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I know we have discussed it before, but you know you are a serious playing card collector when you value other things in terms of playing cards. As in, “That costs three Arabesques!”, or “It is not so bad, just two Citizens decks”.

Bradius wrote:I know we have discussed it before, but you know you are a serious playing card collector when you value other things in terms of playing cards. As in, “That costs three Arabesques!”, or “It is not so bad, just two Citizens decks”.

So funny that you should mention this.

One of my kids is really into this video game called "Fortnite," and he got me sucked into it, as well. I know, I know, you serious gamers out there likely have a catalog of reasons why it's not as good as this game or that game, and it's got a lot of design defects (I'm a software designer and programmer, so believe me, I know). But, it's fun.

They recently had a cross-promotion with the launch of the movie John Wick 3, and you could spend "V-Bucks" (game currency that is earned periodically by completing challenges or you can spend real money to buy V-Bucks) to buy a John Wick player avatar that's kinda cool. I didn't have enough V-Bucks saved up in my account to buy the avatar while it was available, and I really wanted it, but I'd have had to spend $24 real dollars to get enough V-Bucks to get it. One of my other sons, who believes (probably correctly) that Fortnite will fade away within a year or so because of its terrible design flaws and lack of real gamer aesthetic, said to me, "Well, is it worth two decent decks of playing cards? Will you still feel in a couple years like it was worth getting it, instead of two decent decks of playing cards?"

Genius!

And, no, I didn't buy it. Would have been cool if I already had "earned" enough V-Bucks from gameplay, but wasn't worth sacrificing a couple hypothetical Butterfields or Tomlinsons in the real world.

Fortnite. Tried it once and it didn't appeal to me, though the whole Battle Royale genre isn't really my thing.

I think it's interesting how popular it's become though, and I'm also curious about how long it'll last. Apex Legends, one of Fortnite's competitors and arguably a much better game in technical terms, started off really well but has been losing players in the past two months. Meanwhile, Epic Games has made so much money off of Fortnite that they can actually try to rival the behemoth that is Valve (Steam) as a PC games online store. I could go into a whole tirade about how they're doing it in the worst possible way, but it's late and I've been writing too much BS for my school work today as it is.

Fortnite as a phenomenon, like Pokemon Go, I think will slow down, but certainly not overnight.

Sorry for the tangent, but we ARE in this forums closest thing to the Twilight Zone (moreso when sprouts was here).

Yeah, MOBAs aren't my bag either. Plus - and this may be because I'm (alas) old now, or because I don't really follow them - they seem to have a shorter lifespan in terms of cultural salience than other genres of video games. If Rockstar or Valve, Nintendo or Square-Enix, puts out a video game, it's a part of the subculture that stays relevant for at least two or three years. Meanwhile I feel like Fortnite replaced Overwatch practically overnight.

Also, my overarching philosophy on free-to-play is: if you open your wallet for a F2P game, you've already lost. (On the subject of playing cards I've long since resigned myself to being a loser. [MURRAY])

Merlebird wrote:Also, my overarching philosophy on free-to-play is: if you open your wallet for a F2P game, you've already lost. (On the subject of playing cards I've long since resigned myself to being a loser. [MURRAY])

AMEN to that. Couldn't have said it better. *Beck starts to play in the background*

Merlebird wrote:Also, my overarching philosophy on free-to-play is: if you open your wallet for a F2P game, you've already lost. (On the subject of playing cards I've long since resigned myself to being a loser. [MURRAY])

Have to disagree on this one.

When you used to be able to create your own player builds on NHL, I'd shell out $30 on Day 1 to unlock all 12 of the enhancement slots and get all of the +7 attributes that I would use.

You had to play a lot of offline hockey to unlock them game-wise, and I almost exclusively played EASHL, which is online-interactive. If you didn't unlock those slots or attribute boosts, then you were doing yourself and your team a disservice.

You still had to earn Legend 3 by actually playing the game and averaging an A- overall rating, which naturally boosted your "experience" that increased your ability to slide-up skills, but you never "max out" all skills or anything. Even with 12 unlocked slots and 12 +7 attributes at Legend 3, you could only get a forward up to 90 overall and a defenseman up to 94 overall (out of 99 max).

If you're talking about the EA NHL games, they're not F2P.

Regardless, I also disagree slightly. It's rare, but there are good F2P games out there where I won't mind making a small microtransaction to support the developer. Depending on how much value there is in terms of $ to increased enjoyment ratio, it could be well worth it.

I share the philosophy when it comes to lootboxes or anything involving chance, though.

MagikFingerz wrote:Regardless, I also disagree slightly. It's rare, but there are good F2P games out there where I won't mind making a small microtransaction to support the developer. Depending on how much value there is in terms of $ to increased enjoyment ratio, it could be well worth it.

"Philosophy" was probably a poor word choice on my part, since it implies a level of impartial reasoning that isn't always there. In many cases, it's objectively true and obvious on its face that a given F2P game has been engineered to strip-mine profit by maximizing engagement while minimizing investment in quality, and there you could call it a principled stance. But I have played and enjoyed the (very) rare F2P game, and in those instances my objection boils down to a kneejerk Midwestern revulsion at paying for anything that can be had for free. (As a people we are notoriously frugal and inordinately proud of this.)

MagikFingerz wrote:If you're talking about the EA NHL games, they're not F2P.

Regardless, I also disagree slightly. It's rare, but there are good F2P games out there where I won't mind making a small microtransaction to support the developer. Depending on how much value there is in terms of $ to increased enjoyment ratio, it could be well worth it.

I share the philosophy when it comes to lootboxes or anything involving chance, though.

Fortnite is free?

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TwoPiece wrote:

MagikFingerz wrote:If you're talking about the EA NHL games, they're not F2P.

Regardless, I also disagree slightly. It's rare, but there are good F2P games out there where I won't mind making a small microtransaction to support the developer. Depending on how much value there is in terms of $ to increased enjoyment ratio, it could be well worth it.

I share the philosophy when it comes to lootboxes or anything involving chance, though.

Fortnite is free?

Freemium is free as well...

but yah, in all seriousness, Fortnite is free to play.

shiroo56 wrote:

TwoPiece wrote:

MagikFingerz wrote:If you're talking about the EA NHL games, they're not F2P.

Regardless, I also disagree slightly. It's rare, but there are good F2P games out there where I won't mind making a small microtransaction to support the developer. Depending on how much value there is in terms of $ to increased enjoyment ratio, it could be well worth it.

I share the philosophy when it comes to lootboxes or anything involving chance, though.

Fortnite is free?

Freemium is free as well...

but yah, in all seriousness, Fortnite is free to play.

I didn't know that. I thought it was a typical $60 PS4/XBox/Cheaper-for-PC game.

TwoPiece wrote:

shiroo56 wrote:

TwoPiece wrote:

MagikFingerz wrote:If you're talking about the EA NHL games, they're not F2P.

Regardless, I also disagree slightly. It's rare, but there are good F2P games out there where I won't mind making a small microtransaction to support the developer. Depending on how much value there is in terms of $ to increased enjoyment ratio, it could be well worth it.

I share the philosophy when it comes to lootboxes or anything involving chance, though.

Fortnite is free?

Freemium is free as well...

but yah, in all seriousness, Fortnite is free to play.

I didn't know that. I thought it was a typical $60 PS4/XBox/Cheaper-for-PC game.

I didn't know either at the bedinning of the hype, but I guess this is one of the main reasons why it became this popular. I didn't know that League of Legends is a free to play game, too.

shiroo56 wrote:I didn't know either at the bedinning of the hype, but I guess this is one of the main reasons why it became this popular. I didn't know that League of Legends is a free to play game, too.

Makes sense. Can't much criticize a poop game that's free.

Fortnite isn't "poop." It's just... got some very weird user interface choices that make it... occasionally odd.

TwoPiece wrote:

shiroo56 wrote:I didn't know either at the bedinning of the hype, but I guess this is one of the main reasons why it became this popular. I didn't know that League of Legends is a free to play game, too.

Makes sense. Can't much criticize a poop game that's free.

I think shiro's right in that - for both Fortnite and LoL - it's a deliberate (and canny) choice to drive more initial impressions, and thus hopefully a larger overall number of paying users, than you would get by setting a hard price point upfront. It's a tried-and-true business model beloved by cartoon drug dealers: the first hit's free.

The fact that players can't demand refunds for a game that didn't cost them anything in the first place is just icing on the cake.

rousselle wrote:Fortnite isn't "poop." It's just... got some very weird user interface choices that make it... occasionally odd.

It's poop and you know it.

It's a flying squirrel!

TwoPiece wrote:It's a flying squirrel!

Almost

Dragonball GT s**ks!

The relationship between Pan, Trunks and Goku is just awful and never feels natural.
The random apperance of new foes is just obnoxious and gives the whole series a feel of "we don't know what to do with the franchise"
SS4 and the Golden Monkey have a nice concept behind them but still s*ck and just feel like the whole saga, rushed/not thought through.
The eyeliner style of SS4 is more or less questionable.

If I wouldn't have known before that Akira Toriyama hasn't been involved in GT, it would have been my first thought immediatly.
Does GT count as canon? Let's hope not.

Overall, on a scale between a Lotrek Silk and Anyone logo, I would rate Dragonball GT as a Anyone logo 10th recolour with worst registration from USPCC!

... files deleted; and although I refuse to use violence and am a strong advocate against any form of physical violence, I'm going to punch people if they ask me if I think Dragonball GT is cool/good/worth a watch! [BACON]

Not canon, thankfully

MagikFingerz wrote:Not canon, thankfully

Praised be.

Shouldn't have wasted my time though...

shiroo56 wrote:

MagikFingerz wrote:Not canon, thankfully

Praised be.

Shouldn't have wasted my time though...

I don't remember it being that bad.

TwoPiece wrote:I don't remember it being that bad.

At the end of the day, it is just my personal opinion. Maybe you think differnet about the saga.

As a grown up I can't barely rewatch Dragonball, due to the unnecessary extension of the episodes. When I was a kid I was so pumped about every episode, that I didn't realized how slow the storytelling pace of DB is at all. Dragonball Z almost the same, as a juvenile you are pumped and start to realize the pattern (e.g. Genkidama) but you are forgiving because you still love the franchise. I do still like the storyline and the charcters have good archs.
Dragonball GT misses all of that and through the eyes of an adult now, you're just left with a crap tv show.

This topic just came up on another board...

Are you a cake or a pie guy for dessert?

When I was elementary/middle-school aged, I mainly loved cake, for the icing. Then I grew up and was mainlining Dutch Apple Pie. Nowadays I love cakes, for the actual cake, with very small doses of icing. Double chocolate, Reese's, or Red Velvet cakes mainly.

I guess I am a pie person mainly, especially Pecan Pie or Cherry Pie.

Cake, fo sho. I am a big fan of chocolate with raspberry filling. Red velvet is also my jam. I am at the point where overly-sweet frosting can ruin my day. That being said, I wouldn't turn down my mother-in-law's Apple Pie or Peach Pie, ala mode.

For me the matchup depends on the specific kinds of cake and pie involved and the mood I'm in. I agree that people often put way too much icing on cake and I usually end up scraping most of it off (unless it's cream cheese icing).

Top tier pies: cherry OR mixed berry, peach, lemon meringue
Scrub tier pies: apple, blueberry, coconut creme

Top tier cakes: black forest, red velvet, lemon OR orange
Scrub tier cakes: white/yellow, german chocolate, carrot

Merlebird wrote:Scrub tier cakes: white/yellow, german chocolate, carrot

I couldn't agree more. German Chocolate cake is a crime against humanity.