(forgive me for the wall of text...)
It was June 25th, 2005 and I had just finished reading a review on Gamespot about this up and coming Super Hero MMORPG. Having had my heart recently broken with the demise of URU: Ages Beyond Myst Online, I decided to download it on a free trial basis, figuring what the hey, let's give it a whirl, if I don't like it I won't have to buy it. Game finishes installing, I log in and enter this magic room with a costume creator that had so many pieces (compared to my previous MMO experience) that I was both salivating and feeling quite dizzy at the time.
Now, curiously enough, 2005 was also the first year I decided to dye my hair blue and it was still blue when I was creating my ever first character. So I had part of a name but it was lacking something else (after all you can't go about fighting crime being just called blue, it lacks pizzazz, it lacks ooomph, it does not instil fear in hardened criminals and it does not command respect from fellow super heroes)... Being a child of 75 and having somewhat of a penchant for the cutest, kindest, furry rodent that is the rabbit, the next part of the name was obvious. I was like "Hold up shapeshifter! Your chinese star sign is Rabbit (2nd thoughts go "as opposed to the western one, which is Pisces, but then you wouldn't be able to breathe outside of water" (and 3rd thoughts go "well, that's rich, you're in a super hero game, going for mind control/empathy human rabbit mutant hybrid and you're worried you won't be able to justify not being able to breathe out of water"), but I digress)! That'll strike fear into the hearts and various body parts of criminals! Plus, who doesn't like cuddly wabbits! And that's how my main hero toon was born: Blue Rabbit.
Of course, at the time, there weren't absolutely any rabbit parts around (the tail, ears and whiskers came much, much later in the game life) so I had to make do with what I had... He didn't look very much like a Blue Rabbit but hey, I was just going to try out the game for a bit, it was not like I was going to keep playing it or anything... Ten minutes later, I had about 15 badges (Isolator being one of them and the rest being exploration ones) and I was like "Where's my credit card, this game is awesome and I want it now!". Thirty minutes later I also had Red Rabbit, Yellow Rabbit, Purple Rabbit and Grey Rabbit (with Black and White Rabbit planned for when I hit 50 and could finally get my hands on a WS and a PB). By this point, colours matched the archetype of the character (and yes, I realized Blue and Purple were mismatched as Blue is a controller and Purple is a defender).
Flash-forward through a lot of adventures, friends made and friends gone, laughter, blood, sweat, tears (and badges, lots and lots of badges!) and it was 2006. Villainhood loomed on the horizon and as much as Blue was me in the game, he needed an evil (well, naughtier) counterpart. Maroon Hare was born out of the colour of City of Villains for corrupters and he was joined by his league of ne'er-do-wells Black Hare, Purple Hare, Grey Hare and Green Hare (when the time came, and villain AT came out, Ultraviolet and Viridescent Hare joined them). Hare became their second name part because it's close enough to Rabbit (star sign wise) and naughty enough (remember the Hare and the Tortoise tale) to support their mischievous ways.
All of them have detailed bios because I believe once they are put out there they become living things and deserve a life (or a semblance of one in the case of the undead, robotic or construct ones). All of them are labours of love and I can't see never getting to play with me them again as a good thing and that makes me sad (and damn these allergies and dust in the air, my eyes are watering again).
Maroon Hare became my villain badger and that makes two (and more than enough). Blue and Maroon sit at 1389 and 1388 badges respectively. I have long since come to the realization that I will never get those darn PvP badges because I hate the stuff and can't partake of it without my blood pressure raising to epic proportions and the red mist taking over my sight. Which is fine I guess (the not having the badges part, not the blood pressure red mist part). There are others that I won't ever get and that's ok too I guess...
So, before this gets any longer (and sorry for rambling) what I'm trying to say is:
Thanks for letting me be part of your journey, thanks for playing with me and letting me play with you, thanks for the great game, thanks for the good times, the bad times, the in between times, the innuendo, the carrots... but most of all, thanks for being my friends and letting me be yours.
To all Devs and Dev related personnel new and old, here and gone: Bridger, Rockjaw, Kerensky, Cuppa Jo, Avatea, Back Alley Brawler, Castle, J-Love (and others I cannot recall, sorry) I raise my psychic carrot in your honour and wish you all the best. Especially to the 80 of you who are now out of a job I wish you luck and happiness, may you find a new means of employment quickly (yes, even marketing, which I still think are the spawn of Satan droppings, but even they deserve a chance...)
To all my fellow players, badgers and otherwise: it has been an honour and a pleasure teaming with you (even though some of you rocked my nerves at some times). I couldn't have asked for a better community of players (Defiant foreverl!!!)
You can take my badges, my characters, my game but you won't ever take my memories or my friends: it's been a wild ride and if it had gone on, it would only get better and better. So, once more into the breach chaps, and until Nov. 30th, I will be doing it
For the carrots!
Always carrotly yours,
Blue Rabbit
I've been falling pretty deeply for gw2 lately but then this week the halloween event started. Trick or treating, costumes which unlock pvp in non-pvp zones, crafting cool rare stuff from holiday loot, lore revealed in a new scavenger hunt event, the main city hub getting a hogwarts makeover, pumpkin carving, and more stuff I havent even tried yet. And this is the first act of four culminating on the 31st.
I think it was in one of those goodbye posts people made but now I don't know whose was it. T_T
