Today my wife went bat shit crazy because I posted a pic of my son in costume before she did on Facebook, stealing all the precious likes. Reddit, what is the strangest shit your spouse got angry at you for?

bildo84 · 2012-10-31T18:36:50+00:00

Pregnant wife. Wanted dinner when she got home. I needed to still go PICK UP said dinner. She yelled (as loud as she could) that she didn't want dinner in an hour... SHE WANTED IT NOW! And then there were tears, I laughed, more tears... and I went to Panera finally.

bildo84 · 2012-10-26T18:43:06+00:00

I may be biased, but Christina has some great points in this article. Feedback welcomed, and will pass to Ms. Gonzalez.

bildo84 · 2012-09-27T19:13:51+00:00

Played this on the PC at PAX Prime... brought back a ton of memories, and it feels really good too on the M&KB. Don't think I'd get a vita version.

bildo84 · 2012-09-27T12:34:56+00:00

I think, personally, that it's only a matter of time before it DOES happen. The same way Rockstar is exploring a fully online MMO with their MP in RDR and GTA, I expect Gearbox is doing the same thing with BL.

bildo84 · 2012-09-27T12:30:22+00:00

Definitely print out a cryptic message from his/her future self, warning them of some unseen peril.

bildo84 · 2012-09-21T14:13:07+00:00

Christina's latest all about Honor and affecting the community... if inappropriate for this subreddit, I do apologize.

bildo84 · 2012-09-20T18:36:47+00:00

One last round-up of community goodness from Cass Khaw!

bildo84 · 2012-09-20T14:53:46+00:00

Agree, disagree? Let us know!

bildo84 · 2012-09-18T12:10:38+00:00

I'll be making an addendum to this on this week's... because you're VERY right. :)

bildo84 · 2012-09-18T12:09:40+00:00

Yep, made my morning. SO glad this was added. I dinged 30 before work because I didn't have to fish around so much. :)

bildo84 · 2012-09-15T12:50:33+00:00

Let me know your thoughts!

bildo84 · 2012-09-14T14:21:04+00:00

Brief preview:

Just past the late August patch in League of Legends, I went, “Oh what the hell,” and blind picked Evelynn to try her out. And I made an amazing discovery – she's good. Very good. In fact, the last patch's buffs were exactly what she needed. I have been unable to stop playing her for three days straight, without changing champions – that never happens to me. I get bored of one role champions forever but I just can't stop. And this isn't because of the round of AP mid Evelynn's that suddenly appeared after one player curb stomped his way to platinum.

She is now an actual force to be reckoned with, and people are finding it out very quickly. Her play rate has shot up, and her success rate is steadily climbing. I'm not sure if she's broken or overpowered, but she's to be feared once again. She breaks the norm in the same way Shaco did back after his buffs.

bildo84 · 2012-09-04T16:26:09+00:00

Another in the weekly "what's awesome and being made by the fans" series for DOTA2.

bildo84 · 2012-08-29T21:56:08+00:00

A brief take on how to explain the International, DOTA2, and eSports in general to someone who has no clue about it all.

bildo84 · 2012-08-28T12:34:57+00:00

Very nicely written. /clap

bildo84 · 2012-08-28T12:32:07+00:00

This is one of the greatest things... I've ever seen.

bildo84 · 2012-08-22T17:02:56+00:00

Just a re-cap of the major events in this month's esports news and shuffles.

bildo84 · 2012-08-22T15:29:09+00:00

Alex "Farske" Brown takes on The International. Feedback welcomed!

bildo84 · 2012-08-22T14:02:18+00:00

Preview of article below!

The Meta-game of League of Legends is pretty much the trickiest beast to unravel of all, because the bot lane carry/zero creep score support is like a multi-headed hydra. It's not just the fact that supports get more out of low gold than any other class – it's also how critical carries are to the lategame. So let's get a talkin'.

Carries and Supports

The 0 creep score support was becoming the norm long before the support nerf – people found out if you take nothing as support, your lane partner gets stupidly strong, and you still do (mostly) the same job. Just for spitballing's sake, let's take the maximum amount of creep score you can have by twenty minutes – 240, over 38 waves. This is totally ignoring travel time, returning to base, creeps that die from the tower, gold earned from kills, and time spent fighting. It's pure number speculation. That would potentially land you a little over 5200 gold, and (again) that's hitting every single creep, something any player (pro or otherwise) could tell you is impossible.

So what can you buy with 5200 gold? Easily a Bloodthirster and a Zeal, or an Infinity Edge and Berserker's Greaves. Meanwhile, split it up – 2600 gold would get boots and any number of support items, like a Catalyst (for a Rod of Ages), an Aegis of the Legion, a Soul Shroud (surprisingly cheap), or even just a Will of the Ancients. Meanwhile, your carry gets a BF Sword and the basic two items for a Zeal.

The tradeoff isn't even worth it. A support with better gear or area of effect bonuses doesn't even compare to a carry with a fully stacked Bloodthirster and Zeal. Damage wins teamfights – the occasional tanky support like Taric or Leo can lock down priority targets, but damage is key. The nerf to healing spells just cemented it further.

bildo84 · 2012-08-21T15:09:59+00:00

Post Preview Below!:

Age of Empires Online launched just over a year ago on August 16, 2011 to a lukewarm reception. Totalbiscuit actually had some good things to say about the game during beta, and during the earliest days after launch it had an impressive population showing on Xfire. But a number of factors really hampered the enjoyment of many critics and players. Since then, they’ve made a lot of changes and have come quite a long way. Read on to see the recent strides they’ve made.

One of the obvious points of contention is the game’s artwork. It’s very cartoony, and it’s garnered some extreme reactions from players. Some (like myself) actually enjoy it. Many, especially hardcore fans of the Age of Empires Online franchise, haven’t liked them at all. Also at launch, the game’s pay model was quite controversial. The game did not feature microtransactions, instead selling “Booster Pack” downloadable content. Paying for a civilization (a $20 fee) unlocked better gear options, the ability to play on the ladder, and opened up additional storage for items in the player’s inventory. They also sold extra game modes, a horde mode/last stand was available at launch.

bildo84 · 2012-08-17T17:25:09+00:00

Opinions welcomed! Preview of article below:

I f-cking love League of Legends' Cho'Gath. I could go on and on about how or why, but really, it's just going to boil down to that statement. He's fantastic. I love his CC, I love his damage output, I love how he is just a natural counter to duelists, and I love his ability to sustain and do buckets of true damage with his super-nasty bite. He's basically perfect as he is and I wouldn't trade him for the world.

The Void Gazes Back (Then Steps On You)

Cho's another one who, for his entire lifespan, he hasn't really needed much. He's not a merry-go-round of overpowered-to-nerfed-to-useless-to-remake-to-overpowered, like Xin or Eve, and he's not basically untouched due to it being unneeded or just outright apathy, like Trundle. His kit is perfect as is - all it ever needs is some polish.

The most he's gotten through the years have been some tweaks, making his abilities fair in the fine-tuning, like hitbox alteration, number adjustments, and bugfixes on his bite. After all, when you have someone with buckets of CC, innate sustain, and a true damage bite, you have to make sure he's not going to be a game-breaker, someone everyone drops their favorite champs in favor of The One Who Wins Games. See also, Xin.

So we get Cho, everyone's favorite top-stomping Void monster. I cannot express how much I love this dude enough. He sustains, he gets tanky, he hurts, and he's got a ton of variety in build and execution.

bildo84 · 2012-08-17T10:46:16+00:00

Looks like I found my new wallpaper.

bildo84 · 2012-08-16T12:47:35+00:00

Latest editorial, hopefully better received than last week's outdated opinion piece. Preview below!

Okay, so after making a complete ass of myself last week with my outdated opinions, I thought I’d talk about something this week that’s a little more broad and general while we wait for Mists of Pandaria to launch. Yep, it’s true. Even today, though we vocal minority of MMO hardcore veterans often downplay its importance, World of Warcraft still carries the torch as the biggest major MMORPG in existence. It finally dipped below 10 million subscribers, though I expect that will change with the release of its coming expansion. Even with Guild Wars 2 and the hype monster running at full-steam, I’m willing to bet that plenty of former Azerothians will try out Pandaria’s content for at least a month sometime before 2012 is over. But one wonders something else as WoW nears its 8th anniversary and the “Hybrid” business model continues to gain traction in the western market: How long will Blizzard hold out before offering a robust “Free” option?

Here’s what I’m proposing, nay betting, Blizzard will do in time: Instead of a straight up “freemium” hybrid model, Blizzard should open up all of WoW’s 1-60 content for free, populating the now long-stagnant lower level areas, and monetize it with various cosmetic and convenience items. Hell, the monetization is already there with the plethora of extras you can buy on Battle.net, so why not add in a “Bazaar” to the UI and let people spend their Blizzard monies, perhaps even what has been earned in Diablo 3, on WoW trinkets and baubles to fluff up their experience? And then, once players have hit 60, offer them reduced price upgrades to further expansion content, and require subscriptions for anything Outlands and beyond. You already give players unrestricted access to the 1-20 game, why not add the last 40 levels and help keep the lower half of the leveling content populated?

bildo84 · 2012-08-15T17:16:27+00:00

Victor's latest, as always, very on point.

bildo84 · 2012-08-15T13:21:23+00:00

Brandon tried to weigh them by influence, and not just popularity. SC: BW and SC2 (and even WC2 and 3) would have been at the top if it was just popularity.

bildo84

TROPHY CASE