That Wasn't the Plan

by Jason Cheek

  The concept itself was basic enough. Monsters and bosses never dropped enough loot for everyone and sometimes people wanted the same item. Rolling for dropped items became the norm. While that helped most situations, this method still caused a number of problems in PUG groups. It was considered manners to only roll on essential rare items if you could use it. There were always those greedy players who would roll for items that didn’t fit their class or build simply because they wanted to sell the item for money or disenchant it for basic elements. Nonetheless, it was overall a relatively fair way to distribute loot.

  That didn’t mean that players still didn’t whine like banshees when they didn’t win what they wanted. It also didn’t stop ninja looters from taking what they wanted and leaving the group. These actions always caused a number of problems on the forums and forced players to police themselves. That is, until the games removed all loot decisions away from the players completely, which, like most things, caused an entirely new set of problems, I thought with a smirk.

  Once everyone was caught up to speed on the concept of rolling, the next thing was to figure out how to do it in The World. Not just that, how would an NPC roll? It’s not like they had a system window to type commands in. Luckily enough, the forums had the information I was looking for. A moment later, I called up the raid interface and found the manual roll button. You could even uncheck people for the roll once they won.

  It was easy enough to use. Saying that the roll was for the first pup, I clicked the button for the raid. The results were given instantaneously as an Uten Syn player suddenly cheered in excitement at winning. That’s how the process continued with each additional pup. Midway through, Tinyr won one of the rolls, which he promptly gave to Unalia who excitedly gathered up her baby puppy. All the rest went to the Uten Syn players, except for the last roll which Neristhana happened to win. The problems didn’t start until the Uten Syn players realized that the roll went to a person of The World.

  “Why the hell are NPCs rolling?” A Guardian named Suman demanded to know. “Loot is only for players!”

  “Really?” I asked, meaningfully blinking my eyes as if that was the first time I’d ever heard of such an idiotic idea. “So you’re saying Lyeneru and Gaelin shouldn’t have been included?”

  “Uhm … ahhh …” the dark blue skinned Moon Elf stuttered for a moment unsure of how to continue as both Krishna and Angie’s ears perked up. “Of course that’s different-“

  “I imagine so,” I said, cutting the other man off in mid-sentence. “Because, they’re your people instead of mine.”

  “No, that’s not it!” Suman said, shifting uncomfortably at suddenly being the center of attention. The less than friendly faces of his guildmates looking back at him made him suddenly re-evaluate his motives. “I just …” he paused, searching for something to say as I finished his sentence.

  “Wanted the loot for yourself and was upset that you didn’t win the roll” I said nonplussed.

  “So what, it’s just virtual garbage anyway,” the player snapped angrily at being called out. “I don’t see why you’re making such a big deal about it.”

  “Exactly,” I shot back at him. “If it’s no big deal, then why are you making such an issue about it?” Seeing the man hesitate at my words, I continued as my eyes swept over the players before me. “Suman is making a big deal about splitting loot because in any kind of game like The World, loot is important.” I paused to let my words sink in. “Whoever is in one of our alliances’ groups or raids will have loot equally distributed … period.”

  “The Uten Syn guild has joined an alliance of players whose focus is looking out after one another and helping each other out. We’ve agreed to stand together against these PKing gankers as one. So, it doesn’t matter if they’re people of The World, members from The Devil Dog guild, the Revenants, or whoever else.” I said, my eyes boring into the dark blue skinned Moon Elf. “If they’re a part of our alliance, you will treat them right. Are we clear?”

  “Yeah, man,” the man muttered in embarrassment as he quietly stepped back into the main group of Uten Syn players. “Sorry about that.” Seeing the approval on the faces looking back at me, it seemed like the majority of the guild agreed with the gist of what I was saying as Neristhana went and gathered up the last Elite Large Rock Wolf pup.

  Not that I was perfect with how I was treating my vassals. I still had a long way to go in getting the House of Kayden running on an actual economy, instead of just taking everyone’s loot for myself and distributing it as I saw fit. It wasn’t that I wasn’t treating my people right, per se, because everyone had a roof over their heads, clothing, armor, weapons, training, and food. Still, I had a long way to go in setting up a working economy, culture, and formal council with shared rewards for the people of The World when it came to quests and dungeons.

  Maybe, I was being somewhat of an asshole in making sure the loot was equally shared with my vassals, but I couldn’t have arguments over loot being equally distributed between guilds in groups or raids. Thomas and I hadn’t had any problems with that so far, but the bigger the alliance became, the more the issue would try to rear its ugly head. It was best to nip this shit in the bud now, especially since most of my forces were made up of people of The World. Besides, there was nothing that would tear apart an alliance of guilds quicker than the unfair distribution of loot.

  ‘Pfft, it’s just virtual garbage,’ I couldn’t help mentally scoffing at the man’s comment, as Neysa chuffed next to me in agreement. While attitudes like Suman’s pissed me off, it was hard to be completely angry at the man on one level. That’s because, MMOs and RPGs were set up to make players addicted to playing. There was something innately powerful about picking up loot, gathering resources, and increasing one’s abilities that hit gamers on a primitive level of their brains. Maybe that was because those activities naturally increased the release of serotonin in the body and made playing a game almost like getting high at times.

  Not that gaming was the only thing that had this affect. Any activity a person enjoyed in their lives, whether it was hobbies, relationships, or work, could cause a similar affect. Most people learned how to control their impulses slowly throughout their lives, but no matter what, I’d argue that it was always a struggle for balance whenever a person found something they truly enjoyed doing.

  In this way, gaming was no different. It usually first reared its ugly head when new gamers first started picking up loot and free resources. I figured, for many of the Uten Syn members, this was their first time having to deal with such strong urges like this. Maybe that was ignorance on my part but, nonetheless, that’s how I pictured it. Like any new gamer, Suman was in that gap of control where he was learning to not let his greed monster take over his soul.

  I wondered if that was any different than a business man that focused on winning the most money instead of treating people right. Was an attitude like that any different than a PKer that liked to gank other players and take all of their stuff? It’s just business … it’s just a game. Both were convenient words to dismiss someone’s greed and anti-social behavior. Were these very different types of people or both essentially gamers that had never gotten control over that part of their internal greed monsters? It was an interesting comparison and something that I’d argue over a beer with my friends, I thought with a silent laugh.

  At the same time, that didn’t mean player vs player was necessarily bad to have in a game. A lot of us enjoyed PVPing for the increased challenge it brought to the table. Having a positive outlet like land ownership was a way to enhance game play for those of us who liked that kind of competition. Hell, I would even argue that PKing had its place to a point. The World was not a safe place. Having to come together as players to deal with asshole groups of PKers were some of my most proud gaming memories from the past MMOs I’d played.

  The secret was balancing out that kind of game play so that it didn’t destroy the fun aspects of an MMO. I think V-MMORG sti
ll had a long way to go with getting this balance right, but it seemed like they were on the right track … for the most part. Hopefully, they’d mostly let the players police themselves, while creating a loose set of rules that stopped players from utterly destroying the people they were PVPing against.

  Whatever, I just hoped that Suman and the other Uten Syn members who were struggling with these mixed feelings would be able to get over their mental hump before it became a serious problem. If not, I’d handle it like I handled everything else, I thought, letting out a deep sigh.

  ‘It’s cool.’ I mentally sent, feeling the fury radiating from Helgath’s thoughts from where she rode on Neysa’s back glaring at the newfar in question. Gently laying my hand on her thigh, I calmly met her yellow cat-eyes. ‘That’s why I stomped on that now rather than later. Besides, we’ll be keeping an eye on him and anyone else like him in case this becomes a bigger issue.’

  ‘Sometimes, I’m not sure if you’re too understanding,’ Helgath sent, her thoughts a chaotic mess between what she had known in her life to what she had now with me.

  ‘Everyone deserves a chance,’ I replied, giving her a pointed look as she blushed at my meaning. ‘But, it doesn’t mean we do it with our eyes closed.’

  “He’s so cute,” Neristhana said, unknowingly interrupting Helgath’s and my mental conversation as the raid climbed the ridge out of the valley. I saw the worried look in her eyes as she glanced at the Uten Syn players following behind. “I just hope that Grim doesn’t cause any problems with the other newfar.”

  “I wouldn’t be too concerned about it,” I said, reassuringly clapping her on the shoulder as I gave the stone skinned wolf a pat on its bulbous head. He reminded me of a Brussels Griffon. You know, the little dogs that are so ugly that they’re cute. “We’ll help any slow learners get their heads out of their asses.” Giving her a wink, I changed subjects. “By the way, good work on getting everyone trained up.”

  “Thank you, milord,” the gnomeling replied, giving me a nod of appreciation as she clutched the small wolf to her chest. It was nice to see her acting more relaxed with me after our earlier tiff. Seeing, Neysa and Helgath heading out to scout ahead, I excused myself to call my soulmates back.

  ‘Keep close,’ I hurriedly sent as both of my ladies looked back at me in surprise. ‘I want to do this a little different than last time. Let’s have you keep ahead no farther than twenty yards.’

  ‘Getting ambushed happens to the best scouts-‘ Neysa and Helgath both began to argue as I cut them off.

  ‘That’s not the point. No matter how good you scout, there’s still a chance of getting you both killed and aggro’ing the entire ridge or valley,’ I broadcasted to them both. ‘Why are we doing it that way? We have enough troops with us now that everyone has their own zombies.’

  ‘You want to play murderhobo?’ Neysa meaningfully asked in surprise.

  ‘No,’ I gave a mental snort. ‘But, I don’t want you to worry about trying to zigzag the raid through the monsters too much either. If there’s a clear way for us to not fight than lead us through. If not, we’ll just wipe out any packs or herds that get in our way and keep on moving. Who knows, maybe we’ll end up with a few more combat pets if we get lucky.’

  Neysa and Helgath didn’t much care one way or another. There was some concern at first that they hadn’t done a good enough job scouting earlier, but I quickly assured them both that wasn’t the case. Besides, this wasn’t my first rodeo in a region like this. I’d spent a number of years in various MMOs trying to get through aggro-heavy areas. In every one of those games, the regions were purposely designed to make it nearly impossible to not aggro the entire area if your level was too low.

  Chapter One.Twenty-Four

  (Wednesday, May 7th / Day 17 of The World.)

  This time when we moved out, I made sure the formation kept tight. The crest of the ridges were no longer a concern. Well, at least not much of one, since I had Neysa and Helgath fall back to just ten yards out at those times. On the next ridge, we immediately aggro’d a large herd of Elite Large Stone Deer, but it wasn’t a problem since we slaughtered them in less than a minute.

  Yun and I locked down the charging herd with Frost Nova, which I followed up with a cast of Light Word of Censor. Between the three root spells, we barely had a chance to target individual monsters with our Enhanced Shadow Bolts as our horde of zombie pets ripped the herd apart. By the time half of the raid had crossed the ridge behind us, the zombies were making their way through the packs of predators that had aggro’d to the first fight. With the Guardians’ help, we made quick work of these monsters and moved down into the valley without losing even a zombie, let alone a member of the raid.

  While this was great for our progress and XP, the undead unfortunately left no babies alive to recover from the Elite Fanged Tarpan Striders. I wasn’t sure if that was because the pack didn’t have any young or if the zombies had just killed everything that quickly, so we made sure to keep an eye on our pets when we passed through the shallow valley. As the zombies burned through another three packs of predators like they were nothing, the rest of the raid began rolling on the two dens of pups that we’d found.

  Needless to say, we made good time over the next hour. Although it took longer then I’d initially anticipated, we managed to get a hold of another twenty-seven combat pets. Ulia and Yun both got their own Elite Large Rock Wolves, while Tinyr managed to win the roll on the lone Elite Fanged Tarpan Strider we’d recovered during a particularly nasty ridge crossing. Besides the number of Uten Syn players that were stoked at having their own combat pets, it created a lot of positive competition amongst the players. Luckily, no one got pissy like they had on the first drop, which made me breathe a sigh of relief. As the mountain pass to Domenic’s territory came into view, I was pleasantly surprised by a pop-up message that said I’d reached level 36.

  A quick glance at my Character Sheet left me confused as to what to do with my twenty-three Unassigned Attribute Points.

  Statistics:

  Hit Points: 2,552

  Mana: 3,700

  Endurance: 2,340

  Attributes:

  Strength: 100 (+86)

  Intelligence: 181 (+171)

  Spirit: 106 (+71)

  Agility: 120 (+30)

  Stamina: 150 (+82)

  Charisma: 78

  23 Unassigned Attribute Points.

  That wasn’t enough points to push me to a new zombie pet, nor was there anything except Agility that I felt could use some loving point wise. Though, at a hundred and fifty points, I honestly felt like I could safely use them for increasing my Intelligence instead. Even then, it would still take another four levels to reach the forty-eight points needed for another zombie pet.

  That alone was depressing as hell, but, in my heart of hearts, I was sure that it would take even longer than that. No doubt, I’d need to use some of those points to up my base Attributes once the hostilities started back up. Julie was one hundred percent right when she laughed at me for saving up my Unassigned Attribute Points for a dire situation.

  Still, doing so had saved my ass on a number of occasions, and I wasn’t about to change something that worked for me. Tucking that information away, I had Neysa and Helgath lead us onto the top of the ridge to where it connected with the northeastern side of the pass. Calling a halt to the raid, I asked for my friends to join me as I studied the valley below looking for the Aussie’s camp. I found something that fit what I was looking for a moment later.

  Chapter One.Twenty-Five

  (Wednesday, May 7th / Day 17 of The World.)

  At the base of the mountain, there was a clump of trees that covered maybe two acres square. At its center was a large bonfire where a number of players were camped out drinking and talking. I’d put their numbers at around eighty to a hundred players. If not for the angle I was using to look down on them, I wouldn’t have been able to see down inside the gaps of the trees but, after studying the vall
ey, I felt like this had to be the place.

  With a thought, I sent my ladies racing down the slope to check things out. The Silver Dire Wolf’s dexterity was a sight to behold as she sprang from boulder to rocky outcrop with the surety of a mountain goat. In a way, Helgath’s natural riding ability was just as impressive as she laid flat on Neysa’s neck without batting an eye at their plummeting decent. I couldn’t help shaking my head at how lucky I was to have both of them as soulmates.

  “Is that them?” Yun asked, as she came to a stop next to the edge of the outcrop of rock I was using as a perch.

  “Dangas didn’t say how many people were in his guild,” I said, giving him a shrug. “Just that he and his mates wanted to give us a hand against the PKer group messing with us.”

  “Mates, huh?” Sarka repeated with a chuckle. Though it stopped as soon as she saw Neysa’s silvery hair disappearing into the edge of the forest below. “You sent them down to scout?”

  “Yeah, I figured it would be best to have an idea of what we were getting into.” I distractedly replied, as I waited for a reaction in the camp below.

  My attention was momentarily diverted at the sharp plinking sounds that suddenly rang out behind me. Looking around, I saw that it was coming from several Uten Syn players who were busy mining two iron nods nearby. Suppressing the urge to go join them, I focused my attention back on the camp below as the Uten Syn officers and guild leader walked up.

  ‘There are a number of traps set up around their camp,’ Neysa’s mental voice came to me before I could reply to Krishna and Angie’s comments. As my friends started discussing the situation, I focused on my soulmates trying to get a little more information.