My character, my alter-ego if you will, was created on August 16th, 2003–two months prior to the initial NA launch. Yes, my account was imported from Japan, and I initially used a Japanese client… but that’s not the topic here.

It’s now June 28th, 2009… almost six full years since I took my first steps out into the world of Vana’diel. When I started, I was about ready to enter my Freshman year in High School. Now here I am, almost old enough to drink legally (21 this October), and trying desperately to get the finances to get back into college. What have I been doing with my life these past six years, and why do I still pack my gear to seek further adventure into this marvelous world-away-from-home?

In my first year as an Adventurer, I saddled up along with the rest of my comrades to venture into the Rise of the Zilart expansion. I knew right off the bat that I would become a Dragoon–following in the footsteps of my heroes, Freya and Kain. Kain, from FFIV, had to deal with a weak willpower and jealousy towards his friend due to an unrequited love with Rosa. He overcame this in order to help his friends triumph in the end, but continued seeking the path of a true Dragoon in order to harden his resolve so that he would one day be able to never turn his back on his friends again. Freya, of FFIX, on the other hand, had to watch the love of her life disappear in order to seek a great power that would allow him to protect Burmecia, its people, as well as Freya herself. She focused all of her despair into training to become a great Dragon Knight in order to travel the world in search of him, and in the end was able to find a way to fall in love with him all over again. In short, I wanted to overcome my own inner weaknesses in order to have such an epiphany.

While this could be done on any job class, Dragoons just happened to get their own pet dragon. How bloody awesome is that?!

I spent this whole year working in my Freshman year towards my GPA and choir progression. I would end up with a 3.98 GPA and a recommendation to join the “Jazz Ensemble Choir”, which was the next logical step up anyway.

In my second year, I joined a six-person Experience set party known as Midori (Green, in Japanese). With their help, I grew from a novice Dragoon into an experienced player, even though I still didn’t know exactly how things worked the way they did when I did them. I got pretty close to one of the members, and through her my determination to develop new techniques with a sword in-real-life increased, likely from the desire to protect her one day. She also wound up getting me into DDR (Dance Dance Revolution), which is an addiction I have yet to break even to this day. In Jazz Ensemble Choir, my best friend and I finally released our first ORPG project together–which led to the creation of the iroke.net domain. My GPA went down to a 3.77 due to a lack of focus in my classes, but like any other teenager, all I did was blame it on poor teaching.

My third and fourth years were spent mostly in anguish over drama with the said friend, and having to handle a strictly online relationship. Along with all of the college offers, including a full-ride scholarship to VMI which I passed without hesitation (Two years of required service = no thanks), I really didn’t want to deal with extra sources of stress. Vana’diel was my escape from drama, and here it was pouring more of it into my life. After some careful consideration, I temporarily quit FFXI in order to focus on my schooling, and wound up graduating with a 4.3 GPA and vocal magnet certification–like that’s of any benefit for a computer specialist.

I came back in the end of my fourth year, and spent that and my fifth year getting to know all of the friends I have now–those from MulletHaven, ItsAllGood, so forth and so on. I had a clean start as a college student: no more worries, no more cares. Just that one burning desire to surpass my inhibitions in order to succceed past where even I had thought possible. This led me to becoming a sort of guru for understanding how the math works behind the scenes in Vana’diel, and improved my performance as a player exponentially. Unfortunately, it came with the drawback of “elitism”, but I’ve spent most of my sixth year thus far quelling it in order to become a better person.

Thanks to being an adventurer in Vana’diel, I was able to save the world–more than once, even. I was able to meet such incredible people, who have been such an influence in my life, that I would have likely never gotten the chance to meet ordinarily. I’ve been able to start this blog, and to actually have it get some visitors and new followers on my twitter. (Pretty exciting being able to chat with people from other servers, by the way~) Was focusing on Vana’diel over Earth a wise choice towards my career overall? Probably not. However, for those who say that I was immature for playing a game over my studies–know that the world of Vana’diel is not just a game. All of the memories; the suffering, the pain, the loathing, the fear, the anxiety, the sorrow, the joy, the energy, the laughter, the happiness, the love… all of the feelings that have been etched into the plethora of paths upon this world have made it just as real and important to those of us who care for it as Earth is.

I can honestly say that being here, and meeting all of you, has–indirectly or otherwise–made me a better person. I’m honored to have the opportunity to express my feelings in this blog, and I will continue to try and keep up the good spirits for new adventurers to come!

-Kyo

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