Life in Games

The first computer game that I ever played was The Secret of Monkey Island.  It was an adventure game that took my brothers and I over a year to beat (spoilers didn't exist back then).  Monkey Island came out in 1990.  I have since played all of the sequel's except the last one- which I plan on playing this summer.  I would wake up thinking about this game, much like a kid wakes up on Christmas morning.  It was mysterious, required a lot of thinking, and had pirates!  In fact, this game offered the best villain any game could have: The Ghost Pirate LeChuck!  



Moving on to 1997. The real world was awful, and the promise of adventure in the cyber-world proved to be immense. I had embarked on such an adventure, and other than the massive waste of time, I don't regret much about it. What else would a teenager do?

Years previous, I had fallen in love with a game called The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The side scrolling action, breathtaking graphics (for its time), and amazing story captured the hearts of boys and girls worldwide. While other games would eventually improve upon the graphics, no one could come close to the thrill of playing the game.

In 1997, a few school friends told me of a free online role-playing-game (rpg). The term MMORPG (massive-multiplayer-online-role-playing-game) did not yet exist. At least, not to my knowledge. The game was called Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, and it was in beta (free). The makers (Nexon) had perfected the side scrolling capabilities of The Legend of Zelda, improved upon the graphics, and the story was even better. On top of all this, they had elements that The Legend of Zelda didn't have. The first thing that caught my attention was that other people were walking around me! Real people, not story-line characters.

Nexus would later become pay-to-play from level 11 through 99. I made a lot of good friends on this game, from various countries. I played the game from 1997 until 2003. I was known for always getting thrown in jail (misbehaving) and escaping. Some of these friends have since passed away, and others have moved on with their lives. I left because the game had changed to a state where I no longer found it enjoyable. The story changed, and so did the people. I'll miss the adventures: going hunting with strangers, exploring caves, and summoning newbs to the fox cave - where they would ultimately meet their demise. The Nexus screen-shots are courtesy of Beanbag - an old friend from the game.

Other MMORPG's would try to build off of the success of The Legend of Zelda, but would ultimately fail. I tried playing Graal (formerly known as Zelda Online). It was fun for awhile (a week at best), but lacked in story and players. I met the developer of Graal while playing the game. He spoke broken English, but was happy that I was there. I was surprised that he wasn't sued for stealing the graphics of The Legend of Zelda. Amazingly, the game is still around today.

In 2003, months after leaving Nexus, I stumbled upon a game called Aspereta. This game was created by a friend of mine from Nexus that went under the name Inkie. He offered to give me anything I wanted in the game, heck I could have been king... but I decided to play it fair. I decided to leave Aspereta after playing it for a summer. While the graphics were always improving, and the number of players were growing, the story was awful, and the direction of the game was in doubt. Inkie's team wanted to put the game on several isolated servers (much like World of Warcraft). That's generally not a good idea with a 2D Multiplayer game. The game was also polluted with "specialty" items that were given away by his team, and gave an unfair advantage to other "better-known" players. The game would later be named Illutia.

I have plans of one day building my own MMORPG, now that I'm a software developer. All I need is some time and inspiration.  Hard to find both when a baby is on the way.