So, a friend tells me about this game he plays. Says it’s the kind where you can just play occassionally – once or twice a day for 5-10 minutes. Torn City? Hmmm, what’s it like? Text rpg game, like a MUD. Set in a seedy city, where the goal is to commit crimes and become the best at it.
I’m thinking this is SO not my thing. I’m a happy-go-lucky, straight-as-an-arrow, spread-the-love kinda girl. I don’t even like to play games where things actually die, just maybe get stunned, fade away or fall asleep. ^_^
I dismiss this game and continue feeding my addiction with Wizard101. A few weeks later I’m still wondering how he could find so much interest in this game? What exactly about it could hold his attention?
I make an account to check it out. Checking out the site, I do my “crimes”. With only 10 nerve and beginners level, I’m only able to do the “search for money” crimes. “Search for money? No harm in that, right? Not hurting anyone. Maybe I can even turn it in to the police…”
“Hmm, I can go work out at the gym. That’s a nice idea. Could use a little toning and some pound shedding.”
“Oh, and I can get a job – Casino job looks nice. Yay! Education. I can better myself. I’ll start with some Computer Science courses. (Hacking sounds exciting and white collar crime is not as bad as murder.)”
I spend a short time on Torn City, setting myself up, then log out. This game isn’t so bad. Why was I so worried?
Next day I have a few questions and message my friend who sends me a link to a comprehensive and extremely informative guide/fan site – Torn City Basic. I start reading and learning, ask some more questions, then log back in to Torn to “do my dailies”. A few more “crimes” (no ability to turn found money over to police, sigh). Work out a bit more at the gym and find out I can help some people if I break them out of jail. “Wait! What? Well, I’ll just break out a few of the noobs. After all they need some help, and it will be my kind act for the day.” ^_^
I, myself, got caught a few times, sent my appropriate Thank You letters to those kind souls that busted or bailed me out and went on my merry way. Oh! “Congratulations! You upgraded your level to 2!” “Looky there! I leveled up! Wow, that’s kinda cool. Yay! That wasn’t too hard, and I didn’t really do anything bad…”
One of the guys that busts me out seems really nice responding to my Thank You. We continue mailing back and forth a few times. He sends me some money, from his casino winnings. “How sweet.” A few more people take pity on my noob status and send me some money too. I never expected to actually find “nice” or “good” people in a game such as Torn City.
Long story shorter – I begin playing more and more, longer and longer, every day until I’m mugging Old Women, bringing home thousands in Casino winnings, busting out hardened criminals, beefing up my battle stats, buying guns and ammo, becoming co-leader of a faction (albeit a peaceful one), getting married, moving out of a shack and into a palace, and slowly but surely becoming addicted to this seedy underground society that I hope never becomes a real world reality.
Join me. You know you wanna…. 
