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Penny Arcade - Comic - Skillusory

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited December 2019 in The Penny Arcade Hub

imagePenny Arcade - Comic - Skillusory

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here


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Posts

  • vrulgvrulg Registered User new member
  • FireballDragonFireballDragon Registered User regular
    The speech bubble colors should be swapped in the last panel.

  • brossabrossa Registered User new member
    And there's what looks like a fill glitch in the second panel. I mention this not as a 'gotcha!' but because it maybe gives some insight as to how the comic is drawn - like seeing the sketch underlying a painting if you hold it at the right angle.

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    It's funny. I get it though, you get some top ten's and win a few fortnite games, and then you go into the competitive arena, and it's like, nope I need to get better.

  • RageousRageous Registered User regular
    My nephew (currently 13) has been playing the crap out of Fortnite for over a year now, and will tell anyone in the family how he's all set to get serious. This summer has consisted of him pelting me with questions about gaming monitors, ideal keyboards and mice, and the beginnings of PC components. When he gets wins, everyone hears about it.

    Recently he and his slightly older brother were telling me about how they noticed there were bots in the games, and they postulated it must be because the game's numbers are dropping (lol). While doing some research on SBMM a month ago, I happened upon an article about the addition of the Fortnite bots: They only exist in low-skill lobbies to ensure a consistent experience for new players. My tryhard nephew inadvertently outed himself as being matchmade in beginner lobbies because he thought he was cool for identifying bots without knowing why they were there. So I did what any reasonable person would do in this situation: I told his brother. 8-)

  • DaimarDaimar A Million Feet Tall of Awesome Registered User regular
    Rageous wrote: »
    My nephew (currently 13) has been playing the crap out of Fortnite for over a year now, and will tell anyone in the family how he's all set to get serious. This summer has consisted of him pelting me with questions about gaming monitors, ideal keyboards and mice, and the beginnings of PC components. When he gets wins, everyone hears about it.

    Recently he and his slightly older brother were telling me about how they noticed there were bots in the games, and they postulated it must be because the game's numbers are dropping (lol). While doing some research on SBMM a month ago, I happened upon an article about the addition of the Fortnite bots: They only exist in low-skill lobbies to ensure a consistent experience for new players. My tryhard nephew inadvertently outed himself as being matchmade in beginner lobbies because he thought he was cool for identifying bots without knowing why they were there. So I did what any reasonable person would do in this situation: I told his brother. 8-)

    To be fair, I've seen lots of very skilled streamers running into bots during their matches as well, so it's not just skill based. I expect Epic is trying to get you into a game as fast as possible rather than trying to get you into a lobby full of real people like they do in competitive which can be a long wait.

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  • YoungFreyYoungFrey Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    Or maybe Epic realized that a free-for-all means 50% people are in the bottom half, and people who lose are almost certainly less likely to keep playing, especially the ones in the bottom quarter. As a new player, skill means you are winning more than losing. But as you rank up, eventually you end up in a place where you lose half the time. So an injection of bots means a larger number of humans get to feel better about themselves. Probably not all of them getting into the top half, but it lowers the number of people who finish near the bottom. Even a pro, playing against equally skilled players is going to hate being dead last.

    I would guess it's probably a bit of both queue times and players satisfaction.

    YoungFrey on
  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    YoungFrey wrote: »
    Or maybe Epic realized that a free-for-all means 50% people are in the bottom half, and people who lose are almost certainly less likely to keep playing, especially the ones in the bottom quarter. As a new player, skill means you are winning more than losing. But as you rank up, eventually you end up in a place where you lose half the time. So an injection of bots means a larger number of humans get to feel better about themselves. Probably not all of them getting into the top half, but it lowers the number of people who finish near the bottom. Even a pro, playing against equally skilled players is going to hate being dead last.

    I would guess it's probably a bit of both queue times and players satisfaction.

    It does make me wonder how the bots are tuned for this. I remember that UT bots could have their AI and abilities through a scale that included sack of potatoes, challenge for many players, and trying to find and kill Sarah or John Connor.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

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  • sokpupetsokpupet Registered User regular
    Having had a nine year old and on the verge of getting another one, that is a perfectly acceptable way to phrase it. They'll think you're just being silly while also understanding that they're not the gaming machine they believe they are.
    And to clarify, my daughter is ten and my eight-year-old son's birthday is Christmas Eve.

  • MrMiracleMrMiracle Registered User regular
    And here's a memory that shows how old I am, and how freakish my memory is for trivial things:

    https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/10/04

    The best way to learn a new word is to use it 10 times in everyday conversation.

    Today's word: Spankological
  • MarcinMNMarcinMN Registered User regular
    Back in my day the highest level of fame I could have dreamed of was getting 999,950 points in Super Mario Bros. and having the score printed in Nintendo Power. ;)

    "It's just as I've always said. We are being digested by an amoral universe."

    -Tycho Brahe
  • DaimarDaimar A Million Feet Tall of Awesome Registered User regular
    YoungFrey wrote: »
    Or maybe Epic realized that a free-for-all means 50% people are in the bottom half, and people who lose are almost certainly less likely to keep playing, especially the ones in the bottom quarter. As a new player, skill means you are winning more than losing. But as you rank up, eventually you end up in a place where you lose half the time. So an injection of bots means a larger number of humans get to feel better about themselves. Probably not all of them getting into the top half, but it lowers the number of people who finish near the bottom. Even a pro, playing against equally skilled players is going to hate being dead last.

    I would guess it's probably a bit of both queue times and players satisfaction.

    It does make me wonder how the bots are tuned for this. I remember that UT bots could have their AI and abilities through a scale that included sack of potatoes, challenge for many players, and trying to find and kill Sarah or John Connor.

    I haven't been watching much recently, but when they came out the bots were very, very simple. If they got shot at they might build a wall or they might not but they were very slow firing and had relatively poor aim.

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  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
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