Choose My Adventure

So there I was, running through the desert on a personal crusade to find a far away pyramid. I heard that it granted an automatic free level, and who wouldn't want that? The only question was whether I'd run out of interest before I reached it because travel in A Tale in the Desert is challenging, to say the least.

I really like the world of ATITD so far, and yet there are things about it that really make me grumpy. And it's usually the things I like the most about the game that also cause me grief. While I failed to find that pyramid, I did learn quite a bit this past week in game.

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What a week it's been! Last week, you decided that I should build my compound first, and focus on architecture as my first principle to work on. That turned out to be a great selection for me, and I kept myself busy collecting all the materials to pay the tuition and then start construction.

But I couldn't help but wander off the path a bit. Every time I turned around, I was bumping into something that made me wonder A) what it was, and B) how it was made. And as helpful as the wiki is, I needed to search out players who could help teach me faster than any wiki could. Did I succeed in making some connections? And did I rip out my hair over the ripping of grass? Check out the highlights of my past week in A Tale in the Desert.

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Last week's Choose My Adventure poll was a real nail-biter! There were four games that were all within a few votes of each other. In the end, the winner by five votes was A Tale in the Desert, and I'm thrilled to be able to write about this game for my turn at CMA.

As much as I like elves and orcs, I'm ready for obelisks, pyramids, and plenty of sand. I created my character over the weekend and began my path to citizenship. Did I make it through, or did flax farming get the better of me? Help me plan my course!

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Time for another turn at Choose My Adventure! It's been a while since my last turn at doing this column, but it certainly was memorable. Halfway through my six-week tour of Pirates of the Burning Sea, SOE was attacked by hackers and sent offline, leaving my pirate in drydock for quite some time. Hopefully this time around, things will be a bit smoother.

One thing I'm particularly interested in this time around is getting to know not only the game but the community. Usually one of the first things people ask about a title they're considering playing is what the community is like. I explore a variety of guild and community related topics in my weekly column, so it seems natural to do the same during my adventure.

So what will it be, Massively readers? Will I spin my own tale in the desert? Hang around with Poochums? Take a journey to Middle-earth? I look forward to your votes!

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My six weeks in Star Wars: The Old Republic are up this week, sadly enough, but I've come away with much more than a fun story to tell all of you. Playing the Imperial Agent has been a blast (get it?!) and has shown me that BioWare writes a darn good story arc. Will I continue to play after this week? Hey, you need to read my character's story, first!

Last week, you chose for me to hang on to Kaliyo and not be guided strictly by light or dark side choices. Those choices helped mold the ending to my character's story in a rather interesting way. Follow along after the cut for how the story of Xel'es will end, followed by my brief impressions of the first 20 levels and where I'll go from here.

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As I wrap up my Imperial Agent's personal story on Dromund Kaas, I can't help but be excited by all the new toys I have at my disposal in Star Wars: The Old Republic. At level 15, I was able to purchase a speeder, which helped travel tremendously, but now, at level 17, I have my very own ship that acts as housing (kinda) and a way to participate in space missions.

Xel'es is heading to Korriban next, but he needs a bit of guidance. Follow along with his story after the cut and be sure to vote for his next moves!

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While the holidays have put a bit of a halt to most of my playing time in Star Wars: The Old Republic this week, I did manage to achieve level 16 on my Imperial Agent. He's now living it up on Dromund Kaas, getting ready to storm a castle. But some conflicting info from within the Empire's leadership has our pal Xel'es looking to possibly take orders from a new commander.

After this week's in-character story behind the cut, you can vote to choose my next move with Xel'es. Last week, you chose for him to become an Operative with Slicing, Underworld Trading, and Cybertech as his crew skills. I decided to make this week's poll something that wouldn't stop me from playing before the poll results came in, which killed a lot of potential playing time last week.

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The first week in my chosen game is behind me, and I must say I'm really enjoying myself in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Last week, you voted for me to make a brand-new male Chiss Imperial Agent on The Ebon Hawk server, so I built one heck of dark-sided, flirtatious character for us to play with for the next month or so.

Xel'es is an opportunist. His career as an agent for the Empire has proven rewarding, but a relocation assignment on Hutta is where he plans to shine for his superiors and prove himself as more than just a simple field agent.

I've reached level 11 on Xel'es, and I'm ready to start choosing his advanced class and crafting profession (if you decide he craft). Read on past the jump to read his story and help choose where he goes from here. And be warned, there are plenty of spoilers for the Imperial Agent storyline if that's a thing that bothers you.

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So it seems that Star Wars: The Old Republic has won the vote in last week's Choose my Adventure game poll. Despite the fact that I had my own favorite that I was rooting for along the way (I think it's safe to say that all Massively writers do that during these polls), this is the beauty of Choose my Adventure. Of course, I wouldn't have put it on the list if I didn't think it would be a game in which I'd enjoy developing a story, but I'm particularly curious to see SWTOR since I haven't played for probably five or six months. Since then, it's gone free-to-play and added quite a bit of new content, including the newly launched Game Update 1.6. The question is, what part of the game do you want to see as we approach the first anniversary of its launch?

I'm patched up, I've awakened my existing characters from their carbonite slumber, and I'm ready to rock this game. I've shelled out for a subscription because anyone can play the game for free, and there's not much adventure in that. Plus, I don't want to restrict our options. We've done enough impressions on this game and its business model, but this series of articles will focus on my character's story.

Click past the break to decide whether I'll play an existing character or start a new one. And if I do start a new one, what should I make?

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Oh, Choose my Adventure, it's been a long time; I've missed you!

Several years have passed since I started this little column up, and I've had a blast reading each writer's version of how to play through games chosen by you. Now I'm ready to jump back in and get my feet wet in another round of reader-guided adventures, starting this week!

For those who read my articles in the column's early days, you may remember that I like to make a bit of an RP story for my character's journey. I'll be doing that again this time by forging the narrative around a lone-wolf main character. So I've chosen seven games that I think would do well in that scenario, all games that haven't been done in a recent CMA. This week, you'll choose the game, but from there, you'll choose more about how I play and which direction the story's plot will turn.

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This week in our Guild Wars 2 edition of Choose My Adventure, level 26 Mesmer Pippy Peat donned his two-handed staff (with his two-handed greatsword as backup) and headed for the brutally fun battlegrounds in world vs. world vs. world. I tried my hand at utilizing my new skills, Radiation Field and Feedback, with marginal success. Some tasty burgers to up my Radiation Field's condition duration helped, though.

I had a blast with tailoring but maybe a little more with cooking. I discovered some interesting ways to go about crafting to level up faster. I lingered in Brisban Wildlands before moving on to WvWvW because I had to catch some more video and screenshots to add to the gallery and wanted to make a snazzy new video.

Read on for more eye-popping screenshots, a recounting of my trials, and another round of voting.

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This week has been severely under-productive in light of my lofty Guild Wars 2 goals, but that's not a bad thing. Pippy Peat, the sad yet determined I-think-I-can Mesmer has wielded his two-handed greatsword with gusto and has been fighting a valiant fight.

The jarring emptiness of Metrica Province has left me wondering whether some of GW2's events are scaling improperly, are set too high, or aren't scaling at all. Nevertheless, there were plenty of events for me to take part in, and they've been my main source of experience for this week's Choose My Adventure. I've also come across some bugs and glitches that Massively's resident GW2 expert, Elisabeth Cardy, has helped me with.

My greatsword is proving incredibly handy, mixed with clones of myself to distract the Inquest and random grumpy animals. I couldn't resist zapping some of the innocent critters littering the landscape. I'm sorry. Pippy is a sad, depressed, maybe narcissistic little Mesmer. Every once in a while, he takes his aggression out on the local fauna.

Setting up a reasonable amount of polls is proving to be difficult. There are so many options for traits, weapons, and skills. It's staggering. Instead of trying to be all-inclusive for every aspect of the game, I'm trying to take into consideration how readers feel from votes and comments and use that as a guide. So what has Pippy has gotten himself into this week?

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Last week's polls were interesting to watch. I wasn't sure which Guild Wars 2 class I was going to end up with. As it turns out, I'll be playing a male Asura Mesmer. The Mesmer won out by a measley seven votes, thus changing my fate from a turret-dropping, technological mastermind to that of a magical duelist.

My illusion-shattering Mesmer made its first steps into Metrica Province. I didn't want to accomplish too much without you voting for me, but I did want to get the cube spinning. Check out my initial adventures after the break be sure to and vote on next week's polls which cover weapons, zones, and more.

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MMOs come and go. They get popular and sink to obscurity. Expansions can give a suffering MMO another chance, make an average MMO the popular kid on the block, or change the industry completely. No matter which MMOs come and go or what expansions push an MMO into the sunlight for a spell, many MMOs will keep on running with a larger community than there were votes on this poll. Not to mention people who aren't playing but want to see someone else play! Guild Wars 2 and Allods were initially close enough in the poll to leave a little doubt as to who might win, but GW2 swept ahead and held on to the end.

So before I let you vote on what you want me to do in Guild Wars 2, let me tell you a bit about my playstyle so you can make your decision. You'll find all of this week's polls at the end!

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It's finally time for my second round of Choose My Adventure. The last time I helmed CMA, Lineage II was top pick, and I had a lot of fun with it. I took tons of screenshots and video to keep you in the loop as to my progress, and you can expect the same, whichever game is chosen this time.

MJ's turn with The Secret World was a lot of fun to read and follow. She even livestreamed some of her shenanigans... I mean, adventures. You can bet I'll be playing with one finger over the PrtScn button and livestreaming some of my adventures as well. I hope to make this a multimedia extravaganza of epic proportions.

Take a look through your choices and vote, vote, vote. And make sure to get those votes in by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday the 21st!

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