Hello everyone, this will be part one of what I want to say.
This is Xiang posting. Some of you may remember me from Interlude/Kamael days, when I helped Elmar (aka Yidao) translate a few articles of Lineage 2 on Elliebelly.net.
I'd like to take a moment to share with you my thoughts. Nothing serious, just some "general discussions."
Over the years, Lineage 2 has had profound influence on me. When I first met Lineage 2, I was a young kid. Inexperienced, naive, I soon fell in love with the game. Its graphics was the best in its class, and its music was stunning...ugh, it's always so hard for me to describe my early days with Lineage 2.
Well, things were different back then. They were... simpler. I didn't have a good enough computer to play the game, so I watched its videos, read its news and information, listened to its music. I was fully absorbed with every aspect of the game except actually playing it.
And with those videos and music were also memories, good memories of early days of Lineage 2. Yes, memories, powerful emotions that overwhelmed me. I was just in my teenage years and had never experienced so much feelings in such short amount of time. My feelings and thoughts were easily influenced. Soon, I started worshiping the videos as if Lineage 2 was a religion so I could protect those memories. There was a period of time when so much attention was paid to how they were being watched that rituals were created. I would pick a night with an atmosphere closest resembling to that of the videos with the most precious memories (dark, windy, red sky, sometimes a little rain). I would start by watching recent, newly discovered videos that are more laid back and then move to ones with more memories, letting the the emotions build up. Once I feel it’s time, I would move to the few earliest videos I've discovered with the purest memories, those contain the most intense emotions. And every time I watch them, I would end in tears but at the same time feeling so happy and optimistic. It really is a spiritual journey.
It's true that there are other things that make me happy: joking every day with friends, cat videos, playing games, whatnot. But those are temporary, and in dire situations they are no longer as useful. With l2, however, all the memories serve as spiritual support. It's the only thing that I absolutely believe in, because I know that no matter what happens, they’ll always be there.
I'm sure a few of you feel the same way with the music from Lineage 2. It's as if the soundtracks from Lineage 2 are embedded in my soul. With school getting more stressful and life more complicated, I now have less time to listen to those soundtracks. But every time I start listening to them, tears swell up and I feel like I'm home again.
Alas, good things don't last. Some day, Lineage 2 will die. And if that day comes, I won't say goodbye. I'll be heartbroken but I'll bury it deep in my soul.