The Queue: Anybody want a peanut?

I’m not one to put in a C-C-C-Combo Breaker when it comes to The Princess Bride, but I’m also not averse to doing a redirect either. So while the title is a quote from that amazing movie, the header image is of someone who would definitely want a peanut: Anya from Spy x Family. If you haven’t seen the show or read the manga yet I highly recommend it as it’s clever and adorable. There’s even a game coming to the West later this year, although I’m concerned it won’t be dubbed (fingers crossed it will be).

Speaking of games coming out, Persona 3 Reload is out on Friday! I’ve been heavily addicted to the Persona series this past year so it’ll be nice to have a new group of virtual friends to hunt shadows with. While I impatiently wait for my next obsession, let’s answer some questions!

Snacking is not something I do deliberately while gaming, but I am constantly drinking water — and that’s not an exaggeration, I’m always thirsty.

Takes a sip of water

So yeah, I keep a large cup of water with me. I do get hungry sometimes and then I head to the kitchen for food, but I generally eat it there before heading back.

It’d be tough, but I think I could resist going above 16. Oh wait, I thought you said only. Never mind.

I remember having a home Pong game that also had table tennis and handball. After that was the Atari 5200, and I remember having Pac-man, Defender, Jungle Hunt, and Q-Bert on that console.

In terms of arcade games I’m sure I played Pac-man (Mr and Ms), Space Invaders, and Donkey Kong, but the earliest ones I actually remember playing are the non-super Mario Bros, Pole Position, Galaga, and Tempest.

My egalitarian ethics.

But seriously, I prefer equal playing fields, and while I wouldn’t characterize Hearthstone as overwhelmingly pay-to-win, those who shell out cash have a decided advantage. If you could purchase the expansion like you can the mini-set — all cards for like 5k gold — then I’d have less of an issue.

I also feel think the constructed game would be more interesting if there were more classes to play, or more ways to play the existing classes. And if Priest was deleted.

There’s two possible answers for this: the simple answer (aka Occam’s razor) and the Tinfoil Hat answer.

The simple answer is that the number-crunchers did the math and realized it wouldn’t be profitable to expand into movies or animated shows, thus they didn’t bother.

I have a different theory though: the Overwatch League. I am convinced that when plans for the OWL started gaining traction in-house, the Acti-Blizz executives (especially Kotick) became obsessed with the idea of it becoming the first “major” eSports league, and that someday people would talk about the OWL like we discuss the NFL or the NBA. Whether the dream was actually a delusion I can’t really say (except in hindsight, which isn’t quite fair — I actually thought the OWL would be successful long term too at first), but I do think any money considered “extracurricular” to game development went to prop up the Overwatch League. Thus the murder of Heroes of the Storm eSports and the subsequent death of the game itself. Any sort of animated show or film based on Overwatch or any of the other properties would be considered a financial distraction from the OWL.

I have no real evidence for this, to be honest. But I feel like it explains a lot of decisions by Acti-Blizz over the past 6 years.

As much as I try to stay hip to modern music, I do have a gap of musical knowledge that lasts for most of the ’90s and ’00s, so I missed Avril’s peak popularity. I do think the recent Love It When You Hate Me is a good song, but other than that the only song of hers I know (and ends up becoming my favorite song of hers by default) is Sk8er Boi.

… which I only know because it appeared in Elite Beat Agents. I’m still sad we never got a sequel.

I wrote about this on Monday but I have doubts that BlizzCon will exist past this year’s edition — if we even get one this year. The reason I tend to think we will is that 2024 is the 30th Anniversary of Warcraft and the 20th Anniversary of World of Warcraft so I would expect a blowout party to celebrate them. After that though it’s difficult to see Microsoft making the effort, especially when so few other studios have similar events. One hope I cling to is that when the Anaheim Convention Center expanded pretty much just for Blizzard that the company was locked into a long-term contract to hold BlizzCon there. Of course, money has a way of making commitments disappear.

So while I hope BlizzCon 2025+ will happen, it’s probably at the same level of realisticness as Heroes of the Storm getting revived.

The first one I already alluded to in my intro, and that’s Persona. I expected to enjoy the gameplay and story but I didn’t expect the “Social Links” and extracurricular aspects of the game to be so enjoyable. It’s reached the point where I want the combat to end just so I can go back to studying with my friends to raise my knowledge score.

In terms of failure to vibe, I’d have to say the games like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing and Graveyard Keeper. I expected to enjoy playing these types of games but I find myself not liking the minutia of property management. Sure there’s the social aspect which is ok, but I started finding the day-to-day task management tedious. I guess I’m just not built to enjoy builder games these days.

That’s all the space we have for questions today, but look how cute my groomed puppy is!

I hope everyone is having a great week and please leave plenty of questions for Matt tomorrow!