You touch the thin layer of dust on the dresser. This is reality.
In films, the house is polluted with malevolent spirits beyond time and human understanding. Far easier to deal with. You never realized before how much better it would be to simply contend with creatures of hate and spite, not whatever you find yourself polluted by now. A house filled with something that lives in your head.
But that realization is tainted by an even greater pain. In stories, this is the moment when something bizarre comes into your life. This is where you find the purpose behind your tribulations and you are given a cause and reason. Instead there is nothing. It is the reminder that at the end of the day, if this is a story, you are not the protagonist. You are the background. The justification, the trial, the meaning – all of that is absent. You will suffer, and no one will notice.
You touch the thin layer of dust on the dresser. What are you playing? And as a bonus question: What word or concept have MMOs ruined for you forever?
​Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): It’s gonna be a busy weekend. Thanks, Halloween! When I’m gaming, it’s gonna mostly be Splatoon 3 for Splatfest and POGO, partially since I’ll need to burn calories for sure.
The bonus question is easy: Massive. It used to mean “bigger than huge” to me, but now it’s nuanced, though it mostly makes me think of a ton of people playing a multiplayer game together at the same time. It mostly comes down to old school MMOs and especially sandbox PvP games with player wars actively spreading chaos across zones, but admittedly seeing hundreds of people in a Las Vegas park to fight a virtual whale felt pretty massive. Don’t get me wrong, online lobby games with massive player bases are neat, but seeing everyone everywhere, especially when the servers strain to hold them all is my “massive.” Anything that’s countable seems small by comparison.
Andy McAdams: Honestly probably World of Warcraft as I’m in a bit of a gaming rut, and at least in WoW there are friends to play with instead of just going it completely solo.
Bonus: “Slap in the face” over a decision you don’t like. It’s overused to the point that when I see it in a comment or a forum thread, I eyeroll and immediately ignore the rest of the post.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): I’m super busy this weekend doing fallsy autumny things, so I might pop in to Lord of the Rings Online or SWG Legends, but I doubt it. Actually, I noticed that Garden Galaxy got a small fall update, so I might go mess around in that if I have some downtime between cider donuts and pumpkins. I absolutely adored that game until I ran out of things to do and motivation to invent more.
Bonus: The word “deceit” gets me like every time, wholly because of MMOs. Deceit was one of the major dungeons in Ultima Online, and let me just say that I went a very long time seeing people misspell it as “Deciet,” so now when I see it spelled correctly, my brain still pronounces it deciet and I have to remind myself to type it properly. Arg.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog):Â I’m about at a point when most of my short-term goals in Final Fantasy XIV have been met, so it’s time for me to address a few longer-term ones. Perhaps leveling another job, clearing more old raids, or – heaven forbid – considering further crafting and gathering class progression. Or I’ll just keep playing more New World instead.
MMORPGs have definitely poisoned what is considered “casual” for me, not only in regard to what activities that fall into that bucket but also with how some folks (an admittedly screechingly loud minority) perceive those who play in this manner. Life is too short and time is far too sparse to conflate small amounts of time spent in-game with wider personal cred, and this genre is about cumulative experience anyway, regardless of how much or little is done with that play time.
Sam Kash (@thesamkash): Game time is going to be spotty this weekend. With Halloween and things going on, I imagine I’ll only have a few moments free. I’ll keep playing Harry Potter Magic Awakened as it fills the empty time easily. The Foxhole update has intrigued me, but that’s such a big game it’s a bit daunting to get into.
Bonus: In the original Guild Wars PvP, we always referred to quickly killing a healer, or anyone really, as spiking them down. It was due to one of the Mesmer skills, I think mind spike, being so great at interrupting and damaging a monk. But I don’t think it was a common expression for quick kills in other games, so the mismatch was annoying to explain.
Tyler Edwards (blog):Â I’m currently downloading the Diablo IV trial. I have no idea why. I played plenty of the early game in beta and was merely whelmed. I kind of want to buy it, but even on sale, it’s $70 in my country, and this just isn’t a $70 game. So maybe I’ll play that, but maybe I’ll just go back to playing New World and trying to make my Skullhaven deck work in Eternal.
Bonus question: Broken, predatory, cash grab… There’s so many words gamers have abused into meaninglessness.
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!
