My Beta Story

[mr_luc]

Yesterday morning, I was wh0ring TW while trying to wake up at work.

And I saw that people were giving away accounts. Giving away accounts??

Well, on Tribalwar 'giving away' is too strong a phrase. There were mini-contests going on for them. Essay-writing, for instance. Anyways, I was fortunate enough to respond to Iamatree's 'who can PM me the fastest?' challenge (by about a second), and I got the email linking me to the download. The sweetness was almost too much to bear.

I was still at work, so after completing a number of flowcharts and mockups in an anticipation-fueled spree of frenzied productivity, I went to lunch at 11am and started the download over my lunch hour.

It said it would be done at 8pm.

The day seemed like it would never end. I called my little brother at 3:30 to ask him how close the download was to completed. I called him again at 5:00. I managed to get my work finished by only 5:30pm (normally I'm there until around 7:00 on Weds), and I sped home.

The projected time of completion was now 15 minutes past midnight. What is it about the ducks, Mr. Soprano?

Oh, the teeth-gnashing! Well, never fear. I knew quite well that I would be up past midnight. Instead, I focused on joining an outfit. The one that a lot of Tribalwar guys were joining was IV, and I had already been invited by a couple extremely generous gents. Sure, it's NC and not VS -- but wtf, right? VS are purple. And gay. Well, unless I decide to like them again.

I joined up, installed TS2 and joined the IV server, said hello, and logged out. I spent a couple of hours trying to find people who would send me the next few files the auto-downloader wanted (to see if I could shortcut the download) but it was no use. When I left the house at 9:30 to meet some friends, the download was est. to be completed at 1:30 am. That was getting late, and I knew that I had to get up at 6:30 this morning.

When I got back around 11:30, I saw that the download was estimated to be finished at 2:35 am. That was getting REALLY late. And by the time I went to bed, at 12:40, the est time of completion was 3:30am.

I woke up at 7:30 this morning (feeling strangely refreshed), I saw that I still had not set my clock for daylight savings' time. I made a calm mental note to do that, which is difficult when you are doing laps around the room at upwards of thirty mph. I booted up the game while carefully arranging my early-morning activities. No time must be wasted. I tossed my clean, but wrinkled, slacks and sweater into the dryer to avoid needing to iron them. I washed my hair and upper body via the sink as the game was booting up.

The icons were like aquamarine jewels, glowing faintly, capturing and reflecting dim blue sunlight a hundred feet under the ocean off the coast of the Cayman Islands.

I selected my server, and my character. As a 6'4" white guy who is often compared unflatteringly to a young Dan Akroyd, I naturally chose the avatar face that looked the most like a devious little ******. I was disappointed to learn that I could not name my avatar mr_luc, and had to settle for mrluc instead. I shaved, brushed my teeth, and carefully gelled my hair while the continent was loading. I also changed my socks. I never sleep without a clean pair of socks on . . . it's probably a neurosis of some sort, but stfu. I'm insomnia boy, and if it helps me drift off into blissful sleep faster, then I will definitely doh! Segue, sorry.

I padded into the computer room in my clean white socks just as I entered the game for the first time.

I felt a crazy kind of peace.

I opened up the options, gently, carefully. I hadn't felt this peace since the early days of Neocron, when I could still lose myself in the world, working my way up from a lowly rat-stabber into the number one wholesale reseller of Chitin in the city.

The game was running extremely slow. I took a few tentative steps around the spawn room, inverted the mouse, took a few more. Looked around. The game was running at around 10 frames per second.

I set the graphics one notch lower, and closed the game.

I downloaded the latest graphics drivers from nVidia. While they downloaded I put on my shirt and while they were installing, my pants. I restarted my computer and gathered up my wallet, 2 paychecks to deposit over my lunch break, my wallet and key ring. I neatly folded my leather gloves next to my keyboard. I was in a zone of some sort, perhaps a Zen Zone. I was the bright center of the universe. I was a beautiful and unique snowflake.

I sat down as Planetside booted up again, this time savoring the loading screens even as precious seconds of gaming time ticked by. When all was complete, I had 10 minutes.

I did not rush, but I moved with the precise efficiency of a man whose goals have never wavered, whose plans have been meticulously arranged, stopping along the way to test out features like zoom, crouching, the responsiveness of the jump ability. I was nothing but thoroughly impressed. The world felt solid, the green grass looked real and worn and the early-morning mountain haze seemed ripped directly from the cheerful mountain town of Chambo, in Ecuador.

I used a certification terminal. Despite a lack of preparation, I knew exactly what I would do with my 13 points.

Medium Assault for the Gauss rifle. I had heard that it was a very likeable weapon, very solid in what it did, precise and reliable -- a best of breed weapon. THat was my only weapon certification. I picked up a Reinforced armor cert, a Harasser cert, a Reaver cert, a Wraith cert, a MAX cert, and, hmmm, I might have picked up a hacking cert as well. Those would let me move throughout the world without hindrance, still be effective in battle, and change roles at will. I picked up the Surge implant as well.

I had some time left. Should I try and get into some action?

Nah.

I pissed the rest of my time away in the firing range and the vehicle trainers. It felt like I had all the time in the world. And, in a way, I did.