MMO Wayfarer

This is a new blog but it’s not a beginning.

This season I learned that SOE is soon releasing the third evolution of the Everquest franchise that began in 1999 and forever altered the experience of online gaming.  Setting a standard of immersion that was in my humble opinion [IMHO] never before that year attained in a multiplayer game.   There has been Everquest, Everquest II and soon Everquest Next forming a trifecta of inspiration [I hope] and bringing back an overflowing well of memories.  For me the path has been Everquest, Everquest II, World of Warcraft, Aion, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Rift and more beta test for games that just didn’t work out for me than I can remember.  A long journey that began in 2002, giving me something to look forward to when the world around me seemed to lose the luster of hope and happiness in the smoke of the twin towers of death just 4 months prior .

So, I was a newbie in 2002, working a late night job using a low end hand upgraded computer and a 56k modem.  I fell off the platforms in the tree city of Kelethin many times at level 1 but gradually my eyes opened to a world around me and the people in this world wearing the mask of their chosen avatar being brave, humble, heroic, and sometimes down right pernicious.    There are many who would disagree but I feel it is better to live a part time life of online adventure rather than drone away engulfed in anxiety that comes with modern society.  I would rather play for a few hours several days a week than lose my mind and body to alcoholism , drug abuse or other diversions that people tend to turn to in escape of a world that more and more treats human beings as disposable commodities.   Not saying there is no happiness but we are creatures that are born to evolve, to become better than we are and in my opinion its a need not a want for every human to achieve, something that is not often found available in this modern society of the 21st century.  Everquest, my first MMORPG, gave me this escape though it made me work for it.  For this reason online gaming deserves a blog in my life and so here it will be.