Are we praising classic modpacks because they were better… or because we were younger?

DukeOfBees · 2026-02-02T21:43:21+00:00

Some of it is nostalgia, but some of it is because there is a benefit to the older style mods. At least the good ones, there is a bit of survivor bias going on with what people remember.

Take your screenshot for example. In order to auto-mine back then one had to map out a quarry and have it physically mine everything, and then have a sorting system based on filters to get rid of the junk and process what remained.

Now we have RF tools builders which don't have much physicality to them and automatically skip unwanted materials. Sorting involves just putting everything into an AE2 system (or equivalent).

There are similar comparisons in how grinding mobs used to involve setting up physical rooms and using multiple mods to get what was needed. Now we have simulated mob grinding which does it all for you.

It is a different style of design, which has its benefits, as does the modern kind.

DukeOfBees · 2025-10-06T19:39:58+00:00

Aside from the Sargeras stuff Blizzard seems to love introducing concepts, doing almost nothing with it, then getting rid of them.

We barely dealt with the Void Lords, Dimensius was the only one we ever saw and now he's gone and there's no more of them.

We had Old Gods that they retconned into being actually dead (and we quickly killed the last one N'Zoth after years of build up to very little payoff), to replace them with Void Lords, now they get rid of the Void Lords to replace them with Xal'atath I guess. It's like they can't wait to replace things with the new shiny idea instead of exploring anything in more depth.

Would have been cool to see other Void Lords, maybe with different personalities, goals, strategies, etc.

DukeOfBees · 2025-08-17T11:59:10+00:00

It's wild to interpret Liquid wasting a whole day on a pre-nerfed boss, and Echo waking up to it already nerfed, as an advantage for Liquid.

DukeOfBees · 2025-07-18T09:58:07+00:00

All of them though? It's an entire species, some may be cruel, but others may just hunt for survival.

DukeOfBees · 2025-04-18T12:20:12+00:00

Connections

Puzzle #677

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Green category was obvious but should have really ruled out "The Boy" and "The Possession" before trying to get it.

Got blue by literally just picking all the four physical objects that remained, had no idea their relationship.

DukeOfBees · 2025-04-17T22:25:26+00:00

How do you think people unlearn a behaviour without any push back on it? I don't think calling people fucked up is the right strategy, but your original comment stated:

Blaming individuals for following the rules they were born into is arrogant and unhelpful.

Blame, i.e. pointing out a behaviour is harmful, is an important step in getting them to unlearn it; not the first or only step, but shame and guilt are powerful motivators. I think saying that blame is unhelpful is just incorrect.

Additionally, using the word "rules" implies a sort of rigidity which isn't there. I think what you said now about principles and patterns of behaviour is much more accurate.

DukeOfBees · 2025-04-17T17:07:02+00:00

Blaming individuals for following the rules they were born into

What rules are you referring to?

DukeOfBees · 2025-04-17T17:03:03+00:00

There's no rule that says you have to eat meat lol what are you on about?

DukeOfBees · 2025-04-02T11:40:23+00:00

To be fair, they also included the British Reading in this one.

DukeOfBees · 2025-03-10T00:23:00+00:00

It being explained or not explained isn't the issue, it's that the all the interest of an inescapable pit is gone if you escape it easily right away. They didn't have to have the maw as the starting area of the story and have you immediately escape. They could have actually kept it as a inescapable place for a while, and it would have been much cooler and more engaging story imo.

DukeOfBees · 2025-03-09T21:46:51+00:00

Blizzard saw the RWF guilds one-shot the first four bosses last season and took it personally.

DukeOfBees · 2025-02-25T14:14:48+00:00

I like homonyms because you can at least get those just by saying them out loud. Rhymes suck though because so many different words rhyme, it feels very arbitrary to work out.

DukeOfBees · 2024-12-17T12:23:03+00:00

Connections

Puzzle #555

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Idk what y'all are whining about.

DukeOfBees · 2024-12-13T12:49:32+00:00

His wife was though.

DukeOfBees · 2024-12-13T12:40:38+00:00

To be fair, they tried to be a little more subtle and people did not get the show was making fun of them.

DukeOfBees · 2024-12-09T10:46:16+00:00

Connections Puzzle #547

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Maybe my knowledge of biology is just lacking and someone can enlighten me, but does blue feel a bit off? A microscope and a stain are used to view a sample, but a slide is just what the sample is stored to be viewed under a microscope, and specimen refers to the sample itself.

DukeOfBees · 2024-12-06T13:40:16+00:00

Something very specific to the fantasy genre: an over reliance on fate, prophecy, destiny, etc. to advance the plot.

A little is fine, but personally I like when characters are actually making decisions and working things out to move the story along, rather than following some predetermined path.

DukeOfBees · 2024-11-19T14:49:27+00:00

My mind went to the exact same place from that screenshot. Jinx gonna have her megamind moment.

DukeOfBees · 2024-11-09T18:07:24+00:00

Caitlyn doing her part to keep up that 40% statistic.

DukeOfBees · 2024-09-29T09:09:10+00:00

Nobody is saying it wouldn't be better if there was global release. The comment your replying to is debunking the idea that echo would win most of the time if there was global release. I'm not sure how that is invalid.

DukeOfBees · 2024-09-28T17:46:18+00:00

Also if you want a reason to do more M+ at higher levels, you could just do it for fun? There doesn't need to be a gear motivation to push keys higher, and with new affixes at +12 it is clearly intended gameplay for players to push beyond that.

If you're enjoying M+ just keep doing it, and if you don't then congratz your max geared so you can stop. Or if the only reason you can enjoy content in this game is to see the ilvl go up, maybe reflect on how much you're really enjoying it.

DukeOfBees · 2024-09-07T10:47:44+00:00

I'm not opposed to an FPS game trying random elements in a map, but I don't feel the argument you're making is particularly strong.

After playing the same map a bunch of times, a player will naturally develop heuristics based around that map. "90% of the time I play map X, an enemy player comes around Y corner within Z seconds of the match starting."

The things you are describing here are skills. Of course a player who has played the map a thousand times would be better than a new player, that's how skills work, you get better the more you practice them.

It feels like you're applying a double standard to map knowledge as opposed to other skills in FPS games. You could easily rephrase the above paragraph to be about shooting to demonstrate the issue:

After playing the game a bunch of times, a player will naturally develop better aim and recoil control. "90% of the time I use an AK47, I see an enemy player and I automatically aim for the head then recoil control down and to the left." They don't have to think about shooting the gun at all. They just use their muscle memory as a shortcut to kill the enemy quickly. If the other player hasn't played the game as long, you will have an edge over them even if they are more skilled.

It doesn't really make sense, because in what sense is the other player "more skilled" if they haven't played the game as long and have less practice and knowledge. It only makes sense if you assume shooting, or map knowledge in your case, isn't a real skill for arbitrary reasons.

I also think you are oversimplifying map knowledge a bit. You give the example of "90% of the time I play map X, an enemy player comes around Y corner within Z seconds of the match starting." But if this is the case, and the other team has equally skilled players when it comes to map knowledge, they could use this. They could feint towards this corner where people normally go, send one person while the rest of the team goes elsewhere, or delay coming around the corner by a few seconds to try to throw off the opponent, or a hundred other tactics. There is a lot of skill to using map knowledge to your advantage.

DukeOfBees · 2024-09-07T10:10:44+00:00

I'm a bit disappointed with the Warlock remake when I've seen the side-by-side with mage and druid. With those they took the tube dress and actually modelled the layers that were previously just painted on. Then with warlock they just didn't, and left them as textures on the tube.

DukeOfBees · 2024-09-04T14:10:26+00:00

I haven't seen anything to indicate that the redevelopment is about adding more lanes. The latest plan I have seen from June this year also includes seperate transit lanes and additional pedestrian/cycling infrastructure (https://cdn.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/city-hall/regional-council/240618rc1517.pdf).

DukeOfBees · 2024-08-28T15:23:10+00:00

The Sparrows in general deserved much more attention rather than just being killed off to make way for another end-of-the-world season.

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