I got bit by some weird nostalgia bug, yesterday. I could chalk it up to drinking, but I really wasn't. I think I just needed a taste of old times, or something. AC was my first MMO, well before ever discovering World of Warcraft. I began playing for one reason only, and that was to mess with my friend ArtEChoke. I was buddies with him and a guy called Shralp on an old forum for (of all things) Baldur's Gate players. Arte was anti any interpersonal relationships online, so Shralp and I decided that I would make a sexy female by the name of Eye Vannah, and attempt to flirt with him. I have no recollection as to how that turned out, because I failed at flirting across the board, and the minute I stepped into that game, all my cynicism was gone. Till then, my attitude was "I will NEVER pay a monthly fee to play a game, when there's hundreds of awesome games out there that don't charge."
Long story short, that kicked off a pretty serious habit. Addiction. AC was the first ever game that featured in my dreams. I still even remember some of the dreams. That period of my life was both rather beautiful, bitter, and ugly at the same time. Irv hated that I played, so I wouldn't even log on till he was asleep, around 11 at night, and I sank into it with joy because at the time, he and I weren't getting along too well, there was so much RL stress, unrelated to the game. I really needed that escape. I rarely played during the day, because I was going to college at the time, and it was during Alden's infant/toddler-hood, so I was extremely busy trying to get through school and motherhood. I was doing it on 3 hours of sleep a night. I'd play from 11 till 3 or 4, then get up at 7 am, and do the mommy thing. It was pure hell, to function every day, but I got straight A's, didn't shirk any real life duties, and managed not to piss anyone off. But that time in game...it was my first MMO! It was so filled with wonder, and such a great social outlet. I made so many friends, plus Arte, Shralp and I had become inseparable, all sworn to a patron, who became something of a father figure to me, in game, and taught us everything there was to know, a guy who called himself Bruce the Darkknight. He was a good dude. Lived in Fl. and took really good care of his vassals. I made loads of game friends, Flaming Tiger, Itself, Aelwin, Cepolgara, Fiery Lady, Gordon, Okami Wolfpack, Kissel, Seven Birds, Mina, Ace, KO Kid, and my own adoring vassals, Lance, Ex, and many whose names I've forgotten. Then later, my little brother Chris joined me, and that just really made my whole game. I've never experienced such joy in a game, as when playing with him. Helping him get his cottage, bequeathing him my armor, and my quirky "first one in, last one out" playing style, rescuing him, teaching him, getting him into trouble, bailing him out. I really wish he joined us in WoW, back when he was younger. That would have been so nice.
WoW had some "golden years" for sure, but AC left such an indelible mark. I had to go back and play, a little. It doesn't suck. I signed up for the free trial, with a new account. Fresh, new char. I canceled the minute I signed up, so that when the free trial is over, I won't be charged, and I have a solid two weeks to play. WoW is still my main game, I guess. The mechanics of AC seem downright prehistoric, in comparison. I'm learning, though, that user friendliness and sweet graphics do not a game make. Comparing WoW to AC, WoW is by far way more shallow, and borrows heavily from established concepts and ideas. AC...totally original. No elves or dwarves, or silly dragons. More like living shadows, zombies, and broken dollbabies, walking lightning, big metal giants, demons, tropical islands filled with exotic birds and apes, aliens, huge walking mushrooms, tribes of lizard men, towering pilliars of deadly and prismatic diamond golems, and just tons of bizarre races. It borders on sci-fi. There's no happy quest givers, with little symbols over their heads urging you to pick 7 flowers, and kill 12 tigers. You want to go on a quest in AC? Go running through the woods, stumble across an abandoned logging camp with a crumpled note in a backpack, seek out the writer of the note, find him dead in a basement three towns over, and go from there. AC is complex. AC is *hard*.
There's very few players, these days. Out of sheer goofiness, I added lots of my old friends, to my list, in the off change that one will log on. We used to joke that Bruce would endure, even when Turbine had long since lost interest in maintaining the game. He's not there anymore, I guess. No one is. Wintersebb, my old server, is a total ghost town. I got to level 20, and went to visit my old haunt, the lovely Sho town of Hebian-to. It was completely empty. Heb was my favorite trade center, and hangout, besides our mansion lawn. I went back to my old lifestone, which was a gathering place, and a large pretty blue rotating crystal. I would joke about it, that had a dent the shape of Vannah's ass, because I spent so much time sitting on top of it chatting. Dancing, fooling around, playing with the toys in the game, scheming, resting, venting. We staged a mock wedding, for Flaming Tiger and I, with a bunch of dudes in purple dresses as my bridesmaids. It was touching and hilarious. My patron/sugar daddy "gave me away", there were fireworks, the whole thing was on top of a stunningly beautiful waterfall, and at the end of the ceremony, we all dove off and killed ourselves. Like, over fifty formally dressed corpses piled in the water, all at once.
To go back to that lifestone, where most of my great game memories are, and see absolutely no one there, made tears prick my eyes a little. I don't even know why. It was just so weird, I could almost feel people's presences.
I have to write about it, because no one, literally no one understands. When I let slip that I was back playing, Irv had an "are you fucking kidding me?" sort of attitude, which I expect, because he was always a little bitter about it. I could write to Shralp about it, but he wasn't as emotionally invested, as I was, I don't think. He quit pretty early on, and so did Arte. I keep mumbling to Luiz about it, but he doesn't understand, and gets tired of hearing me go on, in my own language about people he's never met, and a game he's never played. I understand, though. He loves to go on and on about his old school days, and all the games and stuff he would play with his brothers, and I try to listen attentively, but after a certain point, he loses me. Still, I get the importance of being able to walk that memory lane. I think I'm writing this as a similar outlet.
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