My initial thoughts on scenarios amounted to “Ah, I must do these so that I can access Tokyo! And quickly!” I know, I know. There wasn't yet a thought of doing them as recreation with my friends. And so, thanks to a large pool of people I knew doing them and having access to all the Issue 8 scenario sizes and difficulties, I was Tokyo Certified in a couple days.
The scenarios were certainly interesting compared to what I had done primarily as a solo/duo 'questing' type player. I quickly saw that my usual soloing build wasn't going to be up to snuff in scenarios, and I had to start tinkering, check out what the all knowing forum-heads had to say, and so on. In the end, I had a fairly decent build that then became my Tokyo build once Issue 9 arrived.
I stopped for a while after getting certified though, because when it came down to it Augments weren't something I really needed. They were a luxury, something that was nice to have, but really weren't a necessity since I wasn't a raider or a hard core pvp cyber-athlete. Scenarios really started to become fun for me once I started doing them with the Otters.
The 'Otters' are a small group of friends that play TSW together. Our 'leader' (inasmuch as she attempts to herd us as we run in different directions) Jennett also runs a weekly livestream featuring content from TSW. The other regular 'Otters' are Samcon, Wahoozerman, Reeshie and myself, though there are many others we consider 'Otter Friends' that come and hang with us from time to time.
We started doing Group Elites regularly as a way to relax. It was just challenging enough for those of us that weren't hard cores to be interesting but not so frustrating as to be nothing but stress. As this was prior to the release of Issue 9, tweaking scenario builds became a new thing to do to pass the time as we waited. In the process, I learned more about game mechanics and how the various stats work than I had in the period from launch to Issue 8. I'm a DPS by and large, and generally my mental capacity is limited to smashing the keyboard with a doughnut as I eat it...so having to learn and expand and grow was definitely a good thing!
As often happens with friends who game together, there quickly started to be the 'games within a game.' Such as 'steal powerups from those who might need them' ala Gauntlet, 'catch friends in the blast radius of slow/root mines,' and the all-time favorite: 'drag as many monsters as possible to the healer (Jennett).'
This 'game' usually results in a long, drawn out 'Noooo!' from Jen. And an admonishment that we are not helping. We disagree. It's just another opportunity to hone ones situational awareness.
And ones ability to run screaming for ones life.
So for us, at least, scenarios have been a type of content we could enjoy together regardless of loot or other considerations. As with so many things, friends help improve the experience of any content.
Yours truly,
Badger54 aka Frank Calhoun
