EPTRight now it is a "lovely" winter morning. As I grew up, I have started learning to hate this season because, except for Christmas and New Year's Eve it just sucks. One day it is snowing, next day it melts and the ground becomes covered in a horrible muck. Once that is over and the snow starts to settle you have to go and clean up your car because, if you don't, it will get covered in a thick 20 cm layer of it. Did I mention the roads and how you can become akin to a bowling ball in traffic? Ok, enough negativity for now.
As you might see from my name bar, I live in Romania. In this almost forgotten corner of Europe getting connected to the Internet was a messy job. I for one only got an Internet connection at the place I lived in roughly 7 years ago and before that any form of digital entertainment with 2+ people (more widely known as gaming) was done in Internet Cafe's. I can remember it now how anxious I was to get there back when I was 10 to 12 years old. Almost every Friday when we finished school we would go as 5-6 person group, rent some PC's for 3-4 hours and play Counter Strike. Of course, we were total beginners, but we had a ton of fun. Back home I would play a ton of single player games so playing with others was akin to a miracle.
I used to be a big fan of strategy games, yet somehow Starcraft had somehow slipped my notice. I loved games like Red Alert 1, 2 and Dune. I also had a deep and unfounded hatred towards the Fantasy genre because I thought of it as boring (bleh swords and bows... GIVE ME LAZERS AND GUNS AND EXPLOSIONS god damn it!). I hated the Lord of the Rings movies when they came out. Despite that, one day it all changed. A gaming magazine I was buying monthly (because I had no Internet yet I loved gaming) started giving free games with each copy. The game in question was Gothic, and I just put it away since it looked like a boring game because it had swords (bleh). A few months later I decided to give it a try and was totally amazed. How could I have been so blind? It was just epic and completely new. That game alone sparked my interest for the RPG genre and Fantasy in general. I gave Warcraft 3 a try and found it great (keep in mind I still couldn't play online). I wanted to play it with my friends, but none of them liked strategy games.
At one point I was away, visiting some relatives with my parents. There I was introduced to what will become my current passion: Defense of the Ancients. Again though, no internet means I just loaded the map and messed around a bit, noting spectacular so far. When I got back I managed to persuade some friends to play the map with me at a local Internet Cafe. Guess what? We were total trashcans, but we didn't know it. It was really really fun. We didn't know 90% of the heroes of items, but it was a ton of fun. Naturally, we tried playing against other people there and got trashed badly. Every damn weekend. Yet I loved the game.
Fast forward to the summer of 2005 I think. My parents just got us a shiny Internet connection. It was a bit buggy, but it didn't matter. A friend of mine then introduced me to World of Warcraft (not expecting that I bet
).At that point something strange happened. I almost forgot other games existed. For the next 2 years it was the only game for me, it was that good. Yet after a trip to the same old Internet Cafe, I decided to reinstall WC3 and play dome DotA. Does anyone remember Garena? That place made current pub games look pro. Still, it was enough as I was barely playing it anyway. Slowly I found my way to the old Dota-allstars forums trying to get better, but I didn't give it much attention, except for that MS Paint rage thread. That was the stuff of legends I tell you.By now you might be wondering: where is that trade I was talking about? It was Starcraft. Looking back, I'm sure I would have been a fanatic of the game had I been able to play it online. It really makes me feel bad about myself, how I let such a gem and such an opportunity slip away unnoticed. I only realized that while watching some of Day[9]'s old BW dailies. Words fail to describe my feelings now. I'm in an awkward state, thinking "what if"? Maybe somewhere in an alternate dimension really close to our own, I am close to a BW legend. I just know it because of the burning passion I have for gaming. Really bold statement, right?
I cannot stop thinking that if I spent all that time playing WoW on Starcraft or DotA I might have just become that guy. But maybe I'm thinking too much? Also a possibility.
Right now I need to embrace the cold reality that is "now". Mainly because it is winter and freezing cold outside. Regardless, I have to say the famous quote: "I'll be back!".
