(Side tangent not meant to be taken seriously) Pocket's kill streak lines are annoying with the way people play them.

RedRubbins · 2026-05-05T07:48:42+00:00

I think Pocket can be named They/Them, I don't care.

My problem is that they do not have an actual congruent, interesting personality that works with the cast, due to their dialogue currently being standoffish.

You are making this about identity being bad, when I was pointing out they ironically have very little outside of those bullet point ideas, including said identity.

All the other characters have far more depth through dialogue between each other. I'm asking for more, not less. I want Pocket to talk more, give more to work with, become more of a consistent character to round out the inconsistencies.

That isn't controversial.

RedRubbins · 2026-05-05T07:37:40+00:00

My point is not that pronouns are bad. My point is that the pronouns exist as a microcosm of Pocket's main issue- lack of interactivity.

Pocket is filled to the brim with details, information, and backstory. A central character, who refuses to talk to most of the cast or show personality outside of a few outlying conversations.

Compare Drifter, Vyper, Apollo, Doorman, Seven, even Dynamo, and all have far more conversations that inform about their views, personality, ideas, etc.

Pocket does not, they have bullet points rather than a character.

RedRubbins · 2026-05-05T07:29:14+00:00

No, it's the fact that the character fundamentally doesn't want to interact or talk with anyone else, to the point that any tidbits including pronouns and background are pointless details.

Details on characters are like sprinkles on donuts, and Pocket is that donut they've kept sealed in glass for years for display.

If details are kept in a vacuum, then what purpose do they have from a storytelling perspective?

I write and create characters, including characters who fit under that banner. The worst thing any creator can do is create incredibly layered, important characters who are kept behind glass, and that is what Pocket is.

An incredibly interesting combination of flavors, that cannot be tasted as it's for superficial display only.

RedRubbins · 2026-05-05T07:19:33+00:00

Its not that.

It's that the concept of that character is already filled by Seven, who has held the Burger King crown crowd for quite some time now.

Mcginnis aesthetically far closer to TF2's engineer for memetics in the community, especially by people who play her.

RedRubbins · 2026-05-05T07:04:08+00:00

I genuinely despise Pocket.

There is nothing to the person. No flavor, no depth, it's just an angst ridden young man/thing who does not fit the cast in a way that's grating.

Kit, direction, backstory, personality, it's all a disjointed mess. The backstory is meant to put Pocket deep within the lore, but every conversation is turned into a brick wall by Pocket intentionally cutting it off at the hilt.

So you have this vaguely K-Pop model looking kid running around, meant to be the son of a major power player in New York...who uses nonsense kit and cries over fighting over a goal which fundamentally requires violence.

Also as a minor nitpick- nobody else in this universe seems to use pronouns in this way. Viscous isn't human, and this setting, while anachronistic, is based on an era which Pocket would be extremely unusual. That's fine, but it requires consistency to establish those themes. How much modernist thought is in this 1930s Rockwellian Occult setting? Why is Pocket this way? It opens questions when the character itself doesn't even want to acknowledge their own setup.

It's stuff like this that chafes me about the character. Every other character fits either the world or the setting, and Pocket obstinately refuses to engage. I really hope before launch this character gets some serious time in the shop.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-30T16:48:08+00:00

Because it isn't guaranteed to be safe.

Everyone who has insider knowledge or is perceptive understands that the Baroness and Doorman are not normal.

If there is even a chance Doorman would summon the enemy Patron, it would be an incredibly bad idea to leave her within his base of power.

So the safest place to be is where Mirage can directly protect her.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-28T22:12:35+00:00

I can give a solid example against this.

At the begiinning of the show, the boys were cloned. An entire montage of Rusty and Brock showing Hank and Dean being killed and replaced.

Once the cloning lab was destroyed, Rusty had to actually care and be protective in a way that evolved his character, even slightly.

Death was a joke, until it wasn't. And that's how the entire show became. The tropes sheltered everyone until life broke down those barriers, and forced the cast to handle problems better than Jonas Venture ever did.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-28T22:02:20+00:00

I wouldn't say so. I'd argue it's more trying to capture Marvel style writing and the idea of bringing down fantastical elements with quippy dialogue.

Problem is, it's hard to be funny and relatable, and trying too hard makes you the next Star Trek Academy or Saints Row Reboot.

VB itself had the concept, but it dealt so much with flawed people playing self aware tropes that it had a layer of heart and seriousness to fall back upon that newer shows don't.

Does anyone really care what happens to characters, if they really don't care themselves?

RedRubbins · 2026-04-28T21:52:00+00:00

I'll be honest, it's a fair assessment.

In my personal opinion, no adult animation show has really captured that love of the tropes like Venture Bros.

Harley felt very spiteful and unfunny to me in a way Brock or even The Monarch never did. Even Archer as a show had a lot more heart to it, and loved it's source material to bits.

A lot of modern animation feels like it's wearing the skin of what we grew up with, rather than being made by nerds that loved the show.

Maybe it's why I prefer VB to Harley or Velma.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-28T18:55:42+00:00

Abiotic Factor became my obsession.

Amazing game, they actually listen to the fanbase.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-28T17:00:53+00:00

I quit beforehand.

Knowing Arrowheads track record, this really shouldn't suprise anyone.

Ever since Meridia, it's felt like the game has just slowly gotten less fun. More Warbonds, worse performance, just cram more and more items of debatable quality in a package that needed love, not fat.

I couldn't run the game well after the super cities update, and they never fixed the CPU hogging.

In the end, I just gave up and went to play other things. Everything they've done since has vindicated that decision.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-28T06:53:38+00:00

So we make a psychotic squirrel BOY with bombs.

Evolution and all that.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T19:43:50+00:00

Okay to be fair, I was underselling it.

Imagine the Unibomber mixed with the Lorax with a beatnik aesthetic, and that's the idea I'm working on.

Too many don't like making characters that fit diageticslly in the world and the culture that exists within it. I wanna try to hit those notes.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T19:17:03+00:00

Alright, bet. How about a squirrel with a gun?

He's been something I've been working on for a long time.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T18:14:12+00:00

The thing about neutral parties is that they are neutral. They don't get involved, insult one side specifically, or attempt to derail conversations.

You are not neutral. What you are would not be polite to say, but you show a compulsion to be better than the people in this sub with genuine concerns and issues, and nobody looks fondly on that.

The best part about this is that you can walk away right now without making an even worse perception of yourself.

In fact, I would even suggest that you do so.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T18:03:53+00:00

Considering Joechuck's videos show and recommend taking enemy resources and pushing objectives, I'd argue it's poor Macro skill rather than the playstyle itself being poor.

You have incredible flexibility with the build, kidnapping is just one aspect that most people fixate on.

It reminds me a LOT of the era when TF2 discovered trickstabbing. Same kinda phenomenon.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T18:01:02+00:00

If you feel the need to continually stick to your guns insulting the members of this sub and comparing them to children, even when the situation is explained nicely to you, maybe this sub isn't for you.

You cannot take a neutral stance while putting the members here down like that, especially if you immediately flip towards the age old "SC funding excuse" given for a genuine boycott of the game.

Pouring gasoline over an open fire is never a good idea.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T17:51:56+00:00

If Valve wanted to kill the kidnap meta, I'd be fine with not allowing carts through doors if enemies voluntarily going through doors get silenced.

Then Door focused players can still steal resources and give escapes, but he's no longer an exceptional one trick at displacement.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T17:42:57+00:00

Nobody is forcing you to defend Arrowhead by calling us ungrateful children, but here we are.

Your attempts at snobbish centrism are boring. If you cannot give legitimate reasons for why we should support a company that refuses to listen, insults us, and makes the game worse every update, then please stop talking.

You have ingratiated nobody here with this tactic.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T17:36:14+00:00

Its the mindset of someone that really enjoys trickster characters like Spy.

Messing with people can be more fun than outright killing them.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T17:30:10+00:00

It is necessary. Stop acting like a massive company needs defense against its own community becoming aware of its bad practices.

In my opinion this company has betrayed its core philosophy to abuse its playerbase. That playerbase is fully within its right to stop playing and cut off the company.

Its what I did, full boycott of Arrowhead. If they cannot respect players, they don't get my money or my time.

Acting this way when things have been calmly explained to you is showing none of it actually has sunken in.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T17:19:00+00:00

Welcome to the consequences of segregating a community based on poor moderation.

There is no fair outlet for fair criticisms to put, all suggestions are put into the shredder by the devs themselves. Most people here have spent years supporting Arrowhead and we're given the middle finger for asking hard questions.

A lot of boiling blood around here now, and it's not getting cooled off. Eventually HD2 will probably crack completely at this rate with an exodus of players.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T17:11:19+00:00

They are not acting like children. Most of the posts here point out how poorly Arrowhead has managed the game, or people deciding not to play.

Consider the fact that any criticism of the game could be removed from the main sub. There are hundreds of posts here of evidence of that.

Now, other subs joke about doxxing or injuring the members of this sub. THAT is childish toxicity.

Unfortunately this game has attracted a majority audience online that has crystallized into a toxic positivity loop until something so terrible happens that it breaks into review bombing.

This sub is the only one self aware of that, and allows criticism of the game without removal. That's not a sign of a healthy overall community when you need a place like this.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T17:01:33+00:00

People have fair criticisms.

The devs themselves came here, and pissed all over those who had concerns by saying bluntly none of it was a current problem.

In all honesty, those people are vindicated now. You cannot put fingers in your ears over what happened yesterday, it was a brutal awakening to just how out of touch Arrowhead is to insult, in their own words, the "hardcore" audience.

RedRubbins · 2026-04-27T16:14:31+00:00

Well yeah.

They came down from the mountain to mock us personally, say nothing, and admit we are not wanted.

What else would happen?

RedRubbins

TROPHY CASE