#SteamWinterSale: Aark's 2016 Recommendations!

Winter 2016 has come and with it, Steam's Winter Sale kicks off with 3 days to spare until Christmas! I've found myself listing recommendations on twitter for games I think are a steal, but I decided to list them all in one place this time around! Dust off your wallets, and have a happy holiday!

• The Elder Scrolls Online ($14.99 at 50% off): ESO has received a lot of shit due to having a bad launch, but after quite a few updates, new content, balance changes, and subtle details, the game has turned in to a welcome addition that maintains its Elder Scolls roots, but still manages to nail what makes MMORPGs popular. It walks a limbo in between Skyrim and World of Warcraft, with a bit of Guild Wars 2 thrown in. Overall, at just $15, I can't NOT recommend one of my favorite time sinks.
• Elte: Dangerous ($20.09 at 33% off): The fourth installment of the Elite series of Space Sims currently stands at the top of my games list on Steam with over 1000 hours invested in it. While the content expansion Horizons will run you another $20 on top of the base game, even just the base has tons of content for people willing to devote some time to learning the game and some imagination in to justifying the seemingly dull nature. Once you get over the "im just grinding" hump that a lot of people fail to overcome, Elite turns in to a spectacular and extremely unique game that nails the majesty of what Space Sims can be.
• DOOM 2016 ($19.79 at 67% off): This doesn't even need much of a description. Do you like killing demons? Do you like guns? Do you like gore? Do you like killing demons with guns and leaving puddles of gore? You'll love DOOM, and it's less than twenty bucks. 
• Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade ($19.99 at 60% off): Like Elder Scrolls Online, Eternal Crusade has received a lot of shit for a bad launch, and really the launch wasn't even that bad. The issue was that the game was very transparent about it's development and so when features that were talked about early on didn't make it in to the end product, people felt lied to and cheated. All that aside, and taken as what it is, Eternal Crusade is a solid, third person arena shooter set in the 40k universe. Gunplay and Melee is fluid and fun, progression opens up a wide array of customizations and combat options, the class-based loadout system covers a wide variety of player roles, and matches are intense, fun and emphasize team strategy. For $20, it's WELL worth it.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ($19.99 at 50% off): A challenging RPG with many ways to approach gameplay, hundreds of hours of content and loads of replay value to try new builds and make different story choices, and DLC that could be entirely new games all by themselves, Witcher 3 is a masterpiece and one of the best games to come out in the Action/Adventure RPG genre. Worth far more than the $20 you can grab it for right now.
• The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind ($7.49 at 50% off): Graphics-wise, the third installment of the Elder Scrolls series is outdated. It looks old, feels old...but by god is it still an amazing game. Much more open-ended than Skyrim in terms of possible player builds, much more challenging (and frustrating) in terms of combat, and dungeon design is far more complex and thoughtful, and there are no quest markers. You find your way around the good old fashioned way and find your quests by talking with random people. For less than $8, a game that I've sunk hundreds of hours in to as a kid, and still holds up in every aspect aside from visually is worth it.
• Dark Souls ($10.99 at 45% off): YOU WILL WANT A USB CONTROLLER FOR THIS. TRUST ME. If it's nearly 2017 and you still haven't played the dark, intense, challenging quest of despair and "fuck you, player" that inspired a cult following, 2 sequels, and an endless supply of top-quality memes? Then git gud and buy it so I can invade you.
• Dragon Age: Origins ($7.49 at 75% off): Not as visually stunning or open-ended as Dragon Age: Inquisition, Origins still manages to capture the world of Thedas in a complex and thrilling RPG. My Blood Mage was one of my favorite characters I've ever played in an RPG and the story, while stagnant at times, was still one that kept me engaged and interested in moving forward. 
• No Man's Sky ($35.99 at 40% off): BET YOU NEVER THOUGHT YOU'D HEAR THIS ONE, HUH?! To be honest, while I am disappointed with No Man's Sky, I can't deny that I had fun with it, even before the latest update which brought in quite a lot of content and new mechanics. It's like the exploration aspect of Elite: Dangerous, one of my favorite aspects of the game, released as it's own thing. On top of that, there's also been 2 new modes of play added, one that's essentially god-mode and lets you fly around and build whatever for free and just explore, as well as a hard-core survival mode that people have described as a brutal nightmare. Honestly, I think it should come down in price a bit more, but at less than $40 I think it's nearing the price that it should stay at. It's not worth $60, but it's definitely worth playing if you like exploring for the sake of exploring.
• Space Hulk: Deathwing ($33.99 at 15% off): A fun, creepy left4dead style FPS taking place in the Warhammer 40k universe and following the traditions of the original tabletop game, Space Hulk. It doesn't have much replayability beyond going back for higher difficulties and 100%ing the game, but the story, the environment, and just the feeling of walking around ancient derelicts clad in Terminator armor and wielding Stormbolters made me want to stand up on top of my house and scream praises to the God Emperor. It's a new release with some bugs, but if you're a 40k fanatic then you'll enjoy this simply for how well it nails the aesthetic.
• Battleborn ($14.99 at 75% off): THEY. WERE. NOT. COPYING. OVERWATCH. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. Battleborn came out at a bad time and got overwhelmed by the launch of Overwatch, and of course fanatics had to shit on the game that they didn't decide would be the grace of God almighty years before its release, and so Battleborn got shat on. Hard. But it doesn't deserve it. It's a fun, zany, unique combination between arena FPS and MOBA that nails the fun aspects of both. It includes a storyline and tons of unlockables and achievements to keep things interesting. Overall, I had WAY More fun with Battleborn than I ever did with Overwatch, and would love to see more people playing the game. At just $14.99 it's well, WELL worth it.
• Dead Space 1 & 2 (Bundle for $8.74, at 75% off): Less than $10 to get BOTH the first (and best) Dead Space games is a steal. Dead Space was what got me in to survival Horror, and while it seems pretty cliche in hindsight, it can't be denied that Dead Space is an iconic franchise that EA can go fuck themselves for turning in to an action shooter and then dropping because people didn't like that their Horror game was being turned in to the next Battlefield. Dead Space and Dead Space 2 are amazing games that should be enjoyed by anybody who's a fan of Survival Horror.
• Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords ($2.49 at 75% off): Another blast from the past, KOTOR2 was my favorite Star Wars game ever. I loved the story and the much more mature and dark tone of the dialogue over KOTOR1. Games that give me ancient secrets and lore to uncover are always among my favorites and KOTOR2 is no exception. The game might not be up to standard graphics-wise, but less than $3 for a game like this is a steal.
• Thief: Deadly Shadows ($2.24 at 75% off): The game that made me love Stealth in pretty much any other game that allows it (and also left me with a phobia of abandoned insane asylums that persists in to adulthood), Deadly Shadows is a dark, mysterious, and surprisingly advanced stealth game that offers plenty of challenge, and for pocket change? GET. IT. Fuck the Shalebridge Cradle level, though. Just...just fuck that place.

There's tons of other games out there that are on sale for dirt cheap, but of my library, these are the ones that I just can't say no to. I might add some more as I find some, but for now enjoy this list of games I think everybody should pick up during the steam winter sale! Happy holidays, and happy shopping!

#NoMansSky: What the hell Happened?

    When No Man's Sky was first teased in 2013, it was well received and and immediately began generating hype. "An infinite procedurally generated universe filled with all sorts of strange flora and fauna and terrain features to discover on countless worlds" caused it to fit right in with the likes of Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen as people have been scrambling to get their hands on the perfect Space Sim. As short and vague videos of zooming over gorgeous planets and wandering through alien forests, shooting down pirates and blowing chunks out of asteroids out in space were released, people went crazy and with the continued vagueness about the game's actual game play as well as the typical indie studio mistake of making ambitious promises they don't have the ability to keep, they hype train for No Man's Sky reached biblical proportions. As the years dragged on and people got more and more eager to get their hands on what they believed would be a game that would bring about the second coming of Christ, the hype train reached speeds that would only result in a catastrophic crash...and that is exactly what happened.
    People believed that a dev team with only a couple completely unrelated games under their belt comprised of only 15 people would be able to do in just 3 years with barely any funding what Triple-A studios with hundreds of people and millions of dollars behind them have been unable to. So when the game finally launched just a couple short weeks ago, people were met with the harsh reality: No Man's Sky was very obviously a game made by an inexperienced indie studio with just 15 people behind it. Optimization issues, crashes, bugs, laughable generation of creatures, the rubiks-cube syndrome (in which yes there might be a quintillion combinations but they all just look like a rubik's cube, so to might there be a quintillion planets in No Man's Sky but only a handful of those will be distinguishable from any of the others), and a lack of easily noticeable depth to the game. It was a video game, not the answer to world peace, and that is what people need to realize about hype: the end result will NEVER live up to the expectations of  years worth hype, so declaring "there ain't no breaks on the hype train" will only result in your experience being far less than it could be. Hype killed No Man's Sky's first impressions.

    So is No Man's Sky any good? Yes. It actually is in spite of everything that has happened. No, there is no multiplayer, no the game looks nothing like the trailers, and yes, it is disappointing compared to what the hype made it seem like it would be, but in the same way that Elite: Dangerous is a niche title that requires a certain kind of person to enjoy it, so to does No Man's Sky require a special kind of person to truly appreciate what it offers. Pictured here is a planet that I discover in what I dubbed the "Horizon System". The planet, Horizon 1, was a lush tropical forest world of large islands and shallow oceans teeming with life and filled with rare and valuable resources, protected by highly aggressive sentinels. The world had frequent rain storms and gorgeous sunsets that reminded me of mangos, which only added to the feeling of being in a tropical paradise. Deep caverns filled with glowing crystal formations, as well as being dotted with the ancient ruins and monoliths of the Vy'Keen race of aliens ensured that I had hours upon hours worth of content to explore here. And that's really what No Man's Sky is about: exploration. Finding something you haven't seen before, something that catches your attention and imagination and makes you say "I want to see everything on this planet!". The game's narrative and ultimate goals might be shallow, but the lore and interactions with the various alien races and the exploration of planets is very deep indeed. Somebody who truly loves the journey of a game rather than the destination and finds relaxation in wandering aimlessly wondering what they're going to find next will find endless enjoyment in No Man's Sky.

    If people would learn from history and stop getting so hyped over things, and realize that it's okay for people to like things they don't, disappointment like what happened to No Man's Sky would be kept to only the truly atrocious games such as Arkham Knight, Ride to Hell: Retribution, Aliens: Colonial Marines, and anything Konami produces post-Kojima, then niche titles such as No Man's Sky will get the praise and attention they deserve. On top of that though is also another underlying problem: the fact that publishers and studios have banked in on preorder culture as hard as they can and are now purposefully trying to drive the hype up and then suppress pre-launch reviews to make sure that their day-1 sales are as high as they possibly can be, so that way even if day two sells four copies because the game turned out to be utter garbage, the company can still say they had a successful launch and then move on to the next project to do the same exact thing.

DO NOT GIVE IN TO HYPE CULTURE.

No Man's Sky can be purchased on steam for $59.99 here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/

How NOT to Live Stream 2

No further explanation needed. This "HelenaLive" is yet one more example of obnoxious camgirls acting like sluts on camera to try to con little kids out of their lunch money while doing everything you're not supposed to do in a popular video game to try to maximize their audience. They have no personality, nothing interesting about them, all they do is sit there dressed like sluts and 10 year old kids eat it up.

World of Warcraft is Coming to Steam!

     That's right! And you can vote to have the worlds most popular MMO available through steam right here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=694488420! Hm? What's that? This isn't actually World of Warcraft? This is just some random schmuck uploading the Russian version of the "Arthas, my Son" cinematic trailer for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King? CONGRATS! YOU ARE MORE INTELLIGENT THAN THE ENTIRETY OF VALVE!

     In the latest chapter of the long and bloody history of Steam Greenlight, we see one of the single most idiotic submissions to ever show up. This isn't an asset flip, this isn't some trash meme game, this isn't even another submission of Shooter Tactics, this is literally some buffoon uploading World of Warcraft thinking "this is totally okay to do". And why wouldn't he think that? So much other garbage is allowed on to greenlight that he probably thought his idea would be pretty good compared to some of the other putrid slime of degeneracy that infests that section of Steam. And it is for this reason that I actually voted this game up. That's right. I WANT this to get greenlit. Do you know why? Because if this actually manages to make it on to the store front, Blizzard will send it's army of lawyers dressed up like the god damn Scourge to Valves door step to have a long and very violent chat about "Copyrights". And when that chat is finished, Valve will have no choice but to start having a dedicated quality assurance team overseeing greenlight submissions.
     I'm thinking something along the lines of "you submit your game and then it gets reviewed, and if the QA team thinks your game is high enough quality to be sold, then it will be allowed on to greenlight to be voted on by the masses". I like that idea. It would certainly stop the majority of Shooter Tactics and Slaughtering Grounds and MLG 420 GOTY and your WORLD OF WARCRAFT SUBMISSIONS.

World of Warcraft? Seriously? Of all things you chose World of freaking Warcraft?

#Battleborn Vs #Overwatch: Are they the same thing?

Having played both games, I can safely say no, they aren't. They are similar, but in the same way that Metroid Prime and Call of Duty are similar (here's a hint: they aren't really). Allow me to explain why, and to do that I will start by talking about what Battleborn is:

     Battleborn is the team-based arena shooter developed by Gearbox that released on PC, PS4, and XB1 not too long ago.It advertises itself as being a badass game filled with badass heroes for badass players and just really REALLY loves that word "badass". But then again, these are the same developers who brought us Borderlands, so that's not too difficult to comprehend. In practice, Battleborn is a first-person arena shooter that uses MOBA elements to create a unique and cartoony multiplayer experience, as well as a Borderlands-style story mode. Each of the games current 25 heroes is completely unique, has their own skill set, and a colorful array of dialogue. The game uses comedy to great effect in order to make the game feel like it doesn't take itself seriously and therefore neither should the player. Normally I would say this is a bad thing for a competitive shooter but Battleborn manages to do it in a way that comes off as "look bro, we're just here to have fun. Don't be toxic to your team, don't worry so much about winning, just get the hell out there and blow shit up".      The game's painted landscapes and colorful visuals, as well as intentional censor bleeping of swear words makes it come off as a cross between a television show and a video game, which is true to the standard Borderlands design that is to be expected from Gearbox.
      As for actual gameplay, it's a lot like a MOBA: each character is pre-made with their own theme, personality, and set of 4 skills and a passive, as well as augments you can get as you level up in a match to alter their abilities to suit the situation or your own playstyle. There are 3 pvp modes: a 1-lane + jungle MOBA map where you push minion waves and capture objectives to destroy the enemy teams sentry robots, of which their are two. But instead of lasting as long as it takes somebody to win, each match has a maximum of 30 minutes. If the timer runs out the match either ends in a draw or the team who has the highest total percentage of sentry health (each sentry accounts for 50 points for a total of 100) wins. There is also a traditional 3-point king of the hill mode, as well as a minion-pushing mode where the goal is to push your minions to the enemy teams altars and sacrifice them, with each minion sacrificed giving you points depending on how big it is, with the first team to reach the goal or whoever has the most points at the end of the timer winning the match.
     The solo campaign follows traditional Halo-style "point A to point B with enemies and objectives between you" linear maps with the story about how an evil interdimensional force is destroying all the stars in the universe and a coalition of several factions populated by the last living races in the universe fighting to prevent the last star in existence from being destroyed as well. Cliche, but imaginative. All in all it's a solid, fun, goofy shooter meant for MOBA players who like Shooters as well.

As for Blizzard's latest addition to the Battle.net launcher, Overwatch is still a team-based arena shooter but the way it approaches things is a lot more akin to Halo multiplayer or Quake than a MOBA. Matches are attack/defense/payload (as far as the Beta has shown) on asymmetrical maps filled with twists and turns and buildings and all sorts of other potential avenues for tactical advancement. Each hero is, like Battleborn, given their own unique theme, personality, dialogue, and skillset. Each hero has a basic attack with their primary weapon, two utility skills, and an ultimate which charges over time passively and by damaging and killing enemies. The time-to-kill in Overwatch is tiny, with many heroes possessing ultimates that can easily wipe out the entire enemy team if positioned properly. The balance to this is that respawn times are very short and do not get longer. They are essentially as long as it takes you to watch the kill-cam of how you died which is a fixed length of several seconds, and then you are back in the game. The atmosphere of the game is still colorful and full of life and action, but the mood of the game is a lot more serious than Battleborn. Overwatch has the air of a comic book, while Battleborn has the air of a late-night comedy show. I only played the Open Beta for a few days, so I can't give too much else about Overwatch, but I liked it enough that I did preorder it and look forward to playing it on the 24th, and so will give a much more detailed overview of the game when I get my hands on the full version.

To summarize:
Battleborn is a shooter for people who like League of Legends and shows aired by Adult Swim.
Overwatch is a shooter for people who like Team Fortress 2 and Marvel movies.

You can buy Battleborn from Steam here for $59.99: http://store.steampowered.com/app/394230/
You can pre-order Overwatch from Blizzard here for $39.99: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/buy/

Asteroids

Ever on the hunt for scenic vistas that I can snap some cool screenshots of in Elite: Dangerous, I came across a T-Tauri star with a stellar ring system and decided to drop in for a peak. My original intention was to get a neat shot of the star from within the rings, when I turned the Classified Camera around, however, this was the view that awaited me. This has to be one of my favorite screenshots I have ever taken of Elite, and I've take a hell of a lot of screenshots.

Earth-Like World

Still on my way back to inhabited space in Elite: Dangerous after my trip out to Sagittarius A*, I came across a rare sight indeed: a completely undiscovered Earth-Like World. I snapped these screenshots of the discovery to immortalize one of my biggest finds as I make my way back to sell the scan data and get my name permanently attached to the system and the planet.

The Greae Phio Stellar Forge

On my way back from inhabited space from Sagittarius A*, I decided to take a detour about 2000ly away from my original route home to take a look at the massive Greae Phio nebula. This scenic location in the galaxy is dominated by the nebula itself, as well as many other nebulas of various shapes and colors in the general vicinity. The nebula produces huge amounts of large blue/white stars that are clustered together in a dense field surrounding the nebula. Here are some of my favorite images of my trip up to the nebula:

"On approach, approximately 1300ly away"

"The Greae Phio Star Cluster"

"Jumping In"

"The Nebula In all its Majesty"

"Colorful Neighbors"

"White and Blue"

"From the Surface"

"Back to the Stars"

Elite: Dangerous "Life Finds a Way"

An instance of the beauty of Elite: Dangerous, I discovered an ocean world with a human-breathable atmosphere orbiting another ocean world in a system located in the core of the Milky Way.

nyoom

Sagittarius A*: The Dark Heart of the Milky Way

#Paragon: 3 Weeks Later

     Tomorrow, Paragon's Early Access turns 3 weeks old, and I've played quite a lot of it since then. Not as much as I'd like to, of course, but sadly I don't get paid to sit in front of my computer screen playing video games all damn day. I've played around 50 games of PvP and have tried numerous heroes and play styles. I've experience pretty much every thing Paragon has to offer at this point, and I think I'm ready to give a finalized review of the Early Access stage.

     Paragon does everything right. Because of this, Paragon was very easy for me to settle in to given my experience with other MOBAs. I was easily able to recognize what heroes were good for what roles given their abilities, the map layout was easy to memorize, the card system was fairly easy to get the hand of if you approach it like custom item sets in other MOBAs, and the movement system and various other mechanics came pretty naturally. However, that is all because I am no stranger to this genre. Coming in to Paragon blind as somebody who has never played a MOBA before may be very intimidating to some players. The game lacks a lot of tutorial aspects, the card system can be confusing, the map can turn in to a maze, and a lot of Paragon's mechanics are fairly complicated, and that's all on top of the general high skill curve that comes just from it being a MOBA. If you're looking to enter in to the genre through Paragon, I would suggest finding something else. At the very least until Open Beta comes this summer.

     As somebody who hated the default control scheme of Smite (ASDW to move, Mouse to look around and aim, 1234 for abilities), I like to think that Epic Games took what Smite failed at and improved on it. ASDW for movement, Q RMB E and R for abilities feels very natural and button presses require minimal finger movement. I have always thought that a fluid and intuitive control scheme is one of the most important things for a MOBA to get right, and Paragon hit the nail right on the head with this one. In addition to the general controls, the movement system is also fluid and easy to get accustomed to. The idea of "Travel Mode" comes off as taking on from Heroes of the Storm's play book, which is fine by me. Having a faster out-of-combat movement mode for getting around the map is something more MOBAs should have, although it is not without risks. Getting hit by an enemy hero while in travel mode will not only disable travel mode, but it will root you in place and disable any movement abilities for several seconds. Some of the most intense moments in a 1v1 lane has been when both me and my opponent were in travel mode and were sizing eachother up, moving closer and closer to try to bait the other person in to disabling their travel mode so we could get in to position, or hopefully root them. Other movement abilities to be expected in MOBAs such as Blink and Teleport come in the form of cards that you can slot in to your deck and pick up in-game.

   

     While on the subject, the Card system is a fairly unique replacement for the traditional Item Shop that most MOBAs use. Players start out with one (sometimes two) starter decks for each hero, and can then earn card packs through progression or by purchasing them for 10,500 reputation (the free currency that can be only earned by completing matches). Each pack contains 5 random cards that the player can add in to the starter decks or create a new deck entirely. Each hero as 2 "Affinities" that are totally not ripped off from Magic: The Gathering's mana colors or anything. These affinities are Fury (red), Growth (green), Order (white), Intellect (blue), and Corruption (black...well, now it's dark purple but same difference). Some heroes have both their affinities as the same, but most of 2 different ones. A hero can only use a deck with cards from their affinities or the generic "universal" affinity (totally not colorless mana) which can be used by any hero regardless of their affinity. Cards are divided in to 3 categories: Primes, Equipment, and Upgrades. Prime cards are only activated after your team is granted the Orb Prime buff by defeating the boss minion in the jungle and delivering the Orb to the drop point. Prime cards give powerful bonuses to both stats and lane pushing power, the exact bonuses depend on the selected prime card. Equipment cards are essentially what you'd expect them to be: potions, wards, and various forms of gear. Some equipment cards provide general stat bonuses, and others have unique activated effects. The final card type is Upgrades. Upgrade cards provide significant bonuses to one stat and can be slotted in to an Equipment that provides the same stat bonus as the upgrade (an equipment that gives attack speed and physical damage can receive an attack speed or physical damage upgrade, but not a life steal or energy armor upgrade). Most equipment cards can have up to 3 upgrades, and provide a bonus for fully upgrading them.
     After you build your deck for a specific hero, you select it at the beginning of a match to use those cards. During the match, you will earn CXP (Card Experience) from killing minions, heroes, and buildings, as well as by collecting from a harvester (a device you can place in the jungle to gather CXP and XP that, when collected, is given to every member of the team). CXP is separate from XP and every Card level gives you 3 Card Points to spend. You spend these points like you would gold in other MOBAs to get more equipment, or purchase upgrades for the ones you already have. More powerful cards cost more, and so require more card levels to purchase. Because of the RNG nature of the card system, there is a lot of concern that the game will become extremely grindy and RNG based when competitive play is enabled, due to certain decks being stronger than others. As it stands, everything you need to be viable is given to you in the starter decks, but the concern is not misplaced. Epic Games will have to be very careful to make sure that they don't add in cards or combinations of cards that result in Meta decks that become required in order to play competitively. All in all, despite potential for issues in the future, the Card system is a well-implemented and fun mechanic that does the job of "item shop" pretty well.
   

     Matches typically last around 35 minutes or so, although you can get some that last 45 or more if the teams are fairly even. In cases of one team being significantly more skilled than the other, matches can last anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. That brings us to another issue: matchmaking. Right now there is no true MMR system that pairs people up, although it does try to put equally skilled players together using some internal parameters. In fact, the only way to really gauge progress at this point is through the use of http://agora.gg which uses Match History to determine its own version of MMR which doesn't really match up with the one the actual matchmaking system uses, although it DOES provide a clear measurement of progress that the game itself does not offer at this time. All that said, most matches are fairly even, although you will still get steam rolling teams that massacre their opponents.
     The overall pace of the game is not too fast, but not too slow either. It's right in the middle where most MOBAs should be. You have your clearly defined 3-section games, with an early, mid, and late. Early games tends to last around 10 minutes and involves players going through the motions of pushing lanes, leveling up, and gathering card points. Once one team starts to gain momentum and is able to push through the first line of towers, Mid game starts and sees a lot of lane rotating and roaming as both teams try to outmaneuver the other in order to secure tower kills. Late game typically begins once one team has pushed all the way to the enemy inhibitors, starting the typical game of "siege the base until it cracks". There are lots of ways games can play out, but that's just been my experience with Paragon thus far.
     There are only 14 heroes so far, so there isn't a lot of variation in team comps. And in fact there isn't a lot of comp in team comps. The only PvP queue available at this point is Quick Match, which allows a player to select a hero prior to joining queue, and then gets paired up with 4 random other players to form a team. It does seem like the game at least tries to form a viable team, but that could just be due to the fact that there are so few heroes right now. There is a lot of controversy surrounding balance issues among some heroes right now. There's the argument that the melee carries Grux and Feng Mao, the tank Rampage, and the carry Murdock are all seriously overpowered and need heavy nerfs, and to the contrary you get the people arguing that the heroes aren't overpowered, they just are easy to snow ball with due to their kits and require caution to make sure they don't get fed. I find myself in the latter category, although I can't deny that Rampage being able to ult and soak up tower shots like bug bites or Murdock being able to deal 2700 damage in 2 hits late game is pretty broken and should be tweaked, but not as much as people may claim. Overall, despite obvious flaws that can be attributed to the game being in early development, matches are a lot of fun and some could argue even relaxing due to the pacing of everything, but that is broken up when fights start up and it quickly turns in to an intense and energizing brawl.

     As for the developers, I think it's safe to say that Epic Games is nothing if not venerable. They've released quite a lot of classics and hits over the years, and have experience in making Arena-based multiplayer games. Not my first choice for a company to make a new MOBA, but so far they've proven that they can stand with the best of them and have delivered a very promising games. They plan to release a new hero every 3 weeks, which will be very interesting to see, they post frequent blog updates and are very transparent about what they're doing. They are also very community-oriented and have been talking with their players in numerous forums including their own. They've been answering questions and being very upfront and friendly with their player base which is very nice to see from a major player in the Video Games Industry these days. They've also taken to heart the stigma that "MOBAs are toxic clouds of pain and suffering and are infested by the worst of humanity", and have been doing everything they can to stop it. Player Toxicity is met with very fast punishment, and players have come on to the forums to complain that they got anywhere from a 2-7 day ban from the game for their behavior "without a warning". The temp ban is the warning, and I am very happy to see EG cracking down on negative players. The forums are actually more toxic than the game itself is which is a refreshing change of pace. And I'll admit I don't do anything to combat the toxicity in the official forums, but then again my assholiness is brought about by me being blunt about things or responding to people in kind rather than a general desire to cause trouble or flame people. Although, that said it does need to be brought up that a lot of the games playerbase at this time is MOBA newbies who don't understand what they're doing, which has caused a lot of tension in the players who take early access alpha builds of MOBAs deadly serious, which is the epicenter for a lot of the general negativity that is produced by the games community. That, and the fact that Paragon is cross platform with PS4 (and possibly Xbox One in the future if the rumors ring true) which brings up the typical "PC MASTER RACE" argument that serves no purpose, although PS4 players don't have access to chat functionality so that can cause communication issues. There is however a team comms functionality which allows players to make pings and callouts with just the press of a couple buttons.

To summarize, Paragon has proven itself to be a very interesting game filled with potential to stand with League, DOTA, and Smite. The games current state leaves a bit to be desired but that will change with time. It's complicated for newbies, but easy to pick up if you're a MOBA veteran. Matches are fun and  engaging, and relatively toxicity-free. The developers have shown that they genuinely want to make a great game and care about their players' feedback. And as for the community? Well...it's a MOBA community that's for damn sure. 

We'll have to see where it goes from here, but as it stands I highly recommend picking up Paragon if you're willing to be a tester for an unfinished game and love MOBAs. 

O-oh...you were looking for a numerical score? I forgot you people love numbers...um okay...how about....I give Paragon a perfect "I highly recommend picking up Paragon if you're willing to be a tester for an unfinished game and love MOBAs out of 10". There. That's your score.

(You can pick up a Paragon Founder's Pack starting at $19.99 here: https://www.epicgames.com/paragon/founders)

Sevarog: Paragon's Newest Hero

     At the time of writing, Sevarog has been available to play in Epic Games' MOBA Paragon for a little more than an Hour. I was among the first to hop on the second the servers were available and jumped right in to try out the 14th hero to join the growing population of Agora, and was...intrigued. Not impressed, not disappointed, but intrigued.
     Sevarog is a Growth/Corruption affinity Hero that is advertised as being a able to excel in either a Tank or Jungler role. His Passive ability "Soul Tap" allows him to build stacks of souls. Each stack gives him +3 max hp, and his model grows larger and more detailed at 20, 40, 70, and 100 stacks. His Q ability "Siphon" deals physical damage in a line in front of him. Killing a minion with this ability gives him +1 soul stack, while killing a hero gives him +3, and the ability gains a damage bonus every time he grows from collecting souls. His RMB ability "Phantom Rush" let's him dash forward and ignore unit collision, although terrain and Dekkers wall still impede his movement. His E ability "Subjugate" is a long range, small AoE that applies a snare, and then a slow while dealing physical damage. His R ability "Colossal Blow" lets him hit enemies in a cone in front of him, instantly killing minions and launching enemy heroes back a long distance.

     Because of his Q and Passive, he should be spending a lot of time farming minions, although due to his complete lack of any real damage if you build him tank, last hitting with his Q and getting soul stacks can be quite a chore, especially considering the cool down it has in earlier levels and the difficulty in setting up killing multiple minions simultaneously with one cast. Once you get him going, however, he becomes a walking (hovering?) fortress that can soak up tons of damage and provide CC to melee carries, and knock ranged heroes towards his allies to be slaughtered. However, as I said previously, if you intend on building him as a tank, forget about getting kills. You do so little damage without furiously spamming your Q and E (and eating up your energy in the process) that you'd be better off just farming until your team needs you to become a meat shield.
     I foresee Sevarog becoming a highly effective support, however, simply due to his CC abilities. If you build him as a tank, you can body block shots for your ADC, snare the enemy carry so that yours can get some free hits in, or dash behind them for a quick flank and them ult them under your tower if they push to hard. The range on his E is absolutely terrifying, and a skilled user will be able to zone out tanks or melee carries during a team fight just long enough to kill the squishies and tilt the fight in to his teams favor. I'd say practice on landing his E and using it in various situations, and then don't even worry about farming souls, just use tank cards and max out his E first if you want to be extremely obnoxious to the enemy team. The uses for a flat out hard CC are endless, especially in Paragon where heroes like Grux and Feng Mao dominate the lower ELO's due to high mobility and brutal melee damage.

     For items, I would highly recommend building a lot in to CDR and Mana so that you can spam your utilities more often and for longer periods of time. Sevarog really doesn't seem like the kind of guy who wants to be in people's faces crushing people. He seems to me to be more of the cold, calculating type who enjoys manipulating the battlefield. I'd say better to have somebody like steel or rampage fill the tank role, and have Sevarog be built as a control mage. That's not to say don't give him survivability, as you want to be able to survive dashing in to ult squishies towards your team or your towers if you're able. Use your Q to last hit minions as they come buy, and rely on your E to control the battle field and win each fight for your team.

     If you're planning to take Sevarog in to the jungle, I HIGHLY recommend taking some cards to give yourself more physical damage and attack speed. Sevarog does so little damage that his clear time will be extremely slow, although farming with his Q will be much easier. Still build in to items that give him HP and Mana, with a little CDR splashed in for good measure. Only go full tank if you want to stand in the middle of everybody getting shot so your team doesn't and do practically nothing else. Give him some love in other areas to make sure he can actually use achieve his high utility potential.

     All in all, after playing with him for a bit, my personal opinions are mixed. On the one hand he looks totally badass and has a lot of neat abilities, but on the other hand I like damage dealers and his performance in that area is so underwhelming that it's almost boring to me. Nothing he does feels like it has any impact behind it, and his pushing power is almost non existent due to his slow wave clear time. I feel like even though Epic wants to say he's a tank and a jungler, I feel he'll really shine when used by skilled support mains who can take advantage of his CC to manipulate the field to their advantage. I'll have to play with him more and mess around with his kit, maybe build a few decks just to see what all he can do, but as it stands he's not at all what I expected him to be, and there's a lot to be desired with this hero for me. That doesn't mean I won't play him, though. I used to think Anivia was one of the worst champions in League of Legends until I started messing around with her ou tof boredom and saw what she could really do. Now I own her Blackfrost skin, have level 5 mastery, and have been maining her in the mid lane for 2 years now. Maybe Sevarog will be my new Anivia?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA nobody will ever replace my bird.

Not even a pair of disembodied arms wearing a cloak and holding a hammer with a bunch of neat CC abilities.

(If you'd like to try out Sevarog for yourself, you can purchase a Founder's Pack for Paragon for $19.99 here: https://www.epicgames.com/paragon/founders, or you can wait until summer when the game goes in to Open Beta.)

The Dark Heart of a Nebula: Elite Dangerous Gameplay

A system in the deep core consisting of a Type I Jovian Gas Giant and a Spectral Type K Star orbiting a Black Hole of just over 2 Stellar Masses. This system rests at the heart of a gorgeous nebula of various shades of purple, blue and pink.

#Paragon Hero Spotlight: Grux

All joking aside, Grux is a strong melee, physical damage scaling Hero that can excel in both lane and the jungle. You want to build him mostly damage with a splash of attack speed. If you are having trouble staying alive, you can sacrifice a little damage to go in to hp. He is one of my favorite Heroes to split-push with, as combining his Q and RMB abilities allow him to clear entire minion waves very quickly, and his raw damage allows him to brutalize towers. Combining his E with his R makes for a very powerful team-fight initiate, where he charges right in to the center of the enemy team and stuns them briefly, allowing him to swing wildly and provide huge amounts of damage while his team wreaks havoc on those caught by his rampage. His E also provides him with an escape should he need it.

Paragon Gameplay

#Paragon: Is it worth a damn?

Today marks the beginning of the Early Access season for Epic Games' new MOBA Paragon. This means that anybody willing to pay at least $19.99 can get access to the early build of the game without having to hope to get lucky and receive a Beta invite. As a long-time fan of MOBAs, I was excited for the release of this game from the moment I heard about it, and naturally grabbed a Founder's Pack the moment they were available on the 13th of March, and after a few days of waiting, I finally got to sign in and play.

     As an Anivia main in League of Legends, I've always had a fondness for mid-lane mages in MOBAs, and so I decided to begin my Paragon adventure with the hero Gideon. He's mana-hungry lane-pusher with a lot of utility in his kit. He can call down an AoE meteor shower for wave clear, a skill-shot slow, a short-range teleport that can get him in and out of fights, and his ultimate creates a black hole that sucks in and continuously damages enemies, making him excellent for initiating team fights. I played a few AI co-op matches with him to get the basics of the game and to understand how to utilize his kit, and then went in to PvP once I hit account level 3 where I played a few more matches and saw a lot of success.

   

The game is fairly straight forward and instantly intuitive to any MOBA veteran. You've got your 3 lanes, with neutral camp populated jungle in between. A marskman and their support go in one of the side lanes, a tank goes on the other, a mage with pushing power goes in the mid, and a high-mobility assassin or crowd controller wanders the jungle to ambush enemies in their lanes. Two towers are placed in each lane and must be destroyed to go after the inhibitors, which allow the team who destroyed one to begin spawning super-powered minions in that lane as well as gain access to the core which must be destroyed to win the game. If you run out of mana or are low on health, you can recall back to your base to heal up and purchase upgrades before heading back out in to the fight. All standard stuff that every MOBA has, so Paragon is not unique in that sense. However, it does add its own flair to things with the gorgeous scenery, unique hero design and aesthetics, and the card system. Which, I suppose the card system is really the only thing I can think of that Paragon does differently, and even then it's just a spin-off of the standard item-purchasing system that you see in other MOBAs. But, it is a neat idea. Basically you play games and level up both your account and heroes to get rewards, all while obtaining Reputations points. These rewards can be card packs, or you can purchase card packs for 10,500 reputation (not with real money, that's the important thing to note here). These packs contain 5 random cards that you build in to decks. These cards contain items such as equipment of various stats, potions, wards, activated items, and upgrades. You then create a deck to suit your favorite heroes and then take them in to battle. The cards you pick will represent the items you can purchase with card points, which are earned alongside xp. These items are added to your slots, and then you can add upgrades to them as the game progresses by spending more card points. On Gideon, I frequently upgraded my items with the Caster upgrades, which increased my Energy Damage output, as well as the Mana and Health upgrades which increased my maximum mana and hp respectively. There are also items I've obtained that provide stats such as attack speed, physical armor, energy armor, life steal, critical strike, and other basic stats that you find in other MOBAs. The idea behind this card system is that the more you play, the more cards you earn, which in turn gives you better items and more options for builds. This is a unique take on things that might make some people angry due to a potential advantage somebody might have over a player that doesnt have as good of a deck, but the fact that you can not get cards by spending real money means that the only way to get cards is to play the game more and more, which equalizes out. A player with more cards than you has probably played more than you have, which means they are probably more skilled than you are which means they have an advantage any way.

     All that said, the game boils down in to a stereotypical MOBA that doesn't do a whole lot differently, but manages to execute the traditional mechanics perfectly. I wouldn't recommend purchasing a founders pack to anybody right now unless you REALLY want to get started, as there really isn't anything Paragon offers that any other established and free MOBAs offers already, but it is still a gorgeous, smooth games that I will be sinking a lot of hours in to. The game will be going free to play when it finally launches, and new heroes will be released for free every few weeks, so there's a lot to look forward to.

     All in all, Paragon is well worth it if you're looking for more of the same in a very pretty Unreal Engine 4 powered dress.

(If you are interested, a Paragon Founders pack can be purchased for $19.99 here: https://www.epicgames.com/paragon/founders)

BREAKING: VRFocus Might Fail due to lack of Porn Videos

Virtual Reality tech website VRFocus could very well fail and the company behind it might have to file bankruptcy due to lack of pornographic videos on the VRFocus homepage. It is a well-known fact that sex sells, so why wouldn't VRFocus have tons of porn videos on their home page? Do they think that they are some how immune to the total fact that only things that have porn succeed? Or perhaps they think that their dumb little click bait headline is going to bring them ad revenue?

Elite Dangerous: Arena

     Frontier Developments, the company behind the popular Elite franchise and its current incarnation Elite: Dangerous, has recently released what it is calling Elite Dangerous: Arena. Contrary to what some might think, this is not a new DLC or a brand new game, it is simply the CQC mode already present in Elite: Dangerous being sold as a standalone to provide new players with a cheap way to get in to the full game. Some may argue it's a demo, others may argue "WHAT THE FUCK FRONTIER WHY THE HELL ARE YOU MAKING ME PAY FOR CQC AGAIN YOU RIP OFF SCAM ARTIST SHADY  EA WANNABEE GREEDY BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH *insert more random Steam Forum rage from people who don't do their research in to what a game actually is before they decide they hate it...here*". Regardless of what you might call it, Arena is an interest method of producing more interest in the full game and giving players somewhat of a gateway drug in to Elite: Dangerous as a whole.
     Basically, Arena is a piece of Elite: Dangerous being sold by itself so players can try it out without having to invest money in the full game. This piece is already owned by players who own the full game, as it is literally just the already-present CQC mode, and so Arena does not affect anybody who already owns the full game. Players who purchase Arena get the option to upgrade to the full game for the difference in cost between Arena and the full game, meaning that they don't spend any more or any less money than they would if they had just purchased the full game to begin with. This is also a means to get more players in to the CQC mode, which has had long loading times and a lack of any real matchmaking due to lack of interest in the mode. Frontier are probably hoping that this move will spark an influx of players are going to try it out, and therefore drastically reduce wait times to get in a game, and then bring in more players who own the full game, effectively shocking life in to the half-dead husk that CQC has always been. It might work, it might not. Regardless there is now a cheap alternative to the full game that players on the fence can buy just to try it out, and for a game like Elite, I think the ability to try it out is really crucial. Elite has a specific, but large, niche appeal and you either love the game or you hate it. There isn't a whole lot of in between.

You can purchase Elite Dangerous: Arena for $7.49 here:
Frontier Store: https://www.frontierstore.net/usd/games/elite-dangerous-arena.html
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/443080/

The full Elite: Dangerous Deluxe Edition, which includes both Season 1 and Horizons (Season 2), and in-game paint jobs and a bobblehead, as well as everything Arena offers, for $59.99 here:
Frontier Sore: https://www.frontierstore.net/usd/games/elite-dangerous-cat/elite-dangerous-deluxe-edition.html
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/93682/

#TrustAndSafety: The day Freedom of Expression on Twitter Died.

     It's official, ladies and gentlemen. Freedom of Speech on Twitter is dead. Twitter has created a "Trust and Safety Council" to dictate what is and isn't acceptable behavior on the social media platform. Every single person on that council is a special interest group that seeks to further their own agenda and nothing more. Among them is counter one Anitsa Sarkeesian, who is infamous for attacking gamers over and over again and then screaming "HARASSMENT" when they inevitably fight back. It would seem that if you cry harassment enough that you get invited to twitter to destroy free speech! Twitter has a long history of pandering to the extreme left and political correctness at the expense of their own stocks and value as a company out of fear of being the latest target of the Social Justice Nazi harassment brigade. In a way...poetic. In every way...absolutely despicable. What Twitter has done is give a bunch of people who consider criticism in any form to be harassment the ability to make it harassment. These people all want the same things: to have their ideals go completely unchallenged and for Twitter to be made in to their personal "safe space". For years, ever since the Gamer Gate controversy began, these people have shown over and over again that they want to censor everything they deem "problematic", silence anybody that disagrees with them, and force people in positions of power to give them what they want. And now, Twitter is actually doing it.
     Allow me to explain exactly what is going to start happening. Trust and Safety council gets founded, people complain and express their frustrations at Twitter and everybody involved, and then it just kind of sits there for a while. Waiting. Then, when it all dies down and people think nothing is really going on. Whoops! A well-known figure who openly denounces SJ culture gets banned for "instigating harassment" and "hate speech" and "being problematic". People are going to flip, it's all going to be blamed on the Trust and Safety council, and rightfully so. Then, with all the rage and frustration, the council is going to go to Twitter and say "Look! Look at all these people who are angry! This is all mass harassment! They're from a terrorist group called #GamerGate!". And then over the next several weeks, you're going to start seeing major figures in Gamer Gate get banned. And then less major figures will start getting banned. All for "instigating harassment" regardless of what they actually did. Then you know what will happen? Major right-wing political figures will start to get their twitter presence removed all in the name of "safety". After all! You don't like gay marriage, that makes you problematic! And we can't have ANYBODY that is...problematic... And then what's left? You ever told an SJW to fuck off? Banned. You follow somebody who posts to Gamer Gate who got banned? Banned. You get blocked by Sarkeesian in the past? Banned. Don't like feminism? Banned. Ever said anything that could ever be considered offensive by anybody ever? Banned. Banned, banned, banned, banned. BANNED.

BANNED

     It might take a while. It might not happen for months, maybe a year or two. But this is merely the first step towards total censorship of anything the extreme left doesn't agree with. When you give people who's entire purpose online is to push a political agenda the tools and power to do so...it doesn't matter what their "intentions" are, they will always... ALWAYS abuse their power to ensure that their narrative remains unchallenged. The people on this "Trust and Safety" council are in it for their own sakes. They don't care about anybody unless that person shares political ideals with them. Don't believe me? Just watch. How much you willing to be that if a Social Justice Nazi doxes somebody and sends them death threats...that nothing will happen to them? Oh but God help them if a white christian male who's voting for Donald Trump does it...they'll be banned instantly. "It's okay when WE do it, because we're the RIGHT people doing it for the RIGHT reasons."

#RIPTwitter 

#RIPTwitter: Because apparently we don't know what we want to see

     The current number one trend on Twitter is #RIPTwitter. That seems a bit drastic, as what could possibly kill the social media juggernaut? Some new system that take what twitter does right and makes it better? Nope. Could it be something to do with Anita Sarkeesian showing up to tell twitter how to improve? Doubtful. How about Twitter itself? Ding ding ding. It would seem that Twitter has decided to get rid of the sensible chronological timeline, and replace it with one that uses an algorithm to essentially tell users what they want to see.
     There hasn't been any official word of this yet, but it would seem that it was leaked to several news sources that Twitter intends to release and algorithmic timeline as soon as next week. This would essentially spell disaster for the social platform, as it has been one of the only real-time focused sites out there. Many users have stated in the past that Twitter has saved their lives due to easy access to news reports and instantaneous messaging. Now, if that crucial tweet from your local weather station warning you to stay indoors gets put at the very bottom of your feed because the algorithm decided that you dont really want to see it...you're kinda screwed.
     This is just the latest attempt from the platform, who's obsession with pandering to the political correctness crowd is well documented, to attempt to arbitrarily dictate what people see. The algorithm (if it comes in to effect because let's be honest here, nobody is pleased, at all) might start off harmless, with just showing you the most popular tweets among those you follow, but what's to stop twitter from using their algorithm to detect things you say they don't like? Speak negatively against radical feminists? Flagged. Make a joke about ISIS? Flagged. You associate with the right wing? Flagged. And if you're flagged the algorithm decides that "nobody really wants to see anything you tweet..." and will shove you down to the bottom of every timeline. And if that starts, whats to stop them from shoving all their promoted tweets at the top, or ignore who youre following and just fill timelines with people who share twitters flawed political beliefs?
     When social media starts using algorithms to dictate what people can and can't see...they are essentially stating "we have a narrative we want to push, and you are going to listen whether you like it or not". Social Justice Nazis have in the past stated they want twitter to be turned in to a safe space, and this could very well be the first step to making that happen.

Don't assume anything yet, as there is no official word, and twitter could very well back off with this move due to the mass outrage, but that doesnt mean don't be weary. If this does come to fruition, mark my words, nothing but predetermined "safe" tweets from "designated safe tweeters" will show up for anybody in the not so distant future.

#Pawtendo: The Furry Fandom's Resident Ball of Abuse and Anger

     A Furry that goes by the name of "Pawtendo" has a long-standing history of generally being to other furries what furries are to regular people. Pawtendo has quite a history of being abusive, with a lot of controversy surrounding him that is documented in his WikiFur article, as well as an Encyclopedia Dramatica page that covers a lot more but in an equally abusive manner, so we'll ignore that for the purposes of this article. He has been banned from major furry websites numerous times, as well as appeared on Artists Beware frequently. He has had to change his Twitter handler (which is at the time of writing @PawtendoPlays) frequently as he can not seem to stop abusing people to the point where he gets a hate mob on his trail. I personally have seen him harass people for saying "feet" instead of "paws", attempt to get others to harass on his behalf to circumvent preemptive social media blocks, and attempt to con artists in to giving him free art (and when it doesn't work he resorts to more harassment). This person is already well-known for being extremely abusive so it should come as no surprise that he is now targeting a 14 year old artist.
     As documented here, Pawtendo has set his sights on trying to con a 14 year old out a measly $10 by insinuating that the artist (who isn't even old enough to legally receive payments) request payment for free art, which did not happen. In addition to this, Pawtendo was actually hitting on the kid claiming that he has a crush on them and trying to guilt trip them when they didn't express the same feelings back. It's a sad day indeed when a 14 year old is being the mature one when a 24 year old expresses romantic feelings. Of course, Pawtendo is desperately trying to deny all of this, but given that he has a history of lying and trying to cheat people out of money, as well as has been caught numerous times in the past flirting and trying to roleplay with underage kids (and subsequently throwing a fit when they reject him), most people are on the side of the young artist. I personally find it quite sad that this is even happening. The Furry Fandom prides itself on being inclusive and understanding to anybody that associates with the community, but unfortunately that means that a few bad eggs can and will show up every once in a while. Sometimes...it's the same bad egg multiple times. The fandom tries to police its own however, but sadly that can just result in a harassment war (which reminds me, please do not go and try to harass Pawtendo because you read this article. That just makes matters worse. This article is meant as a signal boost, so that people know to avoid this highly toxic individual, it's not meant to start a flame war. So please, be the bigger person.)
      This is all just one more mark on the list of shitty things that Pawtendo has done, and it certainly won't be the last. If you're part of the furry community or just on twitter in general...do yourself a favor and block Pawtendo. Even the people close to him have admitted multiple times that they tolerate him out of pity more than anything, and he attacks anybody for trivial things (I mean really...getting pissy over somebody saying feet and not paws? This is why people think furries have mental disorders). Keep him out of your life, and you will have a much more positive time. Trust me.

 

Harry Styles and his Secret Obsession with the Nazi Regime

hahahahahahahaha you see how easy it is to make some bs clickbait headline to whore out for views?

You gotta stop falling for this it's the oldest trick in the book.

Harry Styles does not (as far as I know) have an obsession with the Nazi Regime. But all I would have to do is write an article that talks about a hypothetical situation in which he did based on some photoshopped tweets and rumors from 4chan and have THAT be the headline and now I'm the spitting image of Gawker.

How NOT to Live Stream

When you're streaming a game on twitch, or any lives tream platform for that matter, people are there to watch you play a game. They aren't there to watch your face, they aren't there to stare at your username and social media links, and they sure as hell aren't there to watch scrolling text of donations and old memes. Now, when you're a stereotypical "gam3r gurl" who gains followers simply by having tits, it can be argued that people are there to watch YOU just as much as they are to watch the game, so yeah, you can have a bit bigger webcam feed. But holy freakin' god do NOT make your webcam feed be nearly as big as your game feed. We don't need to see you, your bed, your floor, your dresser, and your dirty clothes in great detail. Keep it small. And seriously there's plenty of room in your channel description to put all your social media links, putting them up like a billboard just takes up even more space that COULD be used for your game feed.

And no memes. Memes are for losers.

Now, if you want to see a GOOD stream, check this out:

Do you see this? Do you know what this is? This is Dyrus. The Top Laner for Team Solo Mid. One of the biggest names in the ESports scene. One of the best League of Legends players in North America. His stream has nearly a million followers, and over 155 million views. And do you see what he is doing? His webcam feed is small. His social media presence is on-screen but in an organized fashion that takes advantage of the negative space created by his webcam feed. His entire layout is set up in a way that doesn't cover up anything important. And most importantly, HIS GAME FEED IS TAKING UP THE OVERWHELMINGLY VAST MAJORITY OF HIS SCREEN. He knows that people are there to watch him play games. He knows that people are NOT there to watch him, or donor names, or lame memes. People are coming to watch him play League of Legends, so he is showing them League of Legends.

Be like Dyrus.