Playing "Blade & Soul" I
I was doing some housekeeping on my hard drive when I saw some old photos from "Blade & Soul", the MMORPG that literally changed my life over this course of time.
I recounted my tales with my friend, as she might have probably felt amused at my bizarreness. I sent the photos to my clan mates who were part of the game, the whole movement, and the whole "lifestyle" (if any). I started gaming during high school, back then gaming in Singapore was considered something "cool", with the likes of Counterstrike, WarCraft III and DoTA picking up steam (pun intended), hooligans love to show off by shooting arrows or throwing punches, the latter literally if they lost the game.
Come, the age of MMORPG,
I'm always a fan of the "Wu Xia" theme, and I'd explored Monster&Me, and "9 Dragons". But nothing seems to fit. I don't know what I actually like or enjoyed in the game as I'm just flowing through quests blindly. I hung out with my friends in-game, and whatnot, only to feel my interest died out.
"Blade and Soul", was announced in the E3 Trailer, and this was close to the time when I bought my own custom PC, thanks to Dead Island (take my money Deep Silver). I have my boys then, my manchild male friends who behave like jocks but aren't as bad as them. And this game bought our group closer together. We jumped on it when it's out, making us one of the few pioneer groups inside, we were on server Gumna (-.- very unlucky for Crimson), and before we know it we decided to make our own clan instead of joining one. We wanted our own flexibility, ownership, and to climb together as a group ourselves; in short, we were ambitious.
I immediately took onto the community-building aspect of the MMO (aside for me also being a slut for aesthetics as I hunt hours for costumes). I started by posting on forums, but with proper Google Forms to get to know players better, I talked to just almost anyone I see, making friends along the way while showing them how we run our clan. It was more Skype than discord, and we hosted a WhatsApp group to facilitate things around our clan together with a skype group chat for whoever wants to come on. It was really fun, and perhaps it was the INFJ in me that allows me to forge quality relationships (since I'm pretty talkative) in the virtual world, thus making them more quality and reliable clanmates. It is way better than blindly adding players and our clan rose to be one of the biggest crimson there is (until the game updates overwhelmed our lives as we grow up). We were the "peaky blinders" of the modern world, as we forge alliances, organize raids, picked off people from the opposing clan. We did what we can to survive, and I like how we all look out for each other.
It was nevertheless a fun experience and an interesting learning one for me for sure. The different types of players, the logical ones, the emotional ones, the ones who're there for whatever personal reasons, to escape reality, to combat loneliness, to hangout. The list goes on, and that's what makes gaming always relevant and amazing. I would never forget this game, as it made me grow so much as a person along playing. Even though I didn't delve into technical details, it is nevertheless the social and community aspects of gaming that makes me enjoy it so much. And till this day, it is that and perhaps the innocence of the child in us that leaves me feeling nostalgia whenever I look back to our days in "Blade and Soul".
I took this photo before the travel bug bit me, and thinking back, I'd actually seen such mountains amongst the peaks of Pu Chi Fa overlooking Laos. I guess I'll always embrace the call of the mountains, no matter which dimension I'm in! Tell me what do you like in a game, aside from the tangible qualities of it.
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