Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Entering the MMO World - RuneScape

It all started in my 5th grade year. My cousin found this new game, on a level we had never experienced before! Now, because I was 11 and this was the year 2005, it comes as no surprise that this was my first MMO. This game is a browser-based Ultima Online ripoff known as RuneScape. Now, when I started playing this game, I thought it was better than sex.

At that point in my life, it was.

Running around, killing goblins, doing quests, wishing I could be a "member", getting my ph4t lootz.. it just never got old. I loved that game. The graphics were a bit crude, but I enjoyed it. As the game evolved, so did my cousin and I. I met a lot of new friends and had a lot of fun. I don't remember much from the beginning of that game. I just remembered that ever since they stuck me on "Tutorial Island" I fell in love with it.

What I do remember is the best times that I had. When I first started to make some extra cash. When I first learned to effectively PK. When I became good at PKing and PVPing. Honestly, this game taught me a lot just about problem solving and how to outsmart stupid people. Which is very useful. Anyway, below, I will talk about the good times that made me regard the world of MMOs as FTW. However, later, I will talk about the bad times, and what made me leave RuneScape... This blog will be a guide, of what to do and what not to do, and how to have fun in MMOs.

PKing. Player Killing. I was probably around level 30 or 40 when my cousin and I explored this one. There was an area in RuneScape called "The Wilderness." But we all referred to it as the Wild. This was an area in which you could fight other players. As you got deeper in the Wild, you were able to fight players whose levels were further from yours (i.e. if I was level 50, and in level 5 wild, I could fight anyone from level 45-55). I would take someone out into deep wilderness, running away from them, until I got to level 10-ish wild, where my cousin and some other higher leveled friends would kill the person following me. We'd loot, sell the armor, and split the earnings. It was a lot of fun. People would go out to the Wild to access things such as shrines, shops, or monsters that held powerful weapons. You'd wait until they had the powerful weapons, and kill them (or at least attempt to). My name in this game was Kitty11115. (please, don't ask. lol) and my cousin's was BigBoy111133. In the Wild, it went a little something like this.

Kitty11115 stepped into the Wilderness with Bigboy111133 at his side. In the wild, there were no guards. There was no safety. If you went in and came back out alive, you were lucky. Most didn't last long. Kitty motioned to BigBoy to come closer. Kitty held his Dragon Longsword, made of the finest Dwarven metal, tightly, and he held his Granite Shield close. Bigboy had sheathed his blade and pulled out his Lava staff, a staff capable of wielding an unlimited amount of fire and earthen power. He also toted a bag of death runes, law runes, and various other runes. A man equipped in full iron gear walked past the hiding place.
"Our first kill," Kitty said with a grin as he put on his Rune Full Helm.
"You can't be serious," BigBoy said, "he won't have anything of value."
"Of course he will! You're buying into his illusion. He's headed to the Chaos Shrine. That means he obviously has a Chaos Talisman. He's wearing the weak armor to make himself look as if he's poor." Kitty explained. BigBoy thought about this for a moment.
"Hmm... I guess so."
Kitty pointed at the man. "Get him."
Bigboy pulled the power of runes into his veins and cast "Snare," calling up the earth to ensnare the man to the ground. As the now stuck man scrambled to put on a suit of Rune Chainmail, Kitty ran at him. BigBoy cast Earth Blast, and knocked the man to the ground with a vicious crash. The man, dressed in Rune Chainmail and Rune Platelegs, got up to the ground and before BigBoy could cast a spell, he smashed BigBoy across the knee with a well-aimed blow from his Rune Warhammer. But by now, Kitty was already upon him. The man swung his warhammer at Kitty with brute force, but Kitty dodged and lashed out with his sword, cutting the throat from the surprisingly powerful man. He fell to his knees, and tried to speak but the only sound heard was blood sputtering from his throat. Soon, he was on the ground, bleeding into the soil. Oh well. He'd be back at Lumbridge in like 10 seconds regardless. But... that also means that Kitty and BigBoy get most of his items. As they took the pieces of Rune, and the man's money, not to mention the rune essence, they thought of all of the gold they would pull in from this load. BigBoy had an injured knee, but he'd just eat some lobster and be back in no time. Off to Varrock they went, with the loot in their bags. They'd find a buyer in the bank there, for sure.

Now that storytime is over, I must tell you that it really wasn't that glamorous. There was no sweet animations or plots involved in PKing. But it was surprisingly rewarding to kill and loot the idiots that were dumb enough to go out into the wild without being ready.
This concludes today's segment. But I'm not done with the topic yet. Soon, I'll discuss more of the entertainment in MMOs, my finest moments in RuneScape, and then the downfall of RuneScape. After that, I'll continue with the topic of online gaming. Until then... Well... do whatever, I guess. Check out the new, crappy Runescape, maybe. Peace.

1 comment:

  1. Dag. I had no idea simple MMOs were that intense. Although I have to admit that the nomenclature "kitty11115" would probably diminish the thrill for me a bit. lol

    Good article. One wonders if Kingdom of Loathing will make an appearance here.

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