Today is my 1 year anniversary in Entropia!

The Cranky Curmudgeon of Calypso has survived 1 year!

Some of you might find that hard to believe. Others might be looking forward to many more years! Even more might be wondering why the Cranky Curmudgeon of Calypso is posting on a Next Island forum.

To the first, yep -- its true. To the second, right back at ya! To the third, I live on Next Island I just wanted to keep the C theme going. Its awfully hard to use alliteration with Next Island's name!

Let's recap!

When I started EU I did everything possible wrong. Why? Part of it was complete ignorance. The other part was simply a desire to experiment with things and see what I could personally do. I learned quickly that the cash grab aspect of the game was not something I was all that interested in, that Entropia by nature was fickle and economics dictated that in order for some to win big most had to lose at least a little. So the question in my mind was not how to avoid loss, but how to go about losing in a way that I felt was manageable and justifiable. There's no shame in paying for a good product. There is however shame in paying too much for one!

At 4 months in the game I wrote this article that summarized my experiences, on MMORPG.com. I didnt expect to do much with it, but as it turns out I generated alot of goodwill. Not within the EU community, but outside of it. I started being approached by newbies at sweat camp who told me they started playing the game because of me. Some of them are still in my society today. Others have gone through the ANF, or have gone at it on their own and are now members of Starfleet Command, Skillin Villains, and other prominent societies.

It was in this area that I found my particular Entropia niche. Everyone needs a niche, a schtick if you will, in order to survive this game. Otherwise you end up obsessing about cash and becoming one of those hypercritical crank cases who fail to recognize the personality involved in simply playing, and instead see only what is eco, what is not eco, and how eco you are. But I digress. Everyone needs their niche, right. So suddenly I found myself running a newbie guild, not because that was all I could recruit, but because thats all I wanted to recruit. I wanted to bring newbies into the game, and show them high level content long before they were ready, at my cost. Why? Because sweat camp was boring, sweating is boring, and sharing experiences in MMO's is what it is all about.

So off we went. Longtooth season as it happened had just come up, and I along with 2 others of reasonable strength started taking full parties of newbies out to Cape Corinth and hunting the beasts. One of the new players we brought along had just joined the society, and captured some of these hunts on video footage. Check them out!

YouTube - Laudanum movie submission (Anthony Hughes)

At this time too I got involved with a radio effort called Club Calypto. I knew nothing about the person behind the station, only that he was giving money away to newbies at sweat camp, and giving people something to look forward to. Conversations at sweat camp became less about what was eco, and more about what was just fun. It was community building. I supported it.

Unfortunately that turned into a mess, and there was nothing I could do to salvage it. I provided webspace where he could air his issues and attempt to discuss them, whatever their subject matter. But in the end he was more about stirring passions than making a cohesive point, and the chaos was simply something I did not believe was healthy for anyone involved.

During all of this time I got to know alot of things about alot of people in the community. Its said that in wine there is truth. My observations were certain members of the community were drunk on their own power, or perception of that power. Being drunk some people tended to be much more open with their attitudes than they might have otherwise wished.

In MMOs its said that we learn alot about how the mind works, the body having no consequence. I learned about my mind, and my own limitations through my reactions to the negativity expressed by others. I suppose Calypso was a crucible in that regard, crystallizing what I had been viscerally aware of throughout my 13 years of online gaming. I simply dont like constant negativity, and cant abide by it. Some might be capable of looking the other way and continuing their existence. That's just not me. I guess thats why Ive usually played free for all Player vs Player MMOs like Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, or Darkfall. Words often fail to say what a trip to the resurrection terminal makes clear!

I talked to my guild, and many of them having come to similar conclusions we all decided to take the first jump to Next Island. I had already been eagerly awaiting Next Island and the new worlds to come as I personally felt I had arrived too late on Calypso to make much of an impact, and my girlfriend wanted to go to Next Island specifically --- because she wants to own a Tiki Bar, but I was glad that the guild would also be supportive of the decision. We thought about Rocktropia as well, because of the Music Television show she is a VJ for, but aesthetics and guild responsibilities won out and I have yet to set foot there, though I plan to.

1 year since my start in EU we are pioneering Next Island. Ive scored my first big HOF, and many other smaller ones, and am a long way away from the first few weeks where I wondered if my character was somehow broken, seeing all those globals around me and never even knowing what they sounded like on my own! Ive made some friends. Ive made some enemies. Ive raised more than a few eyebrows and ruffled a few feathers. As long as its all in the spirit of the game, its fun. As for fun itself, well how about we look at what others have said about the topic.

Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing
something very clever when they are only wasting their time.

~George Bernard Shaw

"No human thing is of serious importance"

~Plato

"All the world's a stage..."

~Shakespeare

It seems that some of our great historical minds disagree on this particular subject, so it wouldnt surprise me at all if some folks disagreed with me. We're in good company!