Games like Pokémon, Super Smash Bros, and League of Legends have intense competitive scenes with their own high-profile tournaments and strategic metagames, but there’s no reason that you have to pay attention to that. Characters like Sally and the highest leveled player Payne, who clearly do care about min-maxing their stats and paying close attention to the newest updates, could probably trounce Maple in a battle of pure skill. However, Maple isn’t getting anything less out of her gaming experience than they are, and Sally is quick to acknowledge that. If you’ve ever been made fun of for not EV training your Pokémon or learning how to wave dash in Super Smash Bros. Melée, just remember that you’re enjoying the game the way you want to.

Many of us have made some of our best friends through playing online games together, and Maple’s story is no different. She goes up to random users and chats them up about the game, surprising the veterans with her innocent charm and honest desire for human connection. By the time she and Sally secure a guild house, their entourage has grown to include half a dozen people who probably would never have met each other otherwise. Maple also showers her virtual pet turtle Syrup with affection, grinding up its skill levels so she can turn it into a gigantic flying mount just because she wanted to help it achieve its dreams. Some of the most memorable parts of games can come from genuinely caring about the fictional characters involved, as well as meeting other real players and forming lasting relationships with them.

New World Online is a very obviously broken game, since the developers didn’t account for unorthodox users like Maple completely going against what most players would do. They’ve had to introduce patches to nerf Maple’s abilities, especially after she passively destroyed every player who faced her in the first server-wide event. Broken and buggy games aren’t what developers want to present to their userbase, but they can be hilarious to play and can make newbies like Maple into accidental powerhouses for straying off of the intended path. If you ever get frustrated with an online game for having wildly unbalanced combat or bugging out at inopportune moments, perhaps try thinking of the situation as a comical fluke that could never happen in a more polished game. It may not be fair, but it’s certainly funny.