Suddenly, it dawned on me. Suddenly, as in about 3 minutes ago while I’m listening to Nine Inch Nails’ “Mr. Self-Destruct.” I’m not sure if that’s irony playing a cruel joke on me, or just totally cool. Meh.
So, Three Whole Years. To the day. It will be 3 years on November 13th, since I first laid hand on Norrathian mouse. That sounds kinda hot, actually. Am I a bad ratonga? Ahem. Okay. Enough with the terrible metaphors. I apologize. 3 years since I’ve set virtual tail in Norrath … oh shit. I just can’t help myself, guys!
I don’t really know what the term “veteran” should mean in regards to an MMO. It means, to some people, the idea that I am somehow a better player than people who have invested less time. (I think I’m just a bigger loser with less of a life, actually.) It means, to others, that I am somehow this trove of knowledge. (I’ve still not done nearly half the heritage quests in this game and my total quest count is around 500 I think.) To yet others it means bragging rights: “Oh Look I have this cool title, The ZEALOUS! I am so uber!” (I stop wearing my title as soon as everyone else starts wearing the same one.)
So what does it really mean, being a veteran of an MMO?
Well. Battle. Now, THAT I have seen PLENTY of. Plenty. More than I think most people can stand. More than your average newbie could fathom. My kill count is at 65,000. In real-world terms, that would be like me single-handedly slaying a small city. If that isn’t worthy of heroic-ness, I don’t know what is. Fully 71 days of my life have gone into this game, and most of that has been spent doing my favorite thing to do in a game: dungeon crawl! There’s nothing like the thrill of grouping up and slaughtering your way through a dungeon, reaching the very depths of the Wailing Caves, Fallen Gate, Varsoon, Runnyeye, the Drafling’s Tower, Solusek’s Eye. Pillaging Cazic-Thule, Permafrost. And what about Poet’s Palace? Crushbone Keep? Nektropos Castle? Mistmoore Castle? Blackburrow? Stormhold? The Forbidden City? Nizara?
Have I missed any?
Not to mention the dozens of instances that I’ve tromped through hundreds of times.
All part of the grind.
But is being a veteran just a glorified grind achievement?
What about community? Over the years, I’ve been part of a community that has seen just about all the ups and downs I can imagine any MMO community has seen. I was there for launch when there were 8, 10 instances of Oakmyst Forest. When Antonica had 100 people LFG in every single one of its 7 instances. When there were 50 people crowded into the entrance of the Ruins of Varsoon, every single night, for weeks. When groups competed with one another to make it to the bottom of Runnyeye the fastest. And if you think contested dungeons are tough with 3 groups … how about 8, or 10?
I was there for the crashing fallout of Live Update 13. I saw my class go from used to abused, from no-one-plays-it to flavor-of-the-month back to no-one-plays-it and back to fotm. (We now rest comfortable near the middle, I think — though high end warlocks are exceedingly rare on my server, it seems.
I saw the game’s UI go from nothing, bare bones, into one of the most robust, customizable, option-filled UI’s out there. It’s truly one of the most important yet understated strong points of the game. Little details that have changed over the years, now mostly forgotten.
Can you imagine at one time there was no broker? That you had to be logged in and sitting in your room if you wanted to sell a thing? Can you imagine that monsters didn’t display level information? That every single encounter was a group of 5 or 6 triple heroics, in Antonica? That exploring the Obelisk of Lost Souls was once considered the ultimate achievement? That Solusek Eye was the place that the uberest of the uber spent their nights.
Seems kinda crazy now, doesn’t it?
This game, in many ways, has become better with age. But being a veteran means more than that, too.
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being able to say: “I was there at the beginning, I’ve seen it all.”
Does it matter if you’ve got the highest magical hit, the best gear, the most discoveries, the highest kills, the most deaths, the most status?
No, not really.
Being a veteran is something more than that. It’s about being part of a community that you have watched grow, and develop, change, crumble, build itself back up. Watching a game change over time, from something nearly completely different to what it was when it began. Looking back on all those forum flame wars with your rival guilds (oh the memories; but I must exempt Vermin; my memories of guild rivarly pre-date my time in Vermin … pre-date my time on Antonia Bayle, even) … all the … DRAMA. Yes. Even that can seem like a good time, in hindsight.
I don’t know if I can call myself a veteran. I’ve contributed posts, articles … been featured on EQ2Players 4 or 5 times for various things I’ve put up on the forums. But I’m not that guy who has amassed 500 days of play time. Who has mastered every raid instance, who raids 7 nights, who has the uber-est phattest monkee lewts, who’s done all the quests, who has 8 level 70 characters. I’ve never been to a fan faire, I don’t have an ear with the devs. I think I can count on one hand the number of dev PM’s I sent out over the years. And I sure as hell don’t know who they are in-game nor have I ever talked to them in the two beta tests I’ve been in. So that isn’t what makes a veteran, either. No inside scoops.
I think I find it ironic that I should make this post on the eve of Veteran’s Day.
Soldiers who fought in wars, who know of battle, real battle. I almost feel kind of trite to claim that I am a veteran of a video game.
Then again — leading guilds, contributing to a community, helping out fellow players … hey even a little spy work and espionage here and there to covertly get the word out … in its own way, these are achievements all their own.
Whatever it is, one thing is obvious: a veteran is more than just the sum of their various statistics.
Recent Comments