Unprofessional Fridays: 08/05/2016

Nice!

Dendi face!

If you're interested in watching the International, the main event is happening 8-13 august. Group stages for seeding the bracket are happening right now!

Video seems to cut out about a minute in via the Roku. But hey, UPF!

I'VE FINALLY FULFILLED MY LIFE'S DREAM OF BEING IN A UPF THUMBNAIL.

Also being in that DotaVR Hub lobby with Brad and the other couple dudes was SUPER fun, even if having that and UPF on at the same time caused a lot of choppiness in the Vive.

EDIT: @brad just FYI your mic wasn't coming through, so either it's disabled on the Vive or you had push-to-talk on, which means you have to hold the grip pads on the right controller to talk. There's audio options to the back left of the lobby area that let you change between Open Mic and Push-to-talk. When I messed around in it a week or two ago Open Mic was the default for some god awful reason, but maybe they've changed it since.

I didn't notice choppiness but the audio was confusing me. Had UPF, VRDota lobby chat and game announcers all talking at the same time!

Was fun and I also am pleased to have been on UPF if briefly as it took me a bit to figure how to get into Brad's lobby (I just guessed his was the one with 5 people in it but I'm sure there is a better way but I was in a hurry to get in before the end). First time using VRDota and it is pretty cool, can see other games trying to go this way in the future.

Blown away by the VRDota stuff. If I was a fan of the game, I would have shit bricks at the "I'm in the game" mode. As it was, I was still smiling the entire time just like Brad was. Really, really awesome stuff, and the devs did it perfectly.

Dan who?

It's amazing to see how games like Dota, Overwatch, Terraria and Rocket League get treated by their devs. Constantly adding features and updates really makes a good game become a great game.

SO MUCH FLANNEL

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (RkReÜAÜG in short)

That's the longest German word Brad found. It's a law about controlling the labeling on beef products, but it does not exist anymore, thus the word does not really exist anymore.

Second longest (afaik) is Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwe

Which is the widow of the head of the Danube steam ship captain union.
Oh and potato masher is "Kartoffelstampfer" ;)

I'm genuinely excited to see this dynamic having missed this live.

Oh I stopped watching when brad started doing Dota stuff, but if they did VR Dota [as it looks like] I am going to have to see that!

That's a hell of a thumbnail.

Dan is all butt

I get the feeling I missed a good one.

i actually love it when jeff is away. things go off the rails in a delicious manner.

Capcom should take note

Why is Dan in NY for a month? Is Alex ok?

Can I ask what was the purpose of a goodbye Dan thread ( that eventually had to be locked) when he wasn't leaving? Surely Rorie knew it was a temporary move to NYC. Can I also ask why the announcement couldn't be made just as mater of factly as Drew's in this video, maybe on the Bombcast so Dan could enjoy his stunt over the weekend.m

thought we would hear an answer sooner.

To be honest, the good bye Dan thread threw me off.i thought the creator and the mods knew Dan was leaving which is why they allowed it.

When Dan really leaves, which i foresee happening in the next couple of years, wonder what stunt he comes up with next? Maybe we can reopen that thread then. ( His leaving follows the footsteps of people who aren't core four founders plus Dew, since Drew has been her forever. That is the basis for my speulation )

Anyway, have fun Dan in NYC.. Please note the PATH trains into Manhatan will be closed every weekend for the next few months so plan according.

Brad Chat: I honestly don't get the hate for League compared to DotA. On the one hand yeah, the monetization model's shit and the roster's more than a little bloated. On the other, you don't have to worry about three different Shop locations, minion denials, camp stacking, strategic tree eating, or the utter hell that is trying to coordinate Courier with four other randos.

I mean, I love DotA as a spectator sport, but it's more than a little unwieldy even compared to other mobas.

ugh...not bad...but without someone like Dan, Ryan back in the day, or even to lesser extent Jeff, this is just a painful couple of hours...its about the ensemble on UPF

First Jason runs Dirty Dan out of town, and now he manages to stops Brad from wasting more money on Dota. Goddamn that is one sexy talented man.

Love that sweet ass Intellimouse.

I continue to be staggered by how gross the monetization in Dota 2 is.

@tikicobra: Could be worse, League still uses proprietary currency that you have to buy in bulk ala old Xbox Live. And right now they have a "special quest" where if you win three games while using one of the new skin series (so 10-15 dollars), you earn... the right to pre-order a special hoodie for another 45 dollars.

It may not be slot machines, but it's still mind boggling.

Um...are you for real?

you can enjoy the game entirely without paying a dime; only cosmetics are charged for. i think that's the best possible way you can do a f2p model.

i do still laugh at the notion so many people have that free to play means it needs to be free top to bottom. it's a business model (even if you disagree with it) and they have to make their money somehow.

I'm pretty sure its mostly a joke, if Brad is mocking league he is joking. I like watching Dota when he plays but I could never actually play it from what i hear about the random pub games, people just like to joke about Mobas because the communities are really hard to get into unless you know a really friendly bunch of people.

@getter404:

I think Brad mostly did that in jest, echo-ing what the majority of people in the dota community say about LOL.

To be fair, most of your con's can be good things too.

Having a secret shop: Able to purchase items without going back to base, higher chance of killing couriers if you ward the secret shop , rewards teams for controlling the map (harder for the opponent to buy certain key items once the map is controlled by the opponent) .

Denying creeps: The better laner will come out of lane with a bigger advantage. Skillfull players are rewarded.

Stacking Creeps: Teams are rewarded for having dilligent supports that stack the camps. Interesting risk / reward situations (Will the other team steal the camps? will a fight break out near the camps?) It creates more contention points on the map, making the game more dynamic. Also helps to speed up certain heroes that need some time to get going, which increases the amount of heroes that are viable and makes games overall more action packed.

Tree eating: A minor advantage to get more vision / take less damage during jungling. it's a nice touch to see someone in the jungle do that, but hardly matters in the grand scheme of things. No one actually expects you to do it.

Courier sharing: Creates more oppertunities for couriers getting sniped when they deliver items around, rewards a team for warding well. If you truly dislike it, you can buy a second courier for yourself. When a gem / rapier falls on the ground, anyone in the team is able to control the courier and save the item from getting in the hands of the enemy. Even dead people can make game-decision plays by controlling the courier.

Without denying and stacking, Dota would be a very boring game for supports. The feeling of beign able to deny an offlaner farm by stacking the big camp and then pulling the creepwave is super powerful. As offlaner, being able to mess up their creep pulls and get an entire wave for yourself is an amazing feeling. You actually realized what their gameplan is for the lane, and you managed to circumvent their plan and make it backfire for them. That's what i love about dota.

It depends on what kind of person you are, whether you consider these cons or pro's.

Wow, turns out the one thing that makes watching Dota even less comprehensible is doing it in a way that makes me feel nauseous.

Brad and Drew play the System Shock series would be an interesting series for this site.

This was a great UPF because they did a lot of stuff in smaller chunks, also the 3 worked well together.

@ripelivejam: I have no problem with cosmetics for sale, it's just the insanely high prices and random elements that seem wrong to me. Also the stuff like paying money to upgrade a book or whatever.

I don't think I've ever played a game of DOTA2 other than some tutorial stuff but I loaded it onto my PC again once this VR thing got released last week and it was very cool to jump into the maps. I've watched a few International games in the past so I know the basics of the game and the layout of the map but being able to see it first person was a new experience. I think I saw that the lobbies had a max of 15 spectators and I imagine that many people in the room would be overwhelming with all the chat and movement happening in your face. I'll have to keep my Vive ready to go (I had the base stations unplugged during UPF) in case other VR things happen live on GiantBomb.

Watching them play Worms makes me realize how much I want to play Worms.

That effect from that powerful pistol shot in System Shock is really fucking dope. Looks like this will be a solid remake, I'm excited.

Yeah the System Shock segment made me excited for it as well.

Agreed. That System Shock pre-alpha looked like a beta, at least.

Smite skins>>>>>>>Dota skins

Regarding Brad's sister speaking German

What a great (unintentional?) callback:

I was very unimpressed with the system shock alpha and am about to watch the segment on UPF but can't say I'm looking forward to the game. Alpha or not it felt incredibly clunky and seeing the unity logo was enough to make me go "oh, one of those games"... I don't know how they can salvage the crappy feel of the alpha because demos are supposed to make people want to play a game and this did the complete opposite. Speaking as someone who played both system shocks for dozens of hours back in the 90s.

Donaudampfschifffahrtgesellschaftskapitänskajütennachttischlampenschirmreinigungskraft.

@tikicobra: Brad's level is so high that the amount of rewards he gets for further leveling is less cost effective. At lower levels, you get so many rewards that buying a 10 dollar compendium and selling the treasures on the steam market gets you your money back. You can even decide to not use treasures at all, and instead straight up buy the items you want from the market.

Also, 25% of the money used on the compendium and it's related treasurechests goes to the prizepool.

Flannel Fridays.

Video caption is too real.

help me i think i'm going to buy some loot boxes

When Jeff and Dan are gone, PLAID SHIRTS RULE.

@ripelivejam said:

50 Boxes for 39.99 is the best value.

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You're welcome!