Theory and Practice: Running With Syp

After yesterday's post, and in preparation for tonight's webcast of Beyond the Veil, my lovely bride and I tumbled back into The Secret World in order to finish the main storyline for Issue 7, "A Dream to Kill" yesterday evening. I'll probably have some more RP-ish story related to that tomorrow or this weekend, but I wanted to discuss last night's run. Scooterz and I finished up the portion involving the Shadowy Forest and moved on to the Carpathian Fangs; where, just after picking up the mission "You Only Die Twice," we encountered fellow Knight of Mercy "Yeti," a.k.a. Syp, of Bio Break fame. He was one tier ahead of us and suggested we join forces, which we happily agreed to. And together we caught up to his tier in short order. Chatting through text, we got through the various tiers, fighting baddies along the way.

Since the content was fresh for Syp, too, we didn't feel like we were being led through the mission, and discovered the various nooks and crannies at what I considered a good pace. Plus, there were a couple of occasions where Syp had to step away for whatever reason or we had to deal with dogs (our babies), and we all either took advantage of the break or waited patiently in place. What do you think, Syp? Did we waste too much time reading in-game computer monitors?

The last part is a solo instance, and I was a little slow on the final puzzle. So Syp did finish a little before us, though much of the ending is covered in a cutscene anyway.

All in all, a quieter, slightly creepier, evening. I've received a couple of responses from fellow guildies and others with similar sentiments. There are occasions for group play over TeamSpeak, where verbal coordination is essential. And when it's necessary, it is certainly enjoyable to laugh and have fun with friends. However, for me, those occasions are less immersive for a variety of reasons. I love to "lose myself" in the game world. I tend to be slightly off neutral on the introvert/extrovert scale, more extroverted than many people I know. But still I am firmly on the side of introversion where too much interaction causes undue stress in what I want to be a relaxing activity.