Everyone has problems. Just because we play AC and our avatars are happy and smiling all the time (notice there’s no emote for throwing a temper tantrum) does not mean that our lives are happy happy joy joy. Nor does it mean that we can run away from our problems by escaping into our little virtual world; they will find us and bog us down again as soon as you hit “Disconnect”.
Most people mistake Asheron’s Call for a haven from the humdrum of monotony and despair that everyone experiences at least once in their gaming lives. This is not so. The game is designed on a social system that guarantees that no one will be immune from showing his or her true colors for long. Even the die-hard role-players cannot maintain the facade forever (that is why you have multiple characters). In the event that your real life catches up with you in-game, do not panic. Just remember that alcohol is still an alternative.
Each day I get to play AC with all of the other wonderful (ahem…?) people all over the world, is a day that I get closer to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (please pass the Vioxx) and not being able to use my hands at all. I sacrifice, because I believe in this game, the devs behind it and the people who pay to play. I am one of the few, the proud, the L337 who are the new breed of online-gamer: lifers. Lifers are individuals who play from the first day of beta, until the last server goes offline. In the event that the end comes sooner than I hope for, I will always have a fallback career as a satirist, so I am perfecting my art here. Hopefully, the end is still far off for AC, but I will surely be there to share my last words of wisdom.
