When you construct your buildings out of pixels and polygons, you don’t necessarily have to worry about what’s physically possible and what isn’t, just what looks interesting and believable. I always check out the structures that developers come up with because there are always artistic architectural details that often go unnoticed.
Reader Zepheera saw something special in this Dungeons and Dragons Online view: “I’ve always loved the way the enchanted pylons float under the harbor inn. It’s subtle magic; there’s practicality, though it’s more for effect and might escape someone’s notice the first time. It makes me think if I could really be a wizard, I might go into city planning.”
Wizard city planners. That’d be awesome.
“I probably spend more time killing mobs to get a good view for screenshots than I do actually playing, so much of my time in The Secret World is spent marvelling at the scenery,” reader Wild writes. “Here’s a great shot of unrest in Egypt, probably spurred on by the traitorous full moon. I had just arrived from New England, and this new landscape was both suddenly alien and utterly beautiful. Even the bloodshed.”
Ralph the Wonder Llama has this trip down memory lane for us: “One thing I’ve always appreciated about Guild Wars is how it made maximum use of the PvE content in the game. No matter how far you got, there were always reasons to go back and revisit old missions. So after finishing the Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall campaigns in Guild Wars, I turned my attention to some of the spiffy titles I could earn for my characters. In this screenshot, my party had just completed the bonus mission for Hell’s Precipice, earning me the ‘Protector of Tyria’ title. Astute readers will note the Factions armor on my Warrior and the Nightfall heroes in the party. Yes, it had been a while since I last visited my old stomping grounds. But it was still just as challenging as I remember!”
Giant snowglobes always demand an explanation. This one is no different.
“This one is of a piece of an EverQuest II housing decoration that is earned from one of the main adventuring quests in the Altar of Malice expansion,” submits reader Ohnix. “It is a fully animated globe that has ships, sea serpent, storms, base and even the compass (on top) rotating at different rates. I have it placed on the dock in one of my characters’ personal island housing areas. The housing objects are scalable, but at normal scale, it is about the height of two tall humans.”
A while back I asked for readers to submit something… ugly. Boy howdy, did Camelotcrusade answer that call with this week’s It Came from the Comments! pick.
“Ugly, huh?” he wrote. “It’s been years, but I remember this EQII instance where you have to run from a tunneling monster that devours you if you’re too slow. Said monster turned out to be a naked mole rat, and I made it my business to possess it and turn it into my pet. I had to be very fast to possess it before it ran off the cliff at the end of the chase, not to mention have enough lead time to avoid being eaten. Eventually I succeeded, and to my surprise it didn’t retain its size when converted to my pet. I don’t have a character in the pic for scale, but it was roughly cat-sized. But is it ugly, or beautiful, or both? The ground texture, now that’s ugly.”
I think that’s my new avatar.
So for this week’s screenshot challenge, send in a picture of you and your mount doing something reckless and crazy. I don’t think I need to give you any specific instructions here; you’re all quite bright. Get it done!
Every week, One Shots shines a spotlight on the best community screenshots from your MMO adventures. If you have a great pic to share, email it to justin@massivelyop.com with the subject “One Shots.” Make sure that the picture is over 880px wide and comes with a description or story!
