Virgil Stoneblade was an aged gambler and drunkard who took a fickle shine to Varyn. On good days he would teach him games of chance over cheese and crackers or how to recognize or manipulate odds into your favor. On bad days, the salty old drunk might throw you out with a new bruise across your jaw or a slight limp. On one particularly cloudy day, Varyn seeks out Virgil and finds him in a darkened corner of his favorite (i.e. cheapest) watering hole with a knife in his side. Before the normal bar-flies and crowd take notice, however, Varyn pockets the Dwarf's purse which was always kept off his body but within reach. This was a typical habit for the gambler that was enacted when or where markers might be called in.
Virgil was an older Dwarf, well past the comfortable 250 years where many still worked on or near the docks. He wasn't precisely lame, but he did use a short stick to help steady himself as he walked about town. It was even money whether this was for some physical ailment or his massive consumption. Out on the streets of Bruinstead, you never saw him without a small knit cap; faded and worn, it had seen a fair number of winters itself. Mind you, the second he crossed a threshold it surreptitiously appeared in his coat pocket, exposing his deep asymmetric widow's peaks and what remained of his thinning silver mane straining forward that it might tickle his forehead. His eyes were somewhat sunken into their sockets, but that gave his gold-rimmed eyes a noted glimmer when he spoke excitedly. He held a broad flat nose, much like the rest of his kin, with invisible scars from past breakings. He kept a modified cut of his facial hair, a callback to his time on the sea. Feathery mutton chops laid beneath a voluminous, bushy mustache, the vast majority of which matched his silver tresses, or what was left of them, save his unkempt eyebrows and an odd swath of color running down each cheek which resonated with a youthful brindle hue. If ever he rambled on for more than a few words the mustache appeared to be trying to loose his lips from the rest of his head like scissors, but with the aid of his dimples gave the impression of a flume-operated pipe when he smoked.
The pipe itself was a quaint little thing. Obviously made from a hollowed out claw, the origin of which often changed to suit the most recent rendition of stories that spewed forth on pleasant, mead-laden nights. Virgil was a philosopher with a caustic wit which brought smiles all-around and often, but kept friends few and far between. He rarely got too specific about his role aboard and abroad, but he was old sea dog at heart and could spin a clever a yarn as any decent bard. Additionally Virgil kept his namesake, a large Bowie-sized stone knife with a driftwood handle in a shoulder strap beneath his left arm. Dice and cards were among his most fond games, but rarely did he turn away from fiddling with chance. He was a friendly gentleman, if a nervous sort, but ambidextrously deadly from across the room with a dagger (or dart as the case may be). Often uttering unique colloquialisms when he expressed himself there, "Quit monkeying with the drift wood (discard pile)" or spewing awkward, personal entreatments to Bahamut (this realm's Luck deity).
((Visually think of a stocky Yosemite Sam, with the temperament of Doc Holliday))
Virgil's Stone Blade is above-sized for a dagger, but not quite large enough to be considered a short sword, so it uses a 1d5 or 1/2(1d10) when calculating damage. (doubtful will ever come up)
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Varyn, Half-Orc Barbarian
**Updated with expanded material about NPCs**
Name: Varyn (Last Name Unknown) [Wrenwing]
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Barbarian
System: D&D 5E, but Homebrewed World
Descriptive References: Pirates, Vikings, Norse, land & naval encounters, etc
Personality Trait - I sleep with my back to a wall, all I own is wrapped in a bundle in my arms.
Ideals - Community. We have to take care of each other, because no one else is going to do it.
Bonds - I owe a debt I can never repay to the person who took pity on me.
Flaws - It's not stealing if I need It more than someone else.
Backstory (modified Urchin BG):
Orphaned at 10, Varyn grew up on the streets. Few if any ever acknowledged his presence unless he got in their way. He had no one to watch over or to provide for him, so he learned to provide for himself. He fought fiercely over food and kept a constant watch out for other desperate souls who might steal from him. Varyn slept on rooftops and in alleyways, exposed to the elements, and endured sickness without the advantage of medicine or a place to recuperate. He's survived despite all odds, and did so through cunning, strength, speed, or some combination of each.
Unknown (Father) Male Orc. Has never been regarded by name (to Varyn's knowledge), always refered to as "your father" by his mother. His handwriting is assumed to be the author of the note (below) concerning the scabbard. Unsure whether anyone in town knows.**
Marin (Mother) Human Female. After [whatever happened with father], she carves out a sparse living as a seamstress/washer-woman/thatcher. Some of her duties aside from child-rearing included darning socks, re-stitching the occasional sail or net, clean or create garments as needed by the community. As such she taught Varyn some basic sewing so he could repair simple tears and replace buttons. Died in a house-fire when Varyn was 10 years old.** After the fire, one of the few things recovered was an ornate scabbard (trinket/background item) and note wrapped in burlap and concealed within the floorboards in his mother's room.
[Note]** No person's names are mentioned specifically, but they give reference to this scabbard being held secret until called upon. Additional fluff leads Varyn to suspect that it was penned by his father and the scabbard itself may be more important than just a source of quick pawn-money. The letter is signed not with a signature but by a blue wax seal emblazoned at the bottom of a stylized raven inscribed with the word 'Wrenwing,' presumably from a signet ring or stamp.
Otherwise he's pulled the odd jobs or favors for the townsfolk, whether too old or timid to raid properly, so most everyone knows who he is if nothing else -- "a strong, young back that'll do much for little." (generic racial or derogatory names akin to 'sport' 'kid' etc are popular). Most make small chat about the weather and current on-goings as you imagine they have little to no visitors otherwise. The uncommon "warrior-that-survives-to-old-age" always asks why you're not raiding with the other young me, etc. (motivation to enlist).
Osvin (Pet) Red Squirrel with Black-tipped ears. Found injured by Varyn one evening hiding from an owl, nursed back and now his companion. Usually hangs out beneath his tunic's collar.
Virgil Stoneblade (Mentor) Male Dwarf.
^^See related post
Name: Varyn (Last Name Unknown) [Wrenwing]
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Barbarian
System: D&D 5E, but Homebrewed World
Descriptive References: Pirates, Vikings, Norse, land & naval encounters, etc
Personality Trait - I sleep with my back to a wall, all I own is wrapped in a bundle in my arms.
Ideals - Community. We have to take care of each other, because no one else is going to do it.
Bonds - I owe a debt I can never repay to the person who took pity on me.
Flaws - It's not stealing if I need It more than someone else.
Backstory (modified Urchin BG):
Orphaned at 10, Varyn grew up on the streets. Few if any ever acknowledged his presence unless he got in their way. He had no one to watch over or to provide for him, so he learned to provide for himself. He fought fiercely over food and kept a constant watch out for other desperate souls who might steal from him. Varyn slept on rooftops and in alleyways, exposed to the elements, and endured sickness without the advantage of medicine or a place to recuperate. He's survived despite all odds, and did so through cunning, strength, speed, or some combination of each.
Unknown (Father) Male Orc. Has never been regarded by name (to Varyn's knowledge), always refered to as "your father" by his mother. His handwriting is assumed to be the author of the note (below) concerning the scabbard. Unsure whether anyone in town knows.**
Marin (Mother) Human Female. After [whatever happened with father], she carves out a sparse living as a seamstress/washer-woman/thatcher. Some of her duties aside from child-rearing included darning socks, re-stitching the occasional sail or net, clean or create garments as needed by the community. As such she taught Varyn some basic sewing so he could repair simple tears and replace buttons. Died in a house-fire when Varyn was 10 years old.** After the fire, one of the few things recovered was an ornate scabbard (trinket/background item) and note wrapped in burlap and concealed within the floorboards in his mother's room.
[Note]** No person's names are mentioned specifically, but they give reference to this scabbard being held secret until called upon. Additional fluff leads Varyn to suspect that it was penned by his father and the scabbard itself may be more important than just a source of quick pawn-money. The letter is signed not with a signature but by a blue wax seal emblazoned at the bottom of a stylized raven inscribed with the word 'Wrenwing,' presumably from a signet ring or stamp.
Otherwise he's pulled the odd jobs or favors for the townsfolk, whether too old or timid to raid properly, so most everyone knows who he is if nothing else -- "a strong, young back that'll do much for little." (generic racial or derogatory names akin to 'sport' 'kid' etc are popular). Most make small chat about the weather and current on-goings as you imagine they have little to no visitors otherwise. The uncommon "warrior-that-survives-to-old-age" always asks why you're not raiding with the other young me, etc. (motivation to enlist).
Osvin (Pet) Red Squirrel with Black-tipped ears. Found injured by Varyn one evening hiding from an owl, nursed back and now his companion. Usually hangs out beneath his tunic's collar.
Virgil Stoneblade (Mentor) Male Dwarf.
^^See related post
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Brief 5E Update
So my rpg table is finally returning to the fray as we tackle the 5E D&D. We will be running a homebrew version of the world my original DM created. Mid-Fantasy, non-gunpowder generic. The area and setting we will be interacting with is Norse/Viking based with more details to follow when we actually sit down in a few weeks. We did have a "session zero" where we discussed the setting and as a group attempted to build their characters and give our player input to the DM.
I will have his backstory and profile up as soon as we meet once due in most part to the fact that I have to balance my story along with the other 3 players and has to fit within the DM's idea of the realm. Basically whatever gets approved will be posted.
What I can tell you is my rolls:
Half-Orc
Barbarian
15-15-13-13-9 (4d6, drop lowest rolls)
I'm excited guys. :D
I will have his backstory and profile up as soon as we meet once due in most part to the fact that I have to balance my story along with the other 3 players and has to fit within the DM's idea of the realm. Basically whatever gets approved will be posted.
What I can tell you is my rolls:
Half-Orc
Barbarian
15-15-13-13-9 (4d6, drop lowest rolls)
I'm excited guys. :D
AudioSurf (2008)
AudioSurf (2008)
Dylan Fitterer (Indie)
PC
Single
Arcade
This is a quirky niche game that does sufficiently well what dozens of others have accomplished better. I can't say I didn't like it because something that combines your own personal music (or audio books as I got bored one night) with an F-Zero-esque game is definitely worth a sale purchase and try.
Let me say by a seemingly independent individual this is amazingly done, something I would expect from an upper level college game project (at time of publication) or low-industry end release. Well done sir, my hat is off to you (truly). It has a few ability differences with a limited number of ships to select from, a small assortment of game types, and a frequently steep difficulty curve. The real problem where this falls short for me is the bland progression and limiting versatility. The difficulty of the game is highly HIGHLY dependent on the audio files you load, the game type/mode differences can be so subtle sometimes you don't realize you accidentally selected hard with a slow, soft song--but are ready to curse the gods and your creator when you throw a hard n' heavy song on normal mode.
This falls into a growing chunk of games who do something similar if not exactly alike with nuance-differences to set this apart. As much enjoyment as I myself for 3 hours, I couldn't find anything that set this above or beyond, or achieved through something that gives it a uniqueness I would return to at some future nostalgia pangs. I do expect to review more of them as I go, but I'll purposely spread them around to avoid the copy+paste trend of the reviews.
3/10
Dylan Fitterer (Indie)
PC
Single
Arcade
This is a quirky niche game that does sufficiently well what dozens of others have accomplished better. I can't say I didn't like it because something that combines your own personal music (or audio books as I got bored one night) with an F-Zero-esque game is definitely worth a sale purchase and try.
Let me say by a seemingly independent individual this is amazingly done, something I would expect from an upper level college game project (at time of publication) or low-industry end release. Well done sir, my hat is off to you (truly). It has a few ability differences with a limited number of ships to select from, a small assortment of game types, and a frequently steep difficulty curve. The real problem where this falls short for me is the bland progression and limiting versatility. The difficulty of the game is highly HIGHLY dependent on the audio files you load, the game type/mode differences can be so subtle sometimes you don't realize you accidentally selected hard with a slow, soft song--but are ready to curse the gods and your creator when you throw a hard n' heavy song on normal mode.
This falls into a growing chunk of games who do something similar if not exactly alike with nuance-differences to set this apart. As much enjoyment as I myself for 3 hours, I couldn't find anything that set this above or beyond, or achieved through something that gives it a uniqueness I would return to at some future nostalgia pangs. I do expect to review more of them as I go, but I'll purposely spread them around to avoid the copy+paste trend of the reviews.
3/10
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Blizzard(c), Nevermore Asshats
i.e. World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, Hearthstone, etc...
If the name Blizzard means nothing to you, I can't hazard a guess as to what you're doing on a page dedicated to gaming. For the better part of 30 years they've been one of the most go-to studios for video games in the industry. They literally developed the MMO genre to create the most successful franchise currently in said niche's industry. They have championed the pleebs of the internets in some aspects, catered to the mindless raid-monkeys at times, tried to incentivize and cajole their patrons out of more and more of their money as the months trudge onward through time. After many years of loyalty I bid them a heavy farewell and a hearty "fuck off!"
Honesty up front. I have never played Starcraft. I have zero interest in Hearthstone and their coming soon MOBA adapation of their titles. I got into Diablo 2 well after release of the expansions when I joined friends in LAN runs. I did play WoW for far too many years thru college, but have been clean since ~2009. Included I splurged on Collector's Editions for Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm. I also pre-ordered two Diablo 3 and made my first ebay snipe (a practice I've abhorred in others but netted me a one-time profit that was desperately needed at the time). I've had my typical spats that come with committing that much time to any endeavor--things that are cute, fun, or eccentric devolve into time-consuming, unskippable, repetition-grinding souless puppet shows that have you going thru the motions more than anything. I've personally lost count of the number f times I've gotten physically frustrated with their online or phone tech support for bug, billing, or technical issues. For my brothers in these arms, their continued ineptitude astounds me and I've seen some shit in both the industry and their clientele...
Now the majority of people do this from time to time. They take hiatuses from 'involved' or repetative games and may come pick them up again at a later date. Often this is preceeded by the release of serious technical overhauls, additions of sought after content expansion, or just forgotten curiocuty ("Why did I ever leave?" only to be reminded shortly thereafter). I don't want to downplay this so I'm making it perfectly clear--I AM DONE WITH THEM 100%. There are many varied nuances to why I'm leaving but as this is a blog and not a discertation I will attempt to convey the most crucial and still grant them the minimal of courtesies I still hold for them.
The story. Warcraft & Diablo had some of the most well-versed canon in a video game at their peek times. Those have massively been castrated and belittled for flash and presentation in lieu for the all-mighty dollar as they have literally made a career of ret-conning their own material. For the uninitialized this means they change the past of their story in future releases to build up something new they've not developed yet. It's very irritating to people who play those style of games FOR the story lines and plot devices--I mean come on guys what does the RP stand for in MMORPG anyway? Warcraft with their expansions continued to invalidate everything you did prior to the newest shiniest new turd they released. Made it awesome for someone to go plow thru zones almost unimpeeded by competing players but that takes away from the MMO atmosphere. It also belittles players who have bragging rights to some of their earlier achievements, i.e before it was nerfed, before it was dumbed down for casuals, etc. Introducing collection and achievement systems that DIDN'T take any previous actions into account were more insulting to some of us who could not go back and beat something again because we PUGged or just got really, really lucky on a drop roll or something. I admit I'm a bit of an achievement hound and showing off stuff can be nice but makes things get taxing when you have to re-complete content that you're well and truly not down for.
Money. I had previously thought it to be the only well-known MMO to still be subscription based game out there, but was recently proven wrong as another veil from my past contacted me about re-linking and returning to my account, Dark Age of Camelot--which despite the 13 year anniversary just passing is still subscription only. Anyone who was aware of Everquest in the day knew you could find rare items and sell them on ebay or a similar site for real-world money. There was some* of this going on but due to their drop-system was more of a 'hire me and we complete _____ until you get your macguffin." It's also one of the first games I was ever aware at for the volume and exploitation of micro-transactions over the internet. In today's market we're used to the ideals of DLC or pay-to-play games on our smartphones or even free--to-play/pay-to-win versions coming up on their stores daily. Blizzard pioneered parts of this business model with exclusives available thru online stores or live events they would attend or host (BlizzCon). Citing the most heinous Diablo 3 real-money auction house would just be too easy but yeah it existed. Now this week we get a press release stating new micro-transactions will be added to the game. I can only assume they're to unlock new dungeons or loot tables that were previously attainable to all within the game.
Security & scrutiny. Here's the cherry on top and the final nail in their coffin as far as I, personally, am concerned. Remember when I said they fought FOR the users on occasion (lol at Tron reference). Well in the mid-2000s when hacking financial data thru game accounts became a serious threat they implemented what was one of the simplest fixes to the problem imaginable--a key dongle. It would generate a random number that was tied to their servers so only if the username, password, AND authenticator were correct could you access the information. Fairly genius and cheap to implement fix. I will also say I credit that at least in part to why my info was NOT hacked the 2-3 times I'm aware of Blizzard getting hit. Now you could send away money for a keychain or just download a free app for your smartphone. Guess which one this cheap bastard on the other side of your monitor chose :). In all the years since I got it it has let me down exactly twice. Once about 5 years ago after x-months not logging in it became desynced with the host servers. It was a fairly simple process to unbind it from my account and then re-connect it~2 hours just with passwords, verification, and confirming identiies, etc. This is where we start to see the neurosis of their paranoia. I'm all about protecting my information but I'm spending almost as much time getting into my own info that I KNOW that a hacker would theoretically spend brute-forcing his way into the encryption. The most recent authenticator issue was about 3 months ago when again it desynced. This one I'm not willing to contribute to inactivity cause I was playing D3 with friends every few weeks. Anyway expected the same tedious, but simple fix. untold man hours later going thru my account, speaking with tech support tiers 1-2, and bouncing emails back and forth with them I am informed that my account has been locked due to new security measures in place. By unbinding my authenticator to fix an desync issue I had engaged one such protocol and I would not be allowed to access ANY of my accounts and such without providing a copy of a photo id from an official documentation source (driver's license, passport, etc).
So Blizzard(c), I bid you a not-so fond farewell, waving my middle fingers high in proclamation and for added emphasis to say I'm done with you. I don't care if you donate 100% proceeds to cancer research. I don't care if your game you continually shit on goes free-to-play. I don't care if you come to my house and offer to pay me some of the untold (but sadly calculated) thousands of dollars I spent on subscription fees back--well you might get my attention briefly if I'm being 100% honest, but it'd have to be a competitive rate in this economy.
If the name Blizzard means nothing to you, I can't hazard a guess as to what you're doing on a page dedicated to gaming. For the better part of 30 years they've been one of the most go-to studios for video games in the industry. They literally developed the MMO genre to create the most successful franchise currently in said niche's industry. They have championed the pleebs of the internets in some aspects, catered to the mindless raid-monkeys at times, tried to incentivize and cajole their patrons out of more and more of their money as the months trudge onward through time. After many years of loyalty I bid them a heavy farewell and a hearty "fuck off!"
Honesty up front. I have never played Starcraft. I have zero interest in Hearthstone and their coming soon MOBA adapation of their titles. I got into Diablo 2 well after release of the expansions when I joined friends in LAN runs. I did play WoW for far too many years thru college, but have been clean since ~2009. Included I splurged on Collector's Editions for Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm. I also pre-ordered two Diablo 3 and made my first ebay snipe (a practice I've abhorred in others but netted me a one-time profit that was desperately needed at the time). I've had my typical spats that come with committing that much time to any endeavor--things that are cute, fun, or eccentric devolve into time-consuming, unskippable, repetition-grinding souless puppet shows that have you going thru the motions more than anything. I've personally lost count of the number f times I've gotten physically frustrated with their online or phone tech support for bug, billing, or technical issues. For my brothers in these arms, their continued ineptitude astounds me and I've seen some shit in both the industry and their clientele...
Now the majority of people do this from time to time. They take hiatuses from 'involved' or repetative games and may come pick them up again at a later date. Often this is preceeded by the release of serious technical overhauls, additions of sought after content expansion, or just forgotten curiocuty ("Why did I ever leave?" only to be reminded shortly thereafter). I don't want to downplay this so I'm making it perfectly clear--I AM DONE WITH THEM 100%. There are many varied nuances to why I'm leaving but as this is a blog and not a discertation I will attempt to convey the most crucial and still grant them the minimal of courtesies I still hold for them.
The story. Warcraft & Diablo had some of the most well-versed canon in a video game at their peek times. Those have massively been castrated and belittled for flash and presentation in lieu for the all-mighty dollar as they have literally made a career of ret-conning their own material. For the uninitialized this means they change the past of their story in future releases to build up something new they've not developed yet. It's very irritating to people who play those style of games FOR the story lines and plot devices--I mean come on guys what does the RP stand for in MMORPG anyway? Warcraft with their expansions continued to invalidate everything you did prior to the newest shiniest new turd they released. Made it awesome for someone to go plow thru zones almost unimpeeded by competing players but that takes away from the MMO atmosphere. It also belittles players who have bragging rights to some of their earlier achievements, i.e before it was nerfed, before it was dumbed down for casuals, etc. Introducing collection and achievement systems that DIDN'T take any previous actions into account were more insulting to some of us who could not go back and beat something again because we PUGged or just got really, really lucky on a drop roll or something. I admit I'm a bit of an achievement hound and showing off stuff can be nice but makes things get taxing when you have to re-complete content that you're well and truly not down for.
Money. I had previously thought it to be the only well-known MMO to still be subscription based game out there, but was recently proven wrong as another veil from my past contacted me about re-linking and returning to my account, Dark Age of Camelot--which despite the 13 year anniversary just passing is still subscription only. Anyone who was aware of Everquest in the day knew you could find rare items and sell them on ebay or a similar site for real-world money. There was some* of this going on but due to their drop-system was more of a 'hire me and we complete _____ until you get your macguffin." It's also one of the first games I was ever aware at for the volume and exploitation of micro-transactions over the internet. In today's market we're used to the ideals of DLC or pay-to-play games on our smartphones or even free--to-play/pay-to-win versions coming up on their stores daily. Blizzard pioneered parts of this business model with exclusives available thru online stores or live events they would attend or host (BlizzCon). Citing the most heinous Diablo 3 real-money auction house would just be too easy but yeah it existed. Now this week we get a press release stating new micro-transactions will be added to the game. I can only assume they're to unlock new dungeons or loot tables that were previously attainable to all within the game.
Security & scrutiny. Here's the cherry on top and the final nail in their coffin as far as I, personally, am concerned. Remember when I said they fought FOR the users on occasion (lol at Tron reference). Well in the mid-2000s when hacking financial data thru game accounts became a serious threat they implemented what was one of the simplest fixes to the problem imaginable--a key dongle. It would generate a random number that was tied to their servers so only if the username, password, AND authenticator were correct could you access the information. Fairly genius and cheap to implement fix. I will also say I credit that at least in part to why my info was NOT hacked the 2-3 times I'm aware of Blizzard getting hit. Now you could send away money for a keychain or just download a free app for your smartphone. Guess which one this cheap bastard on the other side of your monitor chose :). In all the years since I got it it has let me down exactly twice. Once about 5 years ago after x-months not logging in it became desynced with the host servers. It was a fairly simple process to unbind it from my account and then re-connect it~2 hours just with passwords, verification, and confirming identiies, etc. This is where we start to see the neurosis of their paranoia. I'm all about protecting my information but I'm spending almost as much time getting into my own info that I KNOW that a hacker would theoretically spend brute-forcing his way into the encryption. The most recent authenticator issue was about 3 months ago when again it desynced. This one I'm not willing to contribute to inactivity cause I was playing D3 with friends every few weeks. Anyway expected the same tedious, but simple fix. untold man hours later going thru my account, speaking with tech support tiers 1-2, and bouncing emails back and forth with them I am informed that my account has been locked due to new security measures in place. By unbinding my authenticator to fix an desync issue I had engaged one such protocol and I would not be allowed to access ANY of my accounts and such without providing a copy of a photo id from an official documentation source (driver's license, passport, etc).
So Blizzard(c), I bid you a not-so fond farewell, waving my middle fingers high in proclamation and for added emphasis to say I'm done with you. I don't care if you donate 100% proceeds to cancer research. I don't care if your game you continually shit on goes free-to-play. I don't care if you come to my house and offer to pay me some of the untold (but sadly calculated) thousands of dollars I spent on subscription fees back--well you might get my attention briefly if I'm being 100% honest, but it'd have to be a competitive rate in this economy.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
League of Legends (2009) Profile Stats & Lists
So I won't be calculating the RP/IP I've spent--not that I'm sure I even have access to the information, but here's my stats, skins and whatever else I can pull off the UI.
Level 30
User-User Interaction Ratings
Friendly 9
Helpful 2
Teamwork 12
Honorable Opponent 0
(Classic)
Takedowns 2820
Monsters & Minion Kills 44497
Wins 148
(Dominion)
Takedowns 204
Monsters & Minion Kills 280
Wins 9
(ARAM)
Takedowns 0
Monsters & Minion Kills 0
Wins 0
I don't pretend that these stats are excellent in any way but I was curious when I wrote the breakdown review yesterday. I like the personalized rating system but was already mostly out of my LoL routine when they implemented it. I don't really care for Dominion but I used it to break the monotony I was feeling towards the end of my active participation. ARAM is something I know nothing about other than it's a gamemode option in the drop down window. It's been so long they've apparently reset any ranked/league info I had because those are blank or asking if I'd like to join a league.
Runes
9x Greater Mark of Armor Penetration
1x Greater Mark of Attack Damage
9x Greater Mark of Attack Speed
9x Greater Seal of Attack Speed
9x Greater Seal of Magic Resist
1x Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration
1x Greater Seal of Scaling Health
1x Greater Glyph of Armor
9x Greater Glyph of Attack Speed
9x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
1x Greater Glyphy of Scaling Mana
3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed
1x Greater Quintessence of Revival
1x Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power
3x Greater Quintessence of the Deadly Wreath
3x Greater Quintessence of Piercing Present
Item Sets
I know for a fact they've discontinued at least two of my go-to items with my various builds so I'm not going to bother. This tab wasn't here when I was playing though I would have loved it. They rotate, introduce, and retire items as their season come and go so I'll leave this blank in case I ever do want to drop my 2-cents worth.
Characters
Owned 109
Skins 264 - 109 (Classic Skins) = 155 Unique
Noticed a lot of new skins when I was browsing/counting also quite a few art redesigns and splash replacements. Like the grittier art style as opposed to their cartoonish animesque. As you may can tell at one point my group was trying to sync into a specific theme with skins. I was one who tried for the Ocean skins since my handle is Skelefish. We could never agree on one we all liked and so much of the skins I did acquire never saw gameplay.
Going through I see a disparagingly sad spread on some characters. Some have of the devs favorites (Fiddlesticks, Annie, etc) continue to get more and more skins while others continue with the 2-3 they premiered with over a year ago. As someone who played one of their niche characters I can tell you it's frustrating that you're good, but the community doesn't like your character so there's always a limited number of skins while others keep getting more and more. I get the marketing aspect: if a character is popular give them more personality options, but hit up the black sheep occasionally guys.
by Character... Name (# Skins) Faves if any
Ahri (1); Akali (5) Blood Moon; Alistar (5) Matador; Amumu (3) Little Knight; Anivia (1); Annie (5); Ashe (2) Amethyst; Blitzcrank (3) Boom Boom; Brand (3) Zombie; Caitlyn (5) Officer; Cassiopeia (2); Cho'Gath (5) Gentleman, Loch Ness, Jurassic; Corki (4) Urfrider, Red Baron, Dragonwing; Diana (2); Dr. Mundo (1); Draven (1); Elise (1); Evelynn (4); Ezreal (1); Fiddlesticks (3); Fiora (2) Headmistress; Fizz (2) Tundra; Galio (1); Gangplank (1); Garen (3); Gragas (4) Scuba; Graves (3) Riot; Hecarim (3); Heimerdinger (3) Alien Invader, Snowmerdinger; Irelia (2); Janna (2); Jarvan IV (4); Jax (7) PAX, Jaximus, Nemesis; Jayce (1); Karma (3); Karthus (3) Grim Reaper; Kassadin (2) Deep One; Katarina (3); Kayle (6); Kennen (1); Kha'Zix (1); Kog'Maw (5) Lion Dance, Deep Sea; LeBlanc (2); Lee Sin (2); Leona (4); Lissandra (1); Lulu (1); Lux (1); Malphite (2) Coral Reef; Malzahar (3); Maokai (3); Master Yi (2); Miss Fortune (7) Candy Cane; Mordekaiser (3) Pentakill; Morgana (1); Nami (1); Nasus (3) Galactic; Nautilus (1); Nidalee (5); Nocturne (2); Nunu (4); Olaf (1); Oriana (2); Pantheon (1); Poppy (2); Rammus (2); Renekton (4); Rengar (1); Riven (2); Rumble (1); Ryze (3) Professor; Sejuani (3); Shaco (1); Shen (4); Shyvana (1); Singed (3); Sion (2); Sivir (5) PAX; Skarner (2); Sona (4); Soraka (1); Swain (2); Syndra (1); Talon (1); Taric (2); Teemo (2); Tristana (4); Trundle (2); Tryndamere (1); Twisted Fate (2); Twitch (3); Udyr (1); Urgot (2); Varus (1); Vayne (1); Veigar (5); Vi (1); Viktor (1); Vladimir (2); Volbear (2); Warwick (3) Hyena; Wukong (1); Xerath (2); Xin Zhou (2); Yorick (1); Zed (1); Ziggs (2); Zilean (3); Zyra (1)
Level 30
User-User Interaction Ratings
Friendly 9
Helpful 2
Teamwork 12
Honorable Opponent 0
(Classic)
Takedowns 2820
Monsters & Minion Kills 44497
Wins 148
(Dominion)
Takedowns 204
Monsters & Minion Kills 280
Wins 9
(ARAM)
Takedowns 0
Monsters & Minion Kills 0
Wins 0
I don't pretend that these stats are excellent in any way but I was curious when I wrote the breakdown review yesterday. I like the personalized rating system but was already mostly out of my LoL routine when they implemented it. I don't really care for Dominion but I used it to break the monotony I was feeling towards the end of my active participation. ARAM is something I know nothing about other than it's a gamemode option in the drop down window. It's been so long they've apparently reset any ranked/league info I had because those are blank or asking if I'd like to join a league.
Runes
9x Greater Mark of Armor Penetration
1x Greater Mark of Attack Damage
9x Greater Mark of Attack Speed
9x Greater Seal of Attack Speed
9x Greater Seal of Magic Resist
1x Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration
1x Greater Seal of Scaling Health
1x Greater Glyph of Armor
9x Greater Glyph of Attack Speed
9x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
1x Greater Glyphy of Scaling Mana
3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed
1x Greater Quintessence of Revival
1x Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power
3x Greater Quintessence of the Deadly Wreath
3x Greater Quintessence of Piercing Present
Item Sets
I know for a fact they've discontinued at least two of my go-to items with my various builds so I'm not going to bother. This tab wasn't here when I was playing though I would have loved it. They rotate, introduce, and retire items as their season come and go so I'll leave this blank in case I ever do want to drop my 2-cents worth.
Characters
Owned 109
Skins 264 - 109 (Classic Skins) = 155 Unique
Noticed a lot of new skins when I was browsing/counting also quite a few art redesigns and splash replacements. Like the grittier art style as opposed to their cartoonish animesque. As you may can tell at one point my group was trying to sync into a specific theme with skins. I was one who tried for the Ocean skins since my handle is Skelefish. We could never agree on one we all liked and so much of the skins I did acquire never saw gameplay.
Going through I see a disparagingly sad spread on some characters. Some have of the devs favorites (Fiddlesticks, Annie, etc) continue to get more and more skins while others continue with the 2-3 they premiered with over a year ago. As someone who played one of their niche characters I can tell you it's frustrating that you're good, but the community doesn't like your character so there's always a limited number of skins while others keep getting more and more. I get the marketing aspect: if a character is popular give them more personality options, but hit up the black sheep occasionally guys.
by Character... Name (# Skins) Faves if any
Ahri (1); Akali (5) Blood Moon; Alistar (5) Matador; Amumu (3) Little Knight; Anivia (1); Annie (5); Ashe (2) Amethyst; Blitzcrank (3) Boom Boom; Brand (3) Zombie; Caitlyn (5) Officer; Cassiopeia (2); Cho'Gath (5) Gentleman, Loch Ness, Jurassic; Corki (4) Urfrider, Red Baron, Dragonwing; Diana (2); Dr. Mundo (1); Draven (1); Elise (1); Evelynn (4); Ezreal (1); Fiddlesticks (3); Fiora (2) Headmistress; Fizz (2) Tundra; Galio (1); Gangplank (1); Garen (3); Gragas (4) Scuba; Graves (3) Riot; Hecarim (3); Heimerdinger (3) Alien Invader, Snowmerdinger; Irelia (2); Janna (2); Jarvan IV (4); Jax (7) PAX, Jaximus, Nemesis; Jayce (1); Karma (3); Karthus (3) Grim Reaper; Kassadin (2) Deep One; Katarina (3); Kayle (6); Kennen (1); Kha'Zix (1); Kog'Maw (5) Lion Dance, Deep Sea; LeBlanc (2); Lee Sin (2); Leona (4); Lissandra (1); Lulu (1); Lux (1); Malphite (2) Coral Reef; Malzahar (3); Maokai (3); Master Yi (2); Miss Fortune (7) Candy Cane; Mordekaiser (3) Pentakill; Morgana (1); Nami (1); Nasus (3) Galactic; Nautilus (1); Nidalee (5); Nocturne (2); Nunu (4); Olaf (1); Oriana (2); Pantheon (1); Poppy (2); Rammus (2); Renekton (4); Rengar (1); Riven (2); Rumble (1); Ryze (3) Professor; Sejuani (3); Shaco (1); Shen (4); Shyvana (1); Singed (3); Sion (2); Sivir (5) PAX; Skarner (2); Sona (4); Soraka (1); Swain (2); Syndra (1); Talon (1); Taric (2); Teemo (2); Tristana (4); Trundle (2); Tryndamere (1); Twisted Fate (2); Twitch (3); Udyr (1); Urgot (2); Varus (1); Vayne (1); Veigar (5); Vi (1); Viktor (1); Vladimir (2); Volbear (2); Warwick (3) Hyena; Wukong (1); Xerath (2); Xin Zhou (2); Yorick (1); Zed (1); Ziggs (2); Zilean (3); Zyra (1)
Saturday, February 14, 2015
League of Legends (2009)
League of Legends (2009)
Riot Games
PC
Multi
MOBA
I'm not aware of a hotkey or shortcut to find the number of time spent in this "free-to-play" multi-player online battle arena that is arguably the most successful right now. QQ more Dota players, can't get behind you. Now admittedly I haven't played this game on a regular basis in 2 years give or take, but it still brings back quite a few fond memories. I log in every now and again to prevent the 6-month lock out to engage and to occasionally see if anything is on sale I can spend some of my remaining RP/IP on. Not going to get into a stat-heavy post, maybe later.
I was one of the people who got into it when it still typically came in the paper box in store. I own the vast majority of their possible characters and as such been with them from nearly the very beginning--not from the beta as my desire but unobtainable skin list shows (i.e. King Bowser Rammus). As in most game-acquisitions I DO purchase I wait for sales and bundles, Riot used to be really good about giving a champ and 2 skins on a regular basis--as I'm not a regular I can't speak to it now. I got a handful of them for free when myself of a friend went to a gaming convention and got a code, and I'll admit once or twice of purchasing a similar code from ebay if none of use were capable of going. As far as cosmetic re-skins I'm reminded a lot of the Penny Arcade comic concerning that exact notion --though I stress I did NOT spend $8000+ I did spend a few hundred over the course of the many years I was playing it. There is no gameplay mechanic necessity to buy from them, the entire game can be unlocked by just playing the game, but you miss out on the personalization of your chosen champion and I'll admit they do a decent job making them inticing and some of them (due to rarity) are kind of status symbols and bragging rights.
My favorite characters (due to my own personal play-style) are Jax, Corki, Caitlyn, and Jarvin IV. My heyday would be around season 2 where, along with some IRL friends we made a good stab at Ranked. Time schedules and living a fair piece from each other is what we attribute most to that failed venture, but c'est la vie. We did have a really good routine down and they were good enough that they could typically hold off a full 5-man push and I could backdoor (a flanking strategy) 1-2 of their turrets by stacking pure attack speed and 'on x hits' items like the Ionic Spark (R.I.P.) and Guinsoo's Rageblade. That sais the game lost a lot of my interest when it started trying to be so focused on competitive. Ironic though it sounds I'm citing where they pushed to make it like a Counter Strike event--not that it couldn't be, but I'd gotten to level 30 in a more or less casual pursuit.
Some of the major disheartening practice I associate heavily with Riot are their lack of content. Yes they had the 2-weeks new character roll around, but all that did was make new people pissy about unbalanced games when a heavy hitter joined in OP. For the entire length of time they did that they couldn't work on new features to the game for the sake of continually tweaking balance. I'm STILL waiting for a new map. I've seen the rough mocks up for it, I've heard devs confirm they've got it in the pipeline, where the fuck is my g.d. Molten Core map? I hate they and apparently most of the players are ok with their new gametype instead of new map strategy. I can stand Dominion, but I don't like it. I've yet to try whatever ARAM is but I see it listed in my profile. That said there are well over 100 characters and 3 maps to my knowledge: one solely for 3v3 Twisted Treeline; one for 5v5 Summoner's Rift; and Dominion. 4 if you count the solo-instanced bridge you play thru the tutorial in.
Where I think Riot vastly succeeded and suddenly failed was with their community efforts. Nika Harper was one of the *honestly* most hyper-positive, bubbly, recognizable personalities on the internet at the time and what she and Riot did with their weekly* Summoner Showcase was brilliant at keeping the community up on new developments and stuff other fans and players did. It got a bit stale as they scaled it back prior to her leaving Riot, but at it's pinnacle was a very looked-forward-to distraction each week. When she left there was a massive void in the Riot community and to date nothing has stepped up to do so to the level the Showcase did. Like most things online if you follow, lurk, or troll the forums or social media sites of your selected distraction you will likely be abreast of recent big developments but otherwise the nuance and sparkly shimmer was gone.
I do not recommend this game as a solo attempt, but if you'd like to try your hand feel free. I believe the base game itself is free-to-play so if you can wrangle one or more friends to share in the learning curve I do recommend that. As with all microtransaction-heavy games, unless you have some commitment to play it, test the waters before you drop hard coin on it. Every champion will eventually become free playable on a rotation so you can try them out before you buy. There were frequently bundles in their online store that gave you a handful of stuff at a decent discount, and there are always the occasional game unlock code at conventions or thru ebay.
7/10 imho best MOBA out there
Riot Games
PC
Multi
MOBA
I'm not aware of a hotkey or shortcut to find the number of time spent in this "free-to-play" multi-player online battle arena that is arguably the most successful right now. QQ more Dota players, can't get behind you. Now admittedly I haven't played this game on a regular basis in 2 years give or take, but it still brings back quite a few fond memories. I log in every now and again to prevent the 6-month lock out to engage and to occasionally see if anything is on sale I can spend some of my remaining RP/IP on. Not going to get into a stat-heavy post, maybe later.
I was one of the people who got into it when it still typically came in the paper box in store. I own the vast majority of their possible characters and as such been with them from nearly the very beginning--not from the beta as my desire but unobtainable skin list shows (i.e. King Bowser Rammus). As in most game-acquisitions I DO purchase I wait for sales and bundles, Riot used to be really good about giving a champ and 2 skins on a regular basis--as I'm not a regular I can't speak to it now. I got a handful of them for free when myself of a friend went to a gaming convention and got a code, and I'll admit once or twice of purchasing a similar code from ebay if none of use were capable of going. As far as cosmetic re-skins I'm reminded a lot of the Penny Arcade comic concerning that exact notion --though I stress I did NOT spend $8000+ I did spend a few hundred over the course of the many years I was playing it. There is no gameplay mechanic necessity to buy from them, the entire game can be unlocked by just playing the game, but you miss out on the personalization of your chosen champion and I'll admit they do a decent job making them inticing and some of them (due to rarity) are kind of status symbols and bragging rights.
My favorite characters (due to my own personal play-style) are Jax, Corki, Caitlyn, and Jarvin IV. My heyday would be around season 2 where, along with some IRL friends we made a good stab at Ranked. Time schedules and living a fair piece from each other is what we attribute most to that failed venture, but c'est la vie. We did have a really good routine down and they were good enough that they could typically hold off a full 5-man push and I could backdoor (a flanking strategy) 1-2 of their turrets by stacking pure attack speed and 'on x hits' items like the Ionic Spark (R.I.P.) and Guinsoo's Rageblade. That sais the game lost a lot of my interest when it started trying to be so focused on competitive. Ironic though it sounds I'm citing where they pushed to make it like a Counter Strike event--not that it couldn't be, but I'd gotten to level 30 in a more or less casual pursuit.
Some of the major disheartening practice I associate heavily with Riot are their lack of content. Yes they had the 2-weeks new character roll around, but all that did was make new people pissy about unbalanced games when a heavy hitter joined in OP. For the entire length of time they did that they couldn't work on new features to the game for the sake of continually tweaking balance. I'm STILL waiting for a new map. I've seen the rough mocks up for it, I've heard devs confirm they've got it in the pipeline, where the fuck is my g.d. Molten Core map? I hate they and apparently most of the players are ok with their new gametype instead of new map strategy. I can stand Dominion, but I don't like it. I've yet to try whatever ARAM is but I see it listed in my profile. That said there are well over 100 characters and 3 maps to my knowledge: one solely for 3v3 Twisted Treeline; one for 5v5 Summoner's Rift; and Dominion. 4 if you count the solo-instanced bridge you play thru the tutorial in.
Where I think Riot vastly succeeded and suddenly failed was with their community efforts. Nika Harper was one of the *honestly* most hyper-positive, bubbly, recognizable personalities on the internet at the time and what she and Riot did with their weekly* Summoner Showcase was brilliant at keeping the community up on new developments and stuff other fans and players did. It got a bit stale as they scaled it back prior to her leaving Riot, but at it's pinnacle was a very looked-forward-to distraction each week. When she left there was a massive void in the Riot community and to date nothing has stepped up to do so to the level the Showcase did. Like most things online if you follow, lurk, or troll the forums or social media sites of your selected distraction you will likely be abreast of recent big developments but otherwise the nuance and sparkly shimmer was gone.
I do not recommend this game as a solo attempt, but if you'd like to try your hand feel free. I believe the base game itself is free-to-play so if you can wrangle one or more friends to share in the learning curve I do recommend that. As with all microtransaction-heavy games, unless you have some commitment to play it, test the waters before you drop hard coin on it. Every champion will eventually become free playable on a rotation so you can try them out before you buy. There were frequently bundles in their online store that gave you a handful of stuff at a decent discount, and there are always the occasional game unlock code at conventions or thru ebay.
7/10 imho best MOBA out there
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