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Beating Diablo II, Irene The Infirm's Way?

Posted by simoniker on from the sand-no-longer-kicked-in-face dept.

Rimbo writes "I've found a new hero, over at The Lurker Lounge's Diablo II forums, where intrepid adventurer MongoJerry set up an in-game Sorceress according to the following rules: 'No skill or stat points may ever be assigned... She plays fully naked, including no charms or jewelry... She must get all waypoints and fulfill all quests in game order... If she actually gets that far, any mercenary she gets must play naked as well... She plays hardcore.' So, no weapons, no armor, no magic items, no throwing potions. How long will she last playing Diablo II? Astonishingly long! Read on for the surprising Irene the Infirm: Tales of a Sickly Punching Sorceress."

2 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Not bad! I like the strategy by rbanzai · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Although I don't have the skill or patience for the same task I understand the goal. I've spent many a round of Day of Defeat with nothing but my shovel at hand to dispatch the enemy, or just the pistol. There's something special about foregoing all the typical "power up" type weapons and items and just breaking it down with the bare essentials.

  2. Glad you enjoyed Irene's story, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hello, Slashdot folks! This is MongoJerry, author of Irene's tale. First, I would like to say that I'm glad you enjoyed Irene's tale and am flattered to have had her adventures linked to. I've actually written up three other characters that you might want to check out:

    Grizabella, the Realistic Melee Mage:

    http://diabloii.net/columnists/a-grizabella1.sht ml
    http://diabloii.net/columnists/a-grizabella2.sht ml
    http://diabloii.net/columnists/a-grizabella3.sht ml

    Gunter, the Barbarian Mage:

    http://diabloii.net/columnists/a-gunter1.shtml
    http://diabloii.net/columnists/a-gunter2.shtml
    ht tp://diabloii.net/columnists/a-gunter3.shtml

    Maldar, the Pacifist Hero:

    http://diabloii.net/columnists/a-maldar1.shtml

    However, while I am flattered to have Irene's story publicized, I do have a bone to pick with the Slashdot folks and the original poster of this thread. The thread on the Lurker Lounge was linked to without giving me or the site administrator any warning. The Lurker Lounge is a site for a small community of technically oriented Diablo II fans, and the server is just a computer at a guy's house. The Slashdot publicity created so much traffic to the site that the ISP shut down the connection to the server for overuse of bandwidth.

    What's more, *I'm* the one who's hosting Irene's images. As the stories of my Diablo II characters' adventures started becoming more popular, my ISP bill went from $30/month to $150/month because of all of the extra bandwidth that was being used. I had begun to purposely crop Irene's images more than I had the images of my previous characters just to save some money and was trying to see if I could make some arrangements with other Diablo II folks to host my images. Now, with all the Slashdot traffic, I'm likely to get a horrendous bill -- probably upwards of $500 or more -- because of all of the extra bandwidth used. As I am a starving graduate student subsisting on student loans, this bill is really going to hurt.

    So while I am flattered by the attention and publicity, I am bothered by the lack of warning given to me and the Lurker Lounge site administrator. If we had been warned, I could have pointed you to the guest articles I've written for diabloii.net. I post my initial stories on three different Diablo II message boards to get feedback from people and then reformat those stories for diabloii.net. Diabloii.net is a semi-professional fan site which could have handled the extra Slashdot bandwidth more easily and (even better from my point of view) hosts guest article images directly. Irene's story is scheduled to be posted there in two weeks.

    Thank-you for your time and understanding. I don't have an account here on Slashdot, so you can't get a hold of me by Slashdot means. However, if you would like to e-mail me, you can use the link located at the bottom of the guest articles at diabloii.net I linked to above.

    (Incidentally, if Slashdot would be willing to host my images, I would be happy to give Slashdot an exlusive story on my next character. Also, if someone happens to be on the board of directors for a scholarship fund and would like to help pay for a poor starving graduate student's education and/or ISP bill, please feel free to contact me. Yikes.)