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You always remember one thing… Never talk to strangers. Your parents, or at least, your mum always pummeled that into your head. Your dad just pummels anyone strange.
Remember this, as I begin my story…
Ok, you don't have to remember that. I just needed something to start things off with.
I am incredibly content with what I have. I was born in an above average household, with loving parents and two sisters. I am in the middle, simply put.
I never wanted for anything in my life. My parents would make sure I eat well, we would go out to many interesting places during family outings and I never seemed to have any desire for toys, unless it was for Christmas or something…
I never had any desire for anything, come to think of that.
No wishes, no desires, no dreams. I was happy with getting a well-paid job somehow, getting a cosy place somewhere, and living my life out reading books and cooking. No dreams equal no stress, no stress equals good life. It was so ridiculously simple, that I must be a genius. That, or an egomaniac.
Genius or not, my grades were perfectly average. I did not strive for high grades like other result-oriented parent would have wanted. I just paid attention in class and would scrape through the final year with 50 to 60+ in every subject.
I loved video games, but I wasn’t any good with them. I did like a certain Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG for short) back then, but the name escapes me.
It was a simplistic side-scrolling game where one just embarks on quests and kills monster after monster. It was simple, you grew stronger and stronger, and you had fun.
Yet, I somehow grew out of this. Perhaps I was tired about the state that the game was getting into.
Have you heard of this concept called “power creeping”? It was this element that many game providers seem to inject in the game to encourage people to keep playing. The goal in mind for an MMORPG was to grow your character and reach the top, and game companies know that.
As such, the easiest way for companies to earn money was easy. There’s always a limit to how far a character in a game might grow right? In short, in order to milk as much money as possible from their audience, it was to move the cap a little higher each time, or just drop that limit altogether. The same goes for equipment. You have your character decked out in the best equipment possible, stats enhanced to the maximum, it was godly and flawless in every way.
And then the company introduces another, more powerful set of gear. People enjoy the process of growth, they want that piece of equipment, or they will begin to lose out in the long run. People make the upgrades, the company introduces yet another set of equipment, and you put in the time and effort, and more importantly, your money, to procure that set. It is a vicious cycle.
One shouldn’t rest on your laurels. The enjoyment is in the journey and not the end goal. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Words of wisdom that was distorted viciously by gaming companies and used to get as much cash and time from their players as possible.
People eventually tire of the arms race and quit, but does it matter? The company already got your money, and are laughing their way to the bank, while pushing along a wheelbarrow of your money. Such a thing happened to me, and I couldn’t stop. I liked the feeling of my character growing stronger and more invincible, sweeping aside monsters several times my size as though they were ants. I just kept pushing…
And then… one day, I just…stopped. It was a strange, but oddly liberating feeling.
Move forward a few years into the present. Virtual Reality games had become more complex, bringing entirely new gaming experiences for gamers. It was in another dimension in terms of immersion. While some games let you create an avatar and play out the game, this time, you ARE the avatar. It is an incredible feeling, extremely addictive, or so I’m told.
I never wanted anything to do with video games, especially MMORPGs, ever again. It is a complicated feeling. How would I know whether that company, that’s dangling that enticing promise of a incredible gaming experience, is actually out to fleece my money? Is there some strings attached?
I was especially suspicious about Free to Play (F2P) games, eventually there is always some “Pay to Win” (P2W) elements inside where I have to cough out extra to become a bit, or some cases, overwhelmingly stronger than everyone else. I was incredibly suspicious about everything to do with the gaming industry. Even console games are doing it. There’s always this content that cannot be unlocked through any means except paying a sum, over that of when you bought the game. Imagine the horror of it. This concept is known as Disk locked content (DLC). Go search the term on Google, you will see that I’m right.
Chief among the influx of VR games was this game known as Royal Road. Created by Unicorn Corporation, it was introduced to rave reviews, and shot through the charts to become the most played game on in the world. 90% of the Korean player demographic were playing this game, and the game quickly spread across the world like wildfire.
Everywhere I look, people from all walks of life were talking about the game. The young, the old, the elderly, but not the little kids, apparently, have an avatar in game. The old get to live out youth again, the young just play the game and have fun doing it. Even my family was into it, but not me.
As the popular saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”. I had made my stance, and was intent on sticking by it, and God help the person who tries to persuade me otherwise…
**
… until now…
…
I would like to say that divine retribution was stuck upon said person that made me go back to gaming, that the great Thunder Gods above heard my sworn oath and smote the offender with the wrath of a thousand thunder bolts, that the person was drawn and quartered, and sent to the fiery pits of Hell where my good friend the Devil sauntered about, with his horns and goatee while wielding a pitchfork, and had his way with that person.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
I really do…
… but I would be telling a lie if I did.
That day, I was on the train home, listening to my music. I had my doubts and suspicions about gaming, but I was at home with Music. Music is a classic means of expressing one’s thoughts and feelings, of stimulating one aspect of one senses… but I digress. I was listening to a new song by this singer, one Togari Polton…
“Squatting on the streets in a cold alley,
arms fumbling for a match…
I strike it once against the flint, it fails
I strike it twice, and it lights up…
And I was entranced by the lovely glow it made…
It spoke of wishes and dreams,
Once harbored by the innocent,
Only to be discarded, thrown away
by the turmoils of life,
For it is a…”
What life was according to Togari’s song, I would probably never know, since I was struck twice on the head by a book, and my MP5 player fell to the floor. Apparently that caused the song to be deleted afterwards. And I never bothered to download the song again, it was too much effort, really.
The offender in question was one Lilian Liam Lee (Her parents must really adored alliteration to give such a name to her, and to some extremes too), a girl from my class. She had a slim build, black flowing tresses that fell across a shoulders, and a really cute face. And I mean, really cute. She looked a lot younger than her age. She was really short with a washboard chest, but don’t let her diminutive build fool you.
She was incredibly good at sports, and she played a lot, easily seen from the heavily tanned skin that had enjoyed hours of sunshine. On the other hand, she loved arts and crafts. A truly multi-talented individual, salt of the Earth. (And no, I am not some Lolicon. Get that out of your system.)
She wasn’t looking much like salt to me at the moment since she swatted me as she would a fly with that book, though.
“Howard!!” She even had a cute voice too. Gosh… No, wait, I was supposed to be angry…
I put on a suitable face for that purpose, and glared at her. If it was one thing I prided on, it is my angry face. I am weird like that.
She didn’t seem to be too intimidated by it though, and gave a big toothy grin, making her look like a seven year-old, saying:
“I decided, you would suited for this!!”
I was confused, and my angry face quickly faded away, replaced by a blank look and a raised eyebrow.
“For what?”
“Well, you are an avid gamer, right?”
“That was ages back. Get that out of your mind.”
For a multi-talented person, Lili was a bit of an airhead. Lili was how I addressed her. As for why, well, we were childhood friends…
“Oh come now, Once a gamer, always a gamer, right?”
“You have it mixed up with our school motto…”
Yup, definitely an airhead. A very cute one, though. I decided to ask, if not for the sake of having light conversation, then it was in order to get it out of the way:
“What do you want anyway?”
“Gee, there’s no need to be so rude… Have you heard of this game called Royal Road?”
“It’s that MMORPG that everyone is talking about now, right?” I knew that already from reading articles and watching the news. It was everywhere. Even my family plays it.
“See, you used that term without flinching. You are still a player, after all, even if your gaming instincts are a bit rusty.”
“Just get on with it already.” I was getting impatient.
“Well, Royal Road is currently offering a free one-month trial in an advertising campaign…”
“… And?”
“Let me finish. I have an old capsule that’s just gathering dust somewhere, and I wanted it to get some use. I didn’t want to give it to just anyone though, but you are different.”
“… Lili, you know how I feel about video games…”
“This one’s different!! It’s just incredible. There’s a reason why everyone is playing it you know
Lili’s face was becoming red with indignation, and she puffed up her cheeks while pouting. It was as though I was looking at a hamster, cheeks filled with food. It was really cute… Maybe I ought to tease her a little more…
You, reader, don’t mistake that as a symptom of being a Lolicon.
“Oh? Enlighten me then…”
“Look, it’s free for a month, and the capsule needs to be serviced anyway. Just give it a shot, and if after a month you don’t like the game you can just quit and return me the capsule.”
“Hmmm….” I was intrigued, but I needed a bit more persuas-
“Just do it for me, pleeeeeeassssse?”
Oh god, the puppy-dog pout!! Anything but that!!
I was ridiculously weak against that tactic, and with that, the remnants of my stalwart resistance quickly crumbled. Fine, I would play the game, if only for her sake. I was interested in how the game was like anyway. I could just quit afterwards, right?
Looking back on this, how I wished that I didn’t make that observation…
And no, reader, thou shalt still not call me a lolicon, or I will smite thee with the wrath of a thousand thunder bolts...
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Note: Togari Polton was just a random name I thought up :P
More on why Howard was so defensive: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolicon