Greedy Flies

Dragon Slayer is a good friend who rolled a character on a recently spawned WoW server with one of the first guilds I joined in EverQuest, a guild composed with different faces and names from ones I once recognized. Nonetheless their goal to reach level sixty and start the raiding epic quest from Onyxia on up. I was taunted by Dragon Slayer into joining their uber foray and this makes Dragon Slayer an evil bastard.

I find the offer enticing, it is the semi-catass in me. I have a strong desire to adventure into the raiding tiers from the ground up only to turn around and become inactive after those encounters become an easy plow fest, from what scarred memories I remember a tedious bore where most players only repeat this process out of greed, boredom, addiction as well as acceptance. If they are really smart they will pick all four and join a guild where hilarity ensues, time will pass and the addiction won’t feel as guilty later in life.

As for myself, information about plans for inactivity I would leave blank on an application to join the ranks of any future raiding guild. Not fair to whoever that guild may be, but to be honest I don’t want to raid the same high end content repeatedly clocking in 20-40 hours a week for months or even years on end such as I did in EverQuest, three hundred days played and two hundred fifty of those spent in an insipid automon raiding guild).

I simply can’t invest the time needed to fulfill my selfish desires to see the top of the world, and attempting to keep up with this guild’s leveling pace would prove unavailing. Funny enough, before my mental strangulation subsided on what action I should take the core of the guild has already reached level sixty and is starting to plow through the echelon of raid targets. With my severe hardcore days behind me I once again hear Dragon Slayer’s tales as if I were vicariously playing through their experiences wanting to be there.

If you are already familiar with the leveling game in WoW a total of eight days invested is a fair estimate. Which in the eyes of an EverQuest veteran isn’t shit, unless of course you can’t afford to, or could I? I was very close to paying for a power leveling service. Dragon slayer and I did some research and we found some reputable sources, if you want to refer to these often called parasites as reputable, who offered their services for less than one dollar an hour. One fucking dollar an hour, I could shell out 200 bucks, have a max level character ready for raiding in less then a month. Worth it? In my heart no, with the time I could save and the fun to be had, fuck yes and I was taken back.

One day in Diablo 2, I was making instanced trade rounds I was offered money for a few rarities in my stash I had up for trade. (This conversation, the first of many is where I first learned about paypal which I would later use to make a fuck ton of money, yes I’m adamant in my opinion about how money and greed can blind someone who claims otherwise until faced with the option). Not expecting real money for item trades I was suddenly excited at the potential of earning real money from exchanging rare items without realizing the detrimental ramifications real money trade can have on a game. Ignorance is bliss, but I understood why someone crazy enough would offer cash for rare items so didn’t think of anything but finding rare items and applying a real world value.

I politely refused his offer, me being just as crazy about the game I wanted items to make my character stronger and not my bank account, but we became acquaintances and over time I earned his trust. His playing habits were strictly pegged on weekends and the conversation boiled over into our real-lives, he claimed to be CEO of a familiar internet company and me a lowly peasant worker, of course I assumed he was a liar, but the truth I knew was he couldn’t dedicate the time he wanted to. (Strangers things have happened when playing online, such as finding out I was playing alongside Curt Schilling) He had always continually expressed wishes to compete on the ladder, the place where highest levelers are ranked from top to bottom, when the highest levels (90-99) were few and far between out of hundreds of thousands of players, before the expansion pack trivialized leveling and level 99 became ubiquitous.

At the time my real life occupation paid six dollars an hour where my duties consisted of shoveling shit, which happens a lot if you are at the bottom of the totem-pole. Too only make matters worse my social life was shot to shit since I worked graveyard and mainly played Diablo 2 in my waking hours. I took orders from a drunken boss who would often shake and hit his girlfriend, who worked in a nearby dark room and safety around the press was not a concern, every moment the press operated churning papers while I filled wells with colored tar I feared for my limbs ripping apart, it had happened before with a previous worker.

On another endless night of shoveling endless shit the police burst in and arrested my drunken boss, the whole night crew was laid off the very next day. I was ecstatic, but still had bills I needed to pay, damn the man. Knowing I had all the time in the world ahead my Diablo 2 friend presented an opportunity I couldn’t pass. Ten dollars an hour at forty hours a week to keep a character on the ladder competitive, one he had bought from another acquaintance for several thousands of dollars. Essentially our inside joke was to put me on the company payroll. I thought he was bullshitting me, but I had nothing to lose and the risk proved to be worth it.

After my first week of doing hell runs over and over for a pittance of experience, a money order was sent federal express. How diligent - thankfully he was pleased with my work and week after week leading into months money orders arrived. One day my boss grew tired of Diablo 2 and moved onto another online game called Everquest, I didn’t know much about it nor was I interested in taking the initiative to do so. He pleaded me to join and I held a bit of resentment since it was another seller who hooked him into playing and paying thousands of dollars for several EverQuest accounts, but I wasn’t ready to leave, after all, the character I had kept competitively in the top ten was given to me as a departing gift and I had grown a strong liking to competing on the ladder and high level player versus player. Once again I looked for work outside the game, a dream now over hoping someday I would find another. I did, I soon discovered a dupe bug leading to bigger pay-offs, another story for another time.

You certainly don’t need banked millions like one of my previous employers to afford a power leveling service, and as tempting as it was and still is to join the ranks of Dragon Slayer, I didn’t make the purchase. However, I understand why people purchase not only items, accounts, but in general the time they don’t have. The game design isn’t always broken, we are selfish creatures and time is precious, something not all of us can willingly spare.

I spoke strongly against RMT when SOE announced their Station Exchange servers my views on RMT have probably changed since that tirade. Next week I’ll share more thoughts about my stance on RMT.