Sunday night, J was desperate to obtain an Easter item on Adventure Quest--a sword. T had earned the item and, supposedly, T was to have earned the item for J. But he hadn't/wouldn't. So at bedtime, J was very distressed and upset. Thinking it was the last day to earn the seasonal item, I volunteered to work on it for him for a little while--like maybe half an hour. J spent about half an hour trying to teach me what to do and he wrote instructions for me.
Well, that little while turned into four hours, into the middle of the night, as I became progressively more determined, probably due to (1) derangement from being so tired, (2) pride that I could lose at something so repetitive and seemingly mindless, and (3) love for J. It involved battling the same "Grizzle Spit" character over and over and over and over and over and over and over . . . . I still hadn't earned the item by the time I could no longer stay awake. I felt very sad because I knew how disappointed J would be in the morning and how hard I'd tried to earn the sword.
Come to find out, J had forgotten to tell me an important piece of information--that I had to reselect that quest if I got booted off the game for some reason (which happened two or three times), so I was working about 2/3rds of that time for nothing.
It was an interesting view into something my boys love to do--these online games. At one point, I became so bored of the battle fruitlessly repeating and repeating itself, I started to try other buttons that looked like battle powers. That helped keep me awake for a while but then another other player said, "Stop using mana!" I had no idea to whom he was speaking--there were at least five other characters simultaneously battling and re-battling this same character--and I had no idea what mana was. So I kept doing what I was doing. Then he said the name of J's character "S___, are you stupid or something? Stop using mana!" I replied, "What's mana?" He said, "Are you a retard??!" I said, "I'm Sonic's mom." He said, " . . . sigh. Just don't use the blue bar." While this was a little embarrassing to my sons when I recounted it in the morning, it really made me laugh. Needless to say, I didn't know what the blue bar was and I didn't ask but figured it had something to do with those attack powers so I quit using them. Come to find out, using mana delays the drop rate (which, interpreted means, delays the rate at which you get the sword). Soon after I quit using mana, the guy got the sword and lived happily ever after.
Anyway, Monday, after being advised by my sons as to the missing details, I tried again and, as luck would have it, J was here when I earned the item. Ta da! It put me in favored mom status for the day and that status spilled over into the next few days that followed, because besides the sword, I'd also earned J something like 77,000 "gold," a new mana power, and I had advanced his character from rank 7 to 9 (and T was still rank 7). Yea Mom! :-)
Now it is Thursday, my hero-mom status has waned and I'm back to my former status of "just mom." However, I have been severely tired the entire week and not very effective at anything other than basking in my favored mom status. :-) Maybe I should have battled Grizzle Spit to win something like a virtual maid and virtual chef for our home! So there you have it, the highs and the lows of a mother's adventure in online game play.
3 comments:
PB, I had to comment on this post. You are such a hoot! And a great mom, too. Way to go.
You had me laughing out loud throughout this post just imagining you hunched over the computer for hours on end doing that for J. Good Job - you are a better woman than I!
I haven't even had 4 hours to play any game let alone for someone else. I give you props for your effort and tenacity, even I don't do Drop Quests (or MMORPGs) too tedious.
Jason Millett
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