An old New England soul - (tl;dr warning)

[Vilespectre]

Greetings, fellow survivors!

I usually go by Vilespectre in the untamed wilderness that is the internet, but most of my friends in the analog world call me Mike. The rest of them use more colorful verbiage that I won't get into here. I'm 29 years old, I live in New England, USA (Connecticut, specifically), and I've been playing TLD since August. I spent about 6 or 7 years in the Boy Scouts, love hiking/camping, and have always had a fondness for the outdoors - despite the fact that I am decidedly a hermit whose natural habitat is a basement with fluorescent lighting.

Unsurprisingly, I am also a colossal nerd. I work in the technology industry, I did robotics in high school instead of sports, I think a lot of math humor is actually funny, and sometimes when I'm bored I'll play around with ancient programming languages for fun. I am also largely nocturnal and an incurable introvert.

Somehow - despite being almost constantly "plugged-in" to the modern conveniences of the world - I have not-so-secretly longed for the simplicity and solace of a survival scenario like the one presented in The Long Dark, and it turned out to be a game that I never knew I always wanted. I think Hinterland has done a fantastic job of creating a form of interactive poetry: a dark and gritty sonnet of the visceral and the mundane, an elegy for civilization whose stanzas are written in storms, blood, shadows, and fire. It's turpentine that strips away the idea of humanity's primacy over the earth, leaving the player with more meaningful concerns than retirement funds and gift registries. TLD reminds me of how - long ago - our ancestors huddled together against the darkness, whose reaches were filled with gnashing teeth and howling winds. It brings me back to my days in the Scouts, and how profoundly simple and vital the words "Be Prepared" truly are.

 

I enjoy a diverse and colorful bouquet of gaming genres, both digital and non-digital; I'll list some of my favorites below (listing them all would probably crash the forum server):

Tabletop / LARP: Dungeons and Dragons (2-5th Eds.), Call of Cthulhu, World/Chronicles of Darkness, RoleMaster, Shadowrun

RPGs / MMOs: the Earthbound/Mother series, the Final Fantasy series, Secret World, Neverwinter, Blade and Soul, Guild Wars 2, and innumerable MUDs

Survival / Exploration: The Long Dark (duh), Don't Starve, Sunless Sea, the Fallout series, Terraria

Adventure / Ambient / Horror: Amnesia: the Dark Descent, the Myst series, Dear Esther, SOMA, The Stanley Parable

Platformers: the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Metroid series, the CastleVania series, Donkey Kong Country I, the MegaMan series

Racing: Mario Kart 64 (there are no other racing games)

Shooters: Killing Floor, Defiance, the Mass Effect series, Perfect Dark 64

 

To me, The Long Dark is a role-playing game in a lot of ways. You're not saving the world from villains or casting magic or carrying around swords, but I feel a much more personal connection to my characters in TLD. When I was playing during the summer, I walked out of my house on a handful of occasions wearing a heavy coat and gloves before immediately realizing that it was 92 degrees and blindingly sunny.

I've never been one for social media, forums, or other forms of mass communication, but TLD has actually gotten me interested in reaching out to all the others out there surviving in the cold, haunting world of Great Bear Island. My adventures in The Long Dark could fill several books, but I know there are many more tales out there. What other stories of human perseverance lie scattered about the apocalypse, quietly fading from history? Who were the frozen corpses that I ransacked for my own needs? Will the thaw ever come? Will we fade quietly into the Long Dark, or will we emerge triumphant once more? Against all hope I wait for answers, listening for voices amidst the mountain's howling rage.

Take care, survivors. If you're out there.

 

You know the day destroys the night,

Night divides the day.

Tried to run. Tried to hide.

Break on through, to the Other Side.

-Jim Morrison-

[starfighter441]

I beg to differ on racing games, Grand Prix Legends is the greatest racing simulation ever.

 

[Patrick Carlson]

23 hours ago, Vilespectre said:

 

 

You know the day destroys the night,

Night divides the day.

Tried to run. Tried to hide.

Break on through, to the Other Side.

-Jim Morrison-

Hey there Mike, welcome to the forums! And thanks for your kind words on The Long Dark. One my favorite things about the game is the way it seems to draw different people together. It can be tough out there, so to speak, and it's good share those times with fellow survivors.

[Vilespectre]

18 hours ago, starfighter441 said:

I beg to differ on racing games, Grand Prix Legends is the greatest racing simulation ever.

But, does it have blue shells...?

[starfighter441]

6 hours ago, Vilespectre said:

But, does it have blue shells...?

LOL. well the Eagle does have a blue Monocoque shell... If we want to split hares...

 

[Vilespectre]

Well played, sir...

[Vilespectre]

Just realized that TLD is geographically larger than the town I live in. TLD is at least 7.4 square miles, and my town has about 5.5 square miles of actual land...