Viewed: Free 2 Play

Long time, no post.  Yes, this is my first post of 2014.

Free to Play, Valve's documentary trailing the stories of various competitors from DOTA2's first global tournament dubbed "The International", is now available for viewing on Steam.  I had a chance to watch it this weekend and wanted to share some thoughts.

From outside view one might mistake this as just advertainment for DOTA2, but just a few minutes into the film it is very apparent that this is much more a human interest story about eSports and the athletes that pursue them than it is anything about DOTA2.  In fact, you would be hard pressed to find anything of interest from the actual game of DOTA2.

With the actual game out of the way we are left with a very well shot and edited  documentary that follows several of the players through the trials and tribulations of competing in the first million+ dollar tournament.  True to the name of the tournament, players from different countries are followed.

The film does an excellent job of giving watchers a glimpse not only into the lives of professional gamers, but also the culture surrounding those players in their home countries.  It is every interesting to see how the gaming culture is perceived in Asian countries vs countries in the west.  However, even with dramatically different cultural movements in regards to eSport gaming there was a consistent trend of doubting family members, specifically parents.  Yes, even in the gaming obsessed China the athletes mothers and fathers were just as disappointed in their children's investment into professional gaming at the cost of traditional education as the parents from the USA.

The core message of the film seems to be sacrifice.  The sacrifices are well documented throughout the film and whether its a lost girlfriend, a missed semester of school, or hard thoughts of a father no longer with a son they all hit home with the viewer.  These are real people pursuing a dream and I think most people can identify with that rare opportunity so few of use get to take that we can't help but cheer on those being followed in the film.

Of course it all comes crashing down for most of the competitors.  Most teams left The International with nothing more than expensive bills for plane tickets, hotels, and meals.  Unlike traditional sports there is no salary being earned by most eSport athletes.  If the team doesn't win, they don't get paid.  This adds up to interesting and heartwarming realizations from the participants after the tournament has come and gone.  There is in fact more to life than just games.

I can't recommend this documentary enough to gamers and nongamers alike.

Embedded copy below:

Broken hearts

Christmas 2013

Out with a whimper

Warhammer Online is no more.  I have mixed emotions and debated over the end of this week what to post.  There is no game that I have ever invested so much time in prior to it's release only to give up playing it a short few months after release.  I never felt ripped off by WAR.  My money was well spent for the experiences I had.  However, the game just never lived up to any of it's potential.

In reflection I look back on my first level 40 ding from WAR:

Solforge grumblings

Look, I really like Solforge.  No, I really do.  So you should probably just ignore this post.

But in the interest of typing out my thoughts: Solforge is utterly broken and imbalanced.  There is a two deck meta.  It is Steelforged Avatar decks or Nekrium/Tempys burn decks.  I'm not even sure if these are the best titles for the decks.

In the case of N/T burn decks the power comes from the Flameshaper Savant and it's ability to toss out ridiculous amounts of direct damage from every card that gets played.  Throw in cards like Master of Elements and Spark that allow for extra cards to be played each turn and it's trivial, at best, to win a long string of games against any other decks.




Well, except for Steelforged Avatar decks which are powered by, yep you guessed it, Steelforged Avatar.  The Avatar cycle is very simple: X Avatar gains plus health and attack equal to the number of same-faction cards in hand.  This is perfectly acceptable until you take into consideration that the Steelforged Avatar is the Alloyin faction's avatar.  The same Alloyin faction that happens to feature Ghox, Metamind Paragon and the free to play after level 2 Energy Surge which means you can roll out 30/30 bad asses for the same cost paid by any other deck for a horribly, not even fucking close, equivalent cost in cards and investment over the course of the game.

Throw in Alloyin's dominant control cards like Energy Prison and Metasculpt or even more insane, the out of play card leveling cards such as Technosmith and you very quickly can see how insane a Steelforged Avatar deck can get with just the Alloyin cards.  Throw in a splash of Chrogias and BOOM.

So whats at the root of the problem here?  Is it deck synergy winning out in a small card pool?  This would make sense as both Steelforged Avatar and Flameshaper Savants are part of their respective cycles and happen to be the only avatar and savant that gel perfectly with the current cards in game.  Yet, I can't really seem to convince myself this is the case.  It just feels like something else is amiss.

Tonight I think I've hit on the underlying issue.  It's actually mechanics combined with the way these cards are built.  Solforge does not have resources such as lands in Magic the Gathering or mana in Hearthstone.  Regardless of the power level of the cards being played, a Solforge player gets to play two cards per turn.  This means the cards that are chosen to be played need to always be high-value, best of cards because there is no "cost difference" between playing a level 1 Swampmoss Lurker and a level 3 Chrogias.  With the limitation for playing cards being only the number of cards that get played, then it is only obvious that the few cards that give "extra" plays are thus going to be the most powerful and empower the most powerful combos.

Steelforged Avatar doesn't break Solforge, but the likes of Ghox and Energy Surge do.  Both give draw advantage in a game where the player's deck infinitely recycles itself with stronger and stronger versions of cards.  Steelforged Avatars almost always have the right card to play and a hell of a bomb to drop at any time in the Steelforged Avatar that benefits from Alloyin cards in hand.

Flameshaper Savant doesn't break Solforge, but the likes of Master of Elements and Spark do.  Both give additional plays which in turn trigger additional direct damage hits from Flameshaper.  Since Flameshaper's ability can hit the player it only takes a couple in play to quickly burn down any opponent.

So the question and debate that needs to be had for Solforge is whether or not cards that give power through extra plays can exist in the game without fundamentally breaking the game by being the dominant strategy.  Right now, I can't even tell you the last time I faced a Uterra deck, let alone the last time I played a game that didn't feature Steelforged Avatar or Flameshaper.  This is not good to have such a stale metagame this early in the game's life, especially one that feels like it is stale because of flawed mechanics which can only get worse the more and more cards that are released to be abused by these flaws.

Black Friday Gaming Deals 2013

Video Game Deals

Amazon.com video game deals (limited quantity, new deals cycling on all day/weekend)
Some of my personal picks:
EVE Online The Second Decade collector's edition (price reduced starting at 4:10p PST today)
Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm (price reduced starting at 8:10p PST today)
For those of you with Skylander-obsessed kids: buy 2, get 1 free Skylanders SWAP force characters

Steam Autumn Sale
General Steam sale rules:
1. Don't buy a game until the last day of the sale unless it is on a daily sale
2. Flash sales are often repeated
3. Don't hesitate to buy a daily deal as the available keys can run out
4. The best deals are usually repeated the last day of the sale

Board Game Deals

Amazon.com still has their buy one, get one half off deal for board games.  See my previous post on the sales and my recommendations.

Target also has buy one, get one half off on their board games (slightly different selection than Amazon).

Cool Stuff Inc is running some good deals on board, card, and miniature games.\

Miniature Market started their sale yesterday and had some really great deals (like Netrunner data packs for $7), but it appears a ton of their stock is sold out already.

Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Let the shopping commence.

Android: Netrunner is an amazing game

I am a huge fan of card games (one of my favorites of all time being The Spoils TCG).  I've played Magic the Gathering on and off since the 1990s in both physical and digital forms.  I've tended to prefer board games with cards more than those with dice.  There is just something soothing about holding a hand of cards and battling wits with an opponent.  Android: Netrunner itches all the recesses of my mind and is one of the most amazing card games I have ever played.

First, this is not your 1990s Netrunner; I am here to talk about Fantasy Flight Games re-release and reworking of Netrunner under the title Android: Netrunner.  Aside from theme, borrowed names, and a few core mechanics (corp vs runner), the two games can be separated from each other.  For all intents and purposes when I am referring to Netrunner, I am referring to Android: Netrunner.

The core of Netrunner themed by a runner hacking the servers of a big corporation.  This is brought to the game mat through asymmetrical game play where one player plays the role of runner and the other player plays the role of corporation.  The corporation figures out ways of protecting their valuable servers via cards known as ICE while the runner figures out ways to break through that ICE (via icebreakers) to loot and plunder the wonderful rewards within.  Alongside the main icebreaker vs ICE there is a slew of card types that have immediate or triggered effects.  Cards are played through the use of "clicks" and paid for via the payment of "credits".  The end goal is to collect 7 agenda points; which are scored after being advanced by the corporation or stolen by the runner via various means.  An alternate victory condition is for the corporation to be run out of cards or for the runner to be dealt more damage than they have cards in hand (known as flat-lining).

What really sets Netrunner apart, in my opinion, is the play of the corporation.  The corporation primarily plays their cards face down to the game table.  Playing a card is know as installing.  ICE is installed face down in front of servers to protect them from "runs" (aka hacking attempts).  Agendas, assets, and upgrades are installed face down in the servers themselves.  The cards remain face down, generally, until the runner attempts to access them (either through a run or card effect).  ICE and most assets and upgrades have a "rez" cost that the corporation must pay to flip the card face up and reap its benefits.

The corporation is not forced into "rezzing" a card leading to a critical aspect of the game: bluffing.  The potential for the corporation to bluff a runner is there and many a Netrunner game has been lost to a bad decision.  At the same time, just like in Poker, a bluff is still only hiding an end result that can be broken down to a mathematical probability.  A good runner is going to be able to look at their cards in hand and in play and know when the odds are in their favor.  Between experienced players, bluffing does not play as big of a role as it does for new players learning the game, but the simple fact of having a bluff as a physical representation (face down cards) on the board is an amazing piece of the puzzle for this game.

By description it would seem that the game is tilted towards the corporation player, but that is anything but the truth.  The game, in my experience, slightly favors the runner as the idea of playing offensively is more natural and the defensive nature of the corporation is something harder to learn and execute.  The runner could always stumble into victory while the corporation will only find victory through appropriate planning.

The runner also has advantages in their favor, first being that they receive 4 clicks per turn to the 3 clicks of the corporation's turn (the corporation is allowed to draw a card for free every turn though as a compromise).  Clicks are actions that can be taken during a turn.  Secondly, the runner can "trash" corporation cards for a set cost after accessing them which allows the runner to really negatively impact the corporations play.  Lastly, the runner does not need to spend actions each turn advancing agendas to score the related points.  The runner simply needs to access an agenda played by the corporation to steal it and thus receive it's allocated agenda points towards their victory total (7 are needed to win).

The one big drawback to the runner is that their hand of cards is their life total in the game.  Run out of cards and take one more damage and the game is over, victory going to the corporation regardless of the state of agenda points scored.  This is a great mechanic which forces the runner to hold back cards and again opens up the bluff mechanic between the two sides.  Could the corporation player be holding a card that will do one meat damage and thus bring the game to an end if the runner chooses to end the turn with zero cards in hand?

To further cement Netrunner as an amazing game it also allows deckbuilding via a living card game (LCG) model.  LCGs, contrary to booster-pack games such as MtG, release sets of cards on a regular basis.  In each set is a complete play set of every card in that release.  There is no rarity or chase cards to worry about.  If a player wants to play a deck, all they need to do is buy the appropriate "data packs" that contain the cards they want.  Gone are the days of having 50 copies of that single common card while having only 1 of the rare.  In Netrunner all a player will ever need is sold in each data pack release.  Data packs average in cost about $10 to $15 and are released about every 3 months.  There is phenomenal value in the LCG model and at the end of the day the core set is plenty to start out with and try some of the deckbuilding without having to invest anything else.

Now there are a couple areas I think the game could improve.  First of all, the card layout and use of symbols needs work.  It is hard, at first, to differentiate cards or determine values such as influence for use in deckbuilding.  The card design appears to be artistic in nature more than driven by the need to present information.  This makes for some stunning visuals on cards, but can lead to some agonizing card pile searches looking for a card of a certain faction or value that is not easily visible.  Secondly, some of the terms used to describe aspects of the game are a bit hard to grasp at first.  For example: the runner's hand is known as their grip, but the corporations hand is known as the HQ.  While players adjust to these terms after playing the game, I am not sure what, if anything, is gained by calling a players hand (just one example) by another name.

Over all, Netrunner is a phenomenal game and quickly is rocketing up my chart of favorite card games.  It is not for everyone, but for the core gamer out there seeking a challenging and competitive card game there is nothing finer than Netrunner currently.  Add in the LCG model and it is friendly to the wallet.  If you are interested in the game, the core set is currently on sale for $29 on Amazon.

Board Games: Buy one, get one 50% off

Amazon.com is running an amazing pre-Black Friday deal on dozens of popular board games: buy one and get one half off.

There are some great games on sale.  Here are a few of my picks for games worth getting.

Ticket to Ride

Blokus

The Resistance

Castle Panic

The Settlers of Catan

Munchkin

Dixit Journey

Apples to Apples


There are also some add on packs (aka DLC of the board game world) for some popular games:

Munchkin Zombies 2 Armed and Dangerous
Munchkin 7 Cheat With Both Hands
Munchkin Clerical Errors

Battles Of Westeros: Wardens Of The North

Tannhauser Single Figure Packs: Gorgei

Solforge:OREIAN JUSTICAR incoming to shake up the meta

The meta in Solforge currently is centered on the Savant cycle cards (Flamehaper, Darkshaper, Lifeshaper, Steelshaper), but a nerf was already incoming for the cycle in the next patch. Beyond the Savants, the meta was looking to be shaped by powerful cards such as Zimus the Undying and Everflame Phoenix who rely heavily on being able to come back on the battlefield. They both are very hard cards to deal with, especially Zimus which has very few reliable counters that can keep it off the board. Queue the Oreian Justicar; a beefy Aloyin card that causes any creature entering the field to lose massive amounts of attack power if they were not played from your opponents hand. Have a 14/7 level 3 Zimus coming back on the field? It is now a 4/7 with a level 3 Justicar in play.

This is a great for Solforge and indicates that developer Stoneblade Entertainment (SBE) is on the right path for balance. This is very much a "counter the overpowered with a direct counter" instead of an outright nerf (though there are still situations like the Savant cycle which clearly scream the need for NERF, but thats OK for a pre-release product). The Justicar is an exciting card and I think will push the Steelforged Avatar decks up a notch to the cream of the crop of meta decks. However, Justicar can be splashed in many different decks to be effective and can even be used in a deck it is specifically meant to counter which offers players wielding powerful Zombie themed decks that rely on reappearing creatures an excellent counter in a mirror match.

Well done SBE, well done.