It all started with a sick kindergartener. Trapped inside our tiny apartment, watching my feverish son flop listlessly on the couch, I was determined to find something to distract him. "He loves those wiggly, fiery pet things people have in that new game with all the rats," I thought, pulling up my husband's brand new EverQuest account. "I'll start him whatever makes those, and that'll keep his mind off how rotten he feels." After a hurried phone consultation with my husband on classes and stats, we found ourselves flitting about in front of Felwithe, searching for a way to summon our pet. "What's with this shield and sword that keeps popping up?!" I cried in frustration. Frantic inquiries to any enchanter who seemed likely to know how to summon the orange thing that wiggled its tail as it slowed down finally yielded the truth: we'd created the wrong class entirely. One re-roll and seemingly hours of dead bats later, our magician summoned her first fire pet -- firing an interest in MMOs that would become a family passion.

My son went back to school the next day, leaving me at home with my work ... and that magician. Felwithe was annoyingly dark, and I kept getting lost every time I got beyond sight of the castle ("I've lost my body again; you think that bard friend of yours will be online tonight? Every green hill and tree looks the same, and Sense Heading does nothing to help ..."). Still, there was something persuasive about the experience. It wasn't long before my character had outleveled my husband's, I'd made friends with a band of intrepid trailblazers and joined what would become one of the server's top two raiding guilds.

Continue reading MMOrigins: The devolution of a gamer

Filed under: , ,

MMOrigins: The devolution of a gamer originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments