One Shots: Elves have a weeding problem

You may hold Elves in high esteem, but the truth is that they are bonafide slackers. They live forever and can’t even be bothered to keep up with the weeding, so Elves make up some nonsense about communing with nature to cover for it while they binge on Netflix.

BalsBigBrother brings us our first pic of the day, this one from Lord of the Rings Online: “The one is from the High Elf starting instance, with this particular area the last part just before you are thrown out into the ‘real world’ of Middle Earth. Still amazed with how well the SSG folks do with their world building using such an old engine and saddened at times how divorced they often seem to be when it comes to actual player mechanics/fun.”

“This is Blook,” says Mysecretid.

Hi Blook.

“As you can probably tell by looking, Blook is not a quantum physicist.”

I have no idea what an Ogre quantum physicist would look like, so I’ll take your word on that.

“Blook is an NPC companion you can unlock in World of Warcraft for your personal garrison in the Warlords of Draenor expansion. Unfortunately, Blook can’t accompany you off-base on your WoW adventures — all he can do is stomp around the garrison looking large, but he does that bit well. Amusingly, Blook is much, much smaller (maybe seven feet tall?) when you meet him in the wilds of Draenor. It’s only after he joins your garrison that he suddenly becomes baby-kaiju-sized. Maybe it’s what you’re feeding him?”

Camelotcrusade was the next reader who answered the call for screenshots from the first moments in a game: “I didn’t last too long in FFXIV (and this is pre-reboot) so here’s my ‘early hour’ entry. As you can see, he’s got his eyes closed while he waits for blind moogles to finish dressing him. I mean, they’re done, but I don’t blame him for keeping them shut. He looks like Santa ate a wizard on his way out of the leather bar — and decided to keep the earring rather than give it to the little girl who bit him.”

“It feels like an age since I last played an MMO,” said Vexia. “Enjoy the anime-storybook visuals of Twin Saga! There are lots of little details in the environments. One of them is in the running for the Utakata Stamp of Approval. (Yes, I take more than just memey dialogue screenshots in that game!)”

I never got that stamp. One day, I tell myself. One day I’ll get it and be able to go home and face my children with pride instead of shame.

Here’s a mobid thought exercise: If you knew when your favorite MMO was going to be shut down in the future, would you go back in time and play it anyway?

I think Amorey might. “My first hour in Landmark, a game I miss more than words can say,” she wrote.

Envy. It happens, especially in MMOs when we look at others and what they’ve achieved or obtained. This week’s screenshot challenge is to show a picture or two of another player and something cool that they’re wearing, have gotten, or have built.