Random Thoughts IV: the Abyss Gazes Back

[BenitoChavez]

Are you more of an Arena or BG kind of guy, Benito? Personally I always saw BG as grinds and couldn't really enjoy them, but personally I don't really like Rogue nor Shaman as BG classes so it might be that. Playing SL/SL lock or Druid on TBC private servers was huge fun in BGs.

I played both. BGs were mostly when my arena partners weren't on or I just wanted to relax. My main was also shaman and I always managed to have fun in BGs. Enhance shined in smaller encounters whereas Reso/Ele were best in larger BGs where they could freecast for the most part. Arenas I did take seriously and tried to progress but never got to gladiator level, more like mid-rival level. As time went on I became more and more casual.

Also, I can't tell you how many times I have been camped by a rogue who outgeared me, stunlocked me, and cc'd me until I had to log off. And if I ever got the upper hand they would just blind me and run away! It's scarred me so much that even in other competitive games I play, any character with a stealth mechanic is automatically my number 1 target. Rogues and anyone who played one is my mortal enemy

Spoiler :

Ok, I didn't mean that. I like you and you aren't my moral enemy.

Spoiler :

But seriously...Rogues?? Ugh.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

SdP?
SuR?
Drachensilber?
Elemente?

todeswache. it was a stillborn server. for serious PvP I switched the realmpool later since there were literally like 2 or 3 good teams in total. it was very tiring to play the same people every single time depending on what daytime it was, lol.

I played both. BGs were mostly when my arena partners weren't on or I just wanted to relax. My main was also shaman and I always managed to have fun in BGs. Enhance shined in smaller encounters whereas Reso/Ele were best in larger BGs where they could freecast for the most part. Arenas I did take seriously and tried to progress but never got to gladiator level, more like mid-rival level. As time went on I became more and more casual.

Also, I can't tell you how many times I have been camped by a rogue who outgeared me, stunlocked me, and cc'd me until I had to log off. And if I ever got the upper hand they would just blind me and run away! It's scarred me so much that even in other competitive games I play, any character with a stealth mechanic is automatically my number 1 target. Rogues and anyone who played one is my mortal enemy

Spoiler :

Ok, I didn't mean that. I like you and you aren't my moral enemy.

Spoiler :

But seriously...Rogues?? Ugh.

I always wanted to play enhance, especially in BGs, but since its DPS was extremely weak in TBC it was almost impossible to gear up from serious raids. In arena enhance was a joke all through TBC and WotlK, never really relevant. Getting enhance gear felt like a waste, tho I was sad to abandon the spec I leveled to 70 with. Ele I did not like too much, it's a fun spec but lacks nuance and things that really set it apart. Healing was never fun in BGs since you were literally the weakest CC class in the game, but it was lots of fun in arena. Very offensive with purgespam, shocks, grounding and heroism LB spam.

Yeah, overgeared rogue will kill you off easily in a 1v1. But that's kindergarten stuff. In BGs I play for objectives, I try to CC, I try to pull enemies away etc.. For that rogue isn't very good. I'd say rogue was a very low impact BG class that was essentially only good at two things: Winning 1v1 against undergeared opponents and turning 2v1s into 1v1 via sap into blind. Rogues actually did not win many 1v1s against equally skilled and geared opponents, especially those with mail and plate. It can be fun to farm newer players, sure, but if you're looking to improve yourself it gets stale really fast. I never quite played like that. And I can understand why it's frustrating to face!

I feel like the classes that really have impact in BGs are the ones with spammable CC: Poly, Fear, Cyclone or with phenomenal gap closers and surviveability, like Warrior and DK. A well played freeze mage had insane outplay potential, so much that it was common for a very good player to 1v3 of 1v4. Kiting back then was a lot more important and gap closers or immunities were so ****** rare. Rogue had absolutely nothing besides Shadowstep and Sprint with a really long cooldown. Even restoration druid had better gapclosers than rogue. I also really like Hunter and Lock for their damage potential. of course I'm talking about the game from 10 years ago, I'm sure nothing of that holds true now. It was just my experience.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I don't know if I should be regretful or happy that I never played WoW.
On the one hand I'm very susceptible to addictive behavior and probably dodged a bullet, on the other hand I know people who have formed long lasting friendships with other WoW players.

Regardless, the continued existence of the game makes me angry.
14 years ? WTH ?
I want a new Warcraft game.
A proper one !
Why are there so few new RTS games ?

 

[Takhisis]

I have to agree with both parts of GoodSarmatian's post. I've always felt that I dodged a bullet but it's one that would have been a lot of fun to take, and damn it, Warcraft is strategy, I have all three of the non-world-of games (I played them when they were new!) and it's been too long.

 

[Zkribbler]

I don't know if I should be regretful or happy that I never played WoW.
On the one hand I'm very susceptible to addictive behavior and probably dodged a bullet,

Me too.

 

[Ryika]

Why are there so few new RTS games ?

Because there's little and money to make with them. Creating new heroes, and skins and other cosmetics is an easy revenue stream, how would you do that for RTS? Blizzard tried unit skins, but apparently, there was little player interest in them. Not unexpected, given that you don't have a direct "connection" to your units that you have to your hero when you play a MOBA.

So what else generates revenue? Well, tournaments. But here they were sort of replaced by MOBAs, because playing RTS competitively is difficult and lacks the instant gratification that the MOBA genre has to offer, both for the player and the spectator, so no RTS managed to gather a healthy competitive scene that kept people interested. Well, Starcraft 2 did for the first few years, but they mostly drew from their old RTS fans, while getting new people interested in the three big territories didn't work out too well.

 

[Broken_Erika]

A good article from a highly reputable source

Autocorrect nightmare: Typo in Bill C-45 legalizes cannibalism instead of cannabis
OTTAWA – Canada is one step closer to the accidental legalization of cannibalism after the House of Commons passed a typo-ridden Bill C-45, formerly known as The Cannabis Act.

“I think no one wanted to be the one to point out the error,” MP Sara Anderson said. “We all thought someone else would do it, and then they called the vote, and here we are, all voting to legalize cannibalism.”

“It’s just one of those things.”

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2017/1...-c-45-legalizes-cannibalism-instead-cannabis/

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Because there's little and money to make with them. Creating new heroes, and skins and other cosmetics is an easy revenue stream, how would you do that for RTS? Blizzard tried unit skins, but apparently, there was little player interest in them. Not unexpected, given that you don't have a direct "connection" to your units that you have to your hero when you play a MOBA.

So what else generates revenue? Well, tournaments. But here they were sort of replaced by MOBAs, because playing RTS competitively is difficult and lacks the instant gratification that the MOBA genre has to offer, both for the player and the spectator, so no RTS managed to gather a healthy competitive scene that kept people interested. Well, Starcraft 2 did for the first few years, but they mostly drew from their old RTS fans, while getting new people interested in the three big territories didn't work out too well.

I know, it's all about the money.
All about after sale monetization.
The irony is that unit skins could work much better in Warcraft than in Starcraft because of the focus on heroes.
*sigh*
It doesn't have to be this way. A new RTS that doesn't suck could still be very profitable just because there's no competition, but as Jim Sterling says, if the big publishers can't make obscene amounts of money they'd rather make no money than merely a lot of money.
I wonder why there aren't more smaller or indie devs trying to fill the niche. It worked for classical CRPGs, and the two genres are about the same age. Nostalgic thirtysomethings must be a pretty large market by now.

 

[Ryika]

I've been thinking about the big day for a few months now, even started planning it in my head. The moment I go *poof* and vanish from the internet, to start anew, live a much more healthy life, leave behind all the baggage and become a better girlfriend for by other half, focused on things that are constructive and good our relationship. And yet, here I am again, sitting at my pc in the bedroom, being a dick to people on the internet and getting into heated, non-constructive arguments, because that appears to be what I enjoy most in life, while he's sitting in the living room, playing GTV 5.

But I never actually do it, and just fantasize about it while searching for things to post. I wonder what that says about me.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I've been thinking about the big day for a few months now, even started planning it in my head. The moment I go *poof* and vanish from the internet, to start anew, live a much more healthy life, leave behind all the baggage and become a better girlfriend for by other half, focused on things that are constructive and good our relationship. And yet, here I am again, sitting at my pc in the bedroom, being a dick to people on the internet and getting into heated, non-constructive arguments, because that appears to be what I enjoy most in life, while he's sitting in the living room, playing GTV 5.

But I never actually do it, and just fantasize about it while searching for things to post. I wonder what that says about me.

It says you are pretty normal. Incremental change is usually simpler and easier than a big change in one step. Start with an hour a day/week? doing non computer based activities like: cleaning the house, taking a walk, reading a book to one another out loud, having lunch in a restaurant, riding bikes, etc. Then over time add the the length or frequency of those events.

 

[Ryika]

Well, I am/we are doing that, too, didn't mean to make it sound like I spend all my time on the pc (even though, today I actually did, sort of).

But the time I spend on the internet feels really destructive, and it feels goods to be destructive here, which, in a way, I think it shouldn't feel, because what am I really doing? Am I achieving anything? No. Am I improving myself in any way? No. Is it a great recreational activity? I think not.

I really don't like how some people watch TV shows in German television that show the weird lives of socially disadvantaged people, and I really despise the pleasure that some people seem to get from that, but in a way I'm using the internet in a similar way.

 

[Birdjaguar]

But the time I spend on the internet feels really destructive, and it feels goods to be destructive here, which, in a way, I think it shouldn't feel, because what am I really doing? Am I achieving anything? No. Am I improving myself in any way? No. Is it a great recreational activity? I think not.

Limit yourself to making positive comments or neutral comments while on line. that is a pretty high bar, but if you focus you can probably succeed 85% of the time.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

My younger cat jumped up on the stand next to the radio, and somehow this improved the reception. I should encourage it.

 

[Takhisis]

Well, I am/we are doing that, too, didn't mean to make it sound like I spend all my time on the pc (even though, today I actually did, sort of).

But the time I spend on the internet feels really destructive, and it feels goods to be destructive here, which, in a way, I think it shouldn't feel, because what am I really doing? Am I achieving anything? No. Am I improving myself in any way? No. Is it a great recreational activity? I think not.

I really don't like how some people watch TV shows in German television that show the weird lives of socially disadvantaged people, and I really despise the pleasure that some people seem to get from that, but in a way I'm using the internet in a similar way.

So, what else do you do with your life? I remember that once I spent more or less a whole year without posting here.

 

[cardgame]

Me too, but that's because I was posting on Reddit instead.

 

[Kaitzilla]

So I asked my friend why the greek/roman helmets with the huge plume of colored horse hair on top went out of style.

He said "because they invented mirrors".

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I can be pretty fussy about the quality of my music sometimes, but 24-bit FLAC seems rather excessive. It's a bit silly to have a four-minute song be a hundred megabytes.

 

[Takhisis]

Me too, but that's because I was posting on Reddit instead.

You double-timing bas- wait, I was posting on non-civ forums as well, at a rhythm of a few thousand posts a year. Come and give us a hug.

 

[Gori the Grey]

The other day on Jeopardy, one of the categories was "Don't Pronounce the L": words in which the letter L isn't pronounced.

One of the answers was "caulk," but when the contestant gave the answer, she did pronounce the L in the word!

 

[Ryika]

You know this kind of person who tells you: "You shouldn't do X, because it wastes so much time that you could spend doing things that get you ahead in life."?

Well, they're an idiot by their own definition, because they've just spent time annoying you instead of doing things that could get them ahead in life.

The next time somebody tells me not to play video games, I'll tell them that, and then they'll realize that their life philosophy is a lie.