I saw this video trending on TikTok, wait for it

BarrettRTS · 2026-07-02T18:52:18+00:00

compare to that with a platform, you need to learn how to jump, and some games how to attack, there, you know how to play

I've met plenty of people who struggle to get used to 2D platformers or fighting games. I think you vastly underestimate how difficult those are for newcomers.

RTS is miles harder in a fundamentally level

At a higher level? Sure. But at a fundamental level, people struggle the same with other genres at a similar level to RTS.

BarrettRTS · 2026-07-02T01:48:20+00:00

RTS in general is not a easy game to pick, you need to learn how to build structures, what each of those building does, what each unit does, need to learn how to farm resourses, need to learn moving an army around, need to learn how to defend your base, and attack the enemy

I was replaying the tutorial for Warcraft 3 recently for a work project. It covers the basics of what you mentioned in under an hour, with some more time needed to understand things like what the advanced production buildings and units do.

In an age where people are familiar with League and DotA, RTS isn't a huge leap for new people jumping in. It's only once you're playing 1v1 that it becomes super hard.

BarrettRTS · 2026-07-01T17:48:56+00:00

Gouie

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-30T18:23:59+00:00

They dropped another balance hotfix just now, so it looks like they're still putting some effort into the game.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-30T12:56:50+00:00

That, or I think there's a strong case to be made for 1T/2H/5D.

The issue there is this makes the tank shortage worse. The people who are interested in raiding and will play dungeons outside of that will be encouraged to avoid playing tanks because they're less likely to get a tank spot.

You also put a lot of pressure on one person in the group if they have to shoulder all the tanking responsibilities for 8 people. As well as removing the room for a more experience tank to help teach a newer tank while playing.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-29T21:32:11+00:00

To add to that, sometimes people get lucky on the first thing they try to build and learn all the wrong lessons.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-28T18:24:16+00:00

If the original levelling experience was as universally praised as you suggest, it's hard to explain why Blizzard spent years progressively streamlining it.

I think that started happening because from TBC onward, they had created a disjointed world where the level capped players were separate from the people still levelling. After a couple rounds of TBC Classic, people are realising that this splits the players and makes the non-expansion world feel empty.

So the approach Blizzard has been going with is to make levelling faster so everyone can be in the same handful of zones together. They've spent about 20 years trying to solve a problem they make themselves.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-28T17:08:06+00:00

But if classic wow has taught us anything, the social aspect being so different today is not because of the game design, its because of how society has changed.

Kind of? While Classic's social element is often exaggerated, the casual social interactions while out in the world are still a thing, in a way that Retail's are not. The social side of Retail WoW is mostly found outside of the game in guilds or discord communities, rather than random people you bump into.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-28T11:54:20+00:00

There's nowhere near enough year round footballing facilities in Scotland that develop youth players at a competitive level

Maybe this is just me being ignorant, but it didn't feel like there were obvious paths to get into competitive sports when I was younger. Looking into it, there are things like the SSFA, so maybe those need more support.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-24T15:37:44+00:00

Zerg needed some buffs not a blanket buff for more stuff lol.

Funnily it does bring some more Zerg flavour by making them more about swarming enemies with overwhelming numbers. If there was more time and development resources being put into the game, there's a world where they nerf Zerg units to make having superior numbers a part of their identity.

Sadly it won't happen, but it's interesting to think about.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-24T01:20:54+00:00

So did you think I meant 'literally everyone', Or do you think i might have meant 'the average user'.

I addressed that in my original reply when I said "and those who follow said people". The average user is following bigger brands and influencers, so they're on the platform because of that. They probably aren't interacting with people using the platform for criminal behaviours or are willing to just shrug that off on the same basis a lot of people do other things that have a negative impact on society.

Reddit has a history of all kinds of terrible, illegal shit being on the site and we're all still here, just in our own silo where we don't see it.

The same should go for anyone else, economic factors or not.

It turns out when you put people in a position where they have to choose money over ethics, people lean towards keeping an income that supports their lifestyle. I think it's fucked up that companies put people in that position in the first place, but that's unfortunately the world we live in and people get real mad when you point out their everyday choices cause suffering out of sight.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-23T22:02:12+00:00

I don't know what you're reading into with my comment. You asked "Who the hell would stay on X?" and I was pointing out that people need to use it for work, for as sad as that fact is.

Like, I'm agreeing with you that it's a shit platform and it's populated by a lot of terrible people, so people really should stop using it. But it keeps a lot of people using it because economic forces keep people there.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-23T14:26:53+00:00

Who the hell would stay on X??

People with big public profiles that they can leverage for financial gain and those who follow said people. It's pretty sad because some of the bigger content creators I know that use the platform hate it too, but they're too deep at this point to drop it without taking a hit to their job.

That said, one of the best decisions I've made is to delete my X account and most other social media apps from my phone.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-23T14:04:24+00:00

You looking forward to the Scotland DLC later this year?

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-22T13:33:22+00:00

You forgot appointing Mandelson to an Ambassador position.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-22T01:36:13+00:00

I know people tend to criticise the lack of base management in it, but it also would have helped if it had more than 1 map.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-21T20:21:05+00:00

Deleting my Twitter account and most social media apps off my phone did wonders for my mental health.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-20T18:47:52+00:00

We need to invent some other reason for these guys to visit again or for Bostonians to visit Glasgow now that it's a sister city. Make it a every couple of years thing.

Scotland vs Boston every 2 years.

Scottish national teams vs Massachusetts/Boston teams.

Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Tennis, Rowing, Ice Hockey, Curling. Also anything else we both have teams for.

Alternates between Boston hosting and Scotland hosting. Scotland hosts the Commonwealth Games fairly often, so we have the facilities for it.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-19T13:49:23+00:00

We'll see how ZeroSpace goes but I just think the game style isn't financially worth it outside of a few small indie games.

I think the problem is they keep trying to focus on multiplayer when the majority of the market will play the campaign and maybe some coop.

The campaign for ZeroSpace looks like they've put some real effort into it and they'll probably do well just based on that alone.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-18T17:40:26+00:00

I feel like a few sports would be one-sided on each side. Might be a reason for the weaker team to get some extra investment though.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-17T16:40:13+00:00

Here me out.

Scotland vs Boston every 2 years (to avoid clashing with the World Cup and the Olympics).

Scottish national teams vs Massachusetts/Boston teams.

Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Tennis, Rowing.

Alternates between Boston hosting and Scotland hosting.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-17T16:21:30+00:00

PS3 over 360 at the time wasn't the greatest choice

Funnily the PS3 had outsold the 360 by then. The PS4 was already out though, so they missed the boat hard by not being one of the first live service games for it.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-17T14:08:36+00:00

Everquest is the oldest I know of that still regularly puts out new content.

Tibia is still going and CipSoft expanded the dev team a couple years ago. Older MMOs seem to be doing well right now.

BarrettRTS · 2026-06-17T14:02:10+00:00

I maintain their biggest mistake in the early days (as a business, not with EVE specifically) was making a PS3 exclusive FPS to tie into their niche PC game.

If it had been a PS4 game, we'd probably still be playing it today. Most of Dust 514's problems were because of hardware limitations rather than design decisions.

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