twigger89

http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/twigger I AM READY STEAM

@Kenobi said:

Perhaps what should be said is extra characters is an expected feature in most mmo. So it seemed to shorthand the customer in a way that may be destructive to the experience. Which, from this post, I find is not the case. Plus my opinion.

Guild Wars has always been pretty different from other MMOs, it's been it's biggest asset and possibly it's biggest fault.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@rebgav said:

@AhmadMetallic said:

all we have today is the dismissive Giant Bomb staff goofing around in games trying to get a quick fix of comedy without respecting or even caring about the mechanics or stories of these new games. How this negligence is forgiven by the community, I do not know.

You have to forgive it or you're going to be endlessly frustrated. The crew likes their pet games - everything else gets short shrift and that's it, there's nothing you can do about it beyond parsing their opinions the same way that you would if they were reviewing the game. You can't make them care about games that they aren't interested in. You shouldn't treat their opinions as being inherently meaningful and you should never, ever make a decision to buy or avoid a game based on this one resource - same as any other enthusiast press outlet, it isn't objective or "fair" and it isn't meant to be.

I think that the correct way to use GB's coverage (or any other game site's coverage) is to absorb their output and parse it based on what you know about the source. GB gives you unusual levels of access to the editors, so you're unusually well-armed to take advantage of their content - that doesn't automatically make them the best source for coverage on any given game.

I agree with this and understand it. But that doesn't warrant not reading the manual or looking at the controls screen before you begin the game. And it doesn't warrant completely shitting on it when what you're doing is quick looking it for people who are interested in knowing what it's about.

The least Brad can do is learn how to use a medkit in E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy before jumping in and embarrassing himself, and making us think the game sucks in the process.

This there an actual guide or tutorial for this game? I bought it months ago but have been completely turned off by how it just throws you in the deep end. Am I just missing something?

@AhmadMetallic said:

Anyone who doesn't discuss the topic at hand but rather spouts out the usual mindless "Stop complaining about ze staff" crap below me is a luzah. The guy is asking a legitimate question, nothing is wrong with criticism.

I totally agree, @rb_man. I love this website, its staff and community, but while Patrick is my least favorite staffer, ironically he's my favorite Quick Looker because he PLAYS the game and reads about it so he can inform me of what it's about and showcase it correctly. Whereas it has happened so often that the four GB guys simply ruin a game by calling it frustrating because they didn't play it prior to recording or give it a chance. But you won't get much love. This community, sadly, just wants laughs, they don't care about the quality of the content from an editorial standpoint. Quick Looks = Comedy.

Quick looks are not a form of editorial, they are a snapshot of a game as well as a rough first impression. They are meant to introduce a game without all the hype and hand holding mentality that comes with a lot of game play footage. While I understand that it can be frustrating when they play a game so poorly that it is hard to get an actual grasp for the game, I think you are adding unintended meaning to the quick look format.

@ipaqi said:

Disclaimer: I begin writing this post at 19:30 BST, 20/05/2012. The information, suggestions and suppositions written heretofore are a result of my personal experience playing Diablo 3 over the past few days, as well as my own experience as a program designer and programmer, and cannot be proven by myself at this time. This is theory and conjecture, be it convincing or otherwise. DO NOT TAKE MY WORDS AS FACT, BUT AS THEORY ALONE.

Right, now that we're done with that, let get to the nitty-gritty. I'm writing this article/post to put forth a theory, according to which Diablo 3's always-online DRM and real currency Auction House have a more "sinister" purpose than we've been led to believe.

First off, I put forth the following supposition as to the working of the DRM. Diablo 3 works much like an MMO with many lacking features. Every action is synchronized to the server, be it physical travel, ability activation, item activation, merchant and artisan interactions, etc. Whenever an action is made in-game, the game client interacts with the servers, obtaining whatever information it requires. Germane to the issue I bring up, is that the game contacts the server whenever loot needs to be distributed.

Having recently experienced a lot of lag on a high-latency connection with the game, and having observed that the lag was most visible and game-breaking when loot was to be distributed (killing mobs, opening chests, destroying destructible items, etc.), I theorize that whenever loot is to be distributed, the game client requests a loot drop from the server (that is, which items to drop, if any). Assuming this is true, it would mean that Activision-Blizzard is poised to control which loot is distributed, how much, and even to whom.

And, since every player-action is apparently reported to the servers, it seems likely that if they would wish to, Activision-Blizzard can track player's usage of items, as in sale, salvage, equipping, stashing, transfer to alternate characters, transfer to other players, sale on either Auction House, and even dropping on the ground.

With the item usage tracking information Activision-Blizzard could accrue and aggregate, it's very likely that they could then analyze which players are more likely to sell unneeded items and on which Auction House, and, given that they made the game's systems, it would be very easy then to give a player with a Witch Doctor and with no alternate characters an extremely rare and high-valued item, with the expectation that he'd sell the item for a large sum, of which Activision-Blizzard is entitled, as per the TOS, to 15%.

Having manufacture an economical system that can be so efficiently manipulated to provide Activision-Blizzard with additional funds beyond the money paid by gamers to merely play the game, they would be either foolhardy or exceptionally honest not to engage in any of the aforementioned manipulation.

After all, WoW subscriber numbers are slowly but steadily declining if I recall correctly, Diablo 3 and Starcraft II have no subscriber models that we know of, and Blizzard's project Titan is nothing more than a name on a two-year-old release schedule. A market completely controlled by Activision-Blizzard, where demand is closely monitored and supply can be manufactured on the spot, is a cash cow that I don't believe can so easily be left unmilked.

But in order to completely and utterly control this clearly valuable market, strict DRM has to be enforced. Whether or not Activision-Blizzard analyzes all player actions and in accordance with that distributes loot, they have to be able to regulate the rarity of items on their market. If due to a duping glitch or hacking large amount of previously rare items could be brought onto the Auction House, it won't be long before the value of these objects declines, and thus Activision-Blizzard's profit margin off of the real currency Auction House suffers.

If my theory is correct (and I am no more sure of that than I am sure of the shape of the back of my head), then whether or not Activision-Blizzard is actively spying on what Diablo 3 players do with their items, it's clear that Activision-Blizzard has the capability, if perhaps not the willful intent, to fully and frequently manipulate the market of Diablo 3 items, in which every transaction is profitable - to them.

While I applaud your acknowledgement that this is all conjecture, this is textbook conspiracy theory at play. You are making assumptions as to the intention of things you can't possibly know and extrapolating the worst possible mentality of the company involved. The fact of the matter is that Blizzard has a pretty good (really one of the best) track records for taking care of their customers and it would be negligant to assume that they would go full Bond super villain evil now. Remember that Blizzard permenantly delayed the SC2 real money mod market place because they couldn't find a way to work it in while meeting their very high standards.

@Seppli said:

I knew it going in, this will be a decent Deus Ex game...

• Don't you love these mega cities condensed into a block or two? Such wierd anorganic and unnatural spaces. A place where a regular hallway might be electrified. Where climbing into a manhole and emerging elsewhere from the sewers might be the only way to enter some backalley. A place were cars do exist, but do not drive. Where city planers were obviously madmen, building a maze more fit for testing lab rats, rather than a place for living.
• Don't you love the cybernetically enhanced transhuman god, Adam Jensen - who can't punch more than two guys in the face, before having to eat a powerbar? Though really, he's more of an all-star all-round cripple rather than a god - on an epic RPG-struggle to uncripple himself in a few key ways, slowly unlocking what one day will pass as 'a valid playstyle'.
• Don't you love silly gamey things, like a box of ammo carrying a single bullet? Or sold in stores 5 shots in a pack?
• Don't you love how surprised you are by how much the laughable facial animations and sub par voice acting are pulling you out of the experience. I usually don't think of me as a shallow man, but the lack of presentational production quality is troubling me.

...guess I forgot Deus Ex pretty much happend last century.

I'm kinda surprised by how much I find Deus Ex : Human Revolution lacking. I loved the first game, enjoyed the second. This game ain't a bad Deus Ex game, it's true to the source material - it's just... well... it just doesn't work anymore. I'm enchanted by how comparitively badly put together it is. This template of game is so outdated, it's bound to be extinct. It's like the last of the Neandertal. Transhuman my ass.

I find it odd that you find this game to be gamey and archaic yet you thought Reckoning was a masterpiece.

@MechHawk said:

Is it mean? I record myself doing it. Sometimes with voice masks like auto tune. [Yoink!]

This was a piss poor excuse to trot out your youtube account to show us just how much of a bastard you are. The way I see it, if you are not willing to say the things online in the real world, to an actual person who can see (and beat the shit out of you) then you should shut the fuck up and grow up.

Arguing or even yelling at someone on the internet is fine (if unhelpful) if they are the ones causing the issue, but intentionally going out of your way to annoy and frustrate innocent bystanders on the internet is incredibly infantile and selfish.

@MrCaptain said:

Not being able to cap a flag alone in a tank seems balanced to me.

That seems like the best summation of the situation.

I think you made a difficult but admirable decision to admit you are wrong and do something about it, well done man. Next you find yourself in a situation like this, you may want to mention that the timing for this seems a little suspect, but then leave it at that until you have evidence. Either way I think writing about the growth of LGBT inclusion into the very hetero male dominated gaming industry is a good and noble thing.

@Conojo said:

@Brodehouse: You're right; while I do believe the arguments brought forth discussing the odd details of this event, the spambot hacking most specifically, does warrant discussion, if I were the one reading it as opposed to writing it I could see the flimsiness of my argument as well. I apologize for that. I do believe the topic itself was interesting enough to write up, and that the most important thing to be brought out of this is the fact that there's an opening of dialogue in the gaming community to the idea of LGBT characters taking a larger role in the stories of gaming, I can definitely read the flaws of my argument. Thank you for taking me to task, you too @VinveNotVance, I need to go through some strong scrutiny if I'm going to learn and improve.

Your mistake wasn't so much a literary one but a judgement one. There is no evidence about EA fabricating this event (internet speculation and opinion don't count) and by going down that road you not only look like a spiteful child, but you also diminish the main point of the story in that someone in the gaming industry is standing up for the LGBT inclusion into the gaming community.

This was a smear piece, and you writing it inherently discredits you from being a journalist. You knew there was no evidence to support your argument, but you went ahead with it anyway. You showed that you are willing to write things with nothing to back it up, and that makes you a kid with a blog as opposed to a legitimate amateur journalist.