The Queue: When half of the Internet doesn’t load and it’s the half you need

So I can load this site and the CMS to write things for it, but I can’t load the comments on the Queue, nor can I access Discord to look at questions there, and I can’t get Twitter to load.

In case you’re wondering, it is really hard to write the Queue without anything to respond to. I was seriously tempted to just start writing fanfic about you. Luckily I could still play Cyberpunk 2077 for my transmog fix while I waited.

Basically, for every person who engages in this kind of attack, there’s a different reason why they do it.

• Some do it just to find out if they can, or demonstrate that they can.
  • Some big DDoS attacks are preludes to other, even bigger attacks. There’s been a rise of DDoS extortion online, with companies being told pay us or get your network well and truly borked.
  • For all I know, some of the people doing this are the same people who make attacks on hospital networks and power infrastructure causing brown outs. The Canadian government was hammered with DDoS attacks in 2015, for example.
  • If you are someone interested in learning how to  bring down networks and cause cyberwarfare damage to infrastructure, these are the baby steps to learning your way around doing so.
• Others do it because they want to hurt Activision-Blizzard, for a variety of reasons.
  • Some are likely well intentioned, wanting to hurt the bottom line of a massive corporation that has routinely been in the news for a host of issues from sexual harassment to bad labor practices.
  • Still others are mad that Blizzard doesn’t fix the issue that they care about in a manner they find satisfactory.
  • Some people liked a specific Blizzard game once, then decided they didn’t anymore and now viscerally need it to fail because in some strange way that will validate their choice to not like it anymore. I call this the Spiteful Ex approach.
  • There are likely other reasons they want Activision-Blizzard, or just Blizzard, to suffer DDoS attacks that I’m not privy to.
• Sometimes it’s absolutely aimed  not at the corporation, but the players. This, too, can be for a variety of reasons.
  • Some people gain a feeling of power by denying people the things they enjoy online. You want to play World of Warcraft? Well, I, Lord Morbicurious, say thee nay! Fear Morbin’ Time!
  • Others actively dislike people for a variety of reasons, from just straight up misanthropy to a lifetime of bad experiences that have caused them to view others as potential threats at best and outright enemies at worst.
  • To quote the Christopher Nolan Batfilms, ‘Some people like to watch the world burn.’

It’s all a rich tapestry of bad news.

Honestly, physical games media got too rich for my blood quite some time ago. I prefer never having to go to a physical location, not having to deal with the long lines and event release nights and being able to play as soon as the download completes. So for me, the answer to your question is a resounding That’s 200 dollars Canadian holy crap I could buy a month’s worth of groceries for that and I end up feeling stressed and guilty for even considering it.

But I do think that the CE’s tend to have a lot of cool stuff, so I don’t judge anyone for getting them. If I could afford them, I’d get them too. I am however a disabled man whose primary source of income is writing about video games online, so as you can imagine, I’m hardly Jeff Bezos over here.

I mean, yes. It will do that.  But keep in mind, you will eventually not just outgear but outlevel that raid, so if you’re trying to get stuff for transmog — I assume that’s what you mean by ‘fill it out’ above — you will eventually be able to come in and solo the place and then all the loot is yours.

The pros and cons of the new system, which is the old system minus Master Looter (which is apparently not coming back) will take some time to shake out, and I suspect for most players it won’t be a major inconvenience, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t right in what you said above.

Honestly, for me it’s always either Warrior by Patty Smyth and Scandal, Warrior by Disturbed, Warrior by Atreyu, Warrior by Hannah Kerr, Demi Lovato’s Warrior, Warriors by Imagine Dragons, and I just found this Avril Lavigne song which seems to be a reaction to the whole everything in 2020. It’s named We Are Warriors.

I’m messing around a little but man, there are a lot more songs with Warriors in the title than I expected.

I got mine last week at the same time I was getting my double eye injections. Didn’t have much of a reaction to it, kind of felt dizzy and sick for a day. Nothing too aggressively awful. The eyes were a lot worse.

Anyway, I’m super terrified of getting COVID so here’s hoping we all avoid it if at all possible, and weather it if we can’t.

Okay. Hopefully the internet stays up long enough for me to get this written and posted and y’all see it okay and nothing weird happens.