Enough Already!

I am going to step out on a limb today because I am becoming increasingly concerned with the fate of the WYDian’s Journal event. More importantly, I am concerned with its current direction. Recently, the top bloggers that won consistently are not writing in their blogs anymore. It is apparent that many bloggers are burned out, or simply stopped writing for the last week. The result of this caught my attention fairly quickly. As I was browsing the winners for the past few days, I noticed a trend that is plaguing the WYDian’s Journal event. I advocated many times in the past that we needed guidelines that prevented this type of trend. What is this trend?

 

The trend that I have noticed is two-fold. The first trend that caught my attention was bloggers uploading a ridiculous amount of screenshots with a paragraph of writing to either comment about the screenshot or briefly explain it. I am aware that screenshots are an important integration to blogs, but when a blogger has around 10 screenshots per topic submission there is a problem. The problem is laziness. But the bigger issue here is the fact that they are winning 10 Laks for Outstanding Blog Entry of the day. There is NOTHING outstanding with taking more than 3 screenshots, slapping them together, and typing a paragraph out to explain the screenshots. Had that been the case, people like SultanJohor, MSTR-FOEMA, and myself would have been doing that from the beginning. A few screenshots to further enhance an explanation of a topic, or to further emphasize a paragraph of writing, is acceptable. However, the purpose of a journal is to write about ideas, concerns, and topics relating to WYD Global. The event is not WYDian’s Photobucket!!!!!

 

The second trend that I noticed over the last few days is bloggers “interviewing” people. Before you explode, let me elaborate. There is nothing wrong with constructing a solid blog with writing and then following it up with an interview from a GM, CM, or players. However, what is frustrating is seeing a blog that has multiple days of “interviews”. Yes, meaning a blogger interviewed somebody one day, then another day, then another day. But what is annoying is the fact that they win 10 Laks for Outstanding Blog Entry of the day. One of the expectations from the beginning of this event was that topics written by bloggers could not be redundant. If you want to interview somebody for a blog topic, fine, but doing it two or three days in a row is fricken ridiculous!! If you don’t want to write with creativity, then get the heck out of the event.

 

I am rather tired of seeing this event crumble to pieces and turn into a joke because of the substandard blog entries and the lousy moderation of the blogs. It’s a slap in the face for people that actually write good blogs to sit by and watch screenshot and interview junkies win everyday when it takes no effort at all to formulate those types of blogs. Had I known that you could win with this junk, I would have saved a lot of my time by simply interviewing a new person each day or uploading hundreds of screenshots. The behaviors now are going to shape the future of this event. The WYDian’s Journal event already has a negative view by the community. Many believe it’s ridiculous as it is that we are getting God armors, Laks, and God weapons for simply blogging, as it really has nothing to do with the game, but that view is furthered with winning entries that are substandard.

 

I wonder what season 3 has in store for us all, or will there even be a season 3?

Mistakes Mistakes

I made a grave mistake and I am beginning to realize the impact of that mistake. Careful planning was never an aspect of the game that I paid close attention to. Now I am eking out my days regretting the fact that I did not utilize my Lak powders and God armor more wisely. Since the beginning of Season 2, I have obtained roughly 190 Lak powders and 3 pieces of God armor. Most people would ask why I am complaining, right? Well, I am not complaining, but merely pointing out that I should have sold every single one of those Lak powders and God armors.

 

Let us do the math with regards to the Lak powders. The current market price for a Lak powder is 5 million gold. Therefore, if you take 190 x 5 million, you get 950 million gold. Now let us take a look at the God armors. Since I had a few offers from players wanting to buy pieces of my God armor for 200 million gold that will be my market price in this calculation. Therefore, 3 x 200 million gold is 600 million gold. Last month I bought a lot of water m and sold them, which gave me roughly 300 million gold. Again, adding up 950 + 600 + 300 would have given me 1 billion 850 million gold. If I win the monthly prize for this event, I will have another 200 million gold and an ancient weapon. If I sold that ancient weapon, I probably could get 300 million gold. So add another 500 million gold to the 1 billion 850 million gold and you end up with a total of 2 billion 350 million.

 

Can you believe that I could have had 2 BILLION 350 MILLION in gold! I don’t have any Lak powders right now and all of my equipment and armor is +9, but I am broke. Buying my Unisus cost me the last 70 million gold I had in my storage. The other day I was browsing around the shops on server 1 and I noticed a player selling perfect stat Transknight armor that was +9 for 330 million a piece. Needless to say, I was very disappointed in myself. I could have bought each piece, 4 total, for the price of 1 billion 320 million. In addition, I saw two people yesterday selling ancient Thron of Shards for 350 million gold each. Last week I saw a player selling a piercing damage stone for 80 million gold and a physical strength earring for 120 million gold. I own both of those items. So let us recalculate all of this merchandise.

 

Keep in mind that after buying the God armor from that player, I would have been left with 1 billion 320 million gold. Therefore, 350 x 2 is 700 million gold. Add the 700 + 80 +120 and now the total equals 900 million gold. Subtract the 900 million gold from 1 billion 320 million and I am left with 420 million gold. My Unisus cost me 70 million, so subtract that as well and I am left with 350 million gold, give or take 100 million. Wow!

 

The lesson to be learned here is that it is smart to evaluate what you have and how to utilize everything so that you get the best bargain for your money. Sometimes it is very difficult to focus on the future or look that far a head, but it is worth doing so. I wish I would have done that so I could have sold all of my stuff in the attempt to buy it at a lower cost than it cost me to refine myself. Now I’m broke and I can’t buy simple things that I need, like horse food or pots. Had I planned a head, I would have over 300 million gold!

 

It gets worse as I level up my God character. I am quickly approaching level 355 and I know I need about 43 Lak powders and a Locked Seal to unlock the 355 level God character. I will not be able to do this now for free. I will end up having to purchase wcoins so that I can buy the Locked Seal as well as Lak powders. It is amazing how fast you can lose it all!

Servant to the Community: Cape Wars

I must admit, the weekly topics are becoming increasingly interesting. Last week the topics appeared vague, but the vagueness allowed each writer to emphasis key points that were unique to the writer. The current weekly topics have excelled toward the more traditional weekly topics that were presented at the beginning of the season. As the final week of WYDian’s Journal event narrows to a close, all of us begin to analyze the impact our blogs had on the WYD community. Many writers have expressed their concern with different aspects of the game, while others have extended their opinions and advice in the attempt to make the game more enjoyable. In each circumstance, all of us have contributed as gamers to the community. However, as WYD Global continues to age, and its features become too common among the MMORPG community, evolution must be allowed to encourage change. Therefore, it is important that WYD Global revolutionizes its game play by incorporating newly designed features while expanding its player base.

 

Each of us must step away from the common mentality that doing little is enough. Yes, I give new players money to help them start their characters, I express my opinions regarding features of the game that I believe are not beneficial, I give advice in the attempt to make the game better, and I lead by example in events with the hope that more players will follow my example and participate. But what I have not done, until now, is given the community a new idea beyond the normal daily game play. I am confident that the strategic implementation of my idea, along with proper upgrades, will increase the player base, retain players that are burned out, and make the game a lot more fun for everybody. So what can I do for the community? I can go further than the above times I have done something for the community and explain this idea! So what is the idea?

 

Cape Wars

 

Cape Wars is the solution to the boredom that plagues most of the elder community. And it is the new feature that many new players are seeking. I will detail Cape Wars in its entirety in a minute. But first I want to express to each of you why I believe in Cape Wars. I experience the same déjà vu each and every time I log into WYD Global. Hunting and chatting are fun, but only for an hour or two. And I am dissatisfied with having to wait an entire week before I can engage in Guild War and Kingdom War. So I began thinking, why not have wars throughout the entire week between guilds with capes other than blue and red? See where I am going with this?

 

Let us face the truth, the game needs to be updated. Most of us would like more maps with more towns. Implementing these new towns and maps would definitely have an impact on Cape Wars’ success. But let me continue explaining the concept.

 

One:

A system of cape building needs to be implemented. What does this mean? It simply requires the game to have a feature that allows guilds to CHOOSE the color of their cape. All different colors and combinations of those colors would be available. No guild can have the same color, but perhaps a shade similar. To ensure that high levels do not get the short end of the stick, they would be allowed to change the color of their cape without losing any + value. However, new players will be required to refine their specific colored cape like usual.

 

After a player has chosen the cape he or she wishes to carry, creating a guild will be similar to the current way. However, the fee for creating a guild will be removed, as well as the fee for recruiting members.

 

Example:

 

I log into the game and I choose the color Purple for my cape. Now I want to start a guild called Royals. I simply create the guild the same way guilds are created currently, but I do not have to pay any fees. Next I recruit ten players to be in my guild. Three of them are high levels and seven are new players. After each member receives the guild emblem, he or she will have their cape changed to the color of the guild leader. However, if a player wishes to change their cape first, a fee will be charged for doing so. This will prevent cape changing on a continuous basis. The color feature will be available at the character selection menu. Again, any player with a current cape that is refined will not lose any + value upon changing cape color.

 

Two:

The next feature that must be implemented is a website that supports Cape Wars. What does this mean? With an expansion of maps and towns, a large image containing each town and tower will be placed on the website. In addition, each guild will be required to register on the Cape Wars website. There will also be a cape color selection menu that will allow each guild leader to choose the color of their cape, which will be identical to the color they have chosen in the game. In addition, each member that wishes to participate in Cape Wars must register their name on the website, which will allow the guild leader to confirm you in his or her guild on the website. This will allow others to see what players are in each guild. Each guild is allowed up to thirty members, which is subject to change Furthermore, after each guild is registered, have selected their cape color (again, identical to the color chosen in the game), has all their members registered and confirmed on the website for a specific guild, they will be able to challenge other guilds for towns and towers on the large image that displays each town and tower.

 

Example:

 

I go to the website for Cape Wars and I register my guild. I choose the color Purple from the color selection menu. I tell each of my members to register their names (as they appear in game) on the Cape Wars website. After each of them registers, they will send a request to join Royals. I will confirm each of their requests so that they will be added to the guild roster. Because Cape Wars will be new, the first guilds to register will be given towers and towns by default. Other guilds that register after will be allowed to challenge them. Therefore, I was not one of the first guilds to register, so I look at the scheduling drop down menu and see that guild Shield controls a town that I would like to have for my guild. I challenge Shield, selecting a date and time when I will battle them for the town.

 

Shield’s guild leader will be notified that there is a pending challenge. Dumptires will be allowed to review the date and time. He can either confirm or make a change in the date or time of the challenge. However, he cannot deny the challenge, nor can he postpone a challenge for more than one day. For simplicity, I select October 3 for the challenge date and request the time of 1900 game time. Dumptires can move the match to October 4 and select a different time, or he can accept the challenge. In either case, the guild making the challenge better make sure they can battle a day after they made the initial challenge.

 

After Dumptires confirms the challenge, or changes the time/date and I confirm the challenge, we will do battle at that time and date. If I win, I will have the town I challenged for and receive the tax money held by that town. If I lose, Dumptires will keep the town and receive the tax money held by that town. However, I can continuously challenge Dumptires if I lose or I can challenge another guild. If I win and receive the town, I can challenge another guild for another town or tower. However, the guild I challenge must own a town or tower directly near me. I cannot challenge a guild across the image. I will have to work my way to them by challenging other guilds that hold towns and towers between myself and the other guild across the image. The purpose of Cape Wars is obviously to try and obtain every single town and tower. Perhaps there will be an awesome prize for each member of a guild that is able to accomplish this.

 

Three:

The third feature that must be implemented is a Cape Wars server. What does this mean? A battle server that mimics the regular server with the highest tax money held by that server will be utilized for Cape Wars. The highest tax money will ensure a battle prize and a separate server will ensure no other players will be involved in the Cape Wars that are not in guilds, as each battle will occur at the specific town that is being fought over. In addition, the server must be linked to the website so that towns and towers will be updated with the guilds that hold them in real time. Therefore, as soon as Cape Wars is over, the server will send the “win/lose information” to the website so that the towns and towers display the guild’s name that holds them immediately after the battle is over.

 

That sums up the idea of Cape Wars. There are definitely aspects of the idea that will have to be tweaked to fit the game, but the general idea seems fun. Cape Wars will encourage more people to participate in wars. Instead of the same guilds winning every weekend, this will break up the odds of that happening. In addition, it will spread the fun of having battles at any day or time of the week.

 

I’m even open to an idea of Guild League. This idea would break guilds up into fractions. Let us say that we break the guilds up and 12 guilds come out of the breakup. Each guild will be pitted against each other at least two times during a season of Guild League. A win/lose record would be maintained based on thirty minutes of game play. Deaths and Kills will be counted and whoever has the most kills at the end of 30 minutes wins. At the end of the season, there would be playoffs and whoever loses in playoffs will be eliminated until two guilds remain for the championship. Maybe a prize would go to each guild member of the guild that wins. I’m just throwing ideas out there.

 

But I believe Cape Wars could succeed. And I know it would be a lot of fun. In any case, this is my last contribution to the WYD Global community; a revolutionizing idea that would reshape WYD Global as we know it. It’s no longer enough to help the community in small ways, it’s time to think big and act on those big thoughts so WYD Global will be here for all us to enjoy for a long time.

 

Please, if any of you have ideas that could be added on to this to make it better, feel free to express your opinions here or through your blog. Change is inevitable, so let us make sure the change is something that will bring fun to us all.

Rough Return

It has been a week and my fingers are anxious; impatiently awaiting for their utilization in the expression of thoughts through words, bringing each of you knowledge from WYD Global. I have returned, but at the expense of my boredom. Each day is a realization of déjà vu. My mind wanders in search of potential, leaving all else to dwindle in the past. Illusion is losing the battle against reality. And reality reminds the wise that nothing is sculpted in eternity. The faces of many erode as time draws to a closer end. Few embrace for the moment of truth as the system succeeds in refining beliefs. To struggle is to carry the pain of success and success will ultimately breed grounds to which a new war will be waged.

 

I extend to each of you a challenge; to interpret the meaning of the above paragraph. Describe to all what it means to you, or perhaps what you believe I am trying to state.

 

Moving away from the above, I am excited to continue another week of blogging. I apologize to those of you that enjoy reading my blog, but have been disappointed that it has not been updated for a week. I have been back for a couple of days now and it has been a rough return.

 

As I entered the game on Sunday, I was looking forward to leveling my God character, but I was extremely disappointed to find that nobody was sharing any water m scrolls. I decided to go away from keyboard for an hour, but when I returned I briefly caught the shout of a player looking for a few more slots for a water m party. I immediately went to Azran so that I could join. However, they were looking for boxers and I did not have any water m scrolls. I quickly bought five dollars worth of wcoins and I purchased an experience box. I gave my box to one of the members since he had MAP. We must have waited another hour before the party was ready to begin.

 

The first level of the water m was fairly easy, but I noticed that the boxers were having a difficult time attacking. Their health points were decreasing at a rapid rate. To my surprise, one of the boxers died. This process continued until every single boxer in the water m party died at level seven. I was frustrated that I joined a party of newbs that were not capable of completing an entire water m scroll. However, what frustrated me even more was the fact that I wasted an experience box. I knew immediately that the water m party was going to disband since the majority of the party were not able to kill. It was not a great few hours to say the least.

 

And lets not forget about the armor that I won from the weekly topic. It took me 27 Lak powders to refine my Initiate Gloves from +8 to +9. I don’t think I have been more pissed off by a game in my life. lol Silly, but that was a ridiculous amount of Lak powders, especially considering that my Initiate Breastplate was fated from +7 to +9 with 16 Lak powders.

 

Anyway, about six hours later, I entered the game for the second time to try my luck at getting a water m party that was capable of killing at all levels. Fortunately, my guild was gathering a bunch of people for a water m share. I bought some water ms and I asked to be partied. However, due to the level restrictions, I was not able to join the party. I was getting even more frustrated with the game due to some of these ridiculous features. Taking away from the game by limiting friends from leveling up together amazes me. In any case, my guild leader was kind enough to lead the party so that I could join. The water m share went fairly quickly due to the high levels that were involved. I went from level 323 to level 342 in about two hours.

 

To top my last frustration of the day, I noticed that I was accumulating a large amount of special points. Apparently the game limits each character from allocating special points in each category after it exceeds a specific amount. Maybe somebody can explain this phenomenon to me, but I was under the impression that God classes are a lot stronger than Mortal classes. Therefore, wouldn’t it make sense to allow God classes to allocate MORE special points in their skills category? I mean, what is the difference between a God and a Mortal if their special points system are identical? Maybe a GM or CM could answer my question 🙂

Vacation

It’s been four days now….since I’ve last played WYD Global. Vital signs appear to be sporadic, but relatively stable. I find myself pacing from room to room, but never satisfied with the minute distractions I tempt myself with. I’m not sure what is worse, not being able to engage the game, or not being able to test the new God armor I received for the weekly award. In either case, extreme boredom slowly plagues my body, mind, and soul.

Last night I could not resist any longer. I downloaded the game, installed it, and attempted to run it. However, the computer I was on was too slow to effectively play WYD Global. Therefore, I was left with no other choice but to uninstall the game and sit idle. Vacation can be a great stress reliever, but in my case, it creates more stress. I will be gone for another three days. Until then, I think I will discontinue writing in my blog. I cannot think of anything else to write due to my absence in the game. Nothing lures me to write.

God Character Update/ Changes?

Last week was an exciting moment for me because I was able to ascend to God character. I was impressed with the stat points that were awarded from the beginning of my God character’s creation. Although I do not like the one-hundred feature, the system that forces one-hundred points into a category if you have for example 400 skill points, I quickly placed some stat points into strength, condition, and dexterity. It was a little frustrating having to place 500 stats into dexterity since God characters do not wear helmets, but it definitely paid off after my attack speed doubled. However, there were some problems that I encountered as I was leveling up my new God character.

 

Unfortunately, God characters cannot do the quests that many of us did with our Mortal character. Therefore, leveling a God character is extremely difficult if you do not regularly purchase wcoins. I attempted to level my God character by hunting for hours and going away from keyboard while at work. However, it took way too long once I reached the level of one-hundred and eighty. Therefore, I was left with no choice but to by wcoins so that I could share water n with people. It seemed like a good idea, but I was disappointed to find out that sharing water n is not as common as I thought. I bought a whole package of shouts and spammed that I was gathering a water n party, but usually nobody responded. I knew that it was going to take a very long time to level my God character, but I was able to share in two parties of water n.

 

After eventually obtaining the level of two-hundred and eighty-one, I wanted to branch out and share water m. Of course I would have shared water m from the beginning, but apparently the level difference prevented many party starters from being able to party me. Therefore, water n had do suffice. Many people kept explaining to me that I had to be at least level two-hundred and eighty in order for a high level God character or Celestial to be able to party me. I was extremely disappointed when I learned that was false. I was at the point of buying water n scrolls and experience boxes and doing them on my own. At least some of you can vouch for that, since I let some of you join me with free water n shares.

 

Last night was a rather unusual night because for the first time, a low level Celestial was able to party me. I was extremely excited that I was going to be able to level my God character a lot faster than doing water n shares. I do not know how he did it, but I was partied and the water m share was about to begin. An hour later, I was summoned by the water m scroll and the experience boxers did their work. I was getting roughly 160k per monster. It was great! My bar kept moving up and up and up. Eventually, I attained the level three-hundred and one. I knew that this water m share was going to allow me to reach at least level three-hundred and ten. However, at the end of the share, I was level three-hundred and twenty. Needless to say, it was a great night of water m sharing, especially with the 2x experience.

 

I have to admit, however, that prohibiting certain levels from being able to party other levels is lame. Most of us play this game to have fun with our online friends, and in many cases, real life friends. But if one friend is higher than the other and he/she can’t party their friends, the feature becomes an isolation feature. I was frustrated that night when some of my friends were not able to be partied. And I was further annoyed with my friend Muss was not able to join one of my water n shares because his level was too high and SultanJohor’s level was too high. I play this game because of the community. I believe it would be in the best interest for the community if the level difference was taken out of the game features. If WYD Global staff wants to make the game more challenging, then perhaps they should consider increasing the levels for Mortal characters and God characters.

 

The last thing that continues to piss me off is the fact that God characters cannot use the last weapon of Mortal characters. Amazing a God cannot use a Mortal weapon. I don’t know how thought of that, but I believe it should be changed. If the last Mortal weapon had higher damage than the lowest God weapon, then I can understand why the WYD Global developers would want to keep it the way it currently is. However, Mortal weapons have lower damage than God weapons. It’s as if a God character is going to have some sort of advantage over another player that plays on a Mortal character. It’s rather silly.

 

Anyway, I will talk to you all soon!

Gaming Addiction: Evolution

It was Tuesday September 16, 2008 and I was anxiously waiting for CM Dhar to unmask the next debatable weekly topic. Seconds ticked by, then minutes, then hours, so I decided to enter WYD Global to use my time more beneficially (Ha!). As I entered, Alia congratulated me for being the previous weekly winner and asked if I saw the current weekly topic. I immediately exited the game to see if I could find it. As the page loaded I scrolled down a little bit to get a better look; and there it was, the topic of the week.

 

“You know you’re addicted to WYD Global when…”

 

It was extremely hard to shake, the trance-like stare that wouldn’t allow me to look away. Over eight years of online gaming flashed before my eyes, and a sudden feeling of depression began to set in. Many of the competitors have spoken “gently” on this topic, but very few, if any, have ever experienced true gaming addiction. They would have you believe that a simple list of “Do’s and Don’ts” is the antidote to this “illness”. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. I stand before each of you with an overwhelming experience. I share with you the true face of gaming addiction and its disastrous affects.

 

“You know you’re addicted to WYD Global when you stop going to school/work so that you can level your character”

 

Caligstar is not merely a masquerade of who and what I am; it IS what I am. Take my hand and we will travel back in time to where it all began. It was the summer of 1998 and it did not take long for Dell Computers to ship my custom made computer to my house. Up until that point, I never had a computer, let alone played games on one. But that quickly changed when I opened a package inside the computer case. It was one of the hottest space simulations of the time, Freespace 1. I equipped my computer and inserted the disk to install the software, and I never looked back.

 

High school was rather dull and I hated every minute of it. I began skipping school so that I could play the computer games I quickly accumulated. During this transition from academics to online gaming, I felt a change within me. I no longer cared about school and hanging with my friends because the power I felt as I became better at certain games was more important. Eventually I started playing a game called Infantry, where at one point I was the best player, led the best squad, and had more “championships” than anybody. Four years of my life was spent building an illusion; one that convinced me that I was untouchable in my cyber realm. However, reality is an earthquake and my world tumbled down when it was brought to my attention that I was not going to graduate high school.

 

Warping away from that moment of realization, I was experiencing déjà vu. I barely graduated high school, but had to attend a community college for two years before I could transfer to a university, due to my excessive gaming and poor grades. Although I vowed to never play games again, a friend of mine informed me about a game called Supreme Destiny. Hesitation flooded by mind, but I could not resist. I installed the game and was on my way to leveling up! The funny thing about college is that nobody cares if you attend. Maybe it is a perk for being an adult, but I exploited that fact more times than I would like to remember. Again, I slowly stopped attending college because I wanted to level my mortal character in Supreme Destiny. Fortunately, the game was not going anywhere and due to many other reasons, was taken down.

 

But that was not the end of my own wrath. A quick Google search of “With Your Destiny” brought up another game that was very similar to Supreme Destiny….WYD Global. Currently, I am playing WYD Global and I love every minute of it. It has its slow times, but the game is continuously enjoyable. And I have to admit, I have called out sick from my work so that I could level my character. But it gets worse.

 

“You know you’re addicted to WYD Global when you stay up for over twenty-four hours clicking for a water m party”

 

It is amazing what double experience and the knowledge of experience boxes will do to a person. My obsession with leveling my character was furthered with the introduction of the above features of the game. WYD Global was different than Supreme Destiny because there are a lot of ways to level a character without having to spend real money. But quests can take a long time and Academies share water n (lower experience than water m). Add that with the fact that Academies only share four times throughout the day, I had no other “choice” but to buy wcoins so that I could purchase water m scrolls. Most people that play WYD Global are eager to share water m scrolls. Therefore, it wasn’t much effort to get a large party gathered for the share. It was my day off, so I did not mind clicking for the party. Eventually, clicking led to more clicking, and even more clicking until I realized that I sat before my computer, without food or water, for the entire day. It was already eleven p.m., but I could not stop. I wanted to continue to level my character, and now, characters – plural. I formed another water m share and the process started again. When the hand of the click crossed over seven in the morning, I forced myself to stop playing because I had to get ready for work.

 

Sleep deprivation tightened its noose around my body, but I can specifically remember the one thought I had. I forced myself to go to work, not because I was going to get into trouble if I was late or did not go, but because I needed to make money in order to buy wcoins for the next water m share. And to make matters worse, I didn’t bother shaving or showering for two days! Wow! This was practically me after that intense gaming session:

 

 

 

“You know you’re addicted to WYD Global when you spend hundreds of dollars to buy in-game items”

 

Two days ago I was speaking with a player from my guild, Super-Beotch. He informed us that he spent about nine hundred dollars last month on WYD Global. I almost fell out of my chair when he told me that, but I stopped myself. Curiosity killed the cat, so naturally I wanted to know how much I spent on WYD Global. I went to the official website and looked at my “top-up” account. To date, I have spent over three hundred dollars on WYD Global. I’ve been playing this game for a little over two months. Not nearly as bad as I thought, but three hundred dollars is a lot of money when you have credit card bills and student loans to pay. There is a hidden feeling that strikes the urge to buy wcoins. I am sure many players can relate to such a feeling.

 

You come home from work or school and you want to relax. You decide to enter WYD Global to chat with online friends, or to see if there is anything you want to buy from the auto-shops. There doesn’t appear to be anything you want from the auto-shops and hardly anybody from your guild is online. Therefore, you head to Armia’s pk arena and you enter. It doesn’t take long before there are a bunch of newbs surrounding you asking if they can test damage. You agree and their attacks do little damage. You’re a high level now remember and you take pride in the time you’ve spent obtaining that status. Suddenly, a higher level comes into the pk arena and kills you instantly. That overwhelming feeling of rage is what pushes many to purchase wcoins. It is one of the many natural advertising features WYD Global uses, and it’s absolutely free on their part. Pride consumes many of us to the point where we act without thinking. And many more lack patience, which also pushes for quick results; usually at the expense of our wallets.

 

“You know you’re addicted to WYD Global when you enter the game to escape real-life stress”

 

Everybody experiences stress, some more than others, but how we deal with stress follows specific patterns. The pattern I follow when dealing with stress is entering WYD Global. I escape reality by entering a fantasy world that is completely safe. I do not have to worry about production, reports, interacting with people I hate, etc. All sense of time ceases to exist. However, believing gaming is a great stress reliever is false. Most of the time, gaming causes more stress. The example I used above regarding the pk arena causes stress. I stress out when I get pk’d because I want to be the strongest and the best. Therefore, I do whatever I can to obtain that. I spend real money; I spend countless hours leveling up my character, and using all my in-game gold buying better armor and weapons. But the realization is, there is always somebody that is willing to go further, work harder, and spend more money. I have personally had dreams where I was terrified that another player was getting better equipment than me. I won’t say who that person is, but it excelled my determination to continue leveling my mortal character, and recently, to obtain the best God armor for my God character.

 

“You know you’re addicted to WYD Global when you spend three hours writing a blog for the WYDian Journal event AT WORK”

 

Okay, I admit it! I am currently at work writing this before 7 a.m. global time. It’s been three hours now and I’m still typing out every ounce of thought regarding my personal experience with gaming addiction. If there is one thing that I want you to leave this blog with, it’s that gaming addiction is not curable by decreasing the amount of time you spend online, or going out with friends more, or finding a hobby. In most cases, your hobby is gaming. Once your friends leave, or the hanging out is over, you want to go back to your hobby. Decreasing the amount of time you spend online is like placing ten cookies in front of a five year old and telling him/her to only eat three of them. It’s not going to happen.

 

 Then how do you break yourself free from being dependant on online gaming? The answer is not easy. Perhaps there is no answer. But what works for me is admitting that I have a problem. Everyday I tell myself that I am addicted to online gaming. Once that feeling of depression sets in, after knowing that I could be more productive in areas of my life that DO matter, I can easily walk away from the game or the computer altogether. Find what your strengths are and set goals for yourself. If you stay dedicated, gaming can be a simple hour or two a day hobby and nothing more. Taken too seriously and it’s very dangerous.

 

Anyway, I hope you guys understand where I’m coming from. This blog is not a simple restating of information from websites. It’s my experience, the affects on me, and what I have done about it. And now I am done blogging for the day. I’m starting to look like this:

 

 

Guild War/ Kingdom War

After a gentle rest and an early rise, I am before you again channeling brainwaves of thought into words. It has been a tiring few days, as my swords have been rather busy battling these thieves attempting to loot my thoughts and ideas. Paraphrasing sections of my blog and then quickly claiming they never read it, when it is truth that in order to have written what they wrote they had to have read my blog. But I am moving away from that idle chatter. One great thing about having issues with people online is you quickly get over it.

           

It almost slipped my mind the other day as I was leveling up my 209 God character, but I did not share with the community my experience during my first Guild War and Kingdom War. Both of these events were not what I expected. I have a knack for allowing my imagination to get the best of me. I pictured the rough grass of Azran swaying in the restless breeze. I envisioned my guild, Shield, lining up in a single row of warriors as the guild leader, dumptires, road down the line to prepare us for war. A voice roared through the air, “We ride today not for freedom of men, not to save the lives of the weak, but for each other, for Shield!” It was straight out of Lord of the Rings and my adrenaline surged beyond control. Suddenly I was warped into a small area and the Guild War was on. Talk about disappointment. It wasn’t more than ten minutes (if that) and it was over. Our enemies lay ruined before our feet, suffering the embarrassment of an overwhelming defeat. The only thing that was panning through my mind was why I thought it was a brilliant idea to arrive at work 4 hours later than I was scheduled so that I could attend the Guild War.

 

 

The above image was taken as we finished our quick battle with Heroes. They fought courageously, but Shield overwhelmingly dominated the entire Guild War.

 

Time was slowly ticking away and I was concerned that Kingdom War was going to be just as messy, but just as easy. However, my assumption was completely incorrect. Kingdom War kicked off with the game music changing into a low rumble. The hair on the back of my neck began to stand up as the next wave of adrenaline entered my body. With my Dragon Wing Axes ready for action, I charged into a group of Celestials and……….died instantly. haha If my ice fairy could talk, I’m sure it would be saying I was an idiot for charging into a group of Celestials, but nonetheless, it was a lot of fun. Luckily dumptires gave me potion that increased my hp by 1,000. It sure did come in handy many many many times over.

 

 

 

 

It was a fun and exciting day to say the least, despite the occassional boredom. The last picture displayed is rather interesting. Apparently somebody from above was looking out for me, as the white light parted the darkness of the lands and shown brightly on my armor, blessing it. I proudly stood on the alter as my foes struggled to retake their server. But their fight was not enough and TheBalance won Kingdom War with the help of Shield.

 

Anyway, moving away from the current topic, I guess I will post a picture of my “uniform” from last year. I worked for the police department and we had to wear this uniform when patrolling around our assigned area. We were pretty much security for the police department. Whenever we had an issue, we contacted dispatch and they relayed our information to a police officer. He/she would then respond and help us out. I would have posted a current picture, but my job does not require me to wear a uniform. I wear whatever I want. Perks of being a supervisor 🙂

 

And I tag Azmon, Default, and Alia. Post your pics guys and dolls! 🙂

Initiate Pants

             After a full week of anticipating the announcement of the weekly topic winners, I was shocked when I read my name. The only thought that entered my mind was one that would require some more attention. I knew from the guidelines that I would receive 20 Lak powders and a god armor piece of my choice, perfect options. But I did not know what kind of options I wanted or even what piece of armor I wanted to obtain.

            Currently, I am a TransKnight, but I have been thinking about switching to MagicKnight, as it appears they have more attack power. However, I love the “tanking” ability of the TransKnight. Therefore, I decided what I wanted from CM Dhar. I e-mailed him immediately after I knew and told him that I wanted the following:

 

Initiate Pants+0

30 Dmg Inc

7.0 Critical

 

No sooner than I requested the piece of god armor, my reward came knocking at my door. I immediately looked at the armor and was satisfied. But I ran into another problem. I had 20 Lak powders that would be useful for refining from +6 to +9, but I did not have any Ori powders to refine from +0 to +6. I scrambled right away to server 1 in the attempt to buy Ori powders. I disregarded price and bought Ori powders for 1.4 million each. I failed from +5 to +6, so I needed to get at least one more Ori powder. I searched all over and finally found an auto-shop that was selling Ori powders for 1 million each. I cringed because I bought the other Ori powders for a much higher price, but I didn’t care. I bought all of them and refined my Initiate Pants to +7.

            Now, I knew the tricky part, well, the hard part, was going to be refining my armor to +9. I dropped the first Lak powder on my pants and it was a success. I quickly dropped the second and it failed. Then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and finally the tenth was successful. Phew, only 10 more Laks left and I needed one more successful refining to +9. I dropped the eleventh Lak powder on my Initiate Pants and it failed, then the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and finally the fifteenth was successful. So there you have it. I finally have my Initiate Pants+9. And to make it even better, I have 5 Lak powders left over. Hopefully they will be useful for the next time I need to fate armor or weapons.

            I want to share with you guys a trick that I have been using since SupremeDestiny. It is a trick that includes timing, but will definitely help when you need to refine armor or weapons. It appears that most of the time you will not succeed in refining from +5 to +6, which is okay. On god weapons, it may take you another 4-5 Ori Powders to refine from +5 to +6 after you failed once. However, with armor, it is a little different most of the time. When you fail, drop another Ori powder on the armor and when it succeeds in refining, quickly drop a Lak powder on the armor. Wait for about 2.1 seconds, and drop another Lak powder. Continue this process until you have refined your armor or weapon to +9. Remember, you have a higher percentage of probability to succeed when you drop Ori powders and Lak powders on weapons and armors continuously, as aside from dropping them when you randomly obtain one. Try it out and report back if this system works for you. Maybe you have a better system that works. Please share it as it would definitely help the people that are new to the game.

X-Files

I’m trapped as an adult in a world full of little kids. It isn’t often that intellectual thoughts of expression are formulated in such a style that radiates into the minds of others, or in this circumstance, the blogs of others. I’ve been accused of being a provoker, a lair, a cheater, and I have seen the “internet finger” more than once. But through all the idle chatter, one fact remains…I am an influencer. Simply reading is not enough in these harsh times. Gathering the facts of distorted truth must first begin by dissecting the rubble of shit that some of you call blogs. I am on the battlefield once again; my arms strung high as the wrath of my sword slices through the masquerade of innocence. I am the barer of truth and the formulator of justice. I will be heard and the truth will set me free.

 

            Let the dissection begin!

 

Posted September 11, 2008 by Caligstar

 

I am beginning to believe the WYDian Journal event is losing its appeal. There are too many illusions that glorify unrealistic outcomes.

 

Posted September 12, 2008 by MSTR-FOEMA

 

Well it simply looks like we are talking and they are not listening, journal event is starting to become a good event goin bad

 

Posted September 11, 2008 by Caligstar

 

There are two posters that state two different grand prizes. The first poster detailed a grand prize of an ancient weapon without any stats, and 10 monthly winners. The second poster advertised a grand prize of an ancient weapon with stats, and 5 monthly winners. I had the ancient weapon issue clarified by CM Dhar last night and he assured me that the ten/five lucky winners would receive an ancient weapon with stats

 

Posted September 12, 2008 by MSTR-FOEMA

Recently I blogged about this and CM Dhar told me not to worry about the statless crap on the main website and the rules were the one on the CMs Blog and I was like WOOT thx Dhar, what a relief…

 

Posted September 12, 2008 by Caligstar

 

Caligstar: There has been a lot of speculation about the ancient weapon Dhar. Can you clear this issue up for the community. Will the winners receive and ancient weapon with perfect stats or without?

CM Dhar: Okay. Since the poster is not updated, this is what the final prize will be; a +9 ancient weapon without stats and 200 million gold. Instead of having 5 winners, there will be 10. That is what my boss, Sexy, wants.

Caligstar: Who is your boss?

CM Dhar: There will be 2 weekly winners, one for each topic. My boss is GM Helius, or Sexy. In addition, there will be up to 5 daily winners in each category.

 

Posted September 13, 2008 by MSTR-FOEMA

 

Okay fellow bloggers your favorite CM Dhar made it clear, it came from “above” as people of higher authorities decided to be cruel to us by making cruel modifications to the contest and denying us of our dream weapons…

 

————————-

Gee, I wonder where he read that CM Dhar made it clear that his boss told him no ancient weapon with stats. What a coincidence that MSTR-FOEMA’s response to the ancient weapon came a day after my blog was originally posted. I want everybody to be crystal clear that I never accused him of copying word for word my blog. What I did ask him to stop doing was paraphrasing my blog, or specifically taking certain segments of my blog and writing on it. The ideas are not his own, they are taken from my blog, as you can clearly see. I was not about to copy and paste everything, but that gives you an idea of what I have been recently annoyed with.

 

Guild mate or not, I don’t tolerate plagiarism without giving due acknowledgement to the person with the original idea or thought. When you grow up MSTR-FOEMA and attend college, they will teach you about plagiarism. Until then, I will keep schooling you myself. And to the CMs that continuously hand out awards for this junk you are partially to blame for this behavior. Remember, quality, not quantity is what matters most.

 

But before I forget, I want to address one other person that apparently does not mind paraphrasing my blogs. Soloran at least admits he’s paraphrasing and he did attempt to give me credit for my ideas, but he received an award for merely regurgitating my ideas into his own words. Congrats. And congrats to MSTR-FOEMA for winning so many days in a row by occasionally doing the same. What a wonderful event that rewards plagiarism and unoriginal thoughts.

 

And to end this blog, I want to mention that if I, or MSTR-FOEMA, win the daily event in any category, all hope will be lost for this event, as both his and my blogs today have absolutely NOTHING to do with WYD Global as a game.

 

Thank you