Category: General

General

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Black Widow OP

I have been playing Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign. Black Widow is an unexpectedly amazing support hero to have on your team throughout the early and mid-game. Marvel Puzzle Quest effectively uses health as an energy mechanic. Therefore, healing and damage reduction are really great things to have: they let you win the round and then they let you play more rounds.

Marvel Puzzle Quest rates its heroes by stars, with more stars meaning a rarer, more expensive, and usually better hero (and they have higher level caps). Black Widow is available in one-star (modern costume), two-star (original costume), and three-star (gray suit) versions. You cannot have more than one of the same character on your team.

Modern Black Widow comes with a great stun. Once you fully upgrade it, it stuns one target for 5 turns and the rest of their team for 1 turn. It costs 9 blue, which is three blue matches, so you can potentially keep someone stunned indefinitely if blues keep falling. This is especially great because of the game’s tendency to have asynchronous PvP rounds with one super-buffed NPC on your side. Have the NPC tank and deal damage, pick off the opposing non-buffed characters, then paralyze the enemy for the rest of the fight.

When you advance to two-star play, the new Black Widow has a heal instead of a stun (that also increases timers, mostly a PvE benefit). The heal affects your whole team, and it is rather strong. Marvel Puzzle Quest recently did an event with super-buffed Black Widows, so one heal effectively refilled your entire team. This is especially great because you can pick which of the enemy you are targeting, while which hero is tanking for you is dependent on what colors you match. You can spread the damage around your team and pop the big AE heal just before finishing off the last enemy.

Once you get to three stars, Spider-Man takes both support roles with both a stun and a heal (and a defense buff), while gray suit Widow is a damage dealer. Building a good Spider-Man looks like one of the milestones on your path to the endgame. Damage gives big, sexy numbers, but support wins games and wins the war.

: Zubon

“A Good Fight” Part 2

A good fight brings evenly matched opponents together in an environment where superior skill will prevail. If one side is obviously going to win, no matter what the other side does, it is not a good fight. If randomness prevails, it is not a good fight.

I would not demand that it be a fair fight. Luring your enemy into a situation where they are going to lose is an element of superior skill. Setting up a good ambush takes skill, as does understanding the meta-game to counter-build. It can also be a component of a good environment that one tactic is favored in A while another is favored in B. It is a bad game environment if ambushes always lead to victory or one class has no chance in A but will always win in B.

I think “evenly matched” is the key component to discuss here, and the two major components are quantity and quality. Continue reading “A Good Fight” Part 2

MMO Player vs. Assassin’s Creed

I have completed 4 games in the Assassin’s Creed series. I did not get all the flags in Assassin’s Creed 1, but I achieved 100% in Assassin’s Creed 2 and direct sequels. Assassin’s Creed 1 had some progression in that each chapter I got an upgrade, and the more objectives I completed the higher my health (to a cap). It was rather slight all told. Assassin’s Creed 2 had a much more varied progression, and it went up to what felt like a lot of progression in Ezio’s finale in Revelations. And, I’m not sure I played it as intended. Continue reading MMO Player vs. Assassin’s Creed

[GW2] Fractured Storytime

With the Guild Wars 2 Fractals update, there is also a bit of the Living World going on. The first time players enter the Mistlock Observatory (fractals hub) they get to go in to story mode to experience the new Thaumanova fractal. It’s story mode because Kiel attempts to commandeer Mistlock Observatory and make Dessa use the technology to figure things out. Story spoilers abound beyond.

The fractal itself, even though I have only done story mode, is well-designed. It’s a big puzzle that is mostly combat light. The goal is to cool down or shut off the Thaumanova reactor, which is being invaded by Scarlet’s (proto-?) armies. The end boss is an anomaly, which appears to be a godlike energy being. The fight is all about keeping as much of the disappearing platform available as possible as players get hit with the energy and cause the platforms beneath their feet to disappear for a short time. Spreading out is the key tactic. I think I will enjoy it as part of the Fractals lineup.

However, as far as the story instance goes… it was a mess. I will give a nod to the pain caused by a bug, which prevented wiped parties from reviving, but only a quick one because this bug has been fixed. Otherwise, it was really tough to get pieces of the story. Here we are in a puzzle dungeon that we’ve never played before, and story dialogue is happening while we are racking our brains with in-game mechanics. Who knows how much conversation I missed. Continue reading [GW2] Fractured Storytime

Adaptation

High self-monitors are social chameleons. They ask themselves, “Who does this situation call for me to be?” Low self-monitors have a more fixed self-image, instead asking, “How can I be myself in this situation?” Low-self monitors are prone to see high self-monitors as two-faced and inconsistent, while high self-monitors may see low self-monitors as social incompetents. You probably know some people who could get along just as well in a biker bar as at high tea, and then others who are very good in their comfort zone but completely inappropriate outside it.

I found myself thinking of this in a gaming context based on how people adapt to their circumstances. Loosely, “how can I play my character in this situation?” versus “what does this situation call for?” I think we all want players to display some adaptability, but the range of what you think is reasonable for a game to demand probably varies in a way similar to degrees of self-monitoring. People with lots of alts are generally displaying more adaptability, but people with three alts of the same class (“Alice runs dungeons, Bob is my crafter, and Cindy PvPs”) are adapting on a different scale than someone who feels comfortable respecing the one character four times in a night.
Continue reading Adaptation

Impairment

Why is it okay to play multiplayer online games in a state too impaired to play well, when you would be slapped and sent away for doing it in meatspace?

If it is your own group of friends, and you all know you’re messing around, that seems fine. You all implicitly agreed on the level of play, and you had disclosure up front of who was drunk. When you play with strangers, that is the equivalent of joining the local pickup basketball game or sitting down to play chess in the park. If you are too drunk to make a shot, you will be forcibly removed from the game. Even chess players may get violent if you get a dozen moves in and then decide to giggle about horsies and how high you are instead of making a move.

In online gaming, people queue up or LFG while too drunk to realize that it is a bad idea to talk about how drunk they are. That’s not quite true; they have enough restraint left to avoid mentioning it until you are committed. It is a rare group that advertises “drunk DPS seeks understanding tank and healer to carry him.” League of Legends players wait until they die a few times to start talking about how high they are, rather than mentioning it during champion select. And they generally have enough sense left to pick a system like LoL’s where you cannot avoid with their choice to ruin your game without suffering some punishment or significant inconvenience. After all, the joke’s not funny if you don’t have anyone to play the joke on.

The usual refrain at that point is “it’s just a game.” But no, most people have the good sense not to do that where other people are in physical proximity, so they know it is not socially acceptable. Except apparently it is socially acceptable, because very few people seem to attach any stigma to it, and the drunk troll is not the only one who will go with “it’s just a game.” So maybe it’s me, but I cannot see an ethical system that supports making a negligent, unilateral decision that worsens the entertainment of most people around you.

: Zubon