I, Eliot Lefebvre, being exceedingly depressed for so many very valid reasons and a couple of wholly speculative ones which sort of torpedoes “sound mind” and generally having a body that’s anything but sound, put this forth as my final wishes for how What Are You Playing will be operated from this point forward.
FOR ALL FUTURE OPENINGS: At least one line must mention that I died saving Optimus Prime by having a martial arts fight with a helicopter. Or a sword fight. Whichever sounds cooler.
TO HISSIN’ JENNY, THE BITEY SNAKE: I leave exactly one set of binary-encoded WRUP entries I never used when I did that story arc wherein everything was in binary. She’ll know what to do with it.
TO MY CATS: I am going to force someone to come in, feed them, and tell them to shut up. Also, you’ll have to pay for their apartment. So it’s going to be somebody I dislike on staff. You can’t say no.
TO REGINALD, THE BIRD: I leave a copy of the secret rhyme book by the late rapper Keith Edward Elam, better known by his stage name Guru. The book is titled “Beats For Freaks” and is the secret to my minty-fresh flow. Respect.
TO HISSIN’ JENNY, THE BITEY SNAKE, SORRY I FORGOT BUT MY UP ARROW IS BROKEN: I also leave you $10 million. You’re the cutest snake! Ow, stop biting me.
Bonus question: What show was cut short (cancelled after one or two seasons) that you wish had kept going?
Andy McAdams: Very likely World of Warcraft, City of Heroes for obvious reasons, and maybe even some Guild Wars 2. Doing the the world events in WoW brought back the fun memories of the world boss trains in GW2.
Bonus Question: Pretty much any show I liked on Netlifx? So like The OA and Daybreaker
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): So I have some cleanup to do in Star Wars Galaxies Legends this weekend, but after that, yeah I’ll be in City of Heroes. Where else?
Everyone’s gonna say Firefly, but I actually didn’t watch it when it first ran and didn’t think much of it until years later when it finally clicked for me. I guess I’m obligated to say Farscape, whose abruptly canceled final season ended on an insane cliffhanger, but 1) it got a (terrible) movie and 2) honestly I would’ve canceled it too. Seasons 1-3 were incredible sci-fi TV in their day, but season 4 is embarrassing. And hey, who’s with me on still being grumpy that Game of Thrones never got a final season?
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog): Much like the rest of the staff (or at least most of us), I’ll be in City of Heroes Homecoming as I either recreate my very first level 50 character, get stuck into an existing one, or option out some new builds. Either way, it’s nice to be able to let myself sink into this one much, much more. I’ll also likely sprinkle in some Final Fantasy XIV as well and perhaps some Guild Wars 2… but something tells me those plans are nebulous at best.
There was a show called Flashpoint that was basically about a SWAT team (or something like a SWAT team? It wasn’t really clear) that had some genuinely thrilling and nail-biting action in every single episode. That series was a lot of fun. Honorable mentions (that I don’t think fit the bill because they ran longer) would be The Mysteries of Laura (outstanding mix of comedy and cop drama) and Martial Law (yes it was trying to crib off of Rush Hour but Sammo Hung is a great martial artist in his own right).
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): Since this weekend is the fan festival, I’ll of course be playing FFXIV, and otherwise I will… oh who am I kidding, not any of you, all of you know that I’ll be in CoH because of course I will as well. Should be a busy weekend!
There are some great nominations elsewhere in the list (the Willow series was great, 10/10, absolutely a perfect followup to one of my favorite films), but I’m going for a dark horse candidate with Right Now Kapow, an animated sketch comedy show from 2014 that was just ridiculously funny. You wouldn’t necessarily think of it, but go browse some clips on YouTube, then look it up on Amazon if you want to see the whole thing (you have to buy it, but it’s worth it). Absolutely stellar comedy.
I would like to note that despite Bree’s assumption, no one says Firefly, and I think there’s a good reason. The more you hear about what the plans would have been for a second season, and the more times Whedon tried to do more of the series in comic form? The clearer it was that a second season alone would mean no one ever thought about it again. One season and a movie was short, but even if you ignore Whedon being gross, it looked like more would have made it worse.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): I’m sure everyone on staff will be playing City of Heroes for some reason… and probably me as well, because wherever the fishies swim, I swim. But I’m also working on getting through World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s campaigns to unlock normal flying, leveling up my WoW Classic Shaman to 80 in Northrend, and wrapping up the Shield Isles in Lord of the Rings Online.
Sam Kash (@thesamkash): I’ll play what I play every weekend Pinky: Harry Potter Magic Awakened. That won’t be the only thing I play but it’s my MMO. I completed Immortals of Avium last weekend so I began Bramble The Mountain King which is kinda of creepy. It’s a short solo game though so I’m here for it. In the meat space I’ll play some Frosthaven too. I retired to a new class so I’m excited about trying it out.
Bonus: There are so many that I can’t even remember them. I think I’ll put Night Sky from Amazon and Willow from Disney+ out for the masses though. Night Sky actually had Sissy Spacek and JK Simmons and was a cool sci-fi story. Willow was straight up incredible and it’s a true tragedy it was cut down. Most likely viewers wanted the grittiness of GoT but it was true to Willow and just had an amazing sense of silliness that couldn’t have been better.
Tyler Edwards (blog): Likely some combination of Heroes of the Storm and/or New World. Maybe some StarCraft II? Been a few weeks since I last logged in.
Bonus question: Most of my favorite shows have been cancelled before their time. If we’re limiting it to shows cancelled after one or two seasons, the list is shorter, but still significant. I’ll narrow it down to two for you. For a recent one, Warrior Nun. That show was far, far better than it had any right to be with such a ridiculous name and premise. It was better than it needed to be. That show absolutely could have been just Alba Baptista looking cute and punching demons, and it would still have been worth watching, but they’re like, “Nah, let’s also give it a gripping plot, rich character development, spectacular acting, and some of the most beautifully shot fight scenes in all of television.” Absolute travesty it being cancelled, but I can at least take some comfort in the fact season two’s ending was conclusive-ish, so we’re not left hanging mid story-arc. Speaking of shows that were left dangling, though, I still have a major soft spot for Stargate: Universe. I can somewhat understand its unpopularity given its wild divergence in tone from previous Stargate shows and how slow the early episodes are, but if you’re patient it turns into one of the best pieces of science fiction I’ve seen on television. Even with the plot unfinished, I still rewatch it regularly.
Patron Pierre: After being away from home for Christmas to visit family and friends, I have relaunched a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3, definitely the GOTY 2023 for me and for many others. On the MMO front, I have been playing EVE Online again for a few months now, after almost 10 years away from this game. I will probably try to play Remember Me, one of the first games from DontNod, one of my favorite French gamedev studios, as I never finished this beautiful and forgotten (ah ah!) game taking place in a dystopian vision of Paris. The adaptive music composed by Olivier Deriviere is, as always with this talented artist, wonderful.
Bonus question: Fastlane and Terminator: The Chronicles of Sarah Connor are two TV shows I would have liked to know how it goes on. Both ended with cliffhangers (obviously), and I often wonder what could have happened next. It stimulates imagination, but it’s also quite frustrating. Happy New Year MOP readers. What are your first gaming resolution of 2024? I’m curious…
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!
