Instant Addiction

By Lady Sirse

Who can
ever forget the suspense that comes when you buy a new game? The heart pounding,
palm sweating joy as the beginning notes of the theme music fill the room. The
breathtaking gasp of awe that escapes your lips when the graphics appear on the
screen prompting you to log in is a moment that few things can duplicate.

With
nervous excitement, hands holding the map and manual often found in the
elaborately painted box, you create a character and enter a world. Enter a
world? What have I done? Am I really going to pay monthly to play a game? This
is cra…WHOA! What is that?!

What was
that? It was an elf in the city of Felwithe in EverQuest. That moment of shock,
awe and addiction had hit. There I was gaping like the newb I was at marble
archways, noble ivy covered buildings, even the water seemed remarkable. I was
dressed in rags holding a backpack, a dagger and a note. I had been sent to look
for the Master of the Paladin’s guild to begin my journey in life.

Blinking
and wide eyed, I struggled for a brief time with settings and oh yes, movement!
I am not ashamed to admit that I had run into my share of walls at first. If you
think the beginning was bad, you’d have laughed yourself silly watching me get
Spirit of the Wolf (SoW) for the first time! Eventually I stepped reverently
into the Temple
and bowed before the great Paladin before me and humbly offered my note.

That’s all
it took! I was hooked. Out into the forest this young elf wandered confident and
strong, inspired and fearless in her devotion to the Mighty Mother Tunare. That
was until a gruesome and embarrassing death at the feet of the guards right at
the city gates.  Learning to “hail” people and not auto attack them was a cruel
lesson!

Death
after death I learned that the way of the Paladin was not an easy one. A class
often misunderstood and under appreciated if hard to be loyal to. That is if you
are only playing it as a game. Role-play added life’s breath to this character
and I was lucky to play with some real life friends that offered their guidance
along the way.

It took
five years for my Paladin to achieve level 65, gain her epic and feel that she
had finally at long last served the Mother in all the ways she could. This
character lead a guild, that still stands. She gained the respect of her server
as a noble person and a darned talented raid leader and tank. Yes, you heard
me…a paladin got respect as a tank. It was hard earned and well worth the hours
of saying ..;.just give me a shot, I’ll show you what a Pally can do!

From those
first strains of music and awesome graphics I was hooked. Hooked on a game that
was more than a game, it was a world. A living, breathing world. Sadly this
didn’t last as real life policies and ownership of the game changed and the
player based shifted goals and all the things that we have seen happen with it.
It left my Paladin sitting in her favorite hiding spot in the Plane of Knowledge
contemplating what the Mother might have in store for her.

There she
has sat for almost nine months. I haven’t the heart to delete her. I will, in
time. When I know that the account is near to running out. I am sure it will be
a tearful moment. But I think I have heard the whispers of this character
telling me that she might live again…

Perhaps
one day soon when Vanguard: Saga of Heroes plays those opening strains of music,
and breathtaking graphics once again fill my screen I might find that she still
lives. What will she be looking at? What will her mission be and for whom? What
gods will speak to her heart?

I think of
these questions daily with a sense of anticipation and yearning as more and more
is revealed about the game. Screenshots promise breathtaking vistas, music
samples promise the perfect setting, and the people behind the scenes promise a
world that lives and breathes like no other.

Can this
be true? Can that instantaneous addiction hit again? I hope it can. I hope with
all my heart that Vanguard: Saga of Heroes becomes a mystical place where the
hopes and dreams of both the developers and the community can come true.