EPT
In January of last year, I added every single application I had to Steam’s list of “non-Steam games.” I had determined that I would use pure weight of hours played to determine my Game of the Year for 2013. Whichever game I played the most would be awarded the title of GotY, and reviewed accordingly. As someone who has so heavily invested in Dota, the result surprised me. Indeed, I had so thoroughly expected the winning game to be either Dota or Minecraft that I found myself stunned by the result.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GApHi1o.png)
850 hours played since this time last year. Worth the entry price.
I’m pleased to announce, however, that my Game of the Year for 2013 is none other than Microsoft Word.
Word is a game of skill and accuracy, one that rewards a player’s judicious use of available resources.
On the face of things, Word’s main game mode is a Minecraft-style sandbox, but the vast majority of players choose to play in high-stakes games, with quests set by other players in the style of dungeon masters, instructors, lecturers, or editors. These quests will usually require the player to fully express an idea or analyse a text, often requiring players to cite prior criticism (who among us hasn’t had to fall back on a walkthrough at some point?), all without exceeding a set wordcount. It's a tricky gametype, and one that kept me distracted throughout college.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sYhzvWe.png)
People still message me, surprised that I’m enjoying Word after so many years.
Word is a tricky game of resource management that often pits players against one another, not directly, but by allowing them to compare their own save files to one another. Moreover, for those of you who’d like to try it out, you can simply import a replay file from a famous Word player, stop it at any point you’d like, and see how you’d have continued the story. My version of The Sun Also Rises (which ends with Jake and Bill mistaken for matadors and forced into a series of incongruous bullfights) rivals Hemingway's original.
Similarly, my sequel to Roald Dahl's masterpiece should be complete some time in the next six months, keep your eyes peeled for New Tales of the Wonkaverse: Shards of a chocolate Crown.
Word is one of those games that keeps being updated, time and time again, every sequel changing just enough to keep it fresh, without throwing it all away in an effort to appeal to a new crowd. Remember how much we all hated the “ribbon” interface? Man, it seems like so long ago now.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gWbC4MC.png)
The graphics are just beautiful. Is that some nice anti-aliasing on those letters? Gorgeous.
Room for Improvement:
Of course, there are other games like Word available. While Word is clearly my personal preference, it’s pretty obvious that it’s just not made with multiplayer in mind. When I want to get together and play with friends in a sandbox text editor, Google Docs is the only real option available. Google Docs is, of course, free to play on top of it all, which only swings the multiplayer further in its favour.
This is, of course, the fourth year in a row that Word has been awarded my game of the year, but with more and more Steam invites to collaborative Google Docs hitting my desktop, Word is going to need to seriously step up its game if it’s going to compete. Otherwise, 2014’s GotY could well end up being a serious upset.
Both also need to add some achievements. I'd have thought those were pretty standard by now.
Still, five out of five stars, for MS Word. I'd recommend it to anyone who has ever dreamed a dream, and then subsequently wanted to write about that dream in an environment that would underline a lot of it in red.
