I want to understand it, but every time I see it or hear about it, it just seems so damn dense. I have no idea what's going on.
I also really, really think I shouldn't try it. In many games with classes/characters/whatever (TF2, Overwatch, Monster Hunter, etc.), I am compulsed to play everyone. I abhor the idea of "maining" characters. And with a roster this long... I don't know if I'd ever make it back out of this one.
All said, I will be keeping an eye on this feature, I think. My only suggestion would be a little more education for the uninitiated. You guys use a lot of terms that mean nothing to me, and don't explain what they are. (And I know Dota has a lot of those.) And a little elaboration on who has what skills and how they work wouldn't go astray.
fwiw, so much of Dota's obtuse systems can be attributed to how Dota 1 is a Warcraft 3 custom map that really pushes the edges of that custom map creation tool to add a bunch of weird stuff to what is supposed to be an RTS game. I think Brad Muir talked to Brad Shoemaker on-stream once about how Dota, from a game design point of view, is a clunky mess that has overly complicated systems that are poorly communicated to the players. It's a cool idea for sure, but I kinda get the sense that so many of the core tenets of Dota were just kinda thrown together by inexperienced modders like 15 years ago who barely had any idea what was good game design, but so many of those choices are now "tradition" that the playerbase would get really upset if they changed too much of it.
Compare two different games that both came from mods. It's kinda weird to think that Dota 2 is so slavishly devoted to maintaining all of the core mechanics and ideas of Dota 1, while Team Fortress 2 significantly honed and refined the ideas from Team Fortress/TF Classic and reinvented the game into something that became much more approachable and popular than the original mod.
They've massaged the Dota map to include some new ideas/reworks, and they've added stuff like the talents Brad was talking about (at certain levels you choose from 1 of 2 passive buffs, independent of your regular character upgrades), but overall a bunch of really clunky, overly complex stuff has remained in the game. It gives the game a lot of flexibility at high levels for how you can reactively create certain items based on your allies/enemies and their actions, but it's still a pretty horrible experience for beginners.
Even in Brad's case, he still doesn't know how to make judgment calls of what items to buy in a given match, and still relies on guides. Part of that is because I think he spends too much time playing in parties of experienced Dota players and lets them make decisions for him, and doesn't seem to have put as much time into solo queue, learning the hard lessons on his own. Even if that weren't the case, it definitely takes a while to learn why you buy certain items in some matches but not others. And then the entire concept of drafting/creating teams also has a lot of nuance to it that takes forever to learn.
So I get it. It's pretty dense, and it takes a while to understand what is going on.
Why did Dan use his energy drink first at like ~30-35 minutes in, when he was at like 40% health? The bandage takes less time, and heals more immediately. The energy drink heal is super slow and is for popping when you're near full, or when it's the end of the game and you pop a zillion at once for super speed health regen.
But yeah, Dan confirmed terrible teammate. Never calls out good gear he already has but others might need; he picks up weapon attachments for people, but never calls out backpacks, helmet, weapons, etc. Also he's constantly super far from team looting things and keeps looting even when people say they are under fire.
He's also probably the worst person to have the stream watch since he so often isn't part of the action because he either dies alone because he's way too far away, or he goes back to help when it's way too late and dies immediately.
Man, the Gamecube was such a great console. Sunshine, Wind Waker, Prime, Pikmin, Melee, Resi 4, Viewtiful Joe, Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansion.
It really wasn't. Nostalgia goggles hitting you hard there, mate. Reckon Gamecube is the worst mainline console of the last 20 years.
If you want to talk worst mainline console, the original Xbox and the Wii U both have underwhelming, mildly troubled lifespans, and a rather short list of truly must-play titles. Those 2 are much more deserving of the shade you are throwing. The Gamecube is fine.
Either I'm crazy or Dan claiming he's "whatever the opposite of a germaphobe is" is INSANE AS HELL. Hasn't he been very freaked out by stuff on the podcast(s) before? Or am I just misremembering and it was just bugs in dates?
It probably isn't like, a clinically diagnosable level of it, but yeah, there have been several times on various podcasts where Dan has seemed very particular about cleanliness, in a way that is above and beyond what a typical American human would care about.
I will not stand for the amount of board game bashing in this week's podcast. It's an injustice, I tell you!
Overall I think they're too harsh on board games that are complex or have a lot of pieces. That being said, Ben has a point that some board games people speak highly of have pretty low player interaction, and I'm also not a very big fan of those games.
For example, people talk a big game about Terra Mystica, but it's like if Catan had no trading so the only interaction with others is constructing buildings that block them off from constructing their own buildings, or buying certain once-per-round resources before others can that round. It's well balanced for what it is, but it's just pretty dull that each player is largely playing their own game of solitaire by converting resources and buildings into other things that increase your victory points, and then at the end you all do your taxes to see who has the most deductions and gets the biggest refund. ...Yay.
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