brownbear

ICYMI: A few weeks back, I wrote on Protoss underrepresentation in high-level StarCraft II tournaments, and suggested a different approach to StarCraft's tuning philosophy.

@SBC_Otis Apologies for the late response - here you go: illiteracyhasdownsides.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/how…

How To Get Worse At StarCraft II: illiteracyhasdownsides.com/2020/06/13/how… "Today I’ll be writing about a time I dedicated a hundred hours to doggedly improving at StarCraft II, only to find myself playing noticeably worse by the end."

Basically, I think a traditional business model would have produced a much different - and in my opinion much better - game. And I think the numerous indie RTS games that succeeded by going down that route are solid supporting evidence of that. 4/end

I also think the game’s relative lack of focus and occasional bonkers monetization is influenced by its business model, too. 3/x

This week, I wrote about how I’d still have preferred a traditional business model for Stormgate. 1/x

Three Age of Mythology accessibility features that I really appreciate: - Supply block notification ~6 supply beforehand - A few seconds of nothing at the start to set waypoints, queue villagers - Can ban autoqueue in ranked; still available in other game modes Game is so good

Anyway, that's my top 3. The common thread is establishing Stormgate's identity; its hook, its "thing". I feel that it's a bit muddled right now. If it finds that and frames it in the right way, I think it could really be a stellar game. All the best! 9/end

EA was in a weird spot because it didn’t "feel" like a new RTS due to the amount of playtesting it had received. So you were playing against people with tons of experience already, but it was hard to figure out even basic stuff like what Shroud is. 8/x

Here’s what I think Frost Giant needs to do to make 3v3 a success. 1/x

@CainRianhard @BomattCourier Yep, apologies for the confusion. I use illiteracyhasdownsides.com for my Substack nowadays. But everything from WordPress is still there, on the free WP domain: illiteracyhasdownsides.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/how…

#kiblergoogle how do I find the seminal article about improving at games that uses starcraft/age of empires/something else as examples

@Algost Absolutely let’s do it!! Ping me on Discord anytime

@brownbear_47 Let's go play together some day !

Age of Mythology: Retold is a sleeper hit for me, it's really fun. I'm gonna spend a lot of time with this game for the rest of the year.

@FenixScar Heck yeah man let’s do it!! Ping me on Discord anytime

@brownbear_47 Lets go and play a round or two in the near future <3

@Aliar199 My interpretation is not that he’s upset with his time investment but rather that he’s just explaining why he’s doing something else going forward.

@brownbear_47 I don't know. Like I get that he isn't having fun but it feels more like he is frustrated that the game is unfinished yet he invested the time in as if it were.

I thought this was a fair, reasonable and information-dense video.