Henroid

Whatever it is they do then. I don't have time to watch other people when I'm playing a match.

Not surprising anyone, Sony says the EA+ service is a bad value to the customer. But they also shed some light on things - EA actually went to them with the idea. Sony turned them down because they felt it would be ridiculous for consumers to pay the fee for PS+, and then have to pay an additional fee for just EA games. Good move on Sony's part I say.

I argue that people already do this kinda crap, where they afk (but move enough to avoid the abandon status).

That would actually be one positive in this - convert the sports games into subscription model games.

I was going to say "Kunkka?" but there's a double negative going on and am easily confused.

Memorizing that level of detail to the game though is unusual, and not the sole mark of success. Granted it sure as hell can help. One argument I read in an article about the International, an argument I disagree with, is that the game centers around so few lords and nothing is really done to fix that. This was my first year watching any pro-DotA, but back in May Skywrath Mage made no appearances (maybe one or two). Then when the playoffs were going on to wind down to the top 8 teams for the main event, he was in every match just about (or maybe actually every match). And why? Because someone figured out he rocks with the right combination / support. And thus the character is adapted. Every lord in the game is capable of having this treatment. Sure, we may not see a Spirit Breaker in pro-DotA much at all, but one day someone is going to do something right with him, and he'll break out. That's what excites me about continuing to watch (and play) the game - things are only as definite as the players decide.

IMPURITY! BURN THE HERETIC!

Ben Kuchera decided to write an opinion piece, in the wake of this EA subscription service news, about how "the days of owning games are going away." I should point out that I make it no secret that I think Kuchera is kind of an idiot but more of a tool. But he's wrong about this. He takes to news of the end times for video games as we know it in the same fashion that random internet folk, who are also video game enthusiasts, do. Which is to say, WAY too eager to talk about it. It's like seeing Christians go on about the end times because waah gay people waaah. Only it's video games I guess. To get less aggressively ranty about the whole thing, really, it's reactionary and just wrong. Digital distribution is not new, and EA starting this service isn't a sign that it's actually going to work. We have yet to see it going into practice. It's definitely more of that walled-garden thing that we saw spring up over the last few years (Steam, Origin, etc), but not every company jumped on that - in fact Origin was one of the last ones to come up and it's the only high-profile publisher platform of that sort to exist. The other problem with this method of distribution, if it were to "replace" physical copies, is that you need to get every publisher and developer on board. EA does not own every publisher or developer (as much as they might like to). Not all of them are going to agree to it, especially if the profit share isn't set to be in favor of the developer. tl;dr, this EA shit isn't some horn being sounded to mark the end of video games. Ben Kuchera is a dumb dumb.

It's pointed out that DotA is unique in that its systems / mechanics offer points of no return.

It's basically swindling.

Polygon put up an article yesterday about DotA 2 needing a white flag for everyone, not just pro-players. I agree with that.

It strikes me as especially weird because it's exclusive to the XB1. I guess EA couldn't push getting Origin integration in on Live. Maybe this was plan B. For all the downsizing and such EA has been doing this seems like a weird thing to establish. I'm sure it'll get them some bucks initially, but in the long run I imagine this is gonna be a quickly canceled program.

While my PC is still busted, just before it did, I got back into the game again and was trying to poke around at mods. I still can't imagine playing the game without the passive-skill tiers mod, and I found a better mod for unlocking all hairstyles / colors / faces for all character classes. Unfortunately it has a built-in expand-your-inventory mod, which feels rather unnecessary. I also stumbled upon a couple mods that add more random room designs, but without access to my computer I couldn't tell you what their names are.

Anyone hear about the new service EA is launching on XBox Live? Subscription service mirroring the PS+ thing. For $5 a month (or $30 for a whole year) you get access to some games and a 10% discount on all EA DLC and micro-transactions. Point the first: The beta of the project consists of FIFA 14, Madden 25, Peggle 2, and Battlefield 4 - all of those games people are most likely to have anyway (for the target audience; I doubt video game enthusiasts are gonna be on board). Point the second: How much digital content would you have to buy for a 10% discount to be worth it, narrowed solely on one publisher's games for one console? I don't like any of this. It cements something I pointed out when the XB1 was revealed - that EA and MS are strange bedfellows over the XB1. This is all a bad move for EA, because they're putting so many of their eggs in a basket that is losing momentum (to illustrate, last month sales of Watch_Dogs for the X360 outsold XB1 units).

I think events like The International could be better served by having an actual season played prior to the main event. A well-paced schedule can help players in a lot of respects, and there'd be a better idea of who is better than who, no nonsense like just one bad (or good) match making a decision. Also, by stretching the matches over many months rather than in a week means commentators can have it easier.

So the return of the bird noise.

The grand final ended up being boring in some ways but exciting in others. Not that I can definitively describe either way. Overall I have mixed feelings. It seemed like VG was throwing the series though. Round 1 they drafted a sturdy team and dominated with it. Round 2 they drafted a way more fragile team and lost with it; they then decided that was the strategy to stick with. It was very qualifier-rounds Team Liquid. But hey, that was the first e-sports event that I watched more or less the entire way through, and I liked it. I dunno what other tourneys I should look into (I know there's many leagues so I have homework to do).

I don't know many pro players by name yet but my favorite Bulba moment was when he denied an Aegis that they won. As for Liquid, they're exciting to watch, I dunno. Like I said, they have an Oakland Raiders appeal.

Team Liquid has been great with their map vision control and early ganking. When LGD beat them a couple days ago at their own game I couldn't believe it. If they have to play LGD again I'm gonna be sad.

Thank goodness for Ayesee's twitter feed; it's letting me keep up with the International. My favorote team (Liquid) seem to be pulling through. Also saw that ties in 2nd and 10th place will result in more pro matches. 1st and 3rd-9th are going to use stats to determine clear placements.

So I checked out Coming Out Simulator 2014 last night. I still haven't fully processed it in my head. I'm straight but have enough LGBT friends to have some awareness of how coming out can go terribly wrong (there are some positive outcomes thank goodness). This was the closest I could get to experiencing it first-hand I guess. At the very least, the game exists to help give people who would react badly SOME perspective. btw I'm writing this on my 3DS because my PC died this morning and is irreperable. Which means no Idle Thumbs content for a while.

Oh maaaaaaan what a good episode. Just gonna focus on one thing for now. So the NES cart discussion. That was something I definitely knew about. I wasn't particularly surprised when I learned about it because I grew up with those games as they were all coming out, and saw the general transition of quality. One of my favorite examples on the audio end of things is Castlevania 3; the Famicon soundchip was of better quality than the NA cart's soundchip. Results below. North America: Japanese:

Thanks, I'll give that a shot after I watch some pro-DotA.

Microsoft is giving X360 owners $75 in XBL credit if they "upgrade" (buy) an XB1. I don't think the XB1 is in any sort of bad position sales wise. I know a month or two ago it dropped by 50%, but they're still doing alright for the long term I'd think. This leans on desperation, especially after the promise of not having to own a Kinect with an XB1 anymore.

So I'm a weirdo that likes to download the MP3 files. I noticed with the last two episode that when I try downloading the download quickly slows to a crawl (like sub-dialup speed) and yet my bandwidth is 100% consumed (to the point of stopping other net-driven processes). Last week I just had to wait an hour or so after the file was available for download but today it still isn't budging.