Albeit rationed, I was fortunate that I had access to the internet ever since I was a wee kid. We had a PC at home, but due to the contents of my contract with my mom, which I shall not dive into here, I was only allowed to use it for short durations (although I must confess that I did test the leniency of our agreement on multiple occasions), often as a reward for completing my homework, or carrying out my responsibilities.
Flash Games & MMORPGs
I don’t recall being very inquisitive while surfing on the web. I typically used it as my secondary source of entertainment, after a day’s worth of hard work at school and the playground afterwards. Most of my friends in the park were older than me, and they collectively obsessed over an MMORPG seasonally. Once we were back home, nourished and refreshed, we would meet in an agreed-upon server within the game.
Fiesta
For some time, we played Fiesta Online. I remember fending off hordes of slimes that adorned various skins, and there existing a questline in which you had to engage in a duel with your own clone (or shadow, I don’t recall), that just blew my mind. They also rolled out a paid feature in the game that let you marry your friend, complete with a grand wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, this didn’t help when I built up and presented a case for why my parents should sponsor my membership fee.
Runescape
Next, we moved on to Runescape. I loved the crafting mechanics within the game and have fond memories of trading some of the equipment I no longer needed at the exchange centre for gold coins. I decided to go with a warrior build, as I did in most fantasy RPGs. Something about wielding a longsword double-handed, while decked in armour, really called out to me. I worked my way up to an adamant build, and a rune build after that, which was the end of the crafting tree for free accounts. I was mesmerized by the worldbuilding too. There was a region in the game that was ravaged with faction-wars and you could unlock unique questlines by initiating in each of the rival gangs. Towards the endgame of the canon storyline, you had to slay a dragon. I struggled with completing this quest independently, so I partied up with my friends.
Adventure Quest Worlds
Fiesta bored me, and I had completed most of the free content in Runescape. That’s when I came across Adventure Quest Worlds. I was a fan of Artix Entertainment’s suite of games even before they had released AQW. A couple of my cousins used to live in Singapore as well back then, and I would watch them intently when they played a game called BattleOn. This was a single-player, turn-based game. But, you were allowed to have pets, amongst other familiars, fight alongside you, which left me in awe. So, when they released a multiplayer game with a cool art style, I naturally gravitated towards it. As a pre-teen, I loved the game’s brand of humour, the goofy names, and the slapstick routines. The game revolves around crafting, questlines, and combat, all of which were simplistic. It had an auto-attack system, so you could play it in a mindless state. This didn’t bother me because I loved the content in the game.
They did a series called the 13 Lords of Chaos. Initially, you were made to pick a side — either good or evil. But, a new villain enters, who’s far more sinister, and he ushers in the reign of chaos. The world is in shambles, and regardless of what side you had picked, you are now bestowed with the responsibility to restore balance to the world. The game incessantly baits you with premium content. Most of the cool-looking weapons, armour, and classes were hidden behind a paywall. But the game was fun and accessible enough for a kid with a free account that I could easily forgive it. Now, when I look back, this was a horrible game (thanks Josh Strife). But, as a kid who had just come back from school seeking fun and entertainment, it was epic!
Club Penguin
Apart from introducing me to Artix Entertainment and gifting me their Gameboy cartridges, my cousins also got me hooked on Miniclip when I was younger, thus instating my love for flash games. I used to visit and play games on the site often, but most notably, I picked up Club Penguin. I loved the surfing and the card-jitsu mini-games and absolutely adored puffles, your in-game pets. In fact, you could unlock a rainbow puffle if you possessed membership. Unable to convince my parents to cough up the money, I wrote an email to the developers, requesting that they consider providing me with free membership. To my surprise, they wrote back, but unfortunately, they said that it wasn’t possible.
YouTube
When I was 9, I pleaded with my parents to get a gaming console. This led to my mom having a premonition of my turning into a couch potato. She promptly enrolled me in badminton classes. I would dreadfully commute to the stadium by public transport. I sucked at the game. My coach bluntly told my mom that I was hopeless. I had abysmal hand-eye coordination and my spatial awareness was non-existent. But, I was determined to prove him wrong. He didn’t foresee how fast of a learner I was. My eagerness to learn only increased, and he developed a keen interest in me, and imparted his wisdom to me. Soon, this bordered on becoming an obsession. Every day, I would grow restless, steal glances at the clock, and violently shake my legs in anticipation for the final school bell to dismiss us, so that I could leave to go play.
Badminton
I was so engrossed with the game that all I would do while surfing the web was check the results of international tournaments and players’ stats on Tournament Software, or browse badminton highlights compilation videos on YouTube. My favourite channel was Park Eun Wan. The owner of the channel was a Swedish teenager who was pursuing the sport professionally at the time. His videos, with upbeat techno music playing in the background (it was a phase, stop judging), would never fail to stir me. I would observe my favourite players’ rallies and emulate their footwork (it was usually what stood out for me in a person’s game) in front of the mirror.
My most memorable video was the one in which he covered Chou Tien Chen’s win in the French Open final of 2014. He had never beaten his opponent in the finals ever in their previous encounters. The first set was lopsided, and he was trailing for most of the second set as well. But, he launched a comeback, saved 2 game points, and his second wind carried him through most of the decider. He’s a joy to watch on the court. He’s gritty and somehow finds a way to claw back into the game, despite being dominated the entire time. He floats on the court, and he feeds off the energy of the crowd, by involving them in his celebration after winning crucial points. He’s played and thrived in some of the most competitive eras of the discipline, and he’s still going strong at the age of 36. He’s a warrior, and you can’t help yourself from rooting for him. He kept the news that he had early-stage cancer under wraps, toiled through the qualification season for the Paris Olympics, and ended up reaching the quarters!
Kingdom Hearts Playthroughs
I spent a lot of my time as a kid on YouTube. I was mesmerized by the Kingdom Hearts games, and since I wasn’t allowed to have a console, I did the next best thing — watch playthroughs of the games with the occasional techno edit. In this world, there exists a group of heartless people (with insane swag) called Organization XIII. They wore black hooded garb, and they had a really cool naming convention for these characters. They’d take the name of their mortal form, jumble up the letters, add an X, and shuffle the letters to form their organization name. I loved the name and design of one of the characters in the game, Vanitas, so I adopted the same convention to concoct a cool and unique username for myself — Vaxitas.
I ended up creating a couple of accounts on AQW, one named Vaxitas and the other Ivatas. I’d open two tabs so that I could play from both accounts. Like I said, once you lock onto an enemy, you’d attack automatically without controlling the character. So, I didn’t need to monitor this character’s controls actively. Once, I joined a party from both of my accounts because I was struggling with a boss that I desperately wanted to beat, and I knew it dropped some rare weapons and armours. I attempted to convince the rest of the party members that we were twins, and in an effort to make it more believable, I logged out from one of the accounts citing that I needed to use the loo, but “my twin” stayed on. They asked if we were pulling a prank, and I thought that my response was very convincing. In hindsight, it must have been pretty obvious, but I was proud of my stunt back then.
The MMORPG Hobbyist to High Fantasy Enjoyer Pipeline
My earlier days on the internet mostly comprised playing flash games, MMORPGs, creating an underage Facebook account to play Monster Galaxy with my friends, and watching badminton highlights. Some of the more prominent parts of my identity such as programming were things I picked up later, once I was well into my teenage years, and had joined an undergrad course. Most of my time on the internet during my early days was quite ordinary, but it led to my developing a penchant for high fantasy fiction.
In fact, an ambition of mine, that I’ve reserved for when I can afford to spend the exorbitant amount of time it requires, is to build an indie metroidvania. I had a game dev phase a few years ago during which I tinkered around with the Unreal Engine, and documented some of my development updates while attempting to build a soulslike. I’m embarrassed about this, but here’s a devlog video and a playlist of the rest of the updates anyway.
This essay was written from a prompt in the IndieWebClub Meetup, Bangalore.