The Queue: What is a Thursday?

We exist on the very cusp of Friday, which itself is on the very cusp of the weekend. Myself and many others in the northern side of the country are currently attempting to make through a haze of wildfire smoke coming down from Canada, but… well, after looking out the window at the yellow-gray haze of the sky, I’ll just say it’ll be fine. We can do this. Nothing to worry about. Let’s play video games instead.

And now, this is our daily Q&A column in which we answer your questions about video games (and just about anything else). Let’s get to it.

The RNG is pretty tiresome, and because it’s a game —  a whole genre — based on the joy of the little dopamine hit you get when a piece of loot drops, that’s a hard problem to shake. A lot of loot drops in a Diablo game, because the loot is where the joy comes from. But because there are a lot of loot drops, all of those loot drops can’t be good, because then everyone would be super overpowered super fast, and no one would feel the need to keep chasing the endless loot treadmill. You’ve gotta keep people playing, after all.

Early in the game, it’s fine. You’re leveling fast, you’re getting tons of loot, you’re replacing gear constantly as you find higher level pieces. You’re not too worried about finding absolutely perfect stat items, because just a higher level item is an upgrade. But as you keep progressing, as you hit max level, the upgrade stream slows down because items that are upgrades start to be items that are perfect. You don’t just want this hat, you want this hat with +crit and +overpower. This Mythic Unique is good, but I can’t even consider equipping it if it doesn’t have +3 to blood skills. At some point, getting an upgrade becomes a massive RNG game, where you’re looking for gear with the perfect combination of randomly generated stats.

And recently, Diablo 4 has added more of that. Unique items used to have fixed stats, but when the Lord of Hatred expansion dropped this changed so that all stats on them were completely random. So when I got the Bloodless Scream Unique for my perfect darkness/frost Necromancer build, it might have +blood skills, a stat that would never be useful for someone who waned to use that Unique. You couldn’t modify it, either. You either through it straight in the trash or you kept collecting more of the same type of imperfect unique until you had three, at which point you could dump them into the Horadric Cube and reroll them into a new version of the Unique. Randomly, of course. The rerolled Unique might have even worse stats than the one you had. Blizzard has improved this a little in the latest couple of patches. Uniques now have some fixed stats again, and you can modify one stat at the Occultist (which is also an RNG slot machine in which you replace one power for another, randomly, at an ever-increasing cost). It’s helpful, but there’s still that slog through RNG, layered on top of RNG, layered on top of RNG.

It gets tiresome. Most seasons of Diablo 4 I’ll play until I hit the point that it’s tiresome, and sometimes that happens sooner than others. I haven’t actually started this season yet, even though I know I at least want to pick up that Overwatch dye reward… but it’s hard to work up the enthusiasm to do the same old grind.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Diablo 4 is very fun. But after a point it’s only a very tedious grind, with a lot of loot sorting (or a lot of setting up loot filters) to find that one special item you need. It stops being fun to me after a while.

Strawberry-rhubarb pie, combining the sweetness of strawberries with a vegetable that no one eat would it if it were not combined with strawberries and a lot of sugar. It’s a very tart pie (depending on the sugar ratio), and has a unique taste.

I will also accept sweet potato pie, which you may think of as Thanksgiving fare, but sweet potatoes are an anytime food.

Early Access means the game is still in development, and may not be finished or polished yet. But that can mean different things with different developers. Sometimes you’ll find Early Access is just part of a game, with big chunks waiting to be added. Sometimes it’s like a beta, functionally complete but still doing polishing and bug testing.

But Early Access can be great for developers. Baldur’s Gate 3 was in Early Access on Steam for three years before it launched, and players got to see a lot of the messy parts of development as the game improved. The funding Larian got by selling the game early like this helped them finish the game, while the players helped root out bugs and polish the game. The funding and publicity games can get by being in Early Access helps developers survive and finish those projects to bring you great games.

Another great game in Early Access right now: Subnautica 2.

But Early Access can mean something different to every developer. Being in Early Access isn’t necessarily a bad sign, even if it’s been in Early Access for a long time. It just means the game is still being worked on and may not be finished, and what that looks like will be different with every game and developer. You’re paying to play an early version of the game, to help test and offer feedback, or just support the developer. You could think of it like a pre-order, except that you can play while you wait for the final release.

I’d say the most important thing with an Early Access game is to read the fine print and know what you’re getting into. Some games will be more finished than others, so just read the description and recent updates the developer has posted so you know what state the game is in and when it might be finished.

Usually if I do Early Access it’s to support the dev. I’d rather play the game when it’s finished. But some people like to get the first look at a game, and sometimes games in Early Access are so close to being finished that the difference is minor. Regardless, read the fine print and decide if it’s a good game for you. But don’t let Early Access alone wave you off.

That’s all for today. Everybody stay safe, and if you’re in the northeast or midwest, maybe keep your windows closed and turn on any air purifiers you have (or attach an air filter to a box fan), and if you’re outside wear a mask. And just have a good Thursday. We’re almost to the weekend.