Skye

Remind me never to talk about balance ever again.

Guess what I just got caught up to! Spoiler I need another break.

Aaaargh, was coming here to post that. Yeah, it's a channel for non-gaming shenanigans or editing-related nonsense. Right now, it's got stuff like the Grumps eating Harry Potter's Every-Flavour Beans and a huge-ass editing tutorial by Barry (which I'm drinking in every second of.) Spoiler Danny's reaction to the beans are priceless.

Blizzard has never been good with balance. Like how the nerfed Murky to the point where he's completely useless. If I believed what other people told me all the time, nobody is good with balance. When you think about it, I can't think of a single developer that's praised for their balance skills. And I feel Murky is the exception to the rule, when a majority of the game - the beta of the game - feels more balanced than a finished Valve product at this point...

Blizzard made a blog post about how they balance for Heroes of the Storm. Thought it was an interesting read.

Watched Medabots, since I missed it during my childhood. It has very much aged, but I liked it - the core concept and the charm to the whole thing. I think a reboot could be amazing, with modern-day animation and superior voice acting (since back in those days it was all very 4Kids style) and it could incorporate more modern-day elements (like the Internet, illegal robotics, etc.)

Linkara made a video on how to transfer Pokemon from Gen 2 to Gen 3 as legitimately as possible (as in minimal use of external tools - still needs ROMs, I believe.) It's Patreon-only, but it's an interesting watch for those who wanted their Gold and Silver bros in the modern day. I'm sure there's other guides available online, too. EDIT: Ah, he's popped it up for everyone to see.

Please don't play School of Dragons. Please don't.

Skye invites you to be his guest as he tells you the tale of Belle's Quest - for who could ever love an Englishman?

I'd be excited to see Zim again as a comic book series. I don't think it's the amazing perfection that most people remember it as, but in today's market, it'd be strong with its, you know, "quirkiness." It could push the envelope more than it could with early-2000s syndicated television shackling it, since with comics, there's usually less restrictions (by comparison, at least.)

Teaser for a new map. I like it. Has that sort of Hydro aesthetic I liked, but with a bit more colour to it (rather than lots of red rock.) Of note, March 6 to March 8 is also the date assigned for PAX East. Coincidence?

Tried FMA again, this time the Brotherhood one. Quite better in most regards, though it made me have to take a break by episode 4 - the one with the Sewing-Life Alchemist, Shou Tucker, and his daughter and dog. Spoiler I really liked his daughter, Nina, for being quite adorable in every way, and for being a realistic depiction of a young child. Happy, energetic, and just all around pleasant. And then I saw the chimera and the pieces starting together. It was quite disturbing for me, and it was hard to focus when I wanted to do many awful things to Mr. Tucker. In case it was unclear, hurting children is my "button". Bonus points for hurting an animal, too. I got pretty enraged for a moment. The ending with both of them being murdered was also quite horrific. "Daddy..." Ouch. Wasn't ready for a trip down dark and gritty lane so fast. And I have no doubts that this wasn't even a taste of how morbid things might get. Still, from an objective standpoint, very well-told macabre story there.

So it appears that the whole deal with this event - the event that is causing the DOTA network to, once again, collapse in on itself and fold like a piece of paper - is you upgrade the Year Beast with points. Points that you can buy. This is paying for power, it's just undeniable. I am getting very uncomfortable with Valve's decisions recently. Almost all items are now unmarketable and/or have some three month "lock" on them before you can trade or market them, the events are being linked with cosmetic bundles where you have to spend at least twenty dollars to get the full enjoyment of it, organisation is awful with events being "randomly" at ten minute intervals (so if you ever need to work or study or basically have a life, you're going to miss them), reports are getting more and more sparse with the penalty now ruining one of my favorite game modes, the quality threshold for cosmetics has been in sharp decline for a while and tournament bundles / Perfect World continue to get a free pass with low-poly awfulness, aaaaaand nerfs to Axe. I mean, wow, I'm Captain Cynical right now, but I'm getting less and less enthusiastic about DOTA now. If it wasn't for how tight and great the gameplay was, and how amazing it was as an e-sport, I'd probably just play Heroes of the Storm more often (which uses hero rotation, something I dislike, and has basically no art style, but at least it's upfront about its paywalls instead of hiding them deviously.) What a rant. Bah. I just hate seeing things I like start sinking.