague hints dropped inside lengthy paragraphs of NPC text. I gave up. I created a new character and messed around on the Isle again … but then I felt a greater sense of defeat and almost quit the game entirely.
Fortunately, a band of intrepid heroes found me — and this ciompletely changed my opinion of the game, and of MMO as a genre, forever. Up until that point, my experience in groups had been “good” but not spectacular. I had tanked a few times in Blackburrow, I had grouped to kill mobs in the overland Antonica areas (everything EVERYthing was Heroic in the early days) … but mostly I had wandered around aimless. Joining with Branch, Nareena, and Demaratus gave me a purpose. For 3 or 4 months, every night, for at least 3 hours, we grouped. Together, we tackled the Armor Quests, Stormhold, the Thunderring Steppes, the Ruins of Varsoon. We grouped up into the 30’s and then we moved to Zek, the Enchanted Lands, and Runnyeye. By the time I was in my late 30’s I was one of the top-ranked Berserkers. I had leveled faster than all but a handful of players on my server, I was known and recognized by others. I was in a strong and ambitious guild and we got into fights with rival guilds. It was crazy – I felt like a true junkie. And I loved every minute of it.
Unfortunately, a change in jobs and a change in housing forced me to give up my nice regular playing schedule, and, as it happens, the guild I was in slowly eroded. First I stepped down, and then my fellow players left. Our guild leader quit the game, and by that time, I had stopped playing my Berserker in favor of the new breed.
My rat warlock, who has since been my main toon, for more than 2 years now. I fell in love with Ratongas immediately upon creating my first one, although I hadn’t given them much thought prior to that. My current guild, some of the best people I have ever met, in a game or outside a game. A few of them have become as close to me as real friends, I feel comfortable saying anything to them. It’s VERY odd, even now, that I should feel that way.
Yet somehow, it happens. Like so many of us who play MMO’s and cannot explain why we do … I have that complex.
I have become a lord of gaming and lesser things.
Recent Comments