ewokskick

I totally agree with you about how that article was ineffective. Which is kind of shocking given how easy of a target that book is. I don't want to psychoanalyze the author, but it almost feels like she should have been more confident in her core argument. It would certainly stand on it's own better than this "more thorough" piece that includes minutiae, questionable arguments, and tangents. I don't think I agree with the argument that she is an Exceptional Woman Character in the movie. She isn't exceptional with regards to being the lone woman who fights in the movie. There is literally a biker gang of woman and most of the wives do cool action-y stuff too. Regardless, the original article uses that trope incorrectly. It's supposed to refer to a woman who is cool because she acts "like one of the guys," but is still sexy feminine. Such as most romantic interests in male-driven comedies. It's problematic not because it portrays a woman as being exceptional. I don't even get why that would be bad. The Exceptional Woman Character trope in it's proper usage is bad because it carries within it the assumption that woman should confirm bodily to male desires and that they should value male friendship and affection more than self worth or female friendship. Here is the article that coins the term (or at least claims to). It's not very good, tbh: http://bitchmagazine.org/post/name-that-trope-the-super-hot-bro-girl

Actually the new meta tends to end a bit faster than the last meta because they nerfed comeback gold. Either way, 40+ minute games are pretty normal. I'll say this, one thing I've learned is that if your team is wondering around doing nothing while your carry farms you can buy a smoke of deceit. For some reason, pub teams instantly group up with you ping a smoke and are impossible to group up without one. So I recommend buying them and invading their jungle or somewhere you think you can find someone to pick off. The other thing you can do if you want faster games it to pick a pushing hero. Just get a pugna and force towers or something. Also, don't take this the wrong way, but if you feel like you're not doing anything it's probably because you don't know what you should be doing. I am guessing it has a lot to do with getting back into the swing of things after time off. Also, coming from HotS where you should pretty much always be doing objectives DotA is a lot less guided. As a support you can either be ganking in lane, pulling, playing lane support, jungling, stacking, grabbing runes. Then mid game, you can think about grabbing a lane when a core goes into the jungle or trying to coordinate smoke ganks. As a core, you generally need to get a couple items then you can fight or if you're a late game carry you can just get farming items. Either way, there is an awful lot you could be doing to make your team win. Personally, I much prefer it to the 20 minute HotS game where you basically just fight over an objective then whoever wins that fight wins the game. To me, the freedom that DotA provides makes it a lot more appealing than HotS. However, HotS is a very simple and clear experience. You always know what to do and it doesn't require much investment. I think that's an okay design philosophy even though in practice I don't have any fun with HotS.

That book is so beautifully written and illustrated. I love it. Seriously. I don't even know what to believe.

There is too much dota going on right now. With MLG X-games and MarsTV most of the best teams in the world are playing right now.

10 years since show

I really like that they are experimenting with the genre. It really is a unique experience in a genre with a bunch of dota clones. Personally, I didn't enjoy what I played very much, but I am glad it is going after a niche that isn't already well covered by LoL and Dota.

Yeah that whole bit about how he is so cool because he just wants to talk about the Phillipines was pretty revealing I think. I liked it because it helped his character shine through (even if it was pretty cringe worthy). He is clearly very interested in people seeing him as cultured and serious. I'm glad that was a part of the piece because it helped make me give context to his experience. It also sort of brought me back to how I acted and felt about a lot things in my teen years and early twenties. Regardless, I completley understand why someone would be totally put off by it. It is kind of up it's own ass in some ways. I just appreciate that it has a voice and perspective at all.

My predictions were all terrible. Gotta love Dota. It's full of surprises. I feel bad for Rave, but otherwise, I am pretty happy about most of the outcomes of the qualifiers.

Everything would be better if game previews stopped existing. They are useless. I actually enjoyed that quite a bit more than a normal preview. It certainly made the article about the author more than the game, but given how vacuous and boring most previews are that actually an improvement to me. In a way this was more informative than a normal preview because at least some authentic game experience was described. I think if people weren't so used to by the numbers press release previews no one would be upset about this. It just stands out because it isn't a check list of features and breathless hype.

I'd be mad too. Imagine having to take care of a drunk Mason.

More importantly, was Puppey wearing sweatpants?

I wish I lived in Portland so I could go fanboy to Michael Fiffe. I love Copra. This article by one of my friends does a pretty good job explaining some of the ways it is brilliant. http://infinitecomix.com/12th-level-intellect-copra-1-legacy-of-the-suicide-squad/

A very good book. If we ignore Shadowland, Daredevil probably has the longest continuous run of brilliance in superhero comics.

I completely agree. It's been a real pleasure to read. I was worried during the whole first arc that the books was just going to be Jason Aaron does Walking Tall. I was so glad about how wrong I was. Now, with Boss's story arc I'm starting to see the parallels with Scalped. It's beginning to tell a deep intergenerational story of a place.

You should watch an AUI replay analysis. He basically loses his train of thought every other sentence. He's kind of a savant. He'll say brilliant stuff one moment and then stumble over his words the next. Overall, I think that part of aui came through. I think they got some honest insight from him. I do think the episode would have been a little better if it was released closer to the end of DAC when it was recorded. Either way, I think Aui said a lot of interesting stuff for people who follow competitive dota. Edit: I do think the blitz interview was a bit better, but Blitz just seems like the kind of guy who really wants to tell you all his amazing stories. He's probably an interviewer's dream.

I agree about the qualifiers. I think Dreamhack has the best solution to this (after being the worst offender last season). They have 3 categories for teams. Those directly invited, those who are invited the qualifier finals, and an open qualifier. To me that makes the most sense because it gives new teams a chance still without making established teams play through a full open/semi-open qualifier.

It's so good. Aui_2cozy is pretty great. It's interesting hearing about the intense atmosphere of C9 vs the more casual atmosphere of EG.

That's what you get for picking against OU. Edit: actually it's historically a good idea to pick against OU. :/

Absolutely for me. My dad took me to OU football and basketball games growing up. He also caused me to root for Cleveland pro sports.

KU has been dodging WSU for years. I'm sure they played with a huge chip on their shoulder. Either way, KU had another good season with another regular season title. No shame in that. As an OU fan I definitely still think KU are the big dogs in the conference and will be next season as well. I'm just glad OU managed to make it past Dayton. It's our first Sweet 16 since Blake Griffin was here. The last time we played MSU in the Sweet 16 they beat us. It could happen against. Mich St is so good in the NCAA.

Wow. That was racist. Edit: that battletoads one cracked me up.

You win.

At about 32 minutes, Nick says that because Notch made Minecraft he should be basically immune to criticism about his vane opulent consumerism. I don't want to jump on Nick for that (okay I do, but I won't). Instead, I just want to point out the perniciousness of that idea. I also think that the idea of hyper-wealthy people being honored for their charity donations is pretty problematic. Take the most famous case of Andrew Carnegie who was one of the most violently exploitative capitalists in American history. Today we celebrate him for giving some of his wealth to self-honorific charities and foundations. Yet, his and his peer's labor exploitation create a permanent lower-class whose needs can never be solved by his charity. The same process is occuring now. You can read about the autrocious labor conditions and wages given to workers at microsoft's contract factories or read about how the rare metals needed for their consumer products fuel conflicts. Yet we celebrate Bill Gates as a humanitarian. In my opinion, the super wealthy shouldn't be honored for giving to charity, we should consider it the very least they can do to recompense for the exploitative system that they are benefitting from.

https://www.idlethumbs.net/dotatoday/episodes/with-blitz/ Great episode. Anyone have thought?