Mabinogi

With a three-day weekend on the horizon, I figured it would be a better time than any to dive head first into an MMO. Since I wasn't playing one before I enrolled in this course, I didn't want to pay money to play just in case I never picked up the game after the quarter was over. Maple Story is a very popular free MMO, so I investigated Nexon's webpage for a client download. On a whim, I instead downloaded Mabinogi from their site, a more traditional fantasy-oriented game since the 2D aspect of Maple Story didn't really appeal to me.

Nexon's business model in this game is to offer premium services and goods to paying customers, while letting freeloaders like me play (almost) as long as I want without paying a dime. Eventually, because of the game's age system, my character will reach a prohibitive age and I'll need to "rebirth" the character into a youthful 10 year-old in order to keep growing (getting skills, experience, etc.).

I spent Friday night getting acclimated to Mabinogi, and as a console gamer at heart, I struggled with hotkeys and clicking on things. I died several times trying to navigate a field of wolf cubs. I didn't know anybody in the world, so my NPC-only gameplay wasn't captivating. By bedtime, I wasn't convinced these MMO-things were so great.

Saturday, I logged in again just to give the game a chance to show me anything that could hold my interest. Running mundane errands around the initiation village, I encountered the hook. After learning a "campfire" skill, I tried immediately to start one. It was midnight gametime, and I figured it would be appropriate. I failed repeatedly (I don't think I understood the procedure), but another player had a nice fire burning already. I took a seat opposite her at the fire and asked her how she did it. Politely, she explained. Then, innocently enough, asked, "You're new, aren't you?" My n00b status was clearly evident. After a little conversation, she mentioned she was interested in the weaving skill. I had mentioned that my beginner's clothes were an eyesore, and she (surprisingly) offered to make me a new garment. Thus I met Vampireai.

I spent the rest of the night running around the graveyards filled with spiders collecting silk for my new duds. Diligently Vampireai spun threads in town. A beginner tailor herself, this process took 3 hours. It didn't bother me though, because I had suddenly discovered a meaningful quest: make me a shirt and friend simultaneously! When it was all said and done, this charming character posed with me and my new outfit:
I was very grateful for her work. But what now? Instead of parting ways, she offered to show me around the world. She said she liked to help newbies, and that it was just in her nature. I wasn't arguing, so I tagged along with her as we crossed vibrant plains to other cities before stopping in a town roughly a 20 minute sprint from the crutch of the initial town.

The place was deserted. Maybe the server is underpopulated. Maybe it really is too far away from anything useful. Either way, we hung out in an auditorium and chatted. Before long, another player who had overheard our "public" conversation, stopped to chime in:

His name was Kazukikun, and out of pure boredom, stayed to chat. Later, the three of us went fishing as a makeshift late-night band of buddies. It really was a surreal experience. This never happens in real life. Yet there I was, with 2 real people, fishing the serene waters of an isolated lake chatting about our real lives!

Thus I discovered the true power behind the MMO concept. As an online game, Mabinogi cannot master the single-player experience of a dedicated masterpiece like Zelda: a Link to the Past. Yet it also cannot master the multiplayer frenzies of online FPS deathmatches. It's niche is the social interactions both in the foreground (guilds, trading, etc.) and in the background (getting to know the player behind the persona). After my weekend expedition into the world of Mabinogi, it is the friendships I've established that will pull me back into the game, even if only to say hello to Vampireai and Kazukikun.