I'm always looking at the new games that come out , but there are some games that are great and shouldn't be ignored because a new toy showed up . Mabinogi is one of those games . When i first started it in it's testing phases , I was blown away . Alot of games have crafting as a sub skill , but Mabinogi pretty much outnumbered how many crafting skills there are to combat skills . Boasting that you can level and make a living in game without combat was pretty bold , but back to that in a sec .

                                                                                                   
                                                                           My First Experience With Mabinogi :
I had about 3 characters made so I could try out a few options of gameplay .

                         My 1st character was a decent all around melee guy . There was nothing outstanding about him at all but grinding and questing went ok . This made him pretty boring in a game with so much i COULD do .

                         2nd character was half tailor and half combat . Why pay for clothes in a shop when I could MAKE them ! Tailoring was very time consuming , and at times , pretty costly . The shining achievment for my tailoring career was making a ninja outfit . . . in some off ninja color ( think it was pink ) . My combat skill focus though was critical hits . I boosted my critical damage power as high as i could and equiped weapons with some of the highest critical rates i could find . Following that with critcal rate boosting enchants on my armor and I hit at highest Crit 80 . My normal hits were lacking but I averaged about 1 of 5 attacks being a critical . This was the most fun character I made .

                         3rd character was my mage type . I gave him the 3 basic attack spells ( fire , ice , lightning ) and the healing spell . After getting my butt handed to me a few times I realized my mage controling sucked and threw some melee skills on him . He shared the same fate as my 1st character of being easily forgetable .

Work had gotten alot busier and I had to end up dropping the game . I didnt hate the game , but I didnt have the time for it . It also doesn't help that your characters age even when you don't play and will eventually get weaker , meening you have to pay to reset your age . That didn't make comming back much easier . Eventually i did though . The Pioneers expansion came and it gave me the perfect reason to start fresh and re-imagine what I liked about the game in the 1st place .
                                                                                               
                                                                 My Second Experience With Mabinogi :
This was a fresh start for me and I wanted something different . I really wanted to test the claim that you can make a living and level without combat . With that I made a Musician . I worked 3 part time jobs during the day and played my lute all night . With the exception of an ice spell and production master ( for stamina playing my lute ) , I spent all my skill points only on music skills . My money went to food , repairing my lute , and buying books for skill increases . At this point I called the game a simulator for life . I was a starving artist . Working 3 part time jobs a game day to buy a $10k book took a gooooood while , but then having to repeat that around 10 times ( I don't remember the actual count ) takes a long , long , time . I only slurged on a black lute and a some black clothes to match . I finally get my 3 music skills to rank 9 and become a beginer Bard ! I stuck with it and could play stat boosting songs ! Then the Pioneers update kicked in and I tryed some of the things that were updated .
                        1st : The exploration is a great change of pace ! You could run around with dousing rods and find free stuff you could use or sell . Finally I could have the good weapons and armor I envied others for having and have money in my pocket !
                        2nd : Free premium service untill you reach a certain level . It was awsome seeing what people payed for in a trail period . My only down side was I didnt get a notice I hit the limit and got some items stuck in the bonus part of the bank .
                        3rd : Free rebirths after a certain age ! This was a big problem I had with the game . It almost said you pay us or quit like 2 months . When they changed it , I didnt feel like I was pressured into giving them money and it turned into a REAL free game and I could drop 'n pick it up anytime I wanted .
               Basically i got a lil bored and new games came so i dropped it intending to come back later . I hadn't played in months . It's a shame ! This game has so much to offer and is very different from others on the market . I guess it's finding the motivation to continue on my career of grinding music and exploring that's kept me away . I really should come back though and when i rebirth maybe get some combat skills sence i don't have to shell out $10 to return . In closing , this is a game I should return to with hopes of making some new friends and having some good times , and hoping the grind doesn't wear me down too much .