As some of you may know, I am an avid gamer. I have been a huge fan of the entire Diablo franchise and have been playing the series since 2000.
About Diablo 3
Last year, Diablo 3 was launched. I preordered it and started playing once the initial hiccups were sorted out. Needless to say, it was a fantastic experience. Though I missed the Necromancer (a cool character class from Diablo 2), I took on the game with a Witch Doctor named ‘Hulka’.
The experience was fantastic. I laboured over 60 hours to level up my character. It was hard going. Rares and legendaries (types of special in-game equipment) were, in fact, rare and legendary. It was fun. I had a good run.
After a hiatus of 4 months or so, I got back to the game.
By then, the patches had happened. The entire game was changed from v1.0 to v1.0.8. Attacks were buffed. Monsters were nerfed. A dynamic equilibrium was established. Paragon levels were introduced.
My Level 60 Wizard on Diablo 3
To cope, I started a new character – a Wizard by the name of ‘Royska‘. This time, the experience was completely different. Thanks to Twinking, leveling up was a cake. Rares dropped like nobody’s business. Before I hit level 60, I even had a set item and a legendary item drop. In short, the game was much easier and I breezed through – hitting level 60 in half the time. Or less.
Same game. Different times. Different experiences.
Did I feel cheated?
Yes. A bit.
When the game was harder, I put in so much of time and effort to reach level 60 with my Witch Doctor. With the Wizard, it was not so difficult.
About Life
Think about it. It could have some parallels with your own life.
For me, I can relate to this in terms of education, work and life as a whole.
- I ‘studied’ Chemical Engineering. I barely scraped through. I was looking through my thermodynamics textbook last week and guess what – it made sense.
- I learned coding by trial and error. I’m a graduate from the school of hard knocks of coding. Nowadays, there’s Coursera, CodeSchool, Codecademy and Code.org. Let’s not forget Lynda.com. Or thepiratebay.se.
- I spent countless nights hacking to build a simple electrical circuit with a microcontroller ‘brain’. Now, you have the Arduino.
The Summary
No system – computer games/technology/career/life is ever stable. It’s ideally in perpetual beta or a state of flux. It’s better if you are the architect than the end user.
Bonus
Remember what the Prince (of Persia) said:
“I am the architect of my own destruction. So this is it, what is written in the timeline cannot be changed. Come for me then. In my quest to destroy the sands of time, I have been the one to create them. “Let all who read this know, the courage and valor of those who fought and fell for the Majarajah. We sought the power of the Sands of time, most found only death, my self among them. But the mask of the Wraith gave me a second chance to travel back through time and change my fate.” This mural shows the impossible. But the mask of the Wraith gave me a second chance, there might still be hope. You had your chance to take me, you won’t get another!”
Unless you’ve got the Wraith mask, be warned!