TITLE: "WARRIOR AGAINST ALL ODDSE PHOENIX "
Born into the world of Aden with the strength of a child and the experience of an infant but we all grow. Putting in effort from the gods we will become soldiers protecting the greater good, while others chose to take the path of tyrants. Fighting for so long that we are tested by conquering our enemies into the ground, where they belong for their treachery making us heroes of our homelands of Aden. Every Hero has a story that begins, and unfortunately must end. When we disappear our legacy will never dwindle, because we will walk with the gods as ancient warriors that people will always talk about until the end of Aden.
My story began on May 4th, 2004. My first character that I started was a Dark Elf Knight. I had so many difficulties leveling a Dark Elf because she had very little health points. I kept dying because of my accessibility issues. I was not quick enough at that time to save myself from dying.
When I was 11 years old I fell from a 5-foot platform jumping in leaves and landed on my head breaking my neck. That fall instantly paralyzed me from the neck down. From that moment on, I was told that I would spend the rest of my life confined to a wheelchair. But I am a fighter, In and out of game! I do not let anyone take advantage of me or tell me that I’m not capable of doing something because of my disability.
I had to learn how to play this game with what little experience and mobility that I have. For years I have been using a trackball mouse to operate the computer along with a device is called a mouthstick. The mouthstick is the most important device of everything I use. A mouthstick consists of a mouth grip that goes into my mouth, and I am able to clamp down on it with my teeth and control it with my lips and head movement. The center of the grip has a long stick, and at the end of it there is a flexible pointer that I can bend in any position. I bent it in a finger position. That way I can move the ball steering the cursor, and I click the mouse buttons by pressing them with the mouthstick. I type many different ways such as using a miniature keyboard by tapping keys with the stick. In combination of the mouthstick and the mouse I use an application by Microsoft for Accessibility, it is called "On-Screen Keyboard." I set the keyboard to "Key Hover," which means I steer the cursor over the desired keyboards letter and leave it there for a half a second, and it types the letter. That is how I operate the computer.
It took me quite a while to figure out how to work around my disability in order to play the game. I have been playing for six years, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I actually surprise everyone I meet in game because they cannot understand how someone with next to nothing movement, and is basically playing with one finger. Not to mention he is able to box all of his accounts to play. I even impress my friends and family.
When I first started playing this game I shared my disabilities and abilities with a few good friends and clan members. They were so impressed they would tell other people, and then they would tell more people and so on and so on. It got to the point that people were sending me so many private messages, and e-mails in game and on the forums. So I decided to post on the forums, talking about my disability, my life, how I play the game, my experiences and how I learned to play the game. The post exploded with more questions (that I answered) and people giving me a pat on the back and telling me to keep up the good work. I was asked by NCSoft to become the website’s next community spotlight of the month posting my interview. It was cool, because they asked about my experiences, and my character.
My main character was created on July 1st, 2004. He is an 81 Maestro, named MiniNitro. At first, I chose him because he had so many hit points. I needed a character to take a beating while I figured out how to become faster in this game to compete with able-bodied players. Eventually he grew on me and I could not stop leveling him! I enjoyed being able to take apart Mobs and even other players, together with my Mechanical Golem. I am able to solo Mobs so much stronger than me and even much taller. Ha ha. All of the new amazing areas that other races need a party to do as well as I do.
The most amazing part of this game for me is the people that I meet. The heart of this game was you can meet anyone in any part of the world. I have friends that I have been playing with just about every day for the last six years. Especially my best friend Letme. He is from Sweden. When we first started we were complete, low-level newbies and now we are high-level characters. We’ve become so close that he gave his newborn son my name as his middle name. If I never had met him or the other people that I call close friends I doubt I would still be playing. The first time in my life I’m not ridiculed, talked down to or people treat me differently. When talking or playing with me I am treated just like everyone else with the same strength and ambition to rule all of Aden. That is why I love this game, and I will always be here until all of Aden crumbles.