Posted by wheeljack on March 20, 2000 at 08:06:15:
In Reply to: Stuff posted by Elmaster on March 19, 2000 at 20:58:13:
I agree with it all. I remember when I came back to cf maybe 2 years ago, and saw new classes like healer, and got all excited -- then ranked up and all of a sudden couldn't use any of my new supps. Boy, when I found out about empowerment I was pissed.
When I'd played before, it was more or less with a perma-group of 2, tho not always, and we roleplayed but more tongue in cheek, and would pk up to rank 25 then get bored and try a new race-class combo, but never a mage! Never was in any cabals. So then I fail to get empowered (repeatedly) and made a character and stuck with it
until it was impossible to suck much more -- who knew that your really needed to get dodge over 80%? Cf was fun before, but it was a binge addiction that was highly pleasurable with highly unpleasurable falls -- since our characters revolved around eq -- and was rather unfulfilling.
It wasn't until I played one of the early Imperials that I was able to appreciate the story of your character -- and then I was able to take an invoker -- who got changed into an ultra-patience class around my rank 19 -- and get into sylvan and hero. Hell, I had one of the most powerful cabal-class combos and I sucked (pk-wise) but it was because I didn't care -- I had more fun surviving and interacting and obsessively perfecting spells while camo'd in Emerald keeping watch than I did being camo'd in dwarf forest waiting for a rager. Strangely, it was fulfilling enough that the uncomfortable addictive feeling passed, and CF became, dear god, almost healthy.
Anyways, I'm using logs from CF to present two papers at different conferences:
Narrative, April 8 in Atlanta:
The User-Story Interface in Interactive Narratives
SouthEast Conference on Linguistics, April 6 in Oxford MI:
Discourse Structure in Emergent Narratives
Who knew you could find a legitimate reason to play cf at school (or Quake)?
> Once again I am sitting here at my computer, when I should well be sleeping since work is only a few brief hours away. But no, I decide to start rolling a new char. So, I feel it necessary to ramble a bit. If you dont wish to read, then fine, I am not offended...not many people pay attention to me anyway. Heh.
>
> There are a few things about cf that make me love it.
> 1. Where else in life can you pack 25 plates of spareribs into a backpack, and carry them for months, without them going bad, or getting overly messy. I love that.
>
> 2. Where else in life can you simply murder someone because they piss you off. Without the possibility of actual jail time.
>
> 3. Every now and then you bump into a character, one so deeply thought out, so well roleplayed that CF is no longer a game of text and stats. It becomes a real world, one with living breathing people. In a lot of ways a better place then the one we are living in. Each and every one of us has had this experience where you know that you are dealing with a master. And then there are those, that to me are almost more enjoyable, are the people that you can tell are honestly TRYING to roleplay. Whether on your level or not. They make attempts. I would like us all to give a big hand to those who try. These times tend to erase the times where you meet someone that blatantly break RP to piss and moan at you because you, a paladin, kill a fire giant. And all the other silly, childish rants and raves from people.
>
> When this happens I just try to think back to my first couple of characters on CF. I will honestly say that I was one of those assholes. Those mindless dolts that bitch and moan for reasons that to many seem mindless, ot completely silly. So I would ask all that read this take time to look back at their early days. Remember what you acted like, remember the days when an orcish sword was a great weapon and the armor bought from the merchant was a wonderful thing.
>
> Carrion fields is a game of patience. Some of us have it, and some of us dont. It takes time to learn, and it takes time to develope. (damn I am writing a lot, if you are reading this, more power to you)
>
> My basic point is this. We can all sit around and bitch about how so and so is overpowered, or how some aspect of the game is unfair. But we also often forget the most beautiful things about cf.
>
> 1. It is free.
> 2. It is beautifully done, look around at some of the areas...damn good work.
> 3. We can all think back to a moment, or a few moments where CF was almost like home.
> 4. The person on the other end of that character you see is in reality probably a lot like you, sharing a deep love for fantasy, and a rich and true imagination.
> 5. Where else in the world can you find so dedicated a staff of people that will spend hours of their day working for nothing, just so we can have a place to come, forget our daily problems, our deadlines, our projects, everything and become something else for awhile.
>
> The list goes on and on. And we all have our own list. But it is time that we all sit back, and really think about what CF means to each of us. Individually.
>
> Is it just a place to go and kill people? Or is it an escape from your normal daily life?
>
> I for one enjoy sitting around the office, daydreaming about my next character...what he will be, what I will want to accomplish with him, and the things that will randomly happen. Do you do this as well?
>
> My fellows, we have been given a gift. We have a whole world here that we can delve into. We can explore, we can fight, and we can live an alternate life. We can make friends, and enemies. And at the end of the day, we can look forward to doing it again.
>
> Well, I will close soon...
>
> I am guilty of this as well, but I openly challenge each and every one of you to consider what CF really means to you. In that we can find all we need. You will die, just dont take it personally.
>
> Rant, ramble, mindless dribble off.
>
> AL