Guilds and Mentoring
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| Looking out over Guild Base |
What a difference a random event can make in your gaming experience. One night while bored out of my mind, I decided to play Forsaken World. I was having trouble sleeping so I logged into the game. Being that I play on a West Coast server, people are still up at that hour it seems. While playing in town doing the daily grind of quests called "Life in the Harbor" which is repeatable 30 times a day for xp and coinage and is considered a prime grinding tool, I happened to notice in World Chat a guild advertisement. Normally, in any other game, this would be something that would be an annoyance to me, but being that as I wrote last time, my experience with the FW community had been non-existent outside of a random act of kindness from a stranger, I decide to read it. It was a simple add, one you see all the time. "Guild X is recruiting, Any level welcome, we like to help one another out and just hang out" or something along those themes seems to be the majority of guild spam, amirite? Well since the X was Osiris and not something borderline offensive and sophmoric like Pygmy Hermaphrodite Chinchillas, I decided to look closer. The person who was doing the advertising wasn't some wierd sexual reference and didn't have pwn or some other pvp reference in the name, so hmmm maybe just maybe. So I whispered him, a guy named Bashbrother. I have to say, I had no idea what I was getting into at the time, but I am so happy that I made that step. So I mentioned that I was new, as in a day or two of playing the game new and had no clue on many of the mechanics and nuances of the game, but that I was looking for people to play with and learn from. And amazingly enough, the reply was simply sounds great, welcome to the game. As a gamer, one of the worst things many people can say to you to hurt and belittle you is to call you a n00b or some variations of it. To have a potential guild recruiter so openly welcome a new player who truly is a noob in this game was... refreshing. So in no time flat, I basically said "sounds like what I am looking for in a guild, I'd love to give it a try if you'll have me." And boom! I'm a new member of the guild Osiris, thank you Insomnia!
So the first thing they tell me is, we have a base and the coordinates are linked in guild chat. Go have a look around they say. So being the curious blogger by day that I am, I did. Mind blowing this was. Guild housing is something I've only heard about as none of the games I've played to this point have it. To finally see it was, breathtaking. Set up in the sky overlooking the desert (which is very Egyptian themed of course) on "Guild Island." the base is an elaborate maze of plateaus and floating structures. There are quest givers, vendors, and more up there. One of the things that at the time I was not able to do are the construction quests, as I was only level 23 at the time and the quests require you to be at least level 30. Sleep finally came, so I reluctantly logged off and went back to my nice warm bed.
The next morning, I logged on and immediately went to my newly guilded toon rather than the others I had been putzing with more or less equally up to that point. I was eager to test the theory that if I needed any help just to ask in guild and somebody would be happy to help out, as I was told in my welcome. So many guilds claim this, but so few deliver I was skeptical. Let's face it, even one of my most pleasant gaming families in all of MMOs, the Dragons of New Avalon, is very cliquey and hard for new people to fit in at times. So what would Osiris be like once the noob was loose? One of my burning questions was regarding the Master/Apprentice system that the game keeps telling me I really need to get involved in to progress. What the heck is it? And how does one find a Master? Most of the people on the list that comes up when you search for one have obscene references or silly characters in their names, and the few that don't are too busy to reply when you pm them. So since guild was hopping with a lot of idle chit chat between people who clearly were friends, I asked my question, prefacing it that I was a noob. I braced for the ignoring I expected, or the backlash for being rude and interrupting a conversation that I feared. Instead I got multiple "welcome to the guilds, and the game." I then got one player who started to ask me about my gaming experience and we talked about WoW some as most gamers seem to. I mentioned my experience as a player but that I was new to FW. Then the conversation on the Master/Apprentice thing started. It seems that the system is a set of daily quests that the pair need to do each day, and they can do other things together as well. The apprentice gets gobs of experience points and a high level character to help them out. The Master gets mentor points which allows them to do things at high level that help in the farming of gear and such as I understand it. So I got invited to be an apprentice, and given a great briefing on the game. Apparently Bard is a popular class as it is OP (Over Powered) as a damage class, and I had through my reading of the game text, stumbled upon the top end game build, Wind. However, it's a challenging class to play, or so I am told. Thus far, I have not found it so, but I am still a lowbie.
So we did our M/A quest, and I learned that "skull" mobs take only 1 hp from any ability you have, so spam your free attack only, it gives you participation but doesn't make you go Oom (out of mana) so if you have healing abilities (which I do strangely enough) you have mana for that. We then turned it in, and I went up a level. Just like that. We then went to two drag throughs of level 20 and 30ish dungeons. I got some gear, some loot to put on the AH and four more levels. Toss in a sixth level from turning in all those triple xp dungeon quests, and viola six levels in under two hours. However, my new Master, Arblockus, was not yet done. He gave me some gear for when I get higher level (including some nice level 60+ gear) and a lot of information. What classes are like, how to level and gear, and what the differences in guilds were in this game from others. I was hooked.
So when I logged back on later in the evening, I found myself more confident talking in guild chat. I felt I belonged. Not that I have too much trouble with this being an extrovert the way that I am, but hey it's nice to feel you fit in. The grind on my own suddenly felt so... slow. Then I learned of a Campfire event. Not just for roasting s'mores apparently. Basically, you sit around at the Guild Banquet around a campfire and get xp buffs. And for thirty minutes, you get xp for sitting around and chatting. How cool is that? I crafted, brushed my teeth, got ready for bed, and chatted with my guildies. And made nearly a third of a level from it. Gotta love free xp. :)
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| Pass the S'mores will ya? |
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