Puzzle Strike Missionaries

Michael Barnes wrote:
JJ is kind of right, it's rare that we see this kind of bullshit rockstar attitude in game designers....it's kind of amusing.

I am amused by it when it comes from someone with a resume to back it up; otherwise, it is off-putting (I deal with enough of this shit in academia, where everyone is a self-proclaimed genius). Anyone want a copy of Puzzle Strike for anything? I off-loaded Yomi for Dragon Pass - so that is one down and one to go.

Maybe he is actually marketing to video game fighter players who know him from that scene. I wonder if he has a hardcore following in that sub-sub-sub genre.

iguanaDitty wrote: Maybe he is actually marketing to video game fighter players who know him from that scene. I wonder if he has a hardcore following in that sub-sub-sub genre.

He does have a rabidly loyal fan base in the world of fighting games.

Latest Yomi online tournament starts today.

There are 12 entrants to date (10 hours until the start)

I have defended him a bit on the past but nowadays it's clear he fell into the Kricfalusi trap, a place he's never getting out of.

You guys have probably heard of John Kicfalusi, the Canadian animator responsible for Ren and Stimpy. He's good at his job, very good. Amazing. Yet he's surrounded by unskilled people who insist on contradicting basic principles of animation. "Oh, you can't do that stretch and sqautch, that's too Tex Avery-like!", "Why does your character look so weird in this inbetween?", "What's up with the funky colors?". And he gets fed, very fed up and starts thinking he shouldn't listen to anyone.

So he got increasingly stingy and increasingly self-centered in his arguments. He tried to explain, but he was a poor communicator, you can't write good articles if you presume the reader is wrong and even a moron. You start developing feminist bingos or chastize people as scrubs. When you take your rightness as granted instead of something you have to earn everyday, bad things happen.

And it doesn't even matter how good you are. Nietszche was one of the most important philosophers of all time yet he still found time to complain about how moronic his collegues were and who he couldn't get laid. Talk about pathethic!


It's what's happening to Sirlin. He's so fed up with League of Legends, forced grinding and unlockable characters that his mind seems to outright refuse criticism. Why listen when you are already right? So you end up being right and completely unreasonable. By the time you are wrong you won't even see it coming.

It goes without saying it's also terrible marketing. If you treat your costumers as morons, you are probably one. He thinks people raise a fuss because he's talking about sensitive issues. I think people raise a fuss because he explains himself poorly. He's not saying anything controversial. At all.


One of the things I envy about you guys and specially Barnes is how you avoid falling into this trap. Part of it is a matter of eloquency, sure, but I feel a very concious decision to be reasonable at all times, no matter how silly the opposition is.

TL;DR: As my editor puts it "Nobody likes an Angry Kirby".

Nice post, Erik Twice. What you describe is bang on. I see endless copies of it as a professor. Not very attractive, as you said, even if you do happen to be right.

Gary Sax wrote: Nice post, Erik Twice. What you describe is bang on. I see endless copies of it as a professor. Not very attractive, as you said, even if you do happen to be right.

Hey thanks. It's something I always try to keep in mind because it's very easy to fall into it. I used to be a Nietszche-Wannabe with my opinions and now that I'm calmer and much more moderate I couldn't be happier.

BTW, Erik or Twice is fine, saying both sounds too serious! =P

Space Ghost wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote:
JJ is kind of right, it's rare that we see this kind of bullshit rockstar attitude in game designers....it's kind of amusing.

I am amused by it when it comes from someone with a resume to back it up; otherwise, it is off-putting (I deal with enough of this shit in academia, where everyone is a self-proclaimed genius.

Reason I put off the PhD after a fully-funded M.Sc. (Really, a fully-funded PhD that I quit early. Long fucking story.) I simply can't do academia in Psychology for the rest of my life.)

Sirlin is free to tell me when I've spent enough money on his games.

I bought the MDF version of Puzzle Strike and feel completely fucked over by the newest versions.

I also ordered a full set of Yomi as soon as it was available.

Still feeling fucked,

KP

So I don't keep up with this stuff and never got into Sirlin's games. Are these update kits? Or does he sell entirely new productions/editions of all his games every year or something?

- The original Puzzle Strike was made with wooden chips, in like 2009.

- The second edition was made with cardboard chips to cut costs. No concessions made to those who bought the wooden version.

- An "upgrade kit" was released to further balance second edition. This was available for $25 from Sirlin's website.

- A THIRD edition of Puzzle Strike was opened on Kickstarter about six months after the upgrade kit was made available. This was a new version, with many revised chips and a completely new "Combine" chip. The long-promised expansion was also part of this project, and was only compatible with third edition, although it could be played as it's own game.

I keep hearing that the new version(s) isn't necessary at all to enjoy the game, just that it's meant to balance the game at the "tournament level," but if it's not that big a deal I frankly don't see why we need a new version every six months.

Gary Sax wrote: So I don't keep up with this stuff and never got into Sirlin's games. Are these update kits? Or does he sell entirely new productions/editions of all his games every year or something?

You want the first edition? I'm glad to send it to Lubbock.

Naw, thanks for the offer, though! I don't see these games ever getting any play around here.

This new edition thing would drive me crazy as well. It's strange because I'm not a big completionist or anything, so I should be fine with it...

I have a second edition with the Upgrade kit, and I still like the game quite a bit. That's enough variety to trot it out with my wife every couple months and hammer out a few games.

I was disappointed because I was REALLY excited about the expansion, and it ended up being a third-edition-only deal. I know I could still have gotten it to play by itself, but I didn't want to sign on for a second game. I would rather have the expansion stuff mixed in. I dunno, it's not really that big a deal but I felt awfully jerked around after shelling out the bring the game into balance once already, and then being told I would have to buy an entirely new copy to do it again a mere six months later.

San Il Defanso wrote: I have a second edition with the Upgrade kit, and I still like the game quite a bit. That's enough variety to trot it out with my wife every couple months and hammer out a few games.

I was disappointed because I was REALLY excited about the expansion, and it ended up being a third-edition-only deal. I know I could still have gotten it to play by itself, but I didn't want to sign on for a second game. I would rather have the expansion stuff mixed in. I dunno, it's not really that big a deal but I felt awfully jerked around after shelling out the bring the game into balance once already, and then being told I would have to buy an entirely new copy to do it again a mere six months later.

I don't think this has been stated well because Sirlin is adamant about balance, but there's no reason whatsoever for casual fans of Puzzle Strike to buy 3rd edition just to enjoy Shadows.

Here's why: The biggest part of third edition is the Combine change. Shadows has a set of the new Combines. Problem solved. The rest? Mostly slight buffs to older chips. A lot of chips that didn't see heavy play got some buffs, along with a couple of characters.

To me, unlike nerfs to overly strong cards or whatever, an expansion of buffs is nice, but not necessary, if that makes any sense at all.

So you can absolutely enjoy Shadows with 2nd edition. Sirlin might disagree about it being the optimal configuration, but I'd think that he'd rather sell a copy of just Shadows (which is really good) rather than nothing at all.

I like 3rd edition and welcome the changes, but it's a game I've played a lot. Casual players (not even remotely used as an insulting term) will be totally and completely fine coupling Shadows and 2nd edition/upgrade, I promise.

I think Yomi translates to "bend over".