T w e n t y S i d e d
It seems that we’ve finally gotten bored with all of the mindless shooting and awesome explosions, so with this episode we’re bringing you very special presentation:
Spoiler Warning: NOBODY DIES
Link (YouTube) |
Spoiler Warning S4E11: And this is
World of Warcraft: Nitpicks Revisited
Two and a half years ago I wrote up a list of grievances against World of Warcraft. Now the world has been re-worked for the Cataclysm, so I thought I’d revisit that list and see how things have changed.
1. Low drop rates for quest items
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Drop rates are now usually at 80% or better. Of course, this is possible mostly due to the fact that they’ve sped up the leveling curve. Blizzard doesn’t need you to kill 200 Murlocs to get from level 10 to 11, so when a quest giver asks you to bring him 20 Murloc heads, you don’t need to worry that 90% of the Murlocs in the world will be inexplicably headless when you loot them.
Conclusion: Fixed. And thank you.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “World of Warcraft: Nitpicks Revisited”
Spoiler Warning S4E10: Garrus Bueller’s Day Off
Link (YouTube) |
At the top of the episode, we actually tried the assault on the doors like three times, and kept getting killed. We want to keep the show moving, and so Josh tried to avoid playing the game as intended: Crouch behind cover and play peek-a-boo / whack-a-mook for two and a half minutes. That’s really boring to watch, so Josh is a bit more aggressive than is advisable.
And then we stopped to begin the episode, and Mordin cleared the room alone. Sure, it seems odd that the ship’s doctor should be able to rambo his way through waves of enemies. But a more pressing question is: Where the crap was Jacob? I’m not sure why he decided to go on break right at this moment and leave all the work to Mordin, but I’m sure he’ll have lots of time to reflect on his mistake now that he’s never leaving the ship again ever.
EDIT: Oh right, he was with Garrus. Ah well. He’s staying on the ship anyway.
Drawn to Knowledge: Net Neutrality
Here is my latest in the Drawn to Knowledge series. I have also created a YouTube channel, just for this show.
Link (YouTube) |
Share and enjoy. Next time I’ll cover something a little less divisive.
Going into more detail…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Drawn to Knowledge: Net Neutrality”
Deck the Dalek
Painted by my wife: A small (8×5 inches) holiday Dalek. (Watercolor.)
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| CEL-E-BRATE! CEL-E-BRATE! CEL-E-BRATE! |
My wife and kids are all huge Dr. Who fans, and fans of the new series in particular. (Tennant is the favorite Doctor among them. Personally, I was always partial to Tom Baker.) I don’t watch it. The Doctor is a master of time who can live for centuries. I am not, and so I can ill-afford to get engrossed in long-running sci-fi series.
I think it’s audacious how they have taken the classic 80’s villains and brought them into their modern productions with much of their camp still intact.
CEL-E-BRATE!
Experienced Points:
That Game I Should Have Liked
In which I express regret over a game I just couldn’t love.
Spoiler Warning S4E9: Stairway to Heaven
Good morning everyone, it’s Mumbles. Did you know that you can’t buy whiskey and eggnog before 6AM in California? So much for the Christmas spirit, law makers!
Link (YouTube) |
So, the show is called Spoiler Warning and we typically try not to give anything away before it happens. But, do you have any idea how difficult that is? In the early Bioshock episodes, I was this close to just blabbing who Atlas was, even if it didn’t really mean anything to the viewer at the time. I was bursting with truth, good viewers, but I could not share.
With that said, there’s a big surprise in this episode. As you know, Rutskarn has not played the game and is experiencing it for the first time. It’s really too bad that before the recording, I accidentally told him Archangel’s identity and gave him ample time to work on some puns. Whoops. My bad.
From The Archives:
Shamus Plays WOW
Ever wondered what's in all those quest boxes you've never bothered to read? Get ready: They're more insane than you might expect.
Self-Balancing Gameplay
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
Resident Evil 4
Who is this imbecile and why is he wandering around Europe unsupervised?
The Best of 2015
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2015.
Philosophy of Moderation
The comments on most sites are a sewer of hate, because we're moderating with the wrong goals in mind.
TitleWhat’s Inside Skinner’s Box?
What is a skinner box, how does it interact with neurotransmitters, and what does it have to do with shooting people in the face for rare loot?
Spoiler Warning
A video Let's Play series I collaborated on from 2009 to 2017.
Batman: Arkham City
A look back at one of my favorite games. The gameplay was stellar, but the underlying story was clumsy and oddly constructed.
Project Frontier
A programming project where I set out to make a gigantic and complex world from simple data.
The Brilliance of Mass Effect
What is "Domino Worldbuilding" and how did it help to make Mass Effect one of the most interesting settings in modern RPGs?