Several months into my days in Paragon City, I made some friends that became frequent
teammates. That was when my eyes opened to a whole new way of playing. Until
then, I'd been mostly a soloer, joining teams sometimes when they were offered,
but usually chugging through missions on my own, tanking for no one but little
old me.
Sebastian Grey and Pale Ryder (as they were known to me in those
days) introduced Superluminal to the MMO part of MMORPG. [Imagine, if you will,
a box of Bisquick. I was making biscuits. I made them daily. I liked
them. I was aware that Bisquick could be used for other things, but I hadn't
looked at the box. Sebastian and Pale came along, pancaking it up, and all of a
sudden I found a whole new recipe. And it was good.]
Some time after
that, I was IM'ing with a friend of mine who brought up the fact that she
enjoyed video games and sort of hinted that she was looking for recommendations.
Little did she know that she was asking a drug dealer for crack and she was
fully equipped with an addictive personality (+5 stamina).
Catawompus was
introduced to Sebastian and Pale (two of the three can be found on TOG as of a
few days ago), and in time we discovered the syrup of voice chat. Our pancakes
have become even more delectable as our game time is spent chatting about
anything and everything, planning strategies that are sometimes successful,
sometimes ... not. Our conversations are peppered with the dumb jokes of
evenings past that had us staying up late into the night, laughing ourselves to
tears.
Being on teams with friends has its advantages. When I need to go
afk frequently because my son is rubbing curry powder in his eyes, or dumping
onion powder on his brother, or they're fighting over a sippy cup of milk, I
don't have to apologize repeatedly because they get it. When someone
accidentally hits R (the hotkey for auto-run), runs right into a mob and
ultimately causes a team wipe, it's a moment of humor rather than annoyance.
When Sebastian, the healer who escaped a particularly brutal battle as the lone
survivor, flies himself high into the sky and repeatedly teleports our dead
bodies so they come crashing down to the pavement "to a safe spot" where we can
rez, we laugh like it's the f'ing funniest thing that's ever happened to us -
because in that moment, it is.
With our memberships on TOG, a new
dimension has been added to the game (games for me, as I'm getting quite
comfortable in the World of Warcraft). Our first TOG team happened the other
night and in an instant, our vocabulary was once again expanded as I was told by
Zhul to "unass [his] wavelength" - apparently it wasn't big enough for the two
of us.
So far, I've been too shy to introduce myself to the TOG Ventrilo
server. But that day will come, and when it does, I expect the TOGGERS will make
it worth my while.
There was a recent thread on the City of Heroes
forums, where someone asked the forumites what they do to keep the game exciting
and fun. It reminded me of the similar question people often ask couples who
have been married for decades about how to keep the marriage fresh, and the
answers were also similar - try new things, remember why you like each other,
and, of course, be friends! There were many responses on that thread, and almost
all of them had that common answer: Friends just make things better.
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