All right, we know you’ve all been waiting to see how we’re going to resolve the story going on here, What Are You Playing readers. We went from Eliot coming up with a new serious version of the column to Eliot disappearing, then we completely failed at our first two strategies to replace Eliot in a way that kept the continuity of presentation going. We’ve had to work on this for a long time, and we’re sure you’re all waiting for the thrilling conclusion that will no doubt end the storyline in a satisfying and engaging way.
Well, good news!
We’ve fixed this problem with the help of
Bonus question: What’s the dumbest award snub you’ve seen that isn’t related to video games? (Could be incredibly obscure, just not video games.)
Andy McAdams: I will probably be just playing World of Warcraft and putzing through The War Within. It’s weird to have hit 80 in the second zone without really trying. I think I would have liked a little bit of a slower burn on the level, but this is WoW so I guess I’ll take the “vaguely unsatisfying” narrow experience as a monumental win for Blizzard.
After the Crowdstrike Incident this year, the company got awarded the “Most Epic Fail” at the Pwnie Awards. It was a giant trophy of a barfing unicorn.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna.bsky.social, blog): It’s awards weekend here at the MOP offices, so I will probably be working the whole time, but I might steal a few minutes to get in my Guild Wars 2 dailies! I also picked up Path of Exile 2, but I probably won’t have time to dig in too far.
I don’t usually follow awards for things like books and movies and music, so to answer this question, I googled for lists of the greatest Oscar snubs of all time. And thanks a lot Eliot because I am now extremely pissed off. Holy hell I forgot they snubbed Denzel for Malcom X. I forgot Saving Private Ryan lost to Shakespeare in Love. My god, even the first Star Wars got snubbed. Damn. Thanks for reminding me why I don’t follow this stuff!
Addendum: Howard Shore not even being nominated for The Two Towers score is bullshit lol.
Carlo Lacsina (@UltraMudkipEX, YouTube, Twitch): I really want to fight someone, so I’ll probably be playing some Street Fighter 6. A friend that recently passed away was a fan of fighting games, so I play these games now in his memory.
As for a strange award, I guess it would have to be the “Tireless Teacher” award where the teacher literally gets a tire. They display the tire in their classroom for a month. Never got it (they gave it out at another school), but I always wanted to get it.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes.bsky.social, blog): Palworld has set its hooks in to me outta nowhere, so that is probably going to continue being the thing that makes hours disappear. I’m also going to be taking peeks back into Dauntless to see what this latest update is bringing on, and there’s likely going to be some Red Dead Online with the family at least a couple of points in-between there.
I’m going to be real, I do not pay attention to awards of any sort, so I can’t actively speak about what’s a snub and what isn’t. Unless you want to count Shawn Michaels stealing the belt from Brett Hart in Montreal 1997. That fits, right?
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): I’ve just about finished most of my big post-patch tasks in Final Fantasy XIV… just a bit ahead of new custom deliveries adding another weekly objective to chase. Ah, c’est la vie. Also still playing through some older titles in the series and I’ve got a new book to read. That’s all something.
The Academy Awards are freaking garbage and I was going to call that out, but Bree already did and I don’t just want to add to the existing pile-on… so instead I’m going to note that BoJack Horseman never won an Emmy. In other words, big awards shows just suck.
Sam Kash (@samkash@mastodon.social): I’ll be playing more Sea of Stars. It’s a big NCAA football weekend. Champion games are up and I’m excited. So Saturday is going to be all football all day.
Bonus: I don’t really pay much attention to awards. I think I’ll vote for my kids art contest last year. She drew an incredibly great depiction of the “looking forward to the future” prompt and she got nothing! Total snub.
Tyler Edwards (blog): Depending on when my new computer arrives, I might end up spending more time downloading games than playing them, but otherwise probably more New World and Age of Empires 4. Maybe some Heroes of the Storm on the side.
Bonus question: Sean Astin not getting an Oscar for his performance in Return of the King was the death my ability to ever take those things seriously again.
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!
