My Experience with a Dead Video Game
My first foray into Dragon Nest was unremarkable. Dragon Nest was a third person action RPG, and the main selling point was slaying giant monsters like dragons. I played a Chaos Mage, a dark magic user who could control time and gravity. The skills made me feel powerful, especially Gravity Well which I would use to lift up monsters into the air before slamming them down. My character could also stop time, conjure a black hole, teleport far distances, and summon a meteor.
Whenever I did the leveling dungeons, I felt unstoppable.When my friends asked if I wanted to do nests (the game’s version of dungeons), I accepted without even thinking.
How bad could they be?
Boy, was I wrong.
The nests were a completely different beast. They required practice, finesse, and coordination. In nests, one misstep would sometimes result in your entire party being wiped. I spent most of the nests as a ghost while my friends destroyed the boss monsters.
The nest that devastated me the most was Typhoon Kim nest, which featured an obstacle course that instantly killed me if I miscalculated.
I was rather immature, so I ended up quitting Dragon Nest because I thought nests were impossible.
One year later, I returned to Dragon Nest,and the game just received its level 80 update. I leveled my Chaos Mage until I was ready to take on the new nest that released, Volcano Nest. I died to pretty much everything from a telegraphed spear throw to a phoenix burning down an entire area.
It was discouraging, but it didn’t bother me as much as it did before. I kept playing and I even watched successful runs on Youtube. I slowly reached a point where I would only die once to the crocodile and twice to the phoenix. For me, it was progress.
I continued playing, and next year, the level 90 update came. Dragon Nest changed drastically in the level 90 update.
The developers removed every single nest from the game.
The entire community was outraged, and its easy to understand why.
Instead of creating new content, they re-released older nests and made them much easier. Players could no longer experience the adrenaline of the nests until they were at the highest level. For new players and casual players, the game’s ultimate selling point was gone. For older players, the removal of every nest meant that we could never experience our favorite content ever again.
With the game changing so much, I decided to switch my Chaos Mage into a War Mage, a magic user who could conjure and control destructive lasers.
She was an all-out damage dealer, and all of her attacks were powerful and flashy. My favorite move was Spectrum Shower, a move where the War Mage spins and ignites everything around her with a circular laser.
The first re-released nests were Archbishop Nest and Manticore Nest.
I entered the Archbishop Nest and completed it without dying. There were times I messed up, but the damage I took was ignorable. I thought it was a fluke, so I entered the Manticore Nest and I didn’t die in there either.
Was this really the same game? The one that I spent nearly an entire month just so I wouldn’t die to the first three bosses. The title was still Dragon Nest, yet the game changed entirely. I cleared the two newest nests, but it didn’t feel rewarding at all.
Eventually, a new nest came out- Daidolos Nest. After the first two weeks of its release, I was already bored of it.
I felt like quitting again, but this time it was out of boredom. I decided to continue playing because I wanted to challenge the Red Dragon Nest.
I practiced Red Dragon Nest in public groups until I became a substitute damage dealer for an Australian team.
Let me say that I’m on Pacific Time, which meant that our schedules would conflict … a lot.
I ended up doing an official Red Dragon Nest at 3:00 AM in the morning. I was tired and nervous.
When we entered the nest, I knew I wasn’t playing to my peak. I would dodge at the wrong times, or straight up run into telegraphed attacks.
I made it to the penultimate boss, an unusually tall death knight with a very very long sword.
He’s the personification of the “nothing personnel, kid” meme as he teleported behind my War Mage and ended her life. He continued devastating the other team members.
Footage of an experienced team vs Immortal Knight Tacitus by Freedomplays.
After we defeated the death knight, only three people were left standing- our guardian, a shooting star, and a gladiator.
All of us in the Discord call were rooting for them against all the odds.
They fought against Red Dragon Peter until they were all slain.
When I looked at my cell phone, it was nearly 4:00 AM, so like any normal college student, I went to a frat party.
(No, I actually slept.)
It came at 3:00 AM in the morning, but I finally found the thrill I had when I challenged Volcano Nest.
Having reached the apex, I grinded until I surpassed the mountain that was Red Dragon Nest. Then, I quit after playing the level 93 update for a few weeks.
Dragon Nest impacted my life more than I could think.
I met friends who I still talk to today, and I went on countless adventures with many unique people. I’ve poured thousands of hours into the game, and have no regrets with the experience.
