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For those of you with little patience and much to do, I beg your forgiveness and give you this opportunity to leave before things begin to spin out of control. This post is a long recollection and glimpse outside of the screen, while tying the player to the character many of you know. You'll find, if you know me in life, I do not play EverQuest as an escape. I do not, exactly, Roleplay, the characters I bring to life are simply reflections of myself. They react as I would, in the way I would, with the emotions I would have. I simply project this part of myself onto them.
While others long to play someone else, I enjoy myself as I am. It's the game that I like, the puzzles, the quests, the challenges. I tend to enjoy most the company of people who also put effort into their characters, even if often they are very different from the characters they play. While acting and lying have often been specialities of mine, I simply do not enjoy them, and would rather play someone very much like myself (within the boundaries of the game system, of course. I do not regularly make magic fire balls appear to smite foes in real life. Although my kitchen does have battle scars) in order to relax and express myself. Good or bad, I prefer to do things the way I like to do them, and not pretend to be someone else and do things their way.
I began playing games in a textual world, on a gaming services some of you no doubt remember known as GEnie. GEnie, like tailoring, was an excellent way to spends great amounts of money while getting very little accomplished. I played a game known as Gemstone III. I was known as TG throughout the whole lands, few had not heard of me. TG stood for Thegambler, indeed not the most pure name, but it was 1992 and I didn't know any better. Whether it was fame or infamy that I became known for, I certain had it in spades. I may not have been the highest level, or the richest, but I was certainly the loudest, which may take few of you by surprise. I was known for my talent, wit, and turn of phrase. I won many "RP Awards." Little did they know I wasn't role playing at all.
My highest bill for GEnie was $2000. I had to borrow money from my parents to pay it, and it put a stop to my game playing for quite some time. I wandered around restlessly, until one day I stumbled into a part of AOL I hadn't seen before. Apparently Simutronics, makers of Gemstone, had worked a deal with AOL similiarly to GEnie, but without the monstrous cost. I delved this time into their latest offering, DragonRealms, unable to handle the isolation I now found in GSIII. This time the name Thegambler was rejected as being too dull and ordinary (shockingly). I chose instead, Wyrdscope. Wyrd from Wyrde, the fates. Scope from the old enlish for singer or bard (scop), with the double meaning from scope, the length and bread of experience. I set out and this time decided to roleplay a bit. Instead of changing just the personality, I left the personality alone and decided to change his speech patterns. I went with P-S-V, which is the speech found in many foreign languages, if literally translated. Predicate Subject Verb was easy for me to use, if hard for others to understand, and was often labelled "Yoda" speech. However, it existed long before Yoda, and it had not occured to me that it would be labelled as such. To the point I got that quickly type and converse I could with others. Others my speech began to understand, and soon ignore it they learned to.
In DragonRealms I was a bard, and spent much time talking, laughing, and writing songs/poems. At one time, one of my friends decided to hold an event, a spectacular event, a party that would be remembered. She held the first song competition of DragonRealms. She gave everyone weeks to prepare, and prepare they did! Ballads! Epics! Songs! They all worked tremendously hard. I did not. When my turn arrived, I asked them to give me a topic (They chose Love) and a name or creature ( A Kobold). I then composed and sang, "The Happy Kobold Song", winning first place. It used to be archived somewhere, but I can no longer find it with Google.
Not horribly long after this I was selected to become a beta tester for a new game known as Hercules and Xena. I chose to become an alchemist, and returned to my true love and character Thegambler. This time I was smart enough to name him something more clever though, Specularian. While I enjoyed the game mechanics, when beta testing we promised leveling without grueling fights. None of this hack and slash if we didn't want to. What joy! I could spend my time crafting potions and explosives FOR the fighters but have none of the boring fights myself! What fun! What joy! What a crock. I still could not level directly through things I enjoyed, although as skill based games I could come close, spending only small amounts of time in the wild and returning to town to enjoy the company of others.
In early 1999 I read about Everquest. Graphics! Quests! TRADESKILLS! You didn't HAVE to fight they said! A level ONE could enjoy all the riches of being a master of tradeskills! What joy! What fun! What a cruel joke! I began Wyrdlan in May of 1999 shortly after Rodcet Nife opened. It took that long to find a copy of the game, apparently none of the stores near me thought it was worth carrying. I began playing and reached level 4 after much work. I got my trusty invisibility spell and decided to head out into the world. It took hours of walking, running, and wandering in circles for me to reach Freeport. If I remember correctly, it ended up taking me several days to actually do it. I went entire on "Sense Heading" and the map that came with the box, guess which direction I needed to go in, breathing a deep sigh of relief when I found a zone line.
Reaching Freeport, I began to work on tailoring. I had not yet found EQTraders, so I was operating on my own. From the tailoring books, I got my skill into the 30s off the cats I was killing for exp. I would read websites that had various trivial information for what I needed to hunt next, eventually soloing (as an enchanter mind you) to level 15 while collecting tradeskill supplies and working on getting that tailoring and jewelcraft number up. This is when Kunark came out.
The Field of Bone emerged as an excellent source of silks, and I became one of the first Erudites to visit it, at level 16. Using cured silk, I pushed my tailoring to 80ish and was stuck. I had not heard (or possibly they did not yet exist) of quivers. I was now level 22 and restless. I hunted for exp to 24 and suddenly discovered I could take my tailoring over 100 by hunting the cats in EK. For green experience even! So this I did, for days and weeks. Finally I skilled up to 101! I was officially a master tailoring. This was considered quite the accomplishment! Wu's had not been discovered, and 101 was very high!
Somehow, at this point I discovered a GM had told tradeskillers they would only be able to raise one skill above 200. I was devasted. As an enchanter, I had already brought my Jewelcraft up, and intended to take it higher. I had worked so hard on tailoring there was simply only one thing to do. Begin again. I would farm bags and bags of silks and drop them on the ground to swap to Nordiran, my new tailoring. Using this method it took me only months to do what it had taken a year to do the first time. Nordiran passed Wyrdlan in his tailoring right as Wu's was discovered. Without missing a beat I devoted time to brewing and pottery to make the vials and kiolas for Wu's. Nordiran also benefited from the Crystalline Silk of Velious, as Wyrdlan hunted in groups to get it. By the time Luclin had risen on the horizon, Nordiran neared 158.
I decided in order to farm effectively, I needed a warrior to be the front man for Nordiran the druid and Viatanq was born on my second account. I powerleveled him every possible place to farm tradeskill components. When he and Nordiran both reach 30, I three boxed them and a cleric I borrowed in the Grimling mines, pushing Nordiran's tailoring to new levels. By the time the experience in the mines tapped out for the tanq, Nordiran was trivial Acrylia Studded. Tailoring was beginning to pay for itself, as long as I farmed the hides. Ubers were in Acrylia Caverns, and the white metal flowed like water through the newly opened bazaar. Every studded tunic I sold went to buy more rockhopper hides, since I could farm the acrylia but the rockhoppers were beyond my reach.
Nordiran reach 44 as he pushed passed Acrylia Studded. Acrylia sources were drying up, velium was plentiful, but hides were not, and the temper was so expensive. I began playing with panthers in the Wakening Lands. First one at a time, snaring them and running for the safety of the nymphs. Then quadding them.
During this time I saw Velium Mastodon Furs for sale on a vender. Having never seen them before, I bought them just in case. It turned out they made a very expensive to make cloak with decent, but not stellar stats, compared to Cloak of the Maelstrom which sold for 10k. I figured the cloak would be a nice back piece for my warrior, to save some money.
All the while I was buying supplies whenever I saw them priced within my reach, spending every penny I took in on tailoring or reasonably priced armor for my warrior to help me farm for tailoring.
Along the way I rode the wave of POTC at it's highest, taking 20 to 30 attempts to make a robe I could sell for 6k. I sold studded tunics for money when I came across superb hides, and reinforced acrylia by the truckload. As my skill grew, I began keeping track of the hordes of plat flowing in and out of my coffers. As my skill grew more I stopped keeping track, as the numbers began to depress me, and were not accurate anyway as I farmed what I could, traded for more, and begged and borrowed from guildmates where possible.
My tank farmer hit 50, the first of all my characters to do so, in the fall of 2002. Wyrdlan finally pushed over to 49; I was excited to make my first purified mana vial that I used to make a Velium Mastodon Cloak that I used to trade for the materials to make a Valorium Ring of Gallantery that I sold for 20k that I spent on buying panther hides and yew leaves.
This fall, Nordiran hit 200 tailoring, and I saw Naggy die for the first time, two boxing Wyrdlan and my tank farmer.
Last Saturday I went to the Plane of Hate for the first time.
Nordiran hit 227 this week.
I estimate as of last night I have spent over 600k on tailoring supplies, spending an additional 100 to 200k of tailoring profits to outfit my warrior, Viatanq.
Last night, I created, on the first try, my Grandmaster Tailoring Needle. I paid for the gems with tailoring profits. I mounted them with Wyrdlan, my 252 Jewelcrafter whose skill I paid for with tailoring profits. I made the seal with Nordiran, who needed pottery to make vials for Wu's. I combined them in the collapsible kit I received from Bartox as part of a trade for a Leatherfoot Haversack.
As I destroyed the kit I summoned, and put my geerlock in my bag for the last time, I looked at the GM Needle that will never leave my halfling grasp again, and thought to myself, "You know, I think it was worth it."
While others long to play someone else, I enjoy myself as I am. It's the game that I like, the puzzles, the quests, the challenges. I tend to enjoy most the company of people who also put effort into their characters, even if often they are very different from the characters they play. While acting and lying have often been specialities of mine, I simply do not enjoy them, and would rather play someone very much like myself (within the boundaries of the game system, of course. I do not regularly make magic fire balls appear to smite foes in real life. Although my kitchen does have battle scars) in order to relax and express myself. Good or bad, I prefer to do things the way I like to do them, and not pretend to be someone else and do things their way.
I began playing games in a textual world, on a gaming services some of you no doubt remember known as GEnie. GEnie, like tailoring, was an excellent way to spends great amounts of money while getting very little accomplished. I played a game known as Gemstone III. I was known as TG throughout the whole lands, few had not heard of me. TG stood for Thegambler, indeed not the most pure name, but it was 1992 and I didn't know any better. Whether it was fame or infamy that I became known for, I certain had it in spades. I may not have been the highest level, or the richest, but I was certainly the loudest, which may take few of you by surprise. I was known for my talent, wit, and turn of phrase. I won many "RP Awards." Little did they know I wasn't role playing at all.
My highest bill for GEnie was $2000. I had to borrow money from my parents to pay it, and it put a stop to my game playing for quite some time. I wandered around restlessly, until one day I stumbled into a part of AOL I hadn't seen before. Apparently Simutronics, makers of Gemstone, had worked a deal with AOL similiarly to GEnie, but without the monstrous cost. I delved this time into their latest offering, DragonRealms, unable to handle the isolation I now found in GSIII. This time the name Thegambler was rejected as being too dull and ordinary (shockingly). I chose instead, Wyrdscope. Wyrd from Wyrde, the fates. Scope from the old enlish for singer or bard (scop), with the double meaning from scope, the length and bread of experience. I set out and this time decided to roleplay a bit. Instead of changing just the personality, I left the personality alone and decided to change his speech patterns. I went with P-S-V, which is the speech found in many foreign languages, if literally translated. Predicate Subject Verb was easy for me to use, if hard for others to understand, and was often labelled "Yoda" speech. However, it existed long before Yoda, and it had not occured to me that it would be labelled as such. To the point I got that quickly type and converse I could with others. Others my speech began to understand, and soon ignore it they learned to.
In DragonRealms I was a bard, and spent much time talking, laughing, and writing songs/poems. At one time, one of my friends decided to hold an event, a spectacular event, a party that would be remembered. She held the first song competition of DragonRealms. She gave everyone weeks to prepare, and prepare they did! Ballads! Epics! Songs! They all worked tremendously hard. I did not. When my turn arrived, I asked them to give me a topic (They chose Love) and a name or creature ( A Kobold). I then composed and sang, "The Happy Kobold Song", winning first place. It used to be archived somewhere, but I can no longer find it with Google.
Not horribly long after this I was selected to become a beta tester for a new game known as Hercules and Xena. I chose to become an alchemist, and returned to my true love and character Thegambler. This time I was smart enough to name him something more clever though, Specularian. While I enjoyed the game mechanics, when beta testing we promised leveling without grueling fights. None of this hack and slash if we didn't want to. What joy! I could spend my time crafting potions and explosives FOR the fighters but have none of the boring fights myself! What fun! What joy! What a crock. I still could not level directly through things I enjoyed, although as skill based games I could come close, spending only small amounts of time in the wild and returning to town to enjoy the company of others.
In early 1999 I read about Everquest. Graphics! Quests! TRADESKILLS! You didn't HAVE to fight they said! A level ONE could enjoy all the riches of being a master of tradeskills! What joy! What fun! What a cruel joke! I began Wyrdlan in May of 1999 shortly after Rodcet Nife opened. It took that long to find a copy of the game, apparently none of the stores near me thought it was worth carrying. I began playing and reached level 4 after much work. I got my trusty invisibility spell and decided to head out into the world. It took hours of walking, running, and wandering in circles for me to reach Freeport. If I remember correctly, it ended up taking me several days to actually do it. I went entire on "Sense Heading" and the map that came with the box, guess which direction I needed to go in, breathing a deep sigh of relief when I found a zone line.
Reaching Freeport, I began to work on tailoring. I had not yet found EQTraders, so I was operating on my own. From the tailoring books, I got my skill into the 30s off the cats I was killing for exp. I would read websites that had various trivial information for what I needed to hunt next, eventually soloing (as an enchanter mind you) to level 15 while collecting tradeskill supplies and working on getting that tailoring and jewelcraft number up. This is when Kunark came out.
The Field of Bone emerged as an excellent source of silks, and I became one of the first Erudites to visit it, at level 16. Using cured silk, I pushed my tailoring to 80ish and was stuck. I had not heard (or possibly they did not yet exist) of quivers. I was now level 22 and restless. I hunted for exp to 24 and suddenly discovered I could take my tailoring over 100 by hunting the cats in EK. For green experience even! So this I did, for days and weeks. Finally I skilled up to 101! I was officially a master tailoring. This was considered quite the accomplishment! Wu's had not been discovered, and 101 was very high!
Somehow, at this point I discovered a GM had told tradeskillers they would only be able to raise one skill above 200. I was devasted. As an enchanter, I had already brought my Jewelcraft up, and intended to take it higher. I had worked so hard on tailoring there was simply only one thing to do. Begin again. I would farm bags and bags of silks and drop them on the ground to swap to Nordiran, my new tailoring. Using this method it took me only months to do what it had taken a year to do the first time. Nordiran passed Wyrdlan in his tailoring right as Wu's was discovered. Without missing a beat I devoted time to brewing and pottery to make the vials and kiolas for Wu's. Nordiran also benefited from the Crystalline Silk of Velious, as Wyrdlan hunted in groups to get it. By the time Luclin had risen on the horizon, Nordiran neared 158.
I decided in order to farm effectively, I needed a warrior to be the front man for Nordiran the druid and Viatanq was born on my second account. I powerleveled him every possible place to farm tradeskill components. When he and Nordiran both reach 30, I three boxed them and a cleric I borrowed in the Grimling mines, pushing Nordiran's tailoring to new levels. By the time the experience in the mines tapped out for the tanq, Nordiran was trivial Acrylia Studded. Tailoring was beginning to pay for itself, as long as I farmed the hides. Ubers were in Acrylia Caverns, and the white metal flowed like water through the newly opened bazaar. Every studded tunic I sold went to buy more rockhopper hides, since I could farm the acrylia but the rockhoppers were beyond my reach.
Nordiran reach 44 as he pushed passed Acrylia Studded. Acrylia sources were drying up, velium was plentiful, but hides were not, and the temper was so expensive. I began playing with panthers in the Wakening Lands. First one at a time, snaring them and running for the safety of the nymphs. Then quadding them.
During this time I saw Velium Mastodon Furs for sale on a vender. Having never seen them before, I bought them just in case. It turned out they made a very expensive to make cloak with decent, but not stellar stats, compared to Cloak of the Maelstrom which sold for 10k. I figured the cloak would be a nice back piece for my warrior, to save some money.
All the while I was buying supplies whenever I saw them priced within my reach, spending every penny I took in on tailoring or reasonably priced armor for my warrior to help me farm for tailoring.
Along the way I rode the wave of POTC at it's highest, taking 20 to 30 attempts to make a robe I could sell for 6k. I sold studded tunics for money when I came across superb hides, and reinforced acrylia by the truckload. As my skill grew, I began keeping track of the hordes of plat flowing in and out of my coffers. As my skill grew more I stopped keeping track, as the numbers began to depress me, and were not accurate anyway as I farmed what I could, traded for more, and begged and borrowed from guildmates where possible.
My tank farmer hit 50, the first of all my characters to do so, in the fall of 2002. Wyrdlan finally pushed over to 49; I was excited to make my first purified mana vial that I used to make a Velium Mastodon Cloak that I used to trade for the materials to make a Valorium Ring of Gallantery that I sold for 20k that I spent on buying panther hides and yew leaves.
This fall, Nordiran hit 200 tailoring, and I saw Naggy die for the first time, two boxing Wyrdlan and my tank farmer.
Last Saturday I went to the Plane of Hate for the first time.
Nordiran hit 227 this week.
I estimate as of last night I have spent over 600k on tailoring supplies, spending an additional 100 to 200k of tailoring profits to outfit my warrior, Viatanq.
Last night, I created, on the first try, my Grandmaster Tailoring Needle. I paid for the gems with tailoring profits. I mounted them with Wyrdlan, my 252 Jewelcrafter whose skill I paid for with tailoring profits. I made the seal with Nordiran, who needed pottery to make vials for Wu's. I combined them in the collapsible kit I received from Bartox as part of a trade for a Leatherfoot Haversack.
As I destroyed the kit I summoned, and put my geerlock in my bag for the last time, I looked at the GM Needle that will never leave my halfling grasp again, and thought to myself, "You know, I think it was worth it."
broke quest! no +5 mana magic hammer for me 
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