For a devoted gamer, balanced skill system and the depth of the game are important.
In each game, many of those players are giving their utmost efforts to be at the top.
Yet it is a noob, who feels every single leaf in the game the most, fears every large monster and brags about his new skills. Not a single one of the hardcore players has as many friends as he has – partly due to his inexperience, he plays to be closer to the game itself, not to be the best out there.
In the darkness, one voice could be heard: „…Select a character name.“
„Aragorn!“, I replied without hesitation.
Or, to tell the truth, i thought about Glorfindel, too.
„This name is already…“
What?
I tried several more favourite names, but... it was all in vain. That’s a rather huge problem for me.
If it were not for my brother’s words, i would choose LiquidLobster in the end: „Please, i don’t mind your possible playing style or appearance, but choose at least a normal name.“
„Nonsense!“, I shouted upon remembering those words. He’s not a normal person anyway! Hmph!
Fortunately, it seems one can select the name later, because we immediately proceeded to the gender selection. All the heroes from the popular comics, like Jyu Viole Grace and even Jin Mo-Ri are males like me, there’s no reason to be indecisive about something as simple as this!
But the hard part came just now: „Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine races…“
„Please show me each of them.“
After we went throught this selection five more times, i chose some kind of an elf with light blue skin and green hair, since he looked so strong and mysterious.
„You may alter your appearance.“
„Make me six years older!“
As i looked rather cool, I was satisfied. To think i have such bright future ahead of me!
Somehow, i must figure out how to make my skin blue in the real world, too.
Surrounded by light, I appeared in the Citadel of Serabourg, with two simple starting weapons – rusty sword and a dagger.
I equipped the sword, since the latter deals less damage.
I am at least not so stupid to don’t notice this much!
I also heard that it is best to change your class early in the game. And as i was pondering over the possibillities i luckily came across an experienced player. His armor was emitting red light, so shiny!
He’s bound to be a really high level.
„Please, may i ask a question?“
When he nodded, i moved on to my acute problem: ,,What is the best class?“
„I am a warrior. For me, it is the best class. For you, it could be another one.“, said he with a sigh.
,,Then, who is stronger than you?“
,,Without a surprise attack, I have hard times against a paladin, he against a mage and mage against me. See? There are far more circles like this. It depends on the player, on the skills you train and so on. All of this is only general and there is no class without a weakness.“, he replied as he walked away.
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Cool! He really knew a lot.
So it doesn’t matter, which class i’ll choose, since I will naturally be the worst enemy to some other class.
One insane and arrogant person in our family is already a mage, but being a warrior, he would say it is too easy for me after i‘ll defeat him. Paladins and clerics are so stupid. Everyone would blame me for no reason, just because I have the support role, I suppose.
And what about a bard? It’s without a question that i would be much better than the one in the Order of the Stick. Maybe, there are even various instruments to choose from. An electric guitar! With this, my mind was set.
And indeed, they had the electric guitar there as an option, even few of them. But with my money, I couldn’t even afford one tambourine. Full of despair, I sincerely asked the npc: ,,Please, is there any way to cast the music spells with a sword?“
,,All of the music instruments produce necessary vibrations in the air. Without those vibrations, it is impossible, no matter how hard you try. I suggest killing a rabbit or two. By then, you will have enough money to buy a flute. It is the popular starting equipment for all young bards these days. I would especially recommend this one – you can even alter the design for free, to have a unique instrument.“
So I asked for directions and went to slay few thousands of those daring rabbits. After killing my first one (the one before skillfully evaded all of my blows, he must have been the king, or something), I rested for a while, to replenish my hitpoints.
Full of vigour, I cut myself two times during the furious battle.
But I can sure be fearless, if I can survive my mighty swordsmanship. I even didn’t receive any blood poisoning from the rusty sword.
The other players were much more direct in their hits – they don’t know the lack of mastery behind their strokes.
When you kill monsters this way, it will become a habit. And with a habit like this, it must be hard to win versus other players. I read a lot of wuxia and I know, that when your strike your opponent, it must not be predictable!
Otherwise, it will be easily countered with another stance.
Only one player gave me the right impression – he was fishing near the river. As i came to him, I asked, whether he can teach me how to fish, or not. He was really calm, but I was not upon discovering he was a girl!
With her stupid hat, no wonder i didn’t notice seeing only her back. Hmph.
At least she got some manners seeing the great me: „You can accept a quest from the fisherman npc. By foot, it is only two minutes this way. When you kill ten rabbits for him, he will give you the basic equipment.“
The fishing rod i received after completing the task looked better than my sword. Maybe I will receive experience for killing some fish, too? I don’t care about my stats, but I must have the same level as my brother fast, so i can challenge him.
Time went by really fast, but I decided to not give up until i will catch a fish. When umpteenth fish passed by, I tried to shake the rod a few times. As the water rippled, I scared the fish. But as I thought it over, in this river, there must be predators among them.
And these will seek any disturbance in the water for certain. The number of waves on the surface was proportional to the numbness I felt in my hands. With much rage, I forgot myself and used my bard skill, >Crescendo<, as to kill all the accumulated frustration within me.
You know… unrewarding class and then this… I winked few more times, before I finally managed to grasp the situation. I used my bard skill with a fishing rod!
I once saw a film with the name Pirates of the Cyribbean or a similar one. There was this scary Dennis Jones, playing piano in the cursed ship. Now, he has a rival!
I will fill the depths of the sea with my music! So much proud of myself, I lifted the fishing rod high into the sky (you know…) and then with the air of a true hero the fishing line descended upon the small, orange and neon monster, as we call it, in the conversational way: a fish.
With my shout „Crescendo!“ the suddenly-not-so-allmighty fish underwent a one phase in it’s life, a rupture.
But in the dark night, it was just another of the recently firework displays. I was far from being fed up with this magical scene, so i really didn’t regret, that i had spent few hours trying to fish without a fishing bait. For in my mistakes are born miracles!
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References:
Jyu Viole Grace is from the comic Tower of God http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/comics/tower-of-god-r1
Jin Mo-Ri is from the comic The God of High School http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/comics/th ... chool-r280
Order of the stick is a strip-based comic with DnD references http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html
Wuxia is chinese fiction revolving around martial arts http://wuxiapedia.com/ http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/forumdispla ... anslations