"Esoteria is designed to appeal to the mass of users and offers a wide range of character building opportunities," George stated, "As such there are over a hundred different races to select from. There are also dozens of starting classes. During game play advanced and alternative classes can be found."

I nodded for him to continue.

"While you can start at any point of character creation, name selection, appearance, race, etc. It is recommended to start by deciding what type of experience you would like to have within the game and then view the related recommendations. So if you are ready and happy to follow the recommended format, we will begin with class selection."

I felt a rush of excitement. Character creation. For the impatient, it may only take 20 to 30 minutes of randomizing and shortcuts, but for a true gamer, it could take far, far longer. "Please tell me about the classes."

"Primarily the class types are broken into types of play style, such as protectors, healers, physical damage, magical damage, support, craftsman, etc. If you prefer to play as a character that can run up to enemies and melee, you could start your search under the physical damage type."

I thought for a moment, reliving some of the game favorites I used to play. Ah, the undead warlock was great fun with damage-over-time (or dots) and demonic pets. A few occasions, I had enjoyed being a straight up tank, pissing off the mobs and keeping my guild mates alive. Direct damage was never really my preference. When I had first started gaming, I always selected the role of the healer. I was one of the players that actually enjoyed focusing on keeping my team alive.

"I think I will end the way I began, list the healers."

A list appeared of the classes with a summary. Below each was a blinking arrow to see more detailed information.

Priest

As a priest, you are devoted to your deity and the workings of the church. Priests have natural affinity for diplomacy and politics. They are strongest in populated areas with followers of their chosen deity.

Missionary

As a missionary, you are devoted to your deity and focus on spreading the faith. The missionary has various combat related skills along with survival skills that allow them to travel far and wide. Healing skills tend to focus on the basic life sustaining needs of rural populations.

Zealot

As a zealot, it is simple. There is but one god, your god. You have been granted divine gifts to smite the unfaithful. Healing spells are strong to those who share your beliefs but you are unable to heal any not of your faith.

Physician

As a physician, you have devoted time to the study, research, and experimentation of the humanoid anatomy. Focusing on those skills has generated a variety of tools and abilities that you use to cure and heal those of the humanoid races.

Shaman

As a shaman, the ancestry of your people and the spirits of all living things guide your way. Shamans are ceremonial in nature, using spiritual rites to aid in their abilities.

Looking at the window I could see I was on screen 1 of 5. Really, five pages just for classes that they consider a healer. The options didn’t appear to be in any particular order either. I wasn’t thinking too highly of their recommended ‘preferred’ method of character generation. It struck me as a bit odd, really. I might actually have to send some feedback in. I decided to switch the selection process up.

“George, could you list the races that are recommended for healer classes.”

“A user could select any of the available races to play some type of healer, but abilities, skills and statistics could be severely impacted by choice. The list is quite long and I sense your eagerness to move forward. If you provide different input I can further filter the list for you or I am able to offer you an additional selection aid.”

“What do you mean by that, exactly?” I wondered. “Yes, I’m eager, definitely. While I enjoy character creation, this seems a bit much and it’s a jumbled mess to me.”

“Esoteria believes in incorporating some features and traits from the users into their characters to add another layer of personalization.”

Right. Totally magnanimous of them. That won’t feed any addictions or anything.

“You have the required minimum user experience of online role-playing games, that of at least 15 years among various games. Since you meet this threshold, I can evaluate certain personality traits, behavior patterns and past gaming experiences and offer you with three race/class builds that seem to best match who you are. Not all users have access to all starting races and classes. ”

“Wait, what? How is that possible.”

“Unfortunately, I am unable to answer how it is possible. Do you choose to have the selection assistance?”

George stood, stiff as a board and waited. Little red flags popped in the back of my mind. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted a dream figment going through my mind to tell me what it thought I should be. Usually games that incorporated a personality-trait matrix or behavior analysis were just skipped since it usually offered weird or unpopular options. On the other hand, you won’t win if you don’t bet and this was probably the best place to be playing things risky. Besides, if I didn’t like it, I could always go back to the long lists and spend the rest of my forever building a character. Before I could respond, George spoke again.

“Jay, I do have to notify you that this selection offer comes with certain disclaimers. First, this is a one-time offer. You will not be offered this service again. Second, if you take the offer, but do not select one of the three options, you will return to the primary selection process and you will lose 2 starting stat points from the available starting point pool. Lastly, should you select one of the options, you will be unable to delete and recreate a new character for one real-time calendar year.”

George returned to his wood plank impersonation while I stuttered, “What the fuck. Seriously? What the hell kind of offer of service is that. Why on earth would anyone bother with that! Again, this is weird. Has to be the weirdest character creation experience I’ve ever had… and trust me. I’ve had some odd ones.” I stared at him. He stared at me. I took a breath, about ready to tell him to poof back into genie smoke and give me back the main menus, but then I thought. Bets are risky, but people place them because if you hit big, you can sometimes hit really big. Why go through all the pomp and circumstance.

“George, can you tell me what benefits there are to using this service or how it would improve my game experience?”

George’s face broke into a smile, “Jay, I’m so glad that you asked. There have already been many users that have gotten to this point in character creation script, but from what my brothers and sisters tell me, no one has yet to do anything but voice very strong euphemisms or just return back to general selection. I was first, ha.”

His last statement caused me to sit up a bit, he was definitely developing a bit of a personality.

“The longer that we spend time in the home, the more my AI settings will adjust to match your idea of me.” He said.

“That’s a handy trick.” I smiled. “Now then, gimme. What is good about it?”

“By selecting this service, you have the chance of receiving race/class combinations that may not be possible from the main selections OR penalties of that combination may be lowered or in some cases completely eliminated. Alternatively, if your race/class combinations are standard, you will be presented with different benefits not currently available to starting players, for instance, it could be increased number of starting pool stat points, increased base stat point, increased starting currency with a full inventory of goodies, it could be skills or abilities or spells. Really, I do not know all the possible benefits, but there is a good chance at least one of the three options selected will have something you like.”

“So… basically it’s like a ‘start a little OP’ card, as in let’s just overpower someone before they even get into the game? Ah, won’t that piss off the masses?”

“I am not in a position to speculate on that, Jay. Do you select the offer? Please state yes or no or visualize the acceptance menu and make your choice.”

Choices, choices, choices. Hedge my bet or go all in?

“Fuck it.”