Vague Patch Notes: In which I do not memorialize Elyon

What the report says


 
 
 
 
 
 You can thank Justin for this column in which I memorialize Elyon, a game that was once known as Ascent: Infinite Realm and actually looked pretty cool at that time with its title serving as a cute hint for how airships were super important. I was excited for that one! It looked like it was doing something different and interesting before it moved into being Elyon, and I remember when I first got my hands on it. “Oh, neat!” I said. “It’s become everything that was boring and tedious about TERA with very little of the two things that made that game momentarily worth investing in!”But this column is not that.

I know, I gave that away in the title. I am not memorializing Elyon because I have no further memories to cite. Because it was very clear that the interesting things that originally drew my attention had been systematically excised from the game, and even if I were willing to trick myself into thinking they were still there, I didn’t need to bother with this. I had other games to play that cared about the game they were making. I left Elyon behind. Then it shut down, and no one cared.Did they?When Astellia Online hit the scene it promised that it was doing something that was commendable (un-gender-locking its classes) only to abandon that pretty quickly, and when it shut down I memorialized it by remembering that it was fine but also there was no reason to care.

And I stand by that. I shouldn’t remember the game’s name in the first place. There is nothing of interest in that game. Or there was nothing. It seems impossible for me to believe that the game served as any kind of hub or had any players who really loved it.But can I be sure about that? I mean, I can be sure it didn’t deserve it, because I have eyes and object permanence. I am sure there are things I would be better served remembering other than this stupid game. But I do remember it.

Key details

And I cannot say with any confidence that there wasn’t someone for whom getting to log on and play Astellia wasn’t a highlight of the day. I know there must have been some communities. I know that even if it was tiny, there was a nugget of a community there for whom this game mattered.Do I mourn them? Not exactly. Their love would be better directed elsewhere. But who gets to choose that?No, that’s not sarcasm. It’s pretty clear to me at this point that from a long-term where-my-career-has-gone standpoint, I am going to be known as a Final Fantasy XIV guy.

That’s the game I have covered the longest and in the most detail. It’s not something I am resentful for in the slightest, and I’d go so far as to say it’s a two-way street; part of why it has been what I consistently cover is because it keeps being a thing I like. But I also don’t get to exactly choose that I like it, either. Beyond things that I am now just accustomed to, is there something commendable in the fact that a game that I have connected to deeply is a game that a lot of other people have also connected to deeply?It’s an authentic connection, sure.

It wasn’t forced upon me. But some of it is also just a distinct chance of alchemy, and it could have easily gone so differently. I can congratulate myself all I want for looking at screenshots of EverQuest and thinking that the game looks awful and thus never wanting to play it, but does the game objectively look awful, or do I think it looks awful because it costs me nothing to think that? Do I forgive similar visual flaws in the UI for City of Heroes because I love that game? Is that because the latter is better or because I just like it?Obviously, all of my opinions are objectively correct because I’m a certified Worth Decider, but bear with me here.The reason I’m asking all of these questions is because I’ve been thinking a lot about The Princess Bride.

More from the announcement

The book, not the movie. In the book, very early on, we get to see Inigo’s history, and the book explains to us that from a very young age Inigo loved his father very much. “Why?” the novel asks. “Who knows? Love is many things, none of them logical.”And it’s not wrong. I love my cat. I mean that in every sense of the word.