The Queue: The Queue about Star Trek (and maybe some other things)

The problem is that once I start talking about Star Trek, it’s hard to get me to stop… so I’ve left that for the end and tried to answer a few questions first.

It’s going… well. Mostly. We’re getting closer, but it’s a long slog full of many missteps. I can only do so many pulls before my brain starts melting and I start mixing up which pulls I’m supposed to go into those Kingsmourne Hungers casts. (I just went last time, didn’t I? So I don’t go this time.) It all starts to blur together when we do three hours of just Anduin pulls.

As you can tell, I’m not cut out for hardcore raiding. My attention span and energy levels only go so far, and it really pushes both when we spend weeks on just one boss.

The only things in game you can only get with money in Diablo Immortal are cosmetic. Everything else is a time-saver… though it can be a pretty significant time-saver.

Leveling is just gameplay. Log on, murder some demons, do some bounties. If you’ve played any other Diablo games, the gameplay loop is exactly the same. In fact, Immortal plays almost exactly like Diablo 3. You shouldn’t have to do anything to hit max level and go through story content — there may be points where you have to grind mobs for XP between quests, but you’ll be fine without spending a dime. (Though the game will regularly offer bundles to encourage you to spend a dime… preferably two or three or twenty.)

But if you have played Diablo, you know that the game really starts after you’ve reached max level, when you start trying to gear up, collect gear sets, and so forth. Like Diablo 3, that’s done in large part by running Rifts.

And here’s where things start to diverge. In Diablo 3, you need keystones to run Greater Rifts, and you get those keystones by running the basic, Nephalem Rifts. In Diablo Immortal, running Rifts costs you nothing… but the amount and quality of gear you get is influenced by how many Crests you spend to enter the Rift, as well as the quality of those Crests.

You may be able to see where this is going. The very best Crests are the Eternal Legendary Crests which are only available for real money — and in my opinion, quite a bit of it at about $2.50 per Crest. You can get Crests through normal gameplay, but not these best Crests.

I’m not at the level where any of this is an issue yet, but I strongly suspect it may be a problem with end-game PVP… though I think you’ll probably still be okay in PVE content. But if you spend time running Rifts, you’ll still get gear. It will just take longer.

A lot of people are publishing headlines about how it will take tens of thousands of dollars to max out your characters, and maybe that’s mathematically how it works out, to give you a complete chance to get all of the best possible gear and gems. I don’t think that’s going to be the common gameplay experience, though. You can do a lot of gaming without spending any money and I don’t think you’ll suffer for it. But in PVP… you may not be able to stay competitive with whales unless you dedicate a lot of time to grinding. And if there’s anyone out there who does want to spend $50,000 on this game, you aren’t going to be able to keep up by grinding.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with that “impossible dream” thing. Even if it weren’t datamined, one person would eventually figure it out, post about it, and what was once a secret is now the cookie cutter build. It would likely turn into a balance conundrum: people who used guides and learned about these things would be overpowered, while more casual players who just logged on and played would constantly be at a disadvantage.

It’s an idea that sounds fun, but I think in practice it would just be frustrating.

Though I am utterly terrified of it, I have to go with Choo Choo Charlie. It is an utter masterpiece of horrors.

I don’t really keep up with any webcomics, precisely, though I do read Calvin & Hobbes from a Twitter account that goes through them in order. In this one tiny, infinitesimal way, my life is unchanged over the past 35 years.

Data.

He was smart and competent… well, technically competent. But he never fully understood the people around him, the situations he was in — not the way a human would. He was always a stranger in a strange world, an observer of a confusing world of people doing irrational, inexplicable things. He did the best he could with it, and never stopped trying to understand.

And as a nerdy kid without a lot of friends, as someone who found social interaction baffling and wondered how everyone around me just knew what to do, I empathized a lot with Data from the very first time he was on screen. And even though Data was never precisely “one of them,” even though he was different, even though he didn’t have a sense of humor, he was a part of the crew. A respected part of the crew. Everyone accepted him, even though he was different. That meant a lot to me. It still means a lot to me, because I often still feel like I don’t understand the way the people around me work, how to interact with them. People are dreadfully confusing, like they were to Data, but he kept at it and I suppose I’ll do the same.

I typically empathize with these “fish out of water” characters. In Deep Space Nine it’s Odo. (Though I’m awfully fond of Quark, who always managed to surprise me by being so likable.) On Voyager it’s the Doctor. On Enterprise…. well, I just didn’t like Enterprise very much. On Discovery it’s Tilly. All smart, competent people. All trying to understand the world around them and where they fit in it.

I suppose the only break in my pattern is with the original series, where I favor McCoy, emotional, down to earth, with a good dose of dry humor and snark, which I relate to in a totally different kind of way.

Anyway! Star Trek! If you all aren’t tired of the Star Trek chat — except for Mitch — do carry on the discussion of your favorite characters. It’s always a joy to be nerds being nerds together.

That’s all for today. I hope you have a peaceful, pleasant weekend. Don’t forget to pet your dogs (or cats or iguanas or any other pets) and tell your loved ones you love them. Days are long and life is short, my friends, so make the most of the time you have. Y’all are great — and I’ll see you back here next week.