Difficulty Is Not The Same As Skill

So yesterday I did a list talking about skill and video games. As always this leads to great insight about my the game I play is better and harder then the game you play. To that is not the point. I wasn't talking about if a game is hard or difficult or near impossible. To me this doesn't classify if a game takes skill or not to play at a high level.

Now I know some of you right now are shaking your heads wondering what in the hell I am talking about. Well here it is. If something is difficult it doesn't imply it takes skill to do. It is hard to level a Hardcore Character in Diablo on T1 it doesn't mean it takes skill to do it. Dark Souls is a very hard rage inducing game, but that doesn't translate to skill. It is often imply if something is hard that means it takes skill to do, but that actually is not really the truth at all. Sometimes things are hard in games because you trying to do something you may have not prepared for or you are high enough level to complete. 

Think of it this way defeating the original Ragnaros in Molten Core was difficult because you needed 40 people gear with fire resistance, but once you had this and once everyone knew where they were supposed to stand and not to do the encounter went near flawless. This is why to me if you practice something over and over while you may appear to be getting better your knowledge is the thing which is increases while your skill may increase minimally. This is precisely why RPGs always seem easier when you play them again and again. You know where to go you know what to do and when to expect it. It doesn't mean you have skill like a boss at the game it really is the phrase "practice makes perfect"

So as I love getting emails about how such and such is harder and takes more skill than such and such please remember this and everything I wrote, because if you do maybe you will realize something. The game was hard and congrats on your achievements, but it really doesn't mean you have more skill than such and such because you play such and such.

I Can't Build There, Something Is In The Way

So here we are and today I thought I would come up with a post which will probably not only cause people to going insane with rage, but one I feel I may have been avoid because I am not really in the mood to read email upon email of people being a bunch of tools. What you may ask is this about then? Well this is about gaming and about skill. Now this is about at top level play, of course, in the games I will be listing anyone can come in and "play". Also I am going to focus on current games as to not have to deal with the ideas of older games requiring more skill or were they just more difficult. That is another point I want to make. In my mind difficulty is not the same as skill. Something can be hard, but that doesn't mean it is skillful. As an example a lot of RPGs are difficult in the sense you need to know certain things about environments or elements, but in my mind knowing those things doesn't make you skillful as a gamer it makes you knowledgeable ,which is something completely different. So here we go!

5. Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Fighting games in general require players to be able to visually see and anticipate what their opponent is going to do. This in addition to being able to execute combinations of buttons and speeds which casual gamers find near impossible. The Tekken series in my mind in consider quite skillful because the combinations are done at a much faster speed then any other fighting game because you really are just punching and kicking each other endlessly and nothing really fancy.

4. League of Legends

Now some would say I give MOBAs a lot of shit for not being skillful. This is not true I give them crap because the players believe because they can play the game they are the best gamers in the world. Now LoL liek all MOBAs requires you to have knowledge of your opponent and what they are capable of and adapt to it. Not every game is the same. The problem is the map actually is.

3. DotA2

For all the same reasons that LoL made this list DotA2 does. Why did it rank higher on my list? Well it just comes down to more choice, more adaptations and more anticipation and adaptation. That really is the only reason.

2. Soul Calibur V

In my mind the most difficult and skillful fighting series around. SCV in my mind wasn't the most skillful but like I said was going current. What makes this different? Surroundings are much more important and the game is much more balanced on a character to character basis. Everyone is not quick and everyone doesn't have the same strength. You need to not only understand how much damage you can do, but in addition how much you are able to withstand and in my mind makes it much more of a skill orientated fight.

1. Starcraft II

In my mind RTS is the most difficult genre there is and SC2 is the only RTS of note. You are not only anticipating how one character is going to reacted but an entire army, while maintaining your own army. This is not just a mico orientated game but a macro one as well which makes this miles ahead of the competition in every aspect of skill.

There it is. I am ready have at it with your thoughts.

You Fail At Naxx Heroic Bosses If...

Fail Day! Yes it is here along with a brand new wing in Hearthstone Naxx and 3 more Heroic Bosses to try and defeat. Did you happen to defeat all of the ones from last week? Well if not I am here of course to make you feel better on this edition of Fail Day.

You Fail At Naxx Heroic Bosses If...

• You didn't pay attention to the Hero Powers
• You didn't realize Grand Widow likes to ignore Lightwells
• You thought it was unfair they had 45 health
• You thought they were too hard
• You thought they were too easy
• You didn't exploit Maexxna hero power and endless heal yourself
• You tried to do Anub with taunts
• You just thought using the deck you always use on ladder would work
• You heard other people had defeated them easily and you played along like you did the same
• You thought the lag effect was a nice edition to the wing
• You made a forum post that there was a bug because the boss was using cards 3 times
• You couldn't even defeat the normal versions
• You net decked to win

and finally

• You didn't defeat any of them.

There you have it this week's edition of Fail. Hope you enjoyed it and good luck on this week's wing!

Unity Comic Con Trailer

Here we are Monday morning wondering why it has to be Monday. This is nothing new though it happens every Monday it really is just the norm. What is also the norm is for me to showcase something for all of you. It is not a normal showcase though. At Comic Con there was a new trailer released for Assassin's Creed Unity. Now normally trailers are never something I would show on Mondays because they are just trailers and nothing really special. This trailer though is something special and you really have to watch it to understand why a trailer like this would change my mind. So have a watch

Wasn't I right?

Ask Gauss

Sunday! Yes that wonderful day of the week which is both happy and sad. Happy in the sense it is still the weekend and you can enjoy your time, but then sad because the weekend is almost over. So as we are mulling over what remains of our weekend how about we sit back and answer some questions so you can read the responses.

Do you think enough people will purchase the Naxx wings in order for the meta to evolve at all levels of play?

The first wing is free and then from then on 700g is not a lot and the payment option truthfully isn't that expensive at all. You can even buy all the wings in advance for $20. People will play the wings people will beat the wings and the cards even though only 30 of them in total will have a drastic effect on how the game will be played. Now that doesn't mean everyone will get every single card the first day the wing is out or that these changes are going to happen instantly, but it would be crazy to think they won't have any effect at all.

Do you think it is unfair you will only be able to ride the Azeroth Chopper on a Horde character?

It makes sense it is a Horde bike. I understand why people are upset though as some might have voted differently if they knew this was going to be the case. To me though that is the very reason they didn't say anything. They wanted everyone to vote for the bike they believed was the best and would like to see in game and not vote for the bike they would ride in game. There is a big difference in that. I am actually pump it is going to be a free mount as I was expecting it to be a Store mount or a mount that had more to it then just logging in.

Are you paying attention to ComicCon?

Is this a trick question?

There you have it! Questions answered for the week, thanks to everyone who sent something in if I answered it on here or not. Try to enjoy what is left of your weekend!

Zoo Zoo Zoo

So there has been talk especially lately that the Meta in Hearthstone is going to be set for awhile. Now I don't particularly agree with that the game for some time now has showed us that some cheap decks can be very effective and quite popular. Zoo Lock being the most popular of the aforementioned decks. This leads me to this week's Reader Post from Vithar who has some concerns about the current meta game and his hopes of Naxx cards changing things.

I've been building my paladin deck and my variant of handlock for a while, then frustrated at how long it was taking to craft my deck i quickly built a lockzoo and only spent 400 dust and got great results from it. I can 100% guarantee that if players had the cards they needed for the deck they really wanted to play you would not see them as much as we do now. It's just so cheap to make the deck that people play it because they can.

Keep in mind im a player that spent no cash on this game (blizzard wont accept any of my plastic cards even the prepaids so i cant even if i wanted to, the amount of times i bought a prepaid and couldn't use it man...) but i imagine even the players that do or did spend cash might not have the money or time to build a control warrior with the 5-6 legendaries you need for it.

Blizz is going to have to nerf the cards to stop it from being popular now, even then though that could frustrate a lot of casual players. they cant raise dust requirements because it will wreck the playerbase, and lets be honest blizz aren't going to lower dust costs. Maybe Naxx will change this, i doubt it because you need to spend cash for it (and for people in my situation that's impossible), but who knows. i can see deathrattle decks becoming a thing now though, could be interesting.

I hate to be that skeptical prick but i think it will be around for a while, because honestly it's a pay to win game, and the cheapest way to win right now is zoo.

Anyways, my two piece. Do you think the Naxx cards are going to mess with the zoo pop? What do you think of the current meta  and what needs to change?

There you have it. As always thank you for all the submissions as it couldn't be possible to do this with them. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Gauss' Naxxramas Adventure

So here we are a couple days after Curse of Naxxramas has gone live. Well really only the Arachnid Quarter but still it is live. Now I must say I have enjoyed doing something different in Hearthstone for a change. I have mostly have just playing ranked to get my card backs for the season then enjoying some arena. This was mostly for the reasons when I ranked myself up the cards have been out for so much time everyone is basically playing the same decks and you kind of know how each game is going to play out.

Now I can't really comment so far how the 6 new cards added this week will make a difference in rank played because truthfully I haven't had much of an opportunity to play ranked mode as of yet at a higher level to see. I can tell you though about the adventure so far.

So the boss on Normal Mode were not that hard at all really was slightly disappointed at how easy they really were. I just used a board clearing shaman deck for all 3 and basically one with pretty much no effort. Now that is a deck that I have refined over quite some play so that really could be a reason.

The class challenges were more interesting because your deck is pretty random and the first draw I got with the rogue deck was pretty awful. Not knowing what cards were in your deck made it fun because I wasn't sure at all what I could draw or to expect. I expect some of the players that are used to playing specific ways with specific classes will find this bothersome, but I actually enjoyed it.

Now the bosses on Heroic mode were significantly more complicated then the normal versions were not overly complicated if you played to the Hero power of each boss. Grand Widow is probably where most people will have trouble, but using an aggro deck makes her hero power pretty useless. I tried with my shaman deck again first and got owned because I was just holding too many cards. I then switched to a Warlock Murloc deck and laughed my way to victory on turn 4.

Overall it was quite fun and this quarter was free because of the launch of it. I would say after playing it the prices for the following quarters are pretty much in line where they should be. Happy playing everyone!

Trifling Gnome

Well how is everyone on this happy day in the middle of the week most often refereed to as Wednesday. I am good have a one good day of Curse of Naxxramas Hearthstone under my belt, and I must say I like it. It is a good change of pace and although I haven't messed around in constructed with the new cards I am guessing that it will really mess with the meta. With that in mind I figured I would give all of you my top 5 Favourite Hearthstone Cards pre Naxxramas


5. Al'Akir

Now most of you at this point as asking why in the world would you like this card. Well the answer is rather simple it was my first legendary and holds a special place in my heart. Also it doesn't completely suck with some buffs it can really be a game changer

4. Leeroy Jenkins

The card so many people hate playing against because the whelps hardly if ever come into play. Really a great finisher and power overwhelming makes this card truly something scary.

3. Ragnaros 

I was lucky and got my Ragnaros pretty early. He has won me more games then I can count and in other cases has angered me to no end by killing 1-1 minions over and over again. Still he makes me happy.

2. Faceless Manipulator

The only legendary not on my list, but it doesn't mean it is not something to be feared. Countless times I have copied what my opponent thought might be a sure win coming their way or I have created an army of giants which has caused more rage quits then I could possibly count. Good times.

1. Lord Jaraxxus

Don't think this was ever in doubt. Even if it was jsut the emotes he creates it would be worth it, but it really is so much more. The fact he is like a heal and basically causes your opponent to go into panic mode just adds to his awesomeness. WELL PLAYED!

So what are your favourite cards? And do you think any of the new cards will make you change your mind? Or even mine? Let me know as always. 

You Fail At Curse of Naxxramas If...

Here we are yet another Fail Day. Today though isn't an ordinary Fail Day today we get the release of Curse of Naxxramas and I expect the Fail on this day to be much greater than most days. Why would you ask? Well read through and you may just learn why.

You Fail At The Curse of Naxxramas If...

• You did not realize July 22 is today
• You haven't saved enough gold
• You didn't realize you should be saving 700 for each wing
• You have a bunch of unopened card packs waiting to try and get all the new cards
• You didn't realize it will be a gated opening
• You will be the first one to complain a certain boss is OP because of their hero power
• You didn't realize class challenges are where the class cards are coming from
• You keep playing over and over in hopes of getting gold cards
• You don't know why you can't play heroic mode yet
• You accused someone of being pay to win because they have a Naxx lengendary
• You think it is unfair people who have been playing and saving gold will not have to pay and will get the new cards sooner
• You haven't realized you do in fact "suck"
• You are already looking up strats to beat certain bosses

and finally

• You were wondering why there is Tuesday Maintenance

There you have it this week's edition of Fail. Happy card playing everyone!

You Face Jaraxxus

Monday, but not just any Monday. Tomorrow is the day we get the Curse of Naxxramas Expansion. The expansion to Hearthstone we have all, or those of us that play Hearthstone, have been waiting for. More cards something different and hopeful some new and interesting gameplay. In honor of the release. Here is a machinima for today's Machinima Monday which will make you laugh and produce some angry to anyone this has ever happened to! Enjoy!



OBLIVION!!!!!!!!!

Ask Gauss

Sunday! Yes you are up enjoying your pancakes and already are all over the net. This really is the world we live in! So what does one do one Sunday morning? Well they come here to find the answers they so dearly seek. So I have decided to give them to you!

If LoL is so overrated why do so many people watch the tournaments?

Honestly, this is a pretty easy question to answer, but again I never said it was a bad game. Wouldn't believe backlash I got for listing it as overrated. Anyways, LoL is free to play meaning everyone has access to it. People who cannot afford other games some of which require more skill, more money, and more time invested to play. So people play what they can and therefore enjoy to watch it. Think of it this way. Soccer and its World Cup was enjoyed by millions around the world, why? Because really anyone can play, the equipment required to participate is minimal and therefore easy to pick up, know the rules, and follow along. Does this make soccer the best sport in the world because so many people watched it? Of course not.

Have you seen the new Assassin's Creed Unity Trailer?

For those who haven't

Now as most of you know I not only enjoy the Assassin's Creed games because of the story and gameplay, but because history has always been something that has always had a massive interest to me. This trailer speaks to that interest of mine and makes you feel as if you are right their during the revolution, and to me it makes it nearly perfect in all respects.

Naxx on Tuesday!

Yes I've heard. Got to keep stockpiling that gold of mine.

There you have it questions all answered for the week. Enjoy what is left of your weekend everyone!

Well Your Mother

Friday! Meaning the end of the week is approaching and we can relax because the weekend is coming! WOOT! With Friday's though you should know the Reader Post comes with it, and this week I have quite an interesting one for you. It comes from Mundo who has something to say about Toxic communities and player basses. It is quite an interesting read and for the most part I think he speaks the truth. So have a read

Now let's begin;

I'll probably bust someone's nuts right here by saying this. but 
F2P = more toxicity and age =/= more or less toxicity. 

I've been part of forum groups for more then 6 years now. both F2P and payed. and the results have mostly been the same. Free to play games tend to have more toxic players and Payed games tend to have less.

Why's that?
Well, let's take league of legends for example.

You heard about a cool game, you want to check it out! hey, it's free to play! awesome.
You register, you download and instal. and you start playing.
Easy right?

A bit to easy...

You see, the main issue with free to play games is that, you don't need to pay for a game, in order to play.

What that means is, that your uncle may play, your grandson may play, your kid can play. Everybody who has access to the internet (sorry Nkorea) can play the game without spending a penny on it.
And here's the issue right there.
and let's pause right here.
It's not bad in any way that everybody can install and play a game for free. But it's the genre of game, that is the culprit of bad behaviours.

What? Yes, you heard me.
The more individual skill a game requires you to have. the more toxic a game community becomes. 
Why? And what are games that require such skill levels?

You're playing one of those games right now.

Any real time games, FPS's, MOBA games, Even strategy games. They require much more skill then tabletop games or card games. Because those games tend to be well balanced. 
Balancing is a key factor in behaviour in players. because like in LoL. People become frustrated when somebody plays something they consider "overpowered". Like a gun in a shooter, a champion in a moba game, or a unit in a strategy game. The more frequently, or better said how popular it becomes. the more chance people will become frustrated about it.

Why's that?

Frequency, that's why. If you keep dying over and over by the same guns, by the same champions, or beaten by someone that spams the same units. Then you become frustrated, without any doubt. And you'll begin to think that you are being "outplayed" by unfair odds or unfair mechanics.

"Well Yasuo has a shield that blocks everything and a passive that's unfair to the others" 
"Well, everybody spams RPG's because it's to strong" 
"well, those bradley IFV's are to cheap and easy to spam so they become too strong." 

And why's that?

2 reasons, as i said before. The more skill a game requires, the more bad behaviour occurs.
And in a game like LoL, you need skill to be successful. and if a player lacks that skill. or can't develop it well. They'll tend to resort to easier ways to be successful. 
And i'm not saying noobs stick to OP champions. Or that every single new player is bad and will resort to easy ways to dominate. I'm not saying that, but it is a factor is such behaviour.

When we look at the LoL forums.

Where does all the toxic threads come from?
or why people cry all the time?

Champions, items and other players or outside causes...

the second reason is reflecting to others.

people who show bad behaviour in most of their games is due to them reflecting themselves to others.
What i mean with that is, if they play bad. they'll be flamed by others, and thus the person begins to flame as well. and the players are TAUGHT to show bad behaviour because they don't know anything else. when we look at good players, they know how to play right? Let's put him with 4 players who are "worse" then them skill based. Let's see how he responds.
Generally, nothing bad happens. In general... 
There are of course douchebags who's ego is the size of the eiffel tower, thinks that he's the best. start bullying his team, then complains about it backfiring as they start flaming him and then goes on to report the players he first began to bully.
Is it fair? No.
Does it happen? Defiantly.

So CoD's have the same amount of toxicity, why does F2P make it worse? 

Because in F2P games, you can have as many accounts as you wish. Nobody cares.
So if you're banned. You hop to the next account and continue playing. 
And so, this becomes a cycle of bad behaviour.

because what happens now is; 
"toxic player gets banned -> toxic player makes/logins to new account -> toxic player shows toxic behaviour toward new players as the toxic player knows what he does and the new players aren't -> new players start to show the same behaviour later on."

Monkey see, monkey do.

It's that simple.

With payed games, if they permaban your account on that game. it's game over for you, you either have to rebuy the copy, or stop playing.

So people don't want to take that risk. they PAYED for that game. and by getting banned, they can no longer play without rebuying. So they'll risk money.

And the SECOND you start spending money on F2P games, the more you'll think the same.
People who get their accounts perm'd usually didn't pay a lot of money.
people who spend hundreds of euro's on skins (like myself). will not risk their accoutns getting banned because that = money lost.

Plain simple. 

So does age reflects on behaviour?
No.
As i said before, behaviour is taught. not earned by age.

You can have a 50 years old rage out the same way a 15 years old does. However, maturity does have a factor on behaviour

Take Mount and blade for example.
has a mature community, nice bunch of people who you can have a laugh with, but the rage remains to a bare minimum. and when it does happen. the community either ignores, or kicks the player out their server. That brings us to the final factor:

Moderation.

Passive vs active

Games that has servers where people can choose from. for example, mount and blade. Or CoD PC. where you can select a server of your choosing has an impact on the player.
Because dedicated servers tend to have overwatch, admins kick people who not behave or violate rules. In other words, the community becomes the judge. = it has an active community

With games that have public servers that everybody has acces too, but nobody truely actively moderates. like the lol servers tend to suffer. Because nobody can put a halt to those people. 
You can ignore them. you can report them. But those players will play more games after you've reported them. and they might not even get banned at all. You have to rely on people later on to serve justice = passive community

With dedicated servers, if an admin decides you are annoying for the other players. he'll just say; Okay lad, that's enough. Good bye *kick/ban*.It scares them. And they'll now from the second they're banned or kicked, they need to start behaving because the people don't tolerate it.

And it works. it truly does. Try to rage in a dedicated server that's full, has admin(s) and try to be an annoying brat and tell me how that worked for you. it won't end well.

Simple as that. 

And there you have it. Besides the points about LoL being this game that takes a stupid amount of skill to play I agree. So to Mundo and everyone else who submitted something thank you wouldn't be possible without people like you doing so.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Crossovers

So here I was thinking the other day while I was watching a Blacksmith video on youtube. Speaking of that if you don't watch Man At Arms you should! Anyways, this does have a point. You see they started forging two completely different weapons together. You know from different franchises. So this got me thinking why do we not see this very often in the gaming industry. Sure you have the obvious Mario and Sonic and Marvel vs Capcom games, but really there isn't many of it.

Now I am sure some of you are saying this is because so many people would feel it would be cheesy and would ruin the particular franchises as a whole. So what would I say to that? Well Kingdom Hearts. Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters together. Some would think that would turn not only into a game witch was dull and boring but something which would make absolutely no sense what so ever.

I am sure that is the way it sounded when it was first brought up. Now? Well Kingdom Hearts was not only a great game but the games 1 and 2 are being remastered and the 3rd game is being made as we speak. This really should be a sign for other companies to try the same thing.

Now I could think of combinations I think would be fun and some which would be crazy, but I want to be surprised when something like this comes out. I want it to make me shake my head and ask the person next to me if they saw what  I did like when I first heard about Kingdom Hearts. So really to me I want it to be something I am excited for something that you will wonder how it could even work, and then I want it to be a game that I cannot stop playing.

Have You Seen My Bear Tibbers?

Wednesday yes it really is the middle of the week already. You really do have to catch up on all that work you have been ignoring so far. Before you do though you really should check out this week's list. I know that was a pretty horrible lead in, but I am slightly tired. This week I thought about games that are not bad but are overrated. Now let's get this straight just because a game is overrated doesn't mean I think it is bad, it actually just means it is overrated. So here are my top 5 overrated games.

5. League of Legends

Now I don't by any means think this is a bad game. I think this really is a well balanced and put together MOBA. That being said I feel because this game is free to play and sprung its popularity to extremely high levels. So many play it so many talk about it and it just goes on and on. That along with the fact that the skil lcap for it isn't nearly as high as many who play think it is leads me to this conclusion

4. Grand Theft Auto V

Is this game a good game? Yes. But is the story dull and boring and the games popularity is only because basically you can get away with anything in multiplayer? Yes. Let's face it people think this game is awesome because of the random shit they are doing to others. That doesn't make it ever game of the year material and really just makes it get only very quickly to people who enjoy well put together games.

3. Halo(All of them)

Like most XBOX only games they are hyped and hyped to no end, because something is thrown at you over and over again doesn't mean it is a good thing. Especially when changes between games are minimal and the story takes the obvious and makes it seem impossible.

2. Angry Birds

This games just bothers me. It is a copy of so many other games before it, and really because of its takeoff on mobile it seems to have this following of mass crazy people who make Harry Potter fans look like normal. 

1. Call of Duty(All of them)

Same thing over and overt again with minor changes marketing to children who should even be allowed to play the game because of the rating in the first place. Just seeing these games on the shelf angers me.

There you have it. Agree or Disagree you know where to do it.

You Fail At Summer Gaming If...

Fail Day! Now this time of year although not Summer everyone is the summer gaming season. Now maybe you had no idea that gaming during the summer is much different. Then I actually question what you are actually up to. So that really should lead right into this.

You Fail At Summer Gaming If...

• Your thoughts on Summer gaming is moving your TV outside
• You have never realized there is no big name game released during the summer months
• You don't know why people go crazy for the steam sale
• You are not playing games you have ignored in your collection the rest of the year
• You haven not realized why it is called achievement season
• You thought this post was about playing a game about the summer Olympics
• You have nothing to play
• You are just realizing how much heat a computer can generate
• You are wondering why you are the only one not playing less
• You are not taking advantage of all the E-Sports events
• You don't find yourself playing old school games
• You find yourself mindless looking at your collection coming up with reasons why you cant play any of them

and finally

• You had no idea there was a difference because you spend all your time playing the same MMO

There you have it this week's edition of Fail. As always hoped you enjoyed it, and maybe go outside and enjoy the weather a little bit.

Like Father, Like Son

Happy Monday! Now instead of going into this big ordeal about Mondays I am going to get right into the machinima I am going to showcase. Now Ian Beckman is no stranger to being showcased, but I could resist showing this one off. This is a a tribute to the upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion with a fun little clips of Grom and Garrosh. Hence why the title is Like Father, Like Son. So sit back have a little laugh and a smile when you watch this for the first time or for the 10th time



You know you are going to watch it again!

Ask Gauss

Sunday! Yes your weekend is almost over, I know it sucks but at least you have next weekend to look forward to! You also came here probably looking for some answers to lifes burning questions, and by that I mean random questions you all sent to me throughout the week. So it would be rather rude of me to ramble on and on about this and that when all you want to see is the answers to the questions. So I probably should get right to that shouldn't I?

So the costs for the Naxx wings in Hearthstone are out what do you think?

I know some people are complaining they are too much because the game is free to play and it actually should be free to play. My question to those people is have they ever played a free to play game. Free to play means you don't have to actually buy the game. Some free to play games make you pay for even the smallest things while most others if you a way to choose how much your time is worth to you. So in this case you grinding is worth 700g a wing(Free first wing if you play during the first month) or $6.99 per wing. Now to me this is a pretty good spot. 700g isn't an insanely large grind when you work in daily quests and the winning bonus. This doesn't even include what you can earn doing arena. Also I feel $6.99 is also a pretty good price to balance out the 700g. So really I think they did it right especially with allowing those playing during the launch to get the first wing free.

Have you heard anything about the coup at Naughty Dog?

Now these are really just rumors. Something I would be scared of is if they tried to make Uncharted 4 more like The Last of Us. Now everyone knows I love The Last of Us. It really is the best game I have ever played. Now the Uncharted series really is special to me and Drake is not like Joel. Drake is one of my favourite characters because of the way he is. Making him darker just wouldn't make me happy and may even put me off the game in general for ruining a character I am quite fond of. The Last of Us wasn't successful because it was dark it was because of everything as a whole and I hope that is what they intend to implement.

So what's this I hear about maybe an LA Noire sequel?

We can hope. Rockstar could make some of the hiccups of the game much better in my opinion.

There you have it questions all answered and you can now feel better!

Stop Wanting Whack a Mole

Happy Friday everyone. Now normally I would go into this opening sequence and discuss the the post I was showing for this week's Reader Post. I am kind of going to do this, but I am also going to throw my rebuttal at the end. Basically Seanbaby sent in this post talking abut how Heroes of the Storm lacks depth. I will let you read it, then I will say my peace concerning it.

The first couple of hours I was very impressed with the Heroes, the tutorial was entertaining, the intro cinematic hit blizzards high quality standards, the new game modes seem refreshing and impressive. But then after playing a couple of versus games I soon came to realize, this is it. 

No gold system. Everyone shares experience. Every hero in the game is unusually tanky, it takes a really unskilled player to actually get killed in most situations because of the extreme amount of tankyness of players, high number of escapes, weakness of minions/towers and lack of CC in the game.

Coming from a huge Blizzard fan who's been playing Blizzard games sense before Diablo and Warcraft 2 released and also a huge Moba veteran, platinum 1 ranked in Leauge of Legends and high elo in Dota 2, I have to say this game hits a lot of points well but lacks a LOT of depth that is needed to make this game come to fruition. Truthfully my main complaint is very simple, there isn't enough/hardly any reward for skilled play! And it's extremely obvious in this game. 

For starters any moba veteran knows that last hits or CS is huge in the moba environment, currently there is NO reward for this. I see this as a poor decision because you immediately take out a core dynamic in a moba for skilled players! Next off, there is no visible reward for kills aside from global experience! And thats another thing... global experience as opposed to individual experience. Once again you are not rewarding player skill! Granted I understand that your trying to make this a more "team oriented" game with all the objectives and what not, but truthfully the way this game is built it feels more like a crazy smash fest at the moment and less like the skill based moba it could be . 

All 5 team members ball up and run towards every objective, anyone who is bad will stay in the fight for too long and may die. Honestly you guys needed to bring in some competitive Moba veterans to help your design. Like some Pro Dota players or Pro League players, any of them can tell you this game lacks a lot in terms of competitive play. And if you did bring any of them on... then they are more then likely secretly holding back what they really think... While truthfully this game may appeal to some new fans to the genre or just hardcore blizzard fans, anyone who really knows how to play a moba well will be deterred rather quickly because of the lack of depth this game has. Don't get me wrong your doing some things right, the skill tree and the objectives were refreshing but it still lacks a lot of needed depth. 

Now he may make some good points in his ideas but really all I will show you all not only my response back but really it is my explanation for this way of thinking.

People like you are too obsessed with playing whack-a-mole. That's the real problem.

DotA and LoL have confused players into thinking farming AI. is what those games are all about, when in reality the actual point of those games is to push lanes, destroy enemy heroes and their base. Unfortunately, the reward structure is both backwards and confused, causing players to play against the natural flow of the lane and even compete against not only the other team for power, but their own as well. Put simply, it distracts you into a pointless mini-game that puts you at odds with your own team, which is hardly conducive to team play.

Blizzard removes the unnecessary and painfully outdated last hitting mechanic to streamline their game, thus providing the same experience while also finally allowing people to play as a team proper.

What you call depth in other games can easily be identified as nothing more than an offensive cancer.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Single Player Day

So this is the week when it starts. What starts you may ask? Well the kids and teenagers are out of school and what do they have more time to do? Well play in your multiplayer games. They are not going to bed and such and such a time now they are up later and infesting your games. The know nothing about meta and they generally pull down the quality of games you play.

Now some of you are saying this isn't true or I am full of crap. Think about it for a second. Think how many CoD type players have infested your games. Think of how many people refuse to listen becasue they believe they know what is best and everyone should listen to them. Not to mention the sudden influx of "Your Mom" into the spoken language. Now the wheels are starting to turn and you are nodding your head. I feel your pain trust me.

Now this just isn't with them infesting your team it is also with your competition. All of the sudden everyone has something to say after they lose. How could they have lost it cannot be because they lacked to skill to basically comprehend the simple mechanics of the game. It to be OMFG HACKS REPORT REPORT!!!!!!!! It is like every game when I play against or with randoms has turn into a game of League of Legends.

Now we can look on it that this is a younger crowd that needs to get it out of their system. You could look it as a bunch of entitled tools who fail to have knowledge of a particular game and its mechanics because they only started playing it because their mommy bought it and such and such a friend from down the street has been playing it forever. I have learned to accept it and sure I may think otherwise and log in and play a game then it will hit me again. So then I realize this is the perfect time of year to just play with friends or enjoy some single player games in peace and quiet.

Have a happy single player day!

I Shot The Hell Out Of That Guy, Huh

Wednesday is here right in the middle of the week as it always is, and what does that mean? Well it measn I am going to make a list out of something pretty random gaming wise. In making this list I will anger people for not including things they thought should be on the list or things they believed shouldn't have touched the list with a 10 foot pole. So what is the list about this week? Well NPCs, but not the shitty ones the ones we know and love.

There are a few reasons why we love NPCs, they are functional, they help advance the story and advance the story and basically the reason the one of the reason we hate them to death when they just don't help. The other reason we love NPCs is they are the only sign of hope and sanity less you forget everything is trying to kill you, just like in real life. Also we often have to protect them and are a major part of the game. So here you have it my top 5 NPCs

5. Wheatly - Portal 2

The portal series in generally completely changed the way we looked at NPCs. This really is part of the reason the games were so well received and loved. I actually enjoyed the fact you could listen to everything he said advice wise, or you could completely ignore him. That and hewas never short to crack a joke and mkae the game more interesting.

4. Chop Chop Master Onion - Pappa the Rappa

The king of the older style of NPC. The one who was there cheering you on and helping you towards victory. You had to listen to everything he said and he was the one who made you better. He let you know if you were struggling and let you know if you were amazing. The ultimate cheerleader!

3. O'aka - Final Fantasy X

So who was the guy who would always showed up when you wanted him to. All he wanted to do was run a successful shop. You actually wanted to donate to the guy to help fund his shop and this was even before you knew you had to in order to actualyl get him to sell you things. His shop would grow the more the game went on and you were happy for the guy. When I recently replayed FFX I knew I smiled when he said "Welcome to O'aka's!"

2. Clementine - The Walking Dead

One of the first NPCs that actually made me care for them. She had this way with her facial expressions to just really let know now what was up. Also she was part of one of the most heartfelt scenes in all of gaming history the death of Lee. 

1. Ellie - The Last of Us

Some people might not even consider Ellie an NPC as there is one point in the game you get to play her. For every other point in the game though she is there cheering, swearing, and making you give a crap about how things will turn out. She really is what you want all NPCs to be.

There you have it this week's list all ready for the cheers and the complaints. Let me know which side you are on!

You Fail At Releasing A Game If...

Fail Day! Yes you didn't miss out it is here and am I ready to go. You see last week were were graced with the release of Sniper Elite 3, and with it came with what some would call not the greatest possible release a game could have. So I decided to use this to get out there how they have along with many other companies have failed with releasing their games.

You Fail At Releasing A Game If...

• You have a day one patch which replaces over 70% of the game data
• You had to explain what error 37 meant
• Bugs which were in the game on release day still exist over a year later
• The name of the game is misspelled on the disc
• Uplay was down for maintenance the day of the games release
• You have day one DLCs which were actually included on the game
• You blame players in not being able to use the controls correctly instead of admitting bad design.
• You have an entire player base load into Hellfire Peninsula simultaneously
• You released the previous years version of the game with just updated rosters and hoped no one would notice
• You didn't include the ending in your game you made that a DLC component
• You released a game for PC with no keyboard support
• You did not test your servers before releasing an Online only game.

and finally

• You scrapped the game and never released it

There it is this week's edition of fail. Hope you all got a kick out of it. Also thank you to everyone who keeps sending in ideas upon ideas for Fail Day. I am sure I will never run out!

Garrosh

Monday... Yes it is that day of the week. So live with it and stop being depressed. There is also nothing better to get you in a better mood then people randomly bursting into song, which is exactly what happens in this week's Machinima Showcase. Everyone remember Gaston from Beauty and the Beast? Course you do! Well Silver Letomi has a great parody to remind you of everything if you forgot or not!. Enjoy!



Now that got you singing along didn't it?

Ask Gauss

Sunday! Yes the weekend is almost over sorry to break the news to you. Hopefully you at least enjoyed some of it. Maybe a little bit too much this morning and you are begging for some coffee and enough water to fill a pool. Regardless it is Sunday and it means it is about time I get to answering some questions.

Are you happy with what has happened with SE3?

Happy? Never. There are tons of people who purchased the game and have been looking forward to it. They have obviously shipped out the game before it was ready and instead of pushing back the release date they had a day 1 massive patch to try and fix everything. This isn't a server issue where people couldn't log on. This isn't a minor bug or an exploit people are taking advantage of. These are core game files that were not part of the game at release. It is not only wrong but disgusting something like this has happened.

Have any thoughts with the segregation going on in the Hearthstone tournaments? 

Having the division on male and female tournaments doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense in this situation is it may for other things. I can understand a females only tournament was put into place to draw more female gamers in to make it feel as if they are more accepted. I understand it, but I feel it should be marketed not just to females but the entire audience who may not understand what competitive gaming actually is. If we want the E-Sports scene to become more mainstream then we cannot have a division like this. My thinking is you want to draw everyone in not push people into different areas.

Get into Heroes Alpha yet?

As of writing this sadly no. Still hoping though.

There you have it questions answered for the week. Thanks go out to everyone who sent in a question if I answered it here or not. Enjoy the rest of your weekend for Mondays are dark and full of terrors.

Sniper Anger

Now I will be the first say I am the last person to effectively review a FPS game. I may play them and I may enjoy them or not, but really they are not my cup of tea. Now for those who didn't know Sniper Elite 3 came out on Tuesday and was a game many people have been looking forward to. In general terms the series has had great reviews balancing a challenge and fun. Upon release though you knew there was going to be problems. Why you may ask? Well the install size of the game was said to be 20GB but the day one patch for the release was replacing 14GB of it. If you can get your mind over that insanity I have the Reader Post of the week from Tomhorn giving his thoughts on the game. So have a read if you are interested in the series or the game in general.

OK, this is not a knee jerk reaction. I have been playing SE3 for a good few hours now and resisted the temptation to wade in with first impressions that could be deemed unfair.

As a long term player of the franchise from day 1 I'm mostly disappointed with this 3rd installment so far :(

Single player can be fun and engrossing, multiplayer is pants full stop.

My moans, in order of priority....

1) Why change the game mechanic/character control that was very nearly perfect in SEv2 to this? It's immersion breaking, awkward, clumsy and downright annoying most of the time. After getting used to the motion sickness we then have to fight to keep the character under a modicum of control and not become disorientated with that camera swinging wildly (yes, I do have my sensitivity carefully set). The inability to finely adjust positioning is also very bad....trying to pick an enemy off between a narrow gap is impossible. The slightest sideways movement always sends him too far.

2) Please, please bring back the 'get in cover' action key! I hate this auto cover crap because a>...it doesn't always work (by far) and b>...there's little if any feedback from the game to confirm that you're actually in cover (apart from looking for that text 'mouse 2 to emerge')...surely it adds a helluva lot to a sniper game to make a deliberate, conscious decision/action to hide by hugging a wall etc.?

3) AI are incredibly stupid, deaf and blind apart from when they're hyper alert and sensitive to the slightest noise.

4) The game, in the spirit of stealth, encourages the hiding of bodies in order to avoid detection however, he makes a helluva racket whilst carrying anyone thereby attracting attention from any npc within 50 meters!...I've lost count of the number of times I've been detected this way. I don't bother trying to hide them now.

There's more but I'm depressing myself writing this.....for me, it needs fixing badly.

There you have it. Have you played it? What do you think? Could this messing going on ruin the series? I want to thank Tomhorn for his contribution and everyone else who sent something in. As always this couldn't be done without you.

Now you can all enjoy your weekend in peace!

Amazing And Slightly Insane

So there are many things people do in WoW which the general public would find insane. There are also many things people do in WoW which others WoW players find absolutely crazy. Then there is what Doubleagent has done. What is it you ask? Well check him out on Armory. Still don't see it? Well he is a Level 90 Pandaren Shaman who is neutral. He never chose a faction. Who is this possible you ask? Well he never ended up choosing a side you level entirely using Herbalism, and Mining,.

Yes just take all of that in for a minute. He never left the island. His entire leveling experience was borderline painful, but achieved it. Why did he do such a thing? Well at first he said it was just a joke then went on to complete it because a friend of his said it couldn't be done. Now if he is anything like me then the only thing to actually do was do it.

This really is quite an amazing feat and he does intend to keep his neutral status as long as it is possible, which is good to hear as it would be disappointing if he did all the work and then gave up on it.

If you are interested in reading more about his entire experience check out his post on WoW Forums where he answers all the questions you might have.

Once again grats to him on this amazing and borderline insane achievement.

You Know What They Say About The Leading Man

Wednesday time to be smack dab in the middle of the week. I really cannot believe I actually typed that, but I am going to leave it there as proof that I actually did. So here I am sitting around making a list out of this I can actually make a list out of. I know that is rather weird isn't it. I have realized that so far I have made quite a few lists. I have also realized that people suggesting what I should make lists out of should go back and look that I have already made the list you are suggesting I make a list about. After all these list thoughts I decided that I would do the list at may favourite almost death moments because really these are the moments you remember as OMG THEY CAN'T DIE, and really they can't so here we go.

5. Jody and Ryan In the Cold - Beyond Two Souls

This scene is one of my favourites from the game. The game itself is filled with so many moments which make you` think and contemplate and then there is this one when you are both dying being wet and freezing to death. If you have played the game you know exactly what I am talking about. If you haven't you really should.

4. Ezio Goes Home- Assassin's Creed Revelations

This is the opening sequence to the game and you are left watching it thinking are you serious they are going to kill Ezio right at the start this sucks. Then of course he does Ezio things and gets himself out of it. But doesn't mean one of the most favourite characters ever was pretty damn close to death.

3. Balthier Just Being Awesome- Final Fantasy XII

Balthier is by far and away the most interesting character in the game. In a game where there really isn't a true main character he is the one who trys to assume the role of being it. This is the moment where he does what every main character does in any game. Sacrifices himself and you assume he dies when in the ending it is reveal he is just as awesome as he ever was.

2. You Know Nothing About Snow - Lightning Returns

Lightning Returns is filled with amazing cinematics which just make you appreciated what has been going on since the first game. This moment was not only sad, but bordered on tragic. Snow has been a fan favourite in the trilogy and they couldn't actually kill them could they? Of course when he wasn't dead couldn't miss the epic lines he through out afterwords.

1. Joel's Trip To University - The Last of Us

So here we are leaving the university in what seems almost like a waste. Then there is a bunch of hunters going crazy all over the place and you think you have finally made it out. When then someone comes out of no where knocks Joel off a ledge and then he is impale through the gut with a steel spike. I don't think anyone who has played the game at this moment didn't have their jaw drop. He does survive but not without an entire chapter of the game dedicated to his recovery.

And there are my favourites. What do you think? Have better choices? Just let me know as always.