by Nina "Aythem" Sund, Content Designer / Writer for Anarchy Online




Today I want to take one of the questions posted on the href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=21779">Ten
Ton Hammer forums and talk about it throughout the journal.
As those of you who have read this journal regularly know, I have
played Anarchy Online
myself for six years and still do. Naturally, anyone playing any game
for any lengths of time has memories of great moments, and. Today I
want to talk about some of mine, which are plentiful and very dear to
me.



The question itself is “Can you tell us something about one
of your 'best/strongest' memories from AO?” which was just
too big of a question for me to answer as part of an earlier journal.
As I mentioned, I have a lot of very good memories from AO, and also
some bad ones. So, let me roll up the proverbial sleeves and start
telling my story.


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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/27550"
title="Dev Diary 5"> src="/image/view/27550/preview"
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Nina's first
encounter with a Lifebleeder was explosive.

As many veteran players, (and perhaps certain newer ones as well) can
relate to, the surprise the first time I met a Lifebleeder was big,
nay...explosive. My first character was clan and I spent a lot of time
in The Longest Road, a playfield near a popular hangout town back then.
I still remember it...running along a very, very long road and all of a
sudden, out of the blue... BAM! I’m dead and I never knew
what hit me. I quickly learnt that seeing a Lifebleeder immediately
meant we had to turn around and ruuuuun, but they were so fast and
you...well...you weren’t.



Another big moment for me was the first time I saw an events character,
a character made specifically for roleplaying and played by one of the
Advisors of Rubi-Ka (ARK). I was mesmerized! It was so cool, and the
person playing this character was such a great storyteller. I was so
awestruck that it became the defining moment of my interest in Anarchy
Online storytelling and roleplaying, which eventually led me to join
the Events department in ARK, as I’ve href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/20452">mentioned in
my third journal.



There is also no chance I will ever forget my first PvP kill. There I
was, minding my own business in one of the PvP enabled, but often
empty, areas in the game when I suddenly see another player close by
and think to myself “I wonder what would happen if I attack
another player...”. I did and it was a riveting fight which I
won, without quote knowing how. My adrenaline was sky high, I was
giggling like a crazy person and I was a little dizzy. I almost felt
drunk. I will be the first to admit that I’m not a big PvP
player, but I totally understand when people say the thrill is so
different than when fighting some monster in the game, and that the
challenge is on a completely other level.



Reaching level 200 was amazing for me. It was very special, and I had
carefully planned how and where it would happen. For all the grief the
eremites (a certain monster type in AO) had given me, I wanted to
return and make one of them my final kill, the one I needed to become
level 200, before moving on to bigger things.



In my early days of playing, getting a Yalmaha (a flying vehicle) was a
big thing, because it cost 4-5 million credits, which was an obscene
amount of money at the time. The first trip in my newly acquired
airplane was awesome and I’ll never forget it.



I have so many memories from Anarchy
Online
. It has been, and continues to be, a very important
part of my gaming history. Some of the most thrilling moments have been
when I have been fortunate to witness a player with immaculate skill,
someone who knows their class perfectly and takes charge of the
situation in the most natural way. It is a beautiful thing when someone
possesses so much knowledge and has minutely planned out their
character and their gear.



In closing, I will say that the very best and most profound memories I
personally have from the game are closely connected to the roleplaying
community and the power of storytelling. People’s imagination
and willingness to pour their heart into this rich and fascinating game
world is a huge inspiration for me as a quest designer and a writer.
Thank you so much.



I’ll be writing again soon and hope to see any questions you
might have on the href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=21779">Ten
Ton Hammer forum!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Anarchy Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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