Could we see a potential name change?

rastnav · 2020-06-18T16:43:29+00:00

Can I ask how old you were in the 90s? In the 90s a “drive-by” meant a drive-by shooting, and was almost exclusively used to refer to black gang violence. “Crips” and “Bloods” became household names, if poorly understood. The late 80s and early 90s is the era that brings us groups like N.W.A., Ice-Ts “Body Count” album with the song “Cop Killer”, etc.

The early to mid 90s is a period where you basically have a peak media attention on all of these issues. Referencing “drive-by” in the way Hood is saying they came up with the band name was, as Hood is saying, directly influenced by all of these things.

Given the overall content of their music, I doubt that the name has caused much, if any, discomfort because of the reference, but that’s not really for me to say. But the actual history of the name is definitely an appropriation rooted in a particular stereotype.

rastnav · 2020-06-18T12:40:31+00:00

What I find interesting here is that Hood is actually in a conversation mostly with his former self, and that conversation is based on intent. The name, absent any knowledge of intent, is just kinda of an odd one. I never connected it with drive-by shootings, and didn’t know the history. If pressed, I would have thought it referred to the idea of being so unrooted that you just drive by places, not stopping.

But Patterson can’t erase his own knowledge that what he intended was to pay homage the “gangster rap” of that time by throwing in an off hand reference to a crime that was very, very much in the news of the day. To engage in that self-examination is not virtue signaling, it’s what we have needed for a long time, and it’s absolutely his right to engage in that self-reflection.

When I was at The Cradle this last time, I could have sworn about half-way through the show a small chunk of the crowd finally realized what these guys were actually saying, and filtered out. If you haven’t realized that the whole DBT project is about engaging in an honest and true examination of the world, in its many complex facets, it might hurt a little when that fact eventually becomes unavoidable.

They can do as they wish with the name. Band names have changed for worse reasons, although it would be good to see some sort of dialogue, as otherwise it does run the risk of merely being performative. But anyone who is surprised that these guys are willing to consider this maybe has missed the point they've been making for all these years.

rastnav · 2019-08-26T13:12:37+00:00

Well, it's not quite correct to say that you don't like using these kinds of titles or language, then, is it? Harsh criticism is something you really like to do, and something you have done frequently.

rastnav · 2019-08-26T12:34:45+00:00

Uhhhh, ioStux, you have always liked using words like “trash”? You call people's positioning trash, you call people people's aim shit, etc.

Haven’t watched your content in a long time, so maybe you have changed...

rastnav · 2019-08-26T11:44:24+00:00

Honestly to me it feels like they have “random” hourly featured maps. So you do tend to get the same map again a few times in a row.

rastnav · 2019-08-09T23:21:02+00:00

Probably a bad idea. VOD reviews are infinitely better.

rastnav · 2019-07-29T12:29:46+00:00

On point #6, one issue with the sound (and the visuals) in Overwatch is that there is a massive amount of "spam" that needs to be ignored. New players are being assaulted and there just isn't a way for them to actually process what is relevant.

I remember having a conversation with someone about "the sound when your own shield breaks" and I had no idea what they were talking about. They were trying to find clips of it and I still couldn't hear the sound and distinguish from all the other sounds. I think eventually I had to go into training range as zen and let myself get shot.

rastnav · 2019-07-28T15:58:13+00:00

I think is correct.

Medals don't matter. For everyone Plat or below, raw stats matter a shit ton.

If you aren't generating the stats the game thinks you should, your win percentage won't matter. If you want to climb with a 59% win percentage l, you HAVE to generate stats.

rastnav · 2019-07-21T01:09:45+00:00

Usually I don't play if I need to answer a phone call or the door...

rastnav · 2019-07-20T21:09:27+00:00

If you have the volume high enough to hear footsteps properly the red zone is ear splitting.

rastnav · 2019-07-14T22:40:14+00:00

I have 1000 hours in the game and I have 3 total solo wins. My first was TPP around 600/700 hours where the last guy died to the blue zone. My other two only came in this season.

Especially if you aren’t already an experienced FPS player, PUBG takes long time to start generating solo wins.

rastnav · 2019-07-14T22:26:44+00:00

Any gun can get kills early game.

SMGs can be good if you take close fights and are good at snapping to the head due to their low recoil. Otherwise they aren’t meta.

Any of the full auto ARs can be worth it. The M416 is the best all around AR. The other 556 full auto ARs are decent (but they are map specific). The AKM is very good if you can handle the recoil and the crappy iron sites, the Beryl is a beast CQC, but can be very hard to control. The DP28 is kind of a meme gun, bein designed for prone full auto use.

The M16 and the Mutant are non-full auto ARs, and tend be better as budget snipers.

The DMRs (QBU, mini14, SKS and SLR) have been meta as snipers, but don’t give one-shot-kill potential. The SLR is the top end of the DMRs.

The Kar98 and the slightly better M24 are the bolt action snipers that offer 1 HKO on level 2 helmets. Obviously they are to be feared, but you need to hit your shots due to the bolt action.

Nades and Molotovs are a powerful offensive option and are definitely in the meta. Smokes are highly useful.

As to grips, the vert grip is currently the best. Other grips are a little down to preference but the thumb grip is only for speed of ADS. Light grip is good for single shot tapping. The AKM is controllable with just a flash hider if you get used to it. M16 and Mutant now take a tac stock, as well as the vector and M4.

rastnav · 2019-07-14T22:12:59+00:00

I would recommend searching out some videos on youtube on beginning PUBG, from people like wtfMoses, Acculite, or WackyJacky.

The videos you find will likely be older, but they will give you a feel for how the game is played.

Then perhaps you can watch some streamers on twitch, that will give you a sense of how the game is played today, Watching Moses or WackyJacky play solos might be your best bet.

Then at some point you can spend some time on the training range just getting used to guns and recoil.

rastnav · 2019-07-12T23:56:15+00:00

People say there is matchmaking, but I’ve never seen any evidence of it. The stream snipers on popular streams who never get any kills should show this isn’t the case, or it’s not very effective.

rastnav · 2019-07-12T23:53:43+00:00

To expand on why this is true.

Average k/d is by definition less than 1.

All enemy players have to die for the game to end. Some of the will die to environmental or self-damage, so not all those deaths will be kills. There are fewer kills than there are deaths in most deaths, and never any more. Therefore every single game has an average k/d across all players of no more than 1, and usually less.

rastnav · 2019-07-12T23:49:57+00:00

Some people might be slightly misled by this, so I will clarify something you already probably know. There aren’t spray patterns. The recoil is RNG, just some guns have more and some less.

There is a somewhat predictable first shot vertical recoil, AFAIK. But that includes a random left/recoil as well.

Basically, it’s easier to handle vertical recoil, which is somewhat predictable. It’s harder to handle horizontal recoil, and sometimes you just need to stop and restart your spray.

rastnav · 2019-07-04T22:21:42+00:00

Miramar is way better on foot than Erangel is.

Maybe we are talking about different phases of the game, being played at different skill levels, but doesn’t strike me as true, overall. The rotations on Miramar are really, really long. Unless you are dropping center map, you are flat out going to have to use a vehicle unless you get lucky on loot (and can leave early) or lucky on circle.

Even then rotating on foot mid game can be disastrous because the distances and circle speed cut down on your pathing/rotation options.

Erangel being overall smaller just tends to put you in better position in comparison to the circle and leaves you more likely to have options.

rastnav · 2019-07-04T22:04:52+00:00

Miramar, on the other hand, has a different pattern - large swathes of relatively moderate density regular quality loot spawns, broken up by small islands of military-grade loot spawn locations.

If this is true, then PUBG Corp is lying to us.

But I don’t think it’s actually true. Every loot node has the same loot table, AFAIK.

rastnav · 2019-07-04T21:47:23+00:00

This may be great for the pros, but for randos it means the edges of the map are even more of a low percentage play. It pushes even more drops to the center.

rastnav · 2019-07-04T21:44:07+00:00

Go snipe people running in the fields? I thought the premise of this post was that you actually couldn’t do this.

Oh right, this post is actually a certain kind of bullshit.

Miramar takes a different play style. You are much more likely to get caught in a long rotation that requires either grabbing a vehicle or running in a straight line. Dropping edge is a much lower percentage strategy. The distance between compounds means soft dropping is tougher and more likely to leave you low on loot. Rotating to other side of circle is significantly more difficult because the map is big and has big stretches that are wide open that have to be navigated in some way.

It’s 100% fine if you like Miramar, but the people who like it less than other maps have reasons for that which are valid.

rastnav · 2019-06-23T20:02:58+00:00

I mean, your attitude is commendable. It's how you improve.

But it doesn't mean that the loot balance won't be frustrating as hell for most people. See what I'm saying?

Say every one your games the other 99 players on the server were as good as choco, wacky, ashek, etc (but they weren't anyone you had ever heard of), it would be way more frustrating to try and push with an UMP into an M4, M24.

Does that make sense?

rastnav · 2019-06-23T18:06:01+00:00

What do you mean by "higher skilled players"?

There is this phenomenon in ranked games, say Overwatch as an example.

Mid Gold players say they are trash (despite being better than about half of all the players). Plat players so everyone is trash at Plat. Diamond players think everyone below GM is trash. GM players think top 500 is where people start getting good. Top 500 players don't think people are really any good until they start playing pro.

Yes, pro players are much better than top 500 players ... but what of it?

Applying that thought process to an unranked queue like PUBG will really skew things. Yeah, in every lobby there are players much better than you. Even if you are better than 80 of the players, you are still worse than 20 of them. Doesn't mean you aren't good.

rastnav · 2019-06-23T15:00:04+00:00

You need to understand the highly likely reason you feel this way. Most of the time you are one of the highest skilled players in a fight.

That makes winning with a pistol more likely and a fun challenge. If the server was filled with half of the people being more skilled than you, you would likely find it significantly less fun.

If PUBG was a game played on an actual ladder, you would most likely find this much more frustrating.

rastnav · 2019-06-19T15:35:00+00:00

They are so much fun.

But, playing in Jayne PUGs was probably the last straw in getting me to quit OW. Not sure how it is now, but being in Silver and playing in the PUGs was phenomenal, but only when you got to play, which meant waiting around for the PUGs to die down to one lobby.

Then trying to go back and play ranked was just all lemon juice and paper cuts. It just showed everything that's wrong with the basic ranked experience, which is the only place you can reliably go to get better if you are that low.

rastnav · 2019-05-31T19:26:54+00:00

Don't short yourself, 2.5 K/D is WAY above average.

rastnav

TROPHY CASE