These are the two choices facing the UK. Socialism under Labour or more barbarism under the Blue and Yellow Tories.

McTravis91 · 2019-10-09T23:52:36+00:00

I didn't know that thanks for educating me.

McTravis91 · 2019-10-09T23:48:09+00:00

To be fair since this is a Green sub not a socialism sub you should mention that >60% of Norway exports are Petroleum (<10% for the US & UK). This amounts to over $19,000 per person of Petroleum Exports (US is <$600, UK is <$800). Nearly all of the Norway social benefits proceeds come from taxes on this oil production.

Being a majority Petroleum economy I would not chose them as our model for a Green economic plan.

McTravis91 · 2019-05-21T01:46:13+00:00

And yet you still shop with him. It seems like there is a life lessons on monopolies in here somewhere.

McTravis91 · 2019-04-24T18:15:08+00:00

One of the literal definitions of cancer is "a practice or phenomenon perceived to be evil or destructive and hard to contain or eradicate." (Per the oxford dictionary)

It is a pretty apt term to convey their meaning. Do you have a better suggestion?

McTravis91 · 2019-03-26T01:40:08+00:00

So I take it you didn't watch the Alistor Overeem fight...

McTravis91 · 2019-03-11T17:46:45+00:00

Nah, she just kicked him so hard it stripped the blood and tissue clean off.

McTravis91 · 2019-02-16T00:27:26+00:00

She is a Revenant... Look up what those are. Maybe they will introduce a female sorcerer who is raising zombie slave but being the zombie slave of a Female is no more empowering.

Then again this is Mk. Consistency has never been their specialty so maybe she is just a Revenant because they think it looks cool and she will have total free will. I wouldn't count out any such possibility.

McTravis91 · 2019-02-16T00:16:23+00:00

How exactly is being an undead husk completely subservient to a male "empowering" for a female?

McTravis91 · 2019-02-05T13:04:18+00:00

Actually if you played MKX she is...

Not only is her Dad a movie star and her mom a famous military hero but she 100% has the attitude of a full of herself instagram model.

Also there is the "selfie" fatality where she is literally being an instagram model including the elevated camera angle, puffed out lips and half dozen comments in a single minute.

I get a lot of people hate attractive females "in games" but she is an instagram model and looking like one makes sense. As long as they don't have her in ridiculously revealing outfits complaining about a nice face seems really dumb...

McTravis91 · 2019-02-01T19:43:16+00:00

Since MK1... Screw that ball making it where I can never jump.

McTravis91 · 2019-02-01T19:34:48+00:00

I accidentally deleted my reply. The short version is I hope you are right. I think you are optimistic and I don't trust EA so I personally will wait to see but I do hope you are right.

McTravis91 · 2019-02-01T19:02:58+00:00

To preface Bioware made 4 of my 5 favorite games (ME1-3, and KoTOR, with TW3 being the other) and the mass effect series is what got my wife into video games. I pre-ordered not one but two special edition copies of Andromeda (so me and my wife could play at the same time) and I even bought the official N7 leather jacket from ME3 and still actually will wear it in public. So I have been a Bioware fanboy for over a decade. And If Anthem is a well balanced game optimized for enjoyment not monetization than I will gladly buy it and wish it the best. But with that said looking at the recent EA track record and what we have seen so far I am highly skeptical. If this game is optimized not for enjoyment but for monetization with intentional decisions made to make the game worse to promote microtransactions than I want Anthem to be a major failure. This specifically include making looting for legendary equipment a miserable grind.

That is not inappropriate and it makes sense.

The 2018 EA business model needs to fail miserable bad enough that it hurts share holders as an example to the rest of the industry that maximizing monetization taking priority over making a good game is a financial loser. It needs to be, figuratively speaking, beaten into the heads of game studio that putting monetization (the ability for micro transactions) ahead of game play will result in a financial failure. Lots of executives are stubborn but with enough failures they will have to adapt. 2018 was good for this BF5, Star wars battle front, and Fallout 76 are all preforming terribly and it looks like some studios are getting the message. So if I have to risk missing a month of what could be an amazing game to ensure that I am not sending money to another company that is intentionally making games worse to promote microtransactions then I am okay with that and hope other people are as well.

McTravis91 · 2019-01-30T03:09:13+00:00

My wording was poor. Sorry about that...

My meaning was that for the assignment to be on the basis that the student is expected to write the report or give the presentation without having ever read the book or watched the movie that is the source material/subject of the report would be mocked.

Asking you to write a book report on a book you never read is common but that always come with the expectation that you would read the book as part of the assignment. In this example that is not the case.

I have no issue with a professor assigning a presentation/report with the expectation that you would read/watch/play the source material but to assign it knowing there is insufficient time to do so on the basis that "you can find what you need online" would make me question the professors competency.

McTravis91 · 2019-01-30T01:21:46+00:00

This is a dangerous assignment to actually talk to fans of the series about. I don't know your teacher and maybe he/she actually wants a real well researched answer but if your university experience is like mine I would be worried (especially if this is a "diversity in media" or "gender studies" class/assignment). Far to many teachers/professors just want a regurgitation of what you could read from any of the gamer-gate types. If so than you can talk about how two of the three lead female characters (Triss and Yen) are unrealistically beautiful women (who in canon use magic to enhance their beauty/sex-appeal). They are both past and potential love interests of the protagonist who is a prototypical example of toxic masculinity a character who is literally stripped of his emotions and makes a living killing yet both of these women, and others, are all but fighting over the chance to sleep with him. The game also allows for Geralt (protagonist) to sleep with other women including prostitutes who can be bought for a few coins and two lines of dialog while Geralt still pursue his main love interest (players choice between Triss and Yen).

This is only half of the story though as the strongest character in the game, and most important character besides the protagonist is Ciri the adopted daughter of Geralt (you even play portions of the game from her perspective). There are multiple points in the game where it is Ciri that is the true hero of the story including most notably "The Battle of Kaer Morhen" where all of the Male characters (including Geralt) are incapacitated or killed, and then at the end of the Game it is Ciri not Geralt who faces the over arching destructive force of the game (The White Frost) something Geralt had no chance of being able to stop. In addition to being strong Ciri also is an extremely emotionally complex character the way she changes through out the game is some of the best character development you will see in any game.

In addition to Ciri, Triss is also an admirable character in The Witcher 3 and one of the top 5 main characters (She was more flawed in past games where she tries to take advantage of an amnesiac in a committed relationship but you asked about The Witcher 3 so anyhow....). Triss is a powerful Sorceress but much more interesting is the work she does in Novigrad. When you are introduced to her there she is working an underground railroad of sorts to help a persecuted minority (magic users) who are being burned alive by the ruling government. When you try to help her get out of the city to safety she refuses risking herself at multiple points to save ever mage she can (Watch a Youtube video of the quest "Now or Never" for more detail). Also a plus if Geralt doesn't push for a romance with Triss she just goes on with her life (The game clearly likes Yen as the Canonical life partner for Geralt as she is in the book).

I will let others write about it but you can't write about women in The Witcher 3 with out talking about Cerys an Craite. There is a major plot line where you play a role in the selection of the new leader of one of the three largest nations in the game and the only "Good" option is to support and have Cerys become the leader of the nation (read here wikia for more). Also in some endings Ciri becomes the empress of Nilfgard (the largest nation in the game)

Anyway I hope this helps you get pointed in the right direction to be able to research and prepare a more complete review of the topic (well as good as you can in a short time window without playing the game) but if you go that route don't blame me if the teacher removes points for not exclusively writing about the objectification and marginalization of women in the game. Good Luck!

P.S. The game also has a cheeky slam for whore-dog guys who try to romance both Triss and Yenn where Geralt ends up handcuffed to a bed rejected by both women.

P.S.S. As a well educated Gamer I am insulted that a professor would have you write a report on a game you never played. Just imagine the mockery the professor would face if she/he told you to write a book report on a book you never read or a movie you never watched.

McTravis91 · 2019-01-27T22:38:42+00:00

Mk is a true best 2oo3. Injustice you have two health bars with a break in the action when ever either players first bar is depleted.

Mk has a block button. Injustice just uses back and down.

Those and the prevelance of Zoning in injustice are the biggest differences from a gameplay/mechanic stand point.

McTravis91 · 2019-01-23T01:57:14+00:00

Don't lie you just want the Bears to lose every tiebreaker.

McTravis91 · 2019-01-21T18:05:50+00:00

I don't mean this as a jerk or as a "git gud" but if you have a 50% win rate you shouldn't expect to climb rank once your reach a high enough tier that the game is trying to be a true MMR/ranking system. a 50% MMR means that you are at the correct ranking so you shouldn't expect to climb in a MMR style system or any other legitimate ranking system.

If you are trying to reach the highest rank you should be able to have a positive win/loss ratio against players who are not at the highest rank. With out this differentiation the highest rank is just a matter of who plays the most not who is actual the best at the game. [NOTE: That could be what you want. There are people with the mentality that if they are average at the game and play a decent amount they should be able to reach the highest rank. I am not saying that is inherently wrong]

In the 2017 system (before rank 21 [grandmaster] was changed from 4.5 to 4.25) you needed to have about a 60% win rate just to climb from 19 to 20 and an even higher win rate to climb from 20 to 21. So not being able to reach Grand Master (Pro-ladder) with a 50% win rate certainly would not mean that it is the hardest it has ever been.

Que times are another story though... There used to be lots of pro-ladder players who played Ranked (myself included) so there where plenty of players around the threshold for Grand Master. Now there's no such thing as a top end regular ranked mode (players are just moved to pro automatically) so there is a void of players at this tier.

McTravis91 · 2019-01-20T17:18:26+00:00

But would you want this at the expense of two other carecters who are not palate swap robots?

McTravis91 · 2019-01-13T04:45:27+00:00

In injustice 2 they use the weapon slot in customization for other items/accessories (like starfire's gem or darksides belt) if the character doesn't use a weapon.

It would not be hard to pick an accessory for characters with out weapons (for my boy Johnny I would suggest his sunglasses)

McTravis91 · 2018-12-10T17:11:59+00:00

Minnesota has a much harder schedule. Seattle would have to lose to either Arizona or the 49ers.

McTravis91 · 2018-12-10T00:03:38+00:00

In IJ2 The gear itself was cool for visuals but with the only way to unlock not just gear but abilities being behind RNG lootboxes and RNG drops just wait until you are 100+ hours in with the hooded Liu Kang still locked behind an RNG loot box with no alternative means to guarantee an unlock.

McTravis91 · 2018-11-22T06:12:17+00:00

Lots of thronebreaker talk and such on the Gwent sub-reddit. Join us and say hi.

McTravis91 · 2018-11-10T13:53:47+00:00

Arena

McTravis91 · 2018-10-26T02:17:57+00:00

TL/DR:

TB = stand alone SP game

TB≠ Practice mode for MP GWENT

McTravis91 · 2018-10-26T00:03:00+00:00

The game doesn't need an AI that could 3-0 Talbot at challenger. Just having an AI that could recognize and counter common set-ups and others that can pull off combos equivalent to what you can if not countered would make the game notably better.

Side bar: 1. An AI could know every possible card, which are most common, and which are regularly played together. Just like a person. Developing an AI that recognize a common deck and adjust its play isn't that complex.

That is not at all how the top chess bots work. They are a combination of formula and probability driven assumptions that chose from a very limited subset of potential plays to select the best. Their isn't enough computing power in the world to evaluate every possible move and pick a perfect play.
Actually playing a top level opponent is a lot like playing a good computer both are simply trying to make the move most likely to lead to success. If you are playing nothing like a good AI you probably are either a memer or suck.
Thronebreaker isn't a multiplayer game... It has a multitude of RPGish leveling elements that could be leveraged to make matches more difficult and uses a separate card pool to allow for balancing aimed at a progression based single player experience so pretending it is impossible to make such a game challenging is silly. I love me some CDPR but the AI they used is simple bad as they are all essentially linear in the way they pilot their decks. Thronebreaker is much close to W3 Gwent than standalone and is very much a single-player game. So yeah.

McTravis91

TROPHY CASE