Heya,
Vengi here again.
This
week I am looking at a different kind of creepy. A more traditional
kind of creepy.
In
particular I am looking at some of the weirder aspects of two of my
favourite video games, Star Trek Online and Guild Wars 2.
Obviously
expect some minor spoilers if you are unfamiliar with these games and
their respective story lines.
Let's
start with STO and talk about a very specific mission called What
Lies Beneath.
Seriously,
this entire missions has the staples and building blocks of the
greatest horrors.
It
has dark corridors, some wicked mind games coupled with cat sized
spiders and
out-of-the-blue
creepy aliens.
It
starts with you and a team investigating things in a space station,
you basically just get there and then the lights go out and the doors
lock behind you.
Things
only get worse when you hear a person screaming from behind a locked
door, only to find them with phaser burns still warm when you get
into the same room. There is only one entrance to that room by the
way.
Not
long after you hear "Bonnie-kin,I
see you. Bonnie-kin,
Bonnie-kin, what will you do?Bonnie-kin,
Bonnie-kin,dress all in red.Bonnie-kin, Bonnie-kin, soon you'll be
dead!"
Honestly
that was some of the most terrifying moments I've had in this game to
date. Finding the source of that weird voice is not at all a relief,
just so you know.
There is also one thing in this game that needs special mention for the amount of paranoia it could induce. The changelings. They are immortal, liquid based lifeforms capable of changing into damn near any form.
 |
| Changeling straight up murdering a priest |
Then
there is the weird and creepy side to Guild Wars. This one is a
little different in that it is not so much developers responsible for
the creep factor but more the players.
See,
if you go down to the bottom of Rata Sum, one of the capital cities
in the game, things get weird. Either you end up dead, or exploring
ruins, or if you are really lucky, in the Asuran prison cell with...
them.
Now I can't say much about them
as
they change almost each time you enter the prison. They are the
players, but for some reason this weird unwritten law means that
below a certain level of Rata Sum you will ONLY meet roleplayers.
Normally,
roleplayers in a MMORPG is not uncommon or even remotely scary, but
below Rata Sum things change. See, here you'll meet people
roleplaying murderers, rapists, thiefs, and all kind of other
unsavory charaters. Some claiming to have exposed that the city of
Rata Sum is falling apart, which is scary in its own right, to others
who just glare at you silently. They say nothing, but you just know
something about them is off.
 |
| Rata Sum Prison |
Oh,
and did I mention that there is no way out of the prison unless you
portal out or respawn at a waypoint? That means you are stuck with
some vile characters in a small room and chances are they all want
you dead.
And
even if the roleplaying itself doesn't seem that creepy or weird, I
find it disturbing is how the entire community knows of this place,
avoids it like the plague for it is creepy, but
also that everybody who ends up down there just rolls with the
roleplaying.
What
is it about the bottom of Rata Sum that drives normal players mad to
the point where they engage in some of the creepiest and most
unsettling roleplay I've seen in a game?
 |
| Ruins below Rata Sum |
There
are many other creepy things to be found in these games and in
others. If you have any interesting stories or creepy experiences
from games, please do share them.
