I had just been treated very badly. In fact, I had a bump on my head and a dislocated clavicle to show for my ill-treatment. Domestic violence takes its toll on the body, mind and soul. I was done with people for awhile and needed something to take my mind elsewhere.

A relative sent up a computer game. It was an online role playing game (mmorpg to those savvier than I was at the time). I never knew such a thing existed before. The shiny box had a cartoon lady that looked cooler than I could ever hope to-even in my dreams. According to what the box was telling me, I could play in some kind of fantasy world with other people from all over the real world. I could be another person. I could slay monsters, make friends, even fight against other players. This sounded fun. I installed it right away!

Creating my first character was easy enough. I just picked someone that I thought looked like me, only better. Having named her I was ready to enter my new world. How scary!

I got the hang of moving my character around pretty easily. It was being in this interactive world that blew me away. I had never been one to chat online. You would never ever see me in a chat room. Even in real life I was shy. Here were a bunch of people who knew what they were doing and how to play the game and fight bad guys. They knew how to set up skills and what "leveling up" meant. They had fancy looking armor and talked about trading! Worse yet, they were trying to engage me in game play! Eek! I was the noob of all noobs.

I was invited to join a guild. "But I don't know how to play" I told the inviter. "That's the point," he/she said "you don't have to know. We help you." I was embarrassed by my noobishness and turned him down anyway.

I went out into the cold, cruel, fantasy world alone. I got some fancier armor, killed some bad guys, and still had no clue how to use my skill bar. What was cold damage? Area of effect? Who was this cartoon kid that kept following me around? Did I have to do every single quest that came my way?

I eventually became more confident in my game play and even made a friend. I will write about my first PVP experience tomorrow.

My Necromancer: My very first RPG character.