Once upon a time there lived a magical hedgehog named Saltford William, and he had a fine little magical house under a hedge in Slough. Every day he would log on to the internet with his magical Agony Machine and explain to people that yes, he lived in a town named Slough. Yes, the word “slough” basically means swamp, and while the town is in the Thames valley he doesn’t know why anyone would accept that as the name of their home. But people did. People were all right with the name “Slough” as a place to live. Yes, he agreed that that probably meant that these people had given up on life.
At this point, Saltford William would have to engage with cruel, hateful people whose apparent only joy in life was being angry about things and creating fictional villains in their heads to rail against, and Saltford William would have to talk with all of them. By the time he was done he would realize that yet again, him being a magical talking hedgehog didn’t even come up in discussions. Hedgehogs don’t even live that long! Saltford William hates the internet and he hates Slough.
- Saltford William meets a Mormon porcupine who wants to “just ask questions” about value-added tax.
- Saltford William has a dispute with his neighbor, a rather unpleasant and non-magical pike from a nearby lake who can still talk despite not being magic.
- The attempts of Saltford William to mail a letter asking for better groundskeeping in public parks to his local MP.
- Saltford William works on his biography of Don Bradman.
Bonus question: What’s the most inadvisable decorative item you still own?
Andy McAdams: I’ve been bouncing back and forth between World of Warcraft and Diablo IV, so I guess all Blizzard? They’ve been doing good things lately, so might as well reward them a bit, I suppose.
Bonus Question: Uh, I don’t think I have any inadvisable decorative items. Maybe a few doofy knives from Toledo packed in a box somewhere?
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna.bsky.social, blog): I’ve been playing Star Wars Galaxies Legends again – didn’t mean to fall back into it, but I did over the holidays, and I’m still enjoying it. It’s a good comfort MMO for me and probably always will be. I’ll probably dip into Guild Wars 2 this weekend too.
I have a stealth Star Wars poster in my living room. Normally I’d say that’s a bit gauche, especially for my decorating vibe, but it blends in so well as art that nobody has ever noticed it, which makes me giggle.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes.bsky.social, blog): I’m sort of coasting through the backlog to kind of find games to revisit, though I will likely continue to return to stalwarts like Final Fantasy XIV and a bit more Marvel Rivals. I’m sort of in a grazing mood right now, honestly.
The goofiest decorative item I have is this little tabletop neon flamingo light. It doesn’t work. It’s covered in dust. It’s not even sitting in a particularly good place to be seen. But I also can’t bring myself to get rid of it.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): There’s maintenance to be done in FFXIV and there’s always more stuff to be done in Warframe as I continue my lightspeed advancement through the game. I just finished unlocking one of the more annoying frames in the game, or the blueprints, at least; now it’s time to set them to build and play the waiting game. Which, yes, sucks compared to Hungry Hungry Hippos.
I try to purge myself of things I would consider inadvisable decorations, but my definition of “advisable decorations” includes a whole lot of shelves of Transformers, so make of that what you will. That having been said, I should probably not have my Rowsdower plush from WildStar displayed quite so prominently.
Sam Kash (@samkash@mastodon.social): I have an unexpected end of year party to attend so I’m losing one of my game nights! Still, my wife and I are in the Fleshmancer’s Castle so we are queued up to complete Sea of Stars. We got all the final weapon quests complete but I don’t think we have the drive to get all the conches. Hopefully this leaves a Throne and Liberty sized hole in the schedule soon.
Bonus: I still have an old Corona beer wall clock. It used to be my quick, easy go to beer for several years. It’s very college dorm-chic.
Tyler Edwards (blog): In theory, if nothing else goes wrong, I will be doing the second of two playtests of my latest TTRPG project. This test was supposed to happen in October, but… uh… a lot of stuff happened. On the video game front, I finished the main story in The First Descendant, so now I’m pushing into endgame, and I’ll start leveling up the delightful Himbo McBurnyBoi known as Blair.
Bonus: Depends on how you consider inadvisable. It’s probably a bit silly that I still prominently display my quiver and arrows despite the fact I haven’t practiced archery on a regular basis for nearly twenty years.
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!
