THE GUIDE

The first step in any epic RPG is what traditional Dungeon Masters like to call "the gathering of the companions."

This is the part of the future grand story which explains why an elf, a half-elf, a dwarf, a human, a pegleg pirate, two werewolves, and a gender-confused-looking-for-salvation vampire donkey, got together. This usually leads to the "Seer/Prophet/God" character who convinces/bribes/scares the group into actually accepting the suicidal quest to take on the alien-technology augmented demonic forces of the ruling planetary empire to save the princess/restore freedom/bring peace/ or buy a soda at the corner store.

Perfect World gives us: The Guide, and the in-game help system: Alt+L, or simply L. And then the specific Race Elder of which of the three races (Human, Wingkin, or Beast) that you chose becomes the "Seer/Prophet/God" figure. It is the The Guide's quests that introduce us to the hours of wholesale slaughter we are about to embark on. It is the Race Elder who imparts the raison d'etre for our pixel and bits heroes.

The simplicity of this would have been great, but as stories goes, there really isn't much of a reason why the character does what he does. Its left to the basic instinct of the player that he wants to play the game thats why he's going to do these quests in the first place. What? You mean? Yes, if a player wanted to, he could ignore all the quests and just go about on his merry way. Talk about too much freedom!

But as it is, people do not install a game, spend money to go online so they can sit in a virtual world to watch the grass grow, or in PW, for the herbs to respawn. And thus, reluctantly, there I was, with my Role (sorry I keep calling it character, old habits die hard, though I honestly believe they should have just called it character in the first place, because Role just made it sound too much like a script, but that's me) er, where was I? Oh yes: There I was eventually with my Role jumping hoops for the Guide, the Elder, the Tailor, a Runt, a Dog, a Ghost, a General, etcetera, ad nauseam. When in truth, I could have just said no...

But then the Soulless had to be stopped.

Genesis

So there I was with my itchy finger on the itchy trigger waiting to begin playing. So after I created my account with Level Up and registering in for Perfect World, I finally hop to it. Unfortunately, I forgot one little thing, I still had to make a character.

Now don't think that this was easy thing. It's a choice between three races with two character classes or Role as they are called each, Plus gender preference for two of the three races. That amounts to roughly a choice between ten character types. That's not easy for someone who is as obsessive compulsive as me.

Now don't say that that due to gender preference the choice is cut down to one in five. Ask any Tomb Raider player and they will tell you it is not so. In gaming, its not what your gender is that decides which gender you play. Its what you like to see.

That done, I was surprised to find out that my troubles have only begun. It seems I still had to figure out how the character looked. There were set looks and faces, but I was not about to let pass the opportunity to use the 3D rendering engine to create a unique look for my character.

The immensity of the choices was pretty overwhelming, but was impressive, even for someone like me who plays a lot of SIMS2. The fields that could be manipulated on the 3D frame was a big plus.

Now I know that mathematically, the amount of character variations you can make are pretty nigh astronomical. But in-game, these little things are not that easy to see, as they are little. As with real life, differences in characters that are readily noticable are skin color, build and hair. As past animals that ability is hard wired into our optical senses.

But personally, I think that it is this feature which makes the game or could make it a little bit more appealing, the thought that, yes, I am unique, but still part of a larger social commune. Which some of you might know is the anachronism of being human. The need to be unique within a want to be common.

I chose to be a Wolfman, a Yao Shou. I made him look big and mean, but fluffy too. I like fluffy.

Perfect World Zero

I have never played an MMORPG before (that’s short for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, dearie, and its pronounced as spelled; try not to read it as a word). But I have played. Oh have I played. I have been playing Role-Playing Games since I was 12. On this, my 20th year as a gamer, I have finally decided to cross the final threshold, to finally drop the proverbial final fig leaf.

I installed into my computer the latest MMORPG to hit the sunny shores of my country. Perfect World. A game created by a Chinese company, and marketed here in the Philippines by Level Up! Games. Of course when I installed this, and played for the first ten days, I didn’t know that it was new. I thought it was around for a while now. That was the Closed Beta, when only a few select players were allowed to test the game. When I joined, the Open Beta (anybody who wants to get on) had just been activated.

This was at the goading of my long time friend, Joel, who has been a serious MMORPG player for a while now because he doesn’t have a life. So when he saw that I had also lost my life, he suggested I try what was doing. So I decided, why not? What have I got to lose? A few hundred pesos? I don’t have a life so why not get one online? That’s okay I guess.

So there I was, ignorant of how these things went. Naturally I was tentative when I took the first few steps. Luckily, being a veteran hardcore gamer and alpha chatter, I was quick to realize that this is what the game was. Fantasy RPG with a chat function and a thriving community. I just had to get used to it all. Being a Tomb Head, I am used to the spanning vistas, heights and killer 3D effects of the game. What blew my mind was the expanse of it all. How you could really go anywhere you want, game physics permitting.

While I was still marveling at it all, someone struck up a conversation with me, she said hello. I said hello back.

Then she said: “Kuya, tabi. (Brother, you’re in the way.)”

That’s when it hit me. It’s a brave new world. I am not alone.