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So I'm chatting with a guildie-- let me say, former guildie (it's a long story, let's just say I don't see myself joining a guild ever again)-- and we get to discussin' equipment. Now I am not the best equipped cleric in the game, and I don't mean that in a naughty show-me-your-hammer way, I mean my WIS is 201 and I got the AC of a wizard fresh after a shower and before the deodorant, that kind of thing.
So I'm showing off my spiffy "stat gear"-- these are the boots I walk across the zone in, these are the bracers I click on when I open my inventory and miss the auto-drop box, that kind of thing, and I link my "best piece." Now the fact that I say it's my BEST PIECE should say something here, since in actuality it's +2 AGI and that's it.
My very most favorite nicest item is...my wedding ring. Now perhaps it's the fact that I'm a heartless female dog of a dark elf and that I obviously am only ever in a good mood because I ran over a halfling on the way to the forge, but at least three people that I've talked to have just totally missed the freakin' point-- that I'm married, and not only do I share a name with the guy, I actually l....l....lo.... (cough, choke, wheeze) LOVE him, and consider him so much an important part of my life that I took our best friend's name with him...uh, well, nevermind that part of the story. *grin*. I guess it's beyond people's understanding of role-playing that some people might use a wedding ring for...a wedding ring?
But that's not what I came here to tell you about. I came to talk about the draft.
No, really, I came here to talk about heroes. I don't know about you but as for me and the kids I grew up with, we had a steady diet of nice wholesome comics and movies and books, in which heroes vanquished villains (that always got away for the sequel) and used the most incredible superpowers to do astounding deeds that no one else could do and Save The Day. These heroes had some pretty spiff superpowers, and yeah we all had the discussion about Which Superpower Would You Have and all the ways to use them. Me personally, I'd want some kind of cool tunneling through rock ability. None of that silly flying stuff, it's too Freudian.
Now I'm sitting here looking at my character in EQ. She's nobody special, just another cleric with a mad tradeskill addiction. No horsie, no J-boots, nothing better than some Netherbian Chitin and...uh, well, a couple SoW potions and some arrowheads and picnics? Is it really about what you can right-click (my Donal's arms and gloves for free buffs, and my Inny snare necklace) and how much plat you have in the bank (7302pp at last logout)? Is it about how much damage you do (518 points) and how well you group with others and pull their overextended butts out of the fire? If it is, I'm a failure.
Or is it really something else... I made a bit of a wrong turn in Greater Faydark a couple days ago, got pulled over by Guard Pineshade or whatever his name is, and given an inky-style beatdown. Since my dirt nap occurred actually at the orc lift, I was in a bit of a bind (ha ha, bad joke there) until a kind, generous, wonderful LEVEL SEVENTEEN RANGER offered to give me a drag. FYI I'm level 51. He did it not expecting anything in return, and didn't give me any flak about how dense I was (I had looked away for a crucial moment while the kid caught my attention and tweaked a bit far to the left). And yeah, I gave the guy all the plat I had on me and told him some stuff he didn't know about buffs and buffed the unholy heck out of him, by way of encouraging the behavior.
So who's a hero, is it the cleric who goes with a group, buffs them up, and kicks back healing and eating a marmalade sandwich, burning a KEI instead of learning to play with same-level mana buffs, depending on items instead of skill-- or is it the guy who just started playing a ranger, doesn't really know what's going on, but by Innoruuk he can send a /tell and when you tell him how to /corpse and consent him, he can do that too? Are we all here to see the uberest things we can get, find our own personal "superpowers" that make our toes curl and our eyes light up--
Or are we here to USE the abilities that we've got and make somebody's day a little better? To learn to play with others whether they have a mana pool a little smaller than you're used to (it's that 201 WIS I swear)? Or to see what people do with their characters and try it out before you assume you know how they want to be? To learn your own class and what you can about others' so you don't make their jobs harder, and their days a little rougher? To be willing to give someone a chance instead of assuming they're being snarky, sarcastic, or rude?
So what's the spirit of this game? What's the spirit of YOUR game?
Nhinx Aphsion, sick and tired of seeing high elf paladins play like the whiny brats behind them
So I'm showing off my spiffy "stat gear"-- these are the boots I walk across the zone in, these are the bracers I click on when I open my inventory and miss the auto-drop box, that kind of thing, and I link my "best piece." Now the fact that I say it's my BEST PIECE should say something here, since in actuality it's +2 AGI and that's it.
My very most favorite nicest item is...my wedding ring. Now perhaps it's the fact that I'm a heartless female dog of a dark elf and that I obviously am only ever in a good mood because I ran over a halfling on the way to the forge, but at least three people that I've talked to have just totally missed the freakin' point-- that I'm married, and not only do I share a name with the guy, I actually l....l....lo.... (cough, choke, wheeze) LOVE him, and consider him so much an important part of my life that I took our best friend's name with him...uh, well, nevermind that part of the story. *grin*. I guess it's beyond people's understanding of role-playing that some people might use a wedding ring for...a wedding ring?
But that's not what I came here to tell you about. I came to talk about the draft.
No, really, I came here to talk about heroes. I don't know about you but as for me and the kids I grew up with, we had a steady diet of nice wholesome comics and movies and books, in which heroes vanquished villains (that always got away for the sequel) and used the most incredible superpowers to do astounding deeds that no one else could do and Save The Day. These heroes had some pretty spiff superpowers, and yeah we all had the discussion about Which Superpower Would You Have and all the ways to use them. Me personally, I'd want some kind of cool tunneling through rock ability. None of that silly flying stuff, it's too Freudian.
Now I'm sitting here looking at my character in EQ. She's nobody special, just another cleric with a mad tradeskill addiction. No horsie, no J-boots, nothing better than some Netherbian Chitin and...uh, well, a couple SoW potions and some arrowheads and picnics? Is it really about what you can right-click (my Donal's arms and gloves for free buffs, and my Inny snare necklace) and how much plat you have in the bank (7302pp at last logout)? Is it about how much damage you do (518 points) and how well you group with others and pull their overextended butts out of the fire? If it is, I'm a failure.
Or is it really something else... I made a bit of a wrong turn in Greater Faydark a couple days ago, got pulled over by Guard Pineshade or whatever his name is, and given an inky-style beatdown. Since my dirt nap occurred actually at the orc lift, I was in a bit of a bind (ha ha, bad joke there) until a kind, generous, wonderful LEVEL SEVENTEEN RANGER offered to give me a drag. FYI I'm level 51. He did it not expecting anything in return, and didn't give me any flak about how dense I was (I had looked away for a crucial moment while the kid caught my attention and tweaked a bit far to the left). And yeah, I gave the guy all the plat I had on me and told him some stuff he didn't know about buffs and buffed the unholy heck out of him, by way of encouraging the behavior.
So who's a hero, is it the cleric who goes with a group, buffs them up, and kicks back healing and eating a marmalade sandwich, burning a KEI instead of learning to play with same-level mana buffs, depending on items instead of skill-- or is it the guy who just started playing a ranger, doesn't really know what's going on, but by Innoruuk he can send a /tell and when you tell him how to /corpse and consent him, he can do that too? Are we all here to see the uberest things we can get, find our own personal "superpowers" that make our toes curl and our eyes light up--
Or are we here to USE the abilities that we've got and make somebody's day a little better? To learn to play with others whether they have a mana pool a little smaller than you're used to (it's that 201 WIS I swear)? Or to see what people do with their characters and try it out before you assume you know how they want to be? To learn your own class and what you can about others' so you don't make their jobs harder, and their days a little rougher? To be willing to give someone a chance instead of assuming they're being snarky, sarcastic, or rude?
So what's the spirit of this game? What's the spirit of YOUR game?
Nhinx Aphsion, sick and tired of seeing high elf paladins play like the whiny brats behind them
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