Recent content by Eclectic Dreck

Everyone is a nerd about something. My wife is even a nerd about a few traditional nerd things but, sadly, she doesn't really play games. That does not mean it is impossible to meaningfully include her in that hobby - it just means it takes a bit more work than simply tossing her a computer...

It has demonstrated that it is a valid avenue of funding by having funded projects to a combined tune of countless millions of dollars. That said, Kickstarter, like Steam's Early Access, is a fundamental problem. This is an industry where people, for one reason or another, regularly fail to...

At the time, one would not have considered Bioware to be AAA. Both Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect began their lives and spent most of their development before being acquired by EA. I suspect you'd find the budget for either game would be remarkably low if indeed it were possible to...

I'll grant that there are absolutely strategic decisions. In a lane for example, how one prioritizes items or harasses or a dozen other minor alterations to play are all strategic decisions; fighting games rarely include such things. Still, the core play between two individuals is better...

Short answer: it depends. Longer answer: if you simply look at it as a classic physics problem and ignore the effects of air, there is no need to alter your point of aim for two trains moving in parallel at the same speed than when they are standing still because from the frame of reference...

I've always considered the MOBA games to be more akin to a fighting game than anything else. So much of the game is about psychology - the bluffing and counter bluffing - which is what tends to define high level fighting game play.

Honestly, their service is legitimately fine these days. While it has fewer features than Steam, they are features that I quite literally don't care even slightly about (the trading card thing comes to mind here). Most of the time, the prices are comparable and it isn't any more offensive to...

Power is a means to an end. Literally it is the means you will use to achieve some end. There is literally nothing corrupting about power - it is the road to that end (or the end itself) that corrupts. Dealing with the fragile reality of other people along the way can corrupt an idea easily...

Family Friendly doesn't have a true meaning. It's a nebulous term that, at best, describes something in a very particular context. As the context changes, so too does the interpretation of the phrase.

To put it simply, reddit is a site where bits of content are posted (often pulled from other sources) for people to peruse, comment upon and then vote in a +1/-1 sort of way. The base reddit page basically shows the most popular (things that are seen often and often +1'd) at the top with less...

At bars I frequent the markup can be absurd. Places will advertise two dollar you call it but limit you to drinks that can be made for less than a quarter. Buying brandy at five bucks a glass is silly given the brandy bars carry generally runs less than 10 dollars a bottle!

In Austin, going to a "sit down resturant" can mean a great many things. Assuming we discard places that grew from a food truck and the like that leaves us with a selection of places that range from national chains like Chili's to local only places like Perry's. While it is possible at some of...

Saturn's Children and Neptune's Brood. Neither technically is about a female as the main characters in both are actually robots. In the case of the first, She's actually a sexbot (but humanity is extinct which means her primary function is literally useless). The latter is about accounting...

One makes a claim that video games often use themes and ideas that are unfair to women. The other says that video games make people violent. The former supports her case with examples and other evidence. The latter supported his case with volume. Different argument style, different argument.

In no particular order: Germany - Long ago my family came from here and the seemingly unending stream of interesting (though not always positive) stuff that comes out of here seems worth visiting. France - A nation so important to how the world is right now is worth visiting too. Doesn't...