Bought it, gonna give it a shot tonight. I remember hearing about this while on a bus to class maybe 7 years ago, and even though I wasn’t a Spelunky guy, I wanted this thing immediately. Derek Yu seems to have a pretty good handle on how to make a compelling game, so I’m looking forward to seeing this collaborative project.

I believe Erdogan (and Turkey in general) were big players in getting the wheat trade deal settled, as well as the prisoner exchange, though I could be misremembering. It’s just a weird situation of Erdogan having a history of centralizing power, but also making moves to be more relevant on the global stage.

Is it covert if you know it’s happening and have agreed to it?

Why is this a news article? Why is this posted to this community? It’s a well written article, but it carries no new news, and is just an article by the author of a book that’s about to go on sale.

This game gave me my first real experience of melancholy. A sort of bittersweet sadness, born of what was and what could have been.

I’m digging the Lowlands a ton, but I actually didn’t spend too much time in Grothmar. I’ve done the cycle of meta events there maybe 2-3 times total. They’re fun and interesting, but when they’re not active, I feel 0 compulsion to do anything on that map.

To the Moon is an awesome little narrative. One of the games that reminded me that there’s room to feel feelings in games. And the main theme song (I think performed by Laura Shigihara?) is one of my favorite pieces of music to come from a game.

I almost bit the bullet on an order of cards for Gruul Ramp, but held off since I rarely find Pauper firing off here, and would rather spend a bit on getting a decent Standard deck for some local events.

Do y’all think anything can unseat Affinity as the primary tempo-setter of the format? It feels like it defines what decks can or can’t succeed.

It still exists, but a lot of communities shut down after official matchmaking was implemented.

Back in the golden days of community servers, it sure as heck didn’t.

Maybe I’m crazy entitled, but I feel like if I’m spending a few hundred dollars on this piece of hardware, I shouldn’t have to pay an additional fee to get some of its basic built-in features to work well.

Cool! I already have a decent PC, but I entered anyways. I’m excited for the new expansion!

Raiding/Fractals/Strikes might be tough to start as a group of 2-3, but you can look for learning groups until you feel confident enough to just join randoms.

I learned to do fractals from following guild members back in the day, and now that I’m coming back after a 6 year hiatus, I’m just doing tier 2 or tier 3 dailies and enjoying them again. Strikes and raids require a bit more work, but they’re quite doable as long as you have a good teacher and can manage your mechanics on top of your role.

Not quite the full history. Poggers was based on PogChamp. PogChamp was a Twitch emote, of Street Fighter player/content creator Gootecks from when he and Mike Ross did a silly video bit playing pogs by dropping a fight stick on it.

PogChamp was used a ton on Twitch (and other creators made their own versions of the face), until Gootecks kinda got problematic with his remarks on Jan 6th (and other stuff like alternative health and COVID disbelief). I think they replaced his face with a number of other reactions that also fit the bill?

Embracer doesn’t really make a game good or bad. The harm they’ve brought to the industry has more to do with their acquisition of studios and then closing them down after realizing they’ve overextended themselves. In the early days, they were looked at as a potential boon to the industry, offering pay stability for studios with their size, but obviously they made some poor choices and have done irreparable damage to many developers’ lives.

I mean, GW2 (by Arenanet, owned by NCSoft) has had a lesbian couple since the first Living World season, and had a non-binary character in the 3rd expansion. They have inclusivity in a way that doesn’t feel hamfisted or marketed; it’s just in there because they feel like their world should have all sorts of people.

Awesome! I have the Warclaw since I used to be a WvW player before taking a long break, so it’ll be nice for them to feel more useful.

I think Heavensward was a moment where you really got to feel like the Warrior of Light. ARR was a little short on that (focused largely on the Scions and Alphi), and that’s actually an issue some people had with SB. ShB and EW really lean in hard with the character power fantasy.

It also had characters that players actually cared about, and so the consequences felt more “real.” I thought it was a step above ARR’s story, especially since I played ARR before they redid the quests to cut out a chunk of the busywork and optional dungeons.

Stormblood is where I first “fell off” of FFXIV and it took me a 3 month break before coming back to complete it.

I don’t think the story is bad, it just doesn’t have the same high of Heavensward. I think it tries to tell 2 stories, kind of as companion pieces to one another, in a very disjointed manner. But I enjoyed the added locations and a lot of what the expansion added to the game.

If you can get past the level 64 quests and still feel motivated, then you’ll find that the rest of it goes by easily. If you’re struggling to enjoy it, feel free to take a break and do some of the side content that you may have skipped, like lower relic weapons and normal raids.

How are people feeling about the WvW updates? It looks like they’re trying to encourage actual fights, rather than puppies chasing tails.