Monday, October 15, 2012

A Newbie Beginning to a Great Friendship

I remember my first experience with the game of RuneScape like it was yesterday. I had been stumbling across the internet looking for ways to waste my time on websites like Addicting Games, PopCap and MiniClip. I usually went for short games I could beat or get a high score in. I would play for about an hour then move on to something new. Virtually all of my 5th grade classmates were onto the same pattern as me.

One day on MiniClip, I was looking through the most popular games. I first laid eyes upon RuneScape there in all its poorly pixelated glory. When I loaded up the game I saw the pictures on the side bars. One was of a warrior and the other had a skeleton in similar armor. I then decided I would become a skeleton in this game just because that's awesome! (It took me several years to realize you can't actually even do that in the game...) I soon became entrenched in the first Role-Playing-Game I had ever encountered or heard of. After acquiring a petty amount of wealth I began to venture away from safe-havens. I was soon killed by a tree and experienced my first ever ragequit. And I ragequit hard.

Two years later I had moved from Indiana to Orlando Florida. I hadn't touched RuneScape since the fateful death by evil living tree. I didn't know anyone at the small private school but I made friends quickly as they were a close knit class of around 40 that was surprisingly open to newcomers. A few weeks into the school year I overheard a conversation about RuneScape with two of my classmates. "RuneScape?" I asked. "I played that once until I got killed by a tree. That game is stupid!" Their laughter indicated my attempt at playing was pathetic. This was the first time I ever felt like a newbie. Or a newb. noob. n00b. nub. n3wb or even n33b.

I began playing every day with these two classmates. I was originally more fond of one than the other. Hunter was pretty chilled out and I thought he was kind of funny. We got along pretty well even though he was sometimes annoying and hardheaded. This kid Matt though... I don't know what it was but he always seemed pretty cocky. He was the fastest kid in our class the previous year but I had showed up and started doing cross country. I probably projected some of my own feelings of jealousy onto him but he might have felt the same way but it doesn't really matter. By the time track season had come around we had spent months together in class, at each other's houses and on the internet together playing RuneScape. Hunter's annoyance became more obvious and we weren't so fond of him. He was a jerk. I remember one time we got back at him for being a general sleazeball by pretending to team up with him on the game then killing him and taking his stuff. Matt and I laughed about it for a whole day at school but I gave him his pixels back later.

After seventh grade I transferred to public school. Hunter and I ceased communication for the most part and then after a few months all together stopped talking. Matt stayed at the private school for another year before transferring to the public school he was zoned for. We hung out a lot the summer before I left not just playing RuneScape at each other's house but doing all kinds of shenanigans. We kept in contact through the game and talked every night about our days and different problems we were having. It was a sometimes relaxing and frequently OVERWHELMINGLY INTENSE way to blow off puberty ridden stress. The game contributed to us becoming the best of friends and more than seven years later we're still thick as thieves even though we don't play the game as often. RuneScape has brought me a lot of good experiences and friends and this blog will serve to tell these stories from the past and the stories to come as I bond with people every time I play. I would have never expected a game that pissed me off within three consecutive hours of gameplay would bring me such great friendships and experiences. I'm not ashamed to say that RuneScape has been a big part of my life and I don't think anyone that has had the experiences I've had from it would feel any differently.