I have a
It all started because of my brother. I've long been a gamer, but I specifically avoided MMO's because I knew they would be the gateway drug to a lonely existence filled with empty pizza boxes and festering bed sores. I was successful in my efforts until I moved from college to Utah where my brother finally broke me down and got me to play World of Warcraft so we could spend time together. Just like I feared, I was hooked from the first night. From that moment until the present, I've spent hundreds of dollars and thousands of hours sitting in front of my monitor in the off-hope that an epic shoulder piece might finally drop in a raid free of d-bag ninjas. He quit shortly after and is doing great while I'm now 300+ pounds and living in the daze that comes from 8 hour leveling sessions and bottles of Code Red.
Recently I've started thinking how sad it was that I've spent so much time turning these weakling toons into harlequin romance novel worthy studs, all the while spending zero time studifying myself. So I think I've had enough. Over the course of this year, I'm going to play a whole new MMO. I'm starting my continuing subscription to Real Life. Unfortunately, the rules of Real Life aren't as cut and dry as WoW or SWTOR, so I'm going to have to figure them out as I go. Here are a few I've worked out:
- Unlike most MMO's, Real Life only allows you to have one, and only one, character (for argument's sake and to pacify my Buddhist friends, I'll amend that to say only one concurrent character).
- Like other MMO's, I'm giving Real Life a maximum level. But if I decide I can be something greater than a level 50 human, I reserve the right to release expansion packs.
- Levels are not set. Just because I work my way up to level 20 doesn't mean that I won't be back down to a level 9 if I take a break from playing.
- Dead animal do not randomly drop armor or gold
Now, just like in the MMO world, I know there will be times where I will spend more time leveling than other times. I plan to give Real Life an effort similar to I do any other MMO. I didn't work on leveling 24/7, but I have managed to find the time to put in consistent enough of an effort to get my other toons max leveled and epically geared. If it works for them, maybe it will work for me.
I plan to set actual quests with XP points to help me determine when I've achieved my next level, but for right now I'm going to wing it. As tempting as it is to wait until I've got my leveling scheme all figured out to start, I think I'm going to listen to Patton and execute a good plan at the right time, rather than wait too long to develop the perfect plan.
So without further ado, I'm starting day one as a level one human. Let the adventure begin.
