Westland Comma: Less known than its, cousin, from Oxford, this comma, is, placed, in odd locations, to, make, your, sentences read like, Jeff Goldblum, was, particularly drunk and, narrating, your writing.
Culver City Quotation: Used to “emphasize” certain words instead of “typeface editing” even though using it for emphasis actually makes you look like a “total dingus.”
Port Albert Period: I just don’t know, you guys. I don’t know any more. You know, I thought that it would be funny to make a whole thing about how you use different punctuation marks? I feel strongly about the Oxford comma. Seems funny, right? But now I
Cumberland Underscore: Wait. What just happened there? I didn’t type that. I was in the middle of a sentence.
Fort Worth Ampersand: Oh no, it’s finally happened. All right, nobody panic, but I think the nonsense I’ve fed into What Are You Playing over the years has metastasized and it’s reached critical mass. The consequences could be catastrophic, hypothetically, if this column mattered even a little bit, but it should be fine if we just
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Bonus question: Do you like to travel?
​Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): Probably not a lot, as I somehow have avoided COVID multiple times only to get strep, bleh. What’s worse is that what I want to play is the new Orna beta build that includes pedometer play. The new features seem interesting, but since I can’t move too much, maybe just a little Splatoon 3.
Man, I used to do some geek travel articles for another website years ago while living in Japan! I love travel, but honestly, I hate most tour groups, as the insulated group seems to forget they’re also ambassadors and they tend to act poorly. I tend to grab a local, learn the language a bit, and go off the beaten path. Some of my best life experiences occurred because of travel (and yes, also via online games, because I’m weird like that).
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): Been playing Lord of the Rings Online, and I even got my husband to play with me again, so we’ll be plodding through Moria – goal is to finish all that and get him to zones he’s never seen except on my screen!
Used to travel a lot – roadtrips were my jam – and I know I’m lucky to have seen as much of the country as I have. Less “fun” traveling since having kids, and less still since the pandemic.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog): I think my weekend will primarily involve trying out Battlebit Remastered and continuing to play through the World Tour mode of Street Fighter 6. Yeah, that seems like a good thought.
I wish I could say for sure if I like travel or not because I have never traveled for leisure. Ever. The only reason I have shifted over great distances is because I had to move, which is less like travel and more like spectacularly disruptive.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): Am I playing Final Fantasy XVI? Of course I am. Will I be playing Final Fantasy XIV? Of course I will. Will I probably still find some time to spend a lot of time on other weird things? Of course!
Generally I’m not really fond of travel. I’ll do it if I have a compelling reason, but a combination of anxiety, being poor for most of my life, and the simple reality that I already have a place filled with all the stuff I like (it’s called “my home”) means that I’m kind of goal-oriented when it comes to travel. If you want me to travel somewhere and not see it as fundamentally a means to an end, you should have let me bring my cats.
Alexander Metcalf, patron: Albion Online continues to be my main game and I’m still having fun. I’m getting better at avoiding ganks and smarter about where to gather resources and fight open-world mobs. My guild – which I joined to just have a guild tag on my character and seem less like a lone-wolf target (and which probably doesn’t matter anyway) – is completely dead so I think the next step is to start seriously looking for a larger guild for guidance on how to play around with some of the builds I have access to for more combat. Or I just pick Genshin Impact back up and let my mind melt into a mushy blob of anime-induced endorphins.
Bonus: Travel? Oh dear. So for a time I was married to a German woman while also having a job that required me to travel to Europe about six to eight times a year. Throw in a few more years of professional international travel to various parts of the globe and I was a semi-regular in airports, hotels and the like. But now… I’m kind of traveled out, honestly. Fate, it would seem, disagrees. Since I moved to be closer to my family over five years ago I haven’t been anywhere more than a two-hour car ride away, and yet in two weeks I have to be on a plane to Korea for a long work trip (the first of several to Asia) which has me all anxious about hitting the road again. Conclusion: I think I still like the idea of travel but I’m past the point of liking actual travel.
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!
