by Jason Cheek
Even worse, I noticed a number of these responses were from people who I would consider to be regular players too caught up in the true PKers rhetoric who were supporting the hate. Most of them were calling for V-MMORG to suspend my account and kick me out of the game along with everyone who was supporting me. It was obvious from the scathing comments that not one of them had gone to my personal stream to watch the actual unedited video for themselves.
Were these simply Twitch fans who jumped on the bandwagon because their favorite player said so? I shook my head in silent disgust. What was it with people, I wondered, as I scanned through forum post after forum post. Unconsciously, my hands clenched in anger. So many people emotionally responded to the blind accusations without a thought of searching for the truth for themselves. It was like a bunch of sharks catching a whiff of blood in the water and going into a feeding frenzy. Closing The World’s main forums, I went back to my Twitch Channel’s forum to look for the top voted video from the Naked Raid.
Surprisingly enough, it took a little searching to find the top voted post. I couldn’t help pulling up some of the more funny-worded posts. Most of the screenshots and video clips were simply amazing. I was finally able to narrow down the top three videos which just so happened to be between a male and two female players.
In third place was a man called Dark Bard who must’ve been an Assassin-Bard combo similar to Ayda. The Dark Elf’s ebony skin glinted in the torch light as he triggered something like a Shadow Step while he adroitly moved between his targets in a dance of flashing death. It was impressive as hell, even if he’d gone a little overboard with the slider for his junk during character creation to the point that it made him look almost comical. I will say that the absolute skill he used while moving from Orc to Orc deserved recognition as he performed what could only be called the death of a hundred cuts. No wonder he’d nearly won, I thought, as I watched the video, especially since you’d expect most of the male players to focus only on the female contestants.
Second place was a female who called herself Bantha Fodder. She must have put most of her points into Strength, because she was easily able to go toe-to-toe with the Orcs. My mouth dropped open in shock as I watched the video of her ripping the limbs off the Orcs she fought before beating them to death with their own arms. While that might sound gross to a non-gamer, it was hot as hell. At least, it was for me, but then again, I liked strong women. The rest of the Naked Raid must have too because she’d nearly won the contest. Seriously, there was something about her ripped body as she pummeled the shocked Orcs to death that you couldn’t look away from.
Though once I saw the top voted video, the winner shouldn’t have really surprised me, I thought, seeing Phoenix’s familiar bloody face. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t even posted by Matt but some fanboy that had been following her exploits around the battlefield. The first video showed an utterly confused Phoenix coming up to the city’s gates in the middle of the Naked Raid. Seeing everyone fighting the Orcs, she joined in on the killing without a second thought only to have the poster, Snuffy Aloysius, yell at her for being dressed.
Instead of getting mad, Phoenix started stripping off her armor without a second thought as the entire Naked Raid began cheering her on. Personally, I thought that in itself was what won her the contest hands down more than anything else. There was just something sexy as hell about a person being confident enough to strip off their clothing without batting an eye in the middle of a crowd that you had to respect no matter who you were. Not that I wasn’t saying her two-handed leaping and spinning attacks that she did afterwards weren’t eye-popping as hell with her fiery red hair and bodacious curves. I silently laughed at my own descriptive use of bodacious. Honestly though, you had to see her to believe it. There was just no other way to properly describe Phoenix’s eye-popping assault as she cut her way through the vanguard that had made it to the city gates ahead of the main horde.
Even though I was more than familiar with seeing Phoenix in the buff, I couldn’t stop myself from watching all of the attached videos. Imagine a red-headed Angelina Jolie from when she played Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movies fighting like Red Sonja with a two-handed battle axe and you’d have a good idea of the show that she was putting on. Even though I knew she was a man in-real-life, like anyone with a healthy libido, there was no way I could look away from her physical perfection as she kicked Orc ass in front of Telrain’s walls.
That’s when I realized I hadn’t seen Phoenix during the last fight with the Orcs where Domenic collapsed the cliff face. Obviously, she made it up the pass before all of the excitement started, otherwise she’d still be fighting the Orc’s main horde on the plains below. While that was well and good, I was just curious where she’d disappeared to. Making a mental reminder to talk to her about that the next time I saw her, I closed the thread and got to work.
Pinning all three top posts to the top of my main forum page, I announced the winner and thanked everyone for participating in the Naked Raid. Besides saving the city of Palnisdale from the surprise attack, it was a complete blast and was the first truly Naked Raid I’d ever participated in. Up till now, there had never been a true non-porn-based MMO that allowed people to strip all the way down to the buff in-game. While we called them Naked Raids, in truth, they would’ve been more accurately named Underwear Raids, but there was no fun in calling them that, hence the moniker of Naked Raids.
Promising that I would make sure the prize made it to Phoenix, I flipped over to the metrics for our Twitch Stream as I eyed the expected earnings and shook my head. I’d believe it when I see it in the bank, I thought with a shake of my head. Checking the time and seeing that it was just after seven, I closed the lid to my laptop and began getting ready to log in. The first part of that being to place an empty box by the front door. No sense in losing good pizza to the ants or having someone decide to help themselves to my pizzas.
Hearing the dryer buzz, I went ahead and made the bed, figuring that I’d be too tired when I logged out to deal with it. Besides, I didn’t want to have any excuses for repeating last night’s mistake. Throwing the load of darks in the dryer, I went to the computer room and checked on my suit. I was glad to see the hour and a half of drying out had removed the worst of the stench. I was just filling up the CamelBak inside the suit when my smartphone started to ring. Arching a curious eyebrow at seeing the name on the display, I answered the call.
“Sup Mike?”
“Hey Jay,” Mike said in a relaxed tone, “I was wanting to know if you wanted to grab dinner with Dom and I on Saturday night?”
“As long as we make it to the ships that should be doable,” I hesitantly said, not sure if there was something else going on. “Is everything cool with Dom?”
“Far as I know,” Mike said, laughing at my neutral answer. “We were talking last night after he logged out of Palnisdale. With everyone being on the ships, we figured it wouldn’t hurt to unplug for the evening and just hang out for a change.”
“The Boynton Beach Ale House?” I asked, already knowing the answer. It actually did sound like a good idea, besides giving Domenic and I a chance to just hang out.
“Sure, unless you feel like heading over to Sushi Bang Bang?” Mike said with a chuckle, already knowing my thoughts on that.
“Naw man, that’s cool,” I hurriedly added, “the Boynton Beach Ale House works for me.” Both Domenic and Mike knew I wasn’t big on sushi. I’d go if my date for the evening wanted to, but not when I had a choice in the matter. Besides, maybe we could get in a game of pool or two.
“Dom thought ten would work,” Mike said, getting back on topic.
“Should,” I said, after taking a moment to try to figure out how long it would take to get everyone loaded up on the ships. While I wasn’t sure of Tengsly’s range, I figured he could reach Darom when we were still a couple hours out. Either way, it shouldn’t take too long to get everyone loaded up on the ships. “If something comes up one of us will log o
ut to let you know but that should work fine. Otherwise, how’s everything going with your pull out?”
“Eh, Evil Sandra sent a raid of a thousand or so players after us into the mountains-” Mike began to say as I cut him off.
“Sorry man, I really thought she’d come after us with everything she had-” I began to say, as Mike let out a bark of laughter.
“It’s cool,” Mike said, stopping my apology. “It’s a pain in the ass, but not an issue as long as we keep moving. I’m hoping we can find a pass out of the mountains heading to Lodenburg. If not, we’re going to be stuck in the mountains all the way till Dolurn.” Mike paused, only to have his voice crack as he continued. “It would be nice to not have to fight all the tribes of Mountain Trolls the entire way back but whatever.”
“Tribes of Mountain Trolls,” I exclaimed, as my voice went up a notch. From Mike’s odd tone, I could tell he was playing the issue off big time. I couldn’t even imagine how bad that must be in the tight mountain trails. “That single Forest Troll I ran into on my way to BrokenFang Hold was no joke. Are you guys going to be okay?” I could almost picture Mike’s frown as he tried to play it off like it was nothing.
“Naw man, it’s nothing we can’t handle,” Mike said a little too quickly, as I smirked to myself.
“You sure,” I asked, in a sarcastic tone that he was all too familiar with. “If you really need us to, I’m sure we can find a way to circle around to help your gimp asses out.” There was a long pause before Mike continued in an even voice.
“Really,” Mike asked in his “you’re such as asshole tone” as I choked back a laugh.
“Gotta love me,” I singsonged back, before turning serious. “Seriously though, I don’t know how bad the situation is but, if it comes down to it, I can try to come up with something to give you a hand.”
“Naw man,” Mike said, as the tension somewhat eased in his voice, “if it gets that bad, I’ll let you know.” He let out a heavy sigh. “But just for the record, Mountain Trolls suck.”
“You can tell me all about it Saturday night,” I said with a laugh, checking the time. “Look, it’s nearly seven thirty, meaning I need to get my ass logged in.”
“See you on Saturday,” Mike said.
“Later man,” I replied, as we both hung up.
Adding the protein powder to the CamelBak, I got suited up, before collecting my smartphone and super-sized glass of water. Making my way over to the computer room, I setup everything on the desk and strapped the helmet into place. I was surprised at how good I felt after having started off with such a shitty morning, I thought to myself, while settling back into the gaming Egg. Thinking about everything that needed to be done I could already feel the excitement starting to build up inside of me.
Whatever happened in the next two days would determine the future of BrokenFang Hold and the Revenants place within the budding power structures forming within The World. If the gamble I’d taken to help Domenic worked out, we’d have a solid chance of stopping the Hobgoblins from taking my Nightmare start away from me. If not, we’d lose everything I’d been working towards building … including the guild’s shot at going pro and making some serious money. Even with so much at stake, I couldn’t wait to get into the game and play. Grinning like a fool, I triggered the log in process as my vision faded to black.
Chapter Two
(Star and friends in Palnisdale)
Running Pod Diagnostic – Complete
Synchronizing controller units - Complete
Neuro Synchronization - Complete
Initializing virtual environment …
As soon as The World took shape around me, I found myself lying in the same soft bed I’d fallen asleep in when I’d logged out of the game, only this time I was alone. Frowning as I realized that neither of my soulmates were within telepathic range, I noticed several voices talking with one another across the room. Phoenix, Rayne, and Brenna, I instantly thought, recognizing the female voices as the tension left my body. Before I could ask about what was going on, my attention was pulled to an all too familiar pop-up window that appeared before my eyes.
Letting out a mental groan, I silently crossed my fingers, hoping that we hadn’t been completely fucked over by Rani and her team once again. While it was unsurprising after everything that had gone down the day before, I really wished the V-MMORG Admin would’ve held off for a day or three before gimping our forces once again as I began scrolling through the text.
New Emergency Hot Fixes have been applied:
Hot Fix for PVP
Player-Owned Fortresses: When a player attacks a player-owned fortress, they will lose all acquired experience points towards their new level upon death. Each proceeding death thereafter will result in the loss of a quarter level, resulting in the loss of a full level. If no additional experience points are gained, each proceeding four deaths will result in an additional level lost. If there are any built-up experience points towards a new level, this will be removed first before the experience lost will be subtracted against the previous level. Example: If you manage to kill a green-level monster in-between each death, you will only lose the built-up experience points and not a quarter of your previous level. An attacking or defending player can be de-leveled this away until reaching level 0. This rule will be in effect within the domains of a player-owned fortress which will be outlined on all player's maps. To see how players can extend the borders of their lands, please read the in-game Wiki on Player-Owned Fortresses.
Changes made to NPC Purchases: In addition to the open NPC pool available to each starting area, all landowners will have the option of purchasing additional NPCs every week from a private pool for every settlement, village, town, city, fort, fortress, and/or castle that the player owns. The number of NPCs available will be determined by a number of conditions, aka the size of the land under the player’s control, the number of NPCs currently working the land, the level of the property, and the happiness of the NPCs. Warning: A player can lose NPCs if they do not treat their people of The World well.
Hot Fix for NPC Cities
Criminals and Exiles in Player-Starting Cities: When a player is caught committing a crime within a player-starting city, they will be flagged as either a criminal or an exile depending upon the crime committed. A criminal flag lasts for an hour and opens the player up to being killed or captured by anyone (who is not a part of their guild or alliance) to collect the fee for their crime. If the player is flagged as an exile, there is no time limit for the charge and the player's bounty can be collected by anyone who is not a part of their guild or alliance. In this case, the player's death will also result in the loss of a level. Players can earn titles such as Bounty Hunter which will increase the amount of the bounty. Depending on the severity of the crime, a player's exiled status can continue even after being killed by a bounty hunter and losing a level. This extended exile status can only be cleared by judgment from the kingdom's judiciary system. This may include additional financial costs, loss of levels, and in-game dungeon-time might be added to the punishment. This fee and time must be served before a player can continue playing within The World, unless the player manages to escape or break out of the dungeon.
Hot Fix for Player-Owned Pets and Summoned Creatures
Resistances for Pets and Summoned Creatures: Resistances for player-owned/summoned pets along with a player's companions/slaves/vassals pets will have a maximum cap of eighty-five percent. This limitation does not apply to monsters and NPCs.
Moonshine Elementals: The explosive strength and radius of Moonshine Elementals has been reduced to reflect the caster’s level. The AOE explosion strength and radius will now equal that of a comparable-level Fireball spell.
Domenic’s going to be so pissed, I thought, already imagining his bitching as I read over the last two Hot Fixes. I was so going to be on his shit list once he realized that I hadn’t warned him about her being a V-MMORG Admin ahead of time. Whatever, it wasn’t like we had much of
a choice when the shit hit the fan. Not that he could really blame the developers for gimping his Moonshine Elementals, especially not after he’d used them to drop an entire cliff face on top of the enemy.
That went double for nixing the Lightning invulnerability that he’d figured out for his pets. As it was, the Earth Elementals were already nearly invulnerable to most of the other magic trees. Add in the Distilled Water Elementals and it gave him nearly two invulnerable pets that were tough as nails. Besides, we all knew the deal. Having a player with something as powerful as an Elemental pet that was also tagged as being Invulnerable to multiple magic trees was a big no-no for any type of game. If anything, he’s lucky they didn’t make the resistances even weaker.
Unfortunately, the fix V-MMORG had come up with for PVP and Player-Owned Fortresses was going to piss Domenic off even more since he hadn’t wanted to move his fortress in the first place. Not that it would’ve helped much against the Orc Horde that had flooded into the area. Knowing Domenic, he’d argue until he was blue in the face that none of this was fair and that he could’ve handled the monsters’ siege if he hadn’t been stuck fighting against the Chaos Storm Alliance the entire time. While there might be some truth to that, I would’ve bet good money that they would’ve just overwhelmed him in the end. Besides that, whoever said MMOs were fair? Emergency Hot Fixes and Patches screwed players over all the time as the developers of an MMO did their best to balance out the gameplay for everyone in the entire game.