June 11, 2000
I have been on Medievia for some time as a mortal and longed to be one of the few Gods that oversee the daily functions of the game. It was a dream of mine to be a God and have all the powers that they have and to get a greater perspective on the game. Anyone that has played the game knows that it is intense and so large it boggles the mind. A few players I have known take this game seriously and let it affect their real social life.
Around level 27 in the most recent incarnation of my mortal character I decided to actively seek status as a God. I checked on MedWeb and found an application for building for the game. Unfortunately it said that they were not accepting applications at this time. This did not dampen my spirits at all. I had a goal and was clear in my heart as to my conviction to follow that path. I applied anyway! I received the unsettling news from the God in charge of builders at that time that they would not accept applications from a person unless they were at least a level 54 multi. That was twice the level I was already at. Muttering under my breath at the computer I decided I would put all my efforts into leveling my character until I was acceptable. The day had finally come where I achieved my goal and I resubmitted my application to become a builder.
Then came the wait. Oh yes there was a wait! Finally I received an email back that my application was being accepted, yet I had to be placed on a waiting list. Then I waited again for at least a month. By then my character was on his third class. Again I received an email of what my ranking on the list was
and it was very low, however not on the bottom. I waited this long, I could wait some more. Perseverance and patience paid off in the end. Now I was a builder!
This is where the story really begins; all the previous stuff was just a taste of what was yet to come. So what does a builder do? They build zones as the name implies, but not your own zone at first. What you do is revamp really old zones and fix problems that are with them. Not enough rooms, mobs, exit messages or the mobs themselves and the rooms need to be changed to fit into what Medievia has become. Medievia is always changing to become larger, more efficient, realistic and challenging. This was now my purpose and the task at hand was reading volumes of files on how to do things as a builder. It was like reading Moby Dick all over again.
Rules, rules and more rules were given to me as to what I could and could not do. The could not list far outweighed any of the could do list. You see, as a God you are put on a higher standard than a mortal would be. I must stress this point. All actions of a God character are logged and kept record of. This ensures fair game play. I as a God cannot multiplay, create equipment for my mortal, smite a character I do not like, help out friends and clan members, give out privileged information, plot against my mortal enemies. It would be very unfair to all players if I could. As a builder you are given a very specific task and that is to build zones! You can't chat with friends, do tricks, mess with mortal characters or any other thing that requires God- like attributes. So what reward is it to be a builder? The ability to better the game that has given you hours of enjoyment! Having your name on the zoneinfo is all the reward you will get from this job. During this time you will no doubt immerse yourself in your zone and basically let your mortal character go to pot.
Luckily for me the game needed higher-ranking Gods to help out newbie characters. I personally did not feel I was deserving of this position but others did, so I began a new journey and a new set of rules. Yes I still build, however now my job has taken on a new dimension. I can oversee game play, offer advice to new players, approve names and even have an office on the game. Most of those things I already did as a player. If you were to research it, you could find at least seventy five or more characters that I took under my wing at very low levels and helped along at a crucial point in their development. This help included walking them through Medievia City, giving them cash, leveling equipment and basically a person to talk to about the game. So why do I need to be a God if my mortal character already does those things? Basically the ability to help more people in a shorter period of time and being able to find those people in greatest need.
The rewards of being a God are all intrinsic. If you are in search of ultimate power over other characters you are out of luck. Power is really the ability to create a better environment for all! Unless you are the type of person that is altruistic by nature, then maybe being a God is not the right thing for you to be. It would be better to focus all your energy to building your character into a hellish nightmare for other players, yet this would be a waste of your experience. I urge you all to at least find one newbie a week and help them out for ten minutes of your playing time. The reward in this is a person that will come up to you that you do not even remotely remember and say, "Remember me, you helped me out when I was a newbie. Thanks!" Most of the time this will never happen since Medievia is so large, but it does once in awhile. A true story that happened to my mortal character will prove very interesting. I was walking through a CPK area and a group of six descended upon me out of nowhere, two of them were Heroes. I was dead, I thought!
Then one of them says "I know him, let him go!" He then whispered to me, " Thanks for helping me as a newbie." Wow! I then went to Medievia City and helped out a couple more players. The moral of all this is that what you do on the game can come back and help you. But I digress!
Being a God for even this short of a period has greatly enriched my perspective of Medievia. I cherish the first character I gave directions to the graveyard or even help find out where to buy food.
For the Greater Good of Medievia,
Vangroen