Penny Arcade

Dog · December 2019

Penny Arcade - Comic - Skillusory

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

Read the full story here

vrulg · December 2019

Like father, like son I guess: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/10/04/i-swear-to-god .

FireballDragon · December 2019

The speech bubble colors should be swapped in the last panel.

brossa · December 2019

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.

zepherin · December 2019

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.

Rageous · December 2019

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-)

Daimar · December 2019

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.

YoungFrey · 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.

Steel Angel · December 2019

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.

sokpupet · December 2019

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.

MrMiracle · December 2019

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

MarcinMN · December 2019

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.

Daimar · December 2019

Steel Angel wrote: »

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.

fadingathedges · December 2019

Apple and the punk ass tree

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/10/04/i-swear-to-god

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