I feel a little guilty when I feel like I'm snaking someone else's command in GW2. There are times though when someone has to bark out an order or two so we don't get a huge setback on part of a meta (or straight up fail), and if the commander doesn't do that, someone else does.
I'm not in the mood to publicly air the inside baseball of my own experiences, but yeah, a lot of people don't get it. It doesn't help when one's parents have a complete lack of cooking skill either.
"Are you here to see WCW, or are you here to see nWo?"
When I ranted a few days ago about HoT's gameplay, I forgot about the nightmare that's LWS2. My heart sinks every time I ever have to experience Dry Top, no matter how trivial the trip. And I haven't played enough of LWS1 to rank it. It just kind of sits unloved in my Story Journal.
In regard to pure gameplay (not story, just gameplay), if anyone was curious, my ranking of GW2 parts from best to worst:
LWS4 > EoD > PoF >>> VoE > SotO > LWS3 > Core > JW > IBS >>>>> HoT >>>>> LWS2
Am I the only one who learns basically nothing about Guild Wars 2 raid encounters by watching videos? I'm sure I annoy people with it, but I learn that kind of thing by doing. I can watch vids all day, but my brain is a sieve when it comes to replicating specific tactile video game things from them.
I'll be so glad when I can finally scrounge up those last two mastery points from End of Dragons. Everything I have left is... ugh... not even rough, just "ugh". Maybe I can get PUGs to do a couple of the EoD strike missions with me even though I don't have any KP? (Probably not, but worth a try.)
The proper way to do that is to explain all that bullshit *before* the fight, possibly twice, and then you give quick commands during the fight so people don't have to read your Clausewitz fanfiction and parse the details that actually matter while getting their ass kicked by an elder dragon.
If you're commanding the Soo-Won meta, please don't make players in your squad read a fucking novel for the first time in the middle of the final boss fight, where the player is going to be beyond overstimulated and won't comprehend much beyond two or three word commands.
this is as bad as the "if it has an em-dash it was written by AI" rule. I use em-dashes! & I often begin emails with "I hope this email finds you well". here's the thing: the LLMs use such punctuation & wording BECAUSE ACTUAL HUMAN WRITERS USE THESE THINGS! AND THEY WERE TRAINED ON OUR WRITING! smfh
Oh, and to be clear, I'm talking about HoT's *gameplay*. HoT's story is pretty good once you get past Verdant Brink (which is still *fine*, but overstays its welcome). The gameplay though? Ass. Straight ass.
LWS3 isn't *great*, but it's a million miles past HoT.
Heart of Thorns has the worst game design anywhere in Guild Wars 2, and I don't think it's a particularly interesting contest. That shit's straight unwashed dog ass.
Scraping up mastery points left on offer:
Already done: Core, VoE (so far)
Easy, if a little long and boring: PoF, EoD
Easy, if *incredibly* long and boring: JW
"I hate my life.": HoT, IBS, SotO
I think my current "long-term" goal for #GuildWars2 is honestly just the road to 671 mastery points. (So is the homestead, but that's very stop-and-go.)
AI freaks on bluesky: umm all the AI doomers online are being completely paranoid about its impact on labor which isn’t measurable
literally AI companies: lmao you can use us to fire those uppity bitches so you don’t have to pay them a living wage
I'm so sick of Janthir. Homesteading requires *so* much bullshit to maximize your building limits. I completely forgot about the Homestead Decoration Limit Increases until just now, thinking I was almost done with everything (only two Trade Capacity left), and now I feel despair. #GW2 #GuildWars2
“Vera,” said the countess, turning to her older daughter, obviously not her favorite. “How is it you have no notion of anything?” Excerpt From War and Peace Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky https://books.apple.com/us/book/war-and-peace/id460819556 This material may be protected by copyright.
“I often think how unfairly life’s good fortune is sometimes distributed. Why has fate given you two such nice children (excluding Anatole, your youngest, I don’t like him),” she put in peremptorily, raising her eyebrows, “such lovely children? And you really value them less than anyone and are therefore unworthy of them.” And she smiled her rapturous smile.” Excerpt From War and Peace Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky https://books.apple.com/us/book/war-and-peace/id460819556 This material may be protected by copyright.
“The count is suffering both physically and morally, and it seems you have taken care to cause him as much moral suffering as possible.” “May I see the count?” Pierre repeated. “Hm! … If you want to kill him, to kill him outright, you may see him.” Excerpt From War and Peace Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky https://books.apple.com/us/book/war-and-peace/id460819556 This material may be protected by copyright.
I’m reading War and Peace, and you know, probably a lot more people would read it if they knew just how extremely cunty the dialogue is
I guess now I *really* need to make my Power Virtuoso I planned to make, since they'll seem to be one of the big winners of the April 14 update, assuming Snow Crows's DPS estimates hold. #GW2 #GuildWars2
Guild Wars 2 is definitely one of those games for me where absence makes the heart grow fonder. I've learned that I actually like this game a lot more than I thought I did during my first stint. It's just when I need a break, I *have* to take a break.
Depluralize a movie:
Only Lover Left Alive
Nate Silver is a fucking clown who brings me deep, deep misery every time I see him do... *this*. I credit his work from over a decade ago for helping me be as hardcore about statistics as I am now, and seeing him completely lose his fucking mind feels like a betrayal.
Although this is comically mundane, it's definitely one of (many) small reasons why I have some real doomerist tendencies. I'm not full-doomer, but, like, doomer-adjacent.
This is some clown shoe shit. I've found that anyone who I've needed to say this (or something like this) to doesn't give a shit and just blasts through like a bunker buster. I've had to just cut people like that out of my life when I had the power to do so and silently seethe when I didn't.
THEY TRAINED THE AI ON ACTUAL WRITERS. YOU CANNOT TELL IF SOMETHING IS AI SIMPLY BASED ON IT USING PROPER GRAMMAR. IT STOLE FROM US!!! IT STOLE!!! IT IS A THIEF AND I WILL NOT EVER BE QUIET ABOUT IT!!!!
I know the tweet is Al generated when they use " ," before and.
“I will NOT sacrifice the Oxford comma. We've made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They assimilate the em dash and we fall back. They capture ‘not just X but y’ and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!”
For something entirely inconsequential, I do wish RPGs that have treasure chests would have in-world explanations as to why chests that require keys to unlock can't just be smashed with your weapon to get the loot inside.
Again, the problem with social media is that it's stopped being a place where you talk to your friends about everyday topics and turned into a place where you pray to your chosen influencer pharaohs. Bluesky, Twitter, Threads, Instagram, doesn't matter.
For a brief second there, I panicked, because I thought you were talking about Guild Wars 2, but then I read the headline again and let out a sigh of relief.
Notes (2/2):
3. This is another one that's a slam-dunk.
4. This was only meaningfully a choice between SeaQuest DSV and Orphan Black. SeaQuest just got in by a nose due to having more *foundational* effects on me, which I valued a bit higher.