Gaiscioch Magazine Issue 13, 2017
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s we begin our fourth year of publishing I spent some time looking back over our history and looking to the future of where we plan to go. While in the past we’ve always released the issues digitally first, we have found that time sensitive pieces tend to be dated and stale by the time we publish.
Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley Founder & Managing Editor
Gaiscioch Magazine
foghladha@gaiscioch.com
Follow the Gaiscioch Magazine Online at: http://gsch.info/mag Learn more about the Gaiscioch Community at: http://gsch.info/ Discord: http://gsch.info/voice Facebook: http://gsch.info/facebook Twitter: http://gsch.info/twitter Google+: http://gsch.info/google YouTube: http://gsch.info/youtube Twitch.tv:
This has led us to the decision to publish first on our website and allow the digital magazine to be a collection of the past quarter’s stories that can be printed and shared. There will still be a few features that will launch with the issue release, however we are flipping the way we publish to try to bring you the articles a lot sooner. For Issue 13, we managed to land a few exciting interviews with the team behind the Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind chapter. We spoke with Wynne McLaughlin about lore, Tatiana Malinko about art, and Rich Lambert about the process of bringing Morrowind to life. We also take a look back at the 30 year history of the Elder Scrolls series. Other interviews this month include: YouTube star TheHiveLeader, the gaming community Sinister Swarm, Keaton White of City of the Shroud, Jon Davies of Coatsink about their new title Augmented Empire, and McKenna Berdrow with Grant Gertz about Guild Wars 2’s WvW and PvP improvement.
Magazine Staff Gaiscioch Magazine is a quarterly, volunteer driven, no-profit, digital magazine for game developers and enthusiasts alike.
Issue 13 Team Managing Editor & Layout Foghladha
Senior Editors: Briseadh Gilliebod GmaFog Jairone
Editors / Columnists: Eiahn Izmina Robdalf Edward “Screenager” Orr Vaelushyn Wulf the Adventurer
We hope that you enjoy this issue and continue to show your support. For those that have been asking, we’ve finally launched a Patreon account that you can visit at: http://www.patreon.com/gaiscioch. We appreciate all of your support whether it’s spreading the word, providing interesting interview opportunities, or simply reading our magazine. Without you guys, we wouldn’t be pushing off the shores of year 4.
We welcome you to send us your feedback at: magazine@gaiscioch.com. Thanks again for supporting our publication! Slán go fóill!
Join the Gaiscioch Magazine volunteer team by visiting: http://gsch.info/mag Send guest articles, art, requests, comments and feedback to: magazine@gaiscioch.com
http://gsch.info/twitch
Please Note:
Patreon: http://gsch.info/patreon
All correspondences from Gaiscioch will come from an email address on the “@gaiscioch.com” domain ONLY.
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Contents
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COVER STORY:
Reimagining History Page 20 Featuring interviews from Tatiana Malinko, Wynne McLaughlin & Rich Lambert on the return to Morrowind in Elder Scrolls Online.
Art
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Game Design
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Lore
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FEATURES 8
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Game Reviews Done Right With TheHiveLeader
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Getting to know the Sinister Swarm
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Behind the Art of Morrowind with Tatiana Malinko
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Reimagining The History of Morrowind With Wynne McLaughlin
GUILD WARS 2 Going Underground with Guild Wars 2 Living World
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ArenaNet talks WvW changes in Guild Wars 2
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Top 10 Hidden Place in GW2
RIFT 70
Eternal Guide: Get Shiny Grindstick, Destroy Some Planars!
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Crafting Faire on a Comet
REVIEWS
Augmented Empire
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City of the Shroud
116 Outlast Trinity
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Redeemer
104 Sniper Ghost Warrior 3
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Tetra, Elemental Awakening
112 Stationeers
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Pathfinder: Kingmaker
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Pillars of History
Ghost Recon Wildlands
108 Styx: Shards of Darkness 122 Worth Playing: Summer 2017
FICTION 76
Contents
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Ashes of Creation
The History of the Elder Scrolls Series
Rich Lambert Shares the Vision of Morrowind
PREVIEWS
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CROWDFUNDING
ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE
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LIFE
126 Gaming with Multiple Sclerosis 130 The Grammy Gamer
124 Gaiscioch Football’s Championship Season
137 ClubGaiscioch Summer 2017 Picks
138 Gaiscioch Member Business Directory
Prelude to Glory
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About the Gaiscioch Family
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he Gaiscíoch (pronounced Gosh-Kia) began on November 11th 2001 in the industry pioneering MMORPG “Dark Age of Camelot”. They began on the Nimue roleplaying server with a focus on creating a fun and enjoyable community for players of all ages and skill levels. The Gaiscíoch takes it’s name from an Irish legend found within the “Lebor Gabála Érenn” and “Cath Maige Tuired” which chronicle the first people of Ireland, the Tuatha de Danann. Specifically the First Battle of Moyturna where the Tuatha de Danann hand picked the most honorable and loyal warriors to fight alongside the Celtic Gods in a battle against the Fir Bolg. These warriors were known as the Gaiscíoch. The Gaiscioch are a social gaming community with a relaxed approach toward gaming. They allow their
members to play how they want, when they want, as long as they want and do not constrict them with quotas or requirements. The overall focus of the Gaiscioch is to support the server communities and real world communities they are part of. They accomplish this by hosting public community events, participating and hosting community forums, interacting with game developers, and providing new players information through our in-game advisers and out-of-game guides, maps, and videos. With a strong focus on community our endgame goal is to create memories, friendships, and participate in the overall success of the community. It is through gaming, athletic competition, and social interaction that we forge new friendships and relationships.
Supporters
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e would like to take a moment to thank all of our readers for their continued support and encouragement. Without your support we would not be able to keep this magazine going. In addition we would like to thank the following companies who have our undying gratitude for their support of the Gaiscioch Magazine & Livestreams productions. These companies have shown their support by providing interview opportunities, special access to their games, and social media exposure for our publication.
Without the support of our readers and the contributions from gaming studios we could not make this magazine so successful. We are happy to report that Gaiscioch Magazine has been read more than 250,000 times by over 30,000 unique readers to date. This is a huge accomplishment for a team that is staffed entirely by volunteers and we thank all of you for your continued support. Thank You!
We Appreciate Your Support!
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Game Reviews Done Right With TheHiveLeader By Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley In my wanderings around the land of cyberspace, I came across a video by a lad named “TheHiveLeader”. In a sea of forgettable personalities and nerdrage, here I found a gem. One of the first videos I remember seeing was his review of Echo of Souls. I literally could not stop laughing. Fortunately my friends over at MMORPG.com put me in contact with him so I can bring you this exclusive look into the mind of TheHiveLeader.
Greetings Mr. Hive Leader! Thank you so much for joining us today. First off can you tell us a little about yourself, your show, and how you got started? A bit about me: I grew up as an avid gamer, starting with Atari and then moving on to pretty much every 8
console since. But once I discovered MMOs, it was all over. It’s been my genre of choice for over 20 years. Then at some point in college I found out I had a penchant for writing comedy (granted at the time it was TERRIBLE comedy, but I enjoyed it so I didn’t care). I wrote and acted in several comedy sketches, some of which are still around YouTube… good luck finding them. I even wrote a few comedy TV pilots, but none of them ever came to anything. Sometime in 2012, I saw a few different gaming YouTubers who did comedic reviews of older games. I thought to myself, “I wish they would do videos on the games that I play.” Realizing they never would, I figured maybe I should just do it. Hence, my two passions combined, and TheHiveLeader was born.
How long did it take you to begin generating meetings. After this, it’s simply about writing a script with a blend of information and comedy. Then I record a strong following of viewers? it, edit it up, and the video is done! I think I’ve got it down to a pretty good process at this point.
What tools do you use to create your videos? I record PC games via Bandicam, and consoles via an Elgato capture card. I record my vocals on a CAD E100S mic into Adobe Audition, which I then use for some post processing work. I then throw my vocals and footage into Sony Vegas (which is now called something else, but I don’t know what it is for the life of me), which I use to edit it all together.
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While a lot of YouTubers experience sudden growth, my audience has slowly built up over the past four years. Year one it was 2,000 subscribers, then it was 7,000, then 15,000, then 30,000. It just seems to double up each year. Hopefully I’ll continue to experience this every year, but I’m not counting on it. Frankly I’m happy with my growth being a bit slower. Those who subscribe are coming because they seem to enjoy all of content I put out, not just one particular video or type of video. I have the best group of viewers on YouTube. I might be biased.
Can you walk us through your process of how We were recently told that you can make you come up with one of your videos? watching paint dry entertaining. I understand you accepted that challenge. If so, how well is Despite popular belief, drugs and alcohol are NOT your paint drying video doing? involved. The hardest part is picking a game to cover. Once that’s done, I play the game while recording footage and making observations about the game. I try to find the humor in each situation. “Why is this funny? How could this be funny?” Ever since I started writing, this became how I look at life in general. I try to find the comedy in everything, no matter the situation. It’s a good way to live life, though I think my day job would like it if I stopped cracking jokes in
Oddly well. April Fool’s Day videos can be a bit hit or miss, but people responded well to this one. I think it has to do with the color and sheen of the paint. Never doubt the power of eggshell. And to answer the burning question on everyone’s mind: Yes. The paint did dry. Also my wife probably wants me dead for dumping strawberry syrup on our floor.
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A lot of times it’s the one off ideas I enjoy the most. Have you ever meant to make a video, and had to stop because the game was just “that The “Battle of the Superhero Summer” was something I did last year on a whim because I simply had the bad”? YES. Quite a few actually. Mostly early access games that have a bit of hype behind them. Some are just far too incomplete. The one that sticks out in my recent memory was The Black Death. I got in as soon as it opened to the public, and it just was not even close to ready. At that point I just move on to something else. But if the game is actually released, then I just go for it. Bad games make for good videos.
idea. I enjoyed every second of it. I also love making my Deadpool machinima videos, even if they aren’t the most popular. Lastly, my “Guide To” videos are also a lot of fun as I get to put all of my MMO-playing experience into them.
I understand you’ve taken video making to the next level and are now doing sponsored content videos for games. How have you positioned yourself so you can still bring your What was the hardest video you ever made? comedic personality to game videos without That depends on what you mean by “hardest”. But compromising your creative process? I’m actually going to say “Dark Souls III”. That video was a chore in every aspect. Playing the game was fun enough, but it IS a Souls game, so my frustration levels were high. After 10 hours of playing, I found out I had issues with my footage and none of it was usable. So I decided to do it all over again. Then I had an issue with some new video drivers screwing up my editing program, so I had to switch to a different program to edit. This made the process take twice as long. The whole thing ended up really souring me on the entire game and video making. I believe I ended up taking a two week break shortly after that one. Good times...
What was one of your favorite videos to make? 10
I consulted a lot of people (viewers, friends, family) about this and came up with a set of rules for doing any sponsored content. It’s a tricky road and one that I actually take pretty seriously. When accepting money for a video, it’s really easy to be seen as a “sell-out” and a “shill”. As a YouTuber, you learn not to take comments seriously, but when I’m accused of these things, it gets to me. I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t have this problem. Hence, the rules. You can actually read more up on them here: https://drive.google. com/open?id=12InMpkTN5j6KmuKDD0s48OADOut 5dwW78-iFXchXI1g
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That said, I’m still going to have to work on interjecting my comedy into sponsored videos. It’s going to be tough to pull off because comedy can easily come off as negative. And you can’t really bad mouth a game you’re being sponsored to talk about can you? That’d be unprofessional. Here’s a clue though: If I’m not making many jokes, I probably don’t enjoy the game very much. If I’m joking more, it’s probably because I enjoy the game.
For a few years you were exclusively featured on MMORPG.com, a few months ago you announced that you were breaking off your own channel that would feature more than just MMO’s. Can you touch on this decision and what your relationship with MMORPG. com is at this point? Are you still working with them as well? Shortly after my first year of making videos, I was approached by the editor of MMORPG.com about making videos for their site. Being an avid MMO player, I would often visit the site and held them in a pretty high regard, so it was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up, but I also didn’t want to give up on my channel, so we struck an agreement. Any new videos I did would be uploaded to MMORPG.com’s YouTube channel, and then after a week I would upload the videos to my personal channel. In exchange for this
week long exclusivity, MMORPG.com would help provide me with access to new games, equipment, access to conventions, etc. It was very beneficial to both of us. They got my videos a week earlier than anyone else, and I gained some amount of “legitimacy” in the MMO community. After three years, it became pretty clear to both MMORPG.com and myself that for my YouTube career to continue to grow, this exclusivity deal would sadly have to end. It was time for me to concentrate solely on my personal channel. At this point, my relationship with MMORPG.com is pretty much the same. We are all very good friends there and still talk on a daily basis. They are some of the nicest people you could ever hope to work with. The only difference at this point is that my videos are no longer uploaded to their YouTube channel. They still feature any videos I do on the the website, but they’re simply embedding the videos straight from my YouTube channel.
Where can people learn more about your videos? YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thehiveleader Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thehiveleader Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/thehiveleader Discord: https://discord.gg/0YXwdzGUSwffhVkG Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thehiveleader
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Getting to know the Sinister Swarm By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
As Gaiscioch has grown and traveled through various games, there has always been one that either was an ally or a foe in the games we played. We’ve been running side by side with Sinister Swarm through Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer Online, RIFT, Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online. Over the years we have become allies on the battlefield and have found a camaraderie among our two clans. I felt it would be great to share the story of this legendary gaming community that is filled with competitive, yet compassionate and caring people.
Thank you so much for joining us today to talk about Sinister Swarm [SIN]. Before we get started can you tell us a little about yourself and your role with SIN? Asur: Hi, I’m Asur. Joining me is Fate - our GW2 chapter leader. April 29th marks my 5 year anniversary with Sinister Swarm. I was drawn here because of the emphasis on community, respect, and 12
honor. I like to think my role in the community has always been identifying and spotlighting the strengths and accomplishments of others in our community and doing my best to make everyone feel like the integral part of the team that they are. In a more official capacity I have taken on the role of Warlord in our GW2 chapter. I plan, promote, and lead our WvW events. Historically we were known for our ‘Stinger/ Reaper’ squads, or what is commonly referred to as ‘Havoc Squads’. This is usually what we run when working with GSCH in WvW. I have however dabbled in leading zergs occasionally to varying degrees of success. I’ve had great teachers and teammates in running WvW. Most notable of all has been the fantastic support of my fellow swarmers. Community-wide I help out with administrative duties, which include running WvW and welcoming new members into our community and supporting them in their adventure with us. Helping one another to succeed in and out of game and fostering an all inclusive environment is a vision that Venom (the founder and director of our
community) had almost 18 years ago. It’s a role that everyone in the Swarm is called to take on.
Let’s go back to the beginning. How did SIN get started and what was your original goal behind the clan?
At what point did you realize that it was growing beyond your original vision? Fate: I think the turning point was when we started having multiple games going at one time - once we made that leap and we had multiple chapters, we became more than just a guild for a game - we became a multi-gaming Community! The word “guild” really isn’t big enough to describe what we are.
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Fate: Back in 1999, Venom and a few friends were looking for a particular type of community - and when they were unable to find what they were looking for, they began what would later become known as the Sinister Swarm!! In the beginning, we were called the Slayer Clan, and we were playing Team Fortress Classic. It’s still a great game, and every year on our birthday, we go back to our roots and have a Team Fortress Classic night - it’s very nostalgic and always a blast~! Venom is a true visionary - the very same policies and rules he came up with back then, still serve
us well today - we’ve stayed true to our core values & ideals and it has now become our legacy! Our credo is “Honor above all else!” and truly, I believe that is what has kept us strong over the years, while so many other guilds have folded.
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What challenges do you find with running island unto itself. We use our voice server for just about everything, and that really helps to keep us multiple active chapters in multiple games? Fate: The biggest challenge I think we find with running multiple active chapters is keeping a balance - we don’t want to spread ourselves too thin, but we also don’t want to miss an opportunity to offer an awesome game for our membership to get involved with and enjoy. Fortunately, whenever we’ve had interest in a new game, leaders have always stepped forward and volunteered their time and talents to launch a new chapter and through recruiting, planning and organizing, we end up bringing in more people to the community - many of whom stick around and play multiple games with us over the years. Also, we have to keep in mind that “one of the Swarm is all of the Swarm” which means making sure that going from one chapter to another is a seamless experience - the same rules and atmosphere carry over from one game to the next - so, although we may be many chapters, we are truly all pages in the same book! Finally, I think the remaining challenge is to keep a sense of unity, so that no chapter becomes an
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all connected. We also achieve that unity by holding Community-wide events throughout the year, giving everyone a chance to all be in the same channel in Discord at the same time and get to meet people from other chapters. For instance we have clinics for recruiting and orientations on the first Sunday of every month. We have a big birthday bash every August, and a Season Finale in December. In addition, we have live meet-ups in various places throughout the year, where we get together and enjoy each others’ company in real life! It’s all about staying in touch - communication really is the key!
What is your take on the latest wave of games creating extremely low guild size limits under 100 people? Do you find this to be a problem for your community? Fate: You know, we always seem to find a work around when things like that happen - I guess it’s the old adage: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” For instance - when there’s a guild cap in a game that isn’t sufficient to meet our needs, we simply create multiple
guilds in game and call them “SIN1,” SIN2” etc. It’s still one guild as far as we’re concerned, we just have it broken down into sections to accommodate the larger member base.
What things does SIN look for when choosing to open a chapter in a game?
Which is your most active chapter at the moment? Fate: We have several active chapters at the moment! Currently, we have active chapters for GW2, BDO, FF14, WoW and our newest chapter, RO! Some games have more staying power than others - and as long as we have members interested in a game, we do our best to provide an opportunity for them to play their game of choice with the Swarm! Certain games have more of an ebb and flow in participation - most of the player base will go check out the new shiny games that come along, but they always return to check out the new content when it’s introduced. They
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Fate: That’s a very good question, and we actually have a protocol in place that we follow. Basically, we’re always looking to expand our horizons and start new chapters! However, as with any decision here at the Swarm, it’s not taken lightly. We always take careful consideration to ensure the betterment of our Community is always served! First, we must have community leadership approval and ensure that the game meets with the Sinister Swarm theme. As our name implies, we generally gravitate to the darker themed games and/or side of games. For example, an official Super Mario Kart chapter would not be appropriate, nor would we choose to be the light elves from happy land in the next MMO - we are not the Sunshine Swarm, we are the Sinister Swarm! Next, we make sure that we have at least one full-time officer ready & willing to take on the responsibility of leadership for the chapter, and make sure we have not only sufficient senior membership interest, but also sufficient interest in the general population of our Community. Once those criteria are met, then we begin the exciting process of building a chapter.
may remain active until they’ve completed the content that was included in the most recent expansion, then bounce around for a while. So we are actually very flexible with the way we categorize our chapters, which allows us to expend more resources towards a chapter when participation is high, and ease back into more of a laid-back atmosphere when it’s lower. It’s always a thrill to see a chapter that has pretty much gone dormant, experience renewed growth - which brings in more new friends who end up becoming an integral part of our Community.
Do you find SIN to be focused more on PvE or PvP or is it pretty evenly split between the two? Asur: We do it all. PvP is where we got our start, and we’ve topped the boards in games like DAOC, Warhammer, TERA and others. But we know that aspect of the game isn’t for everyone. We also know there are fantastic people who were made for this community and vice versa who LIVE in PvE content, dungeons, and raids. I can’t help but agree with others in our community who have said “we have some of the most dedicated and level headed raiders around.” We run events daily in GW2 and other chapters. Events like WvW, Guild Missions, our popular server-wide Jumping Puzzle Porting Party, that we host on Sunday evenings starting in Lion’s Arch at 6PM Pacific - COME JOIN US! And of course beyond the game, as Fate mentioned, we also have Community-wide events like Karaoke right in Discord and even live meet-ups for things like ComicCon, movies, and concerts. The list goes on. We’ve got something for everyone.
Let’s talk Guild Wars 2 for a moment. SIN is one of the few remaining original guilds on Sanctum of Rall. What originally drew you to the Sanctum of Rall server? Asur: That’s a great question! We look at a lot of factors when choosing a server, including the atmosphere and overall theme of the server (some are geared for RPing, for instance, while others are more into WvW.) Originally, we tried various servers in
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BETA and we had it narrowed down to a few: Another server was at the top of the list at one point, but back at Launch, we had over 400 members and we couldn’t fit that many on that server because it was too full. We tried to find one that was mid to high population, so we could have some epic battles in WvW and plenty of competition, but one that still allowed for growth opportunities and improvements in all facets of the game.
Through the years the SOR server has taken a beating, yet you continue to stand by the server. This says a lot about Sinister Swarms’ character. SIN has had every opportunity and every excuse to leave, yet they still stand by the server and support it with a handful of other guilds. What is your reasoning behind staying on Sanctum of Rall?
the server reset pits us against and how many guilds have transferred to and from. We wanted a constant for our swarmers. Something they could rely on. This is where we are and where we will be as long as we can help it. And I don’t think our work is done here yet anyways. Every server has stand out players and guilds, shining beacons if you will in what could be a very noisy, chaotic, and sometimes lonely place. Our aim is to be one of those shining beacons. A bright spot in the darkness. And doesn’t it cost money to transfer? I’ve never had to transfer. My family has always been here.
Life on Sanctum of Rall has transitioned from being a powerhouse tier 1 server to being a mercenary server that changes allies every couple months. What’s your take on the Mercenary life? Have you found it to be better or worse than being stuck in a tier until you Asur: Yeah, the SOR server has been on quite win or lose?
the roller coaster ride. I think the best answer I can give is simply consistency. We’ve been consistent and steadfast in our ‘mission statement’ as a community. We’ve been consistent with our beliefs and practices, and I like to think we had the same reasoning behind staying on SoR. It has become home for better or worse. Some weeks are amazing out in WvW and there are others that are challenging with whomever 16
Asur: It hasn’t really affected me. I think most servers experience that ebb and flow situation where they go from having their moment as king of the mountain to being at the bottom of the hill - or at least falling somewhere in between. I live in Buffalo NY. I’m a Bills and Sabres fan. Trust me, I know all about going from ‘the good old days’ to being at the
bottom of the barrel. So in my eyes, not consistently being a tier 1 server doesn’t bother me. We’ll have our moment again.
We really just try our best to contribute as much as we can, in the best way we know how and to have fun in the process. Win or lose, by the end of the battle we want our enemies to know they’ve been stung. It’s always a blast when we can run with you in WvW, no matter if we’re on tag with you guys or running Havoc behind the scenes. I want you guys to be able to say “the other server may have a zerg but we have The Swarm!”. It is a perspective that Fate has really put a lot of emphasis on when it comes to our presence in game and community as a whole. Numbers aren’t everything. It’s the caliber of people you have on your team. Winning is important for sure, but we’re definitely not going to trade in our values as a community just to get that win. Regardless of what the server decides to do, or who to ally with, we won’t let that dictate how we present ourselves on the playing field.
What do you look for in each and every member that comes to join SIN? Fate: Thank you, Asur!! Founded back in 1999, it’s no secret that we’re still going strong after more than 17 years - and there’s a reason for that! SIN is a niche community - We’re not a great fit for everyone (mostly due to our age policy of 18 & up and our family-friendly language policy) and that’s ok - we’re not looking just for numbers. We’re more into QUALITY than QUANTITY. We’re
Yes, even though we ARE a gaming community and we are “in it to win it,” it’s more about the relationships - the real friendships we form here that carry over from game to game and year to year! Not only friendships with those within our Community, but with allies in other communities like Gaiscioch, as well!
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When running our WvW events I’ve tried not to put so much attention on where SoR stands in the rankings, or what other server we’re allied with. I think Anet has done a great job with making a game that rewards people for playing the game as intended and helping people out and working together so there really is no need to manipulate the system as many guilds try to do by server hopping week to week or month to month to affect who is top tier. And we’re not about that anyways.
looking for like-minded folks who are searching for what we have to offer, players who seek a Community experience built on HONOR and RESPECT, where PEOPLE come before PIXELS and no one is ever made to feel like they are just another name on a roster. Where winning really means something.
This is one of those rare places where you can look back on some of the epic times we’ve had with fellow members & allies in DAOC, Aion, SWTOR and many, many other awesome games, unlike those so-called “hardcore” guilds that have fallen by the wayside over the years. Because when you’re a guild that’s just about a game, once interest in that game wanes, people tend to go their own separate ways and it all falls apart. With Sinister Swarm, you just move on to the next new, shiny game with people you’ve come to enjoy gaming with - people who are now like FAMILY. No one is ever left behind here - no matter their experience, class or level - because we feel that by helping each BEE become the best they can be, we strengthen the hive as a whole.
How can someone learn more about Sinister Swarm? Fate: Unlike some guilds, we don’t simply toss invites out in game to anyone who asks for them sure, we’d get a lot more numbers that way, but we want folks to check out our website and ask questions first, to make sure they know what they are becoming part of, and make sure that we’re a good fit for them. Nothing thrills me more than to bring a potential recruit into Discord for a meet & greet, and have them tell me “Wow! This is just what I’ve been looking for!! I had almost given up hope - I didn’t even realize there was a place like this out there!”
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That’s when I know that we’ve done our job - because in reality, every interaction we have with the gaming community is recruiting - we’re leaving an impression whether it’s good or bad - and even if someone isn’t ready to join today, what we do & say leaves a lasting imprint. Maya Angelou once said “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them FEEL.” We want to be known as the community that is helpful - that builds people up instead of tearing them down - that coordinates & works well with allied guilds that succeeds by treating everyone with respect - even when going up against enemies on the battleground! We have a saying “We put the WAR in SWARM” and we will do everything we can to win - as long as winning is done with Honor and Respect! Because really, isn’t that what winning is all about?? Hacking, botting, kill stealing - those are things that take the honor - and the satisfaction - out of winning. So people who do those things probably wouldn’t find us to be a good fit. Winning should - and does - mean something, to us. If you’d like to find out more about the Sinister Swarm, please go to www.SinisterSwarm.com and check out our website!! We’re currently in the process of upgrading to a new format, but you’ll still get a sense of who we are and what we stand for! Our policies and 10 Laws are the same today as they were back in 1999 - they’ve worked for us all this time, and they still work for us today! People who find us a good fit simply tell us they are “common sense” and they don’t have any problems with them - that’s just how they live everyday! And if you have any questions, WE LOVE to share our Community with others and we’d be happy to spend some one-on-one time answering any questions you might have! Please feel free to Email us or send us a note in game! Here are some good contacts you can reach out to any time - ask for our Discord info if you’d like to guest on our server to get a first-hand glimpse of the Sinister Swarm!
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Contacts: • Venom, Sinister Swarm Founder and Community Director: Venom@Sinister.com • Fate, GW2 Chapter Leader & Community Chapter Manager: Fate@SinisterSwarm. com or GW2 Acct: DarkFate.9168 in game • Arlessa, GW2 Asst. Chapter Leader and acting HR Manager: Arlessa@SinisterSwarm. com or GW2 Acct: Arlessa.2017 in game • Asur, GW2 PvP and WvW Leader: Asur@SinisterSwarm.com or GW2 Acct: Asur.3259 in game • Despione, GW2 Assets Manager: Despione@SinisterSwarm.com or GW2 Acct: Despione.1603 in game Also - if you are interested in other chapters we have that are currently ongoing, here are some other contacts for you: • Ant, RO Chapter Leader: Ant@ SinisterSwarm.com • Kaliaa, BDO Chapter Leader: Kaliaa@SinisterSwarm.com • Stillanis FF14 Chapter Leader: Stillanis@SinisterSwarm.com Thank you, Foghladha, for the honor and privilege of allowing me to share my love of the Sinister Swarm Gaming Community and GW2 with your readers! And thank you, Asur, for coordinating this exciting interview with our friends at Gaiscioch!
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Contents Rich Lambert Shares the Vision of Morrowind
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Behind the Art of Morrowind with Tatiana Malinko
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Reimagining the History of Morrowind with Wynne McLaughlin
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A Look Back at the History of the Elder Scrolls Series
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Rich Lambert Shares the Vision of Morrowind By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us about the upcoming expansion, Morrowind for Elder Scrolls Online. To kick things off can we have you tell us a little about yourself and what you do at ZeniMax Online Studios?
barriers to exploration. You can go to any zone at any level now, and play with anyone regardless of their level or alliance. Morrowind continues along that path and is accessible to everyone – new or existing players alike.
My name is Rich Lambert and I’m the Creative Director for The Elder Scrolls Online. As the Creative Director, I work with all the teams to develop all new content and features for the game.
When you first were told that the next major content addition would be based on Morrowind, what thoughts were racing through your mind?
Well, I was part of the decision-making process So to clear things up among many within our community, is Morrowind an “expansion” or – but when we were discussing where to go next, Morrowind was definitely the clear favorite for us. It’s is it a “DLC”? Morrowind is the next Chapter in ESO. “Chapter” is the best way to explain it, as “expansion” suggests to most people that it’s only for max-level players. That’s not how ESO works, though, especially since we released One Tamriel and removed all the arbitrary 22
a place we’ve always wanted to return to as we did parts of the mainland of Morrowind at launch, but not the island of Vvardenfell. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make sure we did Vvardenfell justice. It’s the crown jewel of the Elder Scrolls series, and the game that really put Elder Scrolls on the map.
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Did you play the original Morrowind back in I imagine many of your team members were 2002? very young when TES III was released in 2002 and might have missed the train that Yep – I spent a lot of time in Morrowind back then. caused the Elder Scrolls series to step into It was the first game that made me want to upgrade the limelight. How did the team familiarize my computer so I could play it at the highest settings. themselves with the 15 year old classic? Believe it or not, many of us actually played You’re not going to make people sleep to regain their health and distribute their points Morrowind way back when. That said, we did go back and play through things again to make sure we hit are you? That worked back in the day, but that isn’t how we do things in ESO. You can quickly regenerate your health and spend your skill/attribute points on the fly.
on all the major locations. The Art team, especially, spent quite a bit of time running through the world to ensure our version of the island felt the same as the one in TES III.
Vvardenfell is a very iconic place in the Elder What would you say your greatest challenge Scrolls Universe. When getting the team ready was in bringing Morrowind to The Elder to recreate a 700 year in the past version of Scrolls Online? the island, what key points/places were on Outside of the technical challenges – this is the the front of your mind? Our initial goal was to find the right mix of new versus nostalgia. We knew we had to make sure Vvardenfell felt familiar for those who played it 15 years ago, but at the same time, we wanted to put our own spin on things. A lot can change in 700+ years!
largest zone we’ve ever built so far – I’d say the greatest challenge was making sure we stayed true to ourselves and told our own stories. We didn’t want to rehash old stories or try to lead into the tales already told in TES III.
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Let’s dive into some of the content coming Any plans for eSports or Tournaments? in The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind. I Not initially, no. Tournaments or ranked play is understand there is a new 4v4v4 PvP mode something we’re interested in, though, and have begun being introduced. Can you tell us a little about talking about internally. this feature? Battlegrounds are a new PvP mode introduced with Morrowind. Like you mentioned, it features small-scale, team-based PvP, 4v4v4 where each game mode has unique objectives. The maps are much smaller, enclosed spaces that are designed so that it’s easy to find other players quickly and keep the pace of play fast. Games last a maximum of 15 minutes, and each mode (Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Domination) has a leaderboard.
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Will there be rankings and leaderboards involved? There are leaderboards for each game mode, yep.
Are there any new Alliance vs Alliance features sneaking their way into the Morrowind release? Our focus for this chapter was on Battlegrounds, so no, there aren’t any new major features for Cyrodiil.
Will there be any new additions to the Guild Are there any fun facts you can share about System? Morrowind?
Size wise, how large is the Morrowind release? How does it compare to the existing zones? Morrowind is the largest zone we’ve built to date. It’s about 40-50% larger than Orsinium.
The team went to great lengths to recreate the island of Vvardenfell as closely as possible – there’s tons of locations to explore and there are a number of nods to TES III scattered around if you look hard enough.
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We have a few quality of life additions coming for guilds in the update after Morrowind. We will have more info on those soon.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences with us. We are very much looking forward to Morrowind’s release. Are there any parting words you’d like to add?
With Morrowind’s release we’ll be seeing a I’d just like to say that the team had a ton of fun new 12-man Trial added to the game. Can you tell us a little about this new trial and working on Morrowind and we’re really proud of the what kind of experience players can look results. We’ve enjoyed seeing players running around and experiencing the content! forward to? Halls of Fabrication is the new 12-player Trial. It’s one of the most technically challenging Trials to date, where the focus is more on teamwork and coordination and less on pure damage.
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Behind the Art of Morrowind with Tatiana Malinko By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us about the art of Morrowind. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your role at ZeniMax Online? Hello! My name is Tatiana Malinko and I am the lead character artist for The Elder Scrolls Online. I have been with ZeniMax for over 7 years now. I started as a Senior Character Artist working on development of the Character Customization System (also known Character Creator) – a system that allows for creation and customization of the characters, both playable and NPCs. I have worked on creating the 26
faces and physiques for payable characters, their hair, adornments, body markings, costumes, etc. I have also worked on some mounts and critters in game, such as the Senche, horses, and others. Currently, I am supervising a group of 3D character artists that create everything character-related for The Elder Scrolls Online: armors, weapons, customization options for the characters, mounts, monsters, critters, etc. I also work closely with the Concept Art team on the design of new armors, costumes, and other characterrelated concepts.
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Breathing Life into Morrowind Now Morrowind had a very unique style of art. From its architecture to it’s strange fauna. Did you spend a lot of time in Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind when researching the world you would be recreating? Morrowind’s world is magical and unique in appearance. When working on the art for ESO: Morrowind, we spent a substantial amount of time researching the look and lore of the original TES III: Morrowind, including watching gameplay videos that included architecture, creatures, and the characters we needed to recreate or get style guides for, reading everything lore-related, consulting our Lead Loremaster, Lawrence Schick.
Let’s talk about your design process. When you first get an assignment, what steps do you follow to bring it to life? The design is usually done at the concept stage, by our team of dedicated Concept Artists. I have a background and interest in costume making and I work closely with the Concept Art team on the design of armors, costumes, and other character-related concepts.
Here is an example of how we go about designing a cultural costume: The design of any asset usually starts with a discussion and sharing of ideas about what the asset is, its function, its history if it has appeared in previous Elder Scrolls game, and the culture in Tamriel that it is associated with. We do research on the lore and on any previous visual depictions of the asset. Next, we create a series of thumbnail sketches, 27
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and our Art Director selects his favorites out of the bunch. Then the designs start to take shape via larger drawings. Through the process, we consult daily with our Loremaster, Art Director, Concept Art Lead, and myself. When we decide upon the main costume forms, we create a series of clean-line drawings for both male and female figures. After that, we add the “detail callouts”, as we refer to them. Detail callouts might include things like materials, fabric patterns, metal engraving patterns, stitching on clothing, embroidery, beadwork, etc. After that, we look over the piece one last time and check if any further direction is needed before the Character Artist begins implementing the concept.
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What was one of your favorite places in Morrowind and will it be making a reappearance in the Morrowind expansion? I really love the Bitter Coast with its otherworldly atmosphere, unique blend of flora, and iconic Morrowind creatures such as the Bull Netch.
Is there anything (Character, Place, or Object) you are most proud of? I love Lord Vivec the most! The creation of this NPC for The Elder Scrolls Online was the most interesting and challenging, artistically and technically. The design of Vivec’s costume is very intricate, as it is asymmetrical in nature, and has some amazing details and embellishments. And the asymmetrical
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skin treatment, half gold and half blue, required an unorthodox approach since all of our in-game character designs to date were symmetrical through most of the body. Lord Vivec got a custom configuration, both with his figure geometry and texture. The artists on my team did an amazing job bringing Lord Vivec to life!
From a design standpoint, Elder Scrolls Online takes place 700 years before the events in TES III. 700 years is a very long time, just looking at the past 100 years of our lives in America there have be huge changes in landscape and innovation. As an artist you had to envision everything as if it was rolled back 700 years. How did your team approach this? Let’s look at our own world. Humanity’s progress didn’t always move at the current speed. Consider Ancient Egypt – its architectural language and culture hardly changed over five thousand years! Certainly, there are stylistic differences between different periods;
but from the perspective of contemporary humanity, they were not significant enough to make the culture unrecognizable. We approached the design of Morrowind for The Elder Scrolls Online with this mindset. Of course, Morrowind in The Elder Scrolls Online isn’t an exact copy of TES III. But there are some recognizable silhouettes for the architectural structures; dwelling construction elements are similar. We looked at the materials that the dwellings were constructed from: materials are naturally found in the area. Then there are the giant mushrooms that exist in the areas of Morrowind – they provide the iconic framework for the environments. Just like in real life, the passage of time doesn’t always bring more sophisticated designs, be it architecture or clothing. So some of the clothing and armors we created are a bit more elaborate than seen in TES III, while still having distinct silhouettes and using some of the same materials that armor and clothing was crafted out of in TES III.
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The Tech Behind the Artist
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Being Bethesda created TES III, were the original source materials available for you to leverage in the new designs or did you have Let’s talk about the technical side for a to go at it just by playing the old game and moment. What tools and applications do you recreating the experience? use on a day to day basis? Game art creation technology has changed so drastically since TES III came out that source material, even if available, can’t really be used in the asset creation process for The Elder Scrolls Online. The way the models and textures are generated is very different these days. For example, we use a cloth simulation software to “stitch together” all of the cloth garments, then sculpt over these simulated meshes to add minute details like crumpling, fabric grain, stitching, embroidery, etc. From this sculpture, we create a normal map bake then proceed with adding texturing to it with a special texturing software that uses physical-world principles to create the shading. Fifteen years ago, models and textures were created in a very different manner and using different software. So we used images and videos from TES III as an inspiration for the art of The Elder Scrolls Online.
We use 3D Studio Max and Maya for modeling and Pixologic’s Zbrush for sculpting the details – it’s possible to have millions of polygons in a single model! We use Marvelous Designer software create cloth garments. It uses principles of cloth-making from the real-world to create patterns for all parts of the clothing, stitch it together, and simulate it over the character figure. We also use Marvelous Designer to simulate bedding, hanging cloths, banners, and even some portions of the gear you see on mounts or large creatures such as the carpet drapery found on the Silt Strider. We use Xnormal is to bake down Normal Maps, Allegorithmic’s Substance Painter to create the textures, and Substance Designer to create materials. We also use Photoshop to bring all the textural elements together and add even more detail. And we use proprietary tools to export the artwork into
the game. Some artists use additional software and scripts to aid their workflow.
I am an old-fashioned artist in this regard, so a simple corded optical mouse works best for me when modeling in 3D Software, and a stylus when working on Cintiq monitor, sculpting, or painting.
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Stylus, Trackball or Mouse? Which do you prefer?
and create something beautiful with them. It improves my understanding of how to create art digitally.
Have you experienced any of the new VR Design tools that allow you to create in a 3D space virtually? If so what tools have you used and did you like the experience?
Do you draw on a portable tablet when you’re I haven’t really worked with VR technology; I have away from your workstation and if so what only seen it in action. It is fascinating, and there is a kind of tablet do you use? lot of potential there for game development.
At home, I have a somewhat portable workstation. It’s an Alienware laptop with 13HD touch Cintiq connected to it. I can bring it to different rooms to work as necessary. In times when I am away from work or home, I prefer to use traditional media: a sketchpad and pencil, real clay for sculpting, and oil paints for painting. I also spend a lot of time making costumes and accessories in the real world. There is something unique about being able to touch real-world materials
A Look at the Artist Where did you get your start in art? Was this something you were always passionate about? I started seriously studying art at the age of 14 when I enrolled in the fine arts school for children
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in Crimea, Ukraine, where I studied painting and drawing. I did so in hopes of becoming a fashion designer one day. Later, I studied architecture, then graphic design, then Visual Effects and 3D Modeling and sculpture. I come from a family of crafters, so I was able to learned sewing and embroidery and other crafts at an early age. I was also involved in various performing arts: theater, dancing, and opera singing. I can’t really remember a time where I was not being involved in some form of art. So, yes, art is what I live for.
In addition to the digital medium are there any other mediums you dabble with in your Were you formally trained in fine art and if so free time? where did you study? I studied drawing and painting at the children’s art school in my hometown of Feodosia, Crimea, Ukraine. Later I studied restoration of buildings and structures at the city college in St. Petersburg, Russia, finally receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Animation and Visual Effects from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA. I then studied sculpture at the same school for a while. In the field of digital art, there is a necessity to keep learning just to be able to use all the newest tools and technology, but also to grow as an artist.
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I sculpt with water-based or oil-based clay whenever I can. I like to paint with oils. And I make cosplay and fantasy costumes, where I employ a variety of materials and techniques: pattern-making, sewing, bead and gem embroidery, 3D printing, molding thermoplastics, sculpting with sculpey, and more.
Do you have a portfolio site or DeviantArt available? Yes, though I have not updated it in quite some time. http://www.tatianart.com/.
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Reimagining the History of Morrowind with Wynne McLaughlin By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
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Greetings, and thanks for taking the time to speak with us about the lore behind Morrowind. Before we dive in can you please introduce yourself and share with us a little about your role at ZeniMax Online Studios?
teams to support voiceover and translation efforts.
Hello! My name is Wynne McLaughlin, and I’m the Lead Writer for The Elder Scrolls Online. Although I wrote the main quest of the base game (the story of the Five Companions), my job primarily consists of leading and managing a team of writers and ensuring the quality of the writing and storytelling within the game. That means I review and provide feedback on virtually all of our content. I maintain our writing standards and style guides, ensure fictional consistency, and make sure we meet our deadlines. I also work directly with our Audio and Localization
“Lore writing” is actually just a small part of our job. The members of my team are Writer-Designers. We are responsible for everything in the game that is created using the 26 letters of the alphabet. That means story, dialog, journal entries, lore books, design documents, hireling emails, tutorials, tooltips, item descriptions, skill descriptions, even the names of monster abilities that might show up in a death recap. Everything! So a typical day is almost never “typical.” We jump from task to task throughout the day, and the week.
Can you walk us through a typical day as a lore writer? What type of things do you work on from day to day?
Did you play the original Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and if so what are some of the familiar places we’ll be able to explore? Were you at all nervous when you heard you get to breathe life into one of the Elder Scrolls series most loved titles? Morrowind was the very first Elder Scrolls game that I ever played, and I have very fond memories of it! And yes, we were acutely aware of how much Morrowind fans loved that corner of our world, so it was very important to us to remain true to the spirit,
lore, and visual splendor of the original. But we also had to take into account that ESO: Morrowind is set some 700 years before the original Morrowind. Things had to be familiar, yet different. If you played the original game, you’ll recognize Vivec City, Sadrith Mora, the Great Houses, Silt Striders, and much more, but there will also be many differences.
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As the team leader, a large part of my job is reviewing the content written by the rest of the team, critiquing it and helping them to make it the highest quality possible. We meet several times a week to discuss our current work and brainstorm ideas. We also depend greatly upon our “Loremaster” Lawrence Schick, our resident expert on the vast amount of lore created in the 23 years since the first game of the series, “The Elder Scrolls: Arena,” was released, in 1994. Bethesda and ZeniMax are very protective of The Elder Scrolls property, so consistency and accuracy are vital!
The Elder Scrolls Online timeline happens long before the time of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, can you give us some details on what the current climate is like on the island? There are many key differences between the Vvardenfell of our era and the Vvardenfell of the original game. The Corpus Blight and the ash storms from Red Mountain don’t exist yet, nor does the Ghost Fence or Ghost Gate. The wizard tower of Tel Vos has not yet been “grown,” but many other wizard towers do exist. The Redoran towns of Maar Gan and Ald’ruhn aren’t built yet, and the Ald’ruhn site is still an Ashlander camp. And with the exception of the port of Seyda Neen, there are no Imperial towns, forts, or buildings.
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Who are some of the key players that Deshaan and Eastmarch. Last year she turned up adventurers will likely run across in their on the Gold Coast as part of the Dark Brotherhood DLC. As a Dark Elf, it was only logical that she make travels? Lord Vivec, one of the three mortal gods of the Tribunal can be found in his palace in Vivec City, where players will also meet his high priest Archcanon Tarvus. They may also cross paths with Seryn and her brother Chodala, two of the mysterious Ashlanders who live in the shadow of Red Mountain, or the female Argonian Sun-in-Shadows, a slave with aspirations to become something greater. They might even run into a few recurring popular characters from the ESO base game and earlier DLC releases, including the ego-centric adventurer Narsis Dren, and the explorer Lady Clarisse Laurent and her longsuffering manservant Stibbons.
an appearance in ESO: Morrowind, as Vvardenfell is the ancestral home of the Dunmer. She’s featured in a multi-quest storyline filled with all manner of intrigue and mystery. One of the most memorable locations in Vvardenfell was Vivec. I imagine that it might be a little different 700 years in the past. Is it still a vibrant market all these years prior? In our time period, Vivec City is still under construction, and its southern portion features a ramshackle temporary village for the many workers assigned to the project. Much of the northern half of the city is completed, and including the cantons of Hlaalu, Arena, Telvanni, and the Foreign Quarter.
I understand that players will be able to work with a legendary assassin in their travels. So we have threats from the sky in the form Can you tell us a little about this mysterious of a meteor hurtling towards Morrowind, I assassin? understand there are also threats from below The mysterious and deadly Morag Tong assassin as well. What forces will players encounter in Naryu Virian has been an ESO fan favorite since their quest to save Morrowind? she first appeared in Narsis and other locations in
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The great “moonlet” of Baar Dau remains suspended above Vivec’s palace, though in recent days there have been increasingly powerful tremors from the moonlet and from Red Mountain, the volcano at Vvardenfell’s heart. There have also been strange tales of the Daedric Prince Azura possessing and speaking through the body of a young Dunmer woman, making obscure and cryptic prophecies. Vivec has not been seen in public for some time, and there are rumors that the demi-god is not well. Perhaps an Outlander like yourself can investigate these strange events to see what might be causing them, but tell you any more would spoil the mystery!
Are there any special places off the beaten path that you feel players should seek out for lore reasons?
Any closing comments or words of wisdom for the young adventurers out there? With the release of Morrowind we’ve introduced a new set of Crafting Hireling messages, so I will close with some advice from Zukki-dar, a curmudgeonly Khajiit who recently began offering his services: “In all his travels, Zukki-dar has learned many wise things. But the wisest of all is this: ‘Often the best thing to do is nothing, and nothing is always a clever thing to say.’ The young do not understand this. Zukki doesn’t know why he keeps making mistakes if these kittens refuse to learn from them!” Safe travels!
The island is dotted with ancient Ancestral Tombs, some of which are sealed, others of which are open to exploration. There are also six delves and two public dungeons with some of the most beautiful and unearthly underground vistas in all of Tamriel. And of course, you’ll find new, readable lore books throughout the area as well as hidden Skyshards.
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A Look Back at the History of the Elder Scrolls Series Cover Story
By Robert J. “Jairone” Mann
The beginning of a legend: The Elder Scrolls series had very humble beginnings. In fact, at Arena’s launch Bethesda was highly limited in terms of distribution, due to missed deadlines, a rather risque cover image (for the time,) and a general idea that games wouldn’t sell as well away from the Holidays. This was so much a concern, that there was a limitation placed upon the initial product shipment. However, innovation and hard work are often rewarded, and as word of the game spread, it quickly became a massive success. From there on, competition and other sources of inspiration would transform the series from something closer to resembling the RPG heritage, to the more free-form exploration and action games that would become the
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Elder Scrolls formula for the past 15 years. The original idea for Arena wasn’t even an RPG as we know it. Instead it was to be a tournament themed game, with the occasional side quest. It is interesting to note that the original design would have been something completely different. After all, the introduction of Arena had a profound influence on RPGs in the coming decades. The name Arena comes from that tournament theme. Materials had already been printed using this name, so changing it on the fly, with all kinds of physical materials out there already, was not acceptable. Instead, Bethesda came up with the addition of “The Elder Scrolls.”
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Arena: Arena took a lot of ideas from the pen and paper roleplaying systems. It used a wide stat array, and offered classes to define what a character was going to do. The game brought new ideas, such as movement not tied to a grid system, to the space of 2.5D gaming. Arena featured many systems destined to change over the course of the series, such as fatigue. However, it also introduced some ideas that would be refined but never scrapped, such as quests with a number of potential randomized locations.
The gameplay was fairly simple at this point. Spells from a window could be selected to be cast. Attacks in a few directions could be used. No looking up or down was allowed, as this was 2.5D! Yet it was also so much more than the tiny and linear worlds which had dominated the genre. Arena had big towns, and plenty of adventure to offer. Those who followed the quest path would eventually put the empire to rights, which was simply defined at this point as the empire. The intrigue and politics that seem so openly embraced in later games just weren’t involved in Arena, outside those of the main villain. Arena noted that you were locked up for being a potential threat, but the jailers involved seemed rather odd. After all, they left you the key to your cell in your cell, and then abandoned the defenses to rats and goblins. Still the starting dungeon was notably harsh. Your character had no regeneration outside resting, plenty of foes to clear out to get a rest spot, and a high chance of being disturbed if you didn’t use special alcoves. 39
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Daggerfall: Daggerfall worked along very similar lines to Arena. You were an agent of the empire. This time, however, the starting dungeon wasn’t explained nearly as well. You just were there, despite your mission for the empire, in an even tougher initial dungeon which left many players frustrated. Bugs plagued the game, although they were quickly given patches. One of the things which remained was zombies. Zombies with health pools easily more than ten times the health pools of any other foe. Along with random dungeon and quest foes scaling to you, this meant sometimes backtracking to an earlier save was the best option. Even so, Daggerfall had a lot going for it. It expanded upon the systems of Arena, and used a true 3D engine allowing looking up and down. It used levers and secret doors throughout the game world, along with offering an incredibly large world and a storyline that was hand designed with static 40
foe difficulty. It improved on many previous aspects, adding depth to alchemy and spell creation, and giving exploration and freedom to the player, even more than Arena. You could now buy a house in any town with a bank, meaning you could make yourself feel at home. Perhaps most importantly, Daggerfall introduced the skill based level system that would become a standard in the series.
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Battlespire: Battlespire was originally just an extremely long Daggerfall dungeon. After a little consideration, however, it became a game unto itself. With small limited maps on a linear progression, it was a very different experience than the previous games. Sadly it suffered all the worst combat issues of prior games, but in a dungeon environment that was slightly more
open and harder to defend oneself within. Probably the low point of the series, it nonetheless did provide some technical improvements with the combat systems and interior spaces of the series.
The most underappreciated award of the series
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should go right here. Redguard was different than anything else in the series, a preset adventure on the island of Stross M’Kai which featured upgraded graphics beyond Daggerfall, offered an interesting combat system, and most importantly proved that such an experience could be extremely smooth. The small size, and lack of character freedom/ exploration are highly noted as reasons why this title didn’t do well. Fans expected another game like the previous entries. Instead, Redguard was an action adventure on modest rails, with puzzles and swashbuckling. It stepped away from what defined the other games, and fans didn’t respond well.
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However, Redguard was smooth as silk. It was an incredibly well crafted experience, offering some of our first looks at a true 3D experience with terrain that changed, combat that included some physics, and a solid storyline. Sadly, playing the game on current systems using Dosbox doesn’t result in that same experience, as the engine just does not respond well. A patient player may still enjoy the game, but with moments of lag the combat and puzzles can become very painful.
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Change was upon the wind. Namely, engine changes. After the release of Gothic and Gothic 2 by German studio Piranha Bytes, with their custom engine, advanced character models (by comparison) and other technological advances, the 3DFX engines just weren’t going to cut it. Morrowind adopted the change to Gamebryo, followed by their competition in Gothic 3. Both games used the new engine to achieve some of the most realistic looking character models and world graphics of the time, with each also making some changes to their combat systems and even introducing things like arrow physics to the gaming world. Morrowind reduced the original scope to compensate for requiring far more detail. Where previous games had been largely computer generated, now The Elder Scrolls was working largely with hand-made designs. The result was the island of Vvardenfell. Perhaps it
was smaller, but fans of the series found that there was still exploration and discovery alongside a world that looked far better. It was an instant hit, one which is considered a favorite of many. Morrowind started the journey from the older titles to the newer titles. It pushed away some of the old ideas, which we later see vanish from the series, replacing them with things which are more convenient to the player. It also changed the fatigue system, which limited how long players could have their character stay awake, to the stamina system. Still buggy, and with far too many Cliff Racers, Morrowind was nonetheless an addition which helped propel the series onward. Whether some of the old mechanics are things that older gamers might miss to this day or not, it cannot be argued that the removal of some of the complexities and inconveniences of playing pushed the series more into the mainstream.
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Oblivion continued working on all the things Morrowind had done. It pushed farther into the current design mold, and updated the graphics and physics engines. It also restored, a little, the idea of computer generated world effects, given new technologies and coding which allowed for more realistic terrain to be made via a generator algorithm. The technological advances of Oblivion set the stage for Skyrim. Oblivion itself spent more time focusing on the story, improving the UI, and making everything from Morrowind feel just a little more refined, while also trying to make the world slightly larger once again. A particularly notable improvement for many was the enhancement of sight distance, allowing for players to see landscapes and towns from far away.
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Cover Story
Skyrim continued the same trend, pushing forward with the action themed combat design and convenience features that had been slowly introduced throughout the series. Again the focus was largely upon making the world more beautiful and larger. However, in the case of Skyrim a few other choices were made such as making the UI as minimalist as possible.
Even so, Bethesda once again met most of their goals, expanding the world size (minus invisible walls) and producing better graphics, physics, and world environment than previous entries in the series. Skyrim also expanded slightly on some other areas of the game world, such as housing.
One notable feature that vanished with Skyrim was spell crafting. Where prior games had encouraged the player to craft spells with different effects, this was removed in Skyrim. That along with poor spell scaling left magic feeling underwhelming, where before it had been perhaps too strong. Where the balancing issues with such a feature are easy to understand, the results are one of the many places where fans have noted Skyrim was lacking.
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Cover Story
The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is a return to trying something different. As an MMO it was never going to be exactly the same as the most recent single player games in design, although it did borrow much of the UI from Skyrim. For many fans, some of the failures to match up with the older games were of great note and sorrow. These include plot lines that seem to conflict with some other points, game system changes, a lack of explanation for where these events fade from history, and a notable shift in the world map, specifically around Daggerfall. Where these changes are all possible, they do raise many questions about how the lore from the timeline of ESO reaches that of the other games.
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Over the course of time, ESO has evolved to try to become something closer to the normal Elder Scrolls experience. Changes have included work to minimize the linear nature of levels in the game with regard to areas in the game, work on making exploration and thievery work, and housing. In fact, thievery actually requires somebody around to notice in ESO, a vast improvement from the mysterious Omniscience of npcs about who stole their stuff in Skyrim. Most recently ESO had chosen to return to Vvardenfell. How true this representation, and how much may have changed in history and lore, is something that will surely be debated across the internet. Get your popcorn ready folks, somebody is sure to be wrong!
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Wrapping up that history:
Looking forward:
With so much to go over, there are a few things that I still felt needed some attention. Lore, for example, isn’t really something I covered here. There’s a ton of it, and there are many places to read up on the stories and world of Tamriel.
Rumors are all we really have with regard to the future of the series as a whole at this time, but we do know that TES6 is planned. Where spell making and some of the complexities of the older games won’t likely return, there are some speculations on where Bethesda may look to expand the experience.
Another thing I feel the need to mention is that many of the older games are free. They can be played on Dosbox, which can run on Windows and Android. So yes, you can play them on some smartphones. To prove this, I ran Daggerfall on my 4 year old tablet. It works, but without something for binding keys to my tablet was a poor choice. I highly recommend having some sort of keyboard for your phone or tablet if you try this! Additionally, many of the older games had some nudity involved. This is important, because the child safety features were usually something accessed during installation (and didn’t really prevent the nudity so much as some content.) So be careful when introducing these games to people who might not find that a good fit, and to younger gamers!
Certainly there are sources of inspiration available. There’s the Witcher 3, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and a handful of other games which may provide some ideas, as well as their own work on Fallout 4 and ESO. One thing that we know for certain is that they were not satisfied with the end result of magic in Skyrim. It isn’t clear if they will opt for scaling mechanics or some greater overhaul. For now, though, Vvardenfell awaits. I may even see you there, as we all keep a close eye on the skies for swarms of cliff racers!
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Guild Wars 2
Contents Going Underground with Guild Wars 2 Living World
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ArenaNet talks WvW changes in Guild Wars 2
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Gma Fog’s Top Ten Hidden Places in Guild Wars 2
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Going Underground with Guild Wars 2 Living World Flashpoint first impressions
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By: Ed “Screenager” Orr
The fate of the world continues to hang in the balance. Two ancient Elder Dragons encroach on Tyria’s frontiers, and crippling internal strife has brought the seat of humanity to its knees. Today, we find out if Tyria plunges into the abyss or if it can avoid impending doom, with the release of Living World episode five. Flashpoint follows a
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three month hiatus since The Head of The Snake slithered into light. Following the White Mantle’s audacious strike on Divinity’s Reach, things have scarcely looked worse for Tyria’s heroes. Yet, a slim chance of victory still exists as episode five opens.
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ArenaNet’s latest adventure opens in a familiar Asuran Laboratory, one of many dotted amongst the remains of Rata Novus. These regularly act as staging areas for the Living World story and Flashpoint, once again, returns players to this Asuran labyrinth. Taimi’s newest toy, and Tyria’s only hope, rests at the center of this instance adorned by a massive pulsating globe of light. The central character’s arrival is followed by a slightly uninspired opening sequence that feels eerily reminiscent of Canach’s arrival in Rata Novus. A combination of skittish Asuran lab rats and sloppy workmanship results in a mishap that leaves dragon minions skittering across the lab floor, terrorizing its occupants. After a mildly unnecessary choice of opening, and the opportunity to punch some dragon minions in the face, this scene takes a much more dramatic turn. While Scarlet Briar may have remained a clear and present antagonist throughout the inaugural Living World season, the recent appearance of Lazarus has remained cloaked in uncertainty. Sleight of hand and misdirection still obscure the true face of this season’s enemy and any illusion of optimism is unceremoniously shattered during Flashpoint’s big reveal. A short series of fetch and carry quests and some exposition are a
precursor to a revelation of seismic magnitude. It is as shocking to the audience as it is to the characters on screen and a commendably brave move by ArenaNet. Instead of squirreling the twist away for a cliffhanger, this unmasking lights the fuse on the close of season three, effectively ratcheting up the stakes even further and sending Dragon’s Watch on a race against time to catch an enemy they are massively unprepared for. Following familiar precedent, the race to track down a new enemy introduces players to a new region of Tyria. The Mantlerock Scald is a cavern, situated just below the Ring of Fire islands, and is an absolutely gargantuan chunk of content. The walls of this hollow monstrosity stretch further than the eye can see and a wisp of clouds hang just below the roof of this subterranean map. It represents the largest interior setting that ArenaNet has ever produced and contains at least three distinct levels of content. As players follow the immense crystalline firestone that sprouts from a boiling lake, the ground gradually turns to ash. Scarred by volcanic activity, the Scald’s verdant carpet quickly turns from a colorful garden into a lifeless industrialized waste.
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Mercenaries patrol the barren summit of the map, where they can be found building weapons of war and toying with bloodstone magic. Inquest looters teleport into the gardens, while a variety of Tyrian wildlife and dragon minions graze the lower regions of Mantelrock Scald. A series of appropriately themed events occur throughout the zone, although things can feel a little quiet at times due to the sheer size of the Scald. Pact troops need rescuing, local wildlife has to be subdued, and mercenary agitators require quelling. As with previous Living World episodes, a map wide meta event cycles through the zone challenging players to stop a series of destroyers from massing. Again, as per normal, Mantlerock Scald rewards players with two types of currency. Unbound magic continues to
act as a common form of tender throughout all Living World zones while Primordial Orchids are new to Flashpoint. The usual range of materials, magic, minis, and a new home instance node are present, as well as a brand new backpack to build. It is the joy of exploration that really makes Mantlerock Scald worth a visit. Ley line flows, bouncing mushrooms, and thermal tubes cover the zone, making existing movement masteries instantly useful. The newest mastery line completely opens up the Scald and makes exploration an absolute delight. Unlocking this skill gives players access to pick up and use the Oakheart’s Essences that lie dotted around the environment. Taking the concept of a grappling hook, which ArenaNet considered introducing as far back as
Guild Wars 2 manifesto. Other positives for episode five include far more incidental moments. Dialogue between Marjory and Kasmeer, during the opening sections of Flashpoint, cut through the noise of war and draw players into the personal lives some deeply complex and human characters. It is moments like these that encourage players to invest time in Tyria and writing like this makes me care about what happens to Dragon’s Watch.
Thankfully, the challenges that lie ahead are far from insurmountable. A series of straightforward quests stand between players and the remainder of the story. ArenaNet has not included content participation as a gating mechanic this time, a welcome change from episode four that fits with the
Spoiling the finale of this episode would be utterly unforgivable. Instead, log in now and play a must have moment in Guild Wars 2’s history that expertly blends old and new. Players who have already purchased Heart of Thorns can bank Flashpoint for free and find out how the episode threatens to change Tyria forever.
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episode two of this season, modifying and enhancing it provides players with some incredible vertical mobility. Oakheart’s Essences throw out a sticky green tendril, dragging players towards any surface, in any direction. With three uses, skillful adventurers can even chain Oakheart’s Essences together to turn Tarzan, reaching any ledge, uncovering every hidden passage, and discovering the massive cache of lore that is hidden across the cavern.
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ArenaNet talks WvW changes in Guild Wars 2 Guild Wars 2
By: Ed “Screenager” Orr
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It’s barely been any time since the much-vaunted launch of the June 2017 Competitive Feature Pack for Guild Wars 2’s World Vs World. Put yourself to the sword, overcome some epic queues, and pick your way through the corpses of your enemies and you will find new rewards, incredible armor, and a brand new backpack among the changes in the latest WvW update. With that in mind, we caught up with ArenaNet’s McKenna Berdrow, WvW Game Designer, and Grant Gertz, Producer – PvP and WvW, to find out more about the World Versus World Competitive Feature Pack and the impact it is likely to have on players.
While player feedback was clearly a big motivation for the updates coming to WvW what was the reason for enhancing rewards using the skirmish system? [MB] We wanted to shift players’ focus to be on Skirmishes: It’s a lot more digestible to tell players to focus on winning a 2 hour time period than an entire match, and even though Skirmishes have been in the game for several months there were no rewards to incentivize people to care about them. Therefore, besides player feedback, we wanted to add rewards to Skirmishes so players had some score they could focus on besides the match.
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[GG] When we make changes to WvW we try to do it in a way that impacts as many play styles in WvW as possible. With that in mind, we believe utilizing the skirmish system for rewards meets that goal. Participate in WvW in the playstyle that you enjoy and you will gain the same or close to the same amount of pips as anyone else on your world. The only difference being pips for commanding and rank.
What sort of play time is expected to complete the mistforged armor sets and might this change?
to make players care about winning the current Skirmish. However, with bonuses to commanding and outnumbered, there’s incentive for more players to command and to play on outnumbered maps as well. [GG] We hope this encourages players to care about each skirmish. But we also intend for players to continue playing WvW however they get the most enjoyment. There are a variety of playstyles in WvW and the skirmish system should reward you equal regardless of how you play.
Does participation travel with you when [MB] It should take roughly 7 to 8 weeks to earn a changing maps or even across skirmishes? full set of mistforged armor; about the same amount Tell us a bit more about how participation of time as it takes to earn a set in Fractals. Right now, works. it’s balanced around max tickets earned a week, but we’re keeping an eye on prices.
How are the new changes to skirmish rewards intended to influence player behaviour? [MB] The main goal of Skirmish Rewards is
[MB] Participation was added when Reward Tracks were added to WvW. As you do various activities in WvW, you will earn participation and depending on your participation tier you will earn different numbers of reward track points, and now if you are above tier 3 you will earn pips. Participation does stay the same 55
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between map travel, so as soon as you reach tier 3 participation you can travel to any Mist War map and earn pips as long as you stay above tier 3 participation.
Why not simply return to tournaments to enhance participation in WvW? [MB] While a lot of players enjoyed the tournaments we held, we wanted to put in a system that works better with world-linking and felt like a more sustainable long-term change. Changing the focus to instead be on Skirmishes makes scoring a lot more interesting because the same world usually doesn’t win every skirmish in a matchup.
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How much time was spent getting the new reward system in place and take us through the biggest challenge you faced during that process. [MB] We started working on the system as soon as players voted for it in the last priority poll, 7 months ago. However, a lot of the rewards like the Mistforged Triumphant Hero’s armor and the legendary backpack came in earlier than anticipated and we wanted to add them with the launch of the system to make the system more exciting and rewarding. One of the challenges I faced while working on the system was getting the wing effects on the Sublimed Mistforged Triumphant Hero’s armor
working correctly. We had a lot of problems with it disappearing, clipping inside of characters bodies, and not working when you entered combat, but after trying a few different things we finally got that effect looking good for all races in the game.
Now everything is live do you think WvW is ready and how do you think this will change the communities of hard core players? [MB] Hopefully some of the hardcore players are open to teaching new players WvW so that the overall WvW population will grow and the gamemode can get some new blood. I do think a lot of the hardcore players are already happy that they are finally being rewarded for playing WvW a lot.
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[GG] We spent a lot of time iterating on the system to make sure it was as playstyle agnostic as possible. While we were doing this, we were going and back and forth with art to determine how long the backpiece would take and what date made sense to target for release. We originally intended to ship skirmishes without tier 3 armor or the backpiece. Both of these came in earlier than we expected and we realized we could bundle everything together to create a single update that eventually became the June 2017 Competitive Feature Pack.
match history because it was information that a lot of websites displayed, and we wanted to make an effort to display some of that information in-game so that players didn’t need to go to a different website to see that information.
While there has been lots of discussion about [GG] Now that the update is live, it is up to the WvW rewards, what was the reason behind the community to welcome new and old players alike to revamped match interface? WvW. We have seen a massive influx of players into [MB] We were planning on removing the Power of the Mists buff from the match interface panel already, and conveniently the new skirmish UI worked in that area really well. We also wanted to add the tab for
WvW in the days following the update. We hope, with the support of the community, many of these players will find new friends and new guilds to bolster the ranks of WvW for weeks, months, and years to come.
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Gma Fog’s Top Ten Hidden Places in Guild Wars 2 Guild Wars 2
By Esther (Gma Fog) Foley Gma Fog made her top ten list by deciding which was the most beautiful and the best hidden in her eyes. She isn’t the best jumper, so they also had to be easy to get to. If Gma Fog can adventure to these places, so can you.
breath and regroup. Unfortunately, some of her best hidden places aren’t as quiet as she would like. In the list below, Gma will let you know if you fight your way in, otherwise there will be a bit of running, swimming and/or jumping. Enjoy the views.
Gma Fog loves finding hiding places where she can retreat away from her foe. It’s a time for her to take a
10 - Diverse Ledges This place is one of the first areas Gma had trouble with in Guild Wars 2. She wasn’t a good swimmer and always had trouble finding the Lion statues. Through practice, it becomes easier to find and is a part of the Lion’s Arch Exterminator Achievement.
is, once you jump down on that path, there is no way to get back except going back around. Verify everything you want to do is done before making that jump. Go to Lion’s Arch at Diverse Ledges Waypoint. Head to the water and swim east. Move down to the 2 lion statues. Swim up the stair into the seaweed. When you get to the cave, jump up on the big rock, look up and contemplate. If you are doing the achievement, there is a karka in the waterfall. Follow the little path west out of the cavern, you can buy ectoplasms at the merchant. At the end of that same path there is an exit just below the waypoint. Problem 58
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9 - Farshore Vista and Jumping Puzzle Farshore Vista viewer is one of the spookiest to watch all the way through. But the little area around the vista is a nice quiet place where you can rest, once you finally find it. Phew!
Go to Lion’s Arch. Head to Farshore waypoint and go behind Tokk’s mill. Jump hay bales in the back of the mill. Then jump down and run through bushes.
Stay to the left to another bush, find your way through. If you are having issues seeing, scroll in for first person mode, to see the path. Once you pass through the bushes go up the rocks on the left. There is a vista and entrance to a jumping puzzle at the top. 59
8 - Griffonrock Run
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Getting to Griffonrock is a tough one to find. Swimming through the fissures and tunnels is one of the toughest tests for this impressive sight. When you pop out of the water the view of all the pillars is aweinspiring. Once you get to the start of the jumping puzzle the site of all the griffons and their nests is breathtaking.
Go to False Lake Waypoint in Lornar’s Pass. Run past the camp into the water just south of the island.
Heading north of the heart, there is a patch of seaweed with metal plates. On the west side of this seaweed there is a passageway in. 60
Once you find your way in, there is another fissure southwest. Using first person view at this point is a good thing. Once you have found it, turn northwest and swim through the tunnel. Go to the teleporter (it is a shining ball of light) and interact with it. It will pop you up to the start of the jumping puzzle. You can enjoy the sights from a few different vantage points before fighting the Griffons. This is as far as Gma went. In the past, she has jumped the puzzle using a mesmer for every time she fell off. It is a demanding trial to jump. A group event is more fun on this one.
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7 - Gladefall Run Vista Gladefall Run is a fairly easy jump to get to. On the way there, drakes and minotaurs come your way, so there is a bit of a fight on the way to the ledges. You follow the edge of a cliff around with vines hanging in your sights. A vet ram is waiting for you at the vista and rich platinum vein. The rewards are great at the end, but don’t forget to look around the landscape. It
is beautiful. Go to Iron Marches at Gladefall Run Waypoint. Run southwest across the water, up the hill and turn right. Follow the structure around to the right and head back to the edge of the hill. Jump the ledge around until you get close to the bridge leading to the vista.
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6 - Wildspine Hills (Dolyak Resting Place) The Dolyak Resting Place has a wonderful story behind it. The view at the end is magnificent. There are a few obstacles on your way, but nothing that is too hard. Be aware of your surroundings. Here is a hint: Watch the bandits before you fight them. But do fight them on the way in or you are destined to fight them on the way out. Go to Harathi Hinterlands at Wildspine Hills which is the southeast corner of the map. At Grey Gritta’s Waypoint go southeast, just before the dolyaks resting
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place. There is a hero point there. When you see a dying dolyak, revive him before he dies and lead his spirit into his resting place. Where is that you ask? Between the 2 trees by the mountain is a tunnel. Fight your way into the cave. When the Doylak disappears in the cavern a Veteran named Slick Ricki comes out to fight. After the skirmish, there is some rich iron to collect and look over the wondrous view inside the cavern.
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5 - The House of Riannoc This space is very easy to get to and the sight is amazing. Glowing sky, waterfalls on the rocks, and little rooms with beds and dining areas around the ramps. Go to the The Grove toward the house of Riannoc. Proceed to the house of Riannoc by heading northeast
around the building to the bridge. It is west of the House of Niamh. Once on the bridge, pass the flat spot and jump off to right. Turn completely around and you will find some ramps on the other side of the overpass. Follow the second ramp up to the roof, turn right and go up to the little dwellings.
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4 - Secluded Glen The northwest corner of Fields of Ruin is so daunting and depressing, with branded critters to fight everywhere you move. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, hidden back in the corner. It is worth the fight to get there. Go to Fields of Ruin at Tenaebron Waypoint. Move southwest up the hill and go through the camp past
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the heart person. Proceed down the hill, west to the outcrops around the bend. There is a wall of purple/ pink mist. Walk through the wall and surprise. There is a beautiful secluded glen and hero point. A little refuge among all the dark and dreary outside.
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3 - Anya’s Strawberry Patch Anya’s Strawberry Patch is so entertaining. Talk to Anya and you will see what I mean. It is one of the toughest to get to but if Gma Fog can do it, so can you! It is worth the challenge to get there. Go to Diessa Plateau at Nolan’s waypoint. Travel west toward the vista. When you are at the vista turn south against the wall, behind the gears. Jump up on the ledge.
There will be another gear to jump on to your left. After jumping up the gear and facing the 2 pipes to the north, there is a ledge on the right. Jump there first and then jump into the pipe on the right. Go through the pipe and jump up where the pipe is broken. A beautiful strawberry patch is out on the top of the outcrop to the right. Don’t forget to talk to Anya for a bit of entertainment.
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2 - Lake Doric Hidden Vista Lake Doric’s hiding spot is well hidden. It took Gma Fog multiple times to find the passage, let alone the way up to the vista, since the stairs go every which way. Once you get to the top, the view is so colorful with flowers, trees, bubbles and updrafts every way you turn. Just a splendid eye opening area. Go to Lake Doric at the Lakeside Bazaar Waypoint. Turn toward the line of 3 buildings and go to the furthest building to the right. Go through the back
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door on the right. Once out the door, follow the rocks around on the left side. There is an event that pops here so have your best armor on and be ready to fight. Stop at the trees and turn directly left. Proceed up the stairs, take a right and a right again and keep going up the stairs until you see the mushrooms to gather. Jump up on left side of the ledge in front of you. The vista is up on the right.
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1 - The Garden of Dawn The Garden of Dawn is Gma’s Favorite place. Very easy to get to and is a magnificent view of the trees and waterfalls glistening in the sunlight. Go to Ronan’s waypoint in The Grove. To get to the Garden of Dawn move north on the road and when you come to the House of Aife there is a pond to the west. Dive in and swim north. Enjoy the view.
showing me many hidden sites, jumping puzzles and helping with achievements through the 3.5 years I’ve been playing. I would also like to thank all the wonderful Gaiscioch members including, Gilliebod, Old Goat, Kitty, Winterlight, Briseadh, and Smitty as they took the time to share their thoughts with me as I was looking for the Hidden Places.
This is dedicated to Aoibheann, a wonderful friend. She was one of the first to help me in Guild Wars 2
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Crafting Faire on a Comet
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Get Shiny Grindstick, Destroy Some Planars!
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Get Shiny Grindstick, Destroy Some Planars! By Robert J. “Jairone” Mann Rift has introduced a new category of items, called ‘eternal.’ How true that monicker will be is unknown, although they certainly have some nice benefits once you manage to get them beefed up! That process, however, is a grind. So throw on some Ash, watch him kick some evil dead around, and make other bad puns, all while you make your way through getting a nice new level of boom!
Getting started: To get started, you must be level 70. Then head to Alittu. Head out of town and veer left, over by the target practice dummies. There on the rocks you will find a quest giver. They will direct you to run over to the Marsh Gate in Xarth Mire. The exact location 70
does not display, so see the attached map picture! The location is slightly east of Bailghol. It turns out that the Tuath’de have some relics of power stored up here. Your goal is to get one. Sadly, they also seem to have a bunch of empty chests sitting around for little reason, and you will likely need to check a number of them before you find such an item.
Once you do, you will have just a little work left to get the box it is in unlocked. Then you get to return with your shiny new relic in hand, and begin your journey of getting it powered up.
First steps: Your first steps to empowering this new relic of yours lead you back to the Tenebrean Schism. You will have two goals there, one of which is killing a hundred elite creatures. This can be done solo, but a group is helpful. The other part is the one giving some people problems. It is linked to a new daily quest, where the goal is to pick up blue energy orbs while avoiding red ones. The catch is that you are falling and trying to control yourself in full 3d. Your action bar will be replaced for this portion.
Guide to orbs: Ability 1: Long leap. Long leap will stop you from falling, and move you up slightly and forward a large distance. This is based off your character’s heading, so make sure you turn toward the desired location. Ability 2: Short hop. Short hop will also stop you from falling and move you up slightly, but it only moves you forward a short distance.
Strategy: Alternate abilities. Since you stop falling while in motion under the abilities, using them slows your fall and allows you to maneuver to your advantage. The key is to wait until you have stopped moving, allowing the length of each ability time to reset your cooldown on the other.
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Don’t rush. You can maintain elevation fairly well using the alternating abilities. Circle around and get clear shots at blue orbs so that you don’t lose points to red orbs.
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Use tangents. Aim your long leaps to the side of orbs if you are not going to hit an orb with them. This allows you to adjust your path back into the spiral of orbs as needed, and makes reaching your goal easier. Remember that orbs may be a little larger than they appear, so give those reds some extra room! The final portion of this stage of empowerment is to defeat ten planar rifts. Any rift that gives experience counts, including those you mentor down to match.
Taking on the planes:
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Once you return to the cliffside in Xarth Mire you will upgrade your weapon, and get sent off to empower it again. This time the goal is to defeat some of the most powerful planar invaders around. You will have to clear a few rifts as well as the other goals I will mention.
Invasion massacre: One of the two major goals is an invasion massacre. To complete this you need to kill 1000 invasions that grant experience. This is a fairly large number, and
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will surely seem frustrating at first, but it goes quickly. To make this go as swiftly as possible, you will want to focus on several key events. First, in Ashenfell any event will have masses of invasions travelling by the onslaught location. Queue up the onslaught, and you will gain a solid chunk of invasions. Unfortunately people tend to go rushing off and split up on each side, reducing the value of this stratagem as the 140+ you could get drops drastically down to around 60. So instead your focus should probably be on the Dendrome event, Swarm of the Century. This event has several phases, and the first one must be completed before the event becomes a good invasion farm. On the second stage, players have the choice to hold off destroying the Architect Nests, and invasions will spawn constantly. You can gain some 250-300 invasions an hour this way, by far the fastest method I have currently seen, and there are three locations near nest clusters that different groups can farm. Make sure to mentor down, use aoe, and stay central to your farming point. AKA, don’t be a jerk to others!
Zone Colossi: The other portion of this empowerment quest is to kill 50 zone colossi. That again seems like a huge chore,
as that would normally be 50 zone events. Again, you need to be at level for these, so mentor down! Prior to the most recent patch some events were giving far more credit than was intended. That has been fixed, so don’t focus on the old advice to hunt for unnatural speciation. Running around to the events closest to completion and hitting invasion heavy spots will get you there the fastest. Of course, this is just the most effective grinding strategy. You can always just enjoy the journey as you slowly get there!
Wicked Wicket:
Wicket is a lazy little thing. Instead of working on
Going even deeper: The eternal weapon has about ten upgrade stages. Each one comes with an equipped passive. Currently the rogue version seems rather overpowered, and I certainly expect to see either a nerf (stack limit) or energy rebalancing on some rogue specs to counter the stacking buff at high energy becoming too strong. Each and every one, however, is the best in slot item for the class. Taking steps to make it more powerful by upgrading it will bring you far more power, and make everything else you do easier. Alongside the new crafted items, it is certainly a powerhouse. So go out, have some fun, and get yourself a brand new shiny weapon. Just don’t forget to find some time outside of grinding!
RIFT
Once you have completed stage 2, you are ready for the third of many stages. In this stage you will go through a quest instance, then be sent to gather a few things to upgrade again. One of the requirements will complete automatically if you have been recycling your unused planar fragments. 1000 seems like a lot, but it goes very quickly! Another part is hitting some more rifts, which again is no big deal. However, the third part this time involves Wicket.
improving himself, he wants you to do it for him. Only then will he offer his help and give you the final piece that you need. To help him, he gives you his minion card. Now you get to send him on minion quests with the goal of reaching level 25. Expect this part to take some time, although you can shorten it using credits for stamina recharges.
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RIFT
Crafting Faire on a Comet By Robert J. “Jairone” Mann With the introduction of 4.1, Rift is doing something it has, in effect, never done before. It is putting crafted gear at the apex of itemization. This only applies to ranged weapons and hats, at least for this patch. At the same time, they brought back crifting. For those who may not be used to that phrase, it means crafting rifts. Crafting rifts have shown up throughout the game, offering different levels of crafting based rewards over the life of the game. The current set offers both decent materials with which to craft more goodies, but also new materials required for the new items. These new items are the Celestial Matrix. They may be acquired whole, or in portions called Celestial Motes. Ten motes make up each Matrix. They require one other item to combine them, called a Planar Attuner. These can be bought for 20,000 Planarite, giving people something to finally use their overflowing planarite on!
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To get started with your new crafting you will need to be level 70. Additionally, to begin the weekly quests to earn rewards you will need a crafting skill of at least 520 in one discipline. Each character on an account can perform two quests each week. One of these quests gives a crifting lure. The other offers a selection of rewards such as crafters marks, dungeon or world currency, and reputation certificates. The quest giver resides in the western wing of lower Alittu. They also sell the patterns needed for the new ranged weapons and hats. Just don’t expect conversation or refreshments. Your source for these wonders is a robot, after all! As a final note, remember to keep stockpiling amenders for your crafting skills. It seems they will be a much required component in upgrading crafting and possibly future world event items for the foreseeable future! It wouldn’t hurt to have a few spare lying around!
Prelude to Glory
Fiction
By: Wulf the Adventurer
He ran down the hallway and ducked into a dimly lit room, slamming a wooden door shut behind him. He quickly fastened the latch and then looked around for something to push in front of the door. The room was filled with shelves, each holding books and scrolls of various texts. He pressed his body against the side of the nearest shelf and used his weight to slide it in front of the door. Once in place, he tipped it against the doorway to help hold it closed. Loud voices could be heard shouting from the other side of the door, accompanied by the sound of pounding fists against the solid wood. The banging quickly stopped and he soon heard a much louder
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thud strike the door, causing the whole frame to shake. His pursuers were using something to try and smash the door down. He needed to find a way out and fast! Light from the far wall caught his attention and he ran over to it. Ornate drapes partially covered an open window, so he pushed them to the side. Peering through the opening, he checked for ways to safely reach the ground. A ladder against the ledge, a trellis against the wall, and a large stack of hay just below. All things that would have been helpful to make his escape, but were nowhere to be found! He then noted a long, thick curtain cord lying on the floor next to the drapes. He swiftly
tied one end to the nearest shelf and dropped the other end out the window. It only reached about halfway to the ground, but was still better than jumping directly from the ledge. He knew he would have to try and roll to absorb some of the impact. He tore a small piece of the curtain off and then pulled a flask from his pouch. He started to wrap the flask in the cloth to protect it, staring at the object he was risking his life over. It was hard to believe that a nobleman’s family would keep something that could heal the infected villagers to themselves, but the relentless battering against the door made it clear they did not want to share.
So intent was his gaze that he was quite startled when he heard a woman’s voice directly in front of him. “Did you get it?” The young boy looked up from his book to see his mother standing in front of him. The scowl on her face told him that this was not the first time she had asked, yet the blank look on his face told her it was the first time he had heard. “Did you get the spices from the market? Or have you been reading your stories all day?” she scolded. “I’m sorry...” he mumbled with downcast eyes. She took the book from his hands and closed it, placing it on the table.
“I
know
you
fancy
these
She smiled at him and ruffled his blonde hair. “And just what is it you will do when you are grown? Will you run away to a far off valley, explore deserts and jungles, traipse through swamps, or even find yourself on a distant island?” Then she winked as she said, “But watch out for the monsters! Witches and wizards, undead and dragons! No, no...my son shall remain safe here with his family!” She tickled him and gave him a hug as he laughed. Then she took the coin she had previously left on the counter when she had first told him to get the spices and placed it in his hand. “Now be quick to the market and back home. We still need the spices to prepare our dinner.”
She then kissed him on the cheek and sent him on his way. As he ran to the market, he saw some men working and stopped to read a sign by the construction. ‘Future home Adventurer’s Guild.’
of
The
Underneath was also written something concerning a Correspondence School offered by some famous adventurer. Remembering his mother’s words about being quick, the boy turned and continued off to the market to purchase the spices. But the entire way there and home again, his imagination was filled with the glorious quests of heroes. Author’s Note: This story is dedicated to classic point-andclick Adventure RPG’s and inspired by the Quest for Glory series.
Fiction
She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, then opened them again to look at her son.
adventures, but you can’t let that interfere with your chores. Soon you will be a man and you will need to tend to your responsibilities.”
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Augmented Empire Preview
Coatsink Talk Cyberpunk Mobsters in Virtual Reality By: Ed “Screenager” Orr Of all the teams I meet at the convention circuit, Coatsink are one of the busiest. They had a hand in at least six titles at this year’s E3 conference and managed to squeeze in two new games at EGX Rezzed 2017. Unfortunately they weren’t willing to share the secret to their rather prolific success. Instead, they plunged me into a world of mystery and danger, in their new adventure, Augmented Empire. Set to release during summer 2017 on Gear VR, Augmented Empire is a new direction for Coatsink. Despite being one of the most experienced VR teams in the industry, the scope of previous games has, until now, been constrained. That is all about to change. Augmented Empire is a VR RPG that manages to blend a sprawling narrative with reactive combat 78
systems, turn based strategy, fantastic art direction, and a little mystery. While my tour of New Savannah was brief, I managed to grab some time with one of the team to talk to them about Coatsink’s new narrative.
Can you introduce yourself for our audience? Sure, my name is Jon Davies. I’m the narrative director at Coatsink.
What are you showing here today at EGX Rezzed? We’re here at EGX Rezzed to talk about Augmented Empire, which is a cyberpunk, story driven, turnbased, role-playing game for Gear VR, coming out in summertime 2017.
That’s a whole lot of genres? Yes, yes it is. You could probably narrow that down to cyberpunk RPG.
to as Craven by the other characters in game and your robot sidekick. He or she is a criminal mastermind looking to liberate New Savannah from an oppressive, controlling elite.
How long have you been working on That controlling elite seems central to the Augmented Empire at Coatsink? game. How is that presented in game? Personally, I’d say ten months. Since last July. I was brought on board specifically for narrative design, just after the prototype was put together. On my first day they were like, take whatever concepts you like from this prototype, so long as it’s remains a cyberpunk gangster game and it combines this first person perspective of being sat in a chair, in front of a hologram of the city, that is brought to you in augmented reality.
Throughout the game, we follow the adventure of one character in particular. Tell us about our main protagonist? Sure, we are talking about Craven, who is the character that you inhabit in VR. Little is known about him or her at the start of the game. We’ve kept the gender neutral there and they’re only ever referred
So the game is set on an island called New Savannah, which is in the name of the, but the city is divided into three tiers. At the bottom is where a large portion of the population lives, largely in poverty, scavenging power supplies to survive. If you are deemed worthy by the citizen grade system, which is a kind of zero to ten of civil obedience, then you live in an area about a Kilometer above. This area’s a lot more affluent, but fewer people live there. Then, at the very top, if you’re a grade ten in this system, and deemed worthy by society, then you live in Celestia, which is just absolute luxury.
How much of Celestia do we get to see throughout the game? The game is spread across all three tiers but it is not a case of starting at the bottom and working away
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to the top. Especially towards the end of the game, we kind of go up and down quite a little bit. I’m not going to explain too much about the how’s and why’s as I’d like to leave a lot of the story secrets for when you play the game.
Preview
And how much content is there in the game? We’re looking at upwards of eight hours. Hopefully between eight and ten of, obviously depending on play styles. There’s a lot of character progression, not just in terms of the narrative but the end of every mission. For instance, if you have the appropriate tools you can upgrade your characters, there’s different abilities to select, character buffs and some traditional RPG elements.
environments that explain how the city came to be, how New Savannah emerged. There’s quite a bit of environmental story telling in there. The reason that the game tends more towards written dialogue is that the characters are quite small. You can’t explain an important plot point with a steely look, for instance. It just doesn’t translate from a distance. I could give an example, early on in the game a character leaps out in front of someone else to prevent them getting shot. Early on that didn’t have any dialogue and it was quite unclear what was going on just due to this distance and the high angle third person viewpoint for that portion of the game. So, instead of having nothing said it’s a bit more of ‘Don’t shoot!’. If there appears to be a fair amount of dialogue, then that’s the reason why.
A lot of the narrative seems to be communicated How steep was the learning curve when using on screen text, was this a narrative learning how to write for this sort of format, decision or a technical constraint? and what was the biggest challenge creating I gave it a talk recently on story telling in VR a story for VR? and there’s a reason that dialogue can be difficult. I come from a screen writing background and it’s cool to tell the story through environments, especially at the start of the game. You can go through a few 80
The narrative that you play through, I found, was a very similar process to a non VR video game. It’s kind of iterating on a summary, just making sure that the story was locked down in the same way that I
would do for any non interactive story. I suppose the biggest challenge is the character we inhabit called Craven whose motivations are not explicitly stated at the start of the game. Rather than just have a nebulous aspect of what are you actually are up to, it’s the main portion of the player character’s story arc. So, you start off in an unclear position, not really knowing what your motivations are, and it takes the entire story to uncover what they are by the time you get to the end. We’ve got a couple of different endings depending on how you behave and how you interact with other characters.
Is it likely that Craven’s story will continue after we complete this game? I would like to hope so. We’re just looking to the summer of the moment and the main release of the game. I was told, once upon a time, I’m always just be thinking about where the future of the story could go, but I have a philosophy when it comes to story telling and that’s just make sure that the first one, that you tell, feels so completely resolved by the end that people want to see it continue. If you have a question mark hanging over the ending then it’s a bit less satisfying. You want to know what happens to these characters in this environment before you start to think about the next one.
This game is coming out on Gear VR, did that introduce any technical limitation, and did you have to be quite disciplined in your approach to creating Augmented Empire How much replayability is there in this title? because of any platform constraints? So there’s this interactive narrative element to it. Personally no. The word no was not something I heard a great deal during this project. There’s obviously certain limitation when it comes to art, to a degree. We can’t, for instance, render a detailed version of the room in first person as well as all these crazy new Savannah environments at the same time. If you play the demo, you’ll notice the room drops out as the augmented reality kicks in. Besides that, I think no.
Where can we find out more about Augmented Empire?
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The team have done a fantastic job with the art, and you wouldn’t think there were any limitations with the system. SO many people have commented over the last few days that it looks really cool then say ‘oh wait, that’s VR. That looks amazing‘. It’s fantastic.
One of the characters in particular, you choose how you interact with throughout the game and your ability to not just be kind of honest but your ability to vary that when it’s called for is what ultimately determines the end of the story. There’s a couple of different endings in there that vary in subtle degrees, not least concerning the ultimate motivations of the character you inhabit. I definitely think once you get to the end, hopefully you want to just go back to beginning and play it through differently.
Just head over to the website at www.coatsink.com to find out more about the game. Hopefully we will have loads more information coming soon.
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Lifting the Veil on City of the Shroud An interview with Keaton White
Preview
By Ed “Screenager” Orr
EGX Rezzed is one of my own highlights of the year and some really incredible games regularly come out of the shadows at the London festival. Last year we covered the Kickstarter for City of the Shroud [http://magazine.gaiscioch.com/previews/city_of_ the_shroud.html]. A game by industry veterans who wanted to introduce a new twist on the well worn RPG. A year later, and after a successful Kickstarter, we sat down with director of Abyssal Arts, Keaton White, and asked about Kickstarter, Game development, and being an indie.
For the uninitiated, what is City of the Shroud? City the shroud is x-com meets Street Fighter. It’s a real time tactical R.P.G. with fighting game mechanics. So it’s a game where you’re supposed to think on your feet and react to your opponent in real time. You read their moves, they read your moves, you build combos you chain moves together. That whole interaction is kind of what are they doing now, what am I doing now, and what is my situation going to be, is the driver 82
of most of the strategy in the battle. It’s a much faster more energetic approach to strategy combat.
City of the Shroud was funded on Kickstarter and very quickly. How did that feel? The hard parts of Kickstarter are campaigning, so it was good we got funded in nine days. That was really nice and then we, obviously, used all of it on models and on animation like we said we would in the Kickstarter. We’ve just followed that up with our own money and we’re finally at the point where we’re getting ready to start preparing to deliver some of the higher end rewards. We’ve been rolling out updates and new builds and I’m really excited. We’re on the cusp of being able to roll out something close to the final battle system to the backers and it just needs some visual animation so that people know what it is, instead of just like invisibility doing damage. When our Kickstarter was funded, and in such a short period, mainly it was relief. We felt, we can do this.
Did you expect it to be Kickstarted, in such a this point you kind of have to have an existing base short time, and how do you feel about your of people who already know something is happening and are really excited about it. The more people and goals now looking back? I think that I felt like our funding goals were realistic, but I didn’t think it would happen that quickly. I kind of expected to be fighting bitterly until the last day. Still, we we made sure to update every day and put out content, but when we hit that ninth day it was like, well now we can enjoy the rest of the Kickstarter. Kickstarter is still a lot of work but it was like trying to build the hype in awareness instead of worrying that what we were doing was or wasn’t going to succeed at all.
Why do you think you were able to meet the goal in such a short time frame?
What’s been the biggest hurdle you’ve had to overcome and the last year since the Kickstarter success and now? Probably time. Getting the time to build everything, build it well and then polish it is a challenge. There’s always something that comes up or something that needs your attention. There’s always something to distract from what you really want to be doing, or what you really should be doing, or what you really have to do. It’s just a constant battle of which thing absolutely needs attention right now. Whatever you choose there’s going to be something that just has to wait and that’s really frustrating. On the other hand, because we’re doing this ourselves, I can afford to say, right that’s just going to wait as we can’t do that right now, but we’re going to do it. We just put it on hold and when we can get to it, we get to it. Doing it yourself brings a whole different set of pressures.
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It was definitely support from friends, family, and also people who knew about the game already and really wanted it to be a success. It was a small group of people, but it was still enough to push us over the threshold and we tried really hard to promote it. We also wanted to make sure that we timed it with a game show, so we basically did those things, then went to rest as soon as we launched it. I think the culmination of those things came together and it all just happened at once. Afterwards we tried to keep pushing forward and see if we could hit some of the stretch goals. That was very much about having a plan and steadily heading toward that plan.
the louder they are, the more likely you are to succeed and then that is connected to how much you’re asking for. You can have a really enthusiastic, very tiny base and if you ask for too much, no matter how much you guys care, it’s just not mathematically going to work out. If you are realistic then I think that you know it can happen and it will work. It’s just hitting that balance and that is really so hard.
I think Kickstarter is getting harder and harder. At
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money and have no ability to do anything. It’s almost like a survival game.
What is the biggest fundamental change to the game over the last year?
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How do those pressures vary from working in a large privately funded studio? Well, there’s always the pressure to get it out, because you’re aware you have these people who have paid for it and you want to deliver. It’s this pressure of getting it out the door to players and wanting them to play it. I want it to be done because I want to do it, but the same time I want to do it well and that ends up often taking more time. It’s difficult to balance those pressures and I tend to wait and do it well, over just doing it to get it done. Ultimately Miyamoto said a rushed game is forever bad, so do it right instead of doing it fast. On top of that you know there’s the additional changes of the direct financial pressure and the need to come up for air once in awhile. You do things like EGX Rezzed because it’s a huge morale boost. We come out and we’ve put all this effort in, we’ve made this boss fight, we’ve got all this stuff that’s new, and people get to play it. When they respond well and tell us we’re doing a good job, it keeps us going. It’s an awesome feeling and it’s hugely encouraging. Luckily, because of the way our team is set up and how we operate, there’s minimal immediate financial pressure. There’s not a do this or you’re going to starve situation, which is good. It ties back into the choice of what we choose to do at what time. You can choose to do contract work and the money from that contract work will also go into the game, but I’m doing contract work, so therefore that’s not working on the game. So, it pushes that out, but then you have some budget and you can pay for stuff for the game. It might double the amount of time to get something done as a result, but you are able to do it. Otherwise you just have no 84
Broadly speaking I’d say player feedback or user experience. The U.I. is almost completely new. There are elements that are still there, but they’ve all been touched. So colors are different because people notice certain elements when they’re a different color. The presentation of certain things is different or the layout is different. It’s small but it adds up. On top of that we’ve added tons of sound effects, tons of visual effects, and more animation. I think back in 2016 we only had two characters with a full animation set and everything else was placeholder. It didn’t look as good as today. It was confusing, but now it’s like you nail a heavy hit and there’s a big sound effect and there’s a big visual effect, the screen can shake, and you know that you’ve done something. Because some colors pop, more people are likely to just intuitively follow the combo wheel around. Because the color is red instead of blue in this section people will think ‘oh that’s my A.P. meter and it’s low’. It’s becoming far more interpretive. There’s still work to be done, so we have sound effects in waiting and some visual tweaks in waiting to address player input on the combo wheel. As you add those things it all comes together and it starts to feel very much more like a complete game. In the end, it’s still a case of issuing the same commands and enemy takes X damage, but the way it’s presented to the player and how they interpret it is totally different. That, I think, is really where a lot of the magic lies.
Have you had to make many compromises to move the game forward? Yeah, there are a few features that we’ve had to cut that we were thinking of. We never really talked about them publicly, so we figured no one will really miss them, but you know it was stuff that is technically
possible. It would just add so much to the workload and it’s one of those things. I would rather get the core done and completed well. I was reading something a while ago about how at the original Bastion had this entire gardening mechanic and weeks before the final game shipped they just cut the whole thing. We’ve had a couple of things like this. We had a system where you would be in the world and then something would happen. Then if you reacted to that it would somehow benefit your alliance, but then we realized that would mess with the balance of power as people could just sit there and wait for those things happen. It would inevitably benefit those players more than someone who maybe didn’t have as much time to play the game. That didn’t make sense and we were like, wow, we do not have the time to do that anyway, so just moved on from it. It’s all the balance I suppose and that’s one of the nice things about having a Kickstarter campaign and not being subservient to an organization. You’ve got some leeway and you can be transparent to give players the right game.
Would you Kickstart again? I think I would. I would want to do it differently. I would prepare more and I would have a more finished game. You’re asking for money to complete the game ideally, not using Kickstarter just to promote the fact that you have a game. If you were going to do it you’d go to backers with this thing and it would be very representative of what the final thing should be. Also, that makes it easier to show what the art looks like. It would be a question of balance. You have to ask how far you can go before we do that. With Kickstarter you have an audience looking at the game and people who are posting feedback or sending in bugs. That is so valuable and so cool, and if you’re just developing you don’t get that. It can get kind of dreary just trudging along getting tasks done. There’s not that feedback or interaction. So I think I would also try and find a game where we could be more involved with the players. Right now, because the game is a story focused, we can’t just ruin a chapter for you. I don’t want to do that but I feel like there could be a good way to be more interactive, and like I’d like to sit down and come up with a way to make that work. It’s tiring and it’s hard, but the rewards are really nice and I think that’s great. Preview
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Tetra, Elemental Awakening
Waving goodbye to old tropes with a brand new studio
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By: Ed “Screenager” Orr The hard part of making any video game in the modern market seems to be making it more than another derivative cut and paste scenario. New strategies, changing platforms, turn based combat, tag teams, unicorn riding space marines, franchise tie ins, changing perspectives, and a range of dazzling graphical innovations are just some of the strategies used in an effort to snatch a tiny fraction of this gargantuan market. Now, a team of students are turning this ambition into a new approach that they call Tetra, Elemental Awakening. I spoke to Ocean Spark Studios at EGX Rezzed 2017 about Tetra and got a glimpse of their vision.
The team at Ocean Spark brought an early alpha build of the game to London’s EGX and demonstrated Tetra’s wave defence system. Situated in a mystical, as yet unnamed land, players control a group of four heroes in an open world. They can explore the land, taking up quests and participating in a range of wave based events. As waves of enemies pour down the highway leading into a quaint village, players can switch between these heroes, taking advantage of their very distinct loadouts. Elemental themes are at the forefront of Tetra’s character design, most obviously fire and ice, and four races are already represented. While graphics and combat experience in Tetra’s first form are both rough in some areas and several features, like issue commands to your team, unimplemented, Ocean Spark has an enthusiasm that cannot be extinguished. Sitting somewhere between the concept behind Fable Legends, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Orcs must Die, Tetra is a unique and imposing proposition for a group of new developers. It’s possibly this fresh perspective and enthusiasm that piqued my interest in a game that is barely four months old. Learn more about Tetra: Elemental Awakening at: http://playtetra.com/
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Redeemer’s Bloody, Brilliant, Russians! Hands on with Sobaka Studio’s beat em up at EGX Rezzed 2017
Preview
By Ed “Screenager” Orr If I’ve anything to say, watching John Wick, it is to let deadly super assassins retire in peace, and never kill the dog. Thankfully Sobaka Studio’s new beat ‘em up doesn’t have a dog, Due out Spring 2017 for PC and published by Gambitious, it does, however, deliver a carnal level of action as elite operative, Vasily, struggles to shake of the attention of his former employers. Inspired by the simplicity of early beat ‘em up games, Redeemer is an unabashed ode to the action heyday of 1980s’s film-making. It typifies an era of uncomplicated entertainment, when heroes didn’t need superpowers to perform unbelievable feats, just a rippling torso and an inhuman tolerance for violence. This top down action brawler puts the player in control of Vasily, an ex mercenary who fits all these tropes and is up against a vicious ex employer, just because he is still alive. 88
Redeemer’s early environments, shown at EGX Rezzed, make fantastic use of the Unreal 4 engine, seamlessly switching between top down and third person views as Vasily casually eviscerates his foes. The hand crafted exteriors and the dank monastery corridors easily reflect the dark world that has come back to haunt our hero. Characters are reminiscent of a gritty visual novel, with tones that are subdued until a torrent of red sprouts across the screen. Redeemer is not a beautiful world but it still manages to look fantastic on screen. The brutal hand to hand combat that features in Redeemer is equally well presented, surprisingly easy to pick up, and relatively uncomplicated to master. Mouse buttons are primarily used to trigger Vasily’s range of instant and charged attacks, allowing players to quickly master simple combos. Combat is well animated and feels present in the world. At
times, Vasily seems to flow across the screen, dishing out volleys of punishment and displaying the same kind of acrobatic prowess that reminded me of the best parts of God of War and the Arkham franchise. The deliberate use of environmental elements helps to enhance this, serving up a smorgasbord of death as Vasily smashes down doors, throws rocks, and crushes faces on the surrounding furniture. While Sobaka could have built an insanely complex fighting system, this doesn’t fit Redeemers design philosophy. Instead, once you have had enough of getting your hands dirty, you can pick up a weapon and get cracking. At least twenty weapons are currently available in Redeemer, providing several ways to process your opponents. These are controlled in a similar fashion to unarmed combat, and ranged weapons include handguns, shotguns, and automatic rifles. Melee weapons vary from electrified batons, to flaming axes, with the sheer variety of armaments, effectively keeping players from ever getting bored. Raising combat above the realm of mediocre skull bashing, Sobaka provides different weapons to suit specific situations. Melee weapons prove particularly effective when playing stealthily, luring some very aggressive guards round corners or sneaking up on them with a hatchet. Ranged rifles, however, can be invaluable when used against certain boss fights. Preview
When I got up close with Redeemer it became clear
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Preview
that the simplicity of Redeemer’s concept belies the complexity of the game. My initial astonishment at the depth and variety of violence on show quickly turned to the challenge of getting through the game. Violence only gets so far and players need to make use of the abilities Vasily has, from stealth takedowns, to particular finishing moves or face being quickly spotted, rounded up, and beaten into submission. Even
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action heroes can only take so much abuse. Redeemer doesn’t look to reinvent the top down genre, but it doesn’t pull any punches and proved to be one of the surprises of EGX Rezzed 2017. After being blown away by Redeemer, I got some time to chat to Dmitry Kachkov, the lead developer at Sobaka Studios about the game.
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Ashes of Creation Breaks Kickstarter Records By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
Crowdfunding
In what has become the most successful Kickstarter in the gaming history, Ashes of Creation brought in 3.2 million dollars in crowdfunding for its MMORPG in development by self made millionaire Steven Sharif. For years he has single handedly funded the production of Ashes of Creation employing 13 team members. With the Kickstarter campaign, they look to ramp up production and bring on new staff to be able to take this dream to market.
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Steven’s commitment and willingness to go all in for something he believes in is an absolute picture perfect
example of what many game developers feel toward their creations. We will definitely be keeping an eye on this one over the next year and be offering some coverage. We are even actively polling our members to see if there is interest in what could be one of the biggest MMORPG’s to hit the western world in the past decade.
Learn more at: http://gsch.info/play/aoc
Crowdfunding
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Pathfinder: Kingmaker Clears Kickstarter Goal with Flying Colors
Crowdfunding
By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
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The Pathfinder universe has tried in the past to make entrances in the gaming world and to date it has never been realized to it’s full potential. Owlcat Games launched their kickstarter for their Isometric RPG in the vein of Baldur’s Gate this past June and managed to bring in 182% of their $500,000 funding goal for a total of $909,057. This entry into the Pathfinder universe focuses on the Kingmaker campaign which is highly popular among Pathfinder fans. It will be really interesting to
keep an eye on this single player RPG and see how it holds up in a market saturated with isometric RPGs. So far from my perspective it looks like they have a great foundation and some really interesting ideas that could help push the market a bit further.
Learn more at: http://gsch.info/play/kingmaker
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Ambitious ARPG Pillars of History Aims To Make Entertainment Educational
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By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
While browsing Kickstarter for interesting titles I found one that has a really unique and awesome look at how to integrate teaching history with gaming. As a player that learned a lot of history and geography from Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Colonization, and Castles II: Siege & Conquest, games that mix education and entertainment have always held a special place in my heart. Pillars of History brings a unique blend of action RPG and medieval European history set in the 8th century. It’s designed to be an educational game with an entertaining front that people look forward to playing. Unfortunately for the team at Tritan Entertainment, I would learn about their Kickstarter too late. With
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the media being completely silent on this one and it slipped right through my fingers. I am certain that if this one had some media coverage it would have cleared it’s humble Kickstarter goal of $50,000 with flying colors. That said, I have spoken with the team behind this creative adaption of history and they do not plan to give up. They are going to ready themselves for round 2 and continue to work towards bringing this game to life. While this may be a failed Kickstarter, I wouldn’t call this title dead. This is one game the world needs and their developers aren’t going to quit until it’s live.
Learn more at: http://gsch.info/play/poh
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Review
Ghost Recon Wildlands is
a Cooperative Dream Come True By Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
The latest addition to the Tom Clancy universe is a bit of a mixed bag for many players. While the solo experience falls short due to the less than bright AI of your squadmates and the endlessly childish remarks, the real beauty of this game shines bright when you join a friend in it’s drop-in drop-out cooperative gameplay.
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Story
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The game world is a massive recreation of Bolivia set in a fictional setting. Yes people speak Spanish, yes they call it Bolivia, but that’s about where fact stops and fiction begins. This is such an over the top plot that pits players against a cartel network led by a delusional religious zealot turned gangster. The villains are as evil as they get, and very easy to dislike. There are several that you’ll be left saying, did they just go there? All in all I found the missions engaging and fun as long as you have a friend playing with you. When I went at them alone I found them frustrating. The story will pull you forward and you’ll be left saying “Just one more” a lot. I can’t tell you the number of “extra hours” this game managed to get out of me. While I don’t think I could honestly say this is the best Tom Clancy storyline, I don’t feel it was that bad. I would say probably a 5 out of 10. I can think of a 100
handful of games that are much worse in the plot department. Think of it like the Expendables movie. You’re not going to see it for the plot, you’re going to see it because of the over the top action. This is what Wildlands does best. The story merely sets the canvas that you will paint upon.
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Wildlands is best played with friends and I would not advise playing alone. You’d be really doing yourself a disservice and I doubt you’d have the same experience as you would bringing a friend along. This title really shines as a cooperative title and should be
There is a vast world to explore with every type of terrain you could think of. There are random events that spawn in the world to help you build resources and experience and there are caches of weapon parts, weapons, skill points and medals around the world for you to collect and discover. On the weapon side, there are hundreds of combinations of weapons and accessories to give you a customized experience tailored to your gameplay style. While I’d give the solo gameplay a 5 out of 10, I’d give the cooperative gameplay a 9 out of 10. It is a vastly better game without the useless AI teammates ruining the show. I would give it a higher rating if you could turn the AI off.
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The gameplay in Wildlands is very familiar to anyone that has played a Ghost Recon game. This edition throws a dash of Just Cause into the mix giving you the ability to explore a vast world, blow up a lot of stuff, and have some hilarious engagements in the process.
played that way for the best possible experience.
Sound During your time playing Wildlands you will enjoy 101
positional sound where you can hear exactly where someone is shooting from. The directional sound system is phenomenal.
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That said, there are several settings that were introduced post launch that you’re going to want to play without the gate. The radio is atrocious. It’s like some 7th grader played FarCry 4 and decided to make it even more obscene, to the point of being straight ridiculous. I’m all for a little humor and admit vulgarities go a long way to create humor if done right. However they missed the mark so far off base that they likely hit the person standing behind them trying to hit that target. I don’t know that it possibly can get any worse.
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The radio in this game was the leading reason I drove every car off a cliff to make it stop. Fortunately Ubisoft heard the legion of cries for a feature to disable it and threw in a handy toggle to turn radios off. This was the best thing they’ve added to the game since launch.
Conclusion Wildlands definitely is not without its struggles and as a solo game I would not recommend this to anyone. However, if you enjoy a good cooperative game like Army of Two or Halo, or perhaps wish that Just Cause 3 was multiplayer, then this is a must play title. There is much to love in the cooperative
experience and I can personally endorse picking this one up to play with your friends in good conscience. It is a huge game with a lot of world to explore and a lot of interesting situations for a group of friends to create some hilarious moments in. The bottom line is this game is crazy fun with friends, and I highly encourage you to try it with your crew.
The Bad The radio is enough to make someone quit playing but fortunately that can be turned off now. The single player experience is a less than desirable one, and there are a few bugs that can spoil the experience rather quickly.
The Good The Cooperative Gameplay is by far the biggest shining light in this game. The audio minus the radio is great, and there are a huge number of guns and accessories to customize your arsenal. This is the Just Cause Multiplayer we kept wishing we had. It offers a huge world for your friends to explore and dozens of missions waiting to be completed. The drop-in / drop-out multiplayer is awesome and you never skip a beat. There are a lot of bright lights in the win column surrounding the cooperative side of the game.
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Make Every Bullet Count in Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
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In what just might be the most realistic sniper game to date, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 delivers a lifelike experience complete with running, climbing, problem solving and, of course, sniping. Now before we go too far I want to make one thing clear. If you are a player who can’t sit still, own a fidget spinner, or have to check your facetime every other minute you might want to skip this one. This game is not a game for those who can’t sit still and think patience is something you find at a hospital. This is the most realistic sniper simulator available on the PlayStation 4 and the life of a sniper is a calculated and planned one. Being a sniper most of all requires patience. Knowing when and from where to pull the trigger. You also have to read the wind, weather, distance and altitude. 104
Even on the easiest mode wind changes the trajectory of your bullets, bullet drop is unique to the type of bullet you are firing and the weapon you are firing it from. There’s a lot to consider before taking a shot.
Gameplay Stealth and tactics are highly encouraged in Sniper Ghost Warrior 3. There are a lot of missions that require you wait around in a bush until the shot is right. If that’s not your idea of fun I suggest you move along. However if you like the thrill of the hunt, and the heart pounding adrenaline rush of shooting your way out of a situation that went south, then this is your game. From start to finish this game is a shot of adrenaline
that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Limited ammunition and silencer duration are just two of the considerations players must make when planning their assault. There are plenty of situations you might have to grab a weapon off a fallen soldier to find enough bullets to get yourself out of a pinch. Several missions don’t go as planned and you’ll be forced to think on the fly and strategically get yourself out of a hot zone. The game really shines as a calculated experience that is most rewarding when the player takes the time to plan their assault.
Graphics This is one part that I feel really shine in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3. The graphics are on par with FarCry 4, Skyrim, and Horizons. There are beautiful sunrises and sets, forests, and snow capped mountains to explore. The interface is clean and easy to understand and all the data you need to make the perfect shot is available to you on your HUD. I’ve spent a great deal of time exploring the land, finding caves, lost treasures and encampments. The world is beautiful and engaging.
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Story At the heart of this story is a tale of two brothers. One who leads the straight and narrow life and followed the rules. The other a bit of a loose cannon with a quick wit and snarky comments. In the early stage of the game the brothers are separated by a mysterious figure. You spend the rest of the game working your way to figuring out where your brother went. Taking down anyone or anything that stands in your way. From straight and narrow to bending the rules for family.
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This story didn’t come off as the most engaging out the gate, but as the story progressed I found myself intrigued. By the time you hit the wedding scene you’ll be left wondering, what’s really going on here. It’s a bit slow to develop and most of the first act you’ll be
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learning the key players in the story. The second act is where it really takes off and spreads its wings.
Conclusion Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is quite an adventure and a great addition to the widely popular stealth action genre. It offers a small dose of RPG skill development, some micro management of bullet acquisition, and a bit of calculated strategy to pull off many of the missions. For those who like to explore the land is vast and has many points of interest along the way. While the game world isn’t the size of Skyrim or Ghost Recon WIldlands, it does offer a lot of variety in landscapes and some interesting places. I think the real charm is the ability to take on missions a wide
variety of ways. I find myself personally bouncing between taking targets out at long range and also going in for melee kills to conserve bullets. Every situation is a canvas waiting to be painted. How you paint it is up to you. But I can tell you patience pays off.
The Good The game is beautiful. It is right on par with the FarCry series. Combat feels visceral and the strategy minded will find lots of fun new ways to complete a mission. The added difficulty of worrying about weather, wind, bullet velocity, and silencer durability add to the tense situations that you’ll be finding yourselves in.
The Bad There are quite a few glitches when climbing that are distracting but not game stopping. The worst gripe I’ve had so far is the 2 minute or longer load screen when you first start the game. After that it’s smooth sailing but you might as well get the thing loading while you run to the kitchen for a drink. It will be a full 2 minutes or more before it’s ready to play. The team is actively patching it to speed it up so this problem might not even exist by the time you read this. Lastly the plot wasn’t very unpredicatable. All in all I don’t really have that much to complain about.
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Adding Insult To Injury with Styx: Shards of Darkness By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley
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I will admit. The little green goblin gasbag Styx was recently introduced to me in a fan recommended Side Quest. When I originally saw Styx, I made the incorrect assumption that it was like Overlord, where you play a bad guy and just go steal stuff for no reason. I never gave the game a chance just because I typically don’t play the bad side of anything. Oh, how wrong I was.
Introducing Styx Masters of Shadows The original Styx had charm, character, and humor. It’s soundtrack was amazing, it’s gameplay thrilling, and it’s plot surprisingly was rich with story and you actually end up playing a protagonist. There are a few things you can guarantee with any Styx game, crude humor, lots of sneaking around, puzzle solving, and a very unforgiving combat system
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in the vein of Dark Souls. You will spend a lot of time dying in Styx and in the first one a long load screen of shame.
Continuing the Adventure Now I thought the first game was amazing, when I heard the second was on its way, I had to get my hands on it. Then I learned it had co-operative play and I was really excited. When I received my press copy of Shards of Darkness I could not wait to start playing. The sequel offers many unique improvements to the series. The first and most welcome that I’d like to point out is the Death Screens! Now whenever you die Styx will come out of the afterlife and pay you a compliment.... yeah that’s it a compliment. These
“compliments” are the variety that literally made water come out my nose at one point. Styx is a vile little creature and doesn’t appreciate you getting him killed. He will share a piece of his mind every time you die. This made the worst part of the first game, one of the most entertaining parts of the sequel. The second notable change was the scale of the maps and the expanded number of ways to complete objectives. The first game had smaller maps that had limited routes to get to your objective. Shards of Darkness expands that, giving you a much larger canvas to paint your trail of deceit and mayhem.
The Third major change involved Styx being above ground rather than below. In the first title you spend almost all of your time in dark areas, long absent of the bright ball of fire in the sky. This gave the game a much darker tone and color palette. In Masters of Shadows, you will engage a world vibrant with color, beautiful skylines, and breathtaking views. The game is much brighter and colorful than its first chapter, which is both a boon and a curse. For a game you spend most of your time jumping from shadow to shadow, daylight plays a fun challenge in keeping to the shadows. But that doesn’t take away
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the fact that you will enjoy the beauty of the scenery and game world. I for one enjoy not having to use my amber vision to spot bad guys all the time.
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On a storyline front, the game allies you with the C.A.R.N.A.G.E squad, which hunts the likes of you. They become your trusted allies and employers as you work together to unravel a mystery. I don’t want to reveal too much of the story as it’s actually quite good, with lots of surprises. Trust me when I say this game is well worth a playthrough or three.
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While the Styx series didn’t sell me on first look, my viewers encouraged me to give it a chance and I have never been more thankful to them as I am now. I will gladly admit that Styx: Masters of Shadows and Styx: Shards of Darkness, now live among my favorite game of all time. If you enjoy a challenge and a good stealth game like Thief or even Sly Cooper, I highly recommend giving Styx a chance. He’s a lovable little guy once you get past that rough exterior. Just make sure you’re wearing your troll skin because your gonna need it to endure his insults.
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Launching Stationeers Dean Hall talks irradiated roosters and why we play By Ed ‘Screenager’ Orr
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RockewWerkz newest title, Stationeers, has landed in London. Described by game director Dean Hall as a hardcore take on the survival experience, it challenges players to build and maintain a station in a fully explorable, three dimensional universe. Opening on a solitary asteroid, players must struggle to survive against malignant forces.
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London’s EGX Rezzed is the first public presentation of Stationeers but it is not RocketWerkz first iteration of the game. Several years of development, millions of dollars, and at least two other versions of the game were necessary to launch this project in its current form. A two dimensional Stationeers even exists, buried somewhere in the RocketWerkz archives. Inspiration
is drawn from a variety of sources. Aesthetically, it is comparable to other voxel based games. It looks gorgeous, and RocketWerkz has put significant effort into the game’s lighting, yet it still retains the same bold design that games like Trove and Minecraft are synonymous with. On the surface, the game’s voxels present a bright, chunky personality. However, Dean Hall’s space Duplo hides a much darker underbelly. Stationeers is an unrelenting race to survive. Mining, shelter, manufacturing, farming, harvesting, and exploring are all present but take on a new level of urgency in space. Nothing is freely available. If players want to last long then heat, water, oxygen, fuel, and even the most basic building materials need to scavenged, processed, and managed using a range of facilities. These intertwining subsystems range from airlocks, to waste disposal, ore processing, and air conditioning units. Survival is a fundamental component of Stationeers and heavily derived from community creation, Station 13. Like Station 13, exploding lungs are the least of a player’s worries when working with a crew. Sationeers is already capable of hosting up to sixteen players in the same online instance of the game, blowing it open to a whole world of intrigue and politics. Unhinged crew, alien skulduggery, or just space trolls can cause far more damage to a mission than the
worst meteor shower. Forcing players to retreat into a form of extreme isolationism is not the ideal goal for any multiplayer experience however. Spending too long alone in space is not just boring but will seriously damage a character’s sanity rating. In an effort to introduce an objective and incentivise some cooperative play, RocketWerkz has inserted away missions. These are, as you would expect, missions to strange new worlds with new resources, different atmospheres, and challenge to overcome, as Dean explained. “The question we ask is why are you building the station? Yes, we can do stuff like run a space hotel or a space prison but we wanted a bit more than that. This completes the loop. The idea is that you build these shuttles and you go off on away missions. In fact, we took a lot of inspiration from how you build your ships in Kerbal Space Program. The first part of a ship that you build is one chunk with a module on it, where you can add different things like a passenger compartment, or an airlock, or an engine compartment. So, you build your shuttle just like you do in Kerbals.” Like Kerbal Space Program and Space Engineers, Stationeer’s game engine is appropriately realistic. Physics, gravity, atmospherics, chemical, and sanity systems can all turn against a station and provide
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an adequate challenge, which Dean elaborated on during our hands on. “We are really going for something quite hardcore and provide you with something that you work on for a period of time. When we were working on the 2D prototype for this, we were working on the same station for six months. You go ahead and you add these really detailed system like atmosphere and you have to worry about filtering out carbon monoxide, filtering out choline and say something goes wrong. It doesn’t end well”
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Over two days I’ve already confirmed that roosters and chemicals do not mix, watched more than a few explosive decompressions, and watched as players struggle to get to grips with the game’s commands. Stationeers is in a very early state but shows definite
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promise. RocketWerkz still has a huge list of unfinished systems, some of which have caused more compromise than others. “So, we are still looking at revising the radiation system. We did have it in the two dimensional prototype but it became a real problem. As soon as you mined uranium, radioactive dust would get over everything so that as soon as you tried to move it would just spread everywhere and everything would have to be cleaned to get rid of the contamination” After sinking millions into Stationeers, RocketWerkz has a charming, complex, and intensely brutal experience that is likely to cause as much death and destruction as Kerbals did. Just remember not to wear the red shirt when you get the chance to sit down to play Stationeers.
Shiness is an action-RPG that takes you on a journey across a universeon the verge of collapse. After crash-landing on a hostile island, you find yourself in a conflict spanning multiple kingdoms. Face off against dangerous enemies in hyper-dynamic fights, mixing magic with traditional fighting game mechanics. Gain experience to evolve your characters, learning exciting new skills and spells.
/ShinessGame
/shinessofficial
/focusinteractive
PC © 2017 ENIGAMI and FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE. SHINESS is a game developed by ENIGAMI and published by FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE, based on an original work of Samir REBIB. SHINESS and its logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of ENIGAMI. FOCUS, FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE and its logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE. All other trademarks or registered trademarks belong to their respective owners. All rights reserved. «2»,»PlayStation» and «PS4» are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. «Ø» is a trademark of the same company. All rights reserved. Kinect, Xbox, Xbox LIVE and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft. Unreal, Unreal Engine, the circle-U logo and the Powered by Unreal Engine logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. All rights reserved.
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Experience the Horrific Greatness of Outlast Trinity By: Vaelushyn
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Hello all! Vaelushyn here, hostess of Twitch channel Vael’s Corner and proclaimed Horror Queen, to bring you my own personal review of Outlast 2! Take into account as you read this that I have yet to finish the entire game, and am only giving my general assessment based on what I’ve played so far. Having said that let us delve into the world of Outlast 2 and see if this is the next thriller game for you!
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While this doesn’t necessarily affect the game itself, I found it noteworthy to point out that as the name “Outlast Trinity” implies, it actually comes in two separate discs that include the entire Outlast series, along with Outlast 2. While those of us who have followed the series have long since played Outlast and Outlast: Whistleblower, it offers veteran Outlast players a way to refresh our memories on the old storyline before diving into the newest installment, as well as newcomers a chance to experience all the horrific greatness before jumping headfirst into a very story oriented Outlast 2.
Graphics Now for the nitty gritty on Outlast 2 itself. While many just coming off of a beautifully gory piece of eye candy like Resident Evil 7 will find themselves disappointed that the graphics aren’t nearly as shiny, I actually don’t hold this against this game at all. In fact I’m actually glad they didn’t gloss it up too much, and here’s why. The Outlast series is made to be seen through the camera lens of the protagonist, each one having a good 80% or more taking place at night or in pitch black areas needing night vision from said camera to find your way along. This gives the game a slightly grainy, gritty look since this is from a camera imaging and not your actual eye. If you’ve ever watched the movie Quarantine, this is a perfect example of what I’m talking about (if not go watch it! Great movie!). I personally feel beautifully detailed eye candy would have ruined that feel, so for me the balance of updated graphics feels like a new game, while keeping that camera lens look was 100% nailed in Outlast 2.
Story As far as story goes, while I haven’t beaten the game yet I literally can’t wait until my next stream so I can jump right back in it, which tells you I’m loving this story. Outlast 2 delves into the story of young reporter Blake Langerman and his wife Lynn, who hear about a young woman found wandering barefoot and pregnant in the wilderness with no recollection of why she was there. Knowing the site has repeatedly been reported as an occult practice area, the two set out to do a live broadcast, when their chopper mysteriously loses power and crashes. You start from here trying to find your wife, and what exactly does exist at ground zero of these sightings is far beyond what either could have possibly expected. The story immediately pulls you in as you start the game. You transition seamlessly from feeling lost and the urgent need to hunt for your wife who has vanished after the chopper crash, frantically working your way past a very hostile and extreme occult civilization, to at random times entering an almost Silent Hill schoolyard like atmosphere where you question if anything you just experienced actually happened. Is the cult reality, or the school, or is neither
and this is simply a state of mind much like Silent Hill Homecoming or Downpour? This constant shifting in the story makes you eager to continue the game and find out what exactly is going on. The detail in each aspect of this story doesn’t disappoint either. Brief encounters with your wife fuel you to want to find her again, if only just to get the next clue as to why this cult wants her so badly. The well known documents and notes in every Outlast game are present in this one as well, but actually seem to add a much more personalized touch to this game than even the first two of the series. Each document in Outlast 2 is either scripture from the cult, showing in extremely graphic detail what they worship and how, or in a more personal touch other notes are from many of the cult followers to give you many P.O.V.s to view this cult from. From the fanatical believers who gain disturbing pleasure in their murderous practices, the suicidal cases who ended their lives having witnessed or taken part in things they can no longer live with, to hymns and prayers of their faith, each aspect is well documented and leaves you wanting to know more to understand it, or at least understand it enough to survive it and find a way out.
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I cannot stress enough though, this game should only be played when there are no chance that children can wander in. When I say the story is extremely graphic I mean this literally. Actual biblical scripture names and references are used in this story, as well as strong language such as the “c word” are used in said scriptures. While I’m not personally offended in occult religion based stories nor strong language, if you’re an easily offended person this game is most definitely not for you.
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They say the devil is in the details and Outlast 2 doesn’t disappoint here either. While certain things were always recorded to prompt written notes made by the previous two protagonists in the Outlast series, notes in this game are prompted in game to have you, the player, record specific areas or photograph said documents. While this might not seem special, the great part of this is that once you record these areas and/or documents and look at them in your camera, the main character commentates the footage you shot or lets you clean up bloody documents etc to allow for reading words you might not have seen
otherwise. Watching your own footage in the game with commentary makes you feel more involved as the reporter instead of just reading pre written notes once a clue is recorded. Even the photographed notes are a godsend to my limited vision, as you can zoom in on each note to read them with ease. If all these things weren’t enough, coming from someone who enjoys the smallest details, I personally love the fact that depending on who wrote the documents the handwriting will be different as well. The icing on the cake is also that if you’re a completionist like myself, the camera itself has a document/photo section that shows each document and video in order of collection, so the second you miss a note or document it gives you an idea of roughly where you missed it so you can reload, if needed, and hunt up what you missed. One last aspect of gameplay is the addition of a microphone on your camera. The concept of the mic is to allow you to hear when someone is near you if you’re hiding or if vision is poor. I actually adore this mic and would use this on a continuous basis just to hear the different preachings, prayers, and hymns the people in the cult ramble on about as you progress
since it adds more personal detail to the game about the daily lives of the people of this village. Sadly this is where I have to give a huge glaring penalty on this game. Everyone who’s ever played an Outlast game knows night vision on your camera requires batteries, and that said batteries run out fast and are few and far between. While that in itself isn’t my criticism, as it just adds challenge to the game, the fact they didn’t create a separate power source for the mic makes it nearly impossible to enjoy this new feature and therein lies my penalty. If you need night vision to see you can’t run the mic full force and if you need both you can kiss that battery goodbye in minutes.
Sound The sound in this game is incredibly spot on to portray the mood from one scenario to the next. Scenes can be a variety of sounds, from eerie quiet with just the crackling of a fire, footsteps crunching over gravel roads or the swish of the corn stalks as you wade through fields, hiding from flashlight clad fanatics as they converse with one another. Unseen children’s fearful singing of an elementary school hymn echo through a seemingly empty school, followed by lockers bursting open and closed breaking up the quiet as an ominous laugh can be heard causing the children to scream and scattered footsteps heard. Whether it’s
quiet moments like these or the frantic chase music that you will likely encounter many times in this game, the game does an excellent job of making you never truly feel safe at all. Let us not overlook the voice acting as well. The protagonist Blake Langermann is very expressive in narrating both scenarios as they unfold, as well as footage that you shoot when you find recordings and complete them, though admittedly you might find yourself wanting to shoot him yourself after being reminded the thousandth time of your objective EVERY time you check your camera to view a document or recording. Your wife Lynn portrays her terror well as you encounter her in fleeting exchanges before you’re quickly left alone again. The real beauty in voicing however for me was each individual character of the cult itself. This is where the flaw of the mic burning up those batteries double time really hurts in my opinion. There’s so many great little gems to be found in the sound of this game that add to the heavily fanatical religious cult that the game revolves around. From simple prayers, to scripture quoting from the same cross wielding lady who will likely tear you to pieces many times over, hymns sang out and worship, and many little hidden conversations scattered throughout both the cult and the school building you’ll find yourself in repeatedly. Mind you, despite this drawback I’m
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able to point all these things out to you now, but that’s mainly because I died and had to redo a lot of this game from checkpoint to checkpoint. What you do hear by snooping, or simply being a completionist like myself trying to get every document and recording for trophies, it’s the small voice overs and sound effects that truly let you appreciate how much detail was put into every aspect of this game. If you could keep the mic out long enough to catch them all that is.
Difficulty This category can either be a great or absolutely horrible thing for you depending on whether you’re an old gamer vet like myself who enjoyed games back when they were never actually designed with you winning in mind, or a much more casual gamer who likes actually seeing a light at the end of the tunnel so they can move on to the next game in the mass produced market that gaming has become in this day and age. Having said that, be ready to die. A lot. When I say a lot, I mean I’m playing this on normal, which is this game’s version of easy, and there are times where I’ve spent a solid hour or more just trying to figure out how to dodge the residents of Temple Gate, or even more so just trying to get by aforementioned “crazy cross lady”.
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The reason for this is the AI is incredibly good in this game. In previous Outlast games, if you found a wall
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to squeeze through or a sewer grate / air duct to crawl into you could simply sit there, point and laugh until the enemy chasing you gave up in disgust and left you for the time being. This made them easy by no means whatsoever, but it at least gave you a few options to dodge enemies if seen. Having this knowledge on Outlast 2, I very confidently dove under a house crawl space in a chase scene and began to shuffle around under the house to see if I found a battery or bandage, only to turn around and be mauled by the same cultist who apparently now knows how to crawl under small spaces with me. I met the same result crawling under a tractor as well so that ever so tiny safety net gets ripped right out from under you. As if that isn’t bad enough, the AI has gotten pretty darn good at guesstimating where you ran off to hide and now looks in one barrel / tree stump / under each bed etc at a time around the area he or she thinks you’re hiding at, and they’re usually right so be ready to run again soon. Lastly it’s rarely one enemy after you now since this is literally an entire town, so be prepared for multiple enemies on the hunt at once. That said, I welcome a good old fashioned challenge so I see myself definitely trying this in Nightmare mode for an impossibly awesome win! Even I have difficulty limits though and Insane mode pretty much meets me at my limit. Don’t get me wrong, there has been an Insane mode in every Outlast game made, but a mode based on Nightmare difficulty with no
ability to save or even find a checkpoint EVER in the entirety of the game is just borderline impossible to ever do. After about the fourth or fifth time of making decent progress just to die and watch your game start completely over you begin to seriously wonder if the creators of Insane Mode are actually insane, or if you are for still trying to beat Insane Mode.
without straight up copying it. To those who played Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Wii you can’t help but notice that same feel here. As you seamlessly slip between school and cult worlds you find yourself disoriented and truly wondering if this is a state of mind or is actually happening and wanting to keep playing to find out.
Again, I’m not penalizing this game for being tough to beat, simply warning you of what you’re getting into once you start this game, even in its tamest difficulty. Those who brave it though are well rewarded for the effort.
Again I do caution this game contains STRONG and disturbing sexual references that would make the creator of the Kama Sutra blush, language to match the saltiest sailor and such definitive and descriptive religious cult material as to literally mention using “Grape-Aid to cover the taste of the water” that I definitely don’t recommend this for the easily disturbed or those with small children that love to watch what you tell them not to.
Overall Where Resident Evil 7: Biohazard sends you on a gorgeously horrific journey into its own eye candy adorned almost “The Shining” like version of its brand truly unlike anything they’ve ever created and should absolutely be praised, don’t catch yourself trying to compare Outlast 2 to it. This is a survival horror game in its most base, raw form that leaves you tense and on edge from the second you start the game until the credits roll. You’ll never see so much as a pocket knife to defend yourself, or find any backup rushing in to save the day when all seems lost. It’s just you versus an entire town with only your wits and your feet to make your way through the game. The real beauty of it is I truly get the old school Silent Hill feel from this game
Warning aside though, this game truly is a masterpiece and deserves a definite look. Once you look, I guarantee you won’t turn away until you see this through to the end. All said and done, because of the mic killing the battery double time and thus not getting to enjoy all the little things in the game, as well as getting reminded of my goal to the point of feeling punished for just wanting to read a document or view a recording, I give this game a:
Score: 8.5/10
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Fortnite
2 Lawbreakers
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
3 Master X Master
Orcs Must Die! Unchained (PS4)
4 Gigantic
Marvel Heroes Omega
5 Atlas Reactor
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Citadel: Forged with Fire
Global Adventures
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Pillars of History
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Gaiscioch Football’s Wild Winter Season Ends in Victory By: Benjamin “Foghladha” Foley It has been one of the most brutal winters to date in Portland, Oregon. The Gaiscioch competitive men’s 5-on-5 Flag Football team took to the field to not only battle high winds and rain, but also snow, sleet and hail. Several games were absolutely miserable, but that didn’t stop the Gaiscioch drive to succeed.
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The past few years have been rough for Gaiscioch as they’ve cycled through team members. They were merged with another team and then had that team split and take all but 3 of their team members. With Josh Hvass, Benjamin Foley, and Don Rush as the core they brought back quarterback Anthony Davis to give them a bit of a gunslinger edge.
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They set off on a quest to rebuild the team with fresh blood and skill. Don Rush brought two of his friends Anthony Holloway and Ethan Moreland onto the team. As luck would have it, they’d run across a new transplant to the Portland area. Jamie Goodwick joined the team the week he arrived in Portland.
Lastly, Josh brought his friend Bryce Hacker onto the team as well as his uncle, Brandon Scott. With this new team, they set off on a course to rebuild the team and regain their championship title. Unfortunately their primary quarterback, Anthony Davis would be taken out of the game due to schedule conflicts and bad weather making driving to Portland much more difficult from his southern Washington home. This is where backup Quarterback Benjamin Foley took the helm of the team and led them to a 3-1 regular season record. Playoffs came and the Gaiscioch stood before their longtime friend and rivals, Lollygaggers who were going by the fun name “Do You Know Chaka Jones?” in honor of one of their team members. The Gaiscioch had only defeated them once before across their 6 year rivalry. The last time they won was 2012 and just so happens to be the first playoff game Benjamin Foley ever quarterbacked in the league.
In that game the Gaiscioch defeated them 77 to 58. Could Foley deliver the same victory after 5 years of losing to the Lollygaggers? The game started off close but the Gaiscioch held in there. Turnovers and miscues lead to the Gaiscioch breaking ahead by second half. The second half lit the fire even hotter as the Gaiscioch swept their opponent 58 to 24. The next challenge would not be so easy. The last challenge in the league stood in the form of the Hoodrats, who earlier in the season Gaiscioch managed to defeat with a last second sack with a lead by 1 point. But the Hoodrats had never seen Foley play QB. In the original face off primary quarterback Anthony Davis hammered them deep with his unstoppable arm. In this matchup backup quarterback Foley would have to face off against this aggressive foe. Now the thing about Foley, or as many in the gaming world know him “Foghladha”, is a psychological warfare fan. He gets in people’s heads without them even knowing it, he plays shadow games, and he can literally throw a ball accurately without even looking directly at his receiver. He started the game off by telling his opponent that he would throw rock during the rock, paper, scissor match to decide who has ball and direction. This is a long running tradition of his and usually works well in his favor. The goal was to get the ball first and hopefully get direction second half, as the wind wasn’t very favorable to the south side of the field. As Foley threw rock the other team’s lack of trust lead them to throw scissor. Foley won and decided to take ball. The opponent oddly chose to go with the wind, giving Gaiscioch the wind at their back second half. Well at least that was the plan.
The next series the Hoodrats would finally score their first points of the game. Foley didn’t lighten up and took it to the house once more by hitting Josh on a fly route, putting them up 26 to 6. The final drive of the first half, the Hoodrats drove all the way to the 1 yard line. In the last play of the half, instead of just flipping the ball to the center for the touchdown, the Hoodrats QB decided to loft it up to the back corner to their tallest receiver. Little did they know Jamie Goodwick had some serious hops and picked the ball right out of the air, running it most of the way back before pitching to to Anthony Holloway for a touchdown placing the Gaiscioch up 32 to 6. At this point the Hoodrats literally said “F*#% this, we’re out” and walked off the field. They forfeited the game before it was even officially half time. The Gaiscioch were announced the victor of the C-League Championship and would enjoy the spoils of war in the form of a case of beer! Congratulations Gaiscioch for playing your hearts out against all that mother nature had to throw at you. Your perseverance paid off. This victory was bittersweet for one Gaiscioch member, as Foley had not played quarterback in a championship game since his 1997 victory at Nike’s Air-it-Out Football Tournament in San Francisco California. Oddly enough the other team in that championship forfeited too. After 20 years, Foley came out of retirement to lead his team to victory in what will be one of his fondest memories of all time.
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The first series Foley went under center for some quick plays that marched the ball down the field. Then Foley and Don ran their center sneak play, where Don snaps the ball to Foley and Foley gives the ball back to the center before popping up and faking a slant to his receiver. The Hoodrats bit and before they realized it Don was near the opposing endzone. A quick toss to Anthony Holloway and the first points were on the board.
The very first defensive play ricocheted off an offensive player right into the hands of Jamie Goodwick, who was then tackled by the opposing team’s wide receiver, thus drawing a 15 yard penalty and a warning to the Hoodrats. The very next play Foley connected with Goodwick, giving the Gaiscioch their second touchdown putting them up 14 to 0. The next drive, the Gaiscioch stopped them on fourth and three giving the Gaiscioch their next shot at scoring. The Gaiscioch again drilled one home with an Anthony Holloway post over the middle.
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Gaming with Multiple Sclerosis By: Althea “Briseadh” Damgaard
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I’ve been a gamer one way or another since I was a teenager. Now I’m still at it as a grandmother and disabled with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). I have a lot of the issues that Gma writes about in her Grammy Gamer article this issue, but compounded by MS.
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As far as life goes, MS has stopped me from working, but most of the things I love to do I still can. I just have to do them in shorter stints and break up where and how I sit on the bad days. One of the things that can happen with MS is spasticity, where the
muscles cramp or feel cramped for no reason at all. I can hold a piece of paper in my left hand and some days have my entire arm flare up. The other thing it causes is numbness and tingling. I can have a wide variety of muscle cramping, numbness and tingling from day to day. Thankfully most of my issues are in my arms, so I can definitely go for walks and I try to do so as much as possible, even if it takes me a lot longer to get there and back. Of course, the not so fun part is when things flare up. Much like the points in Grammy Gamer, I have to be even more aware of stress, fatigue, pain, and vision issues. Everything tires out faster and is downright unpredictable. I definitely need to stretch often when at the computer. I have a cheap chair, but it fits me quite well with the support where I need it most. It’s actually more comfortable than my couch on some days. The great thing is that I enjoy a lot of different games. Sometimes I have to give up on playing a lot of the MMOs because my hands don’t want to work with any of my setups. I actually have three ways to deal with game play. One is the standard keyboard and mouse. I’m a trained touch typist so muscle memory helps a lot with this – well, when the fingers aren’t too numb to find home row. I go with this more often than not. When the left arm is bothering me a lot more in
the shoulder, I have a left-handed game pad I will sit in my lap. The last option that doesn’t last long, however, is a right handed gaming mouse with twelve buttons. Usually my right thumb gets annoyed after thirty minutes. The other option is to not play fast paced games or ones that have a lot of movement with fighting going on. If I’m free at the time, I like opting for GMa’s fun map clear events as the pace is easy, we have lots of fun, and I don’t feel like I’ll be lost or splatted by some mob if I need extra breaks during the event. WvW in Guild Wars 2 is right out, unless my hands are willing to work well enough. But there are even slower options of fun gaming. Winning Putt is a golf game that does not stress out the hands at all. It can become stressful if your reaction timing is off. I’ve done plenty of hooks, slices and over swings in the game to see my ball wind up in the water, bunkers and lots of time in the rough. I can still make par sometimes winding up in the rough. I pulled this game back out recently, due to my hands having a lot of issues the past couple of months or so. And another gaming option I have is tabletop D&D, but virtually. I play with one group of friends from Gaiscioch on Roll20. Then there is the fun of playby-post when with a group of great storytellers and role players. I have three I currently enjoy immensely
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on D&D Beyond. My love of D&D and other tabletop games led me to testing D&D Beyond, which is to be a digital compendium to go with tabletop gaming. It will allow for all the information to be had in one place along with character creation options and the fun of campaign management, including homebrew options. It’s just another gaming thing I can do without the worry of my hands, as long as they let me type that is. I’ll probably write an article about D&D Beyond once the testing is done.
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Working on this magazine is something else I can do as long as life and MS are not causing too much stress or fatigue. I have to admit I’ve been a bit hodgepodge on being around to edit for this issue due to things being pretty off through late winter and taking a good deal of April to get over. Funny thing is, the same time last year, more into May, was when things wigged out enough I had to take a break and I did not do a whole lot on that issue either. I had to joke about being a senior editor and I couldn’t even read someone’s name correctly while trying to see where we were in the editing process. Even with spreadsheets and various folders to put the work in
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for what stage it is in, we can still make mistakes and confuse ourselves. We are all human after all. Usually my MS screws me up, but it won’t stop me from trying to be a part of this magazine. The great thing with Gaiscioch is that even with the magazine people can come and go as they want to. We are a crew that knows real life gets in the way and we love to have people that are here for the fun. Our motto is to play how you want, when you want. We have all sorts of fun ways to gain rank in the family, but nothing says you have to either. We even have a mentor system for those that do want to learn and do more. It’s definitely a good place to game whether you are a crazy middle aged lady like me with MS, another Grammy Gamer like GMa, or in college and everything in between. Check out our demographics to see we pretty much hit many age groups and are global. I’m glad I found this group to play with even before I had the diagnosis of MS and all the issues. We all need a community where we can feel welcome and have fun. Hopefully you all find yours, but don’t hesitate to check us out if you are looking.
No matter what your health is, it is always good practice to know when to say no to a game. If agitated, take a break. If you have sat too long, get up and move around. Eat healthy and exercise. Keep your house clean. In the end, having your priorities straight will
make your gaming time more enjoyable, even if they did not turn out perfect. Gaming friends should totally understand this and not be upset by how you play.
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Grammy Gamer: The Challenges of Gaming as a Senior
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By Esther (Gma Fog) Foley
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When Gma Fog was young, she lived life at a fast pace and could keep up with herself. Good reflexes and sports were her thing. Now at 62 years old, she thinks, “ Where has the time gone?” In the beginning of life, things change slowly and then all of a sudden, it’s gone. In real life, her mind as well as body see and feel things differently. As a gamer, the way Gma plays is different too. There are many things that change, but that doesn’t mean you “can’t” play. She will go over a few of these changes in this article and give suggestions that worked for her. These challenges are priorities, confusion, vision, motion sickness, physical pain, response time, and stress of the battle. There are ways you can combat these issues and still be a Grammy Gamer!
Priorities in Life As I become older, I realize how my priorities have changed over the years. At first, as a young child I remember the “Let’s have fun and be happy”. We had school responsibilities, but my priority was around game play and parties with friends. Next step, as a young adult, I fell in love, got married and had kids. (Others hung out with their friend and started work.) I had responsibilities taking care of my husband and children so didn’t have much time for anything else. Part of me said, “When I get a bit older and the kids are off on their own, I will be able to do whatever I want!” NOT….
As a senior, I still have responsibilities and have to work full time to make ends meet. So where does that leave me? An 8-10 hour a day job, cooking/cleaning after work and don’t forget grocery shopping, or in my case, doctors appointments. Maybe 2 or 3 hours are left in the day after everything else which I do like to spend at least and hour with hubby before bed, which doesn’t always happen. Add all those hours up and I have around 20 hours a week of personal time. Sometimes I forfeit my sleep, to play with the guild and suffer for it later.
How Gma Fog prioritizes her life I have to look deeply into my heart and say, “What’s more important?” For me, there are 4 important categories: Family, Work, God time and Playtime. I use a calendar and actually add all my activities including work, doctor appointments, bedtime, meal prep, gardening, shopping, visiting friends, church and personal time. Gaming goes in as personal time, and in that list, my gaming has to share with quilting,
puzzles, gardening and reading my bible.
Confusing Games and Areas Which games do I play and for how long? Ok, Gma Fog is going to make a confession. She likes 4 different games: Pirate 101, Guild Wars 2 (GW2), Elder Scrolls (ESO) and Rift. Each game has something for each mood in my life. Why do I enjoy each game? Well here are Gma’s thoughts about that question. Pirate 101 is basically my playtime with the grandkids, but I also play with some adult friends. It is a slower paced, turn-based game that has a lot of strategy, but physically easier on the hands. The Cartoon-based Characters come alive in the battles. The wonderful graphics can be seen as each character takes their turn fighting their foe. My partners and I seem to laugh a lot as we watch the powers we choose on each companion and see how these characters interact with their foe. The game is made for children, I would say age 4
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and up. My Grandsons started playing around the time they were 3. I find this game teaches children the idea of working for your “gold” and also the drudgery of doing chores, like building up your nautical xp, training your companions and pets. I love to sail the skyway to each of the worlds and pick up quests in each area as my characters grow. Guildwars 2 – This was my First Full-Strength MMO. I have lots of time, love and friendships made in this game. I run map clears and other “Just for Fun” events. There are many things to explore and do. No matter what your interest, you can find it in this game: PvP, WvW or PvE. Storylines are challenging and interesting as you pick which way to go; who to be your allies; and fighting together for the good of Tyria. I have figured out, most of the higher-level fights are more fun if you have someone with you, and I do find other challenges like jumping puzzles, the Living Story, mini dungeons, dungeons, fractals and many more. With all the updates and additions, I have not run out of content yet. ESO was a beta call for me. By the time I got a computer that would run it, I only had a week left to test it. At that point, I was picking up quests and 132
doing a lot of roaming around looking at scenery. That is what this game is all about for me and I like talking to the NPCs and listen to their story. Yes, some are serious, but talking to them is the highlight in this game. When I am in ESO, I just like hunting things down for my quest and sitting on mountain tops thinking about things. There are many battles, and fighting going on, which most people love. As for me, sitting and watching a sunset is just fine. Rift is very new to me. I was invited to join Gaiscioch in the Telara Saga, it was a great 10 weeks! I got to know people that played and learnt a bit about the Rifts and Raids. Rifts and the monsters you battle are very engaging and there is always someone to help you and show you around in Rift. This one is one I play with large groups and have a great time chatting on Discord. That being said, each game has different mechanics and different maps. Earlier, I said 20 hours of personal time. Now split that up between 4 games and all the other things I like to do in real life, so probably 12 hours left to play games. I usually have days I play Guild Wars 2 and Pirate 101 on the same day. It makes it fun when I get the maps mixed up in my head, or
Keystrokes Guild Wars 2 Interact F Map M Inventory I Autorun R Fight skills 1-0 Movement keys WASD Or Arrow keys Stear Character Right click Dodge V Walk . Target T Next Enemy Tab Character Panel H Mount none Glider Space bar and run jump Space bar Chat Box Enter
Pirate 101 X M B Number Lock Choosing power – RT Click WASD Or Arrow keys WASD Or Arrow keys none none Rt click power then RT click target none C Press Equip in your bag none Space bar Enter
how about trying to jump on a mount when we don’t have mounts. My favorite is trying to jump off a set of stairs and realize I can’t do that in Pirate 101. When talking with guildies in discord, I will say “just port to me” and realize “oops wrong game”. I find my main issue is the keystroke controls. Every game seems to have their own default setup. As an example: In Pirate 101, you can’t remap keystrokes and to interact, press x. In GW2, to interact, press F In ESO to interact press E In Rift to interact, right click on the NPC
Ways I use to help with the confusion Note: If you want to take the time and effort you can change the keystrokes, but also takes a bit of ingenuity to figure out where and what keystrokes to change. Personally, I have made a spreadsheet with the main keystrokes listed for all the games I play. (I did change a few that didn’t cause a domino effect.) I review and keep the sheet handy when switching games. Now the errors in your brain that you make between games, such as accidentally dodging off a cliff, I just laugh, revive and move on.
Vision Vision is very handy to have when you are playing games. It is very hard to see in dark areas and if your screen is too small, it is difficult to see where you are going, what you are hitting, and just forget about the chat window. At one point a couple of years back, I had scratched both my corneas due to Dry Eye Syndrome. I was told by the doctor, “This happens as you get older” Great.. Yet another fun and exciting thing to deal with as you grow old. I have to make sure I use certain eye drops to moisten them at all times. When this happened, wearing sunglasses constantly, and making sure the backlighting on the computers was low. Of course for gaming, that made it even harder to see.
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That is just to interact with NPCs and opening doors! I have found trying to change all the keystrokes to the same thing doesn’t work because what works in one game messes up other keystrokes. It has a domino effect. This includes Auto-run. R for autorun works in one game but opens the chat box in another. If you change the keystroke to R, then you have to find another free key for the chat,and it gets very confusing and complicated. Another example is steering. Some games use right click to steer and another will put you in a crouch/hide position. One funny thing I did notice, every game has “Jump”(space bar) and “Map”(M) set up with the same button. Yes, the W, A, S, D keys are also movement in each game but the camera views with the A & D are a bit different. Some “turn” right or left and others “straffe” right or left.
Rift ESO Right click on NPC E M M Ctrl F – B I Home Num Lock 1-0 1-5/ F1-F4 WASD Or Arrow keys WASD Or Arrow keys Right click Move Mouse Strafe – Q and E V Num Pad Home Tab Right Click Shift Tab Tab C ALT Left Click on mount H none none Space bar Space bar R Enter
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Ways to help with the vision issues The main thing for this situation was to get a bigger monitor, turn down the brightness and make sure to use my eye drops every hour while I was on the computer. You may want to make sure there is no reflection on your monitor and put up a room darkener on any window behind them. I’m sure this helps with other vision issues too. Just make everything larger so you can see it, but that can bring on one more issue Motion Sickness.
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Motion Sickness
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I received Guild Wars 2 one Christmas and I thought, how awesome a new game would be. It comes online full screen, I struggle with the controls to figure them out, “This is cool.” Friends come online to walk me through the basics and within a half an hour after starting to play, I’m sick to my stomach. Motion sick?? What is this all about? I am way too old to be pregnant! And that is the only time I get motion sick. Then someone says, “Well, that happens.”
Tips on how to help with the motion sickness There are a few things you can do. Make sure to get out of fullscreen mode and slow down your mouse tracking. You can turn down the graphics setting in your options or get a good graphics card in your machine, with good internet. That way the choppiness will not be as bad and your movements will be smoother. The smoother the motion, the less you will be nauseous. Lastly, look away from your screen frequently, as this will anchor you in the real world so your eyes and ears don’t get out of sync so easily.
Physical Pain Pain happens all the way through your life, but I seem to be getting creakier as I get older. Arthritis sets in the joints and movement is hard. I have been blessed with only a few problems with my wrist, knees and back.
What to do? How do I
keep them moving? Exercise and eating habits have changed, but the more you move the more fluid stays in your joints, at least that is what the doctor tells me. Sitting in one position for too long is troubling and I react to anti inflammatory drugs, so I use a more natural approach. “Gamer clots” are another worry so in my events, I suggest everyone get up and move around every hour. We will find a safe spot and leave the computer for 5 minutes. This will help keep blood flow going in your legs and hopefully, ward off blood clots that could cause strokes. I try taking a walk, gardening, cleaning house and playing with the dog when taking breaks in between dungeons, jumping puzzles or boss battles.
As for eating habits – I try to stay off of junk food while playing. Have healthy snacks prepared, like
Response time I want to start out by saying, some days are better than others. I do notice if I don’t get enough rest and am tired it will be worse. Get plenty of rest and then play. Response time is a big one for me, as when I am in a battle, I can’t think fast enough to dodge and evade or run and shoot at the same time. Jumping is also a problem as I love jumping puzzles, but I can’t seem to get the run/jump together, even with practice. I don’t give up, but it takes me longer to achieve. I have accepted it as part of where I am in my life and learned how to adapt.
How to adapt to slower response time First is practice, practice, practice. Know where your dodge keys are. Learn how they move so you don’t dodge of a cliff while fighting foe. If that doesn’t work, make characters that have longer range abilities, that way you can have more time to react if
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If you are having hand and wrist issues, you can get a different mouse and keyboard. I find the programmable mouse with the 12 keys on the thumb works well for my fight skills. It gives me an extra way to change up if my wrist on the opposing arm is bothersome. Changing up the position of your wrist and hand will help with repetitive injury symptoms.
whole wheat crackers and cheese, nuts, apples or your favorite crunchy veggie.
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an enemy is coming your way. Make sure your armour is beefed up with toughness and vitality and try not to get stressed on the days you have issues.
Stress Oh the stress of it all!!! Frustrations in game can build – When you are just one last ledge from the end of the jumping puzzle and you fall off. Or how about that 50-man zerg that just pasted you to the ground and spiked you with a bunny finisher. The horror of it all. Yes, both of those have been my nemesis. Some signs of stress are: Major language issues; wanting to throw your keyboard or mouse across the room and actually throwing it across the room; body and face getting hot; heart or head pounding to the point of headache; or just feeling like you are going to scream.
How can we manage this stress?
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Focus on having fun. You do know – it’s just a game, not real life.
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If you are getting frustrated, find another area to play. If you are mad, get up and take a walk. When you calm yourself down, review what made you stressed and figure out how or what you need to do to fix it. Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting better armor or weapons. Other times it is practice, asking others for suggestions, or just finding what doesn’t stress you and do that instead. This can change day to day as a senior, so be aware of how you are feeling and don’t punish yourself if you are having an off day. Tomorrow will be better.
Gma’s Final Words of Advice This article is just my experiences being a gamer. I know of many that have issues with major vision, MS, pain so bad they can’t sit to play or other disabilities. I find my friends have it way worse than me and they still find time to play. Find your sweet spot and be a Grammy Gamer!
Top Picks for Summer 2017
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Tune in anytime on Spotify at: http://gsch.info/clubgaiscioch
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T
he Gaiscioch Family extends far beyond the game. Our members have a very broad professional background extending from teachers to CEO’s. Our members are involved in the businesses, organizations, and government agencies below. We are very proud of our diverse community and support our members in all of their real life accomplishments. 3M
Black Nova Digital
DFW Honda
Great Wolf Lodge
ABB Inc. - Robotics
BNP Paribas
DJO Global
Harris Siding & Windows
Absolute Software
BNYMellon
Documatik Limited
Hawt Websites
ACE Network Consulting
Bollinger’s services
Duke Energy
HCL Axon/Fortis BC
Addtech Controls
Boondocks PC Repair
DuPont Spruance
HDD Broker Inc.
Aditya Birla Minacs
Bowman Consulting Group
Easter Seals
Hillsouth
ADP Dealer Services
Box Home Loans
eBay Enterprise
Home
advantage metal Products
BP
Edict Systems
Home Trust Company
Advent International Corp
BreakAway ltd.
Edward Jones Investments
Hospital-Intensive Care Nursery
Air Transport International
Brilliant Bees LLC
EFFIIS
Howell Associates
Alachua County BOCC
Buchanan First United Methodist Church
Eley Guild Hardy Architects
HP/Vertica
EMC
Humana At Hume
Expeditors International
Hunton & Williams
Exterran
I.B.E.W.
IBEW Local 1141
Faellin Angels Realm LP
IBM
Firestone Building Products
IGT
Fitzgibbon Hospital
Infor
FK
Information Resources
Flagstar Bank
Inserso Corporation Insitu
All Smiles Orthodontics AMD
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Amercian Coalition of Healthcare Recruiters
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Bypass Mobile Calumet Park School District 132 Campus Crusade for Christ
American Express
Cardomain Inc
American Red Cross
CareFusion
Ankara State Hospital
CEB
Apples & Arrows
Cerner Corporation
Apptricity
Chinook Pharmacy
ArenaNet LLC
City of Elizabethtown
Arizona Supreme Court
ClarkBetty.com
Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute
Army
Cogeco Cable Inc.
Flypaper Studio, Inc
AS Computers
Collateral Intelligence
Food and Drug Admin
Asialink Realty Pte Ltd
Comcast
Franchise Update Media
ITI INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION INC.
AT&T
Coram Deo Academy
Franchising.com
Jasmine-Dragon
Atlantic Bay Mortgage
CSG International
JetBlue
Atwater Aloha Floral
Cubic Corporation
Freeport Welding & Fabrication, Inc.
Barclays
Culinary Institute Virginia
Barrister Global Network
CW Technology
Beck et al. Services
Dallas Center - Grimes CSD
Becton Dickinson
Dane Massage
Benihana
Decoy’s Dork Decor
Bernard Simulacao Gerencial
Delta Steel
Bethel School District #403
Department of Defense
Bishop Investment Services
Developmental Disabilities
Fry Productions Fujitsu Geek Squad/Notre Dame General Mills Gerald Blakemore, CPA P.C. Global Exposition Services Government of Canada GPC Company
International Paper Isolation Equipment Services
Johnson Surveillance, LLC Kazmarek Technology Solutions Kenedy’s Cakes and Donuts Inc. Kingsley Associates Kissa’s Kreations Konecranes Kroger L’Anse Creuse Public Schools Laurmar Associates
Ledbury and District Amateur Swimming Club
Construction and Facilities Maintenance Office
Legacy Express
One Point Home Health and Hospice
Leslie’s Pool Supply Lightyear Network Solutions Lincoln Loop Logic Technology Inc. Looking for one Los Angeles DHS M&S Technologies Made Men Inc. Magnolia ISD Marlow White Uniforms Massage Envy Mathematica Policy Research McDonald’s MCT Worldwide Media Bridges Mercedes Morgan Photography Micro Center Microsoft Mind Wrack Mississippi Museum of Natural Science
Oregon State University Own Pacific Union Finanacial Panasonic Avionics Corporation Panther Energy Company PCM PCM Inc. Pender County Schools Pink Zebra Home Placer SO Polaris Premiere Inc Professional Medical Writers Promise Keepers Canaa Proteus Europe QSI Quantum Security & Innovations Radio Shack Realty/Youtube Ref-Chem
Missouri State University
Regional Manager for UPS
Mobile Fire-Rescue
Reid Hospital and Health Care Services
Mobile Sports Chiropractic Montana State University College of Nursing
Signature Transcription Services
Unique Useables
Signs Manufacturing Corporation
United BioSource Corporation
Simply Floors
United Parcel Service
Skyline Construction & Restoration
United States Army
Smithbucklin
Unity Point Home Health
SoftFile DCS
University of
SolutionSource
University of Akron
Sony Online Entertainment
University of Central Florida
Southwest Airlines
University of Florida
Spectra Tech Inc @ ORNL
University of North Carolina Charlotte
SpeedCast Spencer Gifts Spiritually Speaking LLC SplitZero Designs Staples Starrlight Jewelry & Designs State Farm Steris Corporation Steve’s Computer Rescue Stevens Transport Stevens-Henager Online Stewart Lender Services Stewart’s Market place Suddenlink Communications Sutton Creative Studios
University of Utah US Army US EPA US NAVY USAF Vanderbilt University Vantiv Verizon Conferencing | Verizon Business Video Game Auctions.com Virtela an NTT Company Vishay Intertechnology Vital Network Services Waelwulfas dotOrg
Talaria Press
Washington State Dept. of Early Learning
Reinsurance Group of America
Target
Washoe County School District
RescueTime, Inc.
Technicolor and Throw the Gauntlet Productions
Waterbury Public Schools
moran sheetmetal
ResolveIT Computers
Muler Pasific Labelindo
Retired
Namco Bandai Romania
Retro Studios
National Aviation Academy
Robert Jones Designer
National Title Network
Robot Entertainment
Nav Canada
Rogue Community College
Navy Federal Credit Union
Rogue Photos
New Life Church
Ross Bagpipe Bags P/L
Nine Dots Studio
Round Table Media LLC
nlmosler.com
Techpath Techtell inc Tellepsen Builders Tetra Design, Inc Texas A&M University Texas A&M University Corpus Christi
Wayne Russell Search Consultants We Do Windows Computer Services Weapons Squad Leader 2nd PLT C Co 3-21 IN ; 1-25 SBCT Weibel Services Welcome Home Design Wellcare
The Boeing Company
Westmark Industry
SanMar Corp.
The Last Frontier & New Phoenix Casinos
Whole Foods Market
no thanks live alone
Scentsy
The McGraw-Hill Companies
Nokia Siemens Networks
Scentsy, Inc.
The Mirage
Norfolk Southern Railroad
Schneider Electric
The North West Company
Notnat Technology Services
SDL
The Sawmill Ltd
Nova Engineering
Seagate
The Ultimate Software Group, Inc.
Nova Engineering, Inc.
Seagate Technology
Theres’s No Box
NTT Data
SEC Contractors
Ticketmaster
NYPD
self employed
Tool Using Monkeys
Odessa College
Self Employed (NS Vine)
triumph
Office Essentials
Sep
Tweddle Group Techologies
Ohio EPA
Shaw Inc.
UC Davis Childrens Hospital
Oklahoma Military Dept:
Siemens
Union County Pet Hospital
Wildcat Striping & Sealing William S. Frates II P.A. Williams Buick GMC Wireless Advocates Wizards of the Coast WSP www.SKLURB.com Xerox Yellowknife direct charge coop
Life
Xyvid Inc. Zappos
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