One Shots: The big plunge
For someone like myself who is mortally terrified of heights, MMOs are not a good form of immersion therapy. I still feel my stomach clench when I fall from a ledge or, in the case of our first screenshot of the day, witness someone else doing it.
"This was my first jumping puzzle in Guild Wars 2," Reader Chiara said. "You don't forget those things. I was all excited when I found a secret passage -- I wasn't even aware of the existence of jumping puzzles back then -- and as luck would have it, I found one of the toughest ones. Of course. My character is always camera-ready, as you can see -- even when she's plunging to her death. I think she was trying to wave, actually."
What happened next? In my mind, she'll always be falling, falling. Well, we all might as well take the big plunge into the rest of these screencaps!
"I'm saying good bye to Vanguard the best way I know how: through screenshots," reader JohnD submitted. "This is Johanis, the first character I created in Vanguard back in 2007. So many good memories."
I'll assume that one of those memories involved an urgent trip to the E.R. with third-class burns on both hands. Don't you know that you should only conduct magic while wearing oven mitts if not a full lead-lined apron as well?
Some of the best stories from MMOs, it seems, comes from when players are sitting around in a group waiting. You can get into a lot of trouble with that waiting thing. People start so show off, decide to break out music and booze, and before you know it... something like this happens.
"This one was taken during a guild raid in EverQuest, when several of us had died and were waiting for rezzes at our bind points," reader Yrys explains. "A bored druid who might have been me used MGB (mass group buff -- buffs entire raid) to cast a wolf form illusion on everyone nearby."
Reader Duncan took up my NPC dialogue screenshot challenge from a while back, and this is what he shared: "In Wildstar, my Chua Engineer BuzzCracker loves climbing up trees to get a better look around. On one of his excursions Buzz found this old man living high up in tree branches. Buzz decided to sit down in front of this fellow in the hope of getting some wisdom about the meaning of life.
"Instead he got a steady stream of angry one liners. 'Ugh! The youths found me again.' 'Unbelievable! I still can't get away from you youths!' 'Get out here, you Chua!' 'I can still whoop ya, youngling!' and the classic 'Hey! Get off my lawn, Engineer!'"
Our screenshot challenge of the week is to do something dumb with a group of friends and record that proof with your print-screen button! The crazier the better, I say! Send those on in and you'll be lauded with glory and fame.
Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
