Age of Empires - RISE
---------------------------------CHAPTER ONE------------------------------
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It was summer of 2000. I entered into windows-NT room of computer center, IIT Kanpur. There were about 5 people who were most sincere in doing what they were doing. They were shouting like there is no tomorrow, like there is no one else in the room, like they were in a different world. And I noticed something on their computer screens, and I saw “a world”. World of wars, armies, cavalry, archers.... World I had dreamed about, World I wanted to live into. Noise became less annoying, once I noticed that those five guys are actually in that world, fighting each other for land, gold and pride. The only annoying thing about the “noise” was that I was not part of that world. I felt like I am left out. Alone.
I asked one of those guys to install that thing on my machine. And since I was too afraid to loose even in a game, I preferred to play ALONE. It was my own world no one other than me and if someone else wins, It will be the computer (I map that to nature in the real world.). Just like for many men out there, I was happy to loose to a computer than to put a fight to other men. I kept telling myself, this the time for me to learn. And once I will know how to win over a computer, I will come to the world with other men. I had gratifications of winning over "easiest" computers. And I didn't mind loosing to harder ones. They were just computers and there was no else in my world to see me loosing, so how does that really matter.
They were my role models, the great warriors. I feared them when I saw their formidable armies, battalions with Cavalry, Syth, Catapult, and Ballista. I feared them when I saw their castles. Castles surrounded with walls of thrice the height of man. Castles guarded by towers which were even difficult to reach. When I saw their enemy's armies getting thrashed and wasted in moments, I feared them. They were the TITANS. I sometimes thought should I play with them? But I was happy in my own world.
One evening there were seven of them, SEVEN TITANS. The world had a space for eight. They were finding it difficult to balance the team. No team was willing to take a "nature" (computer) on their side. No one knows when nature turns its sides. They asked me to join them. They somehow believed that I would be able to balance the team. I got a choice to make.... continue to have gratifications of collecting 20,000 gold with just 30 men in my world or getting crushed in their war. I agreed to be in the middle of war of TITANS.
My team LOST. Some said nature would have been better than me. Others asked whether I came into “the world” for the first time. Even some asked me not to be around of TITANS as I was a shame on the name of the institute, department and my hall (Hall 2). I actually felt ashamed. It was difficult. Should I go back to hall and sleep, after all there is class at 8 in the morning and it is already 3 AM. I was tired. I thought my eyes are too strained. I had enough reasons to go back, All logical. I decided to stay. I decided now my own world exists only for training. No more gratifications. Again discussions started for team formation. There were people who didn't wanted to be in team, in which I would be. One TITAN, a.k.a. Naveen, not the best TITAN, who was in my team, took me aside for a crash course. He showed the world which was more than I could have imagined. I realized that I wasn't magic which gave these TITANS the great armies. It was not serendipity to have a catapult. We played second game with the same teams. And we lost again. I don't know why but this defeat was not so humiliating. May be I was expecting much more humiliation.
I wanted to play more but other TITANS decided that it would not be possible to play if I am in the game. Six of them decided to play among themselves and Naveen decided to teach me. He was my trainer, my coach and a great TITAN, Naveen. He taught me to build town center, research buildings, resource collection centers and houses, that's it. I was asked to practice the same thing again and again and again. The things that I was supposed to in the real game. After the third game (game of six warriors) of the evening was over, we decided to play fourth game. Naveen was on my team and that was my only concern. I played with shang and made only buildings that Naveen taught me. No Armies, just men. Many men, more than I ever thought were required. 200 of them, all over the map, only thing they were doing were collecting resources. I was supplier of all kinds of resources to all my team mates. We did NOT win, but game lasted for 3.5 hours. TITANS were having discussions of what went wrong and what went good. My work was on the good side. My role was decided and that's how I got a feminine name. Those who have played with me know the name. And I would like to keep it that way.
-------------------------- END OF CHAPTER ONE -------------------------
RISE
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It was summer of 2000. I entered into windows-NT room of computer center, IIT Kanpur. There were about 5 people who were most sincere in doing what they were doing. They were shouting like there is no tomorrow, like there is no one else in the room, like they were in a different world. And I noticed something on their computer screens, and I saw “a world”. World of wars, armies, cavalry, archers.... World I had dreamed about, World I wanted to live into. Noise became less annoying, once I noticed that those five guys are actually in that world, fighting each other for land, gold and pride. The only annoying thing about the “noise” was that I was not part of that world. I felt like I am left out. Alone.
I asked one of those guys to install that thing on my machine. And since I was too afraid to loose even in a game, I preferred to play ALONE. It was my own world no one other than me and if someone else wins, It will be the computer (I map that to nature in the real world.). Just like for many men out there, I was happy to loose to a computer than to put a fight to other men. I kept telling myself, this the time for me to learn. And once I will know how to win over a computer, I will come to the world with other men. I had gratifications of winning over "easiest" computers. And I didn't mind loosing to harder ones. They were just computers and there was no else in my world to see me loosing, so how does that really matter.
They were my role models, the great warriors. I feared them when I saw their formidable armies, battalions with Cavalry, Syth, Catapult, and Ballista. I feared them when I saw their castles. Castles surrounded with walls of thrice the height of man. Castles guarded by towers which were even difficult to reach. When I saw their enemy's armies getting thrashed and wasted in moments, I feared them. They were the TITANS. I sometimes thought should I play with them? But I was happy in my own world.
One evening there were seven of them, SEVEN TITANS. The world had a space for eight. They were finding it difficult to balance the team. No team was willing to take a "nature" (computer) on their side. No one knows when nature turns its sides. They asked me to join them. They somehow believed that I would be able to balance the team. I got a choice to make.... continue to have gratifications of collecting 20,000 gold with just 30 men in my world or getting crushed in their war. I agreed to be in the middle of war of TITANS.
My team LOST. Some said nature would have been better than me. Others asked whether I came into “the world” for the first time. Even some asked me not to be around of TITANS as I was a shame on the name of the institute, department and my hall (Hall 2). I actually felt ashamed. It was difficult. Should I go back to hall and sleep, after all there is class at 8 in the morning and it is already 3 AM. I was tired. I thought my eyes are too strained. I had enough reasons to go back, All logical. I decided to stay. I decided now my own world exists only for training. No more gratifications. Again discussions started for team formation. There were people who didn't wanted to be in team, in which I would be. One TITAN, a.k.a. Naveen, not the best TITAN, who was in my team, took me aside for a crash course. He showed the world which was more than I could have imagined. I realized that I wasn't magic which gave these TITANS the great armies. It was not serendipity to have a catapult. We played second game with the same teams. And we lost again. I don't know why but this defeat was not so humiliating. May be I was expecting much more humiliation.
I wanted to play more but other TITANS decided that it would not be possible to play if I am in the game. Six of them decided to play among themselves and Naveen decided to teach me. He was my trainer, my coach and a great TITAN, Naveen. He taught me to build town center, research buildings, resource collection centers and houses, that's it. I was asked to practice the same thing again and again and again. The things that I was supposed to in the real game. After the third game (game of six warriors) of the evening was over, we decided to play fourth game. Naveen was on my team and that was my only concern. I played with shang and made only buildings that Naveen taught me. No Armies, just men. Many men, more than I ever thought were required. 200 of them, all over the map, only thing they were doing were collecting resources. I was supplier of all kinds of resources to all my team mates. We did NOT win, but game lasted for 3.5 hours. TITANS were having discussions of what went wrong and what went good. My work was on the good side. My role was decided and that's how I got a feminine name. Those who have played with me know the name. And I would like to keep it that way.
-------------------------- END OF CHAPTER ONE -------------------------
posted by Black Window at 12:18 PM
2 Comments:
Diude! You are that black! ...lol ... By the way guys he was "Megha Kansal".
Check out others who as publishing blogs http://www.bloglines.com/public/AbhishekGoyal
a lot of you classmates are listed in it.
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