Ryan Neibler (44) of Oceanside, Long Island: It was very important that I text my best friend a list of wombat facts I had just learned and my phone was in my backpack. Getting it out would have been too difficult. That doesn’t really justify me saying I was the cell phone police, hanging up on your mother as I pulled the phone from your hands, but I only looked through your private pictures for like half an hour afterwards.
Mary Oswald (31) of Oakland, CA: Your lock screen was dumb so I threw it on some train tracks. The lock screen, I mean. The rest of the phone went with it.
Father Lorenzo Martinez (53) of Moosehead, ME: I actually am part of the cell phone police and recognized your cellular phone as notorious shapeshifting phone criminal Pedro El Cruel who intended to steal all of the yams you had in your house. That doesn’t really justify me saying that I needed to text my best friend wombat facts.
Carol Hapsburg (67) of Paris, TX: I thought you were a robot from the planet Brabso and so you’d be cool with using your phone to answer What Are You Playing. Planet Brabso knows what’s up. I know this because I too have radar.
Bonus question: Do you tend to take naps, and if so, how often?
Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): I’ve entered the “end game” for Animal Crossing New Horizons and have started major terraforming construction on my town to try to understand the limits of this thing… and to recreate certain feelings/towns from Asheron’s Call for double AC action. Pokemon Go will see some play too, mostly passively as I try to make sure I get out of the house instead of staying glued to my butt.
I don’t usually take naps, though I probably should. Most of the time it’s 15-20 minutes, but I know there have been times where I’ve been so exhausted that I’ve slept through alarms.
Andy McAdams: I’ve been particularly non-committal to any particular game outside of Animal Crossing lately. So, I’ll probably play some Final Fantasy XIV, Surviving Mars, and I’m going to pick up Elite Dangerous again and see if its any less grindy than before. I also might pick up anything else that catches my fancy.
Naps: If I take a nap its late afternoon/early evening. I never nap for more than 30-40 minutes. I have to stick in that timeframe generally. If I sleep too long, I wake up more tired and grumpy to boot. After 30-40 minutes of light dozing, I wake up a little bit more energized.
Ben Griggs (@braxwolf): I’ll likely be wandering around in No Man’s Sky a little bit as I’ve recently picked it back up. Looks like my last save was in 2018, so it’s been longer than I thought! Also, a little World of Warships. I’ve just unlocked the Baltimore (T8 American cruiser) and am bound and determined to not be a detriment to my team in her. Only way to so that is to…be a detriment to my team until I can learn how to play her!
I used to not be able to sleep during the day at all. Ever since I hit about 35, it hasn’t been much of an issue. I don’t know if it is my age or having four busy kids, but I can now fairly easily “rest my eyes” on any given afternoon. So much so, that I remember one year my wife asked me what I wanted to do on our summer vacation. The very first thing that came to mind: take a nap!
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): I’ll be in my usual haunts – leveling some toons in City of Heroes, working on some droids in Star Wars Galaxies Legends. They are nice, comfy, low-stress diversions right now, and I make no apologies for indulging.
I never nap unless I’m sick – it’s one of the ways I know I’m sick enough to need the rest, since otherwise I would never be able to fall asleep in the middle of the day. Plus, I stick to a pretty strict sleep schedule to keep the insomnia at bay. Napping wrecks that!
Carlo Lacsina (@UltraMudkipEX): For some reason I started doing the new extreme trial on FFXIV and now I’m invested. I’ll probably be spending the next few days clearing that fight. Other than that, it’ll be the Final Fantasy VII Remake! The game is really pretty, and I’m totally with team Jessie now.
Bonus question: back in the “before times” when we could go out to party, my wife and I took “disco naps” so we’d have the energy to stay up past 10 pm. Recently I haven’t been napping though, but I prefer it that way. I’m not a huge fan of sleeping and the day we invent a device that allows us to skip sleep like in Chrono Trigger, you can count on me to be first in line to buy it.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog): This weekend is pretty much like the last several; Animal Crossing New Horizons stuff, events with the guildmates in Final Fantasy XIV, and I’ve got the itch to peer both in to City of Heroes Homecoming and No Man’s Sky. I also picked up and want to try The Procession to Cavalry, which looks like a point-and-click adventure game done in the style of Monty Python’s animated segments. Should be a goofy good time, which is pretty much what I need right now.
I don’t nap terribly often unless I’m not feeling well or I didn’t have a really good night’s rest. When I do nap, it’s not terribly often – one or two hours, tops. I’m not a napper.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): Still plugging away at my many, many projects in FFXIV, and I also caved and wound up getting FFVII Remake which I hadn’t originally been planning on. The reviews were good enough! Beyond that, I really don’t know, although part of me feels like I should take advantage of World of Warcraft’s experience boost.
I can’t nap unless I’m sick. Which is a shame; sometimes I could really use it, but alas.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): I’ve been going through 1993’s Space Quest V for the very first time, so obviously I’m on the cutting edge of entertainment. I’m dabbling with a new Captain in Lord of the Rings Online and working to uncover the ups and downs of Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire’s maps. Grinding mount masteries is a pain!
Mia DeSanzo (@neschria): My son picked up No Man’s Sky, so I will be jumping into his game off and on. Other than that, I have no idea. It has taken me a few minutes to get started every time I sit down to game because I have a wide variety to choose from and I am just feeling pretty meh about everything. I am still playing Revelation Online and I am still playing Black Desert. I have been thinking about playing Tree of Savior again. I may just pack it in and spend the weekend drawing or crocheting in front of the TV, watching whatever the kids want.
I love naps. They don’t really interfere with my ability to sleep at night (or any other time I stop moving for more than 10 minutes). Waking up from naps is weird though. I just woke up from one a little while ago and my first thought was, “Does being a cyborg affect Robocop’s ability to get promotions and raises?” (I have no idea where that came from, but the answer is definitely yes.)
Samon Kashani (@thesamkash): Couple of interesting betas have caught my attention, Fractured and Starborne. Since Starborne is an RTS with long times to complete take, it leaves you enough time to play another game too.
Naps? Ain’t nobody got time for that. If I somehow have the time available for a nap, I’ll just drink some coffee and find a game to play.
Tyler Edwards: I recently picked up We Happy Few on a Steam sale, so that’s looking like the most likely contender right now. Not really sure what to expect from it, but the premise sounds like the kind of creepy I’d enjoy. I might also poke around Wolcen some more. My poison-based necromancer has morphed into an elementalist necromancer, and it’s so much fun. While my pets distract the enemy, I can hang in the back and light everything on fire. It’s wonderful.
Bonus question: No, not at all. I have always struggled with getting to sleep. I’m lucky if I manage six or seven hours in a night, and sleeping during the day is just not going to happen. Even when I was a very small child, my parents quickly gave up on trying to get me to nap because it was simply a lost cause.
Pierre, patron: The Last of Us: I’m closing to the end. I really enjoy the last third of the game, where action and combat is less prevalent than before, and a lot of narrative takes place, a lot of bonding between the main characters and a lot of very emotional scenes. I love it. If you have a PS4 and never played this fantastic video game, please do me a favor and try it. And as with many other people in the world, this weekend will be dedicated to Final Fantasy VII Remake. FFVII is my favorite RPG of all times, the first Final Fantasy I ever played and what a game too. So basically, this weekend, I’m extremely lucky as I will play my two favorite games ever, the top of my own video game podium; it’s going to be a memorable weekend. Sorry MMOs, no time for you this weekend, but The Elder Scrolls Online will be back sooner than later in the near future.
Bonus question: I never take naps, except for when sports exhaust me so much that I fall asleep on my couch in a Sunday afternoon. I’m a runner, and I run marathons. Marathon training involves very tiring sessions, long ones (1.5-2 hours) every week, often on Sundays because there’s more time available, and interval training once a week. This one is my weekly nightmare, but so efficient to run faster. After these sessions, I’m often so exhausted that I end up falling asleep on my couch and taking a forced nap to recover. Otherwise, I don’t really feel the need to take naps, and if I take one, I know I will feel dizzy and uncomfortable for a while after waking up. So, it’s not really my cup of tea.
As for you MOP readers, what’s your weekend gaming program to relax in these stressful times?
Every Saturday, join the Massively OP community and staff for What Are You Playing, our roundup of what MMORPGs and other games we’re hoping to play this weekend (with a bonus question or two for our amusement). Tell us what you’re up to! Go off-topic! And don’t forget to have fun!
