Sykomyke's Avatar

Sykomyke

Grand Crusader
Joined 05/30/2019 Achieve Points 780 Posts 985

Sykomyke's Comments

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
    Quote From AngryShuckie

    I guess a large part of why there is such broad appeal for this sort of thing, even outside Asia, is that school is the one thing (nearly) everyone can relate to. Schools vary, as do uniforms, but many of the things you see happen are more or less universal.

    Behind the magic, weapons, and anime tropes there are people we recognise in settings we recognise reacting in ways we recognise. I don't even play LoR or LoL, so I barely know the characters themselves, but I do know the people they are representing. For example, I never actually saw a food fight at school, but I certainly saw people (myself included) try to handle noisy, chaotic environments the same way Leona is depicted here. 

    In contrast, my ability to relate to yet another image of a badass caught in the middle of some badassery is limited. Yeah they look cool, but that's as deep as the attachment goes.

    I understand you're trying to take a neutral stance here, and I appreciate it.  But I went through school, including college.  I've seen my daughter go through school so far (heading into middle school next year).  And I've never seen anything like what these things are depicting (including running out the door with food in your mouth??) 

    These are not school based references with an anime flair to them.  They are anime based tropes, in a school environment.  And there is a distinct difference between those two varying scenarios.

     

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    Which is why I said....I know that the skin event is for the Asian audience?  I said that in addition to their world demographic and core audience in Asia, it felt odd to create an event of that sort.

    Let me put it another way.  You never see "German Stereotypes" skin event.  I mean apart from a super early Gragas skin, they never did a "German beerfest" skin event like this ever to my knowledge.

    References to cultures is fine, but instead of being diverse, it just seems like it's always anime tropes.  That's what annoys me.   Game developers continually pander to specifically the anime subculture (which is based on Asian stereotypes in the first place) and then generally never do any other subcultures.  

    Why would the anime fans complain about a non-anime event?    So once again I'll point out:  Anime Tropes event is biased in that it perpetuates both anime and asian stereotypes.  

    Dark Star and Harrowing don't perpetuate either of those stereotypes because they aren't based out of a culture, they are based on a thematic expansion/alternate universe to an existing story.

    If game developers (like Riot) released various culture based events that would be fine; however if you want proof that a game can do multi-culture based events themed around things in real life look no further:  Heroes of the Storm

    They had a Luchadore event (https://heroesofthestorm.fandom.com/wiki/Nexomania) based around mexican heritage wrestlers. (Which was my favorite, I still love my Luchadore Diablo skin!)

    They had a Greek Gods event (https://heroesofthestorm.fandom.com/wiki/Greek_Gods) based around western european ancient gods.

    They had Mechastorm event (https://heroesofthestorm.fandom.com/wiki/MechaStorm_II) based around popular "mechwarrior" style anime shows.

    And of course the plethora of alternate universe, themed references, holiday events, cross-IP themes, etc that all games generally try to push.

    Point is,  HOTS was able to incorporate not only the asian mechwarrior theme, but 2 other subcultures into their game just fine (Central/Latin america, as well as western europe).  Point is, LoL/LoR don't generally push any other culture based events from what I've seen.  And to be honest, it gets annoying/tiresome seeing the same old tropes pushed over and over again.

    So before you come to someone and say "YoU dO rEaLiZe ThAt LoR iSn't A gAmE mAdE sOlElY fOr AmErIcAnS rIgHt?" perhaps you should read further.

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    I'm probably gonna get downvoted/reemed for this....but the skins themselves don't bother me, but rather the clear reference/inspiration on where it's drawn from just seem so....cringey?  To me?  I don't know if cringe is the right word but it's the best I can come up with right now.

    What I mean is that the whole thing reeks of some schoolgirl outfit tropes.

    Not to mention it checks off the "14 overused school anime" checklist. (Including the Ezreal with Toast in his mouth trope)

    I much prefer them to appeal to a broader audience through skinsets/events that are broader then to pander to asian audiences (Yes I know LoL is extremely popular there) and the niche weeaboo audience in America.

    Some examples:

    Broad general artwork that isn't "region specific"

    And I'd rather see more event/skins along the lines of Harrowing Shyvana, or Dark Star Shyvana artwork than "Asian School Tropes 101" skin event.

    Space Dragon — Ruined Shyvana - Legends of Runeterra Splash Art

    Jumaralo Hex on Twitter: "Dark Star Zed & Shyvana Full Artworks Nvl 1 and  Nvl 2 in Legends of Runeterra… "

    I know it's only my personal opinion, and I certainly don't expect people to agree with me as my opinion may be viewed as unpopular.  I just know I absolutely detested the KDA event (not just because of the KPOP themes, but because of the broken spells they introduced that wreaked havoc on the meta for awhile after.)

    Thanks for listening to my rant!

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    I like the saltwater scourge.  It's a rogue-like element to card games.  I think it's failing is the end boss always being gangplank.  I think of they went with a truly random "map" with generated bosses/mini bosses it would be more exciting/repeatable.

    That being said I play it every week for some bonus exp here and there.

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
    Quote From Erodos

    They are completely unreliable, because they only take a very limited amount of data. Especially looking at specific lists for very specific, low rank brackets will heavily skew your perception simply due to lack of data.

    I'm sorry I hurt your feelings, but for balancing the game data between bronze and gold is mostly completely useless. People who stick in those ranks beyond the first few days of the month in general play a lot more homebrew jank and unoptimised lists due to lack of dust or knowledge. Of course a refined deck like Quest Mage will shred right through those, so will every other refined list. In fact, in those ranks Quest Mage isn't even a problem at all, since you have decks like Elemental Shaman and Aggro Druid with 65%+ winrates. But sure, I'm the biased one.

    First off, ya didn't hurt my feelings.  So you can take that passive-aggressive comment and put it where the sun don't shine.  I'm a D5-legend player every month.  Secondly,  people who "stick in those ranks" are probably PLAYING A GAME and having fun. You know fun right?  That thing that is the purpose of games at their core? Nah, you don't.  Thirdly, I never said "looking at specific lists for specific low rank brackets".  I just said taking the whole ladder into consideration.  Maybe try reading more thoroughly next time?

    Lastly,  not sure where mentioning "elemental shaman and aggro druid" has to do with anything because I certainly didn't mention it, so yes...you are still the "biased one".  Not because of any statistics but again because you think that data that is gathered from anyone but the "diamond to legend" subsect of players is irrelevant.

    Oh, and this will probably rub your pickle the wrong way...

    I make legend every month with off-meta or heavily modified meta decks every month.  Last month and this month I'm using a modified version of ping mage.   U mad bro?

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    With all the 0 cost spells I fear this wouldn't change much.  Between hot streak, flurry, and cheap arcane spells it doesn't seem like this would do a ton, considering most quest mages already run some if not all of the cards I mentioned...

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
    Quote From Erodos
    Quote From Alfi
    According to HSReplay winrate of Quest Mage currently is 60+% for most refined lists.

    Yeah, between bronze and gold, where almost nobody plays. HSReplay stats are completely unreliable, use vS instead.

    First off,  HSReplay stats are not "Completely unreliable".  They may not be an indicator of certain perceptions, but to dismiss them so flippantly is condescending at best, and naïve at worst.

    Secondly, even if you look "between bronze and gold", those players matter as well.  Dismissing the contributions of the lower end of the ladder is a SUPER elitest and frankly speaking, rude way to treat other gamers.  

    Not sure what the purpose of your comment was, but if it was to be rude and piss off people without regard to anything else other than your own biases, then congrats.  You did the job.

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
    Quote From HuntardHuntard

    Discussing value is typically a petty thing to begn with

    Welp, you started it to be fair.  How's that saying go...?  Was it 'reap what you sow'?  Or perhaps 'you made your bed, now lay in it'? In either case you started this little "petty" debate.

    Quote From Huntard
    especially when you consider everyone who bothered enough to reply to my comment values these portraits enough to bother to reply to my comment.

    Ah yes.  "If you don't agree with my opinion, don't bother replying.  If you did reply, your inherent reply indicates that you agree with me on some level. So I'm right no matter what choice you make!"  - Huntard as his best Vizzini impressionBlunders GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

    Quote From Huntard
    Besides I have already stated why I value the exclusivity of this portait; because it is a pre-order bonus. By principle it should be exclusive. I am not upset that others can obtain it (as I have also already said), I am upset that Blizz is selling them.

    No, your *expectation* was that being a pre-order bonus made it exclusive.  The reality is: who cares if a 3 year old expansion's portrait is finally available?  You ARE upset at the fact others can obtain it (otherwise we wouldn't be having this argument).  You just think that by stating "I'm upset at Blizzard, not you guys!" you can cast your position in a different light that makes you look more favorable.

    Quote From Huntard
    Also, who is to say someone didn't work hard to obtain the portrait? I belive the federal minimum wage for these portraits was only 7.50 when they were released. Things cost more or less for people of different circumstances (though that is a different argument altogether).

    We aren't talking about wages in this thread.  I'm pretty sure there are other places on the internet to either brag about your wage or state "woe is me" about your wage (depending on your situation) than a Hearthstone forum.  But since you brought it up:  It doesn't matter.  Everyone here who maybe bought the portrait.  Spent time buying that portrait, outside of the game.  How you earned that money is your business and NO ONE here cares how you earned your money to buy the portrait.  Thus you can't use the leverage that "I worked hard to make 8.50 an hour to buy that portrait!"

    Honestly this entire argument is ridiculous and the fact that you have to keep replying "to be right" is hilarious at best, and sad at worst.

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
    Quote From Caro

    Not a single quest deck in sight. This makes me both happy and sad at the same time, seeing as 4 out of the 5 decks listed are similar to Barrens meta decks.

    It's a sign of a poorly balanced meta when the previous meta's/expansions cards are still this prevalant.  I feel like we are seeing Pendulum swings from a quest dominated meta, to a non quest dominated meta.

    I think it speaks to how poorly balanced paladin is.  Without librams paladin was rather bottom tier.  With librams Paladin is top tier.

    I'm tired of face hunter being the de-facto deck that the devs push every expansion, either intentionally or unintentionally (through card design).  

    Lastly elemental shaman is a joke.  What I mean is that, the un'goro elemental shaman/decks required careful planning of turns.  You had elementals that required other elemental synergy, and you had non-elementals that required elemental synergy.  What this meant is that you had to plan your turns with playing elementals because some of the strong-ish cards that fed on that synergy were not elementals themselves.  Which meant at times you often broke the chain.

    The current elemental shaman has no such choices.  It's a deck full of elementals that vomit out elementals nearly every turn, and as such hardly have to choose what elemental to play because they just drop one every turn regardless:  in part because all of the current synergy elementals are elementals themselves.  It doesn't create any interesting deck building or game play: just fill your deck with elementals, slam them down, and go face with battlecries and weapons.

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    Maybe the price is a bit on the steeper side. (15 USD is a bit much considering it's ONLY a skin and cardback) 

    That being said, I think people are missing the point:  Skins are flavor/aesthetics that appeal to YOU.  You are not obligated to own, buy, or collect all of them.  

    You wouldn't walk into a department store and think: "Oh wow, look at all these jackets.  I need to own ALL of them!"  But you would look around, see which jacket looked best on you and appealed to your sense of style and you would purchase that ONE jacket.  Maybe you find two jackets you like and buy them.  You wouldn't try to buy EVERY jacket the store owned right?  That's ridiculous.  You also wouldn't complain about the price of the jackets.  If you found a jacket you really liked but wasn't in your budget, you'd either A) wait for a sale or B) go elsewhere to look for other jackets.  You wouldn't complain to the store about the price of the jackets.  (Though I guess real world Karen's would do that wouldn't they?  You're not trying to be a digital Karen are you? )

    In short:  Please stop complaining about skins and/or prices.  Maybe they are a little on the steep side.  But you know what will cause Blizzard to lower skin prices?  People NOT buying them at 15 USD.  And if you have the expendable income to pay that much for a skin and REALLY want it.  By all means buy it.  That's what free market economies are for.

    It's just becoming utterly ridiculous the amount of complaining people are doing on this site over cosmetic/optional components of the game.   /rantoff

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    K'thir Ritualist

    K'thir Ritualist Card Image

    Yes, let me play a 3 drop with barely any positives, to give you what is most likely a better on curve play card the next turn!

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    Wow, and I thought I was the only one who felt this way.  I agree with you Nebuchadnezzar and LinkBlade.  I sometimes find myself barely finishing my weekly quests these days.  I'm still hitting at least D5 or legend every month, but last month and this month I haven't had any real drive to get to legend.  The game just doesn't hold the same gloss it used to for me.  The previous meta with Quest Warlock was around for far too long, and I think the devs took too long making adjustments to the meta catastrophe. 

    I've been trying to play Legends of Runeterra as well, but it's also not as fun.  Overall I think the defining characteristic of card games has become too, I dunno...normal?  Rational? I'm not sure the word to use to define it. 

    Overall, I just don't find them as enjoyable as I used too.  I swap between modes daily, trying to fill in my free time but honestly I'm just counting the days until new games on my radar show up... (Namely Darktide, Jurassic World Evolution 2, and a few others)

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
    Quote From linkblade91
    Quote From FortyDust
    Quote From linkblade91
    Quote From FortyDust

    I'm actually pretty disappointed that Arcane is completely absent from the list of Protectors so far. I believe all the other schools are represented, so it kind of sucks that you cannot field a full, balanced team of Arcane synergy.

    Do you want to, though? From what I've seen so far 1/1/1 might be a risky strategy, because while you're covering every Role you're also exposing yourself to double-damage in at least some capacity. You also spread out your damage such-that you can't burst down a major threat/boss with your superior color. There should be an Arcane Protector for when you want to do 2/1 comps in blue+red or red+green, but I don't know yet if fielding a "balanced" team is a good idea.

    Yes, for easy bounties I'd definitely want something more like that.

    But do you think 1-1-1 is a bad way to open in PvP, considering you have no idea what your opponent is going to open with?

    Also, let's not forget that we've only seen non-Heroic, low-level PvE. These seem to be designed so that you can't possibly lose unless your party is severely under-leveled.  I hope and expect the more challenging battles to involve some full RGB comps, in which case you are open to critical damage no matter what team you field.

    I suppose going RGB in PvP isn't the worst idea: you wouldn't want to be hard-countered by unfortunate team picking, so an RGB comp would let you "feel out" your opponent and adapt from your bench. And Heroic having RGB teams seems certainly possible.

    My favorite theoretical team is TLK/Diablo/Xyrella, and that's a "balanced" team; I guess I'm just concerned that the "meta" won't let me play it, but I'm trying to predict a future that's still two weeks away so who knows lol

    I know there's a PvP mode, and I'm certainly looking forward to Mercs release....

    But I'm going into this mode with the primary play/expectation of it being a PvE/rogue-lite mode.... are you not doing the same?

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    Justice Judge GIF by truTV

     

    Ok last gif. I promise...

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    Hmmm.... :P

    Willy Wonka GIFs | Tenor

    I mean your name IS AngryShuckle after all...

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    Oh boy, you two...

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago

    Oh boy this seems like a fun thread (sarcasm).

    I'll leave my .02 cents and then hope I don't get downvoted like FortyDust did.  ( I mean the regulars on the forums who actually post and contribute at this point are known, so it's pretty obvious where the downvotes are coming from...this isn't reddit afterall, we aren't a mega-forum here.)

    1) Did this call-out need a thread? no. was it at least founded in some schadenfreude derived from premature hater/cancel-culture behavior?  Probably.

    2) Did many of the people in the thread get off topic with the reward track debate?  Absolutely.  The point of Forty's original post (as I interpret it) is that cancel-culture/hater-train behavior should not be encouraged.  Have none of you ever heard of the old adage "The end justifies the means"? 

    It's not to be taken literally.  It's meant to provoke a thought process that does your behavior (bad) seem justified even if the outcome is good?  That is a subjective through process, but many people subscribe to the theory that the ends DO NOT justify the means.  (Being an asshole, berative, overly-hostile just to get what you want...regardless if it's from a person or a corporation is not civil behavior in this day and age, but hey that's just my opinoiin)

    3) Downvotes are meant to call out caustic/callous behavior that does not contribute to a thread.  Downvotes are NOT meant to be a means of "I don't like your opinion and disagree with it."  (Unfortunately many many many people do this though.) 

    4) Content creators may make their livelihood off of the game, but that does not mean that they are bound by morality to disseminate whatever information they post as legitimate.  In short:  using content creators as an "appeal to authority" that they are the "alpha and omega" of public opinion is extremely naive and short sighted.  They are fallible, make mistakes, make assumptions like the rest of us.  

    To put it another way:  Look at content creators like a game's version of news channels.  Each content creator has a bias.  Is your content creator the "Fox News" (R) , "CNN" (L), or "Rueters" (N) of of that game's content creation?  

    5) No-one is saying you have to agree with FortyDust.  His initial post was probably too tongue in cheek and didn't start the thread off on a good foot, but the rest of his replies were pretty accurate.  Don't allow someone's initial impression (however bad it may be) , make you give up your objectivity.

     

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
    Quote From AngryShuckie

     and use whichever ones look most cool at the time I find them. 

    Hey, in Pokemon Blue, I would always spend way more time than necessary in Viridian forest trying to farm that 5% chance of Pikachu showing up.  And then subsequently spending time  leveling my Pikachu via caterpies and pidgeys.  Doesn't matter that Brock was a ground gym that completely countered Pikachu.  Level him up enough and quick attack can still do the trick. :D

    Even if they sucked, when I played Yellow, I would always keep the "big 3" trifecta and Pikachu in my party (Squirtle, Charmander, Bulbasaur) even if by all try-hard accounts most of them were bad (except Squirtles evolved form, Blastoise, which apparently is a half-decent competitive pokemon but I digress).  Sometimes aesthetics/fun outweights sweatiness/tryharding :)

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 3 months ago

    Except that's not what he said.  He LITERALLY said:

    After the Mercenaries announcement I decided that the amount of paid stuff they started tossing around is just way too much and switched from a completionist (gathering each and every piece of cosmetics/card backs/etc.) to a F2P player.

    F2P.  Do you know what that means?  Free to play.  i.e. "I don't spend money".

    Then, to top things off, they follow that first statement up with this:

    The incoming portraits only reaffirm my decision. No more preorders from me either. 

    Portraits, PURELY OPTIONAL cosmetic pieces which does not impact his/her/it's ability to play Hearthstone whatsoever and he has the gall to say "no more preorders either" ?  It's being completely infantile about something that is not even required to play the game.  Like I said in my previous post...  He already made him up his mind to not spend money, he was just looking for some excuse to announce it to the world for some odd reason. 

    At no point did he make the comment or insinuation "this is the point where I decided not to buy every skin".  So I'm not sure how you went from "F2P/No more preorders" to "I'm not going to buy every skin", wishful thinking perhaps?  I myself pre-order almost every expansion (except for 2 expansions in the past) and occasionally buy skins/cosmetics.  I don't consider myself "Free2Play" because I'm a purchasing consumer.

    And lastly, he's not the OP (original poster), he's just a commenter like you and me. FluxFlashor is the one who posted the thread/article.

  • Sykomyke's Avatar
    Grand Crusader 780 985 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 3 years, 3 months ago

    Dear Blizzard, please have the ONIK music playing in the background if you have this Medivh as your bartender and I'll literally pay you double for this skin.  I love that song so much...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlHx7YNWYGY