Tim actually did a short video on it back in June, which I don’t remember at all
likewise I am not trying to shill for Tim
Strictly speaking, I still haven’t sold Axe yet, because my sell order is on a 15-day hold since I don’t have any Steam authentication. So far, it’s a little more expensive than on the first day.
The Artifact Reddit is full of defensive posts about how great Artifact is and how the complainers will eventually see the light:
I know a dying game when I see it, hope my Axe’s value holds up for another week
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I mean, I’d personally have no problem playing Artifact with only 500 other people and the cards becoming dirt cheap for others to join in. I’ll take a loss for a great game, which it is.
Prismata is my most-played game on Steam (thanks to the recommendation someone posted here), and that game is both entirely free for multiplayer (no grinding) and never has more than 80 people on it.
I’m just happy Valve is making great games that they want to make now, regardless of what the Internet tells them to do, and the next one they’re putting out is a walking simulator about two black lesbians in a desert.
Couldn’t disagree more about Valve’s motives, Valve is clearly only making games they think have potential of making a huge sustainable revenue stream, and/or drive a grand ecosystem agenda (which likewise, eventually is supposed to turn into a sustainable revenue stream). And the one-time windfall of a Half-Life just doesn’t qualify as worth the hassle for them anymore
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If Valve only cared about money, they would’ve catered to Hearthstone players.
Instead, they chose to cater to those who have triple-digit IQs.
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my completely, entirely uninformed take is:
artifact looks like you’re playing 3 games of hearthstone simultaneously
“yo you like that hearthstone what if you could play multiple games at the same time”
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I mean, that’s always a really attractive way to design card games imo
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yeah I mean I’d play it if the business model wasn’t just TCG but virtual
there are streamers who do this semi-regularly and unsurprisingly they’re loving artifact
it’s a tossup for me, being able to buy the singles I want immediately is something I can appreciate over needing to f2p grind with a shitty deck + buying a ton of packs to either luck into getting the cards I want or getting enough cards to dust for the one I want
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is this a parody of something
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seems pretty clear that it’s one digit of IQ for every game of hearthstone you’re playing simultaneously
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I think the business model is fine next to Hearthstone’s, it’s just presented in Valve’s nakedly honest style which makes it seem grosser. I like playing Magic without the market, leaving that as a safety valve for certain types of competition, and I’m thinking the market being this present (and this dominant in the conversation – these things create and feed themselves) is grinding against people.
Valve has had a real good run of watching all the data they collect from Steam and knowing exactly where to strike and how to build a business model, I wouldn’t count on any volume of complaints causing damage without letting it settle for a few months. There’s a tenuous link between vocal community members and the opinion of the tens of millions whom you’re trying to show that you even exist; information can travel across but doesn’t necessarily. I wouldn’t bet against Valve the same way I wouldn’t bet against Blizzard or James Cameron.
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You can try Phantom Draft mode if you don’t want any collectible aspects. Aside from the 20$ game purchase cost (which you can offset by selling your 10 starter packs like I did), it has free entry and no rewards.
I only play Hearthstone arena mode while ignoring the cardpack rewards, so I thought I might also enjoy repeated Phantom Draft in Artifact as well. My problem so far is that the game seems very dry and like a big time and cognitive commitment – impossible to dip into or ease into.
Games this complex often have some social element that helps with that (e.g. your experienced friend helping you build your first Magic deck, and I imagine Dota/League have this kind of dynamic too), which is totally lacking here. Or they’re like Starcraft or Elder Scrolls: Legends and have a 10+ hour campaign that ramps new players up from the basics.
Because there’s nothing remotely like this here, onboarding new players up to the point that this feels like a lightweight experience except for key decisions is a huge wall. Opening my first 10 packs in themselves felt like an overwhelming info-dump of card rules, and the drafting UI is even more intimidating. That even I feel this way when I’ve played hundreds of games of Race for the Galaxy (the most complicated non-CCG card game) is a really bad sign. That’s my theory for why Artifact is flopping.
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They were actually hyping this up heavily prior to release and then totally failed to deliver any of it, which baffles me. There was buzz about text chat with random players being a thing (where it isn’t in HS and most other digital card games), and it was in the beta but they disabled it for launch.
I’m expecting them to eventually get around to including social features and more custom game options (1v1 drafting, cube drafting), because every other Valve MP game has been totally about these things, but yeah they’re shooting themselves in the foot not having it already.
When I boot up Dota 2 there’s a little chat room that defaults to the town that I live in, and I’ve never used this (nor seen anyone else say anything in it) but it’s a pretty neat touch.
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can confirm that i’m dumb as shit and don’t go on Steam
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I was playing Pokemon Crystal Clear, and started off in Johto with an Elekid, got to Goldenrod, and was like, man, I’m not feeling having an electric type as my main (even though Elekid/Electabuzz is rad to have in your party because of their radical elemental punches). So, I started over in Kanto with Houndour, which is pretty decent. Kanto also means I can get an Abra (i just caught one, actually) and a Gastly, and this hack has an in-game trader hanging out somewhere that will help to evolve trade-only Pokemon. Generation 2 is my favorite, but I don’t think I could build a party of just generation 2 Pokemon, I don’t remember dick about which are any good.
Most of the roadblocks are removed, so you can just skip over gyms if you want, and since levels all scale with you, you can always go back and fuck with them later and not have it be a total clownshow. You can also re-challenge gym leaders, and re-challenging them unlocks more difficult/higher level configurations for the gyms so you can level up your Pokemon on trainers which usually get you more EXP. When I was in Johto, I got an EXP Share from the casino (the slots are all fucking bullshit) and was leveling up on the Miltank gym (which was a breeze with my Elekid).
Since they gutted story events, the rival stuff is gone, and instead, there are these goofy-looking rivals that you find chilling out that you can talk to and battle if you want. so far, the gimmick has been they have a super weak pokemon (like a magikarp or a togepi) with an “ancient gene” that activates that boosts their attack super high and gives them access to shit like dragon rage (in the case of the magikarp), and a metronome that’s pretty much guaranteed to wreck your shit unless it misses. AND they always do a full restore on their gimmick monster. it’s definitely some bullshit, but at least it provides a bit of challenge to an easy game without being impossible, just frustrating early on.
probably because bug pokemon suck! when i played on an actual gameboy, i used to use butterfree just because it could cause confusion and sleep and stuff which were supposed to be helpful for catching pokemon. now savestates are my butterfree.
I’ve never really used Houndour because I always started with Cyndaquil, but I was expecting Brock to be difficult. It turns out, Pursuit is pretty rad against a lot of things. It comes with some fighting move, but I never use it because its physical attack stat is garbage, but it has pretty high special attack and defense.
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The PC port is going to become my Last Remnant PS3 (rip).
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I could start doing onrush like next week btw, not sure if people wanna coordinate
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The newest patch to Deadfire adds a subclass to rogue that focuses on a charm spell. It has been… awkward and funny. Caveat downloador, it only affects kith (edit) in combat (/edit).
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I downloaded onrush I have been interested but I wanted to play it on the PC
but if it’s free for PS4 why not