To those of you who don't know me; I started playing the first week the game came out but didn't really become a regular here until April/May.
As many of you may recall, I was preparing to bail on the most recent PVP (Domino) because I discovered I would be away on my honeymoon (Hawaii) when it ended and knew I wouldn't be able to maintain a constant PVP presence like I had in previous Ada's.
The night before my flight, I dropped my phone and cracked the screen. I was fearful that that was the end of my phone and my MAA game. The day of the flight, I spent $150 and got a screen repair. Crisis adverted... so it seemed.
2 days into my vacation, I found a place on Oahu's North Shore where I could do some cliff jumping, knocking off something on my bucket list. My wife was on the beach, using my phone to take pictures and video of my feat. She spent a good 30 minutes, patiently waiting for me to get out of the water and join her on the beach. Between the thrill of the 30 ft+ dive and riding the 10-12 ft. waves after, she decided to come in and join me, placing the beach bag with my phone in it ~50 ft+ from where the water/waves were currently reaching and at least 6 ft above the water level by way of a sand bank... these details will be important in a moment...
The following happened in the course of 2 minutes and 4 waves:
1: Wife was ill-prepared to handle the waves and the undertow. The first wave CRUSHES her, nearly pulling her bathing suit top AND bottom right off her. Using one arm/hand to keep everything on, she is unable to maintain her stance/balance as the undertow sucks her back into a second wave coming at us. I'm laughing at this sight because I think she's more surprised out of nearly losing her bathing suit than the force of the wave.
2: Second wave catches her off-guard and as it passes, I see her flailing and gurgling/gasping for breath, with choking screams soon after. I realize something is terribly wrong and make my way over to her.
3: The third wave hits us just as I reach her. The wave tosses us nearly onto the beach and as the undertow begins to pull us back in, I push her onto shore at my expense. I see her manage to get to her feet and climb up the ~6ft sand bank away from the water. I turn around and see the largest wave coming at me...
4: The 4th wave, easily 15 ft high, hits me, and I toss, turn, tumble, spin as if I'm in a clothes dryer, holding my breath for the better part of 10 seconds (harder than you think) until it spits me out onto the beach. I climb out of the water and look for my wife to make sure she's ok, but am puzzled to see her running AWAY from me and the water...
5: This last wave had crashed over this 6 ft sand bank and completely floods the ENTIRE beach with water, including the aforementioned beach bag containing my phone.
You all can probably figure out the rest; despite my best efforts to dry and clean my phone, do the whole rice bowl thing, after ~ 1 week after the incident, my phone is dead. After the whole cracked screen bit, this was like a kick in the nuts by God.
I am not a programmer and have never rooted a phone of mine. My current 2-year contract ends around June-July 2015, which I will then be eligible for a new phone. I do not plan on buying a new phone now, still recovering financially from our wedding last month and instead, planning to use my wife's previous old phone, an HTC Evo. I'm hoping my SIM and SD cards still work and can at least retain all my contacts, pictures, etc, but I've already accepted the fact that my MAA game is over.
Sure, it's sad to think about, having spent almost a whole year playing this game religiously. But at the same time, am glad I'm free of its hold over me. I wish you all the best of luck on your MAA endeavors but considering how nothing new has happened at all in the game for the last 1-2 months, it may be the end for the rest of you soon enough.
Regards,
Visheyry (Ryan)