The assignment: A seven-page essay using modern literary frameworks to analyze Beowulf that demonstrates an understanding of the failures of modern frameworks to account for stories using a different cultural paradigm.
You turned in: An envelope of live bees.
The assignment: A summary of a single short story read online chosen from a selection provided on the course site by a number of notable women working in science fiction since 1960.
You turned in: An envelope of dead bees.
The assignment: A proposal for a science fiction series in the style of a 1970s television series followed by a hypothetical retrospective of the series and how its pattern of address for societal issues in the time period would be looked at today.
You turned in: A seven-page essay in which you explain why Beowulf, the character, ate bees and how the story should have included a scene in which Beowulf shouted “IT’S BEE TIME” and spat a hundred bees into Grendel’s face. You also included seven drawings of this scene and a diagram of Beowulf’s trained “bee pouch” in his stomach.
The assignment: Four words in sequence.
You turned in: Yet another What Are You Playing about bees.
Bonus question: What’s a generally poorly received game that you think is really good? Not necessarily an MMO, and not “this is definitely a bad game but I appreciate what it was trying to do.” Reviews are negative but you think it is, in fact, unfairly judged.
​Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): It’s a new season and Big Run in Splatoon 3, so I plan to hit that hard, in addition to my exercise games.
For living MMOs that don’t have private servers, I still feel like for people who don’t need fantastic combat, Istaria is a good MMO. Sad it doesn’t get the updates it did from the first year or so, but tons of races, good home building (like, literally choosing floors, walls, and pillars), lore that actually addresses undeath in player characters… it’s all very good for roleplayers. Also RIFT, mostly for opposite reasons: it still has some of the coolest classes (it’s hard to beat Guild Wars 2), even if I didn’t see any RP and the races were a bit bland. The housing was still good though. Just… also not cared for at the moment. Yeesh, maybe I should stop liking things!
Andy McAdams: I have no idea where my gaming travels will take me this weekend. World of Warcraft is good for about 60 minutes a day before I get bored and start to wander away. Rimworld is always an option, or maybe continue Subnautica: Below Zero? Lots of possibilities this weekend.
Bonus Question: Hrm, the one that jumps to mind is a super old game, Lords of Magic from Sierra. I played the crap out of that game, despite the fact that it was kind of a buggy, unbalanced mess. But I was pretty kickass at playing the Life nation. Other than that, nothing especially jumps out as “terrible game that I enjoyed,” but I like lots of weird things, so there’s bound to be gobs more.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): Ug, I’m gonna be super busy this weekend – one of my kid’s has a Thing that’s gonna keep us out – but I need to slip into Lord of the Rings Online and I want to get into a thing nobody’s allowed to talk about (haven’t signed an NDA, but studios be clownin’), and also I have No Man’s Sky sitting on my desktop judging me.
I really loved Diablo III in spite of all the hate for it.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog): It’s looking like more offline Monster Hunter Rise primarily for me as I’ve opened the rabbit hole of Qurious Crafting, but I also plan to continue peering in to Destiny 2, try some potential alt leveling in Final Fantasy XIV, and maybe a bit more City of Heroes: Homecoming.
I definitely think Anthem was very harshly treated. It was fun enough in terms of its combat, and while its storyline did seem to be a bit too vague, I was still curious to find out more. But then I contend my love for robots and robot suits probably color my opinion quite a bit. I just miss running my shield through a group of baddies in my big, pink juggernaut suit.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): Probably some FFXIV and a bunch of single-player stuff; there are some new games out that are tempting me. Relaxing weekend at last!
So Mega Man 7 really doesn’t get treated fairly; it’s not as revolutionary as Mega Man X was, but it’s actually a really fun game that tries to move the classic series formula forward in a way that resembles its ostensible sequel without copying it. I’ll definitely take that over games aping the NES versions for no reason, and it’s the last time the series was really good until Mega Man 11.
Sam Kash (@thesamkash): I’m looking around for something to play right now. I was planning on another card game I can play that is passive enough to also play Mortal Online 2. I’ve almost played it enough to start to play it proper, maybe.
Bonus: there’s so many good games out there that I don’t really give the ones that are poorly reviewed the time. I can’t think of anything!
Tyler Edwards (blog): I’ve got a D&D session, and I continue to replay the storyline in Anthem.
Bonus question: Like… most of my favorite games. The Secret World. Dungeon Siege III. Anthem (obviously). Remember Me. My favorite Mass Effect games (by far) are Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect: Andromeda. Then there’s a whole bunch of favorites that aren’t quite universally panned but which are deeply controversial and have very vocal critics – New World, Diablo III, StarCraft II, Wrath of the Lich King, Mists of Pandaria, Landmark.
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!
