After years of being the runt of the litter (despite having no siblings), Spike finally comes into his own and starts to grow up and mature. The result is a unique bit of magic all his own, or so the theory goes: He awakens one morning to find words hanging overhead that call him [The Gamer], along with powers that let him 'live life as though it were a game'.
How he decides to handle all of this, and where things go from there? That would be a spoiler, and you all know how we feel about spoilers around here...
Frequently asked questions will be answered from time to time, and those answers linked here for the curious:
The First FAQ
Chapters (135)
hahaaaa holy shit. i read a bunch of the manga a while ago, amazed to see it here. i am eager as all hell.
yeee
the difference between playing and science is writing it down.
also rip Spike's sanity at all the inaccurate clocks.
Freeee Moneeeeyy
Oh god that manga
9880686
If I had any skill with photomanip, I'd put the T&E Free Real Estate image but in the Matt Lesko suit. As it is, you can just have that thought lingering in your brain now. :V
HOOOOOOOOOH
You are actually alive.
Now THIS is the right attitude.
I love spikes personally in this! It was cute that he got so excited in the end of the chapter. Can't wait for the next one!
May soft sands guide you on the path to righteousness and enlightenment
Ponygod07
AKA Frosthinian
wait, reading the description again, is it just me or is it implying all dragons get Gamer skills?
9881048
I believe it's just Spike.
I'm so glad this is written in advance! Its like every time I find one of these, they di- go to sleep almost immediately afterwards and its really dissapointing.
It looks like it can be good so far, you're not focusing on un-necessary details, you had a great intro that was well written and not just a bunch of background info dumped onto the page. I'm realy excited to read a full one of these that gets finished!
That image there's some quality Spikebutt, yes.
The setup for this is really quite interesting, as is the story so far. I'm curious how much leveling progress that 50,000 experience is going to translate into, assuming Spike manages to get it.
So, if he just knows the local time, would he still need to look at a clock?
"Hey spike, what time is it?" And without looking up from his comic, he replies,
"8:52, the wall clock is two minutes fast."
Very interesting progression so far.
I shall track this. I shall track this with great interest.
9881158
So far there's a definite conclusion to what I'll call Part 1, and an epilogue for it. I'm going to be working in story arcs for this one, and I'm doing a hell of a lot more pre-planning than usual accordingly. So yeah, expect this to continue for quite some time unless IRL issues smack me up. Again.
Spike's going for that sculpting skill, huh?
If Spike removes the flaw from a decent quality gem, that means he is left with a smaller, but flawless and therefore far more expensive, higher quality gem, and gem cutting skills? Apraisal? Filing his claws would come under tool, weapon maintenance or personal grooming? Maybe combinations?
Say, did Spike ever confirm that subtitles worked on Twilight?
Wait, 6 buttons? What controller were you thinking of when you wrote this? I thought most controllers, disregarding the shoulder buttons had 4?
Edit: Thanks, it has been answered multiple times now.
9881527
I think Street Fighter cabs had 1 stick and 6 buttons, ABC, XYZ for each of two players?
just be glad it wasnt Gauntlet 4 player cab?
9881527
9881597
Also I think "disregarding the shoulder buttons" might be your problem. They've been a staple of game controllers since 1990, I don't see any reason to disregard them.
On the other hand, it could also refer to Start/Select in the center.
9881527
9881636
9881597
Well it's a 2D graphical representation of a controller viewed face-on, right? So if it has two joysticks it would also inherently have six face buttons: Start, Select, then ABXY or CTSX. That's the layout on both XBOX and PSX controllers. The shoulders and triggers wouldn't be visible in a face-on view, since they're on top of or behind the controller.
Those are also inherently strange and futuristic controller designs when you come from a culture that hasn't evolved past the arcade cabinet yet... Although it might be more accurate to say that Equestrian video games have evolved down a different branch.
9881514
He indeed did not! I'll double-check ahead in the document to see if he's tested it yet, and if not... Well, I'm currently writing future stuff so. It's going to happen eventually one way or the other. :V
9881390
You're definitely thinking in the right directions, as far as skills go: When a skill falls under multiple categories, you can potentially get multiple independent multipliers from various sources. As for the gem production... Well, he'll have his own uses for gems above and beyond the money. But the money isn't not a thing. :V
9881684
oh, forgot about those buttons
Very nice, I like it and I'm eager to see what the next chapter holds! Do you know what your update/posting schedule will be like?
9881980
The likely average is a chapter or two on any given week, but it might be more or less often at my random whims, bonus posts on holidays, etc.
9881527
I'm picturing a fighting game controller (LMH punch and kicks) but those usually only have one joystick.
9882310
Due to a weird comment chain FIMFic issue the responses ended up on Chapter 5. TL;DR- XBOX or PSX style controller, with ABXY Start Select.
9881527
Start and select?
Who's the author of the title picture?
I see no one has brought up Spike’s unique spell “Flame Mail”, because that is something that should be listened in his abilities somewhere.
9882894
https://derpibooru.org/1301227
I'd link the tumblr source, but tumblr decided not to let people see it anymore.
On a side note, I'd like to congratulate you on your godly ratio. Golden Oaks ftw.
I am uncomfortable with how thicc spike is in the title picture.
9882973
Can't access derpi because stupid censorship of internet in my country. Could you just tell the artist's name, so I could search torrents for their artwork?
9881527
Three on both sides, probably under the joysticks. It's a style thing and three's are nicer.
Twilight has repeatedly ignored this part in canon. Just feel the need to point that out.
In D&D-inspired systems, it's the human average. Considering general pony overpoweredness... well, presumably their own games scale to that, so you're doing pretty well.
9883563
"Cold Blooded Twilight" is the artist. Lots of smutty pony art, both explicit and merely suggestive. This is one of their cleaner pictures, and even then....yeah.
Spellcasting classes in Dungeons and Dragons have never used MP, except as optional rules that Shining Armor should know better than to use with new players who haven't already learned the base game. >_>
9880681
The actual quote was: "The only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down" and don't worry about stealing; he stole it too.
9883697
Thanks!
9882954
Don't worry, it gets covered pretty early. There's a reason it's not on his initial sheet, is all.
I am not sure how you manage to do it, but you even manage to make the long passages of just thinking and inspection interesting. This may be a personal preference, but wouldn't it be better to keep 'the game' a secret/not say everything he has found out until now to his friends, and rather wait he until he found out more or has gotten further into it. I am just asking because the end made it seem like he would go around and ask people like buttom mash to join his party. Still, great chapter, like those before.
Dude, I'm loving this and you getting me so excited, that along with the fact that I am around the chapter 50 of the manhwa :D
[Earthshaper] and [Dragon's Claws] sound useful.
Ooo, nice. Twilight still doesn't know, but I'm sure she approves.
Lots of interesting capabilities in this game, though it seems like it will be a long slog figuring them all out.
More, more, more, MOAR!!!..... But seriously its very good so far!
Ahh, he used the KohINor trick, though I wonder if the Game only uses Ponyville bit to purchase real items, even though he can Inventory them, or if there is a Game mechanism to sell, donate etc various resources and the use them to purchase Game stats directly, or would that come under, finding the Olde Curiosity Shoppe that has been there for ages but wasnt there for ages yesterday, which would come under planning, mapping, exploring, communicating, listening, intelligence gathering etc?
Something about being a dragon as well, At this time, what Cant Spike eat, and if he gains stats by draining his Stamina, wouldnt he gain stats by working through Everything to give the data for Recovering Stamina, especially the ultra rare items that give small percentage recovery rate increases? How would that work with Pinkie Cooking, Baking.. and Zecoras Brewing? BonBons Candies? Berry Punches Craft Drinks?
What would Baked Bads be classified as, Poison, Toxin training?
Fire Breath training, message handling, Inventory, parameter sdelection in targeting? range, duration, given the laughter stuff, types of fire?
So first the Soufle, with firebreath browning? then the rest of list round town, to give a whole stack of XP ready to unlock when he completes the final subquest and suddently finds out what 50k XP means when Level 1 is 1k?