A Background Character

I normally do not talk about myself because it is a subject that I do not wish to discuss. However, the chances of meeting any of you IRL are slim to none (not that I would want to anyway. :S), so it may be safe to rip on myself for the treacherously terrible person that I am.

To start things off, I am the only son of my family in a town near Fayetteville, North Carolina. I have both of my parents and two sisters who virtually cancel one another out much to my relief, yet are still highly annoying and are the reason the house is as pitiful as it is. I am a tad bit shorter than the average, though I do not know my exact height and weight. I may be around 5'7, which is pretty sucky. Luckily for me, I'd rather be short than tall. Furthermore, I am not sure how close to correct this is, but I may have the strength of a 10-year-old. I could not hurt any of you even if you were to stand still and let me. Horrible laziness does not allow me to fix this, and I may never get to experience the joys of actually having some sort of strength. I often feel like I will be unable to accomplish anything of actual value and I simply don't like myself. I'm also an aichmophobe. I don't hate myself though, I am simply disappointed in myself for lacking in the simple things that come naturally to everybody else and in the willingness to obtain them. I have dark brown hair that is almost always cut military-short so I don't have to worry about it being messy and my eyes are a yellowish green.

Most of my hobbies are things that I used to do, but don't anymore. I played recreational soccer (I'm an American, so I mean the one where you die if you touch the ball with your hands) until the 7th grade. I had quit that since I kept being late and it was out of my power to fix that problem. I had also been a Wolf Scout during the 2nd grade, but not for long when I realized how much I despised uniforms. I was ok with the soccer uniforms as they were simple, though. These days, it's the internet and video games. Most games I played long before the age rating said I was ready. I feel as if my life can be summed up with this song.

I often feel overrated when others say that I am smart. I, for one, do not believe this in the slightest. The only reason I do good in school without having to study is because I have an innate ability to memorize things. When it comes to problems that are designed to make me think, forget about it. Being able to get by these problematic tests and other scary things without spending time at home to study is a gift, but it's also a curse in that I still refuse to do homework at home. I'll do it at school, but not at home. Luckily, my classes are usually not very homework-oriented, and if they are, I can usually complete something quickly.

I am a social outcast by choice and fate. If there are people in my school who dislike me, I do not know of it. I do feel accepted by everyone I do interact with, but I simply do not interact much. When people ask me why I do not talk, I respond with that I have nothing to say. Indeed, it is bewildering that people have so much to talk about, yet when I think of something to talk about, I get this looming feeling that they won't be interested. Therefore, I just don't talk much. On the occasions of which I do talk, it is no conversation. I just speak short one/two-liners that really have little to nothing to contribute to anything. I do not spend time or see the few that I do talk to when school is not in session, which leaves me a ton of free time. Too much, if you may add.

I will remember the date forever: November 7th, 2007. It was THE day that I had finally decided to explore the internet. It wasn't really explore more as "see what this one thing is." I had joined a game that I saw my dad play as it looked like a fun village-creating-thingy. My 13-year-old ass was no good at the game though, and my lack of communication was a big problem as I refused to talk to many. In this game were alliances with their own message boards in-game. I don't remember why I had decided to look at them, maybe it was to try to see if anyone else would ask for tips, or maybe it was for the mere pleasure of watching others enjoy themselves. There was one that stood out in particular, the one of the top (or 2nd, I don't remember) that I viewed calmly the most. After many days of looking at these boards, I had finally built up the courage to post one post. I don't know what it was or what their reaction was to it, but it did not matter. Soon, this desire to communicate online had erupted like an angry volcano: Mt. Vesuvius on steroids and weed.

I had at that moment transformed into one of those young spammers that you see everywhere, even on this forum, that the regulars despise so much. Think of the members that are on this site that you and a large portion of other members hate. Yes, I had become like that member. And was I despised for it! The alliance had to get rid of their message boards because I was such a bumbling fool that pissed off the community. There were also a few other young members that I had met that didn't hate me, so I did not feel completely unaccepted and unwanted. My immaturity also helped to prevent me from seeing the truth. Eventually, I had joined the main forums of the entire game, unleashing the distasteful spam onto those boards. Of course, I was banned for it for a month! It didn't even take a day, I think.

After the ban was lifted, I had become a bit more under control. However, I was still an abhorrent spamming irritant that got into trouble several other times, mostly for spamming. My maturity would finally come into play about a year later and cause me to become a reasonable member. But in that time, I had made many friends and haters. I doubt any of the haters are still around since I don't pay attention to them (they hurt my little kid feelings!), but a few of the ones I befriended are still around. Nowadays, the forum is deader than a doornail, and I hardly post there anymore. I post there less than I do here, and I don't post much here at all.

Becoming a babbling fool who spammed and was hated wasn't entirely bad for me, as I am sure that my experience with the internet has improved my willingness to speak with others IRL exponentially. I never had become someone who simply needed to shut up IRL and nobody who knows me IRL knows me on the internet (and vice versa, obviously). Despite that benefit, I would still like to have some mind bleach to forget that I had ever been so low of a member of the internet to have been such a nuisance.

I said I played games before the age rating said I was ready, and this is a big example of this. I played a demo of Dynasty Warriors 2 starting when I was 6. I wasn't good at it, but my skill with the Dynasty Warriors game improved over the years. The Dynasty Warriors games that I own are 4 and 5 Empires, but I've played 4 Empires and 5 before. There are non-Dynasty Warriors games that were made by the same company that I have played. I have Romance of the Three Kingdoms X and XI (I have VIII too, but it doesn't work ) and have played IX. There's also Dynasty Tactics.

From a young age, my favorite weapon was the spear (I will explain why later). This influenced my favorite Dynasty Warriors character to be Ma Chao (who is like the Call of Duty fanboy character since I'm sure his fanbase is full of 12-year-olds). I also began to hate Wei with a passion due to Ma Chao's history and his involvement with Cao Cao's forces. Oh, and Shu was my favorite kingdom just because Koei (HA! It's so much like Konami!) had made them "The green guys" and green was my favorite color (it's olive now).

Of course, the major meteor of maturity that hit in my adolescence has changed most of this. I no longer hate Wei, and Ma Chao isn't my favorite character (though I still like him a bit). My favorite officers are mostly NPCs. In Shu, my new favorites are among Zhang Ni (also called Zhang Yi, but there is another Zhang Yi in Shu at the same time), Lei Tong, and Wei Yan. In Wu, it's Zhu Huan, Ding Feng, and Xu Sheng. As for Wei, it's the likes of Yue Jin (who is a midget), Li Dian, and uh, maybe Man Chong? I have a lot of respect for many officers, so I dunno. There's also the officers outside of the three kingdoms that I like, such as Gao Gan, Gao Shun (another 12-year-old-fanboy character probably), and Li Kan. Shu is still my favorite kingdom still just because they're "The green guys," but I feel nearly equally about the three.

This has got to be my favorite game ever, and I can't play it anymore. Firstly, I'm sure all the CDs messed up due to scratches and stuff (I blame my sisters for all CD damage though) and I can't find my PS1 memory card. I do not remember how far I was exactly when I was unable to play anymore, but I think it was around the beginning of the 4th CD. I think it was that area with the sand dunes that sucked people in or something.

To avoid missing it completely, I watch other people play it on Youtube and listen to the soundtrack of the game. Remembering how long I took to go places made me wonder how overpowered my party was, since I faintly remember running in circles because I thought it was funny that doing so triggered battles. I wasn't grinding on purpose! I swear!

This is where I will explain why I loved spears from a young age, and judging by the position of this paragraph, you already know why. If you don't, here is a hint: Lavitz. He still is my favorite character in that game just because of a simple preference to him over Dart. [don't read this is a game spoiler]It sucked when he died though. Oh, and I never really liked Miranda. It just feels like she enters the party's lives from out of nowhere and replaces someone we didn't want to lose.[/Ok, you can start reading again. By this, I mean the next spoiler.]

This is a 5-part indie RPG. In the first game, you are an apprentice who stumbles across a forbidden island where foreigners are secretly trying to figure out how to use power that your higher-ups wanted to hide forever. You stumble across a race of slaves being independent from their masters and other bewildering things that you don't see back at home. As you go on, you have to make a decision on whether to be loyal by putting a stop to this, or by letting it happen.

The second one, I'm a bit foggy on as I barely play it, is where the power unveiled in the first game is discovered and supposedly dealt away with, but not all was erased. You play as a different apprentice who eventually discovers that the forbidden power is being used to create highly independent creatures which would ultimately challenge the unchallengeable rule of your masters.

The third one consists of an island chain where you, as a student, survive an attack on the schooling facility by a mad summoner who tries to recruit you to her cause by insisting that your masters are doomed and their reign of supreme authority shall be overthrown. You have to jump from island to island to either support her cause or to undo her work until you reach the end of the island chain.

In the fourth one, the rebellion that has been forming since the foreigners found the secret power is finally started and you are some random person that the rebels have recruited into service. After being touched by this forbidden magic to amplify your abilities magnificently, you get a feel of the world and your morals decide if you are to support in the unleashing of an ultimate power or if you are to rebel against the rebellion and crush them for the ignorant beggars of power that they are.

In the fifth and final game, you have forgotten who you are and wake up in a cold place where you find some of the "slave race" people that are a big concern of the rebels who want to free them. After a few of your innate powers return to you, you come face-to-face with one of the most powerful of the loyalists that exist, who forces you to do as he commands with a device that kills you if you don't obey. As you travel, you learn more about the rebellion, which has hit the peak of its power, and how only you can bring the bloody conflict to a close once and for all.

The most extreme example of my disregarding the age rating is when I played Diablo at the age of 3. Yes, you read this correctly. I wasn't really good, but I was able to get to level 3. My stopping point, if I remember correctly, was a quest that involved some sort of dead king. I don't know if this particular boss battle was what deterred me from finishing the quest or if it was the skeleton archers, or if it was just that the scary game was, well, scary. I think I can place the cause of my necrophobia on this game. If I come face-to-face with a hostile creature and it looks ugly and dead enough, I'm fleeing the scene.

There is also Star Wars Battlefront (and the 2nd one), which I found fun. It is these games that I realized my preference of villains over the heroes as I almost always played as the Empire or CIS. The class I do my best in is the plain soldier class, which applies to both 1 and 2. The other classes can be fun sometimes. As for a favorite map, it's the Platforms map on Bespin for 1, and the Assault mode for Mos Eisley, where all of the special heroes and villains duke it out in the town as Jawas run around for sh*ts and giggles.

There is a "Dynasty Warriors" set in Japan, which Koei named Samurai Warriors instead. While the only of these games I've played is 2 Empires, I have enjoyed it nearly as much as Dynasty Warriors. A lack of an encyclopedia on this specific game is unfortunate, but I do have Nobunaga's Ambition to give me info about the Japanese people in this time period. There are so many officers in that game that it is still difficult to grasp the history that goes on though, and as a result, I am not as well-versed in their history as in the history of the characters in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There is also Kessen III, which is a more strategic game where you command armies to fight against other armies, but in a more DW/SW fashion.

This is a Yugioh forum, and I have Yugioh games. Of course I was going to mention them. The very first one is Duelist of the Roses, which, if you don't know, is a different take on Yugioh on a 7x7 board with different terrains based on the random Field Spells that give monsters 200 ATK, as well as things like Toon World, Labyrinth Wall, and Crush Card Virus. About every card has a different effect (if they even have one) than they do in the real thing, such as how Dark Hole eats all the cards on the field and Roaring Ocean Snake floods the place. You also get a Deck Leader to serve as something to receive direct attacks from your opponent and as a means of playing the cards in your hand. My main Deck in this game features Fairy King Truesdale and the weak Level 2 800/600 Plant monsters such as Man-Eating Plant to serve as incredibly powerful beatsticks.

While I am on the subject of Yugioh games that are different from actual Yugioh, there is also Capsule Monster Coliseum, which your "monsters" are pieces that move around on the board in different manners. The Attribute of your monsters and symbol determine your strengths and weaknesses, such as how FIRE monsters under a well-powered FIRE symbol allowed you to take out nearly anything in a single attack, while WATER monsters under a well-powered WATER symbol simply never died ever. This and Duelist of the Roses are two games that I would like to see remade with the multitudes of cards made since then included as it allows the players to use cards that normally flat-out suck without the collection flat-out sucking.

There are two, actually, four, Yugioh games that I have played that aren't different approaches to this game. The old Yugi the Destiny and Joey the Passion are games that have cards from the super-old days when Yugioh was a new thing full of Normal Monsters that you could not Summon all of, Man-Eater Bug being a pain, and Trap Hole being an answer to nearly everything. There is also Tagforce 1, which is less Normal Monster-oriented, but still pretty old. Then there is the newer Tagforce 5, which is where most of my Yugioh takes place.

There is also the very popular Age of Empires series, Civilization series (I've only played II Multiplayer Gold, IV Colonies, and IV), and Final Fantasy series. The lesser-known Rise of Nations is also worth a mention, though it's a lot like Age of Empires. Out of the FF series, I slightly remember playing VII when I was young, but not getting very far. There's also Tactics, which I also played when I was young, giving up somewhere near the end if I remember (I remember the battle inside the monastery against the Dragoons). I have War of the Lions now, which lets me play Tactics all over again, making me very glad to have played this game. Usually, in Final Fantasy, I get this feeling that if I stop to use an item, my enemies get a free turn because I'm trying to stop and think. This doesn't apply in FFT. The last FF game I have is X-2, which I heard sucked. I don't hate it though, and getting better FF games is probably not going to change that (though I'm likely to agree that they are better than X-2). There are probably other games that I have forgotten to mention, but I got most of them.

When I am at home, I am listening to music 99.99999% of the time. The only music I will listen to is rock music (I mean this as a broad categories that features a bunch of genres), and I will not listen to other genres. Most of the music I listen to has came out in the 90s or early 2000s, and my favorites are among Bush, Live, The Offspring, and The Smashing Pumpkins. I cannot decide on which is my absolute favorite, and it is even harder to choose a favorite song. I also can get tired of a certain band and not want to listen to them anymore. The most obnoxious examples of this would be AC/DC and the newer Shinedown stuff. Both are great bands and I'm highly likely you are disgusted at me for growing weary of them, but I have simply heard enough of them for a while.

I like to think of my taste in music to be broad as I can't remember all of the songs I listen to. I also take a liking in finding music that nobody else knows about, although I don't try. Did you ever hear of Dishwalla? Nope, didn't think so. Nor have you heard of Machines of Loving Grace. Of course, there is bound to be someone out there who has, and about everyone on this forum has an enormous selection of songs I haven't listened to before. So meh.

I have tried to create a story myself, although in the form of a D&D game online.I feel rather amateur about my storymaking skills (albeit unique-ish for all I know). At first, it wasn't supposed to actually have a plot, but that changed and now there is one being made up as I go. While it may suck, being able to create it is very pleasing to me.

Hell, you could even play along with it if you wanted. But whether or not I want you to is a different story. As I have only two players and am having to run two DMPCs in the party, I'm always looking (without really trying) for some new players so I don't feel like I have control of every little thing.

As with IRL, I will talk with you, but not much. There are a few that I get along with, and a few that I simply don't like for whatever reason. A lot of the single-digit-aged noobs that the entire forum hates don't really bother me though. Most of you strike as neutral though, and I find it completely unnecessary to make a list of YCMembers that I like, hate, or whatever. I don't make it in your lists, you don't make it in mine. I make it in your lists, you still don't make it in mine.