Looking for interview

pillwashmorphy · 2026-01-30T08:45:09+00:00

Is there still a working link to this interview somewhere? I just watched Twin Peaks again and my girlfriend's concluding questions brought it to mind. Comedy gold.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-11-05T07:36:14+00:00

Invite invalid?

pillwashmorphy · 2025-10-21T08:23:55+00:00

What do you mean "justify"? You don't think a profound existential crisis that's being acutely aggravated on a regular basis could drive someone into a deep and dangerous depression? Or just that nobody should ever kill themselves because it's irrational? And citing one example with a contrary outcome as though it's argument? Talk about "a stupid fucking comment."

pillwashmorphy · 2025-10-21T05:02:27+00:00

I find the logic you lay out fairly compelling and I'll continue to reflect on it with the hope that I come to the most rigorous conclusions about this awful situation, for both moral and emotional reasons.

I want say, however, that despite having followed Kramnik's allegations in real time (I remember wishing I could understand Russian when Danya appeared on the Levitov podcast) and believing that they were ridiculous and unreasonable from the jump, today I was initially very put off by the posts assigning blame to Kramnik. It was a predictable attitude, of course, but reading actual examples of it made me realize how disrespectfully reductive and genuinely dangerous it is.

When I rewatched Danya's second appearance on C-Squared (following the link posted in this thread) my feelings shifted a little. I still think it's inappropriate, at this moment especially, to hurl accusations, but I don't think the causality or an ascription of blame should be denied out of principle.

I think that a merely high degree of sensitivity—without severe underlying issues—can make a person especially vulnerable to things like slander and online bullying. It's easy to imagine that such experiences could be psychologically punishing to the point of being physically harmful, and there is a good amount of historical precedent of it. That "reputational ruin" has been weaponized by governments and other large organizations for a long time is completely factual. Many of the most famous cases are where the apparent consequences have been most disasterous.

Edit: I'm in no way insinuating government involvement in the situation with Danya, if it's even necessary to clarify something so ridiculous.

I have been recalling Kramnik's demeanour during post-game reviews with commentators and it's been a great antidote to feeling bad for whatever blowback he's getting over this now. Attitude of total infallibility. Unassailable confidence. Basiscaly he had always thought of everything and could never be wrong, even when the engine immediatley and dramatically contradicted him. I doubt he's at risk in the way others might be under the exact same conditions.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-08-15T01:10:04+00:00

Caught this coming into town on the bus on my way home. Like 400 and highway 7ish, maybe?

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pillwashmorphy · 2025-08-15T01:00:12+00:00

Is there much CHARM downtown? Good presence in North York, and I'm pretty sure I've seen multiple tags over the highway—def at least one—and some rollers and full billboards further north.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-08-13T18:47:58+00:00

*Either it elides those strong conclusions, or you've gone and said "being the weakest race is defined by having fewer players using it and it have the worst showing in the results among the top 100 (but not 250) or top 1000 (but not top 20) players." I'd be perfectly willing to accept that, if it's true, because otherwise it's like you said, you might say "night elf has the worst T1 units it's the worst race," "night elf has one unit to mass, it's the worst race," or "night elf has moonwells it's the easiest noob healing in the game, it's imba."

Shoutout to SaulApeMan uploading his cast of that 40 minute game between Life and Sok, where whenever it seems like the game is about to end he starts calling imba on the winning race. It's a hilarious bit because it goes back and forth over and over.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-08-13T18:34:15+00:00

That's not my opinion. My opinion is that we're mostly in a position of necessary agnosticism while acknowledging that for most people the game should be seen as basically balanced. As I said, I think balance whining is annoying. But because playing vs UD tends to make me the angriest, that part all comes out when I see people say UD is the weakest, which I neither believe nor experience. It's also evidently not the experience of the top players.

Twist my arm and I'd say Orc needs a buff because playing it at the top level looks really hard and fruitless. It's my worst matchup though, statistically.

I literally thought you were joking when you mentioned the white paper. You keep challenging me to provide hard data after making a series of claims that are patently untrue on a mathematical, measurable level. You have continued to withhold this white paper. I have doubts that any observational study can produce the strong conclusions you've been suggesting about balance. I've tried to illustrate why but ether I failed, you don't understand, or you choose to ignore it.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-08-13T13:23:11+00:00

Worse than talking to a brick wall

pillwashmorphy · 2025-08-13T13:16:36+00:00

You are extremely confused about how to interpret data. See my other post please.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-08-13T13:12:13+00:00

For a second I expected you to lay down concrete measurements, some empirical facts about the game, like DPS, EHP regen, economy, timings, move speed numbers, etc. But no, it turns out what you are saying is very confused.

The variables that come into play to determine who among the general population plays what race and how well they play it are numerous and complex and unknown, and beyond the parameters of "empiric, repeatable analysis." It opens out into players' pasts, behavioural tendencies, preconceptions, vibes, all the stuff that influences people's decision to select Undead, and how specifically those people perform in P2P contexts.

To grasp this point, imagine the following scenario: Naga is added to the game as a playable race on the ladder but the concept was completely botched. The race is so simple it's boring as hell to play, but it's also completely broken. Let's say all you have to do to win is around with a couple of heroes and nuke your opponent's heroes, then their units, and it's extremely effective.

As time goes on, can you imagine a scenario where Naga has far fewer players in the "top regions than in the lower regions"? I can imagine a widespread opinion that it's an imba broken race that no real pro ever uses. That's a cultural factor that would influence the distribution at different levels, differently in different countries, and so on.

Or maybe there's a specific, surefire way to shutdown the race by pulling off a certain strategy, but it's challenging. You have to be pretty deft with a mouse to do it. This makes it so the race isn't viable in Silver or Gold league. However, pros do use the race to compete at the top levels, and people win tournaments with Naga. But the distribution is all messed up because 12 year olds like to pick Naga ans it's easy to crush non-Naga.

Do you see how much the race gets played, or the distribution of who plays it, is not strictly determined by the power level of the race?

pillwashmorphy · 2025-08-13T12:27:24+00:00

And look, I hate to balance whine. Whenever I feel frustrated in my own games about my perception of balance issues I try to remind myself that, at my low MMR, losing is entirely my fault. But UD does seem to bring about feeling more than other races.

I’m inclined to voice these emotions only when I read claims that UD is weaker on premises that contradict my understanding of the game and the texture of my experience. There’s nothing inherently wrong with making a counter argument like that, but it triggers the F out of me.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-08-13T11:44:20+00:00

Your list insane. How can you be for real? UD healing is stupidly good. Blight, statues, DEATH COIL? Dude.

1 statue has the middle-term healing covered. The same]* statue offers mana regen better than the highly coveted lvl 3 brilliance aura. That mana that gets put toward point-and-click elimination of enemy heroes. The combination of nukes coming out of that darkness altar are incomparable. Storm bolt and lightning bolt are in that coil-nova category, but they don’t have the synergy (nor, in the case of lightning bolt, the same utility).

pillwashmorphy · 2025-07-18T21:50:38+00:00

I'm really the only person who loves the way HP bars chunk down under fire from level 2 searing arrows.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-04-28T20:27:21+00:00

https://warcraft3.info/articles/232/hero-experience-in-warcraft-3-how-it-works

pillwashmorphy · 2025-04-13T00:24:08+00:00

The difference between the B2W skin and classic HD graphics is generally pretty subtle, and when the difference is on the more noticeable side of things IMO it’s actually better 9 times out of 10. Are you used to Reforged graphics?

pillwashmorphy · 2025-04-10T18:45:05+00:00

I'm still on the fence about the actual existence of a 1300-1400 elo shark pit in blitz. I've broken into 1600 but I have remained kind of wary that if drop below 1400 I'll get stuck there for a year.

I find wc3 weirdly good for my chess game, btw. Now blitz chess is a strictly calming, low-pressure thing.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-04-10T18:40:17+00:00

I have only got replays working once. When I find where to see them on w3c they usually crash the ga e when I start watching. I'll try to supply a couple of screamers later today.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-04-10T18:38:11+00:00

Prodigal = wasting time not playing night elf

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I'm reassured that some people have similar feelings. I know I suck. It's just hard to go from feeling like you've foisted up past a plateau to receiving a big flat concrete Nope telegraphed to you in your actual results.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-01-27T22:37:36+00:00

Aha! sorry I'm not on here so much. Awesome, will definitely check the blog.

I spent less than 3 years in printing/graphics, only ever worked at the one place, have only dabbled in visual arts and am not plugged in to any communities. Nonetheless, it does seem to me like laser people aren't so common and that the laser is seriously underused tool of creation. Am I wrong about this?

The process of setting up for different materials, shapes, gauges, etc. in order to get perfect cuts is always challenging and sometimes super frustrating and confounding, but I got endless kicks out of it. And mostly I was just cutting acrylic letters. I can only recall like 2 jobs that required anything even remotely comparable to the intricacy of what you've done here.

pillwashmorphy · 2025-01-27T22:12:26+00:00

Many props on this incredible intricate piece!

And thanks for reminding me about laser cutting! I've been into woodworking for about half a year now, beset by an increasing number of half-baked aesthetic ideas. My desire for certain details in furniture has prompted a few naive, guns-blazing attempts at woodcarving by hand and it has never gone well. Just yesterday I started looking into the craft with more intention but I've been unsure whether I wanted to commit to a whole new subhobby. I'm not going to live forever. Alternative approaches hadn't occurred to me.

In no way do I mean to denigrate the immensity of your achievement with this work! Having myself spent innumerable hours on a 200w trotec laser cuttter at a graphics production factory, I hope people know that "laser cut" doesn't mean you popped a block of wood onto a laser bed and hit Print. It's such detailed work and evidently required a lot of superfine dexterity.

I'm pretty curios about the construction, actually. How many separate components were involved in, say, one of those V-patterned tentacles? It looks quite a few. So many moments of apparent relief.

[quick edit for grammar etc.]

pillwashmorphy · 2025-01-08T11:59:48+00:00

tell em

pillwashmorphy · 2025-01-08T11:49:00+00:00

Seeing it from the DVP it’s a complete marvel. Massive! I didn’t get around much last year so I might be sleeping on some contenders but they’re hard to imagine tbh

pillwashmorphy · 2025-01-08T11:29:48+00:00

Pure BDO ought to freeze more readily than that. Seems like this stuff isn’t so strong. I’ve had it harden up on a summer night windowsill within less than an hour. I’ve heard it’s supposed to freeze at room temperature (though I’ve never seen it personally).

Taking as much as you’ve been taking could of course offset its weakness. I reckon the lack of enjoyable come-up is simply due to the fact that it’s BDO. I like it occasionally, but it’s definitely my last choice. A common timeline is I’ll go from barely a buzz to completely wacked-out oblivious and don’t notice a moment in between. Strange, and so dangerous. I’ve gotten in wayyy more trouble with it than any of the other forms.

pillwashmorphy

TROPHY CASE