So, recently, I went to LA for a small vacation. Besides bringing my usual gadgets, laptop, cell phone and iPod, I also decided to bring a portable game device. Which did I bring? The Nintendo DS. I left my PSP behind.
Sorta like this “comic”:http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=236 describes.
Now I feel bad.
While Final Fantasy XI was a painful, hard learning curve and quite punishing game, it’s also cause of some of my most favorite memories in MMORPG gaming.
For example, this one instance when I was escorting a linkshell (aka guild) mate to the TaruTaru and Mithra city of Windurst. We had to ride a boat from Selbina to Mhaura. Boat rides in FFXI can be dangerous. Sometimes pirates raid the boat and sometimes a big kraken-like monster decides the passengers are good snacks. Because of these dangers, my linkshell mate and I were hanging out in the hold of the boat. While sitting around talking about nothing in particular, a Samurai comes along and sits next to us. He’s in flashy armor and you can tell he’s a veteran of many battles (aka over level 50). We strike up a conversation while other passengers run outside of the hold to fish off the sides of the boat.
As we’re talking, we hear screams and sounds of battle. Pirates!? Oh no! But lo’ it wasn’t the pirates. It was the kraken-like monster. Huge and menacing. The Samurai looks to us and poses the question, “Want to get blood on your hands?” My reply? Being a gung-ho (level 30-ish) Warrior with a massive axe strapped to my back I said, “You have my axe!” My linkshell mate being a Red Mage offered her healing services even though she was dreadful outmatched (in the teens level) by the beast and potentially couldn’t heal our wounds sufficiently. But we brave few decided to do our best.
We rushed out and saw a few of the passengers engaging the foul beast. Both the Samurai and I rushed in slicing and hacking at the thing. The fighting was furious! The kraken-like beast was surrounded and it seemed it was on the way to ruin.
But a blow from one of its remaining tentacles swiped me off my feet and nearly took me to unconciousness were it not for the healing powers of my linkshell mate and another of the passengers. But after collecting my wits, I scanned the battered deck of the ship and saw many had fallen. Only the Samurai and I were in melee. The Samurai unleashed a series of devastating attacks but fell to the beast’s own barrage. Sensing easy kills it headed for my linkshell mate and the other passenger who healed me. In desperation—we were so close to Mhaura!—I yelled at the beast, “Eh, sushi! Come and get some!” If only I could hold out just long enough, we’d reach the safety of Mhaura and the shallow waters would scare off the beast.
My next thought was how comfy the deck of the ship was as the beast gave chase to the remaining two survivors. But, before it could dine on its hearty meal of fallen passengers, we reached the shallows of Mhaura, driving the monster off.
So what became of us brave few? Did the ship’s crew call for medical aid and try to revive us? No! We were shunt off the boat like sacks of potatoes—our bodies piled high at the docks. This was a message to those new passengers, “Don’t try to be heroes.”
As luck would have it, an experienced White Mage came to the docks and revived us. We recovered from our wounds, nodded to each who fought their best and went on our way.
I never got far in MUD games. While they were fun, every single time I’d get out of the newbie yards, I’d die from; a) starvation due to getting lost and being unable to find my way back to town, b) dehydration because I didn’t know how to drink or fill my empty waterskin from a fountain I discovered, c) being humiliated by a rat who kicked my ass. And all this was back before 2000. Sometime in late 2000, a friend of mine recommended a program to me (which I’ve forgotten 
). It had a list of all the popular MUD games and provided color coded display, a mapping feature, a list of all commonly used emotes and commands and an easy to see ASCII inventory management system.
I was in heaven. I said goodbye to getting lost and starving to death. I mooned the water fountain after I got my fill of drink. Yes, I was in heaven.
Until I died from a smug rat.
I think I know why many RPG developers have initial quests where you kill rats.
Anyway, fast forward a bit to my exposure to MMORPGs.
Well, maybe not exactly, but if “Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar”:http://www.lotro.com/ continues on its present course, it just might be the “one game to rule them all.”
As someone who has gotten burnt out on Raiding and playing “end game”, LOTRO is a nice change of pace with fresh new content never explored before, wonderful graphics, great music and rich Lore.
So there’s a “personality test for gamers”:http://www.guildcafe.com/zQuest.php regarding MMORPG’s (originally it was for MUDs).
I’m “ESAK”:http://www.guildcafe.com/zScore.php?questid=2&qid=31, which should not be confused with ESAD.
What kind of gamer are you?
