How old were you when you started playing Achaea?

Watchman

Titonus said:

Watchman said:

Titonus said:

Kayeil said:

I started a few months before my 23 birthday and my 26th birthday is coming up on Monday so I haven't been here too long, but have enjoyed it so far! Wish I had seen some of the older things the veteran players talk about sometimes.

Yeah...let's talk about how fun landmarking was...

Landmarking WAS fun. Sorta. Sometimes.

Said no one ever.

Edit: And welcome to the forums!

I'm pretty sure I went from somewhere in my 30's to a decent way into my 50's from Landmarking, so I loved it at least. Handful of old Naga did too from what I recall, Tizzee, Silvaria, Coto all liked it. So there!

And thanks.

@Prythe You're going to have to expand on that statement.

Prythe

@ Watchman   You were married to a Druidess who was one of my dearest IC (and a bit OOC) friends (in fact both of you were on my AIM or something). You took a few of us into your office more than once, including some of "my" Apprentices. We spoke not as enemies, but as people looking for commonality between our "people." I was even invited to your family clan.

You engaged with then Druid Leadership, and reached agreements on important issues of the day. We were all people with each other, rather than "We hate you because we're supposed to - yeah, and we hate you back!" It was a time of nuance and RP rather than one excuse for a battle after another. Oh, there were battles, but the world was much more than whose staff was longer then. 

It was a time of much better RP, and allowed Prythe to be "Hey, not all Mhaldorians are the same, and look what Hashan did, how is that any better?" before the more current Hashan Hate became the popular view (and yes, that did not make Prythe popular at the time, refusing to blanketly hate Mhaldor and refusing to blanketly forgive the other Cities which had harmed Nature along the way).  

Few Druids were part of Eleusis at the time (nor did Druids speak with one voice) so it was not only an unpopular view, but a distinctly minority one. (In fact, I left Eleusis for a time then, only to have Covenant and Elsp plead with me to return - saying my voice was needed. So I did.)

I have never forgotten those days, and the grays, and wish there was more of that today. 

You were part of what made Achaea unique, and tremendously enjoyable.

It was _really_ nice to see your name here.

Herenicus

Prythe said:

You were part of what made Achaea unique, and tremendously enjoyable.

It was _really_ nice to see your name here.

You should send him 5cr on his birthday

Prythe

@Herenicus
I may very well do that, if he's going to stick around!

Titonus

Watchman said:

Titonus said:

Watchman said:

Titonus said:

Kayeil said:

I started a few months before my 23 birthday and my 26th birthday is coming up on Monday so I haven't been here too long, but have enjoyed it so far! Wish I had seen some of the older things the veteran players talk about sometimes.

Yeah...let's talk about how fun landmarking was...

Landmarking WAS fun. Sorta. Sometimes.

Said no one ever.

Edit: And welcome to the forums!

I'm pretty sure I went from somewhere in my 30's to a decent way into my 50's from Landmarking, so I loved it at least. Handful of old Naga did too from what I recall, Tizzee, Silvaria, Coto all liked it. So there!

And thanks.

@Prythe You're going to have to expand on that statement.

Ok, the first day or two after the time between them being active got reduced was ok, but, omg that shit got tedious.

Nicaara

Watchman said:

Titonus said:

Watchman said:

Titonus said:

Kayeil said:

I started a few months before my 23 birthday and my 26th birthday is coming up on Monday so I haven't been here too long, but have enjoyed it so far! Wish I had seen some of the older things the veteran players talk about sometimes.

Yeah...let's talk about how fun landmarking was...

Landmarking WAS fun. Sorta. Sometimes.

Said no one ever.

Edit: And welcome to the forums!

I'm pretty sure I went from somewhere in my 30's to a decent way into my 50's from Landmarking, so I loved it at least. Handful of old Naga did too from what I recall, Tizzee, Silvaria, Coto all liked it. So there!

And thanks.

@Prythe You're going to have to expand on that statement.

Tizzee? Who WAS Tizzee anyway? A burning question for anyone who was in the "Raja Society" back in the day. "Or, as Tizzee would put it, a bunch of fluffy kitties."

Watchman

@Prythe I remember those meetings with the druid leadership. Those negotiations were pretty intense, for a time. I'm fairly sure we ended up with a couple of Druids joining Mhaldor too, though admittedly Mhaldor itself was more lock-step with RP which would've made it a more difficult home. I'm honored and humbled by your kind words - and it is most certainly not necessary to send me some credits, speaking of which..

@Herenicus No pimping me out, man.

@Titonus It was great. Mhaldorians would quickly burn out on Landmarks, so we'd have piss all people around for them, so naturally we'd suck hard at them, so then Sartan would go all Arrow on us with YOU HAVE FAILED MY CITY and would punish us. Great opportunity for RP though.

@Nicaara She was a lovely lady in her late 30s/early 40s from what I recall. Wicked sense of humor. Great RPer too. Just generally awesome. Miss her!

Tirui

I've been playing since I was 16 and I would play during or between high school classes. I've had a few serious breaks of not playing and I have far too many characters... But yeah, about 12 years now.

May

I've gone from obnoxious teenager with nothing better to do with my life to a very serious adult. Achaea help'd me get through the rough years and I really think it made me better person. It was a place where I could fit in and not be judge on how I looked, and everyone liked me for who I was. 

Skye

I think I was... 17 when I first started playing? Almost 13 years now. 

It's a pretty melodramatic story lol. 

I actually first saw a link to Achaea on a friend's livejournal (cause there was no Facebook back then and I hated friendster) but I'd sort of brushed over it. But I was having a rough time cause I got rejected by some guy I liked. I remember this because I was going to meet him in Tokyo during my June break, just as a 'by the way' because I was attending a function with my dad. And then he just pulled the 'don't come to Tokyo just for me okay?' thing. Asshole.

So I was just mindlessly reading through people's stuff, anything to take my mind off the fact that my hormonal teenage self was rejected (for the first time in my life. Ppl don't reject me k, I reject them ) and I came across it again. Shrugged and clicked on the link. Well fuck there goes my broken soul. I tend to come back to Achaea when I get incredibly bored/dissatisfied with work/life, or so I notice haha. 

Pretty sure my first character was a Runie, and I was experimenting a lot with stuff and eventually suicided her cause I wasn't 100% sure what I was doing, also bad teenage decisions and people were really into mass bloodlining back then and would get you to bloodline with them without really explaining what was up. It's notable that when I started playing, there was still Landmarking and I later had the priviledge (as Skye) of seeing and participating at the end of it and the destruction of Landmarks. 

I made Skye a little later, made quite a lot of bad teenage decisions too lol but I stuck with her. I started her as a Jester (as @Kinilan likes to bring up), and I actually first developed a bias against Ashtan at this time because there was a coup in which Mendax got ousted as GM and his bitchwife Callianessa had taken to bringing (mostly Ashtani/Shadowsnakes) thugs and breaking into the Jester estate repeatedly. On the other hand, there was some major fangirling for Nimby (then Occultist and all-around mostly manual combat badass). Skye was very well disposed towards Occultists for a very long time on his account. 

The Skye I had when she first started out is nearly unrecognisable to me haha, she was so saccharine-sweet and overly cutesy, but I've been able to evolve it as a part of her overcompensating for things. I've also had fun sometimes regressing back to that mode in part when she's with people she 'grew up' with like @Carmell and @Verrucht. Still, if I had a chance to do it all over again, I think I might have done some things differently. Not bloodlining any kids for one. Except @Chidori cause she's awesome. 

Also, pretty sure that this was roughly around the same time that @Neraeosascended and I saw parts of his God-event even though I was too new and clueless to have appreciated it back then. Still, it was like, totally fated, and it's been an incredible honour to have been played alongside him through the years and finally being a part of the Order. 

Herenicus

Back when @Skye lived in Mhaldor, she threw a block party. Droch Cypra and I were just excited to be invited. It was the biggest and most beautiful room description I had ever seen:

The Edge of the Ocean.
The smell of the ocean mingled with the faint scent of sea roses washes over 
you as you enter the room, stepping into what appears to be an entirely 
different world from the one outside. The floor is dark teak parquet, with 
occasional blanket covering the polished surface, the walls have been painted a
very pale yellow hue. Thick white drapes of heavy silk are drawn apart and 
secured by golden cords to reveal the entire west wall that comprises of glass 
panels obscured by transluscent white curtains that barely block the light from
streaming in. One of the panels is revealed to be a sliding door that opens to 
a deck that overlooks the calm deep blue waterfront. A soft pile of cushions 
and a small coffee table are placed facing the panels to allow others to enjoy 
the relaxing view in the comfort of the indoors. The table has a small pile of 
books all with dog-eared pages as well as a well-used map and some notes 
written in flowing Achaean script. In a bright corner basking in the light is a
fountain, carefully handcarved by the most skilled stone maisons, it features a
number of beautiful naiads winding up around the sandstone the top of the 
pedastal where the image of Chryseis the Fair the most beautiful of naiads 
reclines on the edge of a crystal bowl, a steady stream of sea water flowing 
from her open hand into the bowl in which a small school of rainbow coloured 
fish swim languidly within the crystaline prison along with some small starfish
clinging to the slippery inner surface, some ingenius piping within the 
fountain ensures that the pool never overflows. A small partition that reaches 
to mid-torso has been made, cutting off this sitting area from the rest of the 
house, ingeniously turned into a bookcase with some small knick-knacks sitting 
atop it rather than just a blank wall. The books that line it range from 
mythology to mere picture books, to poetry and to geography to the darker books
on ritualistic sacrifice that seem to stand out from the mellow tone of the 
room. Behind the partition by a small circular window is a large bed also of 
dark teak, the sheets are snow white satin, soft pillows lining the head of the
bed. A cosy silk covered wool comforter of pale blue covers the sheets and 
pillows. A dressing table of the same make sits by the bed, a large gilded 
mirror the focus of its simple stature. It is relatively bare save an ivory 
backed hairbrush and a vase of white roses. Opposite the bed is a small quiet 
pool of clear water surrounded by smooth grey pebbles. A golden carp swims 
within it, under cover of white lilies and their pads. Within the lilies 
however are tiny tea candles that are lit at night to illuminate the room in 
their soft glow. There are 4 pocketbelts here. Lying flat on the ground is a 
key-shaped sigil. A sigil in the shape of a small, rectangular monolith is on 
the ground. A runic totem is planted solidly in the ground. A grotesque blanket
of skins lined with black velvet lies here with a distinct smell. A lacquered 
wooden music box sits upon the ground. Quaero Vetustas, Skye Demaxx-De'Le'Vec 
is here, vines undulating about her form. She wields a sharpened quarterstaff 
in her left hand. She is surrounded by one reflection of herself.
You see a single exit leading out (closed door).

Skye

Oh God oh god, that was like my proto-room. And you're right it was the longest room desc ever lol.

When I moved to Eleusis and finally bought a plot, I managed to finally split that description into two rooms haha. 

And you weren't... invited... I remember I walked in unexpectedly one day and saw uh...

*blankface*
....
*reboot*
... Oh yeah! I had a party!

Sarathai

Skye said:

The Skye I had when she first started out is nearly unrecognisable to me haha, she was so saccharine-sweet and overly cutesy... 

Should have said "dinky barrel, small and cute" somewhere in here.

Kinilan

Skye keeps trying to drag me in to this crap. I'll bite for once.

I think I was like 15. I was deep into this browser game that was basically a chatroom with mindless clicking and one of the regulars mentioned a game that was all text. Mentioned some classes, mentioned druids, mentioned trollskin armour. So I gave it a shot. First character was a druid. I tried for a little bit, did some bashing, spent like 10 minutes trying to figure out how to stand up and going to sleep in Lodi. Then I figured out what exactly the drood novice reqs were and a I noped right the fuck out. That shit was retarded.

Made a second char, Runewarden Guild, Cyrene ( I know right?). There I ran in to a guy I knew from that other game. It was his idea that we be brothers, so I ended up with the Demaxx last name that he got from wherever. And it was his ideas (and my typos) that filled out Kinilan's background for my novice exam. SHOW BACKGROUND KINILAN. Some people have said it's a piece of Achaean art. I've still got my "You can recompose your background if you wish. "  from like Year 10 but Carmain won't let me use it to ruin that masterpiece.

After my first major event, The war of the divine child, I was hooked.  Unfortunately because a big event like that was such a big hook for me I always feel kind of "meh" when huge events aren't going on. And it's always been AFTER a huge event that I return from one of my extended leaves. Vertani, War in the Underworld, Balmet. Bad timing.

And @Skye friends don't let friends forget they were jesters.

Skye

I'm sorry i'll stop tagging you in all the nostalgia crap  

Man, if I could go back in time, I'd stick to Jester and lolspk people in all the abusive ways that we only know of now >_> And you know I could do it cause it was pre-system. RIP besot/oblit etc. 

Kinilan

Besot > any system. The end.

Taraus

Kinilan said:

 Some people have said it's a piece of Achaean art.

olololol ily

Tael

I was 13 or 14 when I first started playing and, aside from one or two alts that I pretty swiftly discarded (I can't remember if Tael was my first character, but he might not have been), it's been Tael all the way. I was enamoured with pretty much every part of the whole concept from the player government to the rooms that I used to just walk around reading to the big events to just chatting with people in-character. I loved the sense of freedom compared to other games, even if in hindsight I didn't really do much with that freedom. I wasn't very interested in PvP, but I loved the way it was handled and the idea of RP-motivated PvP (even if, unbeknownst to me, plenty of it wasn't particularly RP-motivated).

But I think the thing that cemented the game in my heart, silly as it sounds, was the old Runewarden ritualistic greeting ("Good Jera", "Algiz protect"), which seems unbelievably cheesy to me now, but completely sold me on the whole thing at the time. The realisation that these organisations of players had actual history and actual culture, culture with visible manifestations, is still a huge part of the draw of the game for me - it's what I've usually worked towards creating when I've been playing and it's the thing I think about even during the periods where I can't play much. It's the thing that keeps bringing me back to Achaea again and again whenever free time appears in my life. Looking for pockets of that sort of player-created in-character culture to explore has been a big OOC reason why Tael has moved around so many times in the world (though it's been over the course of so many years that it doesn't really seem that unstable when I think about it).

And, to do my own little "back in my day things were better", rose-coloured glasses thing: I think RP, on the whole, has gotten a lot better. Some places may have lost some depth and nuance they once had, but there is no doubt in my mind that the overall amount and quality of RP in the game has risen dramatically compared to what it was like when I started playing so many years ago. That said, I do think that the culture part of the game has taken some huge hits - I think the introduction of Houses did a lot of damage there and not many people noticed it because it was a very subtle kind of damage, and I think many who did notice it didn't really know what to do to recreate that old magic. I think a lot of people tried to do it by codifying lists of requirements that everyone could pursue together and share the experience of and I think a lot of people tried to do it by creating contests and incentives, and I don't think either of those strategies turn out to work particularly well, at least in terms of fostering IC org culture. I suspect that you either need a lot of time, which orgs haven't generally gotten what with the transition to houses and then to Renaissance houses each erasing some measure of the built-up culture, or you need people who are very cognizant and deliberate about creating this sort of culture, which is very rare (which may be for the best, since it does force one to adopt a sort of "meta" perspective that detracts somewhat from immersion).

Overall, I think this lack of culture, and not lack of effort or depth of RPing, is what people are really noticing when they talk about how a lot of things feel more "gamey" than they once did. And I think this is still a significant problem, though I think it's getting better too - somewhat counterintuitively, the Renaissance seems to be achieving a lot of this, even as the new houses sever ties to existing sources of history and culture, via the clans that have come out of the old guilds and houses, which essentially exist purely to foster that kind of culture and identity.

Ainly

Not sure exactly. I know I was in high school. Probably about 16. I'm 27 now. But I did have a long dormancy for about seven years. I'm back baby!

Jonathin

Started playing in 2000 on telnet. Friend was randomly browsing mudconnect or something

Melodie

I started MUDs in general when I was about 14. One of my AOL chat friends (lel) that I roleplayed with (double lel) told me about them and showed me a tiny little diku mud called Beyond the Veil. I played that for about... maybe eight months? Then it was getting closed down, so same said friend recommended I try a different one, a rom mud called World of Phoenix. This place was magical compared to my last because all the colors! This is where I got my start learning how to run games and being in a leadership position, and eventually became an IMM for a while before the mud split due to craaaaazy drama. This is also where I met boyfriend (whom I now live with today a million years later).

When the mud split, boyfriend suggested Achaea, and I was somewhere between 15-16... I remember it was sophmore year of high school and I was totting around a huge list of things to do for a Blufest throughout the hallways, so that seems to fall in line. I don't quite know what got me hooked... probably all the roleplaying and Cyrene's friendly atmosphere (which was heaven to a painfully shy, socially awkward teenager). I'm 26 now! I took about a two yearish break, from like 20-22 or so, but otherwise have been around a good deal and don't see myself leaving anytime soon.

Nicaara

Melodie said:

This is also where I met boyfriend (whom I now live with today a million years later).

Ahhh that is soooo cute! The same exact thing happened to me several years ago, except in WoW. The kind of relationships you can form with people in online games is amazing. And it is interesting to note that most of the internet-born relationships I've seen become very long lasting, whether friend or lover. So many things factor in to that, but I wonder why that is exactly?

Sooooo when you gettin' married? Are we invited? lol

Sarapis

I was 23 when I started working on what became Achaea.

Antonius

Kinilan said:

Besot > any system. The end.

God, I hated that crap. Jester was so broken back then, these kids don't even know. I still remember killing Jester Proficy while passing out drunk due to besot, with Viran (Paladin GL at the time) constantly asking me to come to his office. Viran was huge on military roleplay, and hated it if you were drunk in public, didn't respond immediately, etc. I think I ended up ignoring him for two or three minutes of pretty constant tells, with him getting more and more irate, before finally getting the kill (with disembowel, back before you could even prep for that shit). Then I had to jump into the arena and have somebody behead me so I didn't turn up to the meeting unable to speak coherently.


As for the thread itself...

I think I started playing back in the summer of 2001, so I would have been 12. Pretty sure that math just about works out with how old Antonius is. I've only ever really had the one character; made the occasional alt, played them for an hour or two, then never logged in to them again - I still have an Infernal alt in Mhaldor that I bought a lesson package or two for, that I played for maybe five hours.

Like a lot of people, where I started playing so young I'm not sure how I've changed because of it since I have no basis for comparison. It's influenced my life in some pretty major ways, though. I originally learnt how to code for Achaea, and I went on to do a degree in Computer Science at university, and now work as a "full-time" (when I'm not taking breaks to read the forums and other sites) programmer. I also got married to, and later divorced from, somebody I met on Achaea, so there's that.

Nicaara

Antonius said:

 I also got married to, and later divorced from, somebody I met on Achaea, so there's that.

Man... why'd you have to go and ruin the magic! Also, sorry.

Korben

Jules said:

There were a couple of other older players, and they were just almost always easier to relate to, probably because the ages really were so stark in those years.  Most of the game was probably *well* under 20, which I definitely didn't fully understand at the time, partly because I'd never played an online game before, and partly because I just hadn't grown up immersed in internet culture.   

Agreed.

I was 34 when I started playing, I'm 46 now.

Atalkez

13 in my keyboard class

Jukilian

I started playing back when I was halfway through grade 10, after a friend of mine introduced me to the game, so that would've been when I was 15. That's almost 10 years ago this year, I think. I think that was just when Guilds were turning into Houses. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Before then I was primarily playing Neverwinter Nights online in a server called Nordock.

My first character in Achaea was an Infernal in Mhaldor. I spent my lessons horribly like the newb I was and ended up suiciding him because you couldn't reverse stuff like that back then.

Xax

Started playing another mud by the name of Cardea when I was super young, then came to Achaea around 12ish(2001ish).  Had millions of short lived alts, went to Aetolia for a long time, heard there were ships here from an Achaea convert who felt piracy killed it, started Xax and bought a ship hours after first logging in. Haven't turned back since.

Chiam

Saeva said:

I only started playing Achaea about a year and a half ago. But I had been playing a different MUD since I was about 14.

I created Chiam a little more than a year and a half ago and started playing a few months later. But I had been playing a different MUD since I was about 10.

remember you told me "dude I was in your exact position some time ago!" when I was a novice. hah