ac_shadow
First Year, First Semester
Posts: 27
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Post by ac_shadow on Mar 27, 2007 20:04:01 GMT -5
some of u may or may not know me but i am ac_shadow if u havent seen my on the TP boards or other clan sites but i just watned to post the DC story RandomOrange had used to win BloodLustShadow's writing contest so some of u mite quite recognize it and i wanted to post it, it is veryvery inspiring and amazing of what he went through with is DC life
i am not sure if this wil fit all into one post so i think i will need to post more than once and please dont post until the story is done, thank u
Part 1: Starting Out Skyrider began his journeys in the realm of Dragon Court as just another person who didn't have much in the way of items. After having spent a considerable amount of his time to learn more about the game, Skyrider created his own clan and eventually developed a lust for power when he realized that his clan was doing well. Ironically, however, what had initially drawn Skyrider into the game would end up driving him out of there a few years later.
Skyrider made his first appearance in the realm of Dragon Court in January 2000 at the request of a friend who desperately needed power points to keep his clan on the toplist. Though Skyrider was eager to help his friend, his initial ineptness at the game caused him to lose a lot of interest in it. During his first few weeks of adventuring, Skyrider could hardly survive an entire day without being slain by creatures. His friend understood his troubles and sent him a package with two mediocre weapons - a 9a Foul Axe and an 11d Snake Scale Suit - even though he happened to be one of the better players and could certainly afford to give him a better suit. When Skyrider complained to his friend that he was still being slaughtered left to right by creatures, his friend offered him a 12a Spirit Katana, which Skyrider immediately realized wasn't a significant improvement over the Foul Axe that he had previously wielded. Creatures would run away from him as soon as Skyrider delivered the first hit. Feeling discouraged, Skyrider didn't see the point of playing a game that he clearly wasn't good at.
Skyrider knew that he wasn't going to get far in the game unless he took the time to learn more about it. He wanted to post messages on the Salamander Tavern board to request the assistance of others. However, Skyrider wasn't able to do so for two reasons - his character wasn't old enough to make posts, and he hadn't registered his character under an e-mail address. Skyrider didn't wish to validate his character by providing his e-mail address because of what had happened to him months earlier. His e-mail address was given to a variety of third-party companies and there were hundreds of spam messages festering in his mailbox.
Without a way to communicate with the DC community, Skyrider had to do everything by himself. Eventually, he gained enough of an understanding of the game to realize that there were things that he should and shouldn't be doing. As the weeks progressed, Skyrider no longer died as often and felt that he finally knew enough about the game to make it out on his own.
Part 2: The Making of His Clan About a month later, Skyrider decided to establish his own clan, the Skyriders, to compete with his friend for sovereignty as well as for bragging rights. However, his friend was about to leave the realm of Dragon Court forever due to his loss of enthusiasm for the game. Skyrider was a bit disappointed, but nonetheless, he intended to remain in Dragon Court with the aspirations of having his name displayed on one of the toplists. Of course, Skyrider knew that this wasn't going to be an easy endeavor. He was not strong enough to slay dragons to see his name on the list of Fame. He did not have enough enchant scrolls nor did he possess a high amount of wits to enchant weapons effectively to see his name on the list of Skill. His character wasn't anywhere close to being 1000 years old to see his name on the list of Age. And he certainly didn't have the 2.1 billion marks required to see his name on the list of Guild. It became clear to Skyrider that his only chance of seeing his name on a toplist would be through his clan.
He believed that it was entirely possible for the Skyriders to reach the clan toplist. If his friend could do it, Skyrider knew that he could do it as well. Feeling ambitious, Skyrider made it his goal to reach this toplist as quickly as possible and pick up from where his friend had left off. He tested out a few recruitment strategies using an auxiliary clan that he had established on the test version of Dragon Court; in a matter of a month, that clan became the #1 clan there. Skyrider was on to something and he knew that he had discovered a few effective ways of recruiting new members for his clan. However, it would take several months of recruiting through various avenues before Skyrider would achieve his goal - seeing his name on one of the toplists of the game. On a bright summer day when school wasn't in session and when Skyrider didn't have anything else to do with his time, Skyrider's clan made its first appearance on the toplist at #24.
Part 3: Reaching the Top 12 Skyrider was delighted to see his clan on the toplist. However, he thought that he could do better. He began to set his eyes on the top 12 list and believed that his clan could get there if he continued to work hard and recruit new members. Of course, Skyrider knew that reaching the top 12 was an entirely different challenge from his initial goal of simply reaching the toplist. To reach the very top, he had to be a little clever. Skyrider decided to view the advertisements of the best clans in the game to study their recruitment practices as well as the services that they offered to their members. Skyrider knew that there was something that he could learn from them, and it didn't take long for him to realize that several, dedicated players were responsible for providing the bulk of power to many of these top-notch clans. Skyrider, who was content with already having assembled an army of 35 regents, knew that he would have to do the same things that they were doing if he wanted to compete with them. From there on, Skyrider continued to create new characters for his army while encouraging his clansmen and clanswomen to also train new characters. He cited the benefits of having more characters - more slots for storage, more quests, and of course, more power for the clan.
As Skyrider trained new recruits for his army, he began to wonder if there was an optimal amount of characters that he should have. He wanted more power for his clan, but he understood the drawbacks of having to manage too many characters. His solution was to devise a comprehensive schedule for his characters while also using an effective method to train his army. All of his new recruits were confined to Royal Court activities every single day for their first two months and Skyrider had two goals in mind for each of his recruits - he wanted each of them to attain Regent status as quickly as possible, and he wanted to train each of them at the Royal Court until they had at least 200 guts and wits. This meant that his characters would be strong enough to fight in Shangala; thus, they would be used to gather weapons of quality for his clan's armory. Of course, Skyrider knew that it wasn't feasible to train all of these characters every single day. When his characters had fulfilled their two objectives (becoming regent and having 200 guts/wits), Skyrider divided them into 7 groups. He would train with one group of characters on a specific day of the week to ensure that his characters would always contribute power to his clan. Eventually, the groups became so large that Skyrider had to juggle with 19 characters in one day.
With such a dedication to succeed, it was only a matter of time before Skyrider's clan reached the top 12. Still, Skyrider wasn't happy. He realized that his clan, despite having existed for almost a year, was largely unknown to the rest of the DC realm. He had no idea how his clan was being seen by others or whether or not they even cared that it existed. Knowing his clan's reputation became all the more important after Skyrider had witnessed how a certain clan was being treated by the community for their passiveness. One of the accusations against this particular clan was that they were "hackers" because they had a lot of power and didn't have any members who participated in the community. Skyrider wasn't going to let this happen to his clan. In an effort to acquaint himself with the community, Skyrider visited several clan forums to learn about some of the issues that were being discussed. He learned that the issue of "hacking" was a very hot topic at the time and that there were unscrupulous people in the realm of DC who would cheat their way to the top by using programs. Skyrider feared that others, who knew little about his clan, would see his clan as one that promotes such practices. Knowing that there were no gains to be made through cheating, Skyrider was completely against the practice. But he quickly realized that he could use this topic as a springboard for presenting his clan in a positive light. He saw that only a handful of clans had adopted a stance against hacking at the time, and Skyrider was more than ready to adopt an anti-hacking policy for his clan. Skyrider wanted to reach the top and would do almost anything to see his clan gain more power, but even he agreed to adhere to the ethics of fair play.
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ac_shadow
First Year, First Semester
Posts: 27
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Post by ac_shadow on Mar 27, 2007 20:04:17 GMT -5
Part 4: Getting Better, Getting Worse Fast forward a half-year to May 2001. Skyrider's clan was doing very, very well and they were now the 5th largest clan in the game with almost 3500 power. Skyrider gave credit to his superb recruiting practices as well as the numerous characters that he had in his clan - 135 characters, many of which were regents, to be exact. However, Skyrider was secretly disappointed. He didn't like the fact that nearly 1 out of 3 characters in his clan was actually one of his own characters. In addition, he had expected his clan to achieve a much higher position on the toplist based on the fact that the 2nd largest clan in the game only had 2000 power the previous year. It was easy for Skyrider to see that other clans were gaining power faster than his clan was and he couldn't possibly recruit enough new members into his clan to keep up with them.
After May 2001, Skyrider's clan would never again be as strong as it was. People began to leave his clan in favor of other clans that were more active in the community. Skyrider had many thoughts in mind and wished that there was somebody that he could discuss his thoughts with. However, he had no one to tell them to - his clan didn't have a clan council of any sort. Skyrider never believed in having a clan council because he was selfish. He wanted all of the power to himself and didn't think that anyone else in the clan had worked as hard as he did to bring his clan to the top.
Part 5: Mega Merger and Reaching Out to the DC CommunityAs Skyrider became discouraged by the loss of power of his clan, he eased on his recruiting practices and things began to look worse than ever for him. It was then that Skyrider gained the radical idea of merging several clans into one. He knew that this was one way to escape from the rut that his clan appeared to be stuck in. But how was he going to do it? He only had control of his clan, the Skyriders, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to convince other clans to merge their clans with his. He knew that they would never agree to a merger with a clan that had minimal contact with the rest of the community.
Because it had been so obvious to Skyrider that his lack of exposure to the community was hurting the image of his clan, Skyrider decided to become an active participator in the community. Knowing quite little about the events that were occurring in the community, Skyrider opted to voice his opinions under different aliases, all of which had already been assigned to different clans. By posting under different aliases, Skyrider hoped to learn more about some issues before using Skyrider himself to voice his opinions. Skyrider couldn't afford to make himself look silly in the eyes of others if he tried to take a position on an issue that he knew nothing about, after all. Eventually, some of Skyrider's alter egos were so well liked that they had gained the trust of their clan leaders while other alter egos would be ignored or even scolded. When two of Skyrider's alter egos had been granted admission to their respective clan councils, he knew that the possibility of having a "mega merger" between Skyriders and a few other powerful clans could become a reality. He wondered if this hypothetical clan could potentially compete with the top 2 clans - Titan and Frost Knights.
However, by 2002, Skyrider was beginning to see that things may never go well for his clan again. Years had passed and few people knew anything about him or his clan. It was apparent that the Skyriders still weren't being accepted as a "mainstream" clan due to their limited interaction with the rest of the community. Appearances by ambassadors from other clans to his clan forum was so rare that Skyrider was always delighted to see them. He was even more delighted if they took the time to read about his clan's history, goals, and their strict policies against hacking, no matter how inarticulate he was.
Skyrider tried to think of a way to reach out to the DC community. What could he do to make others think that his clan was worth visiting? Skyrider, who noticed that his clan's website was beginning to pick up a massive amount of traffic due to his coverage of the upcoming 2002 DC upgrade, figured that he could use his clan site to give others a good impression of his clan. He decided to expand his clan site to include help services for individuals who were trying to learn more about the game regardless of their clan affiliation. Skyrider was selfish when it came to the matter of power, but he remembered two years ago when he was close to quitting the game for good because of his ineptness at the game. Still, few people knew about the existence of his help services. Many players either consulted the assistance of other players or would refer to other, more popular clan sites to learn more about the game. Skyrider was happy to help the few who asked him for his assistance, but he became angry one day when he found out that some people had copied information from his help site and passed it off as their own. Skyrider knew that this constituted as plagiarism and became even angrier when these thieves were being praised for their "hard work," the very same work that they had stolen from Skyrider! Skyrider didn't know why they would do this to him. He had never done anything to these people, but they seemed to be eager to exploit his kindness as a way of thanking him. Skyrider wondered if he could do anything to make sure that this didn't happen to him again. He usually had some good ideas in mind, but this time, he wasn't able to think of one. Skyrider accepted the risk of having his material stolen again and moved on.
Luckily for Skyrider, his clan site gained a little popularity when a few prominent DC players began to advertise the link to his In-Depth Weapons Guide, a listing of base stats of weapons that he and others had been gathering after the very recent 2002 upgrade. Still, for many, it was the only section of his clan/help site that was worth looking at as evidenced by the disproportional amount of hits that the guide was receiving. It received even more hits than the index page of his site, which included information about the changes that the new upgrade had brought.
Part 6: A Chance to Merge Meanwhile, Skyrider's alter egos were doing quite well. His two alter egos who were previously promoted to their respective clan councils were now promoted to the highest position of the clan - clan leader. Skyrider was now the leader of 3 different clans in the top 24. However, it was painful for Skyrider to see that these two clans that were being lead by his alter egos were actually receiving more petitions than his clan was. He thought that it was pathetic that his alter egos, who were only promoted recently, were already doing better than he was after 2 years.
Not forgetting about the idea of merging multiple clans into one, Skyrider went further by taking a risky venture later that year. He announced the establishment of a sister clan, the Skyshroud Knights. The power of his new clan was largely funded by inactive characters that were no longer contributing power to his clan, and weeks later, Skyrider was the owner of 4 different clans in the top 24. The community began to take notice of Skyrider and his activities when they learned that he had created a second clan. They, of course, did not know that Skyrider was also the leader of two other clans, but the public would continue to have the perception that he was leading 2 clans instead of 4.
Skyrider knew that this would be an ideal time to merge all 4 of his clans into one. At long last, Skyrider could see his goal come true. However, he doubted that such a move could ever be successful. He was happy to have gained the trust of prominent players in the game through his alter egos, but he knew that he would disappoint them if he merged their clans without their consent. Skyrider understood that these clans had a rich history of their own, and having been a clan leader for the past two years, he knew how much work their previous leaders had put into it.
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ac_shadow
First Year, First Semester
Posts: 27
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Post by ac_shadow on Mar 27, 2007 20:04:41 GMT -5
Part 7: When Power Became Meaningless Eventually, Skyrider lost his hunger for power. The Skyriders weren't doing well at all, but his other 3 clans were. Perhaps Skyrider didn't feel the same way about his "inherited" clans seeing that he hadn't done anything to truly deserve the leadership of those clans. It took a very long time, but Skyrider discovered that many of his burdens were being caused by one thing. By this time, Skyrider had already seen several clans come and go due to accusations about "hacking," dispute between players from the same clans, and many other things. He saw that there was a correlation between these events and an element essential to all clans - power.
Skyrider knew that there were clans who were gaining their power through unsatisfactory means. Throughout his years as a clan leader, Skyrider had been asked by representatives from other clans to merge his clans with theirs. Of course, Skyrider would always object to such offers, seeing that he had always wanted to have more power for his clan. Nowadays, he was much less interested in power but still didn't like the idea of merging his main clan, the Skyriders, into a different clan. He became very annoyed one day when representatives from a rising clan had sent letters to all 4 of the clans that Skyrider was in charge of, requesting all of them to merge his clans with theirs. He informed the leaders of this clan that he wasn't interested in merging his clan with thiers, but they would continue to send letters to Skyrider and the leaders of his other 3 clans.
Skyrider saw that as an insult to his clan, for his clan had existed for a much longer time than this rising clan and that these ambassadors were ignoring the fact that he had dedicated so much of his time to his clan. Yet these people, in their rabid quest for power, didn't think twice about asking him to hand his clan over. They clearly had no respect for ethics as evidenced by their willingness to reach the top by any means necessary - through "hacking," multiplaying, etc. Skyrider was guilty of multiplaying, of course, but even he believed that a fine line had to be drawn between multiplaying and "hacking" characters for the purpose of gaining power. In his eyes, the practice of hacking could never be justifiable and he was not about to let his clan go into the hands of people who didn't deserve to be a top clan in the first place. To Skyrider's disappointment, the clan would eventually overthrow Titan and Frost Knights to take the #1 spot on the toplist. He couldn't believe what he was seeing with his eyes. It seemed that the good and honorable were being triumphed by the evil.
Skyrider didn't know it at the time, but he was witnessing mirror images of who he once was, only except that these images were being perpetuated by an entire clan council instead of just himself. He now knew what it was like to have a taste of his own medicine.
Part 8: Troubles in the DC Community At the same time, although Skyrider still wasn't an active participator in the DC community, he saw that things were becoming unstable. It seemed that the community was often a breeding grounds for controversy - disputes between players and clans would happen often, either on the DC forums or on the forums of clans. On one particular clan forum, Skyrider observed as one person posted his home address to instigate a fight between him and another clan member who disagreed over something. Skyrider couldn't understand why people would take a game so seriously that they'd be willing to harm someone. Again, Skyrider saw that an obsession over power was the root of these problems.
He had a few thoughts in mind about how he could solve the problems that were plaguing the community. No longer obsessed with power, Skyrider had to find some sort of other way to align himself with other players who shared his views about the state of the game. After hearing that deadly1, who was known for creating CO-ASH, the first anti-hacking organization to exist in the game, Skyrider sent him a letter to tell him about the problems that he had seen in the community lately. After some careful planning, they re-created CO-ASH together and persuaded several others to join their cause. At long last, Skyrider was building a reputation of his own. Unfortunately, the organization wouldn't last long. Although deadly1 and Skyrider discussed plans to create a new website for the organization, Skyrider had lost contact with deadly1 and no one was able to reach him. Without him, Skyrider knew that the second coming of CO-ASH wasn't going to be successful.
Skyrider still had a plan in mind to abolish "hacking," so he decided to file an application to join US-CASH, a new anti-hacking organization that was gaining widespread popularity. However, his plea was ignored despite the fact that he was a member of CO-ASH, the first anti-hacking organization to exist in the game. Perhaps the community felt that Skyrider wasn't dedicated enough to their cause. Perhaps they felt that Skyrider wasn't articulate enough to get his ideas across in a community where the vast majority of players was older than he was. In his two and a half years as a clan leader and still having ownership of 4 clans, Skyrider wondered what he had really achieved all this time and whether or not it was even worth continuing his clan. He was quite tired, his main clan wasn't doing well, and many of his clansmen and clanswomen were leaving to join other, more appealing clans.
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ac_shadow
First Year, First Semester
Posts: 27
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Post by ac_shadow on Mar 27, 2007 20:05:07 GMT -5
Part 9: Reaching Out Again Believing that he didn't have the backing of the community on his side, Skyrider decided to create a name for himself. In light of all these events, Skyrider wished to create a more positive community for the game and knew that the only way to do this would be to reach out to the newer players. He knew that the "newbies" were the future of the community and that if he could shape their attitudes by being kind to them, perhaps they would return the favor someday by making the community a more enjoyable place to be in. He believed that this was important and Skyrider began to write several more help guides for his clan/help site. What he now had to do was advertise the link to his clan/help site to these new players and they would find the answers to many of their questions.
Skyrider was very eager to reach out to the newer players. He saw that these players were often at odds with a few older players who were yearning for the "good old days" to return to them. He didn't like how some of them would opt to play the seniority card and belittle newer players whenever they had a question to ask on the Salamander Tavern forum. Skyrider felt that it was incredibly rude on their behalf and that they were setting a bad example for the community. He understood that the so-called "n00bs" had as much right to play this game as these people did. Skyrider was a "n00b" before and so was everyone else. How could they possibly object?
As Skyrider concentrated a lot less on his clan and more on how he could fix the problems in the DC community, his clans continued to lose power at a rapid rate and he eventually lost control of the two clans that his alter egos were running. Skyrider didn't care at all about the state that his clans were in. His only concern was reaching out to the newer players and he thought little about anything else. He knew that his efforts were paying off when he received letters from these newer players, thanking him for his assistance.
Part 10: Beginning of the End It would seem that things would go well for Skyrider from there on, but he found himself on the verge of quitting the game for good one day when he discovered that his collection of silver weapons had disappeared in the mail. He was an avid collector of silvers, and back then, mailing weapons between two different characters was the only way to prevent rust from occurring.
It was this very event that made Skyrider remember why he had enjoyed playing this game so much in the first place. He remembered how glad he was when he slaughtered his first samurai years ago and how anxious he was to slaughter the dragon. But as soon as Skyrider began to obsess over the power of his clan, his achievements in the game took a backseat. He believed that he was doing a good job as a leader by treating his clansmen and clanswomen with the best gear around, but he couldn't promise them a fun, stimulating environment that other clans were able to provide. Skyrider knew for certain that he had failed as a clan leader. And now, he was getting angry over the loss of hundreds of silver weapons that were intangible and had no real application to his life.
Skyrider felt that the best thing for him to do would be to eradicate his two remaining clans as well as all the characters that he had spent so much time training to perfect. He thought about merging his two clans into one clan in particular that Skyrider had immense respect for; as a parting gift, perhaps he could see his dream come true when a clan that truly deserved to compete with the best could have enough power to do so. At the last minute, however, he dismissed the idea of merging his two clans into that clan. He believed that no clan in the game should have the power that his characters brought. Power was an evil element and was responsible for many of the conflicts that he had observed in the community.
Before dismantling his remaining two clans, Skyrider wondered if he should transfer the leadership of his clans over to one of his members. However, he decided that it'd be best if his clan left DC with him. After almost three years of leadership and having poured hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into perfecting his clan, Skyrider left the realm of DC and didn't ever think about coming back. He was a little disappointed because his story may never be known to the community, but overall, he felt that this was a great decision. In reality, Skyrider was better able to balance the demands of rigorous academics and athletics.
Part 11: Skyrider Returns Nearly four years later, Skyrider decided to return to the realm of DC. He knew why he had failed so miserably in the first place and was reasonably certain that he wasn't going to make the same mistakes again. He wanted to have a fresh start, one that was free from all the burdens that he was faced with years ago. He had matured considerably as a person and would no longer hide behind alter egos to voice his opinions. It made perfect sense to him to have himself known by others under a single alias.
He began his comeback by training 5 new characters. It wasn't exactly a recreation of the same struggles that he had faced as a newbie six years ago; there were some new mechanics in the game and Skyrider still possessed a lot of knowledge about the game to know what he should and shouldn't do. After Skyrider finished questing with his 5 new characters, he decided to browse around the DC forums to see what has changed. One of the forums that he paid particular attention to was the Trading Post board, as he recalled that there was a system of "trading caps" in place during the time of his departure and wondered if such a system was able to last throughout the years. He didn't know for sure if the system had been abolished, but his attention soon became directed towards the outstanding weapons that were being sold. What in the world were these Silver Amini Clubs? Skyrider learned that SACs were now the best right-handed weapon in the game and he wanted one for himself.
Of course, Skyrider had absolutely nothing when he returned to DC that day. His collection of silver weapons was long gone, but so was everything else that he had - his clans, his characters, the few friends that he had, and his vast possessions. He had nothing to bargain with on the Trading Post and he couldn't recognize any of the names that he was seeing on the forums. Still, Skyrider wanted a SAC and would quest his new characters on a daily basis with the hopes that the Wheel Guy would drop a SAC for one of his characters.
Part 12: A Little Bit of Hope Two weeks later, Skyrider became ecstatic as soon as he discovered that his two strongest characters had escaped the grasp of the Reaper, a ruthless automated machine that took away the characters of people who didn't care enough about them to play them every 10 days per level. With these two characters, perhaps it'd be much easier for Skyrider to achieve his goal of having a SAC. He could quest these two in Azteca and try to find one instead of depending on the Wheel Guy. Still, Skyrider only had a mediocre antique suit to work with. His combined attack and defense didn't even exceed 200 points, and he was killed by every single creature in the area. Skyrider knew that his only choice was to "backtrack" and quest in areas such as Hie Brasil for the time being until he could get upgrades for the two characters that would allow them to survive in Azteca.
While questing around with his new characters one day, Skyrider wondered if he should start a new clan; he still remembered quite a bit about leading a clan and could possibly succeed this time around. However, he decided against it. He feared that his hunger for power would return to him and that it would ruin his positive experiences in the game. Rather than creating a new clan, Skyrider decided that he would join a clan instead. It was difficult for him to make a choice at first since many of the clans that he was once familiar with were no longer in operation. He saw that only a few clans had been able to endure the hardships in the community years earlier and that these clans didn't possess the lust for power that other clans had at the time. It was true. Power did corrupt and it worked against the wishes of those who only cared about it.
Willing to give a new clan a try, Skyrider decided that he would petition all of his characters to the clan that was ranked 3rd on the toplist as long as that clan fulfilled two stipulations - the clan was not a clan that had existed at the time of his departure and that having Skyrider in their clan would be an asset to them instead of a liability. That clan happened to be Wizards & Warriors and it fulfilled the stipulations. Skyrider petitioned all of his characters to W&W that day but didn't immediately participate in clan matters until two months later. He had to give himself some time to "stabilize" his own characters before he could try to help his clan.
Having settled with a clan, Skyrider began to wonder if he could ever regain the volume of possessions that he once had. Being poor, Skyrider had to make transactions with CSB making materials with players who were far wealthier than he was. He relied completely on his two strongest characters to find equipment for his characters as well as weapons that he could sell to other players on the TP. Skyrider often requested for upgrades, knowing the importance of upgrading the suits of his two strongest characters.
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ac_shadow
First Year, First Semester
Posts: 27
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Post by ac_shadow on Mar 27, 2007 20:05:34 GMT -5
Part 13: Back on Track While making transactions to a few players, Skyrider received word from a few players on the TP board that they remembered who he was a few years ago. Some of them had known him for being the leader of clan Skyriders while others had known him through his old, severely outdated DC help site. It was then that Skyrider decided to "remodel" his old help site and bring everything up to date. He would remove all the contents from his site regarding the clan that he once had and focus entirely on helping players. Skyrider may have been poor, but that didn't keep him from trying to help others.
To his surprise, however, he wouldn't remain poor for long. It wasn't until a miraculous September evening that Skyrider had been lucky enough to find an amazing 150a Crystal Gauntlet while questing in Hie Brasil with one of his newer characters. Skyrider wasn't a collector of the new crystal weapons, so he immediately traded this CG for a few top-notch weapons to his clan leader, a person that Skyrider grew to respect. Never again would Skyrider have to ask others to upgrade his suit; he felt that his suit was already very good.
Skyrider's newer characters were now strong enough to survive in the hardest areas of the game and he was finding good weapons on a daily basis. However, backpack limits severely limited his ability to collect as many weapons as he had wished to collect. To fulfill his growing demand for storage space, Skyrider continued to recruit more and more characters for his army, this time, for the purpose of having more storage space instead of power. Still, Skyrider was careful to avoid getting too carried away with creating new characters; he didn't want to expand his army to as large as 135 characters again. It wasn't feasible for him to manage so many characters anyway since he was a lot busier in his life than before. He was busy with his academic work in real life and he was now in the process of choosing a career. For such reasons, Skyrider often had to confine his storage characters to Royal Court activities on a daily basis instead of questing them every day. Many of these characters had spent so much time in the Royal Court that they were now strong enough to fight in Azteca, gathering weapons that Skyrider could use for his giveaways.
Part 14: Skyrider Today Today, Skyrider believes that he has regained the wealth that he had lost in the past. He had lost a majority of his good antiques and still doesn't have nearly as many silver weapons as he once did, but Skyrider considers himself to be lucky to have what he has right now. More than anything else, he's glad to see that his DC help site has received a positive response from the community. To him, there was a lot more satisfaction in helping others than being the ruler of a clan with lots of power. Skyrider believes that some of the information on his site can draw potential clan leaders away from the evils of absolute power and also persuade players to shoot for goals that don't involve being a part of a toplist. He knows that he is doing something right when he receives letters from players, new and old alike, thanking him for offering his help services.
He still wishes to get in touch with his former clansmen and clanswomen as well as the few friends that he had left behind in the past. To this day forward, he knows little about their whereabouts, however. Still, he is satisfied with the friendships that he has built with the newer players. He knows that this newer generation of players doesn't and may never know what Skyrider had seen with his eyes years earlier. Nonetheless, he knows that there are still some stories that are left untold and will tell them to anyone who is willing to lend an ear.
But more than anything else, Skyrider wants people to remember that DC is just a game that has no real bearing on one's achievements in reality. Nothing in this game should be taken so seriously that one person has to feel the need to post his home address to fight another person over something that happened in the game, for example. Skyrider plays DC to escape from the harsh elements of reality - the harshness of poverty, injustice, corrupt governments, and deadlines for the next assignment that he has to complete. In DC world, Skyrider can have fun and relax as he gathers weapons for his collection of silvers instead of always bothering himself with real world problems. Of course, Skyrider knows that he won't stay here forever. He knows that there will be a day when he will have to leave the realms again and move on, but he is certain that he will be an active participator in the community for the years to come.
Skyrider knows that at least one person will read this and scratch his (or her!) head, wondering "Who in the world is Skyrider and why did randomorange spend nearly three hours writing about this guy?" To which Skyrider can't do anything but grin.
I am Skyrider. Assuming that you've actually read all the other posts preceding this one, you've been reading about my story during all this time and what I wanted to do was to share it to anyone who was willing to take the time to read all of it. As you can see, I have made many mistakes in the past but I really don't regret anything that I had done in the past, for it was these experiences that made me into the player that I am today.
One last thing. If you happen to be a council member of a clan that isn't W&W, there's no need to interrogate every other person in your council to find out if one of my characters is secretly there. My entire army of characters is enlisted under W&W and I have no plans to withdraw them from the clan whatsoever.
and thats where the story ends! so, please post opinions if u like or just read it for my wonderful frend randomorange
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Post by Hermione on Mar 27, 2007 23:44:16 GMT -5
Lol, yeah, read it a few places now, it's a pretty good one, eh?
Oooh, maybe we should move it to our 'history' thread so it doesn't get cleared the next time this board is gone through?
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ac_shadow
First Year, First Semester
Posts: 27
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Post by ac_shadow on Mar 28, 2007 5:19:06 GMT -5
yes..its been posted in many places and wud just like everyone to know what a great story this is:)
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Post by Irishman on Mar 31, 2007 12:31:12 GMT -5
I s'pose it's all well an' good. But it has way too much politics fer an' Ole Irishman like meself. gimme a mug o' Ale, an the rowdy conversin' at the Pub. Followed by a lively dance, an Im happy!
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ac_shadow
First Year, First Semester
Posts: 27
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Post by ac_shadow on Mar 31, 2007 19:01:39 GMT -5
hah glad u read it~ it aint just an ol' story
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Post by VynFyre on Apr 1, 2007 15:33:44 GMT -5
you know irishman sometimes politics ia what makes the world go round, its an inspiring story alright, im glad it worked out for him, when i tried making a clan i i didnt do so well, obviously since im not good with politics, or anything along the lines. But stories like that make you realize whats important and that if things are meant to happen they will. My lust was never for power or rank but to meet people i had made my clan to get people to commerce and roleplay, but you have to learn that along those lines in history politics will be important in order to keep going. thanks for sharing with us ac_shadow, keep spreading the word, a historian and story teller is a very honorable title, that which you have earned. i would be honored if you visited our clan more often.
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Post by Hermione on Apr 1, 2007 20:09:05 GMT -5
Speaking about visiting more often....
*Glances at Vynfyre*
Not, of course, that I mean to meddle!
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ac_shadow
First Year, First Semester
Posts: 27
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Post by ac_shadow on Apr 4, 2007 2:45:23 GMT -5
thanks vyn, every now and then i'll take a drop by to see whats going on and all:D
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