Noob Journal - Part One

Noob In Training

by Gypsy

Ever since I was old enough to hold a controller and understand what
the buttons I was pressing did, I was a gamer. When most kids were
saving their allowance to buy candy or toys, I was saving mine for
games. My obsession started with Nintendo and has been going strong
ever since. There isn’t a console made and marketed in the USA that I
haven’t played; I dabbled in it all. Yet, an animal that I had never
studied in the game biz was PC gaming.

Sure I played Solitaire and Minesweeper at school when I was bored. I
even remember Oregon Trail in elementary school: “Nikki has
fever--Nikki died.” Classic! Other than that, I did not realize what a
powerful force PC games have become in this world. I keep hearing of
people dying from their online gaming addictions, and I have often
heard EverQuest called “EverCrack.” So, no, I did not want to get into
the mess that seemed to be MMOGs.  



So, here I am, 21 years old and still without any knowledge of
Massively-Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). I have watched friends play
EverQuest and Ultima Online; watched them stay awake for hours upon
hours trying to get to a certain level or raid with their guilds.
Still, it was all Greek to me. I didn’t understand why people wanted to
use the keyboard and mouse instead of have their hands wrapped around a
controller.



So, I decided that this is the time for me to educate myself about
these rather mystifying games. After all, everyone is playing them. Why
not conform?



 My weapon of choice is Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO). Why
choose this particular game? href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/LotRO_Screenshots/bear_in_mind.jpg"> alt="Bear in mind"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/LotRO_Screenshots/bear_in_mind.thumb.jpg"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 150px; height: 110px;" align="left"
hspace="6" vspace="6"> Well, why not? I am a fan of Tolkien and
the empire he created with Hobbits. I decided to start with a game
based on something I already have interest in. But, seeing as LotRO
isn’t near release just yet, I have time to train. Yes, I plan to fill
my brain with the knowledge of MMOGs in order to prepare myself so
that, when the game launches, I won’t look like the noob I am.



Choosing a MMOG to train with was rather difficult. I am definitely a
Final Fantasy girl at heart and am so used to turn-based combat (so I
can easily eat a sandwich while leveling up) that the idea of combat in
MMOGs scared me a little. Not to forget, I knew I would be completely
lost without a controller in hand. In the end, I chose to go with World
of Warcraft (WoW). It seemed to be popular with my friends and several
of them were involved in guilds. With determination, I installed WoW
and waited.



Okay, seems easy enough right? I followed my friend’s instructions and
signed on to the Blackhand server. I already knew I would play an elf
in LotRO, so I decided to make a night elf character. I created a girl
night elf with braided blue hair and red tinted skin. Her name was
Nafakia. As for her class, I had no idea. I sat in contemplation over
each character class for literally 20 minutes. I couldn’t decide! I
wanted to combine some class attributes but found that you can’t.
Finally, I chose to be a Druid. They can shape shift and that sounded
really different. It reminded me of Vincent Valentine’s shape shifting
limit breaks from Final Fantasy VII and I figured it was safe to go
with what I know.



At long last, I entered the world; I was there! I faced one problem;
what do I do now? I figured out my buttons and read a few things from
the help menu. I’m sure my character looked ridiculous just standing
there jumping up and down from time to time.



I decided to wander around for a bit and see what the elves’ world was
like. As I expected, it was full of things to kill. Picture this in
your mind--I didn’t know you could use the keys W, A, S and D to move
around. So, when my boyfriend came in and saw me scrunched up using the
arrow keys, he laughed. Now I understand what those “WASD” t-shirts
stand for! (Yeah, I scream “noob.”)



After adjusting my sitting situation, I was strolling around, jumping
on tree stumps and running up hillsides in my long green dress that
obviously had little support for my, um, equipment.



Frolicking was fun, but I wanted to start the action! But where would I
find it? I ran to the first thing I href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/LotRO_Screenshots/dont_feed_the_orcs.jpg"> alt="Don't feed the orcs"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/LotRO_Screenshots/dont_feed_the_orcs.thumb.jpg"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 150px; height: 110px;" align="right"
hspace="6" vspace="6"> saw and started attacking it. Apparently,
you only have to choose to attack something once, which was unbeknownst
to me. I kept clicking attack over and over. Again, I was laughed at.
Okay, adjust one more time and Nafakia was ready to roll. After killing
thistle boars and nightsabers, I leveled up. It wasn’t as exciting as I
thought it would be--light flashed over me and that was about it. You
win some, you lose some.



Finally, I was getting bored attacking random things. I wandered around
some more and came upon a male elf with an exclamation mark above his
head. I approached him and said hello. He told me of his woes and how
the balance of nature was being thrown off by over-population. Wait,
you want me to do what?  You guessed it—kill more thistle boars
and nightsabers. And with that, I’m off…I have work to do.