May just keep it short and sweet today. It's past time we knock the cobwebs off. I'm sufficiently played out on POE 2, I think we really needed a bit of time to just geek out in our natural environment and recharge the batteries, we really don't play many games these days and it was nice to submerge ourselves in some great RPG goodness, and I could not be happier I did because in this moment I feel recharged, I feel as though we got to enjoy some fun times, and now we are due to get back to bleeding.

And damn if POE 2 isn't just so damned good! I'm sure some elements of addictive ARPG goodness will find its way into seacrit moving forward since I took the time to just enjoy and take it in.

On the flip side, I find what the community did to that game revolting.

We aren't just fighting the giant, incompetent, gatekeeping corporate machines of monopoly and social engineering. We are also fighting this new wave of petulant, entitled, dumb fuck gamers who want everything is knee jerk reactions and believe it was their right to demand EVERYTHING under the sun wile providing nothing.

It's never been great, but this scene of gaming has never been this toxic, the delapidated. And it'll drag you down and let you feel depressed if you let it. But we're not going to do that. Someone's gotta tough it out and get shit back on track. And though it's not fair that we have to shoulder that burden as a bunch of self affirmed smarm fucks caused this mess to begin with... NO ONE ELSE IS COMING TO SAVE US!

Ok, enough of these tired blatherings! GAHDAMN IT ILLTEMPERED TUNA IS THIS ALL YOU FRIGGIN' DO IS BITCH AND MOAN ON THE INTERNET!

No... there are huge chunks of time time at night, where I'm asleep. HOURS, it's ridiculous.

God I must be insufferable to the outside observer, every single blog post I make is just whining and complaining about sleep or health or the industry or this or that. GAH DAMN DOES THIS M*THER FUCKER EVER GET WORK DONE!

YES! ALL THE DAMN TIME WHEN I'M NOT BITCHING AND MOANING, THAT'S WHY I BITCH AND MOAN SO MUCH, GOSH!

Ok, so it's kinda impoortant that we have a plan in mind to work towards. And after playing POE 2 and experiencing that burning need for that next piece of gear that fits our build... that's the feeling I want to chase for in design! So I think we may start coming up with some items that fit together better, and try to come up with various defensive mechanics that overlay in certain ways such that only certain combinations of items and bonuses are able to reach certain areas quickly and without excessive farming.

I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT THE GAME IN TERMS OF CONTENT!

Maybe we truly are on the precipice of making things!

Whew, that's kinda terrifying XD

Like it's easy to sit here and THINK that all this stuff will be fun, that everything 

DARN IT! I wanted to link a deep thoughts by jack handy, but there isn't a video of it online anywhere so I'll just post the quote:

"It easy to sit there and say youd like to have more money. And I guess thats what I like about it. Its easy. Just sitting there, rocking back and forth, wanting that money."

It's easy to WANT to make a good game, to have ambitions for a great game, to work towards a good game.

But actually ACHIEVING that game? WHEW BOY, that one's tough.

We can put that notion in our head, we can feel that it will be good, we can believe with every fiber of our being that we are making something transcendent. We're the main character of our story after all! We're going to find success! That's how stories work right? And I've made up my mind that we're making the next great thing, how could it fail? It's going to be a science based dragon MMO, how could that NOT be successful!?

So where I feel our path to success gets a little iffy (that we have control over anyhow) is finding ways of making a more actoiny RPG feel fun to farm in.

In a game like diablo where there are cool armor pieces and easy point and click, you just hold a single button down, or spawn one totem and it massacers everything on screan, we have "Clearing" abilities that can hit many enemies at once, and those improve in time, we get to feel that power spike, and we become thirsty for more.

Wow this is actually helping to talk about it way more than I thought!

Can I just say how friggni' werid it is to work on this game in a total bubble? I mean yes, we are insulated from the group madness and the usual petty politics that emerge the moment there are 3 people on a team, but at the same time, what sort of cool ideas are we missing out on? What sort of additional functionality and ideas could push this game forward in interesting ways?

Eh! I'm pretty happy with how things are going on our little secluded island, so not gonna harp on this so much any more. It's a curse, but also a blessing!

I guess we gotta just start gettin things in the game! We gotta try to make little mini bosses and figure out how to do gear checks!

One of hte big issues in a game such as this, and I know POE had to fight this too, is if you allow players to just run past and bypass all your content, and then farm in select areas, your game falls apart. For one all the content you spent forever making that's meant to entertain the player gets reduced to a few little blips and your game becomes miniscule and easily forgotten.

For two, your actions to give the player meaningful content meant to teach them the ropes and prepare them for later areas goes out the window!

I'm so glad we had this talk with ourselves because for the first time ever I think I have a really solid idea for a little mini area in the start!

So our plan will be to make a tiny start area with a shop, a few fish you can farm for power and items, and beyond that will be a short little cavern full of ranged fish as well as a mini boss akin to "THE BUTCHER!" from diablo 1. 

And this mother fucker will unabashedly be a gear check.

Everyone talks shit about gear checks, THEY ARE A GOOD THING!

Oh but there's no skill behind gear checks! BULLSHIT! It takes planning and investment to gather the health and regen to survive against harder areas.

The moment you start bottlenecking content based on player ability, that's when you alienate over half the players trying to make the game fun for try hards who spend way too much time playing video games!

Our long term plan is for diffiuculty will set in over time, and the faster you can advance to later areas and farm fast, which will be an art in itself, you will be able to farm more potent bonuses and items and get deeper and deeper in the bottomless dark.

AMAZING WHAT A LITTLE BREAK CAN DO!

And I feel as though that fast really helped! Feeling kinda like myself again, so we've got our health, we've got some gas in the tank, we've got an industry around us that once sought to kick us into the muck falling the fuck apart and is on fire under the weight of their own fucking greed, hubris, and smarm.

BUT YOU KNOW ME I CAN'T COMPLAIN

Not sure this song fits or not, I just really fucking love this song.

TAKE THE EDGE TO THE EDGE YEAHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh

ON THE ROAD YOU WILL FIND THE ANSWER

ON THE ROAD YOU WILL TAKE YOU TAKE A PEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I COME DOWN LIKE A BLOODY RAY CUNT UP THE SKY ON THE PAUSE BEAT DOWN UNDER

 YOUR CHILD'S BUILDING A BOMB COODAY, AIN'T NO GOD GONNA SAVE YOU NOW

I SAYYYY,  SOULS IN THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE A NUMBER

BUILD THE HIGHWAY TO, TO THE EDGE YEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

Am I the only dumb son of a bitch who can't understand a single fucking word in this banger XD?