The last few weeks I've been feeling a growing sense of sadness when I'm in Rubi Ka: old friends gone missing, more recent friends fading. Having spent untold hours in mission buildings and caves, I got in my Yalm and went to visit the two places I enjoyed most in the growth days of three of my characters: EFP and DAV Medusa.
First off to DAV (3200x2200). I vividly remember the first time I saw the platforms near where the Medusa wandered. Part of me was speechless at its otherworldliness and part was laughing because it reminded me of Marvin the Martian. It was here I first saw the graceful Medusa, and heard their haunting song. Then a snake killed me. Back in the plane for the looooong return trip. A strategy was set and the group tried to figure out how to approach these lovely and deadly ladies. A funny moment was when Hammerstaff, a solemn and serious enforcer, accidently hit the Q button in a typo spaz and started attacking a clanner who was joining our team. Both of them frantically hitting the escape key trying to disengage and both falling all over each other apologizing. Cuffs and I laughing til it hurt. We died a lot there. I remember being so excited by the most beautiful MOB I had seen in game that I dragged my regular dear hunting companion, Zindel, there and we sat on a platform in awe.
EFP, Medusa temple (500x3800) next. I sat in the center of the temple and remembered the many hours I spent there on three characters fighting and dying. Now it's empty, like most outdoor hunting areas in Rubi Ka ... the Medusa singing their haunting song to no one. Unlike DAV, here was open plains, hills, cliffs, where you could actually see the witchy ladies drift over the ground. You had to have a good group, tight, and you had to pull carefully. No nearby save, lots of strategy. High risk and high fun. Sometimes a Mantis would find its way in; we hung in the air in planes and strategized how to drag the thing out of range. And a memorable day a group dragged a pit dragon into the temple. That was the beginning of the end. Some players felt it was inappropriate for others of inferior level to be there, taking advantage of what some felt was easy pickins' (never easy for me or my groups). That same group of spoilsports set in place what finally became the Medusa nerf. Back to 20k. Back to Eye camp and BS and missions.
I miss Medusa, but mostly I miss the people I met and died with there and other places during that time who are no longer around: Cuffs and Buffo and Ldavinci and Weeble and oh so many more. I struggle to stay interested and engaged. Alternatives in the high level game are sparse: you can do missions, you can camp high level mobs. Sure, there are other things to do, but trying to get people you play with regularly to get off the xp treadmill is just about impossible. You step off long enough and they are no longer within practical range and "catching up" becomes a chore, lifeless and compulsive.
There's really no point to this post other than to express some very personal sadness about the "juice" somehow leaking out of the game. Just this week, at least five 150+ people I know have cancelled accounts. More have gone missing. I'll be around; I find plenty of engagement in developing new characters, but I'll miss them and others I don't even know who are gone and whose departure leaves a hole in the rich diversity of people living on our little world.
)
poignant and oh so true ...
