Now that I've been thrust into the so called "real world," being about a year and a half out of college, I've begun to see people in a more and more negative light. Therefore, I think reasons most people suck needs to become a recurring post theme. So, I'm a lonely bastard. I like to cuddle, and have had a noted lack of a nice woman to snuggle recently. A couple friends eventually convinced me to try out match.com to find someone. The experience there has brought to light more reasons people suck! Please note that this is not a bash on match.com at all. In fact, I'm as of yet to complete my profile to get matched with people (that self describing paragraph is just too difficult!) so I can't review the service at all. I can't get matched, but I can search for people with certain traits (looks, hobbies, etc). No anger is aimed at match.com, I've heard its a great service, the rage is aimed at people, because they suck.
People lie. A lot. In fact, I know a few people that probably lie more than they tell the truth. Without so much as emailing anyone on match.com, I have identified dozens of liars. For example, Match asks for your basic body size, average, thin, athletic, a few extra pounds, big and beautiful, blah blah. An alarming amount of people lie about this, even though THEIR PICTURE IS IN THEIR PROFILE. I don't want to sound like a typical male jackass, but I've seen at least a dozen women that are clearly 70+ pounds over a healthy body weight listing themselves as "average." I know you are all screaming that this is a subjective matter, so let me clarify. I'm not a guy that wants to count the ribs on my girlfriend. I am talking what would medically be defined as a healthy weight. Some of these women are not just overweight, they are morbidly obese. I'm talking people that are under six feet tall and weigh over 300lbs. These people are overweight by just about any measure, and they are trying to play themselves off as "average" or "a few extra pounds" and their picture betrays this statement to the point of sheer comedy. I'm not trying to insult overweight people (I'm about 20lbs heavier than I should be in all honesty), I'm just using this as an example of how horribly people lie. I'm sure there are plenty of men that do this as well, I'm just speaking from personal experience.
Lying goes far beyond trying to portray yourself favorably to get a date. Trying to find people to cover shifts at work, or reasons people call in sick, are more examples of how comically bad people are at lying. The reasons I've heard for people that don't want to work a shift have been nothing short of hilarious. If you have a job where you have to get shifts covered when you want days off, or answered the phone when someone was faking sick to get off work, you KNOW what I am talking about. You get people with the most bogus reasons why. I'm not going to list specific instances of obvious lies, because I don't want to incriminate anyone. However, if you are one of the people who has done this, please inform me why you think a totally transparent lie is better than just simple honesty. If you don't want to cover a shift for someone, why not simply be honest and say you are burned out and need your day off or have plans for a party, rather than telling some totally bogus story that just makes you look like a fool.
Do people think they are better at lying than they really are? Do they believe their own outrageous truth bending? Is admitting the truth so difficult that you would rather look like a mischievous bastard than admit a simple fact? It makes me sick how honesty has fallen out of favor in place of half truths and outright lies. I don't understand how these people aren't completely consumed by their guilt. I'm not perfect, I'm not 100% truthful in every situation, I'm not going to pretend to be. However, the truth is far easier than manufacturing a lie, and I've found that being truthful is rarely a burden. Sticking to the truth keeps everything so much more simple, which is why I go with honesty in almost every situation. Why lie? It just complicates life even further, and life doesn't need any help being too complicated.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty
So I've been torn about what to say about this game for some time, and I've delayed this post for a week and a half thinking of what I should say. At first, I was very reluctant to buy SC2, thinking it was just a slightly tweaked SC1. I was pissed that Blizzard is releasing the campaign as 3 separate games, a total money grabbing move. I've spent a decent amount of time with it now, and I've finally started to make up my mind.
SC2 is a solid game. Unlike my initial opinion, enough has changed from SC1 to justify picking this up. Several units have been removed and added, including units that are staples to all races. The core gameplay, flow, and many iconic units (siege tanks!) still exist as they were, so fans of the original need not fear. The gameplay as a whole is really solid. There are counters to just about everything, and counters to those counters, however micro and macro management remain important enough that it is not simply a game of rock paper scissors. Far from it, SC2 is massively skill based, and it is quite easy to spot the better player. The races all have a unique flavor, and play VERY differently. Finding the race that fits you will be essential to multiplayer success.
The campaign in SC2 is fairly well executed, but not particularly impressive. The length is nothing to get excited about. The cinematics and between mission banter do add some depth if you enjoy the StarCraft story. While the missions aren't really BAD in anyway, I just felt it was unremarkable. There was nothing that stood out about the campaign that made it particularly enjoyable. It was just pretty bland. There are plenty of achievements to pick up, many requiring play on high difficulties, so if you do enjoy beating on RTS AI there is some replayability here. If you aren't interested in SC2's multiplayer, don't bother picking up SC2 just for the campaign, it just isn't worth it.
Multiplayer is the heart and soul of SC2, and it delivers. The matches are intense, and quick enough that you can squeeze one in during half time of the Viking beating Dallas (woot!). As I said, these are VERY skill based, with little luck involved. The maps are diverse, and there are teamplay and solo matchmaking queues. Matchmaking, however, is what really pisses me off in this game. SC2 has you play a few placement matches to figure out which of the divisions of skill to place you in (copper silver gold platinum and diamond in order of least to best). I was placed in Silver division after doing my placement matches, and proceeded to play vs platinum, which is TWO divisions high than me, for the next several games. After a few matches against equally skill opponents, again I landed vs platinum. I'm not stomping in silver, in fact my current record is something like 9-12 (I suck at RTS games, and have never played vs real people before, so shutup). Overall, I've probably hit platinum around 25-30% of my games, with another 20% vs gold (one division above). Gold is forgivable, but platinum is just a stomp and it is stupid. I would understand if I was winning a lot and the match making wanted to see if I should move up, but this simply isn't the case, not even close. This makes no sense, as I was queuing at regular gaming hours, and there are a TON of SC2 players that it could match me with that would be a far more fair fight. The matches I play vs opponents of close to equal skill are INCREDIBLY fun. However, after I have 1 or 2 good matches, it throws a platinum in and I get stomped so hard I want to quit SC2 forever. To sum it up, if you are an above average RTS player, you will have great time playing SC2 online. However, if you are average like me, or below average like the poor copper players, match making hates you, and you will get put in matches you don't stand a chance in fairly frequently. I don't understand why SC2 has such crappy match making. If all my games were vs silver, the DIVISION IT SAYS I SHOULD PLAY IN, I would have a blast, as they are mostly around my skill level. Alas, Blizzard finds it necessary to put me vs far superior foes, TWO DIVISIONS above me, so often that I just don't play much SC2 online anymore.
My experience with SC2 is quite mixed. While I enjoy the game, the match making frequently makes me forgo playing SC2 for something that isn't such a crapshoot. If you don't mind losing, or are a skilled RTS player, you will love SC2. If you aren't very good, or are just average like myself, and you don't like losing, avoid SC2. Poor match making will make you rage, a LOT. Also, don't even think about picking up SC2 for the single player. The campaign is acceptable, but definitely not worth the price for the full game. If all 3 campaigns were included, it might be a different story, but with only 1/3 included (the Terran story) I can't recommend SC2 for its singleplayer.
Edit: I forgot to mention, SC2 multiplayer is so fun that the current tournament games are being broadcast. They have actual commentators, and the game is so popular that the prize payout in the 1st major tournament was roughly $86,000.00 to first place. Watching these games is actually quite enjoyable.
Edit 2: I should note that I have been playing vs platinum players less frequently as I've logged more games, however my statement about match making still rings rather true. Many of the matches I play are annoyingly lopsided one way or the other. If Blizzard worked on the matchmaking a bit this could be a really great experience.
SC2 is a solid game. Unlike my initial opinion, enough has changed from SC1 to justify picking this up. Several units have been removed and added, including units that are staples to all races. The core gameplay, flow, and many iconic units (siege tanks!) still exist as they were, so fans of the original need not fear. The gameplay as a whole is really solid. There are counters to just about everything, and counters to those counters, however micro and macro management remain important enough that it is not simply a game of rock paper scissors. Far from it, SC2 is massively skill based, and it is quite easy to spot the better player. The races all have a unique flavor, and play VERY differently. Finding the race that fits you will be essential to multiplayer success.
The campaign in SC2 is fairly well executed, but not particularly impressive. The length is nothing to get excited about. The cinematics and between mission banter do add some depth if you enjoy the StarCraft story. While the missions aren't really BAD in anyway, I just felt it was unremarkable. There was nothing that stood out about the campaign that made it particularly enjoyable. It was just pretty bland. There are plenty of achievements to pick up, many requiring play on high difficulties, so if you do enjoy beating on RTS AI there is some replayability here. If you aren't interested in SC2's multiplayer, don't bother picking up SC2 just for the campaign, it just isn't worth it.
Multiplayer is the heart and soul of SC2, and it delivers. The matches are intense, and quick enough that you can squeeze one in during half time of the Viking beating Dallas (woot!). As I said, these are VERY skill based, with little luck involved. The maps are diverse, and there are teamplay and solo matchmaking queues. Matchmaking, however, is what really pisses me off in this game. SC2 has you play a few placement matches to figure out which of the divisions of skill to place you in (copper silver gold platinum and diamond in order of least to best). I was placed in Silver division after doing my placement matches, and proceeded to play vs platinum, which is TWO divisions high than me, for the next several games. After a few matches against equally skill opponents, again I landed vs platinum. I'm not stomping in silver, in fact my current record is something like 9-12 (I suck at RTS games, and have never played vs real people before, so shutup). Overall, I've probably hit platinum around 25-30% of my games, with another 20% vs gold (one division above). Gold is forgivable, but platinum is just a stomp and it is stupid. I would understand if I was winning a lot and the match making wanted to see if I should move up, but this simply isn't the case, not even close. This makes no sense, as I was queuing at regular gaming hours, and there are a TON of SC2 players that it could match me with that would be a far more fair fight. The matches I play vs opponents of close to equal skill are INCREDIBLY fun. However, after I have 1 or 2 good matches, it throws a platinum in and I get stomped so hard I want to quit SC2 forever. To sum it up, if you are an above average RTS player, you will have great time playing SC2 online. However, if you are average like me, or below average like the poor copper players, match making hates you, and you will get put in matches you don't stand a chance in fairly frequently. I don't understand why SC2 has such crappy match making. If all my games were vs silver, the DIVISION IT SAYS I SHOULD PLAY IN, I would have a blast, as they are mostly around my skill level. Alas, Blizzard finds it necessary to put me vs far superior foes, TWO DIVISIONS above me, so often that I just don't play much SC2 online anymore.
My experience with SC2 is quite mixed. While I enjoy the game, the match making frequently makes me forgo playing SC2 for something that isn't such a crapshoot. If you don't mind losing, or are a skilled RTS player, you will love SC2. If you aren't very good, or are just average like myself, and you don't like losing, avoid SC2. Poor match making will make you rage, a LOT. Also, don't even think about picking up SC2 for the single player. The campaign is acceptable, but definitely not worth the price for the full game. If all 3 campaigns were included, it might be a different story, but with only 1/3 included (the Terran story) I can't recommend SC2 for its singleplayer.
Edit: I forgot to mention, SC2 multiplayer is so fun that the current tournament games are being broadcast. They have actual commentators, and the game is so popular that the prize payout in the 1st major tournament was roughly $86,000.00 to first place. Watching these games is actually quite enjoyable.
Edit 2: I should note that I have been playing vs platinum players less frequently as I've logged more games, however my statement about match making still rings rather true. Many of the matches I play are annoyingly lopsided one way or the other. If Blizzard worked on the matchmaking a bit this could be a really great experience.
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