Road to 230
I started playing RAN Online when my best friends owned a computer shop back in 2009. I was late into the game relative to them, and I was amazed at how an archer can just do a somersault and have everything die within a 5-inch screen radius, and that with her underwear showing. I was partial to the swordsman, though, though I really can't tell you why (it might be because the swords were huge). So I became a swordsman built with dexterity stats.
Fast forward six months later and I was level 107, and ended up having an ice elemental sword in the game and UTI in real life. I was still studying for my Master's then, too, and was enrolled in Thesis Writing I, with nothing to show for it two months already into the semester. I quit the game, got well, started my thesis, and finished the proposal for it within the remaining three months.
I found RAN again ten years later, eight months ago. Things were different - the items were different, the dynamics were different, the playing culture was different. I started to go way past level 107 quite rapidly, and started joining Tower Wars, which is much like the game of Capture the Flag (if by "flag" you really mean "tower" and by "capture" you really mean "obliterate").
To cap level, you have to go to Shibuya 4, where the 80,000-HP mobs hurt like motherfuckers and have semi-discriminatory names like Ex-Con and Istambay. (Well, this iteration of game had mobs the names of which were Haring Braso and Niyebeng Lobo, so.) It took me a while to get the hang of being in S4, having been boosted for so long ("boosting" is the term for a high-level player doing all the work luring, tanking, and killing all mobs while you either follow them around or stand still at a safe spot and talk to your like-leveled party members as to what the hell you're doing with your lives). With the help of friends, I gradually got tough enough to tank a full lure (with full buffs and a life-giving pet, mind you). A full lure qualifies as full when you can't even goddamn see your character amidst all the mobs you lured. The only thing indicating whether or not you've successfully cast a skill is the sound the skill makes when it is casted, along with the shout your character makes. ("Gloria!")
Today, I finally cap-leveled to in this iteration of this game. The road to level 230 was hard, eight months and some sacrificed wages long. I wouldn't have made it without boosters and kind people in the game, kind enough to stay up with you all night and spend some premium game points for fireworks when you finally reach 230.
Back when I was teaching, I handled a team-taught course about gaming. I handled the philosophy part - whether video games were art, what sort of philosophy of identity you can clobber when you're creating a character, why games are important. I never taught, though, that games can have you make friends, both in-game...
... and in real life.
Fast forward six months later and I was level 107, and ended up having an ice elemental sword in the game and UTI in real life. I was still studying for my Master's then, too, and was enrolled in Thesis Writing I, with nothing to show for it two months already into the semester. I quit the game, got well, started my thesis, and finished the proposal for it within the remaining three months.
I found RAN again ten years later, eight months ago. Things were different - the items were different, the dynamics were different, the playing culture was different. I started to go way past level 107 quite rapidly, and started joining Tower Wars, which is much like the game of Capture the Flag (if by "flag" you really mean "tower" and by "capture" you really mean "obliterate").
To cap level, you have to go to Shibuya 4, where the 80,000-HP mobs hurt like motherfuckers and have semi-discriminatory names like Ex-Con and Istambay. (Well, this iteration of game had mobs the names of which were Haring Braso and Niyebeng Lobo, so.) It took me a while to get the hang of being in S4, having been boosted for so long ("boosting" is the term for a high-level player doing all the work luring, tanking, and killing all mobs while you either follow them around or stand still at a safe spot and talk to your like-leveled party members as to what the hell you're doing with your lives). With the help of friends, I gradually got tough enough to tank a full lure (with full buffs and a life-giving pet, mind you). A full lure qualifies as full when you can't even goddamn see your character amidst all the mobs you lured. The only thing indicating whether or not you've successfully cast a skill is the sound the skill makes when it is casted, along with the shout your character makes. ("Gloria!")
Today, I finally cap-leveled to in this iteration of this game. The road to level 230 was hard, eight months and some sacrificed wages long. I wouldn't have made it without boosters and kind people in the game, kind enough to stay up with you all night and spend some premium game points for fireworks when you finally reach 230.
Back when I was teaching, I handled a team-taught course about gaming. I handled the philosophy part - whether video games were art, what sort of philosophy of identity you can clobber when you're creating a character, why games are important. I never taught, though, that games can have you make friends, both in-game...
... and in real life.
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