For My Popo...............

And for my final post before I run out to the airport, I wanted to send a shout out to Popobigs, the bestest wife in the whole-wide world!!! When I was level 54, the Lineage began a very slow decent for me - it was beginning to get boring, everyone I knew was prepping to leave for WoW, or had left already, NC kept changing the rules to the game, hacks and cheats were nowhere NEAR to being halted, and overall gameplay just began to deteriorate for me.

Then one day, I met Popobigs. LoL - ok, a little more background - when I first met her, I thought she was a guy and I would just keep calling her “dude” all the time, which she thought was funny - it would be like, “what’s up dude,” or “hey dude,” - you get the idea. She would respond with, “I’m not a dude,” yet I would call her that anyway(bad habit lol). Our first hunting trip was a vain attempt to tame wolves. We partied and hunted around areas trying to tame wolves for nearly 2 hours. I went first but after several failures, she wanted to try it because she was the “expert.” Neither of us could do it and considered ourselves super newbs by that time (the next day, I was at the NC site and read that in order to tame any animals, you cannot be in a party….DOH!).

I have a philosophy about Lineage (all games, really) that pretty much is summed up as - how you play the game reflects the person behind the keyboard. Some people will disagree and say it’s the polar opposite. That maybe true - but after playing a game for a couple of years, it’s hard to hide your true colors - know what I mean?

Popo lifted me up and helped me charge forward. She pushed and pushed and pushed - wanting to race and level up at the same time (yes, she beat me of course - but only by a day!). What an amazing person Popo is - her mix of humor, sensitivity, courage, bravery, generosity, abundant love of the game, super skills, and overall livelihood clearly make Lineage a better game - not just for me, but for everyone. Don’t believe me? Just watch her play the next time she passes you by - there’s a reason why she’s so strong and quick on the kill. All these reasons are why I married Popo - and it made ME a better player for it. And if this is how she is in-game, then she’s definitely a person I'’d want to know in real life. Yah, we’ve had our arguments and debates, but we always kiss and make up; makes the bond a bit stronger. Popo does what she wants and I do what I want, but we always seem to find a way to meet each other in the middle. I know Popo from the game - but I feel that I know her a bit in real life too.

Yes, Popo was my nomination for Player of the Year. Although she didn’t win it, she hasn’t been playing for several years either.

But as far as I’m concerned, she’s MY Player of the Year.

vWicks