Day 14: Reset

Last night kept me in a holding pattern. With the maintenance continuing when I finally switched the game on, there wasn't much I could do except to go forward with the Faith build I had cooking in offline mode. Fun, if a little normal for me, and not exactly what I was doing this for. But, we already know that.

Tonight should be a gas, though. I plan on starting a new character and getting into some PvP scrapes. This is something I've never done. Sure, I've been invaded once or twice and have fought with another player in the Old Monk boss arena, but this is as far as it's gone.

But let's take a second and talk about that boss fight specifically. As most already know, it's not really a boss fight as it is about forced PvP when in online mode. Originally, it was unique and frustrating; every time you die in the fight, there was a possibility that it would be an entirely different player on the other end when you made another attempt. Imagine that for a second. At the game's online zenith, it was a spoonful of randomness in an otherwise painstakingly constructed world. It was messy and imprecise, too. You never knew if you or the other person had a good internet connect, apparent skill gap between the two of you notwithstanding. You could never plan for it, and only prepare by simply getting good at PvP on your own time. Of course, you could cheese the fight by going into offline mode. The dummy AI that the game generated for the fight was a pushover, but like last night's solo run of a few levels before calling it a night, that wasn't the point. The point was to get into the thick of things.

But there was also a tangible reward to do this. For players wanting the thrill of fighting something with reason and self-awareness, letting yourself be summoned for this encounter as the antagonist gives you the opportunity to obtain the Monk's Head Collar, a piece of equipment that will boost magic spell potency. As a prize for an online fight, this item will, effectively, no longer exists outside of hacking the game going forward. So chalk that up to what will be lost in this whole transition phase. Maybe play some PvP, like I will tonight, go get yours right now.

But we'll talk more about that tomorrow.