Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Random ramblings: searing sticky summer edition

- If you ever needed proof that my head is all kinds of messed up... last night I had a dream that I returned to LPing. And I swear that while this was going on, I could feel another fragment of my subconscious telling me, maybe making a comeback would indeed be a good idea? So how does that work? Do I have multiple subconscious...es...or something? Am I losing my grip on reality?

Of course, when I woke up, I made a point to tell my brain, thanks for the offer, but no, I quit for a few reasons, and they still apply today.

- Apparently the decision of putting Greninja in SSB4 was made before X and Y came out. This really was quite a gamble, because at that point no one had any idea if it would take off. Imagine if they released a Smash game early in gen 5, and decided to put Zoroark in the game before BW1 came out. This would've turned out to be a tragic decision, because no one gives a fuck about Zoroark. It really never took off the way Lucario did. So in a way, they really, REALLY lucked out with the Greninja pick. Just how much, do you ask? Well, in the unweighted Smogon OU stats, Greninja is a very close second behind Charizard, while in the weighted ones Greninja is all the way down to 17th (Charizard is 12th). This suggests that Greninja is indeed a formidable fan favorite, maybe even to an extent we haven't ever seen out of a non-gen 1 Pokémon.

- One excuse I've seen people give for not banning Aegislash: it's not as broken as Mega Kangaskhan was. Sorry, but why should Mega Kangaskhan be the baseline for what's OP and what's not? Hint: it shouldn't. Damn thing was so cheap Stuart Ashen could've reviewed it.

- So sick of the Koopaling bashing. So I was shown this article about video game characters no one picks, and while I can't give my two cents on most games in there because I don't know shit about fighting games or LoL, the MK8 Morton entry is absolute shit (and it has nothing to do with the fact that I main him). Where do I start? With the fact that in any game, people tend to gravitate towards top-tier characters, and Morton is one of them (along with Roy, for that matter)?

So now that that's covered, let's move on to what I was talking about: suddenly the Koopalings are the most uncool thing ever. Between their appearance in SMW in 1991 and their return in NSMBW in 2009, they've made one appearance in Superstar Saga. Otherwise, total hiatus for 18 years. And during those 18 years, people complained that the Koopalings were given the shaft, while giving the decidedly less popular (at the time) Bowser Jr. all the attention. LEAVE MY MAMA ALONE YOU BAD MAN.

So what the hell happened? The only thing I can come up with is that most gamers nowadays weren't even alive back during the Koopalings' salad days, and have no idea what they meant back then. I can't explain the outrage at them making the cut in MK8, but not Bowser Jr., any other way. Sure, the roster has its flaws. Baby Daisy and Baby Rosalina are the worst offenders, there's no reason to have them, period. Pink Gold Peach is also... well, you know, but there's a fairly valid reason for her being around. See, in order to avoid the MK7 fiasco, they had to shove Metal Mario in a different weight class from the other heavyweights, but he couldn't be alone in that class, so they needed another average-hitbox heavyweight, and thus Pink Gold Peach was born.

But the Koopalings? Really? I think if there's one thing the MK8 roster did exactly right, it's have them in there. Sure, getting rid of Baby Daisy, Baby Rosalina and the red-shelled Lakitu in favor of say, Bowser Jr., Diddy and Dry Bowser would've singlehandedly solved most of the complaints regarding the roster (including the overabundance of lightweights), but claiming, like some people do, that the Koopalings are all basically the same thing are just way off. Each of them had their unique charm back in the day, and if you're too young to remember the horror of facing off against Roy and his shockwaves for the first time, at least give them the benefit of the doubt.

Oh, right, this is the internet. Benefit of the doubt? What's that?

(By the way, I see a LOT of Koopaling players online. A lot of Iggy and Larry, among others.)

21 comments:

  1. What LP were you doing in your dream? white 2?

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    1. I think so. It wasn't Banjo-Tooie, so...

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    2. Well you did leave it unfinished....speaking of LPing, has it jumped the shark yet? I don't mean the usual complaints about top-tier LPers, I mean just, is it even as big a "thing" anymore? Most big guys either are less consistent uploading or they pick games that aren't as interesting, and I pretty much stopped watching them for anything except background noise. Could just be me as I no longer have the free time to waste watching people play a game badly and yell "fuck" (I'd say others feel same, but for each person that grows out of it, two teens come on board).

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    3. Yeah, I feel "proper" LPing is absolutely running out of steam. You're not alone in having given up, I can tell you that much. Whether it just got old on its own or got cannibalized by the PewDiePie model, who knows.

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    4. My opinion still holds true of Chuggaaconroy being the best high (ish, according to YouTube) number subscriber LPer. Since Slow retired, my favorite overall is RoahmMythril. Hell, Clement and BrainScratchComms are great too. They could promote quality like them as the faces of YouTube gaming. But no, it's all about numbers, no matter how painful PewDiePie is to watch for those of us not into his brand of "humor"...

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    5. Whatever. To be honest I never found most LPers that interesting. None of them but Slow caught me up, and even he did it only when I stumbled upon a video from his Red playthrough the second time.

      If LPers don't find their selling point, the very thing is done. And that's what it is to me, done.

      And at one point I wanted to make a LP myself...

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    6. No you're not turning crazy. You always enjoyed LPing and probably would of never stopped if their would not be reasons in your private life which caused that decision. So your subconscious just remembered of the joy you had and what would be the advantages of giving a comeback. However the many wishes we have within us mostly are decided by our brain and our free will to do what seems the best considering our ratio. But the wish to start LPing again remains as a wish that your subconscious connects to.

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    7. Slow, clearly you need to wear tinfoil hats to bed, the combined wishes of the internet are trying to get to you.

      (on the "what LPers are still good" I feel groups of 3/4 or more - like Runaway Guys or HellfireComms - tend to be decent usually. You have more people to balance out views and compete, which leads to more fun situations.)

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    8. Over time either my favorite LPers usually quit so it's really down to like Slowbeef,Diabeetus,BSC, and NakaTeleeli, for the most part it's making something interesting, think about it, ANYONE can just put like Fraps or Camtasia and record their game windows whilst using their mic, but if you do something special like add a story, post-commentate with like 4 people, or just really have a good voice, and doing other things besides LPing helps, but im just rambling now

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    9. To be fair, "game reviews" already came and went, maybe the time for LPing to go is on the horizon as just the usual tides of fads. That said, kind of sad to see something I used as a time waster go out with a sad whimper (or a god-awful annoying voice screaming like a girl, saying "f@ggot" because reasons, "in the bathroom").

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    10. Similar thing with Rants and commentaries, I remember a point in like 2009 where both communities were awesome and talking a bunch of topics, now it's really just 12 year olds complaining about cartoon network or something

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    11. @RyanYoung: Which let's players are you referring to? I'm guessing you're attacking PewDiePie and NintendoCapriSun? U CANT BASH NCS, HE IZ MEMBER OF DA RUNAWAY GUYZ

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    12. Shame, ProtonJon is one of my favourite let's players. I feel that Chugga and NCS have gone to shit personally. A good let's play group is SGB for me. They actually manage to make a let's play of Final Fantasy quite fun despite the series being more fun to play than to watch.

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    13. Speaking of the Runaway guys, idiots like to ship them with users like Lucahjin. Shipping REAL people together...cold shower time!

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    14. @LordDirtyBrit, funny you mention TRG, as while I have subscribed to each member, I HATE their TRG videos (I hate collabs in general frankly). And I'm with you on NCS I think he was alright though hit or miss, but now it's just "get out the toilet paper", and Chugga idk not feeling him anymore. And shipping real people together is pretty weird/sad/wtf-ish. (Sorry for going full squick but methinks some of his fans just want NCS to finally get some 'cuz he said he's a virgin, or was a few years back, but are going about it very wrongly).
      @PokemonMarioSonic1 Just because a fad lasts longer than a year does not make it NOT a fad. A fad is something that comes in strong, and at some point goes out the way side as fast as it came. Keep in mind it was nowhere at first, then a few people did it and got popular, then everyone and their mother wanted to get in on the action. If that's not the definition of a fad then please fill me in with yours.

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    15. What's worse, shipping real people or fictional animals?

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    16. Shipping oneself with fictional animals...

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    17. While Ness indeed is winner here, I'd say shipping real people is worse. At least with fictional whatever you know it's all fiction (well maybe they don't, idk) but as sad as it can get, shipping real people passes the line into creepyville.

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    18. According to TV Tropes:
      During the Brawl tournament, many people thought Chugga and Donnabellez were cute together.

      Many seem to feel this way about Tim and Lucahjin.

      Wow, talk about creepy.

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    19. This is why I hate shipping. People tend to ship characters/people to make for the fact that they can't get into actual relationships.

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  2. Gen 6 is an era where insanely powerful threats from two gens ago now dwell in UU. It's called power creep, and Metagross was totally unfit to deal with it. I mean, the biggest improvement it has had since the physical/special split is the introduction of the Assault Vest. Might as well say it's gotten absolutely nothing since then, and gaining two weaknesses was such a huge blow to a Pokémon that was already on the verge of turning UU last gen.

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