The Gaming Life

I guess this is a late post considering how long I've been blogging. It's just that this week, a friend of mine told me that she found it hard to imagine that I played video games (specifically, Guild Wars. I know that some of you purists out there don't consider PC games as video games. I'm being generic here.) everyday. Of course, having lived that way since I was 8 years old, I find it difficult to think of myself existing without it. So the result is this, a post attempting to describe how gaming fits into my life. Be warned: this article has geek written all over it.

Each weekend, the first thing I do is turn on my computer. I proceed with the rituals of the online life: email, forums and a little browsing. An hour later (or more if I find something interesting), I'm done. I then launch Guild Wars.

So now I'm in-game. One of the things I've been trying to do is to clear up my quest log. Here's a sample screenshot:



Quimang's Last Stand, The Bog Beast of Bokku and The Captured Son are quests. Select one to view the details of the quest. In this case, The Bog Beast of Bokku is selected. The player has fulfilled the quest, which required him to "Find and defeat the Bog Beast of Bokku", hence the line crossing it out. When he receives his reward from Baasong, the quest will disappear from his log. With that explained, my goal is to see to it that my quest log becomes empty.

Some of the quests are not as straightforward. When that happens, I go online to find more information. For Guild Wars, I go to GuildWiki. Here's the entry for The Bog Beast of Bokku.

If you look at the entry, the picture entitled "Quest Path" is a screenshot of the game's map. The asterisk marks the location of the quest target. The crosshair represents your character's location. The arrow above the crosshair indicates the direction your character is facing, which is northwest. The red dots mark the path that you've taken so far.

So that's one quest. Having gone through all that describing, I have to admit that I haven't been doing a lot of questing lately. Instead, I've been helping a friend with his missions. In Guild Wars, missions are almost the same as quests except for one thing: when you finish a mission, you move the game's story forward. For the past week, I've been meeting online with two officemates every afternoon to help them out. I've been playing the game longer than they have so I'm their guide by default. We've been doing the joint game sessions for about 1-2 hours everyday this week.

When I get tired of using the PC, I turn on my PS2. I'm currently playing Final Fantasy XII on it. I found this excellent compilation of videos recorded during gameplay.

Take a look at this. At around the 1-minute mark he buys something called "The Sunflower" from the Bazaar. The Sunflower AKA Tournesol is one of the strongest weapons in the game, specifically the game's most powerful two-handed sword. I'm trying to acquire it. That can only be done through the Bazaar.

The Bazaar works like this: you have to sell specific items first for Bazaar items to become available for purchase. Think of it as a formula: X + Y = Z. For example, I can get two healing potions from the Bazaar if I sell 2 Cactus Fruit. In this case, the formula is 2X = 2Z, where X is a Cactus Fruit and Z is a potion. And where do I get Cactus Fruit? By killing Cactus-like enemies in-game.

Granted, it doesn't make a lot of sense. What the hell is a Cactus Fruit anyway? The question isn't relevant. When you play the game, you'll eventually run into a cactus-like enemy and you'll kill it. It'll drop something and you'll pick it up. The game will tell you that you picked up a Cactus Fruit. It's that simple.

So, what's the formula for The Sunflower?

3 Empyreal Soul, 3 Gemsteel and 3 Serpentarius.

OK, so I won't bother asking what those are since you said it's irrelevant. How do I get them?

You look for monsters that drop them, since drops are monster-specific.

OK, so what monsters do I kill?

Unfortunately, there are no monsters that drop any of them.

OK, are you shittin' me?

Yes and no. Let me elaborate.

There are no monsters that drop them directly. The good news is that all 3 components can be bought at the Bazaar, you just need the right formula. To get a Serpentarius, you need to sell 1 High Arcana, 4 Snake Skins and 2 Serpent Eyes. If you sell those components to a merchant, a "Jewel of the Serpent" will appear in the Bazaar. Buy that and you'll get a Serpentarius.

So I'm getting components to form components that will create Tournesol?

Yes.

Wait, that formula you just mentioned---it will only give me 1 Serpentarius?

Yes.

So what I really need is 3 High Arcana, 12 Snake Skins and 6 Serpent Eyes?

Yes.

Then you are shittin' me!

That's what I said, didn't I?

Where do I get those components?

Here. Go to the Tournesol section for details.

Bastard.

I know.

Sorry, I needed a break from the paragraph format. Anyway, I got the information from GameFAQs, my usual one-stop shop for gaming-related info. I currently have 3 Serpentarius and 1 Empyreal Soul. I will hopefully get the Tournesol soon.

As you can see, I have a lot of references when I play games. I don't just grab a keyboard or a controller and play whatever. I really spend time doing some research on things like how to finish a quest or how to get the most powerful weapons or how to gain in-game money the easy way. I don't know how all this sounds to a non-gamer, whether it's silly, stupid or just plain anal. Regardless, it probably sounds like a lot of work, and it is. I think the reward is well worth it though. And that's why I still play.