Geez, has it really been three years since we started doing this crazy stuff?
When I applied for LESIG, the idea of actually playing a character in an event wasn't even on the table. We thought we were going to be asked to give feedback to the LET, and offer them suggestions as to what sorts of new events to run. Like many others, I jumped at the chance to send in my application. After all, who didn't want to truly shape the destiny of the Matrix (and who didn't believe back then that we could truly do such a thing?) LESIG evolved over that time, and even though I never felt that we were truly able to change how things went in the larger course of the game's story, we definitely were able to change the interaction between the Dev team (First Rarebit and HCFrog, then just Rarebit) and the player base.
In the beginning, I mostly worked behind the scenes, offering Rarebit ideas for new tools, and new uses of old ones. As a player, I ran what I think was the first event to use Pandora's Boxes as an event spawn. Nowadays, we have NPC spawn tools that we're allowed to use in events. I wish we had had those way back in the day... I also helped in the testing of some of the FX tools, including weird items like the smoke poofs that Cryptos put down that one time. As we learned that MxO would be relegated to static content, we tried to make the best of that content. Yes, it was a rehash and nothing truly new, but you have to admit... we got a lot of mileage out of this old code. ;-)
Anyway, when we opened up LOs to encompass 3 per org, per server, I finally stepped into a role, taking on the Syntax Merovingians. They were a small group, and entirely different in focus than the Merovingians of my home server (Recursion). In the end, I found myself enjoying the individuality present on Syntax. Many of the Merovingian core were factionally-unaligned, which I've always felt is a hallmark of the true Merovingian loner. Granted, I was often invited to parties with the big factions (and party I did!), but I always made it one of my goals to include the factionless operatives as well. Sharing lists with Bloodlust really helped, especially since he was able to be online during peak hours when I couldn't be. I'm really grateful to have had his company and support in my LO endeavors, even though our characters were always at one another's throats.
There are so many players who took pleasure in the quirky nature of my character, and one or two that managed to figure out the backstory I had planned out for her. I'm grateful for the RP reception I got from Syntax, and I regret that I wasn't able to spend more prime-time online there. After the first great LESIG leak, and the second, many of you connected the player to the character. However, I never publicly confirmed my identity, and to this day I've never had anyone harass me while on Banshae with anything related to my main identity. I think that that says a lot about the calibur of player in this game, and I'm grateful that they were able to suspend their disbelief in order to help me in my various interactions. Hopefully I can keep the story of Banshae going wherever I decide to move my RP writings to. Unlike my main, who existed in fanfiction-form even before MxO was launched, Banshae was a creation wholly borne of the Matrix Online, and I will miss her dearly.
I've grown so fond of typing in that bloody accent, too...
~ Void
