Sorry for the slow response
Loot boxes aren’t free to acquire. Most games with loot boxes offer the ability to buy loot boxes for real money and then have time limited contents cycle through the boxes. This exploits a combination of “fear of missing out” and gambling incentives to push people into spending more money than they would normally. It’s cheap psychological tricks to squeeze money out of people. It’s gotten so bad that many western governments are reviewing loot boxes to potentially officially classify them as gambling and regulate them as such.
I also find the “it’s just cosmetic” argument to be weak. Games that use gambling techniques with cosmetic lootboxes almost universally cultivate a gaming culture that places emphasis on the prestige garnered from cosmetic appearances. They pit the players against each other with peer pressure to push players to spend money on cosmetics.
Not every game with lootboxes is like this of course, but the market (especially the mobile market) is saturated with cheap games cranked out with borderline predatory monetization. The lootbox system is easily abused and often is as a result. Large publishing companies don’t directly care about the quality of the products they put on the market. They care about how much money they get for their shareholders. They will try every cheap trick imaginable to squeeze every last penny out of you. I’m pretty sure every gamer is familiar with the practice of big publishers buying up studios only to drive them into the ground for a quick profit before shutting them down. Lootboxes and microtransactions are in the same vein as that. (blah blah soulless corporation etc etc)
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It’s nice to go back to my Garrison every once in a while:
Unfortunately the stables can’t actually show all my Hippogryphs all at once:
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Its being condensed into two movies. My guess is the break is during the time skip.
I got a new computer and finally got to explore Suramar with my settings all the way up. There are so many small details I never got to see before that really show the love and attention Blizz put in this place.
Whatever new home they give Nelves and Forsaken (or if they rework the old ones in some way) better get this same attention to detail
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That does make me feel a bit better.
And in all fairness, I know alterations are necessary for it to even be a movie at all. And sometimes I agree with them, and sometimes I don’t. Like, going back to LotR, I agreed with abbreviating the opening Shire bits in general, because even just reading them, it can kind of drag on. Probably moreso in a movie. But I didn’t agree with abbreviating the Shire bits at the end (where Saruman actually dies), since, as Gandalf says, the “whole point” of their adventure was teaching the Hobbits to defend their own home.
I guess we’ll see.
Not quite tablet related, but in lieu of terribad mobile games on my phone, I’ve just downloaded an emulator and Pokemon Emerald. I’m parked at the battle tower and that in itself is like playing a mobile game, without all the gunk. Best few bucks I’ve ever spent.
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I’ve never actually seen Dune or read the book so this’ll be new for me if I see it. I know more about it from Weapon of Choice than I do the actual story.
The book’s pretty good. Sci-fi’s not my go to, like High Fantasy is, but I liked it better than most of the stuff I’ve come across over the years (mostly Star Wars EU stuff). The 80s movie… is an 80s movie.
I’ll probably check it out if it gets decent reviews, but I’ve never read the books before.
Did any of you know the backstory of Parallel Woods from Kirby Star Allies?
The story in the Japanese version is: Kirby defeated Whispy Woods so many times that his Thoughts had Reincarnated as Parallel Woods in Another Dimension while Whispy was till alive!
Incidentally the cycle of Reincarnation as far as Japanese and Buddhist Myth is all focused on Thoughts continuously flowing and being reborn again and again!
Of course in Japanese Fiction these Thoughts are sometimes synonymous with Souls!
Dune is a classic piece of sci fi with a lot of interesting cultural themes. I don’t know how many of those themes will be captured well in the movie though.
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The venthyr should have used those new gargoyle models instead of being yet more elves.
Even if Warcraft wasn’t already drowning in elves as it is, the venthyr just do not look good. The gargoyle dudes on the other hand look awesome.
I disagree. The callback to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and making them some strange hybrid of elf and ugly works really well for the characters I’ve seen. If they were just the gargoyle models they’d end up on the pile with Maldraxxus because Monsters = Bad.
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The Venthyr look like Nosferatu not the original Dracula nor the Dracula from the Movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula!
Nosferatu has pointy ears incidentally. Revendreth was specifically intended to be a Vampire Level. Incidentally some of the Venthyr do indeed use Blood alongside the ones who use Sin Anima!
https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/npc=165031/theotar#modelviewer
https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/2017/12/oldmandracula.jpg
That version of Dracula also has pointed ears, though not quite as pointy as Nosferatu’s or the Venthyr.
https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/1140x640_hero/public/wire/legacy/Bram-Stoker-s-Dracula-bram-stokers-dracula-10765534-1024-576.jpg
Looks like normal ears to me… At least for an old man…
I honestly thought they looked like a WoWified nosferatu, myself, and not particularly like Elves. In light of that in-game book, I can kind of see some proto-dreadlord, too, now that that’s in my mind.
I mean, even Orcs and Draenei have pointy ears and big teeth.
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https://comicvine1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/original/14/148983/3425479-1463641460-tumbl.gif
Looks like it might have just been bad lightning on the pictures I was looking at.
Other versions of Dracula have pointed ears, but not this one.
Anyone remember the Witch Burnings on the GD Lounge?
Let’s start them up again on the Story Forum Lounge!
＊The Grand Witch Jury led by Grand Witch Magistrate Gruntilda Winkybunion, the Drustvar Witch Matrons(including Lady Waycrest) and the Drust leader Gorak Zhar(who just joined) arrive in the Story Forum Community Lounge to begin the Witch Trials to burn Witches not in alignment with them.＊
Sailor Venus has a Cat! Tis a Witch!
＊The Grand Witch Jury beats Yvenathilm with bananas at Gruntilda’s orders for even suggesting the male cat Artemis is a Witch.＊
I meant Sailor Venus was the Witch not her cat!
＊The Grand Witch Jury burns Sailor Venus at the stake while ripping out Artemis’s Soul and shoving it into a Wicker Beast bound to their will.＊
