Carries are Cool, but at What Cost?

When I reflected on the state of my stream and gaming identity at the close of 2016, I listed the reasons why a viewer might find their way to me, and why they might choose to remain engaged over time.

I identified two dimensions:

  1. Entertainment value
  2. Pursuit of knowledge

I value the time of my teammates, especially those stronger players that are in high demand. I am immensely grateful to have the opportunity to game with them on stream, and hope to continue developing those relationships over time. Playing against opponents stronger than oneself is imperative to improving one’s individual competence. After the dust settles, you can bet we’ll have a good time no matter what titles we pick up in the future. Come Destiny 2 (or more! Who is to say?), we’ll still be kicking ass and taking names.

In spite of my best efforts to discourage the behavior, there are people who come to my stream when I’m running close to the end of a passage, and ask if I might help them along. This message is for you. Be forewarned, it comes straight from the hip, and I still love you…

I have all the respect in the world for everyone who attempts carries. When the Trials of Osiris first went live, PullRequest and I would carry AnarchistBee to the Lighthouse every week. From time to time, I pick up a viewer from my stream to join me in a fight for glory.

I’ve known for a long time that my own time here is limited. As I grow through the years, my ability to prioritize improves. If I wanted to, I could play the game from the time that I woke up until the time that I passed out from sheer exhaustion. My eyes would suffer, my dog would probably shit the bed, my gameplay would suffer… and for what? Playing games, by itself, doesn’t pay the bills. I know this because I’ve been gaming since the SNES days, and it’s done nothing but require continued reinvestment of my time, energy, and money.

I recognize that the Destiny streaming community goes hard when Trials of Osiris is in session, and that many of the community’s top streamers made their rise to partnership by the strength of their Trials of Osiris game. The early movers offered free Lighthouse runs and Trials of Osiris help. To this day, there are countless individuals offering free Lighthouse runs, yet there is a market for Trials of Osiris carries, and it’s glaringly transparent. One can find listings on eBay, of all places. There’s also SherpasofDestiny.com, whose banner ads served through Google AdSense can be found on a variety of Destiny-related websites. At the time of writing, Sherpas of Destiny charges $55 for a guaranteed flawless run (account recovery). For an additional $10, Sherpas of Destiny will let you play along.

Let’s face it – good players are in tight supply, yet money talks, and people listen. With that in mind, I’m instituting a tiered paid carry system. The harder that my carry partner and I have to struggle on your behalf, the more that you pay. On the bright side, you’ll get more time on air in exchange for your coin, the better to reward our efforts.

Someone reading this might think, “OMG, this yetieater guy is a real prick. He thinks he’s too good to play with me?!”

I tell you what – it’s not you, it’s me. I’m a good guy, but I’m also aware that not everyone plays the way that I do. I still consider it an honor whenever I have the opportunity to run with a high-level player. In many ways, I’m like you, guy who thinks I’m a prick! If I had things my way, I would occasionally bag a kill (or two, or three) while the other two members of my fireteam did the heavy lifting.

What if I have no money to put towards a carry, you ask?

I offer nothing but tough love and the truth: either 1) git gud, or 2) hustle harder.

There’s always the third option: get lucky. Thank you for reading, and I wish you all the best ♥

Rumble is the Best Game Type to Learn On

Whenever I solo-queue, I run Rumble.

Why?

Rumble allows you to encounter a larger number of firefights against real opponents in a shorter time-frame than anywhere else.

Through Rumble matches, you’ll quickly gain map knowledge, and pick up tricks in the process.

Rumble places you under frequent pressure to perform to the best of your ability. It challenges you to win your 1v1 engagements, and control your fights so as to guard against being killed by a third party.

In Rumble, you can find other competitive players and build your network. Personal anecdote: Rumble is how I found Sinon Sawashiro. I messaged Sinon post-game, asking if Sinon had a regular Trials of Osiris team, and we soon became Trials partners.

A word on skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) in Rumble: it’ll both build your confidence and crush your ego. SBMM will pit you up against opponents who are ahead of the class in skill, as well as opponents who are struggling to keep a foothold. Every interaction in Rumble is an opportunity to prove to yourself whether you’ve learned from your previous Destiny experience.

Rumble is not without its shortcomings. Its scoring mechanics make it such that the top fragger might not take first place.

Joining a match in progress can be frustrating, because it means you’ll likely suffer multiple deaths to supers, but with the right moves, you might come out on top.

To earn the maximum Grimoire score possible from Rumble, you must win 100 Rumble matches. At my winrate, this takes just over 300 Rumble matches played.

To become good at Destiny, simply play 1000 Rumble matches.

Controllers (Gamepads) Are…

Jack of all trades, but master of none

Controllers are designed for versatility and approachability. Consider that the same controller is intended to simply work across all genres: it’ll work whether you’re playing first-person shooter, racing, fighting, or other games.

Serious gamers know that more specialized hardware exists. They deliberately build their gaming setups around their interests, often sinking real money into controller mods and higher-end controllers.

FPS? Mouse.

Racing? Wheel and pedals.

Fighting? Arcade-style fighting sticks.

Just as no serious flight simulator enthusiast plays with a keyboard and mouse, no serious FPS enthusiast should play with a controller. More of them should be casting their gaze towards the familiar mouse.

Consoles Should Offer Native Support for Mice and Keyboards

I get it – console gamers who swear by their controllers hate on guys like me. They think that using a keyboard and mouse in console gaming is cheating, and that everyone should use controllers.

However, these same individuals often agree that the mouse and keyboard are the more competitive choice for FPS games. “Precision aim with a mouse is easy; controllers,” they say, “take skill to master.” Why they choose to hold onto their controllers with sweaty palms when it’s so easy (and affordable!) to upgrade to the more competitive option is beyond my comprehension.

I like that consoles feature standardized hardware for a more consistent experience, and the wealth of options for modifying controllers is astounding. It’s all done with an eye toward making a better experience for the end user. Console developers should go all the way by offering native support for mice and keyboards. I mean true 1:1 support across all titles.

Consider this: consoles already offer native support for driving wheels, like the Logitech G920 for Xbox One (MSRP $399.99, Amazon.com) and the Logitech G29 (MSRP $399.99, Amazon.com) for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

Such a move could benefit console manufacturers and game developers alike by swinging PC gamers over to console gaming, driving up sales of titles and hardware.

It would also increase the skill gap in competitive games.

Gamers with accessibility needs might fare better, too.

Finally, it would provide an environment for competitive gaming where it would be technically infeasible for the real cheaters to cheat.

The best part? Console manufacturers have been signaling that native mouse support is in the pipeline.

Microsoft has been making moves to open up the Xbox to do just this. In an interview with PCGamesN at E3 2016, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer had this to say:

When we enable PC and mouse on console it’ll be interesting to see how many of those creators think about running their PC and mouse-only game on console, and then this idea of Play Anywhere might get even more interesting for those guys

Sony’s PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 also support mouse and keyboard as evidenced by Final Fantasy XIV. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any first-person shooters on the PlayStation that offer native support for mouse.

It’s only a matter of time, but mastery waits for no one. If you game on a console, you can start using a keyboard + mouse setup today.

Need more convincing?

Check out my article: why mouse and keyboard?