I'm not alone?

[oliveGarden]

Someone somehow anonymously sent me the link to this site via some dumb GameFAQs guide I made way at the beginning of my old session. I'd made that thing back before I even knew what this game was really about, I didn't think...

Oh, this is all so overwhelming! Nobody in my session believes that I've played one already! They keep calling me by some name that isn't mine and insisting we're going to have fun playing Sburb. Little do they know. It's so... strange, how normal everything seems. But I know this can't be real, right? Maybe I got caught in some kind of super illusion ability by the Black King and I haven't gotten the Ultimate Reward yet? WA couldn't have died to save me, I couldn't have bred the Genesis Frog for nothing...? Ugh, I guess I have to face the truth. This is all real, isn't it? My friends are all dead or gone and here I am just typing words into a screen like any of them mean anything. I wish SA was here. Whenever I felt bad I could just talk to him for a bit and he'd do his Rhyme thing and I'd feel so much calmer. I...

Sorry. I'm not trying to be a downer. I just... I don't even know if I can bring myself to touch the game discs on my desk now. I grew up and learned to be a better person for nothing. I bred an entire universe, a cute little frog of a universe, for nothing. I just can't bring myself to think it's worth it to try. I feel so weak and pathetic.

[horrorTerror]

Welcome to Replaying, its own special hell.

I'm sorry that everyone and everything you were promised and given was torn away from you etc. etc.

Don't worry. You'll probably maybe get used to it, you don't have a choice in the matter anyway.

okay where is a Might / Hope / Stars / Rage / Heart /anybody actually playeroid when I need them I suck at giving inspirational speeches

You're not weak. You're not pathetic. Remember, every session of Sburb that succeeds brings about a new universe, and that love for the World is often the only reason players don't just sell their souls to the Others and be done with it (frankly if I were you I would accept in a heartbeat this game sucks and getting speaker'd is the fastest way out without dying but YMMV on joining the enemy).

However, like many an abuse victim incapable of breaking free, you have no choice in the matter. Actually, abusive parents are a great metaphor for replaying in general, I swear. At any rate the game is an imperative. This innocent world will die whether you like it or not, so the game will force you kicking and screaming if it has to into itself all over again with a new role and all sorts of horror, and it's best to at least try to get shipshape by the time your coplayers inadvisably chuck those discs into disc drives and the meteors start falling so that when you are coerced, you don't die the minute you enter to an imp backstabbing.

Don't strain against the perceptive filter. It's the only thing keeping you from...well, let's not talk about that. It'll disappear in effectiveness once you're off the host world and the guardians and nonplayers anyone tries to save are dead from the doom they are mandated for.

Try even if you see no reason to go on, in the hopes that reason will one day show up between the glimmers of happiness.

(OOC: hey tC can you relocate these threads into the IC greetings section?)

[smashingBrawler]

Somebody call for a Stars player?

First thing's first, this is real. We can see it, there's no illusion. This is what happens when you claim the reward. You don't get the reward - you enter the replay chain. First thing you have to do is twofold, and it's straight from my Native Classpect - You have to accept the situation, and you have to keep on fighting, every day, to stay alive. You give up, and that's it. You're done. Everyone has a reason to fight, to keep going. Some people want to break the game and see what makes it tick, some people want to help everyone survive, some people refuse to let SBURB win (a lot of Hope natives), and some people just accept that things are the way they are and they keep fighting because somewhere along the line they forgot how to do anything e- I'm getting a little too close to home now.

The first thing you need to know is that SBURB isn't something you can escape. Even people who flee into the furthest ring either make it to another session where they're needed, end up corrupted, or end up a corpse. You're generally safest trying to stay inside your own session, only fleeing into the furthest ring in the most dire of situations.

Second, remember the people you lost along the way, let them be a driving force - don't let their sacrifice go to waste. People will be relying on you in each and every session - right now those other players are relying on you, it's their first time with this, and you're an expert. There's no way to win this, so do what you can and save everyone who can be saved. Which isn't a lot of people. But it's a few.

[oliveGarden]

(OOC: Yeah this part of the forum seemed to get a lot of IC entries so I was confused? Sorry about that!)

Thanks for the words, guys. I've had some time to think about it, and... I guess it would be awful of me to just give up when the other players are counting on me! Some of them are very nice and seem to like me. Well, the illusion of me, I guess? If what you said is right, horrorTerror, and their thinking of me as their friend is only temporary, wouldn't it be a rather brutal shock for the remainder? That one of their close friends is... actually, no. I honestly don't want to think about it now. I guess it's like both of you are telling me. I've got to find a reason to go on. Alright. Deep breath, grabbing the discs. Big girls don't cry, etc. Even if I can't ever escape, which is an absolutely crushing thought I have to be honest, I can at least live to make more frogs. They are universes, full of the potential of countless lives I've been entrusted, even if I maybe never ever get to see them. For the frogs, for my friends wherever they are...! Thanks guys. I'll try my best.

And I should probably keep using these forums too! If there's anything I know at the very least it's how to be a good and active netizen.