BardicKnowledge

Wes I am going to get you cash for both Addie and myself -- mostly posting here as a reminder to do just that very shortly. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Backed yesterday, and was happy to do so! Impostor Nostalgia was amazing, and I'm sure this followup will be just as good, if not better.

Great stuff! What's your background in music theory? And have you ever thought about doing a long-form analysis of an entire soundtrack, along the lines of what my colleague Steven Reale does in this article? Check out http://www.ludomusicology.org/ if you're interested in this sort of thing -- I'm sure that conference organizers would love to get more submissions!

I find that Quinn makes a very useful counterpick character in the top lane. She's one of the few folks that can just shut down Renekton, Riven, Nasus, and the other melee-range bruisers that tend to sit there. Her range gives her an inherent laning advantage, but her combo of blind + disengage allows her to force trades in her favor against the majority of top lane melee characters. As for an ADC, I think that in normals she's not great, but again on an organized team in ranked she has a place, as others have mentioned. Looking forward to Lucian for the same reasons, and I might well try him top lane also. Edit: Almost forgot that Quinn makes exceptionally good use of Blade of the Ruined King's active, as she can go in with backflip, use as she approaches, and then flip outside of immediate countering range.

I've started to run 1 crit mark on all my AD pages, both ADC and top. The loss of 1 damage isn't that big of a deal, but having a tiny crit chance by default is awesome, since the RNG makes it better than 1/100 odds (not reliable per se, but it's won me multiple early trades).

I want sequels to Crystalis and StarTropics. I don't really care who develops them, though the team that did Crusader of Centy for Sega would be my #1 choice.

Happy birthday, Stevo! Do something fun to celebrate, and we'll see you over New Year's!

I am bumping this to remind everyone to watch the show tonight, and to vote for Doug as part of the 3Penny Orchestra!

I'm saying that in academia, she would be required to cite her sources for the videos. Not doing so is plagarism and demonstrates a lack of vigor in research. As far as communicating her point effectively in a YouTube video, not playing the games doesn't hurt her point at all. The more important issue is below... This type of error of omission is the real problem with her video. Cherry picking a moment out of Borderlands 2 without giving any context to it at all only serves to weaken her argument -- as I linked previously, she did the same with FF1 and the rescue of Princess Sara (in the opening 10 minutes), which is only in place as a means by which to critique damsel plots! "Our game is about a hell of a lot more than saving a damsel in distress -- what now, Dragon Warrior?" Just like BL2, this example hurts her point much more than helps it since the context is not really implementing the damsel trope in the way she claims it is. TL:DR; Saying that the situation in Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, or Ghouls and Ghosts is the same as the more complex cases in Final Fantasy or Borderlands 2 feels lazy at best, and IMO severely weakens her overall argument.

As an academic who presents academic work on video games, I can tell you what is and is not considered acceptable on this: First, you don't have to play everything -- let's get that out of the way right now. That being said, you are expected to know a great deal about your material -- if you want to be an "expert" then you'd better possess "expertise" on the subject at hand! For instance, while pulling the videos from other sources is acceptable, not understanding that Zelda fights alongside Link against Ganondorf in Twilight Princess as well as Ocarina of Time demonstrates a lack of knowledge about the subject material -- it's not as if this is a specialized piece of trivia either! If you want to be an "expert", then you should know the basic walkthrough of your game and how all the boss fights work. See http://bardicknowledge.blogspot.com/ for a similar argument about Anita cherry-picking an examples without placing it in context vis a vis Final Fantasy I. In any case, the biggest problem here is not that she did not play through all of the games to generate her video resources, but that she does not admit to it! Citing your sources is standard procedure in academia, and anything less that full citations is unacceptable in print. Now, do I think her video needs to meet the same requirements as academic print research to make a valid point? No. Using this point as a means by which to avoid addressing the content of her argument is both immature and foolish. However, if she wants to present this as academic research and not a hobby, she needs to put in an amount of work commensurate with an academic article.

Honestly, I think that SCV is the superior game. II was better than either III or IV, but the latest game fixes so much and adds so much that it'll feel strange going back.

Just beat the game (on Easy, I admit) for the first time, using the Nesasio. Max cloak, 3 shields, and 6 engines made for great defense, while I had the mini laser (which is super good for 1 power), Hull Laser II (the 3 shot one), and a Pike Beam in addition to both Anti-Ship beam and laser drones. A lucky run for sure!

This, basically. Do you have to trade for multiple sets of the summer sale cards, then?

Since the first round of this thread, there has been an amazing jRPG to be released on Steam. I highly recommend Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale to everyone -- it makes fun of the majority of jRPG conventions by casting you in the role of a shop owner that has to sell items to adventurers! Comedy gold, though it _is_ super anime (and is self-aware as such), so that might be a killer for some folk (you're missing out though!)

I was just demoted out of Silver V to Bronze I -- I need to find some time to play a ton, and it just isn't there.

If you are low level, invest in the Tier 1 runes. They will help you adjust to the rune system, are dirt cheap, and above all other roles, the jungler needs as much of a boost at Level 1 as you can muster. That being said, avoid the Tier 2 runes like the plague -- they cost too much relative to the benefits they confer. If you are high level with a set of Tier 3 runes already (which should be a priority once they become available), my advice is to be opportunistic in your ganks -- don't go out of your way too often or you will fall behind on farm. After wraiths, get mid lane; if the timing isn't right, don't wait, just keep on cycling. Lastly, one of the best things to do in the jungle is get vision of the enemy jungle so you can catch the other jungler at low health as they take red / blue buff. Consider buying an extra ward or two for this purpose, and call for assistance from the relevant lane when you spot the opportunity.

Happy birthday, everyone!

I've played through the first two worlds of this amazing hack, and wanted to let other people know about it. http://www.newerteam.com/ A team of people have made their own fan-made sequel to NSMB Wii, and it looks better, sounds nicer, and plays smoother than the original game -- an improvement on every front. I especially am pumped that the Hammer Suit returns from Super Mario Bros. 3! Best of all, you can save at any point without having to finish it, so those of you (like me) that can only play a level or two at a time are good to go. For those of you that can already run homebrew stuff on your Wii, go get this immediately. For those of you that don't have a homebrew enabled Wii, there is an option in the install guide (on the website) that will get you up and running without having to install ANYTHING to your Wii, so that even those of you worried about breaking your system (which is difficult to do as long as you follow the instructions) can get in on the action. My favorite thing thus far is either the improved world map or the leaf effects in the first secret world. Let me know what you guys think if there's anyone else here playing through this new hack!

FTL is only $2.49 from the website -- it comes as either direct download or a redeemable Steam code. Go get it!

Zircon: I think you vastly overestimate the penetration of broadband Internet. Your high % does not take into account what speed of "broadband" people have, for instance -- a relatively low percentage of the US has speeds of 15 Mbps or higher. Visit the Midwest sometime (and not the Twin Cities etc. where OA and I are, but the rural, farm communities that make up a majority of the space here) and you'll discover lots of houses that can barely get a 3 Mbps DSL connection -- cabled broadband is not even planned for many of the places in Iowa and Nebraska, and I imagine the rest of the Midwest is similar. Your analogy that "Steam works this way and we don't care" falls flat because people who game on PCs are generally wiling to tinker to make things function, including their Internet settings. People buy consoles because they _work_. Moms in farming communities who make purchasing decisions want to buy one device that plays Blu-ray movies and games, and they want it to work with zero further input from them, including hooking the thing up to the Internet. As of 2010, only 54% of Wii owners, 73% of 360 owners, and 78% of PS3 owners hooked their consoles up to the Internet. This move isolates 15-20% of the total market.

I have decided to post here instead of responding to your survey. This is largely because listing all of the games I have played (especially on Nintendo platforms!) would take me longer than it took to write my own ludomusicology MA thesis. I highly recommend considering asking about genres or categories of games instead of titles. Similarly, I'm not sure that approaching your research question from the relatively limited perspective of the culture surrounding gaming will prove very fruitful, as it feels too broad to be of great use. You are likely to find that a group of gamers who plays primarily action platformers will have an entirely different culture from people who play first-person shooters, who have different experiences and relationships to game audio than do players of Plants vs. Zombies or Peggle.

Honestly, I'm done with Star Wars gaming unless I see one of three things: 1) Jedi Knight sequel / reboot 2) TIE Fighter sequel / reboot 3) Something really inventive and risky that makes good use of the license Unfortunately, EA is not likely to give me any of those.

1. Kamek (Yoshi's Island) 2. Proto Man (Megaman) 3. Issac (Golden Sun)

I'll second Redesign, it is unbelievably good. I'm also a casual speed-runner of both Super Metroid and Castlevania SOTN. SOTN is really fun, since there are lots of small tweaks to the route that you can attempt, and lots of fun glitches to utilize.

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy being a parent as much as my wife and I do.