Why do you play (or keep playing) Lusternia?

Kio

The past couple weeks, Lusternia has felt so busy to me that I barely know what to do anymore. I have a huge laundry list of things that I'd like to finish on a daily basis now, as well as the numerous long-term things I'd like to accomplish.  Tonight was the first time I've sat idle in probably two weeks of playing at least 5 hours every day, and even then it was only because work today was absolutely draining and my fingers are too heavy.

It wasn't always this way, though.  Every other time I've played Lusternia, whether on Kio (on whom I first stepped out of the portal) or any other alt, I always get discouraged after a month and a half or two months.  I always lean toward learning combat because that's where I have the most adrenaline-filled fun-times.  But alas, I always get bored and start feeling lonely because everyone is so elitist and runs around in their little cliques without ever interacting with anyone else.

So, this time, when I logged onto Kio, I did something different.  I took every chance I could to talk to anyone or anything that moved.  I stopped waiting for someone to look at me and say, "Hey there, why don't you come play on our side of the playground today?"  Clearly this is what I've always neglected to do in the past.

All it took was trying my damnedest to RP turning into a tree.  That's it.  I sat back and told myself, "You're not ______ today, you're Kio Erid'in.  You're turning into a tree and you feel rejected by your family.  You've never met this Elanorwen person before, but you're going to talk to her.  You're not going to wait for her to tell you what you should be feeling or how you should be acting - you're just going to do it and see what she does."  Wouldn't you know it?  Look at all this stuff I have to play with now.  This side of the playground is so much fun.

Just getting the courage to leave my comfort zone and try to make my own story unfold with Elanorwen was all it took.  She gave me at least an hour of her time, and all I had to do was ask.  As a player, that interaction completely and totally changed the way I play Lusternia.  Instead of being excited to get off work, come home, and mindlessly wait for combat-spam, I get excited about the ritual I spent a week writing, which I performed in front of two people Kio had never met before, messed up terribly because the notepad I had everything in flipped out on me right before I started, and ended with Xenthos giving Kio a fourty-five minute private lesson on growing up.  I get excited because I saw something interesting while I was at work and it gave me a design idea.  I get excited about a big question I want to ask Thul about the fae so I can listen to him as he fleshes out a person in front of me, made of sweat, dedication, and innumerable stories about the unending lore of this text-based world I'm taking a break in.  I get excited because, on my way home from work, I finally thought of how I can give Lyora the cookie she always wants from Kio even though he's a forger.

All these stories are happening because there are other people who want to mix their imagination with mine.  They've sat aside part of their day to come play pretend with me, but I never stepped up.  So, I just want to take a minute and say thanks:

@Elanorwen: For the above.

@Iorwen: For a relation to the above.  You sat with Kio as he tried to rub out his aching limbs after waking up from decades of sleep.  That spot is now his favorite place in Glomdoring.

@Morkarion: For the first time you interacted with Kio, looking over his design for fullplate.  You didn't just shock me ICly, you shocked me OOCly.  You are best big-mean-scary-guy.

@Septim: You're the best Keeps there is, especially because you let Kio call you that.

@Nihta: For being an uppity snob and telling Kio exactly what you thought of him.

@Celina: For bringing me, as a player, into the first Order I've ever been part of.  I haven't done much with it yet, but I'm still trying to figure out how.  It's on my to-do list.

@Thoros: For leading so many raids.  You may not realize it, but your patience is what made me not afraid to die in a fight.

@Alary: For that time Kio tried to eat you.

@Malarious: For that time Kio lied to you when you were engraving his nekai.  Also for the threatening of tearing off your man-bits to immediately follow.

@Xenthos: For the above.  You basically gave Kio a new family.

@Lyora: For making Kio wet himself on a routine basis.  He wouldn't be engaged if it wasn't for you.

@Thul: For being such an influential force on Kio, from the time he was Mister Tree to the time he became your fiance.  As a player, thank you for dealing with my numerous, panic-inducing typos that I secretly pray you don't catch.  I get very wound up by the vision in my head and can't seem to pour it onto the keyboard fast enough, so I often forget you're on the other end.  I'm trying to get better at it, I promise!

@Chade: For making not only Kio, but the player behind him, feel pretty awesome about all the hard work he's been putting in to trying to understand warrior combat.

@Viynain: For that time when you were Xiel and thought Kio would make a halfway decent son.

Anywho!  It's super late and I'm partially just feeling really sentimental lately, so apologies for being a big cloud of mushy softness.  This aside, I've been thinking about this all day after the "Eventru said we can't have spears!" offshoot in the alternate weapon nouns thread: the player behind Kio wants to know why you, the player behind whoever you are, plays Lusternia.  What exactly is Lusternia for you?

Sakr

A time investment. Mainly because I spent so much time invested in my character, I would hate seeing that go to waste. I tried putting up goals, reach city rank 6, reach GR 19 in the guild, reach demigod, reach omni trans (that one isn't completed), join a family, have a child, build an aethercity... That last one I finished, but there are always the small things you can add on to, but it is a reason to stay kind of motivated to keep playing.

But if I were to get my time and money back from something. Would I keep on playing? I honestly don't know. 

Kalnid

Somebody's got to make sure the halls of the void stay appropriately organized. Seems every time I go inactive we get another three thousand books, half of which are tagged and half of those are tagged appropriately. Plus, reading every single thing that gets published is pretty enjoyable.

Also, the discussions I've been having with various people nearly every day recently.  I guess that's something. You hit the nail on the head about needing to seek it out, though.

Ssaliss

For me, I haven't reached my goal yet. Once I do, though, I expect I'll set up another goal.

Odds are I won't reach my goal for a long while though, so... yeah.

Malayn

You never lied to Malarious, you kept a secret and Malarious went along with it.

Elanorwen told him Kio was gay.  ^_^ 

The person you stated they were for also isn't around enough for you to have been dating. /stalker


Malarious stays in Lusternia primarily for combat and balancing, it is intriguing to no end trying to balance skills and abilities. The combat has devolved over time, things getting higher damage, faster affs, etc from even the days of revised monks.  -I- think it is powercreep, he thinks it is just the natural trend of things to improve over time. He misses the days of duels and mag tag but rolls with the punches.  His goals are unattainable:

1) Achieve balance between the skills, convincing the very divine to correct the weave (yes Malarious views envoys ICly).  He gets poked by envoys alot, and he actively seeks them out when they are needed for something.

2) Being known for his ability to adapt and use any skills for combat, and his ability to execute various "missions" and kills easily.

3) Become an Ascendant.  To him a vernal ascendant isnt demi+, it is the organization telling him he belongs there. It is not taken lightly, it is a vested effort. This is why he is known to try new things if he does not ascend (not org change generally, but even guild hops), so he moves toward growth.



As to why I haven't left Lusty personally. I was looking at it briefly, until several of you told me not to!

Astraea

The Nightshades. Far and above anything else, the Nightshades.

Rivius

Well, I was introduced to Lusternia many years ago by an old school friend who played here under the name 'Lowe'. He always used to describe his Lusternia adventures to me and I found them pretty entertaining to listen about. That, coupled with the novelty of a game that's played entirely in text piqued my interest and I gave it a go. 

My characters didn't last very long and all got pruned as I wasn't any good at making friends or engaging in interesting things. One summer I had nothing better to do and randomly remembered Lusternia existed and decided to mess around with a character. I never intended to get into it or stick around, much like previous attempts, though I did want to see what combat was like since that's where most of the fun stories came from. So I literally walked up to my mentor at the time and I went "Can you show me how to do combat?".

Well, that was probably not the best approach, and the answers I got weren't very helpful. I did find out somehow that people were sparring a lot in the Glade, so I would go there and through a tip by another player, I'd diagnose people who were fighting and afterward listen-in to their post-combat conversations about what they felt they did wrong. One of the guys who always seemed to be in there was Iasmos and pretty quickly I grew to think of him as 'the big guy'.

One day I asked him to spar me, having never sparred before, and I hilariously killed myself on his rebounding. Then he taught me how to deal with that and then I hilariously died to his riposte. I found it pretty hilarious and fun so I kept trying and trying with him and he'd keep giving me tips. Eventually when I felt it was time to get a proper curing system, he offered me his treant and all of its modules for free, which I am still eternally grateful for today.

With assistance from him and my mentor, I got a sense of the basics. 

Then a guy called Zhov, who was a Brave with me showed the same enthusiasm toward learning and we became rivals of sorts. We'd spar a lot and he'd beat me a lot until eventually I improved and we started being more or less equal. He showed me how to hunt and where to explore and we had some good reflective moments talking about our future goals. He wanted to become a demigod first and said he'd beat me to it and also to become a security. 

I watched him advance a lot faster than me to the point where he was allowed to choose his own title. When I asked him what he'd choose, he told me "'Serenguard' describes everything I am already so I don't know...". I really liked this answer, and for this reason Rivius never really held a different title, even after becoming a chieftain.

Eventually I met Kolm and he was one of the most upbeat and friendly guys you'd ever know. He called me 'cub' and took me under his wing, sparring lots, giving advice, pulling us to raid with him and fight in faethorn. He taught me not to be afraid of dying and very often would charge into big battles we had no chance of winning with his old crazy phrase "BANZAI!". I feel like Kolm along with Iasmos were the most encouraging mentors I could ever ask for and were always very kind friends.

Alianna was also a very encouraging and helpful leader. At first I didn't think she liked me very much, and I think I annoyed her a lot with my ditzy cheerfulness back then. One day when asking her for combat advice she told me "Pinleg-pinleg-pinleg! Keep working hard at combat. I know you'll be really strong one day. You'll be our own version of Shuyin! I know it! And hurry up and get security already!"

I didn't know where the heck that came from, but it really did encourage me to give everything my best and work my way up.

I bonded more and more with people in the Serenguard and it really did feel like a wonderful family. I don't think I could ever leave this guild since it's proven itself many times over to be where Rivius belongs.

As time went on, things started to get a bit frustrating with constant raids and people slowly fading away because of real-life issues or whatever. I stuck it out because I really did still enjoy Lusternia a lot. 

For reasons I'll never understand, Aerys wanted to get married to Rivius and so they did. It was a pretty cute little relationship, and Rivius became part of Aerys' huge family, the Zayahs. These guys would later on become the best e-friends I've ever made and to this day, I still talk to the majority of them on skype, every single day for the past three years. They're kind of like a RL e-family now to me than just 'those guys I see on Lusternia'.

There was a point where people started fading away temporarily again, so I fell back onto combat to keep myself entertained. I said, "Hm! I'll learn how to code so I can give Iasmos more useful feedback and help on his system." 

Well, I did help him a lot with things, but I also started working on little things myself which exploded into my own personal curing system. He provided a lot of help along the way and his mentorship helped me get a really good grasp of lua and coding in Mushclient. This really added to my enjoyment to the game since there really are few feelings better than making small tweaks to your own curing system and watching your survivability against people improve.

I really did ramble a lot but what made me stick around were the people who didn't ignore me, encouraged me every step of the way and welcomed me with open arms. The many relationships I formed on this character are the number one reason I'm still playing.

Xiran

Oh Alianna.

It's the past and potential memories for me. I google old quotes a lot. (I'd end up naming a third of all Serens so I'm resisting the urge to make this a huge wall of text.) Generally being useful. Teaching newbies and trying to figure out what aspect of Lusternia or the Moondancers will be most appealing for them (much easier when they ask questions). The excitement from resurgemming people in time, daring to stay in Faethorn even when scary Gloms are detected.

Scripting's also super fun. And custom emotes. Two reasons why I've never been as addicted to graphic MMORPGS. But it's really all the friends and enemies and relations in between that I think of first whenever I come back to Lusternia. Also the Fae (influencing's therapeutic okay).

Kio

Hey! I'm not scary. I just want to play.

Zagreus

Mudsex















































(says half the basin)

Shaddus

Ixion said:

Mudsex















































(says half the basin)

Did not.

Alary

I feel a need to explain. When I started Lusternia, I had fun. Steep learning curve but I had time on my hands and I could play it as school. But I never invested any money into it. I loved it for rp, and played a good while and never got past level 71. There just wasn't enough to keep me.

And then I got really bored three-four months ago. I decided to start fresh, clean slate. Never expecting to stay long. But I put money into credits anyway. I feel now I am going to stay for a while.  Not just because I put money into it. I've made friends, good friends. My character is getting somewhere. I feel involved like I didn't before. And that's what matters.

Dramshanks

There were two people who were the main reasons I stayed once I actually created Dramshanks and entered the realms, originally it was Druken but it quickly became @Astraea

I stay because of Glomdoring. The ethos and feel of our gloomy bunch keep me going.

Nothing matters but my darling Ickytrees.

Zyphora

• I love the interactions the Divine have with players and their little roleplay interludes with each other. It's really something I've never experienced personally in other IRE games. Besides being endearing, it's also impressive to see the depth of their roleplaying talent, and how much thought and work they've put into their god's history. No words can explain how much respect I have for all of the gods, especially @Isune. :x
• Along with that, being able to see how much thought @Estarra put into the Elder Gods' histories, and many more facets of Lusternian lore. 
• The relationships Zyphora has developed with her friends, and how we can pick up again even after so much time apart, OOCly and ICly. E.g., @Drae yelling at me every time he comes online for miscellaneous reasons.
• OOC designing stints with @Irillia are the best. She's my better Internet half. :x
• The whimsical crystal beauty of Hallifax. The roleplay. I am naturally and outwardly very reserved, so it just comes so easily to me. How everyone's so austere and logical in game, and OOCly, people (@Ciaran and @Shedrin) are just cracking jokes at everything.
• Also, Hallifax was hell (HELL) to navigate when I was a novice, but it was a challenge that I wanted to conquer. Growing more familiar with the city and its layout made me appreciate its complexity all the more.
  
• @Tulemrah's Medic! package. I probably would have given up without that.
• And when I tentatively tried out alting, the GA of a certain guild was and has been very helpful and encouraging. It's really helped me with advancing in that guild and sticking with that character. Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who has touched Zyphora's and my life as a Lusternian.

Karlach

Obsessive personality with games and the challenges that keep me in them.

That being the desire to accomplish many goals, and in a game as wide open as this there are LOTS of goals.

On going storylines and RP, some stuff short term, some very long term that I want to share with the world when the story is written and can be told.

Oh and the people are alright I suppose >.>

Thul

The thing that keeps drawing me back time after time is the world's story. It's an interesting, vaguely tragic, and ridiculously detailed setting, and that gets me inspired to do some writing of my own. It's an amazingly creative community we've got here, and it shows in the Bardics, in the libraries, in the guilds, in the designs and in the day to day RP you get just being part of a group.

...also, I'm with Mork in the obsessive personality boat. This time around: second trade and three curio sets. And so help me, if I don't stop myself, I'm going to have Trans in five different trades.

Iasmos

Svorai

Because: you guys.