With the new year behind them the
player base of Drainiverse looked forward to the fifteenth anniversary of the
game. Every active player had received an email letting them know that the celebration
would begin at six PM eastern standard time and would consist of an entire week’s
worth of events. It was unlike any even the game had ever run. Which is why the
login queue had over two thousand players waiting to sign in and see what the
celebration was going to be like. Trart and the others were all waiting in the
queue and chatting on their guild voice chat server. Trart was sitting at him
computer keeping a lazy eye on the login queue while playing a game on the
ancient console he had bought used. He was laughing at the playful banter the
others were engaged in to pass the time. Suddenly the bell went off to signify
a fifth players entering the chat.
“Are you all seriously waiting
for the sever to calm down so you can play?” Torcano’s voice came through
clearly.
“It’s the fifthteenth anniversary
celebration event, who isn’t sitting by their computer waiting to play?” Stygian asked.
“Point taken.” Torcano admitted.
“Bragging because you are a GM
and can skip the queue?” Bob asked.
“Nope, I’m offering to boot
enough people to get you guys in, now.”
“Seriously?” Blackout asked.
“Why not?” Torcano replied.
“I thought you were like, our nemesis,
or something?” Trart asked.
“If you guys would rather wait in
line –“ Torcano started.
Bob sat up fast enough that Trart
could hear her chair rebound over the chat channel. “No! Please do! It’s a very
nice gesture.” She said excitedly.
Trart was the last one to fade
into the game world. The population on the sever was as max capacity. Everyone
was crowding around something not far from where the group materialized in.
Torcano appeared next to Trart. Trart pointed at the massive gathering of
people. “What’s that all about?” he asked Torcano.
Torcano smiles. “I don’t wanna
ruin the surprise.” He said, making his way toward the group of players. The
others followed him as he waded through the mob.
In the center of the massive
group of players there was a sign that simply said Clan Wars: Champions of the Drainiverse! Next to the Sign sat an
old woman, working on a knitting project.
Bob looked at the sign. ‘Clans?
We already have guilds what’s the difference?” He asked to no one in
particular.
Bob looked at the old woman. “Please
tell me you are all here to slowly read this very simple sign and not because
you are trying to get the matriarch to join your clan roster.” She yelled at
the group of players. The player crowed loosened its density as many players
shamefully left.
“She’s the Matriarch?” Trart
pointed at the old woman. “You’ve got to be kidding me! She’s and old Lady, who
would loose to her?” He asked.
Stygian is in shock. He clamps his hand over Trart’s mouth and pulls him away from the group. Uttering a simple “Sorry” as they leave.
She looked up from her project
with a huge smile. “Bob! They added knitting to the game!”
Bob waved to what was left of the
crowd. “How long have you been dealing with this?” She asked.
The matriarch answers without
looking up from her project. “About an hour now. Soon as the announcement went
up I was flooded with messages so I figured I would sit here and spam a polite “No,
but thank you for asking” and get some crafting done.” She held up her sad
looking knitted square of green and purple yarns. A huge smile on her face.
Blackout turns away from the
sign. “So there’s more on the sign if you click on it. It’s a series of Player
versus Player and Players versus Environment challenges. So it makes sense that
the player base would be clamoring to get the Matriarch on their team. Let’s go
get the others and decide if this is worth doing.” Blackout said, oddly taking
charge.
Bob and the Matriarch said their
goodbyes as Bob and Blackout left to join Stygian, Trart, and Torcano.
“Good news and bad news.” Bob
started. “The good news is that the player base is gonna be wrapped up in this
event for a while, the bad news is that the prize is the characters that win
the tournament become NPC’s in the next expansion of the game, which sounds
pretty awesome to me.” She explained
"Why is that bad news?" Trart asked in confusion.
"Because if we're trying to win the Clan War then we can't use the lack of GM attention on the rest of the world to our benefit." Blackout explained in a whisper. Trart nodded.
Clans are made up of five
players, no more, no less.” Bob continued.
“So we’re one member short.”
Stygian Interrupted.
Trart looked back at the group of
people around the Matriarch. “Well we could –“
Bob shook her head. “No. She’s
been harassed enough already. Let her enjoy her knitting.”
“I could use one of my non GM
characters and be your fifth.” Torcano offered.
Bob shook her head again. “You’re
already straddling the fence of violating the Terms Of Service as it is.”
“As long as I don’t play on your
team during company time I can’t imagine it would be that big of a deal.”
Torcano explained.
Blackout stepped in. “So that’s
five then, what’s next?” He asked.
Bob smiled. “We need a kick ass
name.” She said.
The group stood in silence, each of them waiting for one of the others to be struck by inspiration. After a moment it becomes clear that inspiration is going to take a while.
