Cal Ripken’s Real Baseball

For the month of April and May I have committed myself to writing for an online video game.

As it is I broke my thumb almost 4 months ago and it doesn’t bend very much yet, It just stays straight like some crazed terminal hitchhiker.

My days believing that if I just put out the effort I could have a long and illustrious career playing baseball.. Even if I get full or even most movement back I still have a plate and four screws holding it together.

I never actually played a day of organized baseball in my life. Circumstances didn’t allow it. The town I grew up in didn’t have baseball or football leagues.

Still though, I’m 28 and figured I could learn to throw a knuckle ball and pitch in the big leagues till I was 48. Lol. Craziness.

Either way, I just loved the sport. Baseball I like to say was my first love and I still believe that today. I want to be Tom Hanke on the hill for the Toronto Blue Jays in grade five, thick black glasses and all. Instead I had to settle for being a poor (wo) man’s Jenni Finch throwing grapefruit size bolders around and calling it fastball.

I never got to play baseball untill two years ago when I stumbled on a video game in open beta in what was then called Ultimate Baseball Online.

Online baseball?

Not only that but it is competitive online baseball.

The game is a massive multiplayer online role playing game. Role playing in the sense that you create a character, play as an individual member of a team in pickup games (PUGS) growing and levelling your character as you play and gain experience.

For me, this game was love at first sight. I like video games but this is what I play. Not CoD, not WoW, Not CS. Online baseball.

Like WoW and other multiplayer online games, players act as an individual member of a team. Characters are levelled as the user’s player gains EXP through pickup games (PUGS) or events such as tournaments, mini tounraments and the main league events.

MVPS (levels 90-99), AllStars (60-89),Majors (30-59)), Minors (10-29) and Rookies (0-9). Rookies can’t play in the main server. They have their own server where they can learn to play without the pressure of the hardcore gamers. Lots of ‘Noobs’ in the RK server.

When you get out of the rookie server and graduate to the Minor you have the option of joining and creating teams and playing in leagues and tournaments, which in my opinion is where the real fun begins.

If you would like to check out the game, Cal Ripken’s Real Baseball (www.playrealbaseball.com) look me up if you get hooked.

Megatron – Carnage Organization