Wednesday Who's Who - Rex & Onica

[PINKY]

REX & ONICA

RexDameon "Rex" Andreosn and Adonica "Onica" Andreosn are one of the few real-world couples that play together in the Entropia Universe. Both Rex and Onica are known to many players in our virtual universe, but not for being uber, or for investing thousands of dollars. These two are mainly known for being a genuinely nice couple that have helped dozens of people launch into their Entropia lives...

What makes this couple particularly unique is they act as “unofficial mentors” for many people who cannot take on a regular mentor. How many times have you seen someone in need of help, only to find out they can not be taken on as a disciple because they shot a few creatures and became too highly skilled to qualify as a disciple? What happens to such participants? Well, the lucky ones ran into Rex and Onica, who go out of their way to help them by becoming their mentors. Obviously this means they get absolutely no reward from MA for the help they give, so why do it?
“It's simple really,” says Rex. “I believe in paying it forward (yeah, like that movie). If someone helps you it often promotes you to help someone else and usually comes back to you in the end.”
”You make great friends in the process too," adds Onica, "The more people join and stay the more improvements come to EU.”

In the real world, Rex and Onica are known as Sean, a 28 year-old Electronic Assembler, and Megan, a 24 year-old Patient Services Representative. They started life as their virtual counterparts almost four years ago, with Rex introducing Onica to the game shortly after discovering it himself. A short while into their virtual lives, the couple founded the popular 'nothing And nowhere' (nAn) society. “We founded 'nothing AND nowhere' together with our real life friend Fairplay. It was a lot of fun and we had some great times in Entropia,” says Rex of the old days. Onica goes on to explain “We created it to help organize teaching others and mentoring in a group, so people got not just one mentor to help them but everyone in the society.” Rex continues, “We gave them small tasks that didn't cost a lot of money, but were fun like collecting all the Teleporters. Eventually, as Real life got us both pretty busy, we had to give up running the society and leave because it's hard to be in nAn and not want to run things. It's nice now being in Clan Deathstalker, where we can just relax and play when we can. It's a great bunch of people that I feel we fit in well with. We all have the same relaxed style of play.”

Rex and Onica have always placed the fun and social aspects of the game over trying to be the highest skilled. Indeed, with Rex’s highest pro-standing at level 23 Laser sniper and Onica’s at level 16 Swordsman (or should that be swordswoman ), neither could be described as highly skilled; their skills are all-natural with no chipping, and have been gained while having fun. Rex explains, “I've been trying to road them all out lately. Right now I've been mining a lot." Onica explains she favours Mermoth hunting with long blades or handgun. "We aren't much for hard-core skilling as much as just having a fun time in EU." A great example of 'fun' hunting rather than skill hunting is Rex’s famous 12-man Opalo hunts. “My favourite is hunting in a 12 person Opalo team with FAP 5's and see what we can take down,” says Rex.
I have been lucky enough to join Rex on a couple of these hunts about a year ago and actually took down my first Falxangius wearing OJ’s and sporting my trusty Opalo. This was great fun, as well as being incredibly economical. I was mingling with some serious ubers, but we were all the same - the bottom line is, uber or not, if you run at a Falxangius wearing bright orange and shooting them with a peashooter you die!

Rex has recently become a pilot, starting a new chapter in his Entropia career. Unlike the majority of pilots, he has adopted the somewhat controversial approach of not adhering to the fixed prices some pilots have agreed to. “Basically it comes down to this: back when CND was still fresh I heard about how much it cost to actually fly people and how they wanted to make loads of money even though just owning the ship and letting it sit there was making money with how the hangers went from about 30k PED to 100K PED. I said to myself if I ever get a ATH I'm buying a Hangar and changing things. I want to help people out to get there cheaper. When a generous benefactor gave me the chance I took it. So now I'm just sticking to what I said before and not making myself a Liar. The best part is even if I'm not actually flying, as long as people are flying for less I still have accomplished my goal.”

Rex has been active on Entropia Forum since February 2005 and Onica since May 2005, but as she explains “I don’t have much time for forums with my busy real life. So Rex just keeps me up-to-date.” In game Rex is a social creature, “I hang out a lot in Control room and Twin Peaks with Piloting but I still keep in touch with the guys in 'nothing AND nowhere', old disciples, and all the regular society people and a lot of others, too many to number. I try to be friends with everyone.”

Rex and Onica were keen supporters of the Entropian magazine, and were actually featured in an article in the first (and only) issue. “We were really excited when we got asked for the interview for the Entropian article on Couples that Play EU. It made it really worthwhile to go buy it. It's great being able to share EU with Onica and have someone at home always to talk about stuff with.” Both Rex and Onica entered the avatar look-a-like competition, and Onica said of it, “Even though we lost we still had a lot of fun hunting for clothes for it together.” In fact, the hats from the competition can be seen in the real-world photo of the couple at the top of this article.

One thing is for sure, these two dedicated and fun-loving Entropians will be around for a long time yet. Rex still has yet to get a HOF after 4 years of playing, and he's not quitting until he gets one!!

[Danoclese]

Well done! Really nice article about a really nice couple

[MindStar9]

Very well done Pinky ... it was a perfect choice!

[Burgerman]

Originally Posted by Danoclese

Well done! Really nice article about a really nice couple

I second this.

Well done Pinky, and keep up the good work Rex & Onica. People like this enrich EU, and make it a more enjoyable place for us all.

[maxwellhawk]

Grats to Rex and Onica - from nAn

[Francis Drake D]

HuuHuuu... nice to meet u

Nice article, gratz.

[Scorpion]

Very nice Pinky, I am still loving these whos who articles.

[vala]

very nice choice, they may not be uber in skills, but they are uber in personality.

[Nea]

nice article gl, Rex and Onica

[Violet]

I dont think ive met Onica ingame, but ive got to know Rex over the time ive been playing. He is one of the coolest people ingame, and always enjoy chatting with him. Ofcourse he is one of the first on my list when im looking for a flight to/from CND.