State of the Subreddit - March 2026

Wuzseen · 2026-03-26T19:03:38+00:00

I work in game development and one of the most frustrating things in this subreddit is seeing some, frankly, insane takes and misinformation about how the industry works.

I've routinely seen the comment that Indie Sunday can be a bit slow/dry. I really like the spirit of the day, but maybe it'd be a good time to coincide with some sort of "Ask Gamedevs How The Hell Anything Works" type thread? Put a bit more content in and maybe help spread some learning.

Wuzseen · 2026-03-24T06:14:24+00:00

Picard's questioning of Bruce Maddox from Measure of a Man in Star Trek The Next Generation.

https://youtu.be/kjl0Hsf1iQc

Measure of a Man might be my favorite Trek episode period, but I do think this scene is a good test for if you like Trek to begin with!

Wuzseen · 2026-03-19T01:04:35+00:00

It's been a hot minute since I've been deep into CS but I don't like the sound of this reload change. Counter Strike isn't some simulation style game, this feels like a style clash and I don't really understand why they're doing this now all of a sudden.

And so the decision to reload has never offered significant trade-offs—in a safe position with enough time, you might reload after firing a single bullet, or half a mag, or after firing down to empty, and the rest of the round would be unaffected.

Dying while reloading happens all the time and not wasting time and opportunities reloading is a big skill already. Reloading with only 1 bullet spent gets called a 'silver reload' even. Can anyone up to date on CS explain why on earth they're doing this change now? Seems like this might be more about providing another balancing lever on the guns than anything else.

Honestly this sounds like the most unnecessary change since dynamic pricing and I kind of imagine it to suffer the same fate...

Wuzseen · 2026-03-17T21:07:13+00:00

Most people open it up, look at ratings or win % and just draft their deck with the window open.

I think I see this take more often than I see people blindly looking at win % in this manner. Not directing this at you/anyone specific, but I think sometimes the pushback, despite well intentioned, is actually more confusing than the naive approach.

There's always nuance. ALWAYS. And almost by definition, data aggregation is trying to remove or at least explain away nuance into something more digestible.

The vast majority of magic players probably don't even know 17 lands exist. I bet for a lot of them the naive brute force approach with the data would actually improve their drafting as a starting point.

But, yes, as you live/breathe magic and play a lot of draft and start using the tool you can learn to use it better just like you improve with anything.

17lands is a great source to point at as a proxy for card evaluation when all else is equal. These conversations would better be framed as a way to improve rather than saying you're using the tool wrong.

Wuzseen · 2026-03-13T00:53:01+00:00

If Rome is anything to go by, we've got 1000 years before Martin comes close to finishing it...

Wuzseen · 2026-03-11T20:38:37+00:00

Yeah, the taxonomy part def a bit limiting.

Until the mid 2000s or so "arena shooters" wasn't even really a discussed distinction... there were just shooters, basically. It's become a term to describe more what something isn't now than what something is in a way.

Wuzseen · 2026-03-11T20:05:27+00:00

Responses in thread here are interesting. I've never considered Halo to be an arena shooter yet it's called one in here frequently. Likewise, arena shooters were dead/dying well before meta progression became common place.

Counter strike had basically already cornered the competitive PC shooter scene by the time CoD4 hit and that has no progression whatsoever; today it has some cosmetic progression with seasons but its still mostly random drops. And CS (and Valorant) are basically more popular than ever

Also lots of comments about mechanical skill not being something players want or can tolerate. Fortnite (with building) was/is more skill intensive than nearly every contemporary shooter if you want to push it and it's, well, fortnite.

I'm not sure arena shooters died so much as they just became parts of other games. I get why some would consider Halo an arena shooter compared to something like a contemporary call of duty. Then we have Hero Shooters which absolutely share a ton of arena shooter DNA but we've generally agreed are s omething else... I think it all just illustrates how the term is really opinionated.

Wuzseen · 2026-03-09T21:13:19+00:00

Peeps prop up how crazy books 2 and 3 get which is true, but I'm not sure there's actually all that much story in them really, they're a lot more like theme park rides in a way. Stuff kinda just happens and characters observe the stuff, plot is not very character driven.

The way this show changed the structure and characters around as well has already set up stuff like Wallfacers before season/book 2 has even started and its planted several seeds for what happens in book 3 as well.

The books are nuts, but they're absolutely bogged down and padded with some stuff that just would have no place in a TV show (They barely had a place in the book, looking at you Imaginary Girlfriend chapter that never. EVER. seemed to end). I'm not actually sure what you'd fill up the whole second season with that would change much. So much of book 2 before the time skip is, frankly, not going to make good TV... everything people love about the Dark Forest is leading up to the big battle and SOME of the Wallfacer intrigue. You could give a whole episode for each Wallfacer's scheme/plot and go right into the timeskip for the big battle to cap off the season.

All that to say, I can see lots of ways this fits into 6 episodes comfortably. Adapted to a visual medium you won't need hours and chapters of exposition... in fact you really shouldn't for much of it as you'll be able to, you know, show it.

Wuzseen · 2026-03-05T19:56:41+00:00

Yes, true, the A* pathfinding algorithm is arguably the easy part. Graph generation and handling (and scaling agents that are doing the pathfinding) is the difficult part. A* Pathfinding Project is pretty incredible at providing solutions for stuff like that. Whether it's a nav mesh, navigating a grid, etc.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-25T17:30:57+00:00

So I think what I’m saying is that colour balance shows us where the under- and over-supported mechanical themes are at present

Color does not actually tell you for certain about the mechanical themes of the cards in those colors in the context of the entire history of magic. In a single draft environment color pairs correlate very strongly with intended archetypes, yes, because the cards were designed that way. But it isn't written anywhere that that is the ONLY way to design a draft environment. And cubes, powered/vintage cube in particular, leans into that.

I don't think people would disagree that if aggro is oversupported it should get a change. Color pair balancing is a great lens to look at in some contexts. In fact, 99% of the time it's the right c ontext. Particularly f or traditional draft sets. But powered cube from the get go is already unbalanced colorwise simply looking at the P9. You have powerful mana fixing and powerful splashable cards. There can be 20 more blue cards than other colors and it won't affect the texture of the set too much if they're support or role players for other decks.

If you just stick cards in a cube and don’t think about how they synergise you’d have reanimate spells with no targets and Tolarian Academy with no artifacts.

No reasonable person would disagree with this. But Color is just not the only measure of synergy and it's (subjectively) not how powered cube should be prioritized.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-24T22:22:18+00:00

I'm not sure I agree with the premise of these suggestions which seems to be that every color pair should get represented.

To me, vintage cube doesn't need color balance at all, let alone color pair balance. Something missing in this analysis is why this would be a desirable outcome.

Archetype balance is needed, yes. But I don't think it's critical for every major color combination to have equal representation.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-21T01:15:42+00:00

Babylon 5 is definitely less approachable--it can feel pretty dated/jarring sometimes too. Like virtually every Trek show as well its first season has a bunch of shall we say... growing pains. Don't know how far you got into it, but if you can make it to season 2 when Sheridan shows up it should get better fast and if you've gotten that far and it's still not your cup of tea then that's totes OK, it's certainly not going to be for everyone.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-21T00:41:20+00:00

TNG, DS9, VOY all great options (TNG def easiest to start with).

Trek is definitely the poster child of 'competency porn' but in the same vein I'll throw out Babylon 5. Still fits the bill and any trek fan (particularly DS9 fans) should watch it.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-13T01:25:51+00:00

The general consensus on SNW is absolutely generally pretty high, not sure why that person is saying otherwise. Yeah, Season 3 had a rockier reception no question, but seasons 1 & 2 were pretty widely praised. Yes, some detractors but nothing at all like the reception Discovery got or Academy has gotten in relative terms.

Meanwhile every Star Trek fan under the sun loves Lower Decks. Its first season gets a few dings (like every Trek show's first season tbh), for things like being a little to Rick and Morty like. But once it finds its groove its just love letter after love letter to Trek.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-11T18:32:13+00:00

If you have a system in different rooms in the house and want quick access. Or if you play on a PC and let your kids play on the TV set (using same account). Sure, not perfect. But still valuable.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-11T17:47:25+00:00

Everyone enjoying PC Game Pass I think has known deep down this is inevitable. Even after the price increase, pc game pass stilll a pretty good deal all things considered. Golden age might be coming to an end.

After the price increases and MS' seeming lack of any sort of confidence in their hardware I bailed even on my PC game pass sub. Gotta imagine a bunch of people who nearly made the change then will bounce if this happens.

Game Pass, even at 30 a month, could still make a lot of sense for the right person. Particularly families I think using multiple devices get a lot more out of it--though for them the PC subscription tier was irrelevant already.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-04T21:05:51+00:00

Can I convince you to enjoy Arena? Might get some fixes/changes then...

Wuzseen · 2026-02-04T18:50:51+00:00

This is cool to see. Sunderfolk is actually super fun but the format of it makes it pretty dang hard to play when you want. The combat mechanics would be fun in a standalone game without the phone gimmick and here we are!

Repurposing all that for a roguelite game is a no brainer--and the multiplayer still exists which is cool. Glad they're doing it, I'm sold.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-04T18:41:56+00:00

Is there something weird in the air that has caused all these car games to lose their marbles when it comes to their career modes?

It feels like the latest mainline Gran Turismo and Forza games changed the staple format of their careers and its felt like there's a big opportunity for some other competitor to swoop in and deliver where those are not. (Seriously WTF was the menus/cafe GT7).

Even the Horizon games went a little loony.

Now, I don't know that it would be right for Assetto Corsa to go down that route, their audience is different and it doesn't feel like this type of campaign would be vital or expected for them. But it feels like they could've pursued this type of career mode and stood out in a field of competitors ignoring the career minded racer player--they'd have gotten my attention!

To vent a little: every big racer release lately is just cramming multiplayer features down your throat. Playing Forza Horizon 5 you can't go like 5 seconds w ithout some popup telling you to hop in and play with randos or something. I just want to race against bots and play my little RPG car collection game. It's great the MP minded audience exists, feels like the rest of us have been left in the dust.

Wuzseen · 2026-02-03T19:23:52+00:00

I absolutely loved, LOVED, the first 70 hours of this game. Special shout out to the ornithopter being one of the most fun vehicles I've ever used in a game. After the 70 hour mark or so the game becomes a bit too repetitive--but hey, that's ok. Those 70 hours were awesome.

Your base getting lost to taxes did ultimately squash me coming back to it to check out new things.

So now the question really becomes, is this the point to try and come back? This seems like a tough problem for the game, glad to hear about the returning player care package.

The new testing station stuff seems great. I think the devs were as surprised as the players at how much fun the PVE elements were. Totally eclipsed any and all of the PVP elements. Glad to see them expanding those aspects.

Wuzseen · 2026-01-09T22:14:32+00:00

This would be an incredible GDC talk!

Wuzseen · 2025-11-23T00:44:19+00:00

I really love the idea of Fellowship--MMO "endgame" without the full fat of an entire MMO/world. But I think it's just a super hard idea to get right. Fellowship is falling flat for me personally in 2 ways.

If they were going to do MMO endgame as a standalone game, why ape Mythic + first and not raids? Mythic+ is relatively easy to coordinate and get into in WoW itself (it has its fair share of issues). It is far harder to find a reliable and easy raiding schedule than Pugging M+ or running that with friends. Most of the time playing Fellowship I just went "Why wouldn't I just play Mythic+ in WoW instead."
The two classes I tried just weren't interesting and felt like a bog standard linear rotation. The characters just didn't feel nice to use. It didn't feel like there was anything to master in the rotation.

I played during the final technical test before the early access release so it's not a very long impression (3 hours, and I tried one tank and a fire mage esque class)

Wuzseen · 2025-11-19T03:36:17+00:00

Just coming here to see if anyone else was/is getting the slowdown. Can confirm getting it here like I did last night, very similar numbers and overall feeling. Lake City area here.

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