How I came across "The World":

A very long time ago, when I was just about 3 or perhaps 4 years old, I played my first video game. The game was simple and I would win it almost every time I played it. From that very moment in my life, I began to fall in love with every game that I played.

I began to collect rare and interesting games that were discontinued and are almost nowhere to be found on Earth anymore. I would also try to get games before they were to be released in stores. And even though I collected a lot of different types of games, I did not really like them all. I liked playing the Role-Playing Games or RPGs as they are often known as. Adventure, puzzle-solving, mystery and fun-filled games were games that I liked to play, but Role-Playing Games became games that I love to play.

At first, I liked the games that were made for just one player, because I did not feel the need to play multilayer games with friends. All during primary school, I was just alone, by myself, with no friends to turn to. I got into fights with people I thought were going to be friends with me. I ate my lunch by myself, and just waited until the bell rang when recess was over. However, now that I am out of primary school and am into high school, I have lots of people that I know will be friends with me until the end of time, hopefully. Maybe there was something wrong with the primary school that I went to, because I know a lot of people that went there the same time I did, and they told me that they have been through just about the same things I have. But who knows…

One day, I was walking through a mall and I heard some people talking about some new game that was coming out soon. I walked over to them and asked what the game was called and what it was about. But all they said was, "The World" and then they walked off leaving me wondering what that game was about. When I got home the next day, I went onto the internet to look up that game, and get information on it. I managed to find out that it was a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). I thought to myself and realized that it was just one of those online Role-Playing Games, but even though I loved normal Role-Playing Games, it did not mean that I liked to play them with other players.

A few weeks later, "The World" was released onto the streets for everybody to buy. And so, I decided that I would buy it to see what the game was really about, and why a lot of people were waiting for it. I rummaged through the money I had left and realized that I did not have enough money to buy it. Luckily, I get allowance, and I got it on that very same day. So, I got all my money together and went out to get "The World".

While I was wandering through the streets looking for places that had "The World", I ran into a couple of friends of mine (I really did run straight into them). I saw that they had already got the game and were heading home to play it. They told me that I had to get a copy of the game really fast, because it was selling out all over the globe. They told me the place where they got there copies, and said that there were still a lot there. So, I said goodbye and ran off to that store. I finally got to the store and bought "The World" from the salesman (after waiting in that huge lineup for about an hour).

When I returned home after buying the game, I quickly noticed that nobody except me was home at that time. Since I had the rest of the time off school because of summer holidays and I did not have anything else that made me busy, I decided that this was the best time for me to get the game out and play. I opened up the box, and got out all of the equipment to install it, and then I hooked everything up to my computer. Then after the installation, I had to make my own character.

I finally made my character and chose from the character classes that were available. It was kind of difficult trying to choose what name and class to go with, because there were so many possibilities. I had a choice of choosing between six different character classes, such as: Twin Blade, Heavy Blade, Blade Master, Heavy Axe Man, Long Arm, and Wave Master. But I finally made up my mind. I named my character, "Dragoon" after the dragon knights that were said to be resembling the legendary dragon spirits that would protect anyone that seemed to be in trouble. I made Dragoon a "Blade Master" because the dragoon spirits were said to have wielded strong magical swords to fight off evil demon-spirits in the past.

I do not know what made me do it, but I put on the headset and special gloves. Maybe it was because I wanted to, but never knew it. Or maybe I was just curious as to find out what it was truly about. It could have even been that I just wanted to escape from the ludicrous real world. Even though I did not know what I was about to get myself into…

User Name: Dragoon
Password:

…I gave the computer my User Name and Password, and then hit ENTER to "Log In" to the game that was known as "The World".

When I got into "The World", I quickly assumed that most of it was like the real world, with all sorts of people to play with. I looked at myself and saw that I looked like an armored dragon with a big sword. I thought that the Dragoons were big, muscular warriors, not dragon soldiers themselves. I also looked at the town that I appeared to be in. I thought that it was named "Mac Anu: The City of the Water" or something like that. It looked pretty real to me, and it appeared to be a thriving town full of life. I looked around and stared for a moment at some type of flag that seemed to be waving in the distance, but how was it waving? I thought about it a bit more, in detail this time. Do you not need a source of wind to wave flags? Where was this wind coming from?

The next thing I thought about asking myself, worried me.
The question that came to my mind was:
Could this virtual game be indeed … alive?