multiplayingorg

[multiplayingorg]

The Final Episode

| Repost: Originally posted in June 2015

The final episode of Multiplaying has been scheduled for June 19th (FRIDAY). We've switched it from Thursday to a Friday for this special episode because we'd like to make sure we don't rush the evening. We would like to encourage anyone who has ever been on the show, or ever wanted to be on the show, the opportunity to come on and say your farewells, share a memory, say how long you've been listening and what the show has meant to you, or tell us hurry up and end this mess already. To do this, simply email multiplaying@gmail.com your Skype info and be in our live twitch channel at the time of the show (9PM EASTERN). If you're unable to make the live show, you can still record and email us a .wav file to use in the final edited show if you'd like. Hope to see you all in the twitch channel next Friday night!

Adding in the final episode for those that would like to give it a listen:

And that concludes our Throwback Thursday series of Multiplaying posts.

[multiplayingorg]

| Repost: Originally posted by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn in October 2013

Audio Orrator: So I did this and don't know if I should continue.

[multiplayingorg]

Our FFXIV Linkshell: MultiPlaying (on Siren)

| Repost: Originally posted by Shannon "Zelibeli" Hamel on September 5, 2013

The Multiplaying community has decided to create a linkshell for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. We have a few people playing, but due to our casual nature, we don’t think that we have the ability to maintain a successful Free Company. A linkshell allows us to communicate and coordinate some supportive game-play, while at the same time, provides each of us with the freedom to pursue a Free Company that meets our individual gaming needs. If you are over 18 years of age and would like an invite to the Multiplaying linkshell on Siren, please [post a reply with your character name at this link].

A linkshell is one of the social systems in FFXIV:ARR. Linkshells are community groups that act as a persistent chat channel that are created and moderated by the player(s) that create it. Linkshells are not guilds. To join a linkshell, you must first be invited. When you join a linkshell, you will be able to converse with other members through chat regardless of where you are in the game. You can be a member of eight different linkshells.

If you would like to create your own linkshell, you can do so by visiting the Linkshell Distributor in any of the three starting cities.

[multiplayingorg]

FFXIV: Login Achieved!

| Repost: Originally posted by Shannon "Zelibeli" Hamel on August 29, 2013

I wasn’t considering playing Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (FFXIV:ARR), but I kept hearing good things. My husband was in the beta and had a bit of a head-start due to preordering. According to him, it’s a group dependent game that is very holy trinity oriented. Both of those things appeal to me. I want to go to there.

Yesterday, with all the buzz I was reading on twitter and a couple of live feeds on twitch, I decided to cave and get the digital version… only to find that the game is so popular that sales of the digital version had been put on a temporary hold. Well, now I have to have it, right?

I check the list of retailers that are carrying the box version and decide to hit all the ones that were on my way home from work. I cannot remember the last time I bought a game in a store. This was already beginning to be a bit of a quest. Starting with the Walmart closest, I walked to the video game section only to find no copies. There was another patron there and he was looking for the same game and we noticed something. It wasn’t odd that they’d be sold out, but the odd part was that there was no space for them… no blank section on the shelf with the FFXIV:ARR label underneath. I was going to head to the next store, but he suggested we ask the clerks. There were two of them available and neither had any idea what we were talking about. I was wondering why they weren’t checking the computer for a confirmation on their inventory. He was tanking the conversation and I chimed in with supportive “Yes, it just launched, maybe it’s in the back?” comments. They kept shaking us off. Finally the gentleman patron I was now kind of with said that he had checked before he left home and the Walmart website said that they had the game in stock. Crit. One of the clerks walked away and the other decided to go over to the games area with us. At this point, I wanted to leave because I had already been over there and we were facing, at best, a no-loot win, but I’m not the type to ditch a PUG no matter how hopeless things seem. She starts unlocking the PS3 case. I sighed on the inside, in frustration, because we had clearly stated we wanted the PC version… at least, I hope I sighed on the inside… I tend to show everything on my face so I may have been rude. All I could think was, “I’m wasting time… I could be hitting the other stores,” but that’s single-player mentality. We were in the middle of this encounter, so it’s best to see it through.

Just then, patron-extraordinaire notices that the two FFXIV:ARR cases in the PS3 locked area were for PC. I didn’t believe it. There were only two. I checked twice and yes, PC version acquired! Personal rule confirmed: Never leave your group. Sometimes persistence pays off.

Of course, loading and creating was another challenge. I ended up on a Japanese Legendary server at first. My husband, however, has been through head-start and he’s a bit established already. I tried a few times before bed, but his server, Siren, was not accepting new characters.  I decided to keep trying and I set my alarm for 5AM. Sure enough, Siren was available. I created a character on the same server as my husband. Persistence pays off yet again.

I wish I would have friended my PUGmate in Walmart. I’m feeling pretty accomplished. I can’t wait to get some game time in!

[multiplayingorg]

Random Encounter in GW2

| Repost: Originally posted by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn on August 28, 2013

A random encounter I had in GW2 this past weekend.

[multiplayingorg]

EQ Memories

| Repost: Originally posted by Shannon "Zelibeli" Hamel on August 8, 2013

With all the talk of EQNext, I couldn’t help but think back to my early days in EverQuest. I started the game with my boyfriend (now husband) and his sister so we didn’t group much outside of our trio. They were both mages and I was a rogue. Being completely new to MMOs, we quickly developed the worst group tactic ever.

As the rogue, I was the melee damage of the group, so we thought I should pull and run to them. They were wearing lighter armor and I had a knife. They would blast the pulled critter as I ran toward them if I could get it in range before I died… usually a puma, snake, or skellie, as these were our days in East Commonlands. Whenever I did arrive at the group with a mob, they would then switch to their melee attack. See we thought that spells were for ranged combat, and since the mob is close, we should switch to melee combat to be more effective. So here you have a rogue and 2 mages hitting a puma with a dull knife and some basic staves. We died so much… We shouted “Train to tunnel! 2 skellies! Help!” so many times… but it was okay because that was back in the day and there were always people standing around in the tunnel. Remember the tunnel?

I pity the first person we grouped with in the game. She wasn’t paying attention to how we were doing things. She was an enchanter and talking about breaking mezz and other things we didn’t understand at all… At one point she actually stopped all combat, had our characters sit down and she taught us how this all should work. I thought she was absolutely bossy.

[multiplayingorg]

EverQuest Worlds: an EQ mobile app

| Repost: Originally posted by Shannon "Zelibeli" Hamel on August 8, 2013

I first heard about EverQuest Worlds, (also Google Play) a free-to-play game for mobile devices that provides fans with live quests and mini-games to reveal lore, content, and rewards from the EverQuest franchise, when I was watching the streaming SOE Live 2013 announcement of EQNext. I downloaded it immediately.

EveryQuest Worlds, so far, is not so much a game as it is a marketing scavenger hunt. There were 4 quest lines listed at launch and 2 were only for SOE Live attendants (which I was not, but I think it’s cool they had that for the event). The other 2 quest lines were called “A New Beginning” and “Marching Onward”. The quest activities included me liking various EQ Facebook pages, sharing an EQ2 video on Facebook, scanning some logos I simply googled, tweeting about EQ…. you get the idea. I did have to explain to a couple of old EQ friends what I was doing and I’m sure my coworkers who are friended through Facebook thought I lost my mind (I do not post anything like that on Facebook) but they politely ignored the activity.

At the end I was rewarded with ((SPOILERS)) codes for 250 Station Cash for one and an XP Potion for EQ & EQII for the other. The Station Cash code worked fine, but the XP Potion code gave me an error message when I tried to enter it, but perhaps that is because I do not have my EQ and EQII account(s) *linked with my new EQNext identity.

If I had been at SOE Live, I think those quest lines would have been a bit more enjoyable. My assumption is that the 2 quests lines I did were merely a way to get started and we can look forward to more difficult puzzles and quests in the future. Although there’s quite a bit of disappointment that so far we’re merely spamming through social media, there is potential here… but I’ll probably relink it to my dog’s facebook profile before doing any more. That’s probably not what they would like, but that’s the effect, SOE.

[Discussion]

*I have no idea what my old EQ/EQII station information is and it was linked to an old email that is dead and I’m not sure it’s important to figure all that out. I did find an old Shadows of Luclin box, but the discs are missing and I have no idea if that was my copy or my husband’s… frankly, the thought of getting that all straightened out is exhausting. It’s much easier to simply move on with my EQing.

EverQuest Worlds main site: https://www.everquestnext.com/mobile-app

[multiplayingorg]

Dimensions of Rift

| Repost: Originally posted by Maeve on July 29, 2013

In my recent break from all things Guild Wars 2, I’ve been trying out some of my old MMOs that have gone free to play. My most recent stop has been back to Rift. This is a game that I always admired because I thought Trion really had it “right” when it came to listening to its customers. I didn’t really give the game a fair try though. It released while I was pregnant and gave me terrible motion sickness.

Playing it again now, I alarmingly found that it did the same thing with a weird rubber banding issue. A quick search turned up the culprit to be something with the Razer Naga mouse. I replaced the mouse and I can play Rift without needing Dramamine.

I fully admit, one of the main draws back to Rift is player and guild housing. I love this kind of fluff and yet few games tend to include it. I was happy to find that I had enough loyalty points for a free dimension, Faen’s Retreat. And along with it, a starter pack of goodies with which to decorate. I also had enough gems to buy some basic decorations (there are several options for 1 gem only).

One of the things you can do is visit other player’s dimensions if they set them to public. LotRO had a similar set up. It really is amazing to see what other players are able to do with some imagination and building materials. The current #1 dimension on Faeblight (I say that not knowing really if the rankings are game wide or server wide) is Gullik’s “The Witchdoctor’s Grotto”.

I haven’t started exploring the guild houses yet (on a complete side note, CoT does have enough points for a guild house, just FYI). I’m not sure yet how long I’ll stay in Rift. Maybe if I can drag myself away from being a housing tourist, I can decide how much I like to play the game.

[multiplayingorg]

Support the Neverpants Movement!

| Repost: Originally posted by Shannon "Zeli" Hamel on April 18, 2013

…which is actually in direct opposition of another Neverwinter community petition, but who doesn’t enjoy a little friendly rivalry? Ah yes, friendly rivalry and gaming without pants… now that’s a start to a great MMO experience, my friends!

Neverpants

We actively oppose this Neverwinter Online community petition: The Official “We Want Pants” Petition! You can show your support for No Pants Gaming, and take a stand against this senseless pro-pants agenda, by removing and discarding the starter pants your character receives at level 1 on launch day. READ MORE…

So show your support of  No Pants Gaming in Neverwinter and get rid of those pesky pants right at level one!

And yes, you can put pants on when you get something worth the stats.

[multiplayingorg]

Your Princess is in Another Castle!

| Repost: Originally posted by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn on December 20, 2012

This space has gone without updates for…. a while now. I’m sure you’ve come to terms with the idea that Multiplaying, as a blog and podcast, is pretty well dead. I’ve considered my time with this site just like a relationship. But, like any relationship, eventually it ends. Unfortunately I’ve let the idea go on for too long that I would come back and start podcasting or blogging here again. Almost like getting back with an ex. While it could be fun, it’s probably not a great idea. Real life, for me, has been stressful for the past few months and updating this site was beginning to feel like work. It’s best just to move on.

So that’s what I’m doing. But before time gets away from me completely, I thought it best (okay, Zeli thought it best and told me) to write a “final” post for the site. The good news is, if you still want to see and hear what I’m doing on the internet, I have been working on some other stuff. For a while now I’ve wanted to get back into blogging, but I wanted to do something different. So, I’ve got a couple tumblr sites going. One was created during a discussion I had one night with Zeli and Abb about horrible looking MMO characters. So, I made wtfMMOcharacters. The other is a faux newspaper blog set in the world of Tyria, called The Orr Orator. It’s something different and I’m enjoying it quite a lot.

If you miss the podcast (especially if you’ve been around since the CoTcast days), I have some good news. While it’s not multi-game show, Zeli started up a new cast for our guild in Guild Wars 2, RavenKast. Check it out!

I loved working on Multiplaying. I will never think for a second that my time with it was wasted. I only hope you don’t hate me for closing the book on this one, and that you enjoyed it while it lasted.

Slurms…. signing off.

[multiplayingorg]

Twas the Night Before Launch

| Repost: Originally posted by Maeve on August 24, 2012

Twas the night before Guild Wars when all across Twitter the Tweeps were all wired, their hearts all a flitter. The game was downloaded, the computers were prime, In hopes that Guild Wars 2 would launch right on time.

The players weren’t sleeping. Who needed a bed? With visions of Tyria dancing in their head. Huntersinsight was snuggled with his plush little charr His five year journey had brought him this far.

Slurms was plotting the name of his ranger lass, trading in his famous mustache for a female norn’s ass. Vejuz was surrounded with caffeine and some booze, not sure which would keep him going, but he couldn’t afford to snooze!

Rer was all primed with pizza and Coke, we all knew him skipping this game had been a big joke. Rowanblaze’s journey had been full of zombies of late to step foot into Tyria’s beautiful world he just could not wait.

Craythur was snug in his freshly cleaned abode Waiting for the time to get the game to load. Jazz and Moxie, and Paeroka too Stocked up with goodies to get them through.

The wait was intolerable! The clock seemed not to budge! A collective twitter wail was heard. “OMG! What the fudge!” Their hearts couldn’t take it! They were going to explode! Some were so drunk they had to worship the golden commode.

And then suddenly across the internet there arose such a clatter as keyboards went wild, and all the snacks went a scatter. Launch had arrived, logins were a blazing. Shiny eyes expecting Guild Wars 2 to be simply amazing.

[multiplayingorg]

You Know I Love You, But

| Repost: Originally posted by Maeve on August 17, 2012

It was bound to happen. That new shiny feeling of falling in love starts to get just a little tarnished. Somewhere after that initial “Wow!” factor dies off, you inevitably move into the more steady routine with your new love. Some of those quirky, new things that made your heart do a little pitter patter in the beginning now start to irritate the piss out of you every now and then. But you still love them. You just have to take big deep breaths and walk away every now and then.

That’s where I am right now with The Secret World. No, this isn’t a doom and gloom post. I’m still enjoying the game immensely. But it isn’t all shiny, happy feelings all the time anymore. Our love affair has diminished, just a little.

One of the things I found quirky and entertaining initially was the depth of the story telling. I still love it. But everything is just so lengthy. Between the cut scenes and the difficulty of the game itself, it is almost impossible to just jump into the game and do something quick. Unlike real love affairs where the quickie becomes more the norm and you long for something, err, longer… with TSW, I’d like a few quickies now and then.

The other thing that I’m finding increasingly irritating is the number of solo instances. I’m not sure what the thinking was with this one. I understand doing some solo instances in the main story quest line. Having to progress in your story, working some puzzles on your own. I’m assuming if you are running a different faction, the story is going to differ a bit. So solo instances in your main mission makes sense. But frequently, I’ll be running regular missions alongside my fellow Templar, Purrcy, when bam! Solo instance at the end.

I mean, I love you baby, but can’t I spend some time with my friends?

I’m still enjoying my love affair with TSW though. But every once in a while, TSW gets that exasperated glare and huff signaling we need a little break. But it’s okay, baby.  I always come back for more.

[multiplayingorg]

TF2: More than a Hat Update

| Repost: Originally posted by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn on August 14, 2012

I’ve been playing a bit of Team Fortress 2 again lately. As anyone who comes around here often knows, I likes me some TF2. I’ve put more hours into it than I have most MMO’s. Thing is, the game has largely been the same ever since it was released in 2007. It’s seen new maps, new hats, new objective types, new hats, and a bunch of new hats. But the thing that has been a constant is RED vs BLU. Tomorrow’s update changes that:

If you told me “TF2 is going to have co-op,” I would not have been very excited. Leave it to Valve’s ability to make an amazing video to change that.

[multiplayingorg]

Dark Souls PCL Could Have Been?

| Repost: Originally posted by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn on August 13, 2012

We dreamt about it. We asked for it. We made very well thought out presentations as to why it would be a good thing to do. Then it got the okay. Now we’re waiting for it. But the end result of Dark Souls for the PC may not be as blissfully sadistic as we, the PC gamers, may have envisioned.

Gaming in 2012 has been different for me. I’ve still been playing a bunch (and buying a bunch), but there’s not been any huge knockouts for me personally. August may change that in a big way. Not only is Guild Wars 2 less than 2 weeks away and will no doubt cause me to stay up later than I should for many nights post-release, but Dark Souls is finally going to be in my possession again; this time on my platform of choice.

When you spend the kind of money it takes to be a PC gamer, you sort of expect certain things from the games your computer was built for. This is doubly true for those of us who play both PC and console games. While there may be some experiences meant for the couch (fighting games come to mind), I know that the visual fidelity on my computer will almost always be superior. I better be. Sure, that’s not what makes the game fun, but we human beings like pretty things. So as a human video game lover, I want my games to be pretty. Dark Souls is already a “pretty” game. Yet, I always looked at it and wondered how much more stunning it could be with PC hardware pushing the engine to its limits.

With the reports that both the framerate and the resolution will be locked on the PC, it seems that I won’t get my wish. From Eurogamer:

“There’s also something curious about the resolution too in that there’s no change in clarity when attempting to crank up the settings. On close inspection, it appears that Dark Souls PC uses the very same 1024×720 internal framebuffer as the console versions, regardless of which resolution has been set in the menus. The option provided is for output resolution only; a simple courtesy to allow the game to play on most monitors, but the image quality will always remain the same. In short, PC gamers will very much be getting the genuine console experience here, right down to the pixel.”

Sure, in the long run we’ll probably see someone hack the game and unlock both of these things, allowing Dark Souls to become the game we all wanted the developers to make in the first place. In the meantime though, it’ll be like playing on a console. A horrible… dirty console. The kind of thing poor people play games on. Ugh… poor people. Does this change my preorder status? Not at all. And I don’t mean this post to be a warning for everyone to stay away. On the contrary, if by some chance buying the game helps show Atlus and From Software that the PC community wants what they’re cooking, by all means they can have my forty bucks. Maybe because of the demand and financial support of the PC gaming community, the inevitable next chapter in the “Souls” series will get a proper high definition release. Until then though, I’m taking this version of the game for what it is. A straight up “port” in every sense of the word, but my second time around with one of my all time favorite games.

[multiplayingorg]

One Hell of a Ride

| Repost: Originally posted by Maeve on August 8, 2012

One of the things that I enjoy about The Secret World is that even with its dark setting, the stories and quests have good amount of humor. Last night in The Secret World, I ran a mission with @rmerrifield that had me literally laughing and smiling more than any quest in an MMO has in a very, very long time. There may be some minor spoilers here, so stop reading now if you don’t want to know what happens here.

The mission was Theme Park Tycoon. You find Nicholas Winter outside of the Atlantic Island Park. It seems his father was a billionaire tycoon who left his son nothing of his fortune other than this most unfortunate amusement park. As you can imagine, it is overrun with all types of ghosts and ghouls and other such things that make you afraid of the dark.

It starts out harmless enough. Go to the Octotron. Turn it on. Then pops up the message: Survive until the ride is over. Uh oh. I won’t go into the specifics but we did survive. Next up, the Sideshow Alley. I was not so fortunate here as this little carnival game was out for vengeance. You had to figure out a way to disable it. Luckily for me, @rmerrifield was able to figure out how as I ran back to my body.

There are a few other “kill this” kind of steps in the mission. Where the tears of laughter started was at what seemed like the most harmless of things. Go to the Ferris Wheel. Examine it. Go to the next ride. Sounds easy, right? Well, let me tell you, getting off the Ferris Wheel  platform is anything other than easy. And not for the reasons you may be thinking. No, we weren’t swarmed by hordes of the undead. One single specter of a carnie popped up. And with a magic kick in the ass, he knocked us off our feet every time we got back up. I was kicked off the platform fairly early on and was able to get away. I was able to literally laugh out loud as I watched @rmerrifield get continuously knocked down, wondering how she would ever get out of the endless loop.  She eventually did, of course, laughing as hard as I was.

The final stage in the mission was in the bumper car arena. Confronted with the TSW version of the Texas Chainsaw fella, we also had to dodge and weave our way through the demon bumper cars. Let me tell you, those bumper cars packed a wallop. Here’s the TSW scarecrow guy with a nasty chainsaw chasing you about and the little Satan cars trying to knock your knees out. Perhaps you had to be there to appreciate the humor. But it was fun.

This is one of the reasons I have found myself drawn into The Secret World so thoroughly. Sure, there are the standard MMO quest templates. Go here. Find this. Kill this. But often times, the presentation is so completely different from anything I have experienced before that it just doesn’t feel like all the old MMOs. Taking a trip on a haunted roller coaster? Definitely something I have never done before. Walloped by demon bumper cars? All new to me. Anything that can make me laugh that hard? Something that I’ve been  missing for quite a while now.

[multiplayingorg]

Drip Drip

| Repost: Originally posted by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn on August 6, 2012

I started playing Minecraft again. It’s temporary to some degree, but it’s that sort of game for me. It sort of goes like…

Week 1: Discover Minecraft. Holy hamsters! You can build shit with these bricks!

Week 2: I have to stay up another hour tonight to mine “X” because I’m making “Y”, but it’s gonna be SOOO RAD! Oh Enderman, YOU SO CRAZY! Totally not looking at you, btw

Week 3: I totally finished what I was trying to make and it is, in fact, the best thing ever created in all of Minecraft.

Week 4: I’ve walked 500 laps around my creation, basking in it’s glory, bowing in awe in it’s majesty as the sun slowly sets behind it. I guess it’s time to move on to another project.

Week 5: I got nothin’. Laters, Minecraft!

Spend the next “Z” months playing other games.

Repeat.

As far as what I make in Minecraft, I’m the type who enjoys firing up a new map on the game, exploring around a bit for a nice spot and then building something into the landscape that looks natural. I love seeing the big creations in the game as well, those ARE the most impressive, but for my personal space I keep it a bit simpler. Mountainside retreats, tree houses, Supervillain-esque Underground Dwellings (ltd.), etc.

This marks the second adventure in brickland with fellow podcasters Jason and that wife of his Shannon, and so far the construction of our mountaintop fortresses and homes are coming along swimmingly. We’ve hit bedrock in a couple of spots and Shannon has recently erected a tower that touches the sky. In between we have a stone house that was built right into the mountainside and I’m building TreeFort v2 on the far side of our hilltop empire.

I usually don’t give much pause to Minecraft. It’s a brilliant game, I love the look of it, but most of the time I’m going full bore towards a goal. There’s rarely a moment that takes me aback or makes me think, beyond “does this stone penis look too crooked?” But Saturday night I had one.

In real life, we had some hellish rain come through. It was so bad that it brought to light that we had a leak in our roof. We know this now because the water was leaking through the ceiling and into my cloffice. The place we were all sitting due to a tornado warning. Eventually the warning went away so the wife and kids went back to bed. Then I logged in to Minecraft and what was the first thing I saw? A leak. Water droplets were falling from a single block on the ceiling above me. I didn’t realize Shannon had installed a small pool in the upstairs room.

I sat there stunned for a moment and thought, “Games must be art, because this one is imitating my life.”

[multiplayingorg]

My Secret Addiction

| Repost: Originally posted by Maeve on August 3, 2012

Okay, if you follow me on Twitter, it’s not so secret after all. I have fallen hard into the depths of The Secret World. I played several of the Beta Weekend events. I liked it. There was just something about it that intrigued me. It was that “something different” I’ve been looking for in an MMO. But it just didn’t seem enough to pull the trigger and buy it at release, not with the release of Guild Wars 2 hot on it’s tail.

After the last GW2 beta weekend event, I found myself really excited for GW2. And really… bored. I’ve been on much of a gaming hiatus for about the last 21 months. For those who don’t know, I have a new baby. During the first trimester, I simply couldn’t game because it gave me motion sickness. Then after that, I simply had little time to game. I gave Skyrim and ME3 a shot. Both games are unfinished. I gave the old college try to SWTOR, but simply had little time for it.

So perhaps this is just a case of “the right timing”. The baby is a year old now and has a more regular schedule. She also will occupy herself a little bit more now (she’s sitting in the floor playing while I write this, with only a few shooing away from my laptop incidents). I blame Twitter for my eventual collapse to peer pressure. All my Twitter Tweeps were absolutely beaming about how great is TSW.

I bought it a week ago and have no regrets. The premise is that every urban legend, every story about the boogie man you have ever heard is, in fact, true. There is a whole hidden world out there. You have been recruited to join in the fight against this evil. And, depending on your faction, you have different reasons for going out there amongst the walking dead.

After the initial tutorial cut scene that shows how you were recruited into your faction, everyone starts out in the same starting area. Kingsmouth Town. It’s a poor small town in New E ngland that has been beset by zombies and other foul creatures. You are thrown right into the mix, asked to help rid the area of some of the unfortunate townsfolk that have been transformed.

It is by no means standard MMO quest fodder though. The difference lies in that there are no quest hubs with shiny “click here for a quest” symbols above NPC heads. Some missions you stumble upon. Box of squid, you say? Let’s see where this goes. Oh, a severed arm. Who does this belong to?

Certain missions are given via cut scenes. And they are quite well done. The voice acting is good and the story better. In fact, I’ve found myself drawn into the story much more than I was with SWTOR. That is not a slam against TOR by any means. I liked the story there as well. I simply like this one better, at least so far. Perhaps it is because The Secret World story is an open book whereas TOR had the immense Star Wars universe as its backdrop. While I love the Star Wars lore, I do also know more about it and it was much easier to predict what would happen next.

There is far more to the game than just slicing and dicing up some putrid corpses for missions. Certain missions require you to, gasp!, use your brain. These are called puzzle missions. Some are more easily solved than others. Others, well, TSW gives you an in game browser for a reason. You will use Google at some point most likely. Another type of mission requires you to use “finesse and subterfuge” to achieve your mission goals. For instance, sneaking around the airport where if you are caught, some men in black type folks will zap you with stun guns and you see nothing but your feet as you are dragged off the property.

There is reward for exploration by finding hidden lore or missions you may not otherwise have found. There are instances, although that is one area I have not yet ventured. I have heard some complain that combat is “bland”. Perhaps it can be considered that. For me personally, it has not been an issue because I see it as almost secondary to the rest of game play.

There are lots of hidden goodies. Go through the covered bridge in Kingsmouth once while alive and once while dead and you’ll see what I mean. There are references to sci fi and horror pop culture here and there. They have done a great job with the music and sound effects. Like any good horror show, you know something is about to go down when you hear the ominous music and the ground starts shaking. A few missions have been downright creepy. They have also gone to great lengths to add some “reality” to the game. Just check out the Kingsmouth, Maine webpage for an idea.

All in all, I would recommend this game. Even if you aren’t into the X-files or Stephen King, it can be fun and immersive. I’m really into neither. I’ve watched enough X-files only to know who the main characters are. I’m not much of a horror fan these days. I had to Google Lovecraft to find out who he was (don’t judge me). Funcom promises monthly updates and have delivered their first on July 31. Will it be enough to entice long term play? Only time will tell. But for now, the future looks full of zombies and other things that go bump in the night.