Letter from the Player.

This week of beta has been really fun and amazingly informative.
My first MMORPG was Lineage II, 7 years ago, and I played on the popular private server, L2x (or Lineage 2 Extreme). It had jacked rates and everyone was in it for PVP and PKing. I was taught that if you saw someone else on a field, you ran as fast as you could the other way because they would undoubtably kill you. I was raised never to talk to anyone, because no one was going to help you. I was raised not to quest, only to grind.
After 7 years of server hopping and playing around with other games, I've still maintained the shy personality I was taught to have.

Neo Steam changed it, I think.

This time when I started playing I discovered the joy of questing and having fun instead of just working to get levels. I discovered that people in MMOs wanted you to talk to them as much as you wanted them to talk to you. I discovered that I don't have to be embarrassed to ask for help, and that it's extremely fun to play with other people. I overcame my shyness to own a guild that became quite popular, if I do say so myself and I met a bunch of new people and had many new experiences I probably wont forget (for a while at least.)


Of course, this isn't the end of the road for me. I plan on restarting Epic Destiny when Open Beta releases and building it up to be a wonderful guild with multiple branches of amazement. I want to have a PVP branch for the people who like to fight, a Newbie Support team for new players that need help, a Questing Team to assist others with quests and man their own. I want to have events for my guild members and prizes to give away. I want to reward good behaviour and have people who care enough about me not to let the bad behaviour happen.
With all of the friends I've made, I'm sure this can happen.


This is my mission statement. Sydney will not die here, no matter how much she thinks she will. Sydney will live on in my heart and through the wisdom she's taught me, I'll make myself into a better, memorable player. I will create the best guild. I will support my members, and they will support me.

Thank you, Neo Steam for allowing me to learn that games really can be fun. Thank you, Sydney for teaching me the importance of co-operation and thank you Varlet, my trusty right-pom for helping me every step of the way. Without your guidance, I probably wouldn't love this game as much as I do, faults and all.


Thanks,
Caitlin.

A Final Farewell (So Suck It Up, Buttercup!)

The sadness soon passed and I made my way to finish something some man in Cerity Praha told me to do. He wanted me to collect Wel Witchia ( a plant!) in the desert. Unfortunately, all of it was on really high mountains I couldn't reach. I attempted to climb a mountain, get stuck and have to call out for help until someone from my guild came along to help me. It was rather embarrassing.
I scrounged up enough Wel Witchia  to give to the man, and was sent on my way to kill some Truuk freaks in a warp! I killed them easily enough, but I ran out of health potions. (gasp!) Seeing as how I'm doomed anyway, though, when I wandered back into Cerity Praha, I bought myself 20 super healing potions. 20 grand out of my pocket, but that's nothing.

I decided to visit Rogwell, as one of my final acts. I took the Zeppelin over and was astounded by it's barrenness! I rolled over empty dirt roads and tunnels finding only enemies (of much more plentiful amounts than us) and kicked up sand.
I found that they had a terrawhale too! It lived in such a tiny little area though, I felt so sorry for it. If I could have, I would have taken him home to live on the vast plains of OUR terrawhale habitat. I stopped and chatted with him for a while, even though he didn't talk back.

As night fell over Rogwell, I discovered it's beauty. The moonlight twinkled over the water and even the monsters looked peaceful.

I didn't mean the Rogwells any harm at all. I had merely come to observe and take in their culture to add it to the banks of my own. I held up a banner which boldly stated, "I'm not here to fight!" but.. I suppose their culture will always be too different than my own. They attacked me mercilessly and I was lucky to escape.. back to Elerd.. back to Nasdaim.. back to my old life.


I only wish I could see more of it.



Good bye everyone. I'll miss all of you.

-Sydney

Soon, The End Will Come...

So, I just heard that my entire existence will be destroyed in two days. That's not something that most people look forward too, especially not me!
What about the 500 000 gold I've collected for the guild? My beautiful glowing sword? My multiple killings of Mantodean? I'm really skilled too! Why oh why must I die?

I'll be reincarnated, I know.. perhaps in the form of an Evoker or Shadowreaver.. but it hurts, you know?


I don't want to die.

-Sydney

Fighting Rogs, Holding the Middle.

I was invited to join a big team of people taking up the middle of that wonderful garden in Riall. We held the middle from those damn Rogwells for 3 hours before everyone's care and attention started to dwindle. I got hurt a few times, but I definitely took my share of Rogwell scum down. One mage was especially getting on my nerves, but by the time she reappeared I had lost most of my interest and had started walking around to look at the falling snow.

A member from my guild and I started walking around looking for anyone who needed help, and we stumbled along the orders of all of Elerd's Officers, Dragon Knights, Guards and whoever else. Our path took us in excruciating circles around Middle Helm, Tirun Outpost and Nasdaim.

We had a steam buggy race though. :) That was cool.

-Sydney

How Much is Too Much?

 There are now 28 members in my guild, Epic Destiny. It makes me so proud to see them running by me with their little badges on. You wouldn't even believe how proud I am of them.
Varlet's our official Spokesman. He's been doing so much to help out. It makes me happy too.

Today I killed my first Rog! They're cowardly and annoying. I hope to kill more tomorrow.

Now, the subject at hand. To upgrade our guild from that Aion (who I just discovered was a girl!) we need to raise 7 million gold! Wait. Let's look at the zeros: 7, 000, 000 gold! That's a lot of zeros folks!
I went around asking my guild members for donations. We currently have 500 000 out of that 7 000 000 taken care of!
Wow. This has been a really eventful day, but I'm so tired.
I hope we can collect enough money. I want to see more of my little guildies running around. It makes me so happy..

-Sydney

Epic Destiny

Little did I, Sydney Flint, know that I was going to run a guild someday. Of course, I knew I'd be setting up one and I would use it to keep track of my friends, but no one else would join, would they? Of course not. It was just little ol' Syd, and no one ever talked to Syd before....
So how in the world did I end up with 21 members?!

Varlet is my right hand Pom. If I had another pom, I could have pom poms! A new friend, Darius is my left hand man though. All of my little guildies were so sweet. They say thank you when they should and they congratulate me on little things and all of them said goodnight to me when I finally couldn't keep my eyes open.
They're precious, each and every one of them. I'll reward them with a cool event as soon as we get a bigger guild.
Everyone has to work hard, so we can be the best!

This little guild has taught me a lot about not being shy and talking to people. I really hope this continues!

-Sydney

P.S. This is just a short one right now, I'm /so/ exhausted.

Lord of the Forest

Today, I defeated the Lord of the Forest. All by myself.

...

Okay, I lie. I actually tagged around a bunch of people who knew what they were doing and lamely shot my gun at the gigantic tree a few times. The man at Frande Lookout was proud of me though, I didn't have the heart to tell him. Earlier today I talked to a mage who didn't have a name. She said I was surrounded by.. some cloud of darkness and mystery (the best type of clouds!). She first told me to find a Spirit of Wisdom on the Road of Wisdom but that didn't go well at all. I couldn't find -anything-. I went back to her and explained my situation and she rethought my task. Instead she sent me to get a Spirit of Mercy at the like-named Road. I found him without much difficulty, but I was immediately swarmed by all of his spirit friends. I made it through though. They weren't that strong.
I returned to the mage with her soil and she told me to defeat the Corrupted Guardian in the Revenant Forest to dispell the cloud of darkness around me. I knew at that moment I wouldn't be able to fight it myself, I can barely reload my gun fast enough to hit a Terrawhale (That's an expression folks). I cornered someone who looked like they could help. He was a human named Viktor. Together with Viktor and DaRk_AnGeL, I walked to the forest, got lost a few times and we killed the monster.

I don't even know why I had to kill the guardian in the first place. I didn't see any fog around me and that mage only gave me a reward. Now whenever I talk to her she just says the same things. Did I do something wrong?

I didn't see Varlet today. He was busy in those Training Machines.

And I didn't go in the Terrawhale like I promised today, but I did go to see one.

-Sydney

Rethinking Some Strategies

I awoke with a start halfway through the night. I thought my encounter with Aion, the bratty guild boss would be my adventure of the day, but something was calling out to me. I heard that Pom, Varlet looking around for someone to help him fight Mantodean, a creature hiding in the heart of that Terrawhale that swallowed me earlier. I kicked past it's Uvula and there was a surprising amount of people hanging out there. I felt like grinning and saying to everyone I passed by, "We're in a whale's esophagus :)" but everyone was ignoring me. It's not often that I get to sit in a Terrawhale.. but I might just make it a daily ritual.
Clambering my way through it's stomach, I encountered some really tough monsters I had to kill to get through to his intestines. Why ever I had to go there, I don't wish to know, but I couldn't take down these guys with only myself and a gun! I waited around for another elf to come by and kill the monsters for me. It seems like the lazy thing to do, but I like my life intact, thanks.

I made my way into the heart chamber where I met up with Varlet and an Evoker. We teamed up with another Pom too. Gosh, they're so cute. Mantodean was easy to take down with all of us. We all parted our own separate ways, but not before trying to entice the others into joining our guild.
No takers yet.

After I left the heart chamber, I found myself mysteriously back in Nasdaim. Huh. Did I really.. No. How did I get out of that whale?!

-Sydney.

Excitement Abounds and a Collection of Stupid.

Dropped right into Nasdaim with little more than a name of my own, I stood in a huge gathering of people who seemed about as lost yet amazed as I did. Of course, there were a few citizens who were hollering about the invasion of us, but it wasn't really our fault. In fact, I had been a tourist in Elerd a while before. Set immediately on my way on some quest to go.. find a thing, I encountered crab-like things and huge bugs. It wasn't great. The worst part about it all was when I took on something four times my size. I nearly died, but something in me just held on.

After a while of wandering around by myself (and getting swallowed by a Terrawhale!) I came across one of my friends from the Tavern. A cute little Pom (You can never tell the gender of those things) who was delightfully loquatious. His name was Varlet. Between us, we decided we should form a guild. Everyone else was doing it, and we figured it'd be an easy process. After hearing that it was a tad hard for our skills though, we searched around Nasdaim for someone to help us. That's where our dear buddy Folst and Gabi came in. They both looked like ferocious beasts, but they were actually really nice Tarune. Gabi left us a little while after the first part of the quest where we had to fight a Spider King. He wasn't tough, but he sure was difficult to find. I almost got waylaid by machines too!
Folst went away too, but he kept contact with us as we adventured through Armankase Forest and were terribly outnumbered by all of the monsters in there. It's hard to say how we made it out alive, but we were looking for some leaves to help an old man's back. Aion could have done it himself. The lazy snot.

We found the leaves after a while. They were on some trees that were incredibly hard to find. We went back to Aion and gave him the leaves. Yet again, he has another request for me. Joy. Now he wants MORE leaves in an even more remote and terrible location.
I should drag his scrawny arse down to that forest and see how long he lasts.
Anyway, we made it there and peeled apart a million plants, while they tried to bite us back. Eventually we found three leaves he needed. We returned, smiles and laughter. This was the end of the quest. He said he had three tasks for me.

Guess what.


He lied.


Now all of a sudden he told me I had to get some papers out of a chest in that very same forest.
I had to hold my tongue or else not-so-nice words might have escaped. I could've strangled him. We went to the forest, got the papers that he had there. Why did he hide papers in the forest? GEEZ! We returned, and as we were walking, I looked down at Varlet and I said, "If he asks me to do one more thing, I'm going to cry."

What do you know. I was in tears in the next five minutes.

Now he wants us to go to some island to get him back a sword. Doesn't he have friends to do this kind of thing for him? My god. I wanted to walk away right there, but I was so close to owning a guild, I could taste it. "Fine," I told him.
I called on Folst and Varlet and we were transported to this tiny island that was invested with spirits. I saw the sword, but at first I was too preocupied with getting the spirits away from my friends. Until I realized, that's what Aion had meant when he wanted me to work with a team to get the guild. Owning a guild isn't just a solo thing, you have to trust your friends to look out for you and throw yourself into risks for them. I left my two friends to get the sword. They kept the spirits away from me and I quickly grabbed the sword and fled the island with them.
Finally, I handed the sword back to Aion and he smiled. I was a new Guild Leader.

I don't think I'll ever underestimate the power of friends now, but I still hate Aion with all of my power.

-Sydney

Sharing Tales Around a Frosty Mug

Albeit, it wasn't a frosty mug, it was rather grimy.. but that's what you get from wandering around the low-life taverns. So, the lighting's not good here, I won't be writing an Epic.


I figured the tavern (forums) would be the best place to find some new buddies, seeing as how I just popped out of non-existence and don't know anyone from around here. I've met a few new friends. I can't really speak for their integrity, because I've only known them for oh, an hour, but I'm hoping that I'll at least have a few people to watch my back out in the wilds. I wouldn't put it past those Rogs to jump me while I'm not looking. Nasty people.
Wait. What if they read this! They'll know! I should stop writing.

I'll start out after a warm meal and a nice sleep.

Sydney.