Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-dlc-gets-a-new-release-date-for-the-xbox-360
Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-dlc-gets-a-new-release-date-for-the-xbox-360
After that destruction... Read All To celebrate today's Retro Tuesday I decided to write about an aspect of Final Fantasy VI that I had rolling around in my head. Its odd to remember when I was still surprised by things that happened in video games. One such event happened when Kefka causes the world to become out of balance and it falls into ruin. The sequences as the world breaks were pretty shocking to me. Many people died as the world broke up and I remember being really shocked by the carnage it showed. By today's standards it is pretty tame as it was in glorious 2D, but lately I have been thinking about how powerful that sequence was and how I responded to it at the time.
After that destruction sequence you play as a relatively side character to that point and "start over" on a small island. The game continues this bleak trend for a bit as you nurse a friend back to health and, like many things in Final Fantasy VI it doesn't turn out well.
I think the game gets a bit more interesting after the World Collapses though, as maybe in the end I find hardship to be something easier to latch on to. The relationships get more interesting, some of the most unique characters come out of the wood work and the game opens up a lot more. I enjoyed Link to the Past in that you could always warp back to The Light World from the Dark World, something Final Fantasy VI doesn't allow. But I think that works to its advantage as then the destruction and change of the World wouldn't have been a permanent thing. For Kefkas actions to have weight things had to change.
The game itself is fantastic and has many more awesome moments but this is the part I have been thinking about lately.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefka_Palazzo
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/World_of_Ruin
I find what you mention to be a recurring trend in FF games, and Japanese sci-fi/fantasy in general. The heroes fight to try and stop the disaster from wrecking the world around them, fail, and must now fight to defeat the enemy anyway. Pick your favorite Anime/Video Game to come out Japan in the last 20 years and it generally ends up with the Kingdom/City/World/Secret Base getting badly damaged by the bad guys before the good guys finally get retribution.
Interesting. I haven't played a FF game in the last bit so ill take your word for it. Was interested in FF 13 though.
FF6 is my favorite game in the series, excepting possibly tactics. We did 2 episodes about it, our first 2 parter, and it holds up so so well. http://duckfeed.tv/woff/10
A quick note: FF6 has a segment I think perfectly encapsulates the best that video games have to offer. The scene where you are exploring the world as Celes after the cataclysm is all elements working in concert in the service of mood.
1) Graphically, the world is darker now. Not so much in the overworld but the towns and bleaker.
2) The music is sad, haunting, vaguely dissonant and memorable.
3) And this is the coup, the gameplay backs it up. The overland enemies are weakened and dying. They start the battles poisoned, you often can't even kill the enemies before they die of the ill defined blight.
Perfect segment in a wonderful game.
Yeah I agree Gary, good points. Its an interesting transition because the game goes from this epic world scale set of events to only being about being on a small island helping your friend survive. Its a really refreshing interlude to the gettin' back to saving the world thing.
Ill checkout those episodes, thanks!
Have any stories, opinions, feedback on old video game music and sound? Last generation or before? Please share!
http://duckfeed.tv/contact/ Specifically old game music.
Have any stories, opinions, feedback on old video game music and sound? Last generation or before? Please share!
http://duckfeed.tv/contact/
Whoa? Thanks for sharing, starting to think about things now.
We'll read your stories and play your songs! We just want something substantial about how a piece of music or sound design affected you, contributed to the experience, reinforced the narrative, etc.
I think I can do that. Already had a few songs in mind for a bit now, so I just need to write it up.
Rad, when do you need submissions by?
Thursday, 5pm PST! Thanks, guys!
Do you want our stories here or through the contact form? Both? Either?
I have a thought.
Contact form is easiest for us.
Ok submitted my stuff. 4 songs in total. Hard to nail it down to a few.
Sweet, thanks Jon!
No problem Gary, it was fun to do. Hard to break it down to a few and it was strange because I had to wrap my mind around "this isn't songs of the year." :D
So far I just submitted one... it's a little obscure, but so rad. I'll see if I can think up anymore before today's deadline!
I want to know what one, but I also want to hear the episode and be surprised... :D
It's from a Genesis game! Which just made me think of Sonic the Hedgehog. The music in that game wasn't that memorable, but all the sound effects were! Collecting coins, jumping, busting through things/enemies... for some reasons those sounds make me nostalgic :)
When will the episode drop?
Thursday, listener response episode the following Thursday!
Sweet :)
Honestly, I don't remember much of the storyline now (which means it's time to play again!), but what I do remember is the music! The creators of this game did such a fantastic job crafting the perfect video game music. The music fits so well, causing feelings of victory, trepidation, joy, sadness and everything in between. I love going back and listening to it even now! I remember the first time I saw FFII over at a friend's house. I had never experienced an RPG before, and the game seemed so huge! And long! And as he told me about the story, I knew I needed to get my hands on this game.
Honestly, I don't remember much of the storyline now (which means it's time to play again!), but what I do remember is the music! The creators of this game did such a fantastic job crafting the perfect video game music. The music fits so well, causing feelings of victory, trepidation, joy, sadness and everything in between. I love going back and listening to it even now!
(On a side note, I hate the numbering system between the Japanese versions and the American versions! It confuses me to no end!)
My ring-tone is the battle theme.
I seriously suggested that we name our first born son Cecil.
That's so rad!
Just use the japanese numbering! They're almost all worth playing.
I loooooove FF4. Watch Out For Fireballs! is doing a music episode. If you have some thoughts about the music, specific songs, and such, lay'em on us! http://duckfeed.tv/contact/
But I grew up with the American numbering lol!
I did too but then I went and found the in between games. If they were all shit, I'd be fine pretending they didn't exist but FF3 and 5 are both pretty good.
Like Adym I got confused with the numbering myself, but have come to later accept it as you can't get the right information on Wikipedia without knowing the right game. That and other game sites, so it sort of makes sense to learn it.
And the other games exist and are good, which helps.
@Tungsten that's a good idea for a boys name, if you make it happen ill give you a special trophy "Named Son Cecil" or some such. :D
Adym, if you liked the music from FF4 I suggest you check out http://ff4.ocremix.org/. I'm pretty sure ocremix has been mentioned on this site before, but it's basically a bunch of musicians who love video game music. They made a full album dedicated to FF4. I especially like the track "The Skies Hold No Angels for Us".
Thats a great OCRemix album. My only beef is that its not tagged properly and really hard to manage. If you can fix that, its a great set of songs from the game!
That's sweet, I'll have to check it out!
It's very compelling match-3 gameplay tied to a forever-run mechanic with rpg elements (upgrades, items) with old-sk00l graphics. I highly recommend you give it a try. You'll find yourself playing longer than expected mumbling "just one more run... just one more run..." So, I've been playing 10000000 way more than I expected lately. It recently came out on steam and has been available on iOs for a while.
It's very compelling match-3 gameplay tied to a forever-run mechanic with rpg elements (upgrades, items) with old-sk00l graphics. I highly recommend you give it a try. You'll find yourself playing longer than expected mumbling "just one more run... just one more run..."
It did look good and I almost picked it up when it was on sale on steam. But I had picked up too many recently and had to pass this one over. I'll probably eventually come back to it, but good to know it is as fun as it appears.
Hmmm, should I get this on my phone or Steam?
I spent plenty of time playing PuzzleQuest on my iPod touch. Is it similar to that?
Not really like PuzzleQuest (which I *loved*). PQ had a story that was funny and was a more traditional match-3. 10M is VERY fast paced and you can drag as far as you want left/right or up/down to make matches, so it feels quite different from a traditional match 3 (where you only swap adjacent tiles to match). 10M's rpg elements consist of "Quests" to eventually level up, 3 of which are open at any one time (and are replaced on the next run when you complete them). They are quite straightforward though, e.g. get X points in a run, collect X wood in a run, make X match-5's in a run, make X triple matches in a run, etc. The other rpg elements are upgrading, you open and upgrade several rooms to improve your character/equipment i.e. upgrade magic, sword, etc (I'd list the rest but it's slightly spoilerish).
So you complete quests to level up, get resources to improve your character, and just get better at playing to get better scores for each run.
Oh, and by run, I'm being literal -- your character runs across the top of the screen and encounters random things you have to kill/unlock by doing matches.
The goal is to hit 10 million points in a single run. I'm now up to where I've hit 4.5 million in one run (and have maxed most of the stuff possible, and I think I have just one more level to go)
Not sure what happens then (i.e. if you get to continue or what) there are several steam achievements that would suggest you get to...
Seems awesome.
As the 60+ people converged on The Art Institute of Portland I was surprised at the diversity of the group consisting of programmers, artists, musicians, modelers, writers, classically trained 3d generalists, architects, pixel artists, film makers, illustrators and community organizers. After the keynote... Read All The Global Game Jam is a yearly event designed to bring people of various backgrounds together to build video games. This year the Portland game community was one participant in this global event taking place in 242 locations over 47 countries in the course of the weekend. I was part of the initial kickoff and was able to be part of this creative digital collab-fest.
As the 60+ people converged on The Art Institute of Portland I was surprised at the diversity of the group consisting of programmers, artists, musicians, modelers, writers, classically trained 3d generalists, architects, pixel artists, film makers, illustrators and community organizers. After the keynote video the group was presented with this years Global Game Jam theme. The theme of this years Jam was the sound of a beating heart.
The event was spiced up a bit when a random passerby was forcibly removed by Police and Art Insitute security. He was not affiliated with the Game Jam as an organizer or attendee.
As the Game Jam kicked off I was able to watch some groups brainstorming some really awesome game concepts. The first group I observed were riffing on ideas for the tone of the game they were building. Wanting the game to contain tension they discussed having the main character go on a spirit quest. One person joked about putting some kind of meat front as an integral game component but it was dismissed with the quip āThis is a vegan game.ā
The last group I experience was finalizing the planning stages of a really interesting rhythm game. Jotting down the basic game structure in Microsoft Project this team focused on building a game that had the visual aesthetic of a cell shaded cartoon. One of the members completed the start of a heartbeat based rhythm he demoed in Ableton Live. As I listened to the surging beat I was really impressed with the creativity used by the members to bring this electronic collaboration to stage.
As the night progressed I was able to sit down with Will Lewis, the event organizer and ask him a few questions about the Portland Game Jam.
jdodson: What were some of your goals for the Global Game Jam this year?
Will Lewis: In a more general sense it was to take advantage of the resources we've gained over the last year regarding the people we've met and how many more members have joined the community. I really wanted to get people together to cold call sponsors in the area to make this event a full meal deal. My number one goal was to get meals for everybody each day. I also wanted to get prizes for people that completed certain games and achievements for Games for Change. Some people are also bringing relaxation activities and one of our members is hosting a stretch and meditation session. I wanted to focus on improving the quality of life for the Jam because a 48 hour stretch isnāt that fun sometimes.
jdodson: As PIGSquad gains more Steam in the Portland Gaming Community what are you looking forward to in 2013? Also, what are some things you want people to know about PIGSquad moving forward?
Will Lewis: PIGSquad is kind of a tough one because its a community and I guess what I want from PIGSquad is that it continue itself. Most of what PIGSquad is comes to fruition with what I do personally.
jdodson: So turning it from a "Will Lewis" operation to a community led organization?
Will Lewis: Exactly yeah. It has already done so much for the community as people have already found jobs from it and made friends through it. I donāt see it becoming self perpetuating by next year but its the ultimate goal. Another goal I have is to explore other events I have and have fun with it.
Another thing that happened through PIGSquad is I met Jeffery who had an idea for a non-profit Portland cafe games library. After being really active with PIGSquad in the community his idea evolved into a games education project. There has been so much research coming out about games and how they influence children's learning and because of that I am partnering with him in Pixel Arts. We are working on a series of workshops for kids to learn about game development, programming and art and animation. So when people ask me about goals I have with PIGSquad I see Pixel Arts as the more goal oriented one and that PIGSquad will eventually be self perpetuating.
jdodson: We all came to gaming from a particular game or set of events and I wonder for you what those were?
Will Lewis: When I was little I was really obsessed with games and my Mom didnāt trust me with a console so I only had a Gameboy growing up.
jdodson: I think a lot of parents have fears about kids spending too much time playing video games.
Will Lewis: Yeah, exactly. I used to watch King Kong by Ray Harryhousen when I was six along with The Nightmare Before Christmas. On top of that I grew up on and still live on 20 acres of woodland in Oregon City. My Dad is also a Carpenter and made me wooden swords and as a kid I would go out and cut down plants and stuff. So that environment mixed with the characters that were in these movies and such and I realized of late its the characters in games and games can allow you to explore characters better than other mediums. So I think thats where my interest in games has evolved from.
jdodson: Thanks Will, I wish you well with the remainder of this years Jam!
http://globalgamejam.org/
http://pigsquad.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen
Wasn`t that surgeon simulator game part of this? That game is hilarious and fun.
I'm very disappointed I missed the Jam! Sounds like it was pretty awesome.
The game has a really interesting concept. I agree with you about the intro videos too, they were effective but could have been a bit better.
The core game looks really strong though. How did the base platforming feel?
As I am watching this I am wondering how similar to Trine this is? At a superficial level it seems Trine-ish.
Cake or death... :D
The platforming is a little cumbersome. This is definitely not what you'd call a highly polished game, but at the end of the day it's meant to just be fun. It definitely doesn't handle as nicely as Trine. The Co-op makes this game though.
Awesome, good to know. Thanks Sig!
So starting with some simple ideas I started out to solve these problems I had. I started with a pen and paper and started drawing the site I wanted to use. I sketched out my ideas over a few weeks and showed it to my friends. After getting a good response to my drawings I spent mostly every second of my spare time over the next 4 months building the initial launch of Cheerful Ghost. I started with a few design goals but one was that the site HAD to work the same on phones, tablets and desktops. I hate using sites that suck on phones and tablets. I opened up the site for 2 week beta period and after that on January 28th I formally launched http://cheerfulghost.com.
Thinking back on what I launched with I am kind of embarrassed as the site you see now is much much better. Some say that if you don't launch a product a bit embarrassed you are launching too late. If you can imagine one thing that sucked at launch was that you couldn't see the current post stream! You had to click around twice to see peoples latest posts. After fixing that mistake I also added some new features like auto-magic adding of PSN & Steam games, a ton more post embeds, post titles, an entire visual site redesign and more.
As I look forward to the next year I have a bunch of stuff I want to do but my ultimate goal is to grow the Cheerful Ghost community. I want to thank everyone for being part of one of the most awesome parts of my life. Deciding to build Cheerful Ghost was a good idea and spending the time to make it what it is now has been totally worth it!
WoooHoo! Congratulations Jon, on such a fine site. Just so you know, I have it set as my homepage on my phone :)
Thanks @BR I am glad it works out in that way. I also have CG as a little icon on my phone home screen too :D
You did a good job and I'm glad to be here. If you need any help with it moving forward don't hesitate to ask.
Glad to have been a part of it. Thanks for bringing us together.
I'm really impressed how far the site has come in just one year. It's been a fun year, and it'll only get better!
Thanks guys, it has been fun hanging out with you all.
@SignalWarden, ill email you about it. Love to hear your ideas.
As an aside, this trophy is being retired today:
http://cheerfulghost.com/trophies/59/awarded
:D
jdodson: Are you interested in any of the next gen consoles? Wii U, PS4, NextBox or the Steambox?
WhiteboySlim: Iām interested to see what they all will offer to be honest. I havenāt had any hands-on time with the Wii U, but I would like to see it in action to see if itās any good. Iām also very interested in the Steambox. Valve has done some really cool stuff with Steam, and I canāt wait to see what they will bring to consoles.... Read All As I continue the series of Cheerful Ghost Community Interviews the next person up is @WhiteboySlim. I really dug this interview as we both have a similar history of games we grew up playing. I want to thank @WhiteboySlim for doing the interview!
jdodson: Are you interested in any of the next gen consoles? Wii U, PS4, NextBox or the Steambox?
WhiteboySlim: Iām interested to see what they all will offer to be honest. I havenāt had any hands-on time with the Wii U, but I would like to see it in action to see if itās any good. Iām also very interested in the Steambox. Valve has done some really cool stuff with Steam, and I canāt wait to see what they will bring to consoles. Plus I have a lot of games on Steam that I would love to play on the TV. As far as Sony goes, Iāve owned every generation of playstation so far and even have a PSP, so Iāll be interested to see what the PS4 looks like.
jdodson: Is there any console you are interested a bit over the others?
WhiteboySlim: Definitely the Steambox because itās new. I hope Valve shakes up the console gaming scene for the better. :)
jdodson: Why donāt we have flying cars now? What's holding back this back?
WhiteboySlim: Maybe I think this because Iām from southern California, but I think flying cars would be a bad idea. People crash into each other all the time but at least theyāre (mostly) restricted to the roads. Just think how bad itāll be if people were crashing into buildings.
jdodson: WhiteboySlim has a list of the best 5 video games of all time. Please share your list with the Ultraverse Interpipes 4000(p.s. thats whats Hipsters call The Internet).
WhiteboySlim: Oh wow, I donāt know if I could narrow it down to that small of a list. I definitely have a soft spot for the SNES era RPGās, so games like Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, FF3/FF6, and Earthbound are very high on my list. I also usually play through FF7 once every year or two. Iāve been playing a lot of Borderlands 2 and I love it. Several Zelda games could go in this list. The first Disgaea is awesome. Iāve sunk hundreds of hours into FF Tactics both on PSone and the PSP remake. Iām already well above 5 games, so Iāll just stop there.
jdodson: I am curious what Zelda titles you would put on the list?
WhiteboySlim: The original, for being the one game probably most responsible for turning me into a lifelong gamer. A Link to the Past for general awesomeness. Links Awakening for the story and a bittersweet ending that actually evoked a genuine emotional response from me. Personally, I place Majoraās Mask slightly ahead of Ocarina of Time. MM tried some new things that had never been done in a Zelda game before and I think it worked really well.
jdodson: Linkās Awakening was like that for me as well. Its such a simple game, yet very powerful. As games come and go this one has stuck with me above the others, I think for its simplicity and the overall outcome of your actions.
WhiteboySlim: Very few games leave me haunted by the choices I made. In order to win the game and escape the island you have to wake the Wind Fish, but doing so means all the inhabitants disappear. Did they die? Were they ever real to begin with? Itās deep, man.
jdodson: Whatās your favorite Mario suit or power?
WhiteboySlim: The Kuriboās shoe from Mario 3! It only showed up in one stage, but it was awesome. :)
jdodson: Such a strange thing to only put something in on level. I wonder if it was someones pet project or what? Did some searching, found a good description of it but no history.
http://www.mariowiki.com/Goomba's_Shoe
jdodson: The Final Fantasy series is pretty long running with the original launching back in 87. Any game in the series stand out to you above the rest?
WhiteboySlim: FF3/6 and FF7 are my favorites in the series, with FF2/4 right behind them. FF9 is underrated in my opinion and another of my favorites. After 9 I think the series as a whole went downhill pretty quick. FF12 was pretty good despite some faults, but still doesnāt really hold a candle to the better games in the series. Itās not part of the āmainā Final Fantasy series, but FF Tactics is one of my favorite games of all time.
jdodson: Recently I finished watching āThe Last Starfighter.ā I loved the film from when I was a wee lad and I think it stands up pretty well now. FINISH THIS!
WhiteboySlim: Oh man, I havenāt seen this movie since I was a little kid. I donāt even remember much about it. Is it on Netflix? I might have to look this up.
jdodson: Whom do you tackle first? Snake Man, Needle Man, Spark Man, Hard Man, Top Man, Gemini Man or Shadow Man?
WhiteboySlim: Itās funny you should ask this. After many years of not playing any Mega Man games I tried to pick up Mega Man 3 again. I forgot how brutally difficult these games were! To answer your original question, for whatever reason I always went after Magnet Man first.
jdodson: What game are you playing right now? Please respond with a Haiku.
WhiteboySlim: F.T.L. space battles! / Borderlands 2 gunzerking! / Minecraft, must build more!
jdodson: What about F.T.L. do you love? It has garnered quite a bit of attention lately, what keeps you coming back to it?
WhiteboySlim: The game is a really great blend of RPG, strategy, and simulation elements all wrapped up in a challenging game that is very easy to pick up and play for short periods of time. FTL and Minecraft are my go-to games when I only have a short period of time to play. Currently Iām trying to unlock the various different spaceships in FTL.
jdodson: I donāt know if there is anything as seemingly overpowered as the Green Gecko Gem. Except Bowser totally ignoring it. I donāt know, what did you think of this Mario comic and its ending? To this date this is the most memorable comic book story I have ever read.
http://www.mariowiki.com/Piranha-Round_Sue
WhiteboySlim: Well you see, early in the comic they say that āonly the strongest enemiesā can break through the green gecko gemās protection. Iām assuming thatās why Bowser had no trouble grabbing Piranha-Round Sue but the lesser enemies couldnāt touch Mario when he had it. :) I love this comic too, so much in fact that I have read it to my kids as a bedtime story.
jdodson: You have been with the site since the very beginning. I wonder how you look at how the site has progressed over the last year? If you could do one thing with the site, what would that be?
WhiteboySlim: I think itās awesome! The site is great, and Iāve enjoyed all the posts by all the users. I especially liked the haiku contest you had awhile back. As for new features, Iād like to see tools to help plan out game nights and CG events.
jdodson: As luck would have it, after I complete the thing I am working on now with the site, the next thing will be what you describe! Yay!
WhiteboySlim: Awesome! MOAR gaming nights!
jdodson: What do you think about the modern incarnations of the Final Fantasy series?
WhiteboySlim: Based on my previous responses, you probably wonāt be surprised when I say Iāve been pretty disappointed with the modern FF games. If anything, the last couple installments in the FF series are prime examples that great graphics donāt make a game. Theyāre beautiful, but theyāre just not that much fun. I think a big part of the reason I donāt like the newer FF games is that the characters are bland at best and straight out annoying at worst. (This comic comes to mind: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/8/26 ) Even worse, the villains are also pretty boring. I will give Square Enix credit for not being afraid to experiment with their gameplay though. They are constantly trying new and different things, although usually with mixed results. Still, I keep hoping with each new Square game that theyāll manage to recapture some of the fun of the older games. :)
WhiteboySlim: On a related note, something I miss from older RPGās is the ability to rename the characters. Itās a minor thing, but I always liked renaming the characters after people I know. To me, it made the adventure feel more personal.
It was really fun doing the interview!
Also, when I say "this comic comes to mind" that was suppose to be a link to this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/8/26. My bad. :)
Fun interview!
@WhiteboySlim, I added the comic link to the interview.
You never played FF8 did you? It's more under appreciated than 9 imo. 8 is among my favs for the FF series.
Never got around to 8. I might look into getting it used for the PSOne since I can play those on my PS3. :)
Yeah, can play PS1 games but not PS2. Uhhh, sure ok. Wondering what the PS4 will be compatable with?
I agree with you, mostly, regarding the newer generations of Final Fantasy. I, too, loved IX. VIII is my all-time most favorite, and is the one that was introduced to me (by Travis) and I totally fell in love with it and Rhinoa. Although a lot of people seem to hate on X-2, I loved that one as well. After that, the series went downhill for me. XI was difficult as I'm more of a solo gamer and that game pretty much sucks for solo gaming. I was lucky enough to find someone who helped me through it a bit.
I need one if you don't mind steam Id is amorales2005
Sent!
I also have plenty to give away.
If you run out, I got 5!
Nice, we should keep people playing :D
This game is my obsession...I also have a bunch of invites.
Funny...8 months ago this game was my obsession....today, even more so lol. I played 6 games between Tuesday/Wednesday night and I just want to go home now and play allllll day.
You should post some basic strats for this one, personally I like DoTA 2 but I don't know the basics very well.
Yeah, I can do that. I tried getting Tim into it...but unfortunately the game we played he got steam rolled and it understandably burnt him. I've always been into competitive PVP style games though. From FPS, to MMO, to RTS, and MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena).
This game is definitely not good to new players, but everyone starts somewhere/sometime. I actually started playing dota2 by myself (I had played dota 1 quite a bit) and frankly, it's rare to ever see another player again. That maybe adds to the bashing you may get because players are so anonymous, but it also made me feel comfortable learning and being a noob too. I would give a disclaimer that I'm pretty new. I just took any hateful comments and shrugged them off, I didn't care, I told them I'm learning and often times if you are playing by yourself new, the other players are either new too or on re-rolled smurf accounts. Either way, no one will seriously hold it against you and you won't see those players again. It gave me a blanket of not caring what they thought of me.
Now when you group up, you get equalized a bit in the matchmaking. I've played with a new guy and we got matched against new guys that I then just stomped...and it was nice for him to be able to learn w/o the pressure of needing him to make good plays lol. But other times we've been pushed up closer to my skill range and then he gets creamed and as a team we get creamed because he "fed" the enemy and they got powerful.
Bots and solo que are a pretty decent way to learn. There's a tutorial now too, but I haven't gone through it. There's also tons of websites dedicated to giving useful info. Another super useful thing now is being able to load a hero build. So I use these all the time when I play heroes I don't have my own strategies with, you just open the menu and look at some popular builds (skill and item builds) and then as you level it'll highlight the skill you should learn next (and they often put in some text to give you tips on using those abilities) and same with items. They'll be prioritized as starting equipment, core items, situational items. That's real handy to save time trying to read everything and pick the best option while also trying to play the game.
The most important thing to learn is to not die. Play conservative if you have to, but dying is the worst. It obviously happens, but each death gives the opponent heroes more xp and more gold to increase their advantage over you and your allies.
I think DoTA 2 is easier to get into now. WhiteboySlim and I played it a few times and adding the bots in helped. Because of the community I am not really interested in playing online with anyone other than friends. I now this means I might not be any good, but i'd prefer to have fun than get annihilated by a-holes verbally.
That said, League has done some nice stuff to address this. I kind of hope DoTA 2 heads that direction, it would be pretty nice.
Well...I report players for being A-holes and so do other people. Then a week later I get a notification that they've taken action against one or more players I reported for bad conduct.
Also, to add to the whole "anonymous" thing. I go to dotabuff.com to see better stats and I played a game last night and I was checking stats on the site today. Not everyone's name shows up on this 3rd party website because you have to enable it, but some of my opponents had it enabled. With someone's name/profile I can click on them and and it will show me their stats but also show me how many games I've ever played with this person.
And this is how I can say you rarely see the same person twice. Only twice so far have I seen more than 1 match with someone (I haven't clicked on everyone I've played with obviously). This guy, I played 2 matches with, one last night, other one 8 months ago lol.
I just went back 51 games played, which put me to August 28. I clicked on everyone that wasn't private profile and blocking 3rd party apps. Probably average of 3 people to look at each game. That's 153 profiles I checked. There was 5 people I've played 2 games with. Everyone else, only 1. And FYI, my total matches played is 712. So, it's not like in some games where you may have a reputation and have like a persona or presence in the game....you really are 1 little drop of water in a huge pool.
Huh, thats really good to know. Ill check it out a bit more, interesting someone made an app to do that.
This is good news! My favorite walk-to-the-right-punch-stuff game.