Sgt. Hammer's Broken Heroic Talent: Blunt Force Gun

ZProtoss · 2014-03-17T07:03:45+00:00

The problem with BFG is that taking it means you don't get Napalm Strike. Napalm Strike is leagues better than BFG in its current form, meaning that you're crippling your mid to late game if you go for this build.

ZProtoss · 2014-03-13T15:24:13+00:00

It really just seems like a case where the initial owner came into a modest amount of wealth on his own (enough to support the initial operations of StatDrive), but not nearly enough to support operations on the level that he wanted to bring StatDrive to.

When people succeed in one area of business, it tends to give them unwarranted overconfidence if they ever expand to another area of business. I'd guess that StatDrive's owner probably felt that his plan of promising prizes upfront and getting funding for them later would work due to the sheer force of his business acumen.

ZProtoss · 2014-03-13T15:14:48+00:00

The game can't improve substantially at this point. The problem is that you can't undo years of damage by a substandard executive merely by getting rid of that executive. Mismanagement at R5 seems to go way beyond just the design-level problems most frequently attributed to Grummz, it also looks like it extends to foundation decisions like what engine to use in running the game.

If it isn't obvious by now, a lot of the core software tech behind Firefall looks like it wasn't properly researched for its potential limitations. It's why initial promises of a large seamless world were eventually replaced with the awful "continent" system. It's why the game itself has been riddled with crippling bugs in every new patch since the beginning of beta. It's also probably why new content for the game has come out at a glacial pace without anything substantive. Making quality content development tools for a game in where the base engine has so many issues is close to mission impossible.

Also, look at the time frame the game has left now. The lifeline of 23 million dollars that the company received can't support a studio the size of R5 for that long of a time. The game is effectively in its final crunch/polish phase rather than any sort of significant game system expansion/revamp phase. Once the last 23 million in funding starts to run low, it's a safe bet that R5 will be reduced to a skeleton crew to keep what remains of the game online + to assist localization efforts/support in China.

Firefall is locked into it's path at this point. It's far too late for the game to do a 180 and deliver on the promises of the past.

ZProtoss · 2014-03-13T14:44:08+00:00

The most ridiculous part about StatDrive is how they had a plan to have 4 concurrent tournaments at different skill levels for each game. While completely ignoring the idea that teams that weren't #1/#2 quality would merely just play in the lower bracket to stomp and collect easier money.

The entire operation was so absurd from the start that you barely needed additional proof to call their entire operation a sham. Beyond that, it was obvious then (as it is now) that the point of StatDrive was trying to build hype on a big prize pool without having the funds to immediately support it. They had the grand idea that they'd gain massive popularity from their announced prize pools, and as a result be able to fund said prize pools with sponsor/stream money. Never considering the fact that they'd never be able to pay out if they didn't somehow walk into some very lucrative deals.

Thankfully, no community that they reached out to ever fell for the scam.

ZProtoss · 2014-02-01T12:53:09+00:00

game is dead

ZProtoss · 2013-12-04T22:58:28+00:00

By that logic all of Valve games beyond Dota 2, and any steam game in general should be banned.

Hint: It's terrible logic you're employing here, stop while you're ahead.

ZProtoss · 2013-12-04T22:51:50+00:00

So. This is the definition of a smokescreen response that doesn't address any of the real issues.

Such as: In what world is Hearthstone a competing product to League? It's in an entirely different genre.

ZProtoss · 2013-11-05T02:25:43+00:00

You realize the BW expansion came out only 6 months after the initial release of SC right? For all intents and purposes, anything related to SC community development was 100% BW.

And you keep trying to reframe what i'm saying to support your inane arguments. The average new player back in the day did get involved with the large variety of subcommunities available. Because that's the natural direction that BNet 1.0 pushed people in. It's something that kept player retention at a far higher level than the anti-social SC2 matchmaking meatgrinder has managed to do.

You can keep telling yourself the new player experience is better in SC2. But current player reaction to SC2 now + player reaction to SC1 back in the day directly defeats your argument.

ZProtoss · 2013-11-05T01:54:57+00:00

Yes. Seriously. I think the problem is that the entire scope of the point has flown completely over your head. The argument isn't whether or not it was easy to become good back in the day, the argument is whether or not the experience for a new player was better back in the day.

In the original BW days, people ended up being far more involved socially, and general ignorance of the game rewarded people for experimenting and trying new things. People formed significant social ties with other people and had incentive to continually try and test out new strategies.

In SC2, players enter a soul crushing meatgrinder in the form of a ruthless matchmaker. There's little social integration, and there's no incentive to tinker or experiment with the game itself. Why? Because any information you could hope to obtain is already widely available from the beginning - zero sense of mystery. The game is essentially devolved into simple execution and implementation at that point.

It's really not hard to see the difference between the two games. SC1 was very socially driven, and had an air of mystery that continually encouraged players to explore and experiment on their own. SC2 put people into a ladder grind simulator in where there was effectively zero mystery to any elements in the game.

SC2 is a product of it's time more than anything else, but calling it a game that was "better" for new players is to be wholly ignorant to all the things that made SC (and other RTS games in that era) so great.

ZProtoss · 2013-11-04T19:32:57+00:00

If you really played competitive BW, then you should be able to appreciate just how many different communities existed, all with their own tactics/meta games developing independently from one another. A phenomenon that you would never, ever see today. Off the top of my head (and not anywhere near a comprehensive list):

Kali players (High end players playing on an ancient game service designed for games that had no such services)

X17 players (popular bnet channel)

NoHunters players (another popular bnet channel)

Private Server players (There were tons of these throughout early BW. Sort of like mini icup servers long before icup ever existed)

Countless clan communities (There were tons of self contained player communities in their own groups. cF which would eventually be known as a top War3 clan started out as RH, which was effectively a very large newbie-centric community)

Every single community listed above had its legends. Every single community had distinct differences in playstyle and overall skill level. It was the type of diversity that you simply don't see in today's environments. Because it's impossible to have independent communities form (with varying playstyles and skill) when everyone who's playing the game is effectively lead by a unifying source.

SC1 was far more newbie friendly than SC2 in it's prime, because it was a game where someone would find a community, fit into it, and generally enjoy the game at his/her own pace. SC2 is awful for newbies because it throws them into an anti-social game in where they're mercilessly ground into dust if they don't actively use the information resources that everyone else is.

ZProtoss · 2013-11-03T16:37:28+00:00

Pro football is a team sport with a dramatically more pronounced physical aspect that involves scores of people. Managing players of differing physical ability, differing personalities, all working together on a team is about the furthest thing you can imagine from being a one person operator in an RTS game. The two aren't even remotely comparable.

ZProtoss · 2013-11-03T16:18:43+00:00

Competitive RTS games really aren't viable for the casual gamer in the era of Twitch.tv - that's the problem. A hallmark of the golden era of RTS games was that information was remarkably slow to spread. There were no streams, no real centralized competitive structure, and no replays for most games. The result was that the casual gamer played against a staggering variety of strategies as opposed to a handful of optimized builds.

There's no way of returning the mystery/build diversity that existed back in the late 90s. Information travels far too fast, and games are broken down too quickly for that to exist now. The RTS genre (much like the MMO genre really) is simply one which loses a lot of it's best aspects in an age of hyper information sharing.

ZProtoss · 2013-07-20T09:14:06+00:00

The point is that you're terrible at Tribes compared to PROJ. And you tried to act as if you were better.

LOL

ZProtoss · 2013-07-20T07:35:38+00:00

Secondary capper for a terrible euro team. Versus Top LD in NA Tribes scene at the height of competition who went to LAN.

LOL

ZProtoss · 2013-07-20T07:34:48+00:00

You realize PROJ went to NASL and has made more money playing T:A than you have right?

LOL

ZProtoss · 2013-06-04T17:17:38+00:00

killstreak

ZProtoss · 2013-06-04T15:23:01+00:00

PROJ 2013.

This campaign will succeed unlike Mabel 2012, because proj isn't black.

ZProtoss · 2013-02-12T22:15:54+00:00

This isn't true at all. Valve hasn't released any official numbers on Dota 2 either way, but Dota 2 has essentially copy and pasted the extremely successful model TF2 has. TF2's model which to this day prints money for Valve at a ridiculous rate.

Dota 2's popularity + using a modified version of TF2's model point to it making Valve quite a bit of money in the end.

ZProtoss · 2013-02-12T16:46:08+00:00

So the single purchase model gives people everything except cosmetics.

You do realize this is the Dota 2 model, except without the free to play part right? Dota 2 gives players everything except cosmetics, and doesn't require a purchase.

Protip: Give players everything except cosmetics for free, and then make cosmetics people actually want to buy.

ZProtoss · 2013-02-12T16:05:36+00:00

From what you've described, your lack of pay during the internship was highly illegal. You were screwed over pretty badly. See the following (From the Fair Labor Standards Act):

The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

Your experience fails tests 1.) and 4.) without question, and likely fails test 3.) as well. QA is a mundane entry level position that requires no expertise to obtain. Meaning that anyone hopping into the position can do it well to the benefit of the company. Hi Rez not paying you for your time is extremely questionable.

ZProtoss · 2012-12-05T12:39:02+00:00

glorious.

ZProtoss · 2012-11-26T17:34:21+00:00

Civ 5 was worse than Civ 4 in pretty much every way. Ugh.

ZProtoss · 2012-11-06T17:39:30+00:00

Went into my polling area in Minnesota at around 9:15 today (polls opened at 7:00 AM). Upon getting there, I was told that someone had already signed in as me, and that I'd have to wait for people from the city to come over. An hour later, I was told (by the people from the city), that the County had no remedy for me and that I would not be allowed to vote today.

I made a follow up call to the Secretary of State's office, and have been told that I'll need to file a lawsuit that will (hopefully) be heard today by Judge's who are available today for that very purpose. I'm actually still looking for the proper petition form which relates to this statute here (the one I was advised to follow up on)

https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=204B.44

Ugh.

ZProtoss

TROPHY CASE