To kill a Mordekaiser

League of Legends is a game that has kind of been picked up on the run by some of my friends and I. I was never a big fan of DotA (translated: not very good at it), so my skepticism towards LoL when I first started playing it was quite high. Needless to say, it is an improvement over DotA in almost every way, which is not a surprise as it is made by the same people who started the mod in the first place.



It is a lot of fun, something our group of professional facerollers will agree upon. Having known absolutely nothing about the game at all prior to playing it, I was impressed by the way it slowly breaks you in to the mechanics and features the game has to offer. Better yet, it is a game that >5 of us are playing at once, something that has not occurred in ... well ... ever! It is also obvious that we are all getting better too.

However, me being me has chosen an odd way to go about playing this game. Without explaining/spoiling the finer elements for new players (items, stats, runes etc), I have this strange idea that owning one of each specialized type of character and learning to play them properly is the way to go about things. I am probably not alone in this decision, but I do realize it can work both for and against your favour. Well, at least initially. By playing a specific character well means you will know the strengths and limitations of that character, and can get a feel for their performance. However, at the same time you never really learn about the other characters save fighting against them or doing some research (both of which I admittedly do a bit of). So, at least at first, you will still find yourself in some hairy situations that you may consider unfair. What is important to realize is that most of these times, you have brought this on yourself, and there is always something you can or should have done to prevent it. This includes both in the game and out of the game.


One of the first characters I purchased was Mordekaiser, of whom I was incredibly pleased with. All of the research and playstyle analysis I did could not have prepared me for how much fun it is to play this walking wall of steel and spikes. His character role is vague. He has no native crowd control. His direct damage is pitiful. He has virtually no escape options, save for simply slugging it out and hoping for the best. He is incredibly susceptible to ranged characters, especially those that can kite well (e.g. Ashe). His abilities scale terribly with Ability Power (some of the worst ratios in the game). In essence, he isn't really a tank, but unless you gear him to be you don't really get far in a game (i.e. you die).

So what the hell is he good for then? If he can't CC, do good direct damage, tank or even run away, how, you ask, can I possibly enjoy playing this seemingly useless character?

Well, first of all, he pushes like a freight train. Full of lead. That's on fire. Put him in a lane and he will eat everything in it if it is void of enemy players. Put an enemy player in it and he will still push it. Put another enemy player in it? If they are both melee and shit ... he will still push it. Put 3 in? Alright, that's a few too many, but you get the picture. Usually I don't like pushing a lane at all unless I really need the gold now or I can see 4-5 enemy champions somewhere else in the map. Prior to level 14-ish enemies, sitting under your own tower is the best way to guarantee your survival (unless they are tower diving). But when we need to push, Mordekaiser can certainly move the pain train along, killing about 90% of minon waves in his wake. This may seem not to be all that useful but I ask you, when you are killing a tower, what is the tower shooting at? Most of the time it will be your own minions. If you can push 2-3 waves of friendly minions under the enemy tower it is as good as dead.

Besides map control, there is another, more deceptive reason. This may not be so much a trait of Mordekaiser as it is so much something I do in general when laning against my foes (usually solo). However, Mordekaiser's passive ability, being a temporary shield which charges when he does damage (which synergizes well with his abilities) allows him to do it much more efficiently. The term could be described as Obfuscating Stupidity, but I prefer to simply call it 'pretending to be shit'. Purposefully getting too close, walking the wrong way, attacking nothing but air, wasting your cooldowns, reacting far too slow etc. Most of these actions will get any other hero killed, but with Mord, providing you do a little bit of ability damage, you can take a few hits, still push your lane and come out even. Usually the enemy player/s will get cocky. Overextend a bit. Take a few tower hits now and then. As you pretend to panic and (apparently) desperately try and kill the enemy minions to save your lane, you will inevitably push and end up meeting them in the middle. Where they will always end up trying to gank you ...



... at which point you flick the switch and fucking blow their faces off! A Mordekaiser that has been feeding on minions (full shield) and has all his cooldowns up is about the worst 1v1 fight I can think of outside of fighting a Warwick. Hell, even in a 2v1 situation it is bad. Probably worse as your shield will charge that much better (2 aoe targets instead of one). He wont kill you straight away, often making him bad for attempting ganks. But being ganked, where the enemy is committed? Plenty of time to deal his short cooldown, consistent damage. Most of the time I will get a kill employing this technique. At worse I will chase them off and let them think about their actions for awhile. I would like to think this style of combat would confuse most enemy players and hopefully demoralize them on repeated failed attempts. But I guess I can never really know.

This has all got me thinking about how I would actually kill a Mordekaiser if I happened to be laning against one, especially if they were being an asshole like I do. The truth is, having played him, I know exactly what would kill me. Doing damage to him every now and then is pointless as more often than not you will just strip a bit of his shield. Attempting to bring him down face to face as a melee character will probably result in your death (unless you are like dps Garen, Warwick or Bob). Unless you are a ranged kiter or a heavy nuker, you don't have much of a chance.

So here is my list of 5 ways to kill a mockingbird:

1. Crowd Control. Silences, stuns, snares. Anything to keep Mordekaiser from chaining his abilities will eventually kill him. If he cant keep his shield up he will flop down dead in seconds.
2. Kiting. This is a given, but if you are ranged and can afford a Rylai's or Frozen Mallet, this will get you a kill on Mordekaiser. Eventually.
   
3. Anti-tank items. Almost every guide I have looked at suggest making Mord tankish, and having played him I tend to agree. With that knowledge, stacking Magic Penetration (or Armor Pen, depending on what he is doing) as well as items like Madred's Bloodrazor will allow you to drop him much easier in team fights and solo.
4. Get him in the jungle. If you are going to gank Mordekaiser, try and do it in the forestry. Pushing lanes he will have >50% shield at least. Walking around between lanes he will have none. Makes sense to me.
5. Ignore him. Honestly, unless he is rolling a Frozen Mallet and a Rylai's Scepter, he isnt going to catch you, and if he does, he is just going to bonk you on the head a few times before you get within safety. With no CC and no decent direct damage you really have very little to worry about.

But you best be careful in a team fight. Oh my!

Note: League of Legends is made by RiotGames which can be downloaded from their website here.This post has merely detailed the ins and outs of one of the current 60 characters in the game, many of which have unique playstyles. I highly recommend trying this game out. Being free, you have nothing to lose and nothing to complain about.

It flows from heaven to the soul

Something I haven't really noticed much but only really thought about recently has been the musical score in games and how they affect the user experience. It may just be the games I am playing, but very few games in the last 5-6 years have had any sort of memorable soundtrack to me. No scoring that really captured the mood of the game play and enhanced it to its full potential. A lot of the music you see in games today is mostly orchestral (or orchestrally themed). I have no issues with orchestral music by any means. In fact I consider it to be the pinnacle of live human performance, with such a concentrated and condensed selection of skilled musicians. The thing is I am not sure how well it translates into the average gaming scenario, especially when it is recycled so many times.

When you are playing a game, and I actually mean playing, not watching a cinematic, you are only acutely aware of the music in the background. You are not (and shouldn't be) focusing on the music to any extent. Even in a music game like Audiosurf or Guitar Hero, you are really just reading instructions on screen and responding to them hand-to-eye. The more difficult a game becomes, the less you will focus on the music in a game. However at the same time, the easier it gets the less concentration you need to apply to the game play and the more the music seems to stand out. If the game is boring, you will be focusing on aspects other than the game play (such as audio and visuals) which will bring further attention to their possible inappropriateness.

Ever watched a movie where there is supposed to be a romantic scene between two primary protagonists (usually at the end of a typical Hollywood film), only to find yourself either laughing or rolling your eyes? Chances are you weren't enjoying the film up to that point anyway and found this combination of symphony and 'kissing scene' to be just stupid or over-dramatic. That is because movies, like games, have a state of 'flow' to them. Ideally you want your watchers/players to sit directly in the middle of flow, between extreme annoyance (or tension) and extreme boredom. The most enjoyable session of game play for a player is also found to be in this state. It is of my opinion that within this state, the appropriateness of the music will come into fruition with the ability to either make or break a game.


But enough of the psychology. Lets talk about some interesting music and pretend this blog is just about cool shit and not me ranting on about my crazy ideas for once:

Super Metroid - The Jungle Floor


Besides Samus being one hot bunny in cybernetic armor, her games (at least the old ones) had some really catchy tunes. I remember playing this game on the SNES a LONG time ago, but hearing this track again brought a tear to my otherwise cynical eye. To be young again, free of difficult choices and ignorant of the (mostly) bull crap things which makes up the world is something I think a lot of people want in life. Or at least some of the time. This song brings back faint memories of exploring an abandoned space station, looking for a lost Metroid, with that base slowly coming to life in an Aliens sort of way. There was fear, there was tension but most of all there was adventure. If I remember correctly, this one short track captured those emotions perfectly and is one thing I will give Nintendo for doing right. They sure knew how to make a Metroid game, back in the day.

Dark Reign - Track 5


When you mention the game Dark Reign nowadays, most people will either give you a quizzical expression or immediately think of Auran dispersing over the unfortunate failure that was their last game, Fury. Dark Reign was released at a good time, but its primary competitor Total Annihilation was slightly better. But slightly less than totally awesome is still pretty awesome. From memory, the game offered a very robust A.I system, allowing you to spawn units that would move and fight on the battlefield the way you set them. To expound, you could tell a group of Tachion tanks to fight defensively, continuously moving and patrolling randomly and returning to base to repair themselves when they were damaged. They would then go off and fight again. Battles were immense, almost matching the scale of Total Annihilation at times. Not to mention the story was pretty darn good too, probably the best one for a strategy game at the time (vs TA and SC). On top of all this, it had an incredibly moody, almost tribal like quality to its soundtrack that suited the game well.

While I enjoyed Dark Reign as much as I enjoyed other strategy games (again, I am not prone to favoritism), what I find most astonishing is that it was an Australian game. I don't mean a game made by an Australian team under the wing of an American company, I mean an Australian Game's company game. Our best game, both technologically (for the time) and sales wise. I am disappointed that Auran went under after Fury as I imagined and had hopes to be working there at this point in time.

Soul Reaver - Credits


Another game that I enjoyed for its musical score was the original Soul Reaver. The Legacy of Kain games is a series that is very much under-appreciated in nearly every way I can think of. First of all, the game is essentially about vampires. It's about vampires, but not in the culturally accepted emo/goth, love story, atrocious way that people seem to enjoy watching (Buffy, Twilight etc..). The vampires in this are beasts! Call them mutated, call them highly evolved, they are butchers of humankind and relentless in their methods of our extinction. It is a dark and evil world, not full of awful poetry and bad haircuts. Yes, the Soul Reaver universe is very much an apocalyptic Earth, if it actually was about Earth that is. Long story short, you play as a deceased vampire who is the cross between a zombie and a ghost. You struggle to hold yourself in the physical plain of existence. The ability to morph between the physical and spectral realms (where time stands still) opens up a new world of strategy and problem solving. You think Portal was a challenge? Try playing it with things trying to rip your face off! It was an adventure game and a hard one at that.

It also needed a soundtrack that suited the theme of the game, and not just the universe it was set. The problem solving and navigation elements often required high levels of thought and creativity, especially before jumping into a pit full of ghouls. The tracks were therefore dark and foreboding but had enough pace to them to keep the player thinking and on their toes. I think the team at Crystal Dynamics could not have made a better soundtrack.

UT - Foregone Destruction


Unreal Tournament's Forgone Destruction. It is almost impossible for me to listen to this track and not have the sound of the announcer booming "Headshot!" from somewhere in the back of my mind. If you listen to this track by itself, you probably imagine a journey through some sort of mystical fantasy realm. You would not think it could be used for one of the goriest FPS games of the time, yet when combined in the space-themed CTF map 'Facing Worlds' you would be shown otherwise. The thing about this track is that it is exactly the sort of music in a game that sits well within the balance of flow. You don't really notice it when you are playing, but the simple lack of it deteriorates the experience significantly. Essentially this song is that map and vice versa. It is action oriented but also calms you somewhat when playing. You play well, you don't get angry, you have fun. It is also obvious that the people you are playing with are experiencing the same thing. There is a simple reason CTF-Face is the single most played CTF map ever, at least when NgStats still existed.

The same can be said for a large number of Unreal Tournament tracks (e.g. DM-Deck16's Godown). Synthesized and very basic they may be, they generated that certain 'feel' that UT used to have over other shooters (like Quake 3). They were slick and stylish and made you think and feel that way too. It is for that reason that I have always had a great reverence for the game as it gave me a means of escape and relaxation from the bad things that were happening in my life at the time. Things I would like to forget.

There are plenty more examples I can throw at you (Homeworld, Rez, Red Alert) but I think I have got my message across. Maybe I was just more of an audiophile in my youth, but I am yet to encounter a game that had audio tracks as memorable as any of these games.

Why I hate Monopoly

I dislike Monopoly, and I am proud to say it. A classic board game invented by the Parker Brothers in 1935 (originally a derivative of 'The Landlord's Game' by Elizabeth Phillips) is a game about being the biggest asshole in the room. Oh yes, this game has made me cringe and roll my eyes in tedious, mindless repetitiveness for many years until the day my sister and I somehow both came to the conclusion that playing it was an utter waste of our time. People don't like to admit they hate things, especially when it comes to entities that existed in a 'high culture' or golden age of society. Holding reverence for classical things seems to give people a sense of importance and a feeling of being more civilized. Whether this be books, music, poetry or in this case ... board games, having respect for the aging and popular things in life qualifies you as a normal person in our glorious modern age of humanity.

For this particular case, Monopoly, I do not respect. I do not like it, and I will explain to you why.

1. It is slow
First of all, I have both won at the game and lost at it. Winning involved me being younger, less opinionative and more excitable, essentially being blinded to its flaws. It also involved everyone just giving up. Losing involved me being exactly the same, except me being one of the ones giving up. The giving up process usually took between 3-4 hours. Most of this time was spent looking at people moving various board pieces, counting their money or counting my own. Or in jail. It takes so long for things to get into motion and so long for anything even remotely resembling a winning condition to emerge that most people remember just how slow the game is and .. give up.

2. It is boring
For the most part, it is a game of attrition. Unless you are playing with people who are not solely relying on the action packed experience of observing a pile of cardboard and plastic for 3-4 hours, you are going to be bored completely out of your mind. Monopoly is fine if it is played with some light, off topic discussion, but mostly people are so engrossed in the experience of doing virtually nothing that they find conversation disruptive. They take the game so stupidly seriously!! You can pretend all you want that you are forming a winning strategy in the back of your mind, but you know you are in the same boat as everyone else. Waiting for your turn to roll so your heart can light up or flop when you land on a spot on the board. Which leads to my next point being that ...

3. It is driven completely by the roll of the dice
I am a Guru for games with skill and balance, and this game has virtually none. It is all luck. You could pretend to be the best monopoly player in the world and get trounced by a newbie learning the ropes with a consistent stream of unlucky dice rolls. Who lands on Mayfair first is not determined by you, and should you get it, you know you did absolutely nothing of worth to get there. Luck. It does not equal skill. And I think people know it, whether they admit it or not. Why? Because ...



4. The game encourages cheating and sleazy behaviour
A presence of luck sets off some part of people's minds that make them become cheating sleazebags. This is particularly true in games or events that actually do require skill and when a player KNOWS they are not going to win without cheating. Steroids in sports are the same as aimbots in FPS games (albeit a significant physical component). In monopoly this translates to giving incorrect change, overcharging, stealing or even innocently landing on someone's property and hoping they don't notice. These are all behaviours you would be fined and possibly sent to jail over in real life. Apparently these activities are "part of the game" and "how its meant to be played". If that's true then this game is sick and I want as little to do with it than I possibly can.

5. It is not a friendly game
Grinding your friends and family into the dust over hours of questionable game-play is sure to create tension. Conflicts can arise, disputes over properties and cheating and getting unlucky. I don't know about other people, but I don't like watching people suffer or be miserable for extended periods of time. This may be the hunter in me talking but giving your prey a quick and painless demise is more humane than torturing them to death. It is also honorable, showing a lack of negative emotion and some personal consideration for your foe, even in death. As much as I hate people in general, I don't like dragging out victories or defeats for hours on end. This just leads to more frustration and more bursts of unqualified glee for whoever it is who thinks they are winning. You are not winning. You are being a wanker.

6. It delivers a terrible message
People living in high society have traditionally had an incredible misunderstanding and under-appreciation for the working class citizens. Look at Marie Antoinette for a prime example. The picture of upper class rich bastards debating and competing for land which possibly houses thousands of citizens while sipping wine glasses and adjusting their monocles is an image I find incredibly disturbing. Depending on your point of view, actual real world monopolies can be a bad thing. Take Microsoft for example. Sure they have made a platform from which the average PC user can globally use and unite, but they completely control that sector of the market. Without competition they have all the say concerning the price of their products (i.e. ridiculously overpriced) and just what gets released.

Want an example? A recent project which was hoping to deliver cross platform gaming between Xbox and PC users was canned when PC users were found to be too dominant. Why? Well the only logical reason is because they want people to keep playing on the Xbox. This shuts down the market for a lot of PC developers in terms of demographics and forces players to play certain games on only one exclusive platform (i.e. Halo - Xbox). Because they control Xbox Live, the (paid) networking interface for the Xbox console, they can simply do whatever they want. There is nothing we can do otherwise.

7. Gambling
I hate gambling

8. It makes me want to punch people in the face!
This is really the main point of this whole post. For all the above reasons, whether people are oblivious to it or not, when I roll that stupid dice and land on your stupid property and have to look at your stupid smug face with its stupid smirk, I literally have to hold myself back from smashing it in. This game makes me incredibly angry, for all the wrong reasons. It is supposed to be a competitive game and yet sometimes there is nothing you can do from being slowly beaten down over time. It is different from the anger I will feel in say, a fighting game. I may tell my friends how much I hate them (jokingly) and how that round was total bullshit, but I know I could have done something about it if I was quick/clever enough. It is my fault. But in monopoly? The reason I am angry is not because of me. It's all on you, you selfish, cheating, poncy, arrogant bastard!



So that is why I hate monopoly. I have rarely enjoyed it. It is one of the few things I actually truly dislike. If you were to play it casually for an hour with some beers and light conversation some time then sure, count me in.

If not, then you are going to want to be real careful playing that game around me...

Anonymity of the Avatar

This post is a little... muddled, but whatever.

"I love Alma's red eyes. They make her sexy! Who cares if she is a child, she is dead! Fuck her all night long!" - Terminator, Action Trip video comments

I found the above comment by a rather vulgar Action Trip reader to be ... incredibly funny. Not because of the content of the matter, but because of the incredibly straight-forward and easy going manner in which this individual addressed his/her desire to fornicate with an underage girl. Or should I say, ghoul. I imagine your everyday soccer mum, not used to the horrible things people say on the internet, would find this behaviour unacceptable and demand that this pedophile be put to justice. For the rest of us, we just smile, shake our heads and read the next obnoxious comment...

We all know that what people say on the internet is not a good reflection of how a person behaves in society. Being anonymous is a shield, a big sign in red letters informing you to be a douche-bag. Hell, I've done and said offensive and terrible things online before so I am not exempt. For the most part it was actually pretty fun, letting the illogical, frothing-at-the-mouth cave troll side of the human mind come forth in all its glorious stupidity. And all its horror! I can imagine for some, saying completely ridiculous and terrible things can be a form of stress relief (or something). Although for some people, what they say may actually be what they believe/intend to be true :S

Anyways, this got me thinking about people's anonymity in games. I already know some people play games just to be tools. Ganking and corpse camping in WoW, a form of Schadenfreude in gaming format, is a prime example. But that is negative behaviour, reinforcing the idea of being anonymous. There are many other types of player behaviour when gaming, besides this. Some (and hopefully most) people play competitive games to do well, to the best of their ability. Some are genuinely helpful, serious in their attempts to make others understand and improve their game. Some are even so helpful that they may even turn the act of helping into a game of their own:

I think players of games are generally less inclined to be douche-bags primarily because they are required to interact directly with other people. They can be punished, so to speak. Assuming you are not cheating, any game mechanics you exploit can be turned on you. Anything you say in chat, no matter how offensive, is ignorable as it is not the focus of the game. This is of course unless you are actually a good player though (very rare!).

/offtopic
I like to think most people would avoid using 'cheap' tactics in gaming so as not to belittle themselves by once AGAIN using a dominant strategy. This is not always the case however as I found not so long ago in the terribly imbalanced and skill-capped multiplayer of Modern Warfare 2. Noob-tubing, the act of using a grenade launcher attached rifle in combination with the 'Thumper' M79 grenade launcher itself to guarantee yourself at least 4 near instant kills per spawn. Combine this with One man Army and you have a lot more chances. Grenades kill anyone, dead, at any range (except point blank) and at any health. I estimated nearly 70% of players in some of the last games I played using this 'strategy', sometimes with the argument "everyone else is doing it". You could argue that this is equivalent to the AWP wars that Counter-Strike turns into after 15 mins, but I disagree. You spawn from the very start of the game with Noob-tubing equipment in MW2 whereas AWP snipers must play for at least 15 mins, building up their cash for the ultimate weapon. Should they die, they lose it. That's called balance. It disturbs me that modern games developers have totally lost the plot when it comes to it in their games...



Getting back on topic, when you are playing games with friends or in real-life, you try not to be a wanker. People don't like to be associated with their gaming behaviours and disposition. You only have to look at the recent hiatus about Blizzard's real ID system on their forums to understand that. This is because it is either a) not what they like to see themselves as, or b) gaming is generally not seen as a positive thing in the eyes of others. It's still the 'childish' activity of immature people according to older generations. Hell you only have to ask my parents opinion of it to get an incredibly ignorant and biased view on it.

Most people in this world are genuinely good people, even if they don't know it. As ill behaved and awful as they may be online, whether through forums, chat rooms or gaming, they probably are not like that in the real world.

But then again, there are some people who are just ... jerks! Anywhere and everywhere.

On Lazers and Explosions...

StarCraft 2 has a game within the game (greetings canine!). This game is called Lost Viking, an arcade game booth found in the Catina within the single-player mode. Despite what everyone keeps telling you, it is NOT a 'secret' game. It is placed directly in clear line-of-sight of the player, so anyone playing the single-player should stumble across it. Secrets are not placed directly in front of you.

Anyways, I decided to give it a go one boring night. Having given it about 10 seconds previously before stopping and continuing my campaign, I can honestly say it is a good bit of fun and shows off the modding capabilities of Blizzard's WarCraft 3 Mk II engine (yes, you know what I mean). The game itself is ... well I wouldn't say it is difficult, but it is definitely not a walk in the park. I had no idea what I was doing but still managed to unlock 3 achievements in one hit. The unlocking of those achievements (big display on screen saying you have unlocked something) are also what got me killed. The video below is this game in action. The player is not very good :S



I will probably return to play it at some point and get the 500,000 point achievement, but only because I enjoyed playing it. Achievement whoring is not something I really like doing in games and I personally think its a cheap method of creating re-playability. But that is something I will rant about for another time. My point is I enjoyed the 'mod' which paid tribute to many a Top Down Side Scroller (or Vertical Scroller) of yesteryear. It is a genre of gaming you rarely see being made anymore, which I find disappointing. I also would like to know why.

Depending on who you talk to, some people may regard these kind of games as mindless. You usually start in a ship that shoots peas and eventually deck yourself out with enough firepower to destroy the universe. Things fly at you, you shoot them and they explode. You also move around. Mindless? Well ... yes to a degree. They can also be incredibly skillful, relying on player reactions and destructive creativity in order to a) simply survive and b) achieve the highest score possible. Some can be so incredibly skill based they can even turn people off. A popular example of this is Ikaruga, a TDSS classic where players can morph between light and dark ship variants to either absorb damage or inflict more upon the same/opposite enemy colours. The following video is of someone playing BOTH players (1+2) in this game.



Yeah ... that. That was on Normal. I tried this with one ship and failed miserably. My neanderthal brain just could not grasp the concept of changing colour to absorb incoming enemy fire as I tried to avoid everything with very low success rates. I imagine with practice I would be better, but my first play session was definetly a slap into my gun-ho, 'shoot everything!!' face.

Anyways, these games are fun. Instant fun at that. Sometimes I consider the days before storylines and character development to be the true pinnacle in gaming awesomeness, skill and enjoyment. Historically these games almost seem to have been wiped out since the birth of the First Person Shooter. It almost appears that as games have become more technologically advanced and more like movies and books, the industry has tried to shed the skin of old relics regardless of their success and popularity. Thinking about this inspired me to download Raiden 3, a game ported from the PS2 to PC quite awhile ago. It still looks awesome, is very enjoyable and will possibly cause me to have a epileptic fit sometime in the near future.



So long story short, these types of games is the game type (lol) I intend on making sometime in the near future. It is the sort of game I have been wanting to make since the last year of my degree, instead of involving forklifts and tanks. A work-in-progress Alpha is currently on standby as things are sorted out. I would like to implement a more realistic control scheme in the form of keyboard movement and mouse/controller aiming but at this point it is not set in stone. Hopefully something significant can be completed before the end of the year.

I Can D

This is sort of an 'awesome sauce' post, just a bit more wall-of-texty. Hopefully it crits you for at least a trillion.

I have always thought the guys behind Blizzard Game's cinematics do an exceptional job. I am sure they outsource a lot of it to some pwnage CGI company, but if it is actually done in-house, then that's even more impressive. Basically it has always been ahead of its time, even back in the day with the now terrible looking WarCraft 2 intro cinematic.



Nowadays it is no different. Having recently finished the campaign in StarCraft 2, I found the non-ingame cinematics to be quite impressive, just like they were in the recent World of WarCraft games. Especially in Wrath. They are presented well narratively and have a certain visual aesthetic to them that separates them from anything else. Some people even mistook the Arthas in the Wrath introduction before he summons the Frostwymre to be a live action actor!

If there ever was to be a film about either the StarCraft, Diablo or WarCraft universes, it should definitely be digital and at least contributed to by Blizzard's cinematic department.

Nubnubnbuububnnbunbubn!!

Jabberwocky Bandwagon of Unconcious Elitism

I'm not sure if the title of this post accurately portrays what I am trying to describe, and it is a little too late in the night for me to think properly and try and fix it. Whatever. The topic of this ... well, lets be safe and call it a rant now ... is simply about jumping on the elitist bandwagon of a game that appears to have wide community approval in some way or form.

That probably doesn't make sense, so I will use a few direct examples. Counter-strike. World of Warcraft. Halo. Starcraft.

All big games. All popular titles that many people play. All games that, in my opinion, are incredibly overrated.

Now if this was a forum post and not a personal blog, many a fanboy (or fangirl), without even reading the rest, would by now be hitting the reply button and appear to be fending for their lives in defence of their game they hold in such reverence. I expect I would get the full array of responses from "lol noob U sux" to more elaborate, well structured posts describing how "it is funny that you are obviously new to the game and not very good at it". As this isn't a forum, I'm glad I can completely disregard that step and move on.


So what the hell am I talking about? Besides the fact that I don't even know myself, I am mainly talking about a certain social quality your average gamer seems to exhibit. To describe this as simply as possible, I will break it into 3 steps or 'traits' of exhibition:

1. Realize a game you play or used to play is incredibly popular (for whatever reason)
2. Generally pretend or forcibly become knowledgeable on the game in various ways
3. Argue that said game is the best of its genre and imply that people who disagree don't know what they are talking about. This can be because of inexperience or the fact that you are simply better at the game than them.

There was one point when I remember being a bit of an 'elitist prick' about the original Unreal Tournament. I would like to think I stopped that attitude a long time ago (grade 11) as I find I am generally trying to get people in to games I enjoy at a positive and comfortable pace. The most recent example/s being various fighting games that I am getting in to. Some of my friends are surprisingly good :).

Back on topic however, the attitude I described is something I have run into more frequently as time goes by, especially tutoring games related units at QUT. If you were to ever raise the question "What is the best example of RTS design?", you would get a plethora of people demanding that it has and always will be Starcraft. Some of these people haven't even played the game, or if they have, justify their small playing time as priceless experience and proof towards their unconditional justification. They will state that the game is incredibly popular and 'e-sport' level in Korea, so it must be good! If you disagree with them, you simply don't know what you are talking about or don't understand. You would even find that most of these people have played very few, if ANY other RTS games at all. Hence ... bandwagon elitism.

Now I don't dislike Starcraft, or any other games for that matter. Or Blizzard, really. I think hating something that doesn't really affect you, assuming you can avoid it entirely, is stupid. I eagerly await it's sequel but I will freely admit I am not a fanboy. So me using it as an example in this next point has nothing to do with what the game is. This point is the game's unwavering popularity.


Some people like to think the game made it to where it is all on it's own, but I can tell you now, luck and force of will by Blizzard did more than you think. First of all, the timing and theme of the game were perfect. People were just getting into the sci-fi insanity of Total Annihilation and Dark Reign at the time, and releasing a Warcraft-esque version of the style was very appealing for audiences. You can argue that Blizzard stole many an idea from the Warhammer 40k universe (Protoss = Eldar, Terran = Space Marines, Zerg = Tyranid), a universe which had long been established beforehand, but that is a debate best left for someone who actually cares. At the time, Korea was also exploding into the wonderful world of inter-networking and so, in cafes and libraries all over the country, a particular game was necessary to test their now renowned networking capabilities. The game was fun and addictive, so it is quite understandable if a nation feels a certain connection to a game that in a sense, brought them into the light.

Then there is the fact that Blizzard patched the shit out of it. Still a little company at the time, cradling their new moneymaker and listening to the community was a good call in terms of its longevity. Something like over 15 patches, 5-6 of those being major balance changing additions. You show enough dedication and support to something and people will automatically assume that it must be good. The West caught wind of it's Eastern popularity and (slowly) followed. People say it's the best game ever, so more people play it. The rest is familiar territory.



The game did not introduce any revolutionary concepts or mechanics to the genre besides being (nowadays) a well balanced execution of the tried and true formula. It is not the only game out there that requires high levels of player's skill and speed in an RTS format. It just happens to be the most popular. If you were to ask a fanboy "What is it exactly about Starcraft's actual game components that make it successful?", your response would most likely be gameplay elements that exist in all games, both modern and old, that simply don't have the hype and religious fanbase behind them that Starcraft has. You will hear things like "Starcraft, now there's a game!" and have everyone in the room sagely nod their heads and stroke their beards in agreement without questioning it or understanding why...

So I guess my point after all this is that there are things in life that are really quite trivial (such as games) that are revered for qualities that are either overrated or incredibly commonplace. Some of these things (such as games) don't really matter, but should this attitude be expressed towards other aspects of life like religion or politics, then things can and do get out of hand. I guess I would just like people to think for themselves more often than not, instead of simply jumping on the Jabberwocky* Bandwagon of Unconscious Elitism.

Jabberwocky - a term used to describe something that no one really knows what it is, but whom deny ignorance of its true purpose. Also a nonsense poem about a monster by Lewis Carroll in his novel 'Through the Looking-Glass' written in 1872.

Ultrakill LAN 2010!

Thanks to everyone who came to the recent Ultrakill LAN! While slightly all over the place with people arriving randomly/not at all and indecisiveness on games being played, I still consider it a success. It is good to know that LANs with >10 people are most definitely still possible. The following is a compilation video of some of the footage from the LAN. While it is unfortunately mostly from my PoV (client side demo recording :S), I have not discarded the many embarrassing and comic moments of me either doing something stupid or getting fragged by various people.



This is just a low quality temporary version for the moment. Not going to upload more than 100mb while I am not at uni :). I have a 500mb HQ version if anyone wants a copy themselves. I am considering making a redux version should I spend the time working out some demo recording tools so I can make the video look more awesome, but we will see...

Official LAN picture (courtesy of Panics):

I was hoping for a total number of 12 people and managed to get close to that with 11 at one given point. In any case, it is the largest 'friends only' LAN I have hosted. However, should something like it happen again I might insist we hire out a hall or larger room somewhere instead.

As long as people remember to bring a chair, fold-able or otherwise...

↓ ↘ → ℗

Oh em eff gee! Possibly the greatest video ever:



I will freely admit, playing a Street Fighter game has seriously warped my mind ... but I wouldn't have it any other way. For those wondering wtf they are looking at, just look at the HP bars for the majority of the fights. Some of the moves in this are downright hilarious/ridiculous and definitely epilepsy inducing (something I should be wary of).

If only all of life's problems could be solved by throwing flaming balls of plasma at them, the world would be such a better place ...