DukeT

Looks like they thought about it, at least... Apparently Edward Snowden had not released all of the documents he had access to, and he has now decided to start dishing out some more pain to the NSA, part of which is proof of the NSA's involvement in gaming surveillance; http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/nsa-spies-online-games-world-warcraft-second-life

I guess World of Warcraft was just getting a bit out of control with all their raids and Al-Qaeda talk and what-not. Who knows what you crazy WoW players are still doing?

I'm sure most of you have already seen the blog post today, as it is in game on the Today section and on the DoTA 2 site. Here's a link for those of you who haven't seen it. http://blog.dota2.com/

Basically, the developers have finally gone into detail about how matchmaking works and how Ranked Matchmaking will work in the future. They promise in the blog post that Ranked Matches are coming in the next major update. How long that will take, who knows?

Personally, I'm pumped. I'm not really into travelling to play with a team and stuff but it would be cool to get some friends together and get ranked. What do you guys think? Are you excited? And could this new ranking system slingshot competitive DoTA 2 forward as it brings in more serious, competitive gamers and allows invite-only tournaments to see which teams are best?

@ares42 This is a great viewpoint. I remember the days way back when I was playing on Counter Strike 1.6 servers with the same group of guys day in and day out. I was the whimpy kid on the mic that sucked ass. After a year or so and a broken voice, it was more of a hangout with internet buds that you shot in the face. And when gameplay got serious, to see who was best, and you came out on top, it was better than winning any COD free-for-all against DopeSmoker420xxSniper or whoever.

For about the decade or so I've been playing video games I've been doing so competitively. Granted, I'm only 20 years old so I've only been really competing (for money, or rankings, or whatever) for about 5 years or so, but I like to think in my younger years I was just a little too serious about being good at games.

So, to the point of this post. I wanted to hear the Giantbomb community's opinion on competitive gaming and games based around a competitive setting in general (Starcraft, Call of Duty, Halo, League of Legends). Are most gamers more interested in non-competitive games? And are the gamers that usually play only competitive multiplayer based games only a small portion of a playerbase and if so, is it because eSports and competitive gaming is uninteresting to the every day Call of Duty/Halo/Battlefield player?

Personally, I have always been on the hunt for the next challenge. After a long (too long) binge on playing Call of Duty competitively, I'm starting to get into DoTA 2. I had played around with League of Legends for a while but couldn't get around the grind for new hero unlocks, and DoTA 2 has me in its clutches. I'm 90 hours in and I'm almost positive I'll be playing for another 100-200 hours at least, especially once I get a team of friends going strong. There's a lot to learn, and it seems the competitive scene around the game is blossoming. I also look forward to diving into Titanfall if it ends up being as good as it looks.

It's not the money or some sense of weird internet no-one-really-cares fame that has drawn myself and friends towards eSports, its that nice little adrenaline rush you get from beating a person or team that was just as good or maybe even better than you.

After getting ROLLED by the Skeleton King countless times and getting bored of those XP runs (thanks for the help anyways though, @renegadedoppelganger ) I found I was able to just start from the previous quest, switch to normal, and continue from there. Its working out great, and for now at least, I have just enough of a challenge to keep it interesting but without getting murked by elites, making it through Act 1 and well into 2 without many hiccups.

From what I know from messing with difficulty settings, (for those of you wondering, @forcen@zornack ) on the console version at least, Easy, Normal, and Hard are three separate difficulties from Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno. Each one has a corresponding Monster Power multiplier as the others, however they need to be unlocked at certain levels ( I think it's every 10 the next level unlocks ).

For now I'll stick with default, as I'm enjoying where I am. If it gets a bit too easy, I might crank it up but I doubt that. I'm going to enjoy the campaign my first time through and then hop on some Nightmare, if I'm capable. If not, I'll crank up the MP and grind until I can. Having an absolute BLAST with my monk right now though, and I did not think it would be this much fun on a console.

And @scullinator as far as I know I didn't get any fancy helmet, but I guess I'll check for a code or something in my box.

Too bad its time to go be a productive member of society, working and such. Boo.

I've just now hit my first serious roadblock. Basic combat seemed to be getting much easier after I got a heal and some better gear. Now I'm at the Skeleton King, and he's killing me within 1-2 melee attacks. It would take forever to beat him, so should I go back and replay some quests, and if so is just any old quest worth replaying?

So yesterday I bought Diablo 3 for 360 while I was near a Gamestop, and remembered I had some credit to throw away. I walked in, grabbed my copy, and went home later to play. I love RPGs, but for some reason never got a chance to go through ANY of the Diablo games, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect.

Now, I've already put about 5 hours into the game and I'm definitely enjoying it. I was skeptical of all the sparkling reviews the game had received across the board, but I see now how addicting the loot rush can be.

However, I'm in a bit of a tight spot. I continue to die over and over, and I have a few questions for anyone with a bit more experience. I've started out on Hard difficulty. I did some reading online and found that the harder the difficulty the better the loot, and I plan on playing quite a bit and enjoy a bit of a challenge. I am getting that challenge, but I'm wondering if I rushed it just a bit, as I'm dying A LOT. Should I have started on Normal, regardless of my confidence in my ability to play and understand RPG gameplay systems? And if I should have, how would I go about doing so without restarting my fancy new monk. I'm a very low level still (around 8 or so) , and maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't want to get to endgame and have it be near impossible to kill Diablo.

I understand that after hard there are even more difficulties, like Nightmare or Hell or what have you, so I don't want to rush too much and have the later game be completely hopeless.

Thanks, any advice would be helpful.

P.S. Did some research for Monk builds. NIRVANA BABY

Heard some really bad stuff about Rage. Not really interested. Looks pretty but... nah.

Yep. Played Witcher 2. Fantastic game, really great. If I had to give an example of what I was looking for, I would say its perfect. If only the Witcher 3 weren't so far away, huh?

@oldenglishc@darji

Yeah I've played the Fallout games and a bit of their DLC. Good stuff there. I guess I'll check out Dragon Age 2 for curiosity's sake, and because I'm sure its dirt cheap now.

I'll give Planescape Torment a looking into though. I don't prefer bad combat, but I'm willing to overlook it most of the time.