Irishjohn

If you are interested in history on YouTube you might want to check History Respawned, too: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyx1mPZXobOxCyzO2CwmDZA Full disclosure/admission of cheekiness: I work on this series alongside its founder, and so am not really in a place to say if it's really cool or not. I'm proud of it, though.

Hello guys. The latest episode of History Respawned is up. I interviewed Dr. Jeff Wasserstrom and we talked about Bioshock Infinite and the Boxer Uprising. It was fun!

That's a real pity! Try and stick with it! It's a fantastic game. Having said that, I am very close to giving up on Assassin's Creed Black Flag. I'm not that far in, but I just ignored a mission to go off exploring and have fun, and when I logged back in the next day I was back at my checkpoint as if nothing had happened because I didn't plunder 70 metal. I am considering persevering, but Jesus Christ on a bike I find this infuriating. Maybe I've become more of a PC guy or maybe it's just that I don't have much time to play games but it really seems like Assassin's Creed games expect about twelve hours of tutorials before you're allowed to just play. It's very aggressive in laying out those parameters too. I just want to play a game. I gave up on Assassin's Creed III early despite the fact I was interested in the theme. May do the same thing with Black Flag, despite the potential promise of piracy.

Yeah, Dungeon of the Endless is pretty awesome. I have become a bit of a fan of Amplitude, which is the first time I've had a "favourite developer" in... a long time. They've had a pretty fantastic couple of years.

I still recall waiting for a train at the L near DePaul and hearing a couple of students complain about their game design professor having them read about and discuss ancient games and the evolution of chess. Seemed to me it was an interesting approach (though I wasn't in their class, I do know someone at DePaul that teaches that stuff; if it was the person I know the approach would have been very well thought out). In sports history, which I write about, the concept of "play" really comes into it when debating whether or not something is a sport. I really need to write an article on eSports soon, but in essence I find the question of what IS a sport, or a game, fascinating but I don't really care about what an outcome of such a debate would be. Basically, I want the debate because it gets us thinking, but the debate doesn't need a resolution. I actually did not like Gone Home all that much. I admired it, and I liked what it was doing. As a historian, in particular, I loved their recreation of a very specific 1990s vibe. I grew up in Ireland, not the Pacific Northwest, but that world-building felt very real to me. I just found the central story disappointing. However, the idea that Gone Home should be criticized because it's "not a game" (I know that's not being said here, but that narrative is unfortunately implicit when we bring up Gone Home as an example) is just plain silly. Yeah, also this. Homo Ludens is interesting. Also consider, although it's about sports specifically, From Ritual to Record by Allen Guttmann, particularly the introduction.

Played my first game in ages last night and had an obnoxious teammate that snuck in a weird insult as we were gging. Thanks, dude! On a related topic, I always appreciate someone taking the reins and giving people advice but I might start immediately muting people who single my character out and tell me to go mid or whatever. Despite all this guy's protestations, we were pretty useless at soaking and two near team wipes cost us the game. I read about people who love Dota 2 who just don't bother playing it with strangers. I might get to that point eventually with Lords Management.

Hey Vegas (and fellow Thumbs), I play sporadically but I'm on now and again. I like playing support but will play whatever. LawSheng#1739

So I broke a long run of pleasant or silent teammates last night. We had two guys doing the whole "STICK TOGETHER YOU IDIOTS" while running off on their own. I actually muted them both. Frankly, the team wasn't really coming together in that weird way pub groups sometimes do. Still, though, it doesn't help being chewed out by some dick who doesn't seem to understand that when I'm dead there's not a lot I can do to get to that boss.

Hey! Cool. Maybe on a weekend if you're up in the morning. I played a quick game with Bagelmage last night, we had fun. Part of the reason I've always been diffident about getting together online is that I tend to play in short bursts. Also why I quite like HoTS.

I'm LawSheng #1739. Just added a couple of you. I muck around with dailies and I like playing support. Just had a close game a little while ago actually. Seems like I'm usually on a team stomping or a team being stomped but this went back and forth, swung from two levels behind to one level up, and both teams were in the 20+ range with some really fun teamfights. We lost in the end, but it was pretty great. One tiny thing that might have been mentioned before: HoTS is usually unobjectionable but now and again I play with nice people, and it's a bummer there's no little mini-lobby after you win or lose just to write "that was close!" or "to be fair, I have no fucking idea what we were doing and I say that as someone that was clearly part of the problem" or things like that.

That was me! I was actually being harsh, as an inexperienced player I actually like the laning phase. I'm not making the most of it I'm sure (I'm looking forward to watching that video) but I at least feel I can be of some help to the team (hold off the other team, not feed). Thank God no one buys wards. That's a step too far for me at the moment. I actually thought if I bought an item then nobody else could. That's how little I know. Thanks, that's a good idea. I am very weird about that. I need to just be nice to people and chat to them. I am weirdly awkwardly nervous about text conversations with strangers.

The forum changed my use of Lords Management to Lords Management, hence the "Lords Managements" above. I didn't realize that was happening. Awesome. EDIT: Obviously I can't make my point because it won't let me write out the incorrect four letter acronym that begins with m.

That's really good to hear. Actually, when I had my little burst of ten games last year I was really very surprised at how little crap I got. The only time I've received the sustained awfulness people talk about in Lords Managements was during a short stint with Heroes of Newerth quite a few years ago. I do use the recommended list, but I get nervous about taking something someone else might actually be able to use. Stuff that has charges and needs to be paid attention to seems like a lot to keep track of, but I am cool with Mekanism and stuff like that with a useful active. I also like playing as a healer in these games. HoTS is actually taking up a bunch of time now. The daily quests that push you to play different roles work really well. Cheers, I'll have a look, thanks! You guys are making me want to play more DOTA.

No, it's pretty coherent. I found it helpful!

I love the list of matches, I was watching a lot of competitive SC2 about four years ago but these days I'm completely out of the loop. Nice to have some links to games worth watching.

Yeah, I have a lot of fun with HoTS that way too. I don't really like being told I'm an idiot and that I'm ruining the game for everyone. Having said that, my limited DOTA experience was helpful with the one regular idiot HoTS player, that staple of the genre: the guy who keeps dying and then complains nobody is helping him. I love Li Li, she's great. She's very simple (only one basic attack even needs a target) but she can be very useful and you can get your licks in. Also, Shrink Ray is awesome. I was playing some Kerrigan the other day for a daily and after having some trouble with her I found her to be lots of fun. I've only ever played support in these types of games, but she seemed a bit "carry-ish" from how I understand that role... she dies very easily early on but once you're past level 10 and she has an ultimate she can tear things up.

I have been playing HoTS the last couple of weeks and really enjoying it. Last year I played a bit of DOTA 2 and liked it but it was just so time consuming. I don't have the gaming habits I used to; I'm a dad and I just don't have all that much time to play unfortunately. I did boot up DOTA 2 the other night and man, I had forgotten how many dickheads play that game and hang out in the limited player pool giving new people shit. I still had fun, though after HoTS the laning just seemed so superfluous! Completely different games of course. For me, knowing a game will almost certainly wrap up in 25 minutes and often less is huge. Real life affecting my gaming habits. The DOTA 2 itch won't die either... who knows. Maybe I'll end up getting to the same point in terms of finding it limiting and I'll become the 3 match/week DOTA 2 player I was always meant to be.

So last night I played my first game in a year, and it was interesting. One guy was very friendly. He had tried to start a chat in the lobby and I had joked with him that my only real goal was not to feed. He was chilled out. No one else says anything. We start the game, and things get rolling. Turns out the friendly guy is using voice chat (I don't use it). Thanks me for grabbing the courier, seems like a nice, polite dude. After a few minutes it becomes apparent the person playing Sven is either insane or doesn't know how to play Dota. Like, at all. He is just running deep into enemy territory and getting destroyed. He comes on voice chat and it's apparent he's about twelve. He also owns up to it being his first game. I should probably point out at this point it's the Limited Player pool, which I understood as being newbie-friendly. Meanwhile, the remaining two players are giving him horrendous shit that doesn't ease up after it's obvious he's a kid and after he shares that it's his first game. Go play the tutorial, we'd be better off with a bot, just quit, that kind of thing. After a while the Bounty Hunter (who is the best player on the team but deeply unpleasant) starts giving me grief for having terrible gear. I have no idea what to buy and know so little about items I'm scared of taking something that should go to someone else. I have Mekanism and Aghanim's Scepter. I'm also at this point wondering why I liked Warlock so much last year... I'm not sure I'm helping, I just gank a dude with a golem every now and again and otherwise try not to feed. We manage a couple of pushes here and there, despite Bounty Hunter rather hilariously saying things like "WE NEED TO PUSH" and then not answering queries as to where we should push and going off on his own instead. Meanwhile the fifth player, who is not quite a big a jerk as Bounty Hunter but basically feels the need to pile on is passively aggressively wandering the jungle and not helping. We win the game. It was the most Dota Dota that I've Dota'd, I think. I like the game a lot but this experience just makes me want to go back to HoTS. I'd have finished two, maybe three HoTS games in the time the Dota game took (it went almost an hour) and people there are actually reasonably nice. Who knows.

I had a run last year where I played about ten games, and I never got any good but I DID get better at not dying. I'm sorely tempted to get back into Dota if I can find the time. I've been playing plenty of HoTS, and I like it, but Dota is really good. I would just need to get back into my pub player vibe of "I'm not going to communicate a bunch but I'll try and be a good team player and mostly I'll do my utmost not to feed the whole time."

Hey all, People were beginning to share Steam IDs in the Spelunky thread in the main forum so I thought maybe we could move that sharing here and maybe draw in some more people. I am terrible at this game but I love it, and I have been doing the Daily Challenge regularly. Steam ID is Irishjohn (I'm in the Thumbs group as well).

So, the rumours suddenly gathered an awful lot more momentum: http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console What do you guys think? PC Gaming for babies? Babies like me, I must admit. I love the idea, if it can work. Would PC developers really settle into three to four year benchmarks though?

I agree, it's a double edged sword. There is stuff being written that isn't.... well it isn't all that good. We're in a weird space now, too, where you have a semi-academic field gathering on the edges of popular writing on video games. In theory this fits into open source journals and the like, but in practice there are plenty of pitfalls. On the other hand... DIGITAL HUMANITIES is a nebulous idea showing up in academic CVs all over the country. I've never considered myself active in digital humanities but here I am, getting involved. Mainly because I like video games and want to talk about them, and I am a historian and so there are certain things I want to write about. Also, there are certain things I'm trained to write about. You need both of those things, to start. I've had the same experience talking about GG in with scholars interested in popular culture. It's a fascinating manifestation of dynamics and conflicts we see in plenty of other areas of our society.

I couldn't possibly argue that it's not destructive (and horrifying). It IS related, though, to the place games hold in our society, their value within popular culture, conceptions of relations between individuals and groups, representations of race, religion, language.... We have barely started utilizing video games as part of cultural study in the manner that we do film and music (themselves fields with acres of space to grow). I'm an historian, and historians are only really beginning to get into games now. The archaeological interest in games has gotten a lot of press recently, but it's one facet of a wider spectrum. What work has been done has been led by people interested in narratology, the activity of play as an aspect of personal/social experience and so on. There's TONS left! Anyway, none of this is to be snarky. I completely understand where you're coming from, and we had the conversation much earlier in this thread about GG allowing people that don't like games anyway to just write them off, but I do believe strongly the field is growing.