Cleinhun

I just played a game of All Random Deathmatch despite the fact that I was not attempting to queue for it and actually I didn't even know you could. For those that don't know, it's all random, but whenever you die you get a new random hero with the same items and xp. I was Necrophos/Juggernaut/Venomancer so I just got Aghanim's, and then we wiped their team without losing anyone and snowballed from there. It's not quite as silly as ability draft, but I think it will go in the same space of modes I play when I want to play dota without really playing dota.

To me, Splatoon seems like an indie game from 2007, but with a budget and design experience behind it. The fact that it's being made by Nintendo would probably also solve the biggest problem indie multiplayer games from 2007 had, which is that only 10 people ever knew about them so you couldn't actually play.

Team Fortress 2 is dead. Long live Conga Line Fortress 2.

Can somebody explain to me why people seem so excited about Pac-Man being in this game? I've always thought that 3D Pac-Man looks kinda stupid since it's impossible to be as iconic as most of a circle if you have 3 dimensions. He's also not a character I think of as having signature fighting moves, or really any signature moves other than eating things.

I never but orb of venom, mostly because I don't usually play lords that want it, bit mostly because I always forget it exists.

I've always been a fan of the metroidvania style Zelda games have taken (as opposed to the explore-y openness the first one supposedly had) , which may or may not be an unpopular opinion, but it's certainly and uncommonly expressed one. That said, I'd be interested to see if they commit to full Skyrim-Zelda for this game, or if they do some weird hybrid thing. Stop making me want things that will never exist.

Jakiro is who I go to when I've been on a losing streak. He's pretty strong in a dual or tri lane, and he wins your team so many fights with his crazy aoe damage. Plus hitting people with ice path is one of the only things in dota that I'm good at.

And you are entitled to your incorrect opinion.

I voted that, yes, it is the greatest game. But I acknowledge that my reasoning is that when I was 13 it was the only game I had played that was great in the way that it is. Basically, it informed how I thought about games for most of my teen years, so I think of it as being the best game.

I am beginning to suspect that you and I are the only two people for whom this was true. I can't think of any other reason people would make such a big deal out of this. Also, did they really get rid of the 5 player disconnect thing? I assumed that was intentional, since it meant you could pretty much only surrender if you queued with 5, and I don't understand what the problem with that could be. Players surrender in tournaments all the time.

I also played LoL a few years ago, and that wasn't really my experience. I mean, yeah, it wasn't uncommon for somebody to get mad and call a surrender vote when the game was still winnable, but everyone else would vote against it, because people like winning. If I remember correctly it as actually more frustrating to pass a vote when you were clearly lost because of one guy who refuses to admit defeat. I don't want to say that your experience was wrong, maybe at your elo it was different. But when I played I don't remember it ever being a problem.

That is a can that contains more worms than I think you realize, but the short answer is that some people seem to think that teams will always surrender as soon as they start losing instead of trying for a comeback, despite there being no evidence that they would do this.

I just want to point out that seeing this in-game was the moment Waluigi became my favorite Nintendo character. It was just so far from anything I was expecting from a Mario game. Plus his special power in that game was summoning brambles or something absurd like that. Waluigi is the where Nintendo allows themselves to break convention and go full wildcard and I love it. I think that's why a Waluigi game is such a compelling idea, because what the fuck would it even be?

I don't think I'd characterize Wario or Waluigi as evil per se, they're just kind of assholes. They aren't really villainous the way bowser is. I think Wowzer would just be a different flavor of evil, like maybe he'd have a crazy mustache and a tophat.

I'm actually pretty sure Lula Chamberlain was not a real person. The gallery showing was by the creators of KR0 and presented as though it were by this fictional character. Look at this, it claims "The Entertainment" is a combination of two plays by Lem Doolittle, but as far as I can tell, Lem is not a real person either. If someone can find evidence that Lula or Lem existing prior to 2013, then maybe they were real, but it looks to me like Cardboard Computer are presenting fiction as reality here.

This is a good point, I hadn't thought about that. I want to say that I think this is also why Jazzpunk works for me. The reason there's a wrench that makes the Vigilante 8 sound when you pick it up isn't because that's an especially funny joke, it's there because a weird goofy thing is better than an empty parking lot.

Would you still consider it a "token of affection" if it's used as part of a joke, so long as the punchline still exists without the reference? That way, the reference is just a bonus for those in the know. Also, are you saying the thumbs references in GH weren't funny? Because I think it still counts as a joke even if it wouldn't read as one to someone unfamiliar with phaedrus. Edit: I do agree that referential jokes usually don't work very well, especially if 100% of the joke is that it's like this thing you heard of. I just don't think we should be so quick to write it off in any authored material.

Chris and especially Sean seemed pretty against the idea of referential humor in general, but I think it can be done well. If you guys ever have Zach on the podcast again, you should bring it up, he seems like someone who thinks a lot about why things are funny, and KoL has a lot of what I think of as referential jokes.

That's true, but that also isn't exactly why he's a strong hero. His primary strength is that he wins lanes, especially solo lanes. The spamable orb is part of that, but so is his prison, which can prevent an opponent from getting a last hit, or make them lose mana, or save you from a gank. And more importantly, a non player probably doesn't understand what "winning a lane" means, or how that factors in to the game at large.

To sidestep this a little bit, I'm not sure that having access to ability descriptions would even be all that useful to a player unfamiliar with the game. For some heroes, like Lina it's probably easy enough to understand that she shoots fire at people until they are dead, but how is a non player supposed to understand why OD is good just from reading his spells?

I don't even slightly understand how the fantasy league thing works, but I guess I'd join a thumbs league if someone could explain what that means.

I just finished the episode, so my brain hasn't really had enough time to fully form opinions yet, but these are my thoughts as of now I'll probably come back to this once I've put my thought together better and/or remember more things.

I think the concede option is useful for situations where you know for sure you are going to lose, such as when they kill your taunt dude with a spell, but you still have to wait for all the minions to attack.

I played a couple games against the AI, and it seems like there is some potentially interesting things going on in this game. The problem I'm having is that I feel like I can't easily determine the relative power of cards. Even the "vanilla" creatures are actually 3 creatures, but even ignoring that, the numbers are big enough that it's harder to directly compare them than it is in MTG or similar (it's easier to compare a 3/3 and a 2/5 than it is to compare a 8/8 and a 13/6). The upshot of this is I'm hesitant to play vs randos online because I don't want to be stomped by anyone who actually knows how the game works, and the AI doesn't seem very good. If anybody is in a similar position, maybe add me on steam (my steam name is also cleinhun) and we can help eachother figure it out?

I've been playing a lot of "that other" f2p CCG, and I also played a bunch of Card Hunter a couple months ago, so I'm gonna check this out after work.