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Announcements - Asheron's Call Beta
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=== Shreck's Final Hour === {{Microsoft Zone | Link = <nowiki>http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEnewsshreck.asp</nowiki> | Date = | Title = Shreck's Final Hour | Text = ''By Shreck, aka Fracas@Zone'' <br><br> The world was about to end. Dereth was set to fade out within the hour. It pained me that Shreck, my Sho warrior whom I'd meticulously built up through weeks of blood (his blood), sweat (my sweat), and tears (don't ask), was going to disappear forever. There were to be no statues of Shreck in Arwic's town square, no mention of him in the history books -- just "poof," and he would be gone. <br><br> I had to bid farewell and get one last screenshot of the powerful warrior whom I'd brought up from a mere pup. I felt silly -- how could I actually care for this video-game character? After all, I figured I was done with Asheron's Call after this initial beta period. I'd spent too much time building Shreck into a man who could stand on his own, and his death seemed like a good excuse to avoid spending even more. <br><br> I found Shreck standing in Arwic where I'd left him. There was no one else around, and it was strangely silent. I set up and snapped the screenshot beside the levitating blue gem that had delivered him so often to this peaceful town, then, like any good warrior, turned to the blacksmith shop for one last inspection to see if anyone had left some cool weapons behind. <br><br> As I bellied up to the window, someone suddenly called to me. A character by the name of Epsilon was asking if I knew where to find an Olthoi. He had never seen one before and wanted to take one on before his character was wiped. I told him there was one in the Arwic mines just a few steps away through the portal. He asked if I could show him. I couldn't pass up one last adventure, so off we went. <br><br> His character was the same level as mine, and we had no problem dispatching the pathetic drudges and zombies we found along the way through the labyrinth. In no time at all, we'd come to the mist-filled hallways that had earlier made me pause for fear of what was beyond. But Shreck was a well-traveled warrior by now, and the Arwic mines were familiar, even comfortable. Epsilon and I first took on a granite golem. In no time it was pile of rocks -- we were invincible! Around the next turn we found the Olthoi. Epsilon said he was impressed -- who wouldn't be? An Olthoi cuts an imposing figure. Fortunately the Olthoi in the Arwic mines is a wounded one, and with a few deft strokes from our swords we quickly put it out of its misery. <br><br> Apparently somewhat deflated by the ease with which we had put down this otherwise impressive creature, Epsilon offered up another adventure. He knew of a place on the coast where rumor had it an entire troop of Olthoi hung out. The only Olthoi I had ever seen was the one we'd just carved up (and its previous incarnations); I was eager to take on a fully charged soldier. <br><br> We sailed across the countryside, passing all sorts of targets that, on a normal day, I would've fought for experience points and treasures. But accumulating experience was not our goal on this day. Epsilon and I were out for pure, reckless fun. As we were dashing over hills and valleys on our way to certain death, I was struck by how fun this game really is. I'd been a solo adventurer for most of Shreck's development. Later I'd joined up with friends and we traveled all over and fought hundreds of creatures. But this was the first time I'd hooked up with a complete stranger. The spontaneity of the adventure was the best part, and I realized then that Shreck had to return to Asheron's Call, and this time he'd be much more sociable. <br><br> Epsilon and I reached the Olthoi pack. They were a nasty bunch, none under level 21. I drew off one officer and led him into our kill zone away from the other baddies. It turned out to be the Olthoi's kill zone, however, because in seven strikes of its claws I was rewarded with a free trip back to Arwic. Epsilon was sent back to his lifestone soon after. We'd both died in a matter of seconds, but we put some hurt on the officer. That was good enough for both of us. <br><br> We met up again and ventured on, but time was running out. The server wipe was just 15 minutes away. I thought we'd end up saying good-bye to each other, the servers would be shut down, and that'd be it. But we got a message from the administrator telling us there was some sort of a meeting in Glenden Wood. Epsilon and I decided to check it out. We contacted the administrator asking for a shortcut to the gathering and in the blink of an eye, he transported us both to the Glenden Wood common, where we were met by a strange sight. There had to have been 50 or more characters standing about one little area. Many of them were stripped practically naked. Weapons, armor, and objects of all sorts were strewn about on the ground. At first I thought everyone was gathered to ready themselves for a massive player-killer battle. To my surprise and amusement, it turned out people had stripped off their armor and possessions not to gear up with better accoutrements for the big battle, but as an offering to the Asheron's Call gods. This was a death party. I noticed there was a character in the center of it all, a first-level priest created for this moment to give us all our "last rites." <br><br> There was a tremendous amount of chatter. Keeping track of it all was almost too much. Epsilon and I had to communicate with the "@tell" code just to be able to pick each other out from the din. Everyone was taking screenshots of this moment and asking all of us to pose -- straightforward shots of characters in attack mode, and sillier staging with the emote codes like "YMCA." There was a lot of good humor in the group. I noticed one character had stripped off all of his armor, then had set down all of his mana stones and parchment in a perfect circle. He sat in the center of this shrine till the end. <br><br> In the last minutes, we were all watching our clocks and there were a lot of good-byes as well as a lot of wisecracks. One guy yelled out "Hey, who stole my wallet!" while some Stanley Kubrick fan called out "My God, it's full of stars!" The priest had us all gather around and he gave us our last rites, mixing passages from the Bible with lines from Star Trek. <br><br> It was great to see all of these people in one place. I know it's just a video game, but there was something very human in this final gathering in which we were all about to watch our characters pass into oblivion. As the final seconds ticked away, people were jumping, running, casting spells, waving good-bye -- and the chatter reached a fever pitch. There were dozens of farewell wishes and promises to meet again in the next life. Epsilon and I will certainly meet up again and fight on in the new Dereth. <br> I glanced up from the chat window for one final look around. No one was moving. Everyone must have been busy typing in their messages, or so I thought. I looked back down at the chat window -- nothing. The once-frantic scrolling of messages had completely stopped. Yet all of the characters were still gathered around the priest. Magical swords still sparkled, and I had complete freedom of movement. It must have been server lag, I thought. I walked around surveying the scene and suddenly felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Every character was frozen in place. It was eerie. I called out, hoping someone could answer my question, "Why is everyone so quiet?" The message registered in the chat window. Surely someone would answer. No one did. It seemed Shreck had somehow been missed in the wipe and was going to live on forever. I decided to turn away from this spooky scene. I picked up a powerful sword someone had left behind, set Shreck on auto-run, and headed off for another adventure. Ten paces out, the gods of Asheron's Call caught up to me and sent me a final message: "Server Connection Lost." Dereth had disappeared and, "poof," Shreck was gone. }}
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