Page 16 of Looking for Group
[Group][Solace]: What’s his deal anyway?
[Group][Ialdir]: did you sleep through the last patch or something?
[Group][Solace]: I was distracted by all the shiny things
[Group][Solace]: plus I’m not a massive lore nerd
[Group][Ialdir]:??
[Group][Orcarella]: lol
[Group][Ialdir]: so it turns out the whole world of Heroes of Legend is actually built on this giant ancient machine god thing22
[Group][Ialdir]: and when Raziel returned from the Underworld he opened this fissure
[Group][Ialdir]: that unleashed a bunch of crap
[Group][Ialdir]: so all this stuff is like prototypes for the stuff in the world
[Group][Ialdir]: like Irontongue’s a prototype dragon and this dude’s a prototype giant
[Group][Solace]: oh right
[Group][Ialdir]: aren’t you glad you know a massive lore nerd now
[Group][Solace]: *hugs*
[Group][Orcarella]: whatever this guy is i’m killing him and taking his stuff
They killed that guy and took his stuff. Well, the stuff wasn’t very good, so they ripped it apart for the raw materials. Then Drew said a hasty goodbye to his new guild, logged off, and rushed out to meet his mates in the pub.
Chapter Two
Drew’s mates were a bunch of fairly typical randoms who had come together and stuck together over the course of their first year. Sanee and Tinuviel were both on his course. He’d bonded with Sanee overDark Souls1, which Sanee thought represented the epitome of ludonarrative coherence and Drew quite enjoyed. Tinuviel was exactly like you’d expect someone to be if they’d grown up with the sorts of parents who named their kid Tinuviel.
Apparently her mother was a graphic artist and her dad was some kind of Oxford don, and she was here at De Montfort pursuing her bliss. Which was the sort of thing she actually said. That just left Andy, from Drew’s ultimate Frisbee team, and Stephanie, known as Steff (or Smidge if Sanee was talking to her) who was here on a nursing and midwifery course. She and Sanee had been inseparable since fresher’s week. They were very slightly unspeakable, and right now rubbing noses and sharing a basket of curly fries.
“Sorry I’m late, guys.” Drew grabbed a stool from a nearby table and squished in between Sanee and Tinuviel. “Instance overran.”
Sanee pulled away from Steff and made the loser sign.
“You know only losers do that, right?” asked Drew.
“A loser is well-placed to recognise loseriness in others. You need to play some proper games, man. Not ones where you kill the same stupid wizard every week for six months.”
Drew rolled his eyes. “It’s about mastering the fight. You don’t go up to Man United and say, ‘Why are you playing Liverpool again, you played them last season?’”
“Mate, it’s a game, not a sport. A game should be a self-contained experience that does what it needs to do without wasting your fucking time.”
“What, you mean likeDishonored?”2
“Okay, what was wrong withDishonored? And if you say it was too short, I’ll punch you.”
“You see.” Steff grinned at them. “Video games do make you violent.”
“Too short, too easy, Blink, Dark Vision, Shadow Kill: game over.” Drew stole one of their fries. “Also, it’s from like 2012.”
Sanee had that outraged look, meaning a serious lecture was on the way. “So not the point.Dishonoredis totally a designer’s game. What it does is create a space and give the player total freedom to interact with that space. If the player decides to take the easy option, then the player doesn’t get to whinge about the game being too easy. And it’s still relevant today because nothing has done that since3.”
