Roy Ventus
Axis of Chaos
2030
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Posted - 2016.05.21 14:31:00 -
[1] - Quote
*Puts down his iPhone to stop playing Kingdom Hearts Unchained X*
For the millions of reasons to not like Dust 514, there are a few very good reasons why Dust was a very unique and treasured experience for me. These would be the reasons why I've had hope even in the dreariest of days playing Dust. The same reason why other games couldn't replicate the experiences I've had. I'm going to go ahead and number them to make it easier to read:
1. In Dust... there's no one hero persona. Every person has their own valid and canon story that fits into the lore. Every single person has a story to them. From the do-gooders, aka carebears, to the degenerates and even those who fall upon the not-so-thin gray moral line. Perhaps you may find a reason for them to be the way they are, sometimes they are just the way they are, but regardless there's an air of mystique in even the smallest of characters. We're exoskeleton clad mercenaries occupying blank slate clones from the same genetic source material, however beyond the hard shell and deep beneath the layer past the blood and guts that we all share, we're an extremely diversified bunch of mercenaries. To me, that's poetic.
2. We, the players, are the masters of the real stories and legacies left behind. In Dust you come in a blank slate. Maybe people know of you from previous games or maybe even from EVE:Online, however, this isn't any of those other games nor is it a sequel. You as an immortal mercenary get to mold this world into your own in whatever way that is. While the game never even realized a quarter of it's potential, it very much had enough potential to make for an experience in where you could decide your path in the world. You want to be a leader? Be a leader. You want to be a slayer? Be a slayer. You want to be a support? Be a support. Strategist? Tactician? Corporate recruiter? Battle Planner? Hustler? Do it. Albeit, some of these options were given over time, they were still roles any one of us could fill in. You didn't have to be JUST a soldier shooting a gun in a battlefield.
3. The community, sweet or sour, always had character. Remember how I said everyone had their own story? Well there were obviously a lot of people who were larger than life when it comes to character. A lot of you are probably thinking of names like Regum, Pyrex, Grease Spillet, Radar, Chicago Cubs, True Adamance, Sgt. Kirk, Cat Merc, Sotah Pop, Djinn Kujo, Djinn Rampage, Quickgloves, etc. There's something about knowing a name out of the community and actually knowing their character. Most games, you know a name maybe because its attached to a big name clan or because its been spread around, however its in Dust where players, even ones I don't know personally, have so much color to them that you know for a fact there more than just some John Doe or Jane Doe who decided to pick up a game. Even the less well known players have a lot of character to them.
You know a community has character when the bonds you've formed with players have decided battles and wars. Also on the opposite side of that, you know the community has character when the bad relations you have with certain players have led to actual battles and wars being fought. In Dust relationships actually mattered, and that leads me to my next point...
4. The community actually feels like a community. This community has some trash habits but I'd claim it any day of the week just because of how close I feel to it. I felt like more than a player... I felt like I was a part of something. I get a similar feeling from games like DOTA, but only because of DOTA's competitive gaming. In Dust, I felt like I was a part of something bigger because I truly was. Every player is important. Every relationship is important. One praise could lead you to bigger and better things. One slight and you may have burned a bridge that may have been beneficial for you down the road. I never was any major player in the game but I always felt like I played a role bigger than me, whether that's from recommending players to other corporations, helping new players, or simply fighting on the battlefield.
More than just the impact of the individual player, the community actually communicated like an actual community. There were whole user-made chats that acted as hubs for communication, secret chats, and even factional chats. Everybody knew somebody that knew somebody that you knew. I can't count how many times I've talked to people I never knew but knew me in some form and vice versa. You can gain a reputation easily regardless of what kind of reputation it is.
5. We made due with what we had, which wasn't much if we're being honest here. I hate to sound like some old-man, especially since I'm only 22, but we made due with what we had in Dust... Before corps were even organized we were mobilizing in units. Before trading came, we set up trading organizations. We never got actual in-game applications for certain aspects of the game, like bounty hunting, but we actually made it work to a degree. The craftiness of the community always attracted me to it. Every other week someone had a scheme that they were trying to implement and there was some chance of it actually working.
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I mean, there's other reasons why I really liked the experience I've had with Dust 514, but those five are probably the biggest ones. The theme of it all seems to have to do with the community aspect and that sounds about right as the reason I came to Dust was to be a part of something bigger. That will be the same reason I move on to Nova/Dust 3.0
"There once was a time when there wasn't a Roy Ventus and it wasn't much of a time at all."
http://royventus.tumblr.com
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