Prophecy Realized

It's a bit difficult to see in this picture, but that is Dunbarton's main square packed with player shops. In a previous post titled "Iria Released," I discussed a prediction I made in my Mabinogi economic research paper, forseeing that the player market would expand out from its Tir Chonaill roots and finally relocate to a spot in the center of the map. Now that Iria has shifted the player base closer towards it (that is, more players are using Port Ceann in the south to reach Iria), Tir Chonaill no longer has the most foot traffic in the game.

When I made my prediction, I had assumed players would be running to and from the port to all places in Uladh (the original continent) when they returned from Iria. Dunbarton, at the center of the continent, is an ideal town to make a base camp for travelers as they branch out to the other locales. But the real reason so many players visit Dunbarton now is because of the Continent Warp feature, which allows players in Iria to warp to Uladh and vice versa. Players warping out of Iria get dropped in Dunbarton, so naturally a market has sprung up to take advantage of the new high-volume transportation route. I'm not sure if the bustling marketplace is a result of the forces I predicted, or if it exists solely because of the warping. I'll continue to believe I was correct, though, until proven otherwise.

During my first week in Mabinogi, I was fortunate to meet and befriend Vampireai who kindly helped me learn the ins and outs of the game (I've blogged about it here). Her generosity towards a newbie like me has instilled in me a desire to lend a hand to other newbies. I think I've made it obvious how much better my Mabinogi experience improved after I met her, and I feel the least I could do is mentor another newbie now that I am well-established.

I came across a player standing in front of a town elder NPC, asking for help on how to proceed with the storyline. "Ah, I can help him..." I thought. I told him about quests and how to make some money, and even showed him to his first dungeon. Since I had been questing with Vampireai (she was playing her main character Mistresraven), the two of us kind of played a mom and pop role, teaching him how to "walk" in Mabinogi together. It gave me a new respect for the patience she had with me during my first days, since guiding our newbie through things I now take for granted was like watching a documentary of myself stumbling around under Vampireai's wing. It was embarassing, in many ways, to realize how useless I had been as I stood side by side with my mentor mentoring another newbie. Regardless of that I actually enjoyed the experience. Thus, we had met Weizennger: