October Thoughts

 

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I had a day off from work today and decided to jot down/share some ideas. 

First, ever notice that time is moving way too fast? I spent some time in between jobs and it was like a blur. Now I'm in a new job and every workday just zooms by. I feel like, especially as I get older, that time is increasingly escaping me. Even now, I'm writing this at two in the morning on a weekday day off from work. I usually don't get to stay up this late anymore and its been more difficult to get into the mode for writing asI prefer to do writing late at night. 

There's been a time loop thing ever since covid. Ever since covid time just seems to fly by. I'm struggling to keep up with all my old hobbies and work seems to get even more in the way nowadays with changing shifts from closing nights to opening mornings the next day[s] after. As the Grateful Dead ask in a song, "Where does the time go?" 

Second, I've seen better days, like the song by Smashmouth. "Missed the bus, but I'm in no hurry." It's been harder to stay consistently happy all the time because it seems like everything is turning, "We're turning again," -Zappa. The truth of the matter is that I'm actually doing very well and have most of what I need but there's always that sense that something's missing, or that I'm missing out on stuff.

For example, I like my new job but overall, its somewhat more stressful than what I was doing previously. Also, it's less pay, more responsibility, more stuff and details, and more intimate work setting with co-workers. Not exactly fan favorites of a work environment, especially when you're not running the place yourself as manager. But I'd rather be optimistic about things that aren't going well in this moment. I do realize that I'm doing well, have decent health, and a roof over my head. Sometimes you have to be grateful for what you have even if it could be better. For example, even when I wasn't working for a little while, I wasn't really struggling as much as other people I know, even when those people were employed working at their jobs, they were still doing worse than I was. "Back in the USSR, you don't know how lucky you are, boy." 

Third, I realize that I've kind of been procrastinating and squandering a lot of time. I've been way too involved in online video gaming. However, I've also been reading a lot too. Just before writing this now, I finished reading Leon Battista Alberti On Painting, an amazing historical document written during the Florentine art era. It is an eye-opening read, albeit very intellectual, but difficult to understand because of the historical translation from Latin and Italian into something a modern English reader could understand. Yes, it's readable, but not all of it flows easily into a modern english meaning. Prolix, and way too intellectual in describing art, however, Alberti was almost more of a humanist learner than a painter, and was better at doing architecture. 

Another book I read before that was Herzog by Saul Bellow. It won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and the Prix International. This was a great book as it describes the downward spiral of a very Jewish intellectual professor as his wife and kids leave him to shack up with his psychiatrist, ouch. Herzog goes somewhat crazy, manic, and at one point puts his father's old loaded gun into his pocket and goes to visit his ex-wife and pick up the kid. He doesn't do anything with it, but he gets caught with it and booked by the cops. The book even ends on a manic note when he's back at his estate in a remote area, and he hires this nanny to clean up his house, and he's just watching her clean. I had a Jewish best friend that reminds me of Herzog. He had everything he could have wanted at one point and it all just went away and he went into a manic episode. Never saw him again after that. This book was very realistic. 

Lastly, I've been trying to stay focused. I've been reading a lot and listening to a lot of jazz music. I do think I need to lay off the video games for a while to make more time for more creative arts, writing, and music. For example, I'm still interested in AI but have yet to make much progress in AI art or video, mostly because I haven't been devoting too much time to it and I feel like AI has been eclipsed by the commercial state of American advertising through media on the internet, TV, smartphones, and in real life. 

We're so programmed to just buy and consume to make up for our lack of happiness, why would anyone think using AI would make them happy? In a way I would say AI has already been eclipsed by consumerism, even the overconsumption of say right-wing and left-wing news that taken a toll on our society. I do think we as a people, as The Culture, need to become more self-aware of things we're buying and the media we are consuming. 

I know that sounds like a intellectual outsider sort of rant but I think there's something to it there. Like for example, when I mentioned earlier that I've been playing too many videogames, I think the first step is being aware that you're spending too much time on that sort of media consumption, and then going forward you can adjust your plans to do other things and not give all your attention to it. In addition, I mentioned that time seems to be speeding away from me, well, in a way, yes it is. I'm getting older and my health is getting worse here and there. I will use that as motivation to do more of what I really want to do, and spend less time overconsuming digital content. These are basic ideas but not always discussed. Watch this space. 

The owl of Minerva appears at dusk. 

How To Play PC Games On A Potato

Have you ever wanted to play pc games on a cheap, crappy, laptop? Is that all you have and a nice gaming desktop is too expensive? Well, look no further adieu, here's my guide for how to play pc games on a potato. 

Keep in mind that your potato has to be at least somewhat decent. I would say spend at least $400 [or more if you can spare, but my laptop is $400] and make sure you have a graphics card. My laptop is an Asus with a Radeon Graphics card. The computer isn't anything special but it boots up fast with Windows 10. 

To start, you must make sure you have your laptop's energy plan set to High Performance. This is a no brainer but you would be surprised that some people only always leave their laptop's energy plan set to save energy or energy planer because they use it periodically throughout the day and can't always have it plugged in. However, for gaming you'll always want this set to High Performance. 

Now for the in game settings. I'm going to give you my options that have me running three different games [Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Team Fortress 2-my favorite games] with smooth frame rate and relatively low [if any] input lag. The games won't look great, or that good, but it will be smooth. Always make sure to run the games in windowed mode, a smaller window, as fullscreen takes up more processing power on your CPU, making your potato cry more and lag incessantly.

Overwatch 

 

Display Mode: Windowed

Resolution: 1366x768 [60`] [you always want this set to whatever option your overwatch game has the ` key set to, as this is your native resolution, which will give you better fps]

Vsync: OFF

Triple Buffering: ON

Reduce Buffering: OFF

Limit FPS: Custom

Frame Rate Cap: 30

Graphics Quality: Low

Advanced then click Render Scale: Automatic 50% 

And everything else set to low and off. Make sure to run the game in windowed mode, about 70% fullscreen size.

Heroes of the Storm

 

For this one it's more tricky as this game can become super laggy sometimes. A trick I've learned is that whenever you disconnect from a game just repeatedly hit the ESC key [don't know why that works]. You're going to want to go into the game files folder and add your own custom options there. 

 

On my computer you start by clicking This PC then going to Documents then Heroes of the Storm, and there you will see a text document entitled Variables, click that and change as neccessary. Here are my settings. You can tweak these as needed but I have everything set to the lowest possible and low and behold! The game runs fine. 

 

accountCountry=USA
alternateclock=false
alternateLowTextures=true
ambientenvironmentmap=false
aolight=false
architecturePreference=2
autojoinchannel=true
camerafollow=true
camerasmartpan=false
chatpositionx=0.000000
chatpositiony=0.000000
cheapquadselection=true
creepnormalmap=false
creepQuality=0
creepselfshadow=false
creeptrans=false
creepUseGroundNormalTexture=false
cursorconfinemode=1
deff=false
deffspec=false
deffspecpow=false
depthDisp=false
displaymode=0
displayunitstatus=Damaged
dof=false
dragScrollMode=GripWorld
dragscrollspeed=28
extrapostprocessbuffer=false
fogvolume=false
foliagedensity=0.000000
foliagequality=0
frameratecap=60
frameratecapGlue=30
gamma=1.253306
globalhdr=false
glossmaps=false
GraphicsApi=Direct3D11
GraphicsOptionEffectsDetail=0
GraphicsOptionLightingQuality=0
GraphicsOptionModelQuality=0
GraphicsOptionMovies=0
GraphicsOptionOverallQualityVer7[21]=5
GraphicsOptionPhysicsQuality=0
GraphicsOptionPortraits=1
GraphicsOptionPostProcessing=0
GraphicsOptionShaderDetail=0
GraphicsOptionSSAO=0
GraphicsOptionTerrainQuality=0
GraphicsOptionTextureQuality[2]=0
halo=false
height=1080
highqualityframeblur=false
highqualityhaloblur=false
highqualityhaloblurgame=false
hotkeyprofile=0_Default
keyboardscrollspeed=31
lastDeviceId=39028
lastReplaySaveMode=0
lightingLevel=1
lightmap=true
lightmapcastshadows=false
linearDepth=false
localao=false
localeidassets=enUS
localeiddata=enUS
localeidinstall=enUS
localhdr=false
localight=false
localShadows=false
lowqualitymodels=true
lowQualityMovies=true
mastervolume=1.000000
mousescrollspeed=32
MoviesSeen[1]=1
music=true
MusicContinuous=false
MusicHeard=1
musicvolume=1.000000
normalmap=false
normalzieHalfVector=false
OptionRevision=5
OptionRevisionAccount=0
parallax=false
particlelod=0
particleobjects=0.000000
particleterrain=0.000000
physicsClothEnabled=false
physicsdensity=0
physicsMaxComplexRagdolls=0
physicsRagdollsEnabled=false
pixellight=false
portraits3d=false
preBlendedCreep=true
PreferredGameSite=
profanityfilter=true
reverb=false
ribbonlod=0
shadowmapsize=512
shadows=false
simplifiedCloaking=true
simplifiedShaders=true
soft=false
softshadows=false
sound=true
soundambience=true
soundambiencevolume=1.000000
SoundAutoDetectCPUCoreCount=4
soundchannels=32
soundeffects=true
soundeffectsvolume=1.000000
sounderrors=true
soundheadphonemode=false
soundoutput=Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
SoundQuality=0
soundready=true
soundreadyvolume=1.000000
SoundResampler=NOINTERP
soundresponses=true
SoundSampleRate=22050
soundui=true
sounduivolume=1.000000
soundvoices=true
soundvoicesvolume=1.000000
spec=false
splatlod=0
ssparticles=false
subtitles=false
targetinfopanelpositionx=0.000000
targetinfopanelpositiony=0.000000
targettexeldensity=0.150000
terrainHeightmapBlend=false
TerrainTextureLowResCacheSize=40
TerrainTextureSize=480
texQualityLevel=0
transparentshadows=false
treadlod=0
useLowqualitymodels=true
voicechatautojointeam=true
vsync=false
watercaustics=false
waterdeptheffects=false
waterflipbook=true
waterrendertargetformat=0
waterrendertargetsize=768
watershadow=false
width=1920
windowheight=697
windowstate=1
windowwidth=991
windowx=185
windowy=0
winkeydisabled=false
 

You can delete your files and copy and paste mine but I don't recommend that. I recommend looking at what your settings are and changing them to mine if you have a potato machine to game on. These settings will automatically change your in game graphics settings [it will say custom when you check it in graphics settings] so you don't need to mess around with the in game settings for HoTs except for the following. It helps to lower the sound quality, turn off headphones mode and reverb, turn off voicelines and subtitles, turn off Vsync, and run in windowed mode, about 60% to 70% fullscreen size.  

Team Fortress 2

Lastly, my favorite fps game, TF2. This one was a bit more tricky for me to get perfect but I finally nailed it. 

Resolution: 1280x720 [I've had problems with Native Resolution on this game]

Display Mode: Run in a Window

Click Advanced Graphics Settings 

Model Detail: Low

Texture Detail: Low

Shadow Detail: Low 

Shader Detail: Low

Color Correction: Disabled

Antialiasing Mod: None

Filtering Mode: Bilinear

Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled

Motion Blur: Disabled 

Multicore Rendering: Disabbled 

High Dynamic Range: Full [if available]

Use Bloom effect: not toggled on

That should do it for these three games. What works for me might not be as great for others. Again, this is only options for people with a super low end laptop. Mines only cost $400 so its pretty much a potato. Also, keep in mind that you must run the games in windowed mode with these settings. For Hots I have to play it on a much smaller window for it to work, which caused me to learn how to play it with a smaller interface, which thankfully is easy with the grid movement button via mouse. But its also the same for Overwatch and Team Fortress 2, you must run the games in a smaller window, maybe not a totally small screen like I do for hots, but like 70%-75% of the screen you're used to if you always play games on fullscreen. 

Another important detail is that because you're going to be gaming in windowed mode for all this, you need to go into your Mouse Settings and where it says Roll the Mouse Wheel To Scroll, set it to One Screen At A Time. If you don't do that whenever you accidentally click outside of the window of any of the games, you'll run into problems.

I was really bored today because of the election so I decided to write this. I hope this helps somebody out there who like me, isn't very technical with computers but is willing to learn and test things out. And game on a potato.

Happy gaming!

How To Be A Great Healer in Competitive Video Games, An Essential Guide

 
Hello, ladies and gents. I've been doing a lot of writing exercises, mostly of a somewhat serious nature. Here I thought I'd lighten the mood up and write about how to be a great healer in competitive video games. 

This guide adheres to any kind of healing in any competitive video game but in this specific context I'm referring to healing in Heroes of the Storm [a Blizzard moba], Team Fortress 2 [class based shooter from 2007], and Overwatch [Blizzard's first-person shooter]. 

First, why would you want to play healers? Well, the reason I play healers is that I just prefer to be the backline of the team, not doing damage, not tanking damage [absorbing damage, and mitigating it], and healing the team, ensuring our victory by making sure that every player gets to survive fights more easily, making the entire team more durable, stronger. 

The other reason is that healers are naturally the playmakers of the team. If you're playing the healer you have the most important job, ensuring everybody's survival, mostly the tanks [the big brutes of games, that can take damage but can't dish it out as much as the DPS], but also the DPS [damage per second, the assassins of the team, getting the kills]. So if you're naturally a leader you'll gravitate towards being a tank or a healer, or if you're not naturally a leader but want to play a leadership role, then you'll gravitate towards being a healer. This is mostly of a personal nature for me, but it applies to other people as well. 

Or, you could want to be a healer because it just fits your personality. I don't have fun playing tanks and assassins, it's not my cup of joe. Girls gravitate more towards tanks and healers in online games, I've noticed, but other times they're on the frontlines getting the kills, so you can never judge a book by its cover. 

Second, it's all about positioning. As a healer, you're supposed to be in the backline of the team, making sure you don't get hit too much, or die very often, if at all. For example, the best thing you can do as a Mercy player in Overwatch is simply to not die very often and keep on healing as much as you can, and damage boosting if need be [don't worry about that for now]. The longer Mercy is alive and keeps healing, the better job she is doing. 

As a Mercy main myself, I've found that the best way for me to maximize my healing with the cadeuous staff is to simply not die. This is harder than hell, as most enemy players will be looking for you, Mercy, throughout the entire round to kill you, so that you can't keep healing. 

The trick is to be ninja-like. The less time the enemy team sees you, the easier it will be for you to survive. In fact, I know that the enemy Mercy is a really good player if I hardly ever see her throughout the entire round. The best way to do this is by using all obstacles in the map to your advantage; walls, monuments, buildings, ally players, and your abilities like your flight L-shift button. It should also be mentioned that you must know how to super jump to be an effective Mercy. To super jump, simply press L-shift and crouch at the same time while flying to an ally, and right before you reach the ally hit the space bar. This will give you a super jump, making it harder for enemies to hit you and making it easier for you to get to places where you can be ninja-like; hide, heal behind walls or around corners, or get to the high ground on maps so you can avoid fire on the ground level. 

Positioning by itself is a very simple concept. But, like playing healers or maining [I only play healers, maining is a term referred to when you only play healing characters as oppsed to tanks or DPS] it's easy to learn but hard to master. Steep learning curve. As a healer this is something you'll work on all the time, always improving upon. You'll never be a grandmaster of positioning as even grandmasters die out of position. 

Third, know your character. This is a given but you'll be surprised to see how many players out there will play their character the wrong way [their own way or just being clueless, which can be misguided and cause more losses in pug {pick up group} games].

There are so many players that think they've got their character down. They have hundreds of hours in the game, they keep perpetually playing the same healer characters, and then they wonder why they keep losing games all the time. Obviously, it's inevitable that sometimes you're going to lose games, but you can mitigate some of the percentages of losses if you simply know your character, so well, that you understand the mechanics of the character better than most of the other healers in your rank. 

How well do you know your character? Well, you simply play a lot of that one character. But that's only the beginning. The flip side is that you have to study up on your character; look up videos on how to play the character better, read forums where lots of different people give insight on how to play the character better, and lastly, learn from your deaths. If you know what keeps killing you and you utilize that knowledge to your benefit, you can lessen the number of deaths that keep happening the same way, and then start to learn more from the more random elements that kill you. Again, a very simple concept. But the meta for knowing your character is steep. 

Lastly, have fun. The whole point of competitive video games is to have fun. Yes, there will always be toxic players [people who can't restrain themselves, take their anger out on the team, cuss people out, are childish and stupid], and throwers [people who purposefully lose games because they're either not good players, or they want to make a point to the team that they're especially toxic] but for the most part, most players play for fun, and they play to win. Keep that in mind. Fun AND winning. Not just winning, not just having fun. The correlation between the two is strong as heck, but it should be noted yet again that if you aren't having fun you should simply log off the game and do something else. Fun is the one thing money can't buy and if you aren't having fun playing healer then you should definitely play a different class [tank/assassins] or take a break from gaming; perhaps go for a nice walk, or enjoy a nice novel. As a healer, your job is the most important to you and the team. With great power comes great responsibility. Use it wisely. 

Medic [from Team Fortress 2 w/ German accent]: Get on the cart dummkopfs!

The initmitable competitive gaming spirit: 3 years later

Greetings! This is a post about competitive gaming. I used to write a lot of posts about PC games, even going to the excruciating details of Blizzard Tuesdays patch updates. It's been a while since I've written anything like that so I figured I'd do an update from when I wrote about this stuff back in 2016. 

I've been a competitive PC gamer since 2010 when Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty came out. I was so addicted I used to play team matches with my college classmate in the middle of class. We were a great Terran/Zerg combo. However, I also played a lot of Smash Bros Melee against all my friends in middle school, Halo 3 multiplayer in high school, and a lot of Starcraft Brood War [also middle school]. 

I was also really into single player jrpgs since grade school. To this day some of my favorite gaming moments have been from playing Xenogears, Final Fantasy 7, and Final Fantasy Tactics. 

Anyways, I'm still a big gamer today. Last Thursday I was at my first Smash Ultimate tournament at Fire and Dice [local hobby shop] and I did pretty well for my first tournament. I beat a really good Lucina player in bracket and did pretty well [but still lost] against two other players. It was a good exhibition for me and my friend Neal, a Yoshi player. I played Samus and Dark Samus most of the time but I did two matches [where I almost won both] as Fox. 

I still play some of the old games I used to play three years ago. I've found that I'm not only much better at them, but that I'm getting better and better each day, exponentially. It was a very slow, gradual change that took me three years.

Part of it was that in the past I didn't have as much confidence. Also, I didn't have the right mindset. I would go into a competitive game with the mindset that I just want to have fun and losing didn't matter. Now I go in with the mindset that I will have fun AND win. That's a huge difference. 

When I play certain games like Ovewatch and Team Fortress 2 [my personal favorite fps games of all time] there's actually a lot going on in my head, especially as I play the healer role most of the time. 250 of my 600 hours on Overwatch are on Mercy, the best healer in the game. And 65 out of my 200 hours on Team Fortress are on medic, the only healer in the game. 

Anyways, there's a lot going on in my head when I play. In every given scenario I'm running subroutines in my head: If I follow this person will that lead to a successful frag? If we're outnumbered and my allies die fast and I fall back and let my teammates die will I be able to live and regroup with them out of spawn before the enemies kill me? If I take out the syringe gun and shoot down an enemy soldier/scout/demo/pyro/spy will I be able to live/run away back to safety? Its endless really.

Its like a puzzle. There are endless variations of what could really happen. You could play the perfect game and your team can still lose because of your allies' inefficiencies. The main reason why I lose certain Team Fortress games [I always play Control Point] is because my allies will run in fast, get killed, and get backcapped [killed as they run to the point out of spawn] before I can get to them. That's a very common way to lose a game in Team Fortress. Probably the most common. 

These same 'subroutines' apply to fighting games. I recently became friends with a guy I met through work that plays a lot of fighting games. And he's very good at all of them. He was surprised as heck and applauded me when I was able to figure out how to play all these technical fighting games and after 2 matches where he'd win, I had figured it out and starting defeating him in loops. The reason I was able to figure it out is because I'm playing with this same logical thought processes. 

It takes a lot of practice to get to the point where you don't have to run through the endless variations/variables. Anything can happen really. But then again if you can make what you want happen and it comes to pass, that is where the power of the smart, thoughtful gamer comes in place. 

It took me a while to understand games. For the longest time I just played games to relive stress. But at some point I realized I wanted to be great and 'git gud' [Kranky's advice] at every game I would ever pick up. Although I'm no e-sports champion I would say that I'm a damn good gamer at the games I play: Heroes of the Storm, Starcraft, Overwatch, Team Fortress, Smash Bros, and Marvel Vs Capcom 2. I've even gotten to the point where I see single player games as extremely relaxing and enjoyable. Its good to find out that you don't need to always have that competitive mindset to have a great time. 

Gamers take their gaming very seriously. You're always going to run into those toxic people that will talk shit about your gameplay and hurl insults/slurs, harassing people, etc. You might even become one of those people during some of your matches. The thing you gotta realize is that even when you're so good you're at the point where most people you play against/with are scrubs, in the end its all just a game. If you can't understand that then you should stick to the single player arena. Rage will only hurt your gameplay and your mindset. To be a winner you have to think like a winner. 

"Experience transcendence." 

Original post from 2016 here: https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-inimitable-competitive-gaming-spirit.html

Artemis

Artemis is the 2017 follow-up to The Martian, written by Andy Weir. Here Weir attempts to replicate the success of The Martian in a sophomore effort. Weir is already a writing superstar as The Martian sold 5 million copies fast even before the movie came out in 2015. Weir has a background in computer science, even working the infamous Warcraft II game with Blizzard back in the day, pretty rad. Because of his computer skills its easy to see where Weir gets his technical and scientific expertise, which is where the genius in this novel lies. 

Artemis follows the life and struggle of smuggler, porter Jasmine Bashar, Jazz for short. She's a twenty-something Saudi Arabian woman, who if not for the fact that she reads Saudi blogs, could happen to be any race. She lives in the space the size of a closet, shares communal baths, and eats algae with no extra flavors. She's po. Her dream is to become a tourist guide and make big bucks so she can live a great life. Oh, and all of this takes place on a colony on the moon called Artemis. Jazz gets involved with some criminals on the colony when she's offered a million slugs to sabotage some resource harvesters.

The book is told from the first person, from Jazz's perspective. This is interesting because the last novel I read (Circe, check out the review here) was also told from the first person. Seems like there might be a trend for novels in the first person that I wasn't aware of, the more you know. Jazz is an sweary, original, protagonist and narrator but the other characters are sort of generic. Good guys that help Jazz. Bad guys that want to hurt Jazz. The brainy tech ally. The millionaire ally. The muscle. Etc, etc.

When it comes to dialogue the book is simplistic. I'm not sure if Weir really knows what twenty-year old women really think, how they think, let alone what they think of sex and their bodies. Although these aspects are disappointing there is one saving grace-science and detailed explanations of action scenes. 

Artemis shines in explaining things. Particularly geeky things that I will never, ever hear about again. In that sense the book is a great once-in-a-lifetime affair. Things like how to get into a vacuum-sealed double hull from the outside get thoroughly explained. 

The science gets hammered in more and more towards the end with "little lectures on why the spaces between the inner and outer hull of Artemis’s domes are pressurised at 20.4 kPa, 10% less than the pressure inside the dome itself, or laboriously listing all the MacGuffin’s technical specifications (“I checked the core’s index of refraction: it’s 1.458, a little higher than fibre optics usually are, but only by a tiny bit … a typical attenuation for a high-end cable is around 0.4 decibels per kilometre … the precision of my OLTS is 0.001 decibels per kilometre." (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/15/artemis-andy-weir-review-the-martian)

Some people might not like all this laborious scientific explanation but for me that is the charm of the novel. The dialogue and characters needed more work but these scientific freakouts are what made the writing interesting. A great comment I saw written about the book in a review is that its like a juvenile Heinlein sort of thing. If Heinlein is mentioned in a review about your book, then you know you've done something right.

However, the science doesn't make everything else good. After finishing the novel (I listened to it in audiobook form, narrated by Rosario Dawson) I had a great feeling of satisfaction, from listening to eight discs' worth of narration and finishing a new science fiction novel. However, the plot to Artemis isn't something I'm going to think about two months, two years, or two dozen years from now. Its okay, and that's fine. 

Christmas of Goodwill

(Here's another sort of vlog or personal blog post for you)

Today was a terrific Christmas. I started the day off by waking up early at nine-thirty to play some Heroes of the Storm. Then I proceeded to play Destiny 2, which my brother got me for Christmas. Its a great science fiction fps mmorpg (that's a lot to say!) created by Blizzard Activision under Bungie, there's a lot of companies working together on this game. They did a pretty good job with the product. For an mmo that doesn't cost a monthly subscription its a fantastic game. Definitely worth the buy, or in my case worth trying out.

I got past the beginning areas and was playing Crucible mode with my brother. Crucible mode is Destiny's pvp (player vs player) combat system. We did this mode called quick play where we had to capture points and kill any enemies that tried to take them from us, basically king of the hill from Call of Duty, Team Fortress 2, or Overwatch, other popular fps's. I'll probably end up leveling my character mainly through pvp. Its fun. More on me getting sliced by an energy sword and dying instantly in another post.

After that we went to lunch at this Korean bbq place, except we didn't cook bbq. Instead, we had this clear broth beef stew with pot stickers, all these cold items, and this great hot steaming egg dish. It was excellent. My dad and I talked a lot about new music, avant-garde classical music. By then it was around three or four.

Later in the day I went to one of my best friends' house. We relaxed, exchanged gifts, played Smash 4 (he won most of the games), and watched a little of Metropolis by Fritz Lang and a bit of The Day the Earth Stood Still, both of them are two super old science fiction movies on Netflix. Metropolis is from 1926 and The Day the Earth Stood Still is from the 50's. I'll definitely want to finish both. I've already seen Metropolis but The Day the Earth Stood Still seemed quite interesting.

Approaching seven I went back home. My brother and I exchanged gifts and opened them by the fireplace. The gag gift I got that was also quite amazing was a framed picture of Mercy from Overwatch, a gift from James, my brother. Its quite good artwork. Its a head portrait but you can also see a little of her bodysuit armor as well as her characteristic halo and blonde hair. Sick.

In addition to that I got Starbucks coffee (I'm a coffee addict as of October), chipotle sea salt peanuts, a Lucio Pop figurine, a $25 Panda Express card, a Zelda wallet (from my friend), and the first science fiction cyberpunk novel written in the 1950's called The Stars My Destination. I think I scored the motherload. It feels really great to have people who care about me so much and got me great thoughtful and utilitarian gifts.

I called my mother and spoke to my younger brother. It was nice to hear their voices. I told my brother that he's really helped me get situated into reading more books and increasing my knowledge, improving my writing, and finding an audience for this blog. He's an inspiration although he can't take all the credit, (laughs). My mother seemed to be doing well and she said she was going to ship one of my guitars from Wisconsin out to me here. The guitar I'm speaking about is a heavily modified (Frankensteined) Godin guitar, a Canadian guitar brand. I got the guitar because I've seen John Mclaughlin playing Godins. It will be really cool to get that guitar out here eventually. I could use it for jams, recording, and band practices.

Yeah, things really turned out well on this Christmas day. It was a great occasion for good food, good friends, good family, and a good optimistic outlook for tomorrow. It couldn't get any better.

The Joy of Free to Play

Ah, the joys of the truly free to play game. Lets talk about one of my favorite games for a moment, Heroes of the Storm (Hots for short). Hots is a free to play moba created by Blizzard in 2015 that has micro transactions (mostly for the coolest skins and mounts) but otherwise characters can be unlocked by spending gold in the shop. Gold is acquired by logging in everyday and doing quests, which can earn you from 200 to 800 gold. Each day you get one new quest, thus giving you unlimited (but limited b/c of how the time and respawn of quests work) gold as long as you keep logging in and playing the game.

At first you would think this is time consuming or too much of a hurdle to go through to unlock characters-because of the grind. But no, this grind has brought me joy.

Its been about two weeks since I've been grinding gold and doing quests in Hots to earn the latest character Alexstraza (pictured above), who now costs 10,000 gold (when heroes first come out they are 15,000 gold). Right now I am sitting at about 9,500 gold and it feels great. The work, dedication, craft, and blood of my enemies to earn all that gold is quite satisfying. I don't think I would get this same satisfaction if I played League of Legends of Dota 2, two other popular mobas. Those games are work just to make it through a forty-five minute match. But I digress.

When I unlock Alexstraza in a few days it will be quite the reward. Rewards for playing games is something most gaming companies have to work much harder at. Sure you can earn loot boxes in Overwatch but at the end of the day the skins don't add much. A new character to your roster in a game adds much much more.

Here's a game that does free to play gaming right. I can earn every character through grinding quests and find a ton of satisfaction from it. Beat that EA.  

How do I play video games with no time?

 

Ah, the age old question. How do I play video games with no time? This is a hard question to answer. I recently got promoted at my job which gives me more daytime hours but leaves me with only a little bit of night and only a little bit of daytime before work. It's been very difficult to fit in gaming, if I get to even game at all. In fact, I've been doing more social media, listening to music, and hanging out with my friends more so than gaming. I haven't even played World of Warcraft for over a week now and just a week ago I was playing everyday. I'm quite saddened by this of course...lol.

Now to answer the question. If you don't have time but you want to play video games you must use your time wisely and focus on the games that you like the most. For me that means booting up Heroes of the Storm at least once a day and grinding out the daily quests for gold. Right now I really need the gold (15k gold) to unlock the next new hero (Kel'Thuzad from Warcraft 3, and yes I'll write a post about him soon). So that means everyday logging on and playing one or two matches. Simple enough. It's fast, easy, fun. I get to play a game and work on grinding gold for a new hero without spending real money. Another game I've been playing that's super satisfying without playing for hours is Team Fortress 2 and Terraria. I've been playing with a real life friend of mine so its even more fun. These kind of games give you a lot of reward for little playtime. Naisu!

That's the answer really. Using your time to just focus on a game(s) you really like and playing just a bit. Real life takes up more and more time the older we get and the more responsibilities we have. I'm still using a lot of my time arranging jam sessions with musicians, actually going out and jamming with people, and of course practicing guitar. I do a lot of activities in addition to my job so it really takes a lot out of me. After work I'm usually pretty tired but that doesn't stop me from playing games, guitar, or hanging out with friends. Work hard, play hard! Time management is the probably the most difficult thing in life, especially as we get older. Remember games are made to have fun. They will still be there tomorrow.

Orcs in spaaaace

Tonight I'd like to talk about about a game that is pretty dear to my heart, Starcraft. I probably played Starcraft Brood War more than any other pc game around 2002-2004. By the time I was in 7th grade I was already a master 6 pool player that won many games just off that one cheap tactic. I really loved the game. Fast forward to 2010 and Starcraft II arrives to the gaming scene. I had a cheap laptop and I decided to buy the game while I was away at college. That was when I knew I had to be a pc gamer!

Starcraft is many things. It's an rts (real time strategy game) where you have to build an army and use it to fight an opposing player in real time going as fast you can with the mouse and keyboard, referred to as apm (action per minute). The single player campaigns have always been great and satisfying but the true heart of Starcraft is its multiplayer modes. There's nothing like crushing an opponent through wits and cunning plays. South Korea took the game and ran with it. Brood War and Starcraft II are still super popular games that are huge in esports mainly because of South Korean players and fans. Blizzard never would have guessed that their orcs in space (original Starcraft was created using Warcraft I engine, but they soon scrapped it and completely redid everything) game would blow up and become one of the most famous gaming franchises in history.

I've spent years playing Starcraft II and around 2013 I was even in a guild called Team Peace. We used to run tournaments and stream them online. I only participated in a few matches (usually won because I was usually placed against low level players) but the entire experience made me aware of the social aspect of PC gaming (ie voice chat, text chat, guild, party systems, team-speak, Skype, all before discord). It was one of the most fun gaming experiences I've ever had. However, over the years everyone from Team Peace stopped playing and the guild eventually disbanded. Rip.

But that doesn't stop me from reliving the hardcore rts experiences of 1998 and 2010. In an old post (that can be viewed here) I talked about games I wish I could play if I had the time to do so. Well I've found the time and I've been playing a lot of Starcraft Brood War and Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne. Its made my gaming time much more fun and strategic. These games are so incredibly hard to play that even after playing the games for two days straight now there are still things I'm trying to figure out, relearn, practice, and master. I really dig the challenge! Nothing like getting your ass handed to you, figuring out what you did wrong and winning the next match because you fixed up your mistakes from the loss game.

There's just something about Starcraft and Warcraft 3 that is incredible to me. Part of it is the fact that after nearly twenty years both games hold up extremely well. The colours are vibrant, the graphics are unique albeit a bit cartoony, and the gameplay is so rewarding, competitive, and complex. Put all of this together and you have in my opinion the two best rts games ever.

I'd like the end this rant here but if anyone from Blizzard is reading my blog I have one proposition for you. Warcraft 4: Orcs in Space. Orcs go through a portal that takes them through space and time and they end up in a future world where they find the Alliance is still around but with advanced technological weapons! They then have to mobilize their troops, setup camp in the new world, and learn everything they can about this new secret hidden tech. Good idea?

Picture is Starcraft made in the original engine, which was the same engine as the original Warcraft Orcs and Humans, it looks so trippy man! 

Hearthstone is the most fun card game I've played since MTG

So I finally got around to playing Hearthstone. I really dig it a lot. Hearthstone is the most fun card game I've played since Magic the Gathering and Yugioh. It takes the best of both of those games and puts things into a simplistic game-style while still being complex with strategies and deck building. Its a very well made free to play game with only slight pay to win aspects. Sure the cards I have right now aren't that great and it makes playing against other players super difficult but at the same time its made me stronger and forced me to learn all the different strategies the game has to offer faster on the fly. It's great!

I think the thing I like the most about Hearthstone is that its a chill card game based on Warcraft. I can play the game while drinking a soda, talking with my friends, hanging out with multiple people while sitting on the couch, the variety is unlimited. You don't even need a mouse or keyboard you could just use a laptop touch-pad. In addition, I believe the game can also be played on a tablet and smartphone. I haven't played a game this chill in a long time.

There's a lot of interesting mechanics. There's these things called secrets that don't activate until your opponent does something to you or your minions. There's taunt which forces the enemy player to attack your taunt creature before he can attack your life points directly (Yugioh anyone). There's things like charge where creatures can attack the turn they come out (basically haste from Magic the Gathering). I'm still learning everything that can be done in the game but I think I'm doing a great job with the cards that I have now.

My favorite hangout is the Arena where I can quickly forge a deck from random cards. However, I'm also still playing all the classes in Quick Play against other players to unlock all the cards for all the classes. It's pretty difficult but I've been able to get a surprising amount of wins just using the stock premade decks. I've also made my own custom rogue deck too. Its not that great but it will become better as I get more packs.

You can actually unlock packs just by doing daily quests in game. Most of them will be like Win 3 games, Play this many of this certain classes cards, etc. You can get gold and dust too. Gold can be used to play in the Arena and dust is used for crafting. I haven't quite figured out how crafting works in the game but I'll definitely figure it out soon.

The sound effects and visuals for the game are pretty top tier. It looks so clean and sounds so good. The music is nonchalant which is perfect. The class system with the cards is pretty fun and unique as well. I don't think I've ever been this happy with a free to play game like ever. It's seriously an amazing game with so much technical aspects and competitive aspects too. I'm glad I started playing just before the next expansion.

Apparently in the next expansion every class will be able to turn into death knights. I'm definitely going to buy the expansion upon release and try the death knight stuff out. I've become involved in the game, even looking at articles on pcgamer about the game and the new cards that are coming out.

Pretty excited to be playing it. I'm about to play right now. Another great thing about the game is that it doesn't make my laptop cry. If you want to play a great game that helps you relax while is still competitive then play this game. You won't regret it.

Naisu! 

Heroes of the Storm's Stukov is the coolest support in the game

Tonight I'd like to talk about Heroes of the Storm's latest new hero, Stukov.

Here's his backstory: 

"In the 25th century of Earth's history, the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet was dispatched to reign in the Terran Colonies of the Koprulu Sector. Over time, these expatriate colonists that were once loyal had wavered in their allegiance, threatening the fabric of government which had been sewn across the galaxy. Of the formidable commanders tasked with this imperative endeavor, Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov was second in command.

During the violent campaign in that system, developments ensued that would eventually cast Stukov in a traitorous light to his superiors. Having been found to be in violation of a direct order to destroy the powerful Psi Disrupter, Stukov was subsequently executed for his disobedience. Unbeknownst to the UED at the time, their ranks had been infiltrated by a powerful shape-shifting alien entity that sought to sow confusion about the importance of Stukov's mission. After his death, Stukov's corpse was later recovered by the Zerg, who sought to infest human leaders and mutate them into leaders of their own colonies. As the first of their attempts to blend their genetics with that of humanity's, the once lifeless husk of Stukov was reanimated into something at once both more and less than human.
The infested Admiral known as Stukov has now entered the Nexus as a formidable melee support, ready to spread his healing pathogens and deadly disease across the battleground." (heroesofthestormgamepedia.com)

And also you should also know his abilities.

Bio-Kill Switch

Cooldown: 16 seconds

Activate to detonate all of Stukov's Viruses. Each Healing Pathogen heals its target for 500 health, and each Weighted Pustule does 100 damage and Slows its target by 70% for 2 seconds.
Can be cast while channeling Lurking Arm.

Q

Healing Pathogen

30 Mana Cooldown: 10 seconds

Infest an allied Hero with a Healing Pathogen that heals the target for 240 Health over 4.5 seconds. Healing Pathogens can spread to a nearby allied Hero every 0.75 seconds, and a single Healing Pathogen can spread to each allied Hero 1 time.
Can cast it on self, and spread to self.
Cannot spread to targets to whom it has already spread.

W

Weighted Pustule

50 Mana Cooldown: 10 seconds

Hurl a pustule that impacts all enemy Heroes in its path, dealing 20 damage and Slowing by 5%, increasing to 50% over 3 seconds. Deals an additional 80 damage upon expiring or being removed.

E

Lurking Arm

60 Mana Cooldown: 8 seconds

Channel at a target location, creating an area that Silences enemies inside and deals 144 damage per second to them. Deals 50% reduced damage to non-Heroes. Does not cost Mana while Channeling, and lasts until canceled or interrupted.

R

Massive Shove

50 Mana Cooldown: 20 seconds

Extend Stukov's arm. If it hits an enemy Hero, they are rapidly shoved until they collide with terrain, taking 200 damage. Stukov gains 50 Armor while shoving an enemy.

R

Flailing Swipe

100 Mana Cooldown: 80 seconds

Swipe 3 times in front of Stukov over 1.75 seconds, dealing 50 damage to enemies hit and knocking them away. Each swipe is larger than the previous.

Alright now lets talk about his kit. He's technically a healer but his melee damage is pretty strong and attacks moderately fast so you can defend yourself for a while before retreating to fellow teammates. His q key (Healing Pathogen) is a super strong heal once activated with d (Bio-Kill Switch) which will increase the healing by a ton. Its a super strong heal. The kill switch has a long cooldown but if your teammates are smart and don't get hit all the time your heals will always be enough.

One of the strongest tools for Stukov is his e key (Lurking Arm). It silences enemies. This is probably his greatest asset as a support in the game. The fact that he can silence enemies and do it often and its not an ultimate ability is astounding. You have to channel the spell so once you move the silence is automatically turned off. However, if you can cast lurking arm when your enemies are out of position or trying to run away you easily pick them off. Its become one of the coolest and strongest abilities in the game right now. It's super effective!

Weighted Pustule (w key) is a great way to slow enemies to give your dps allies the chance to finish them when they have low health. Its not very strong and the slow is better overtime. Still not bad though.

My favorite ultimate for Stukov is Massive Shove. It has a super short cooldown of just 20 seconds and it pushed an enemy as far as an enemy will go until they hit something like a wall, tower, or other part of the map. He extends his zerg arm super far, sometimes going almost across the map. Not only does it look super cool but it helps get your team in a better position for team fights. If this ultimate is used effectively the enemy team will be one less player during team fights, giving your team the advantage until that enemy hero runs back.

I would say that Stukov is a good healer that can also dish out good dps while also dishing out great utility and crowd control (the silence, slow). Because of this he's become one of my favorite heroes. His play-style can be a bit tricky at first but once you play a few games with him you start to learn that he's most effective when you're always in good positions. Positioning is key with this hero so you can't just run out in the middle of a random fight and hope to come out killing everybody. He's kind of like a healer specialist in a way. He's very unique, and super fun!

Not to mention he's from one of my favorite Blizzard games, Starcraft II. When I found out he was coming to hots (heroes of the storm) I knew he would be some kind of interesting character but I didn't think he was going to be a healer with such a cool kit. Its about time they added a new support hero and I'm glad they did a great job with it. Not to mention his squid skin is just awesome!

For the Queen!

Garrosh Hellscream is coming to Heroes of the Storm

Everybody's favorite villain from World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria is coming to Heroes of the Storm. He's expected to hit the ptr on July 31st.

Heh, greetings. Blizzard has revealed that Garrosh Hellscream, son of Grommash Hellscream and former chieftain of the Warsong Clan, will be the next hero added to Heroes of the Storm. The studio said on Twitter that he'll be playable at the ChinaJoy conference next week, and it aims to have him on the HotS PTR for the week of July 31. (pc gamer )

A lot of players on the forums online are actually pretty disappointed with Garrosh being the next new hero in hots. The main problem is that the game is getting another orc. We already have a lot of orcs. It would've been a lot cooler to get some other Warcraft race character, particularly a Dranei hero of some sort. But even like a night elf would be amazing. I think hots definitely needs a dranei in the game. Maybe like a dranei warlock or something? That would be something.

I'm already stacking up my gold from doing quests daily. When Garrosh comes out I'm going to hopefully be able to purchase him with in game gold right away. I won't have to wait a super long time like how I did with Stukov. Stukov is a freakin' great character by the way, I've been really enjoying him.

Anyways, despite the haters on the forum I'm super excited for Garrosh Hellscream. I was still playing WoW (World of Warcraft) back when he was leader of the Horde so its cool to see a familiar face. We will have to wait and see how his play style fits into a moba. Should be good.

For the Horde! 

Overwatch competitive is in a bad place right now

Overwatch competitive is in a pretty bad spot right now. Players have reached the tipping point because of competitive mode. This season (season 5) placed players lower than their sr (skill rating, measurement number of how good you are) than previous seasons and its become a grind to go back to last season's sr and then to also exceed that and push to the next ranks. It's become incredibly difficult. Players have become more stubborn (one trick ponies, only want to play certain heroes, never switch off to counter enemy compositions). Not to mention the fact that players have become so incredibly toxic.

The most toxic thing that's happened to me is this one time I lost a match (in comp of course) and this guy yelled on the mic "you guys all fucking suck!". He was yelling at the top of his lungs so it was painful to the ears with my headset on. What a dick. Its fair to say that Overwatch is probably Blizzard's most toxic game. I can see why. Players just want to win. Every loss hurts them (my precious sr!) and winning is the only way to verify that they're "good".

Let's not forget the lower level ranks which are severely difficult to rank up through. At the bronze, silver, gold levels you have pretty much no control over anything but yourself. Players are insta-dps lockers and when you ask them to switch most of the time they'll just stay whatever hero they first picked. It's become infuriating as a support main myself. Its come to the point where I don't play too much competitive. In fact, the only Overwatch I've been playing is the ptr. I've been having a lot of fun playing Quick Play with Doomfist on the team. I'm still pretty much healing but only because nobody picks healers too often.

I've actually developed a new philosophy to the game when it comes to what heroes I should play. Next time I play comp I'm going to only pick heroes that are needed. So if somebody already picks a healer I'll go dps or tank. I've come to the conclusion that being a one trick pony isn't the most effective way to develop a good team. You gotta play what the team needs. I like players that wait until everybody has made their character choices and then says oh well I guess we need a tank and then picks one. Those are the players that are the best Overwatch players.

Anyways, because of the problems and toxicity in competitive Overwatch has gone to a boring, salty, and toxic halt. Until Doomfist comes out I don't see myself playing too much comp, if ever. I think the game is probably at its worst footing right now ever since launch. It could possibly even become a game that people stop playing because competitive just isn't fun anymore. Well, why not just play Quick Play you say? That wouldn't work because competitive is the only game mode where players actually try to use their heads and work together as a team. All the other modes are just filler for competitive in this game. Plus, Quick Play just isn't a fun game mode. Usually you only get one healer (if even that) and its all based on dps comps with maybe one tank (again, if even). Its super lame.

This all makes me super sad because I love the game dearly but I fear that if Blizzard doesn't do something the game might just disappear.

Just like Tracer blinking away....

Doomfist is now live on the ptr

Doomfist is finally out in Overwatch (on the public test realm server, only available on pc) and I gotta say he is one bad ass mother fucker. He's a big, buff, black dude (African, from Numbani I think), with a giant gauntlet weapon. He's been teased since before Overwatch was even officially announced. In Overwatch's first trailer Widowmaker and Reaper were fighting with Winston and Tracer over his gauntlet. Apparently it has the power to level a skyscraper. It sure feels like it does when he hits you. He hits hard and kills fast like how every good dps should.

Doomfist's new real is Akande Ogundimu and he's got some cybernetic enhancements (like Genji). Blizzard writes, “In addition to dealing ranged damage with his Hand Cannon, Doomfist can slam the ground, knock enemies into the air and off balance, or charge into the fray with his Rocket Punch. When facing a tightly packed group, Doomfist leaps out of view, then crashes down to earth with a spectacular Meteor Strike.” (pc gamer)

Overwatch lore says he's the biggest of the baddest villains in the game and that he's in charge of evil characters like Widowmaker and Reaper, who are apart of the organization Talon.

I can't help but be a little disappointed (heartbroken maybe?) that Terry Crews didn't get the part as voice actor for Doomfist. However, Sahr Ngaujah does a fantastic job at keeping Doomfist serious without being over the top. It's a fantastic feeling hearing those African tones in one of the most popular first person shooter games ever. It's quite something. Never thought I'd ever see something like this as a black gamer so that means a lot to me. Sure we had Orisa and she has an African accent but its much different coming from a robotic voice. With Doomfist we have an actual black man and he's already one of the coolest and possibly going to be a game changer and he's already on the ptr. Pretty cool.

Here's the full description of Doomfist's abilities: 

• Main fire: Hand Cannon
• Short-range weapon with spread. Reloads Automatically
• Alt fire: Rocket Punch
• Hold to charge then release to launch forward and knock an enemy back. Damage increases if the enemy hits a wall
• Shift: Rising Uppercut
• Knock an enemy into the air.
• E: Seismic Slam 
• Leap forward and smash the ground. 
• Ultimate: Meteor Strike
• Press Q to leap up into the air. Move the targeting circle, then press fire to strike the targeted area. 
• Passive: The Best Defense
• Dealing damage with abilities creates temporary personal shields.

Basically he jumps around, punches, and slams everybody. From what I've played on the ptr he's probably one of the strongest dps characters in the game. Easily one of the strongest. He can kill you so easily and I think that's going to make him a must pick once he launches. His kit is so simplistic its like a kid designed him. However, using that kit and utilizing a melee character in a ranged run and gun game is where the complexity begins. I feel like I am really bad with him at the moment but I think with more time I'll get the timings of his attacks down. Like I said it seems simple but once you realize you're a melee character against gun users you learn how to play differently.

He's live now on the ptr, check him out! 

PC Gamer is giving away 80 keys for Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer

I saw this online that PC Gamer was giving away free keys for Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer pack. The necromancer character just came out recently and Blizzard is selling the pack for $14.99. The necro has some cool skills where he blows up corpses. At certain moments you can blow up the entire screen in a wave of blood. How glorious that sounds! If that sounds good to you go ahead and sign up your email here. Winners will be emailed on Friday!

How Questing Alone in World of Warcraft Made Me Appreciate the Single Player Experience

So I recently started playing World of Warcraft again mostly because my long time friends from Wisconsin play it and my best friend even said he'd give me gold to buy those game time tokens, which means I won't have to pay to play. If he doesn't help me out the game is a whooping $14.99/month which is pretty extravagant pricing. Pretty excited about that. I started off with a night elf demon hunter but I figured I should play a ranged caster dps with my friends (based on their recommendation but I also like priest class and always wanted to roll one) so I boosted a shadow priest to level 100 and haven't looked back. Mostly because the entire leveling experience that is 100 to 110 (max level is 110) has been a blast. I've actually gained a new appreciation of the single player experience by questing in wow by myself.

In the past when I played Wow I just clicked on every quest as fast as I could and just skimmed everything. Now when I play I read every quest and ponder upon every nuance, sentence, story, and lore. Every quest is an important part of the overall picture. Like a million pieces to a puzzle. There's probably more than a million quests in wow and people worked to create them. Not reading and enjoying it would be a waste of their efforts.

At first questing alone was boring. But then I began to love questing in Azeroth. Somewhere around level 102 on my demon hunter was when I realized that although this is just basic leveling, its still an important and fun part of the game. It teaches you everything: how to do rotation for your character, the story and lore for all kinds of story lines, and all the various parts of Azeroth. It takes a long time to level up but I actually feel like just doing basic quests is the fastest and easiest way to level up. Dungeons don't really give too much experience so they're mostly only good for gearing up (which you still need to do). So questing is the default way to level up. It's going to take me a super long time to hit 110 on my priest but when I do I'll be thankful for the fun journey.

Sometimes I'll run into other players slaying enemies for a "kill all those guys" quest and its fun when I end up helping them or vice versa. Questing has given me a new appreciate for the whole single player experience. I'm down to play some other single player games that I haven't played much because for a super long time now I've been a multiplayer only kind of guy. I'm looking at you Skyrim and Fallout 4!

Now that I'm not so focused on playing Overwatch all the time I feel refreshed. I still play it but Wow has become my main focus, at least for a little while when I wake up in the morning. Nothing like waking up and questing out in Azeroth before I head to work. For an mmo (massive multiplayer online game) Wow sure has a spectacular single player feel. I'm sure things will be much different when I hit 110 and I'm pvping as shadow priest.

I can't wait to wreck some people with unholy magic!

Overwatch duplicate drop rates drastically reduced (on the ptr)

Ever open a ton of loot boxes excited as all hell only to find that every item is just a duplicate? Welcome to loot box hell. Well, Blizzard has finally addressed the issue and the duplicate drop rates have been drastically reduced. Because duplicates give you credits (which we need for skins and or in game items) Blizzard is increasing the credits we can get from loot boxes. "We'll make sure that your credit intake will be at least the same, if not more," game director Jeff Kaplan said in the latest Developer Update video. (pc gamer)

This is great news! One of my missions for Overwatch is to eventually unlock every item in the game and getting dupes all the time was always a drag. I'm somewhere near level 350 now so I've been there, done that. These are some impressive changes but honestly it should have come a long time ago. This was something that the guys at Blizzard should have thought about and fixed somewhere near the beginning of the launch of the game. But as they say, c'est la vie. 

 There's also a new option that allows for you to permanently save your highlight videos. This all live on the ptr right now.

Doomfist and Summer Games in the next patch?

So apparently there was an error log found on Battle.net forums and reddit from the latest ptr patch that references Doomfist and another Summer Games event. You can click on the picture and see that it references both. The entire Doomfist arg was kind of a blunder to me. Kind of similar to Sombra but with Sombra it was at least interesting for a little while. Doomfist has just been referenced over and over again and then there was that thing where Terry Crews was supposedly seen at Blizzard possibly voicing Doomfist. Yeah, that would be really great but nothing ever came out of all that arg hunting and Terry Crews stuff. Perhaps in the next patch we will find out? Patch 1.13 will probably have Doomfist and a Summer Games event. Check it out in the next couple weeks.

Death of a healer main

So I've been playing a lot of Overwatch and I thought I'd share my experience with you all. I'm at a pretty moderate (but low) level in Overwatch. I'm Silver rank with about 1600 sr (skill rating points) but I've been just 50 points shy of Gold rank (2200 sr) during my first or second seasons. For a couple seasons I didn't even play competitive and now I'm back at it. I've always played competitive as a healer, usually playing Ana, Mercy, Zenyatta, or Lucio with the occasional Symmetra if I feel like I can pull a rabbit out of a hat for a win. But I've come to the realization that in Silver healing is just not worth it. If I wanna win games more I gotta dps (play assassin characters) myself and get those elims for the team. So far it's been working out surprisingly well.

I think I'm gonna give up playing healers in Overwatch for a while. At least until I get to platinum or higher. The main reason for this is because other people that play dps at this level just aren't good enough. They don't play the game enough to really know how the characters work or how to work best and effectively with a team. Sometimes you have a team that likes to spread out, well you gotta act accordingly. Other times you got a team that stays together through it all, and you gotta act accordingly for that too.

So yeah, dps has been really working out for me. Right now my roster includes McCree, Soldier 76, Pharah (been using her a lot, she wrecks hard in low elo), Mei (she also wrecks hard in low elo because she's hardly ever picked), and Reaper (because of the buff and because I hate Winstons). I'm thinking about adding Genji and Sombra to this list too because I feel like with my skills I could really do well with those characters. For a while I was practicing dps a lot in Quick Play to work on my aim with all these characters but now I'm using that training in real competitive matches.

I still get losses but now when I lose I don't feel the same way as when I was healing. Usually I still do great even when I lose, its a different kind of loss, not as bad feeling in a way. I'm thinking Sombra could become like my main because I like how she has so many tools at her disposal and how she's like a poker (just runs in, shoots a bit, and then runs out). I feel like I could excel in that play-style. As for right now though I'm happy being on the frontlines with the team getting elims and paving the way to victory.

I still play the occasional tank here and there but now with competitive my attitude is that you gotta pick your character fast and everyone else fills after that. It was the same with my healers. If I really wanted to play Ana or Mercy I had to pick them super fast after loading game screen. The thing is that most people just fill roles so if you just pick what you want super fast chances are you'll get to play whatever character you want.

The game's become more of a "play what you want" game for me whereas before I was being strict and reducing myself to saying "ok, I gotta play a healer because I'm a super good healer and we won't win without me healing". That's a fair assumption to make because in silver I've seen some of the worst Mercy's and Ana's ever but at the same time even if they're a bad Mercy they're still getting some healing done. And if I'm dpsing there's a higher chance of victory. So it's not a bad trade off.

So yeah, there it is everyone. The death of a healer main. Rip. It was fun. I'll be back to Ana and Mercy when I'm higher up the ranks. Until then I'll be tearing it up in low elo.

Blizzard Just Keeps Hooking Me Into Their Games

So the Overwatch Anniversary is going on and I just can't get enough. There literally aren't enough hours in the day to grind level ups and earn loot boxes (levels ups earn you free loot boxes). I finally managed to reach level 300 and in my recently earned loot box I got the Genji dance emote. Nice! In addition to Overwatch I've been spending time playing Heroes of the Storm. After two or three matches of that I usually move on.

I started playing Hearthstone and I'm in that stage where the game is super new to me and I don't get how all the chain combos work. However, I'm also at the stage where I might become a competitive player. The game is fun, fast, simple, and reminds me of Magic the Gathering (the best part of the game imo). I'm not sure if I want to only play it casually or if I'm going to try to become good and play ranked.

If those games weren't enough to take up my free time I recently saw an article on (Kotakuhttp://kotaku.com/its-2017-and-modders-are-still-making-diablo-ii-better-1795609085)  that explains how modders are making Diablo 2 a better game. I used to love Diablo 2 as a middle schooler so when I read the article I was impressed and excited. Sure enough, I dug through my pc gaming boxes and dug out my Diablo 2 discs. I downloaded it and got the mod and tomorrow I'm going to start my first Bowazon (bow/archery amazonian) character in D2 using this awesome mod that adds all this cool stuff and increases the max level cap to 125 (formerly 99).

What I'm getting at is that Blizzard just sucks you into their games. The artwork, game play, lore, story, and patches keep the games exciting and interesting for years to come. Who would think that I would be playing Diablo 2 again when I haven't played it probably since the early 2000's? Its just that great of a game, that's why. Blizzard makes great games. The games create experiences within an entertaining simulated world that makes you want to keep playing. These are the things that science fiction writers would have dreamed of in the middle ages.

I'm still playing a lot of Team Fortress lately. I've been trying to learn how to play the spy class. I've gotten really good at sniping people with the revolver. Sometimes when I can't get in for backstabs I just chill with the team and snipe. I feel like McCree from Overwatch with that revolver. Its definitely the hardest class to play because players are really good and they know how to counter spy super easily. I've been dying a lot. But I keep respawning and going for those backstabs.