Memoirs of a Panda (Part I)

It all started in the winter of 08...

Well, I've been a fan of RPGs (and in particular, JRPGs) since I was just a wee panda cub, having taken an interest after playing a fan translation of a Famicom game, Mother ("EarthBound Zero"), on an NES emulator running on a friend's PC, and I'm just as much a fan of RPGs now as I was then.  And when it comes to JRPGs, once you've played enough of them, you'll notice that there's a sort of pattern to a lot of these games- a ritualistic grind for experience points and/or game currency (or whatever bullshit) to let you level up for that extra point of strength or buy that armor that's not as shitty as your current armor (but not as nice as that really expensive armor that's "The Shit" and can't afford because your currency gain isn't fast enough with your current grind) to beat that next dungeon boss or new challenge and progress the story- and it's a pattern that I'm very familiar with, so when I was invited to play the MT closed beta, having a great deal of experience with the JRPG, but very little experience with the MMORPG, I immediately fell into this routine of grinding, re-gearing, and then grinding on something else.  I completely ignored the "MMO" aspect of the game and, basically, treated other players like NPCs.  I played a gunner (also named "johnnythepanda") and leveled him to 18 solely in the Suginami pixie pit and never spoke a single word to anyone ingame during that time.  I quickly lost interest in the game...