#blizz’s rants

[blizzardstarx]

I AM GOING TO CRYYYYY

I MISS MY TRANSFORMICE FRIENDS

I MISS BEING ABLE TO PLAY TFM WITHOUT USING PUFFIN BROWSER

WHY DID ADOBE SHUT DOWN

also i remember drawing that ungodly ugly drawing of my mouse 😭😭😭 my artstyle was so bad im gonna redraw them

yes the fur is the pokemon dewott fur

i have an even older drawing of them back in 2020 and that shit was better 😭😭😭 ignore the crappy quality

[angelsanddirtyrain]

does anyone else get irrationally angry when people rightfully complain about a series's chosen plot point but propose an equally or even worse plot point that's just so obviously based in tropes to fuel their shipbrains or is it just me

[quick-drawn-a]

sometimes i always every day think about how cassidy's not allowed to exist in his own tag without hanzo standing next to him, cheek to cheek —

[maverickflare]

i didnt say anything when they released it a few days ago but do yall even realize what tht loverwatch shit wouldve done to my brain if theyd released it when i was like 17. like theyre just letting u romance genji in a dating sim. whatever.

[eastern-lights]

Let me share with you a line that really bugs me:

"When Ysera gave her life for mine in Val'sharah, it was not her time."

I have zero problems with Malfurion making the exchange, since it's been established that he's suicidally self-sacrificing and he loves Ysera like a mother (at least in the books because let's face it, his in-game characterization is really shitty). It's just... why wasn't it her time?

True, she died while trying to save him, but she did not give her life for him. If I fall down the stairs on my way to get a glass of water, I didn't fall in order to get that water, I just happened to fall while I was getting it. Ysera made no conscious decision to lay down her life for him and his eventual rescue did not come about as the result of her death. If anything, her involvement put him at more of a risk, since Tyrande had to deal with her after her corruption, instead of saving her husband. Ysera's death had literally nothing to do with Malfurion's fate, apart from delaying his rescue. It was absolutely needless, try as Blizz might to make it look like a sacrifice.

This is another case of WoW writers taking a plot point from the books without understanding it in the slightest. Because something very similar happened in Stormrage, with the marked difference that:

1. Ysera did save Malfurion, and she got captured as the direct result of that.

2. She gave her flight clear orders that they should, in the case of her capture, get Malfurion out of there rather than help her. Ergo, she made the decision to sacrifice herself. The green dragons had to drag Malfurion away kicking and screaming.

But in game, there is no imbalance. If Ysera had just stayed put, Malfurion still would have survived. She did not die to save him. He's not fixing the "balance of life and death" or whatever by dying for her.

[wp100]

why do people on the wow forums hate solo players so much 😭 what did we do to you. we just want old content to not be so difficult? a raid that came out 3 expansions ago (Legion) shouldn't require a group to "solo" it. Come on, now

[scruffyssketchbook]

If you had to rank each of the main cast by how much you like them (like, by how much you enjoy writing them), how would they rank? We know Blizz is your favorite and Bolt is your least favorite, and Dusk is probably second favorite (?) but where does everyone else fall?

OH!!!

No no no. If it’s how much I enjoy writing them, the list is completely different!

Enjoy writing the most

- Dusk - I love writing Dusk. Like- LOVE. he is so nuanced as a character and so interesting, when I write him I get excited because he is just SO FUN to write!!! Due to this I constantly draw him. Oops.

-Flame - Flame is kind of like Dusk, he’s a very nuanced character who has a lot of things going for him, the only sad thing about him is his lack of screentime in comparison to the other main boys.

-Miku - I love Miku’s personality, she’s funny <3 Her story is full of struggles and trying to build back up her broken heart/self esteem, and it’s so interesting to write. Plus she is funny <3 <3 I love funny characters.

-Vay - I can’t articulate why I put him in this spot, but it just feels right. I like him :3

- Bolt - Bolt is pretty interesting I’d say. I think what makes him interesting the most are all of his parallels to Blizz and how the two of them interact with each other. And also, how much he ties his worth into the other mains, it’s interesting.

- Dawn - Dawn is not that interesting. I do like her character but she does not have the type of depth others on the list have due to her being separated from them all her life. Her depth and intrigue comes from events that happen in the future to her.

- Daisy - Daisy is not a boring character to write by any means, she is just- frustrating. Very. Very. Frustrating.

- Eve - Boring Mary Sue who is not really connected to any actual plot and has her own thing going on. I don’t feel anything for her tbh.

- Blizz - He is so flipping annoying to write, I always have issues with him and his characterization, due to how I butchered his character early on and it just never recovering. also he’s BORING personality wise, LIKE. All the other mains have something they bring to the table comedy wise, and Blizz’s comedy is just “oh he’s just stupid and oblivious” and THAT IS TGE MOST BASIC YOU CAN BE, like I can’t make any smart jokes with him like I do with the others in the cast because he always is serious with almost everything he does, and all of this frustrates me cause he is my FAVORITE IN THE CAST. AND AND AND, WORST PART IS THAT IN THE START OF THE SERIES HE HAD THE SAME QUALITIES THAT I DO LIKE BUT IDK WHERE ANY OF THST WENTTTT. Ya’ll don’t understand the headache this blue guy has given to me the past few years. I still love him. I rant about his character constantly to the people who I talk to about ssec stuff, but I still love him. I am trying to fix his character for Box 31, but even with that, DUSK IS MORE INTERESTING THAN HIM. Like- HOW DOES DUSK ALWAYS HAVE BETTER MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY THAN MY BOI???? I need to go back to the drawing board again cause this is FRUSTRATING >:V

Enjoy writing the least

[official-zerg-fangirl]

How about an Au where kerrigan doesn't get kidnapped in new gettysburg by the Zerg but somehow gets a connection with the overmind and is human up until the end of Broodwar.

(thanks so much for playing along with my silliness)

ALRIGHT SO FIRST OFF-

There's two fucking directions we can go with this: what would Blizzard write, and what would I write. this is actually a dichotomy I find myself looking at sometimes, usually when it comes to the reasoning behind certain character choices. (for example: Blizzard's explanation for Izsha is probs something like "the campaign would be boring if Kerrigan had no one to talk to", but *my* explanation is a deranged rant about Kerrigan's lingering humanity)

SO let's go over both possibilities. fuck it. It's 11pm and I'm finally ready to explore the spicy idea you've presented to me.

Blizzard Version

Blizzard has a comic booky attitude when it comes to writing, I've noticed. Not always, but enough times to be notable. which is to say, I don't think they're gonna get bogged down with details like "what the fuck does she eat on an abandoned space platform" and will be more focused in making her look like a badass for surviving the full might of the Swarm.

first: how does she connect to the Overmind? such a feat of tapping into an alien hivemind is in and of itself a moment of badassery, and Blizzard will probably want this Overmind connection to be the very thing that saves her. which makes this tricky, bcs, as I pointed out, you'd think it'd telegraph her presence to the zerg.

you'd think.

but what if it didn't.

what if she had figured out a way to slip her mind in, used her telepathy to 'listen in' on the psionic communications of the Swarm, and then, could covertly send untraceable thoughts along the same frequency. and she initially uses this to misdirect the zerg, give false orders.

then she begins outright commanding them in this way.

then the cerebrates notice. and call out to her.

this would be the new Zerg campaign tutorial. instead of escorting the chrysalis, you're discovering and unraveling the hidden rogue element that seems capable of communicating with you directly. and bcs Blizzard did this in real life, I think they'd want to conceal Kerrigan's identity as this mysterious rogue element up until like mission 4, wherein she unveils her true identity to... Raynor. who's been dreaming about her. because just like in canon, she called out to him.

but before she leaves Char (don't ask how she got onto Char), the Overmind intercepts her with... an offer. idk lets say blizz planned the Amon shit from the beginning (It could go either way tbh like maybe they had this all planned out from the start maybe they didnt maybe something in between - whatever!), so okay the Overmind is looking for a free agent that can break the Zerg free of their master's control. this rogue element is a pain in the ass, but she's also an opportunity.

by this point, Kerrigan's learned a lot about the zerg. A lot of shit she's been keeping to herself (but you the player know she's learned this stuff - in the mission briefings, she's had extensive dialogues whenever she anonymously interjected herself into the communications. angry interjections. she'd been listening, and she's furious). But she knows they're not simply a mindless swarm. she knows the humans are ultimately just a step in a grand process. these aliens are actually hunting down the Protoss. they just need something to crack Aiur.

... and that's what the Overmind offers to her. The Zerg will leave these Terrans alone - no, they will aid her friend and wage war on the Dominion. So long as she helps them reach Aiur.

[Raynor voice] "alright Sarah, so we've gotta... Sarah? Sarah, where'd you go?"

and anyways the rest of the campaign has a human ghost making a deal with the devil more directly in order to fulfill her desperate need for revenge. in Brood War, she's commanding the zerg in basically the same way she does in the first half of HotS, but with the added bonus of every time people interact with her, she looks and sounds ever so slightly less human, as the zerg infection slowly seeps in...

...

... Aight, so what would I do?

My Version

let's make something clear: Kerrigan surviving New Gettysburg definitely does not mean she's out of the fucking woods. let us fucking remember she's "killed" because her evac is G O N E. She's on a fucking space platform being overrun by bugs attracted to the scent of her goddamn psionics she is so deeply and unequivocably screwed. if she manages to establish a psionic connection to the overmind? oh that's just worse: she's telegraphing her presence directly to the hive mind! She can't hide, she can't run, and she sure as fuck can't fight.

don't worry, I have a secret weapon: it's an absolutely deranged concept that I originally wrote for that fanfic I mention way too often on this blog. in fact I think I've mentioned this exact concept a few times.

you know, the one where I have decided that the Zerg can't infect a ghost nonconsensually?

"m'am what the fuck" hear me the fuck out: there was a short story. Now it's been a while since the wiki dive where I read the synopsis of that story, but if I recall correctly, the main character was a psionic human, who Kerrigan had tried to infect, and there was like some parallels drawing they did, and then like, it failed or some shit, like instead of being the super smart and fully psionic infected human like Kerrigan is, our tragic hero instead just became a zombie like every other infected terran. ... I think that's how it went? and the story didn't fully elaborate on why, but listen to me. listen.

y'all do realize the zerg hive mind operates on psionics right? that's why psionic disruptors fuck with them so hard. by the way, this is also why "de-zerged" Kerrigan is capable of commanding the zerg - it's not actually a unique biological feature, it's a specific psychic frequency that other species just haven't figured out how to access (and if they have, they're not recognized as sufficient authority to be making commands).

but like okay. it's psionics.

and in HotS, we see that zerg do in fact have a sort of individuality and are not in fact under constant direct mind control. it's just that the vast majority of zerg units have animal-level intellects and have the instinct to respect and defer to beings that communicate to them with sufficient psionic power... or maybe just the right psionic "passcode".

so... maybe that's why assimilating a psionic is so problematic. a psionic has better standing to resist assimilation. think of it like this: zerg react to projected power. to the zerg, and to any normal assimilated human, the commands of something like the overmind are speaking like. super fucking loud. like big booming voice.

but let's say you're a psionic. and you're pretty accustomed to that type of booming voice, because you can make it yourself. are you going to bow to this king when you're as strong as he is? I didn't think so.

so let's say this is true. the overmind cannot assimilate kerrigan until she agrees to it. at the same time, the overmind is like "alright but we sure as fuck shouldn't kill her bcs she's a really strong psionic (this is canon btw - kerrigan's an absurdly strong psionic. again, Blizzard is kinda comic booky sometimes), and I kinda want strong psionics, like when would i get this opportunity again? hrm... I'll just let her hang around this platform until she realizes joining us is a good idea."

so the overmind reaches out, tells her to surrender and join the zerg. Kerrigan, spooked out of her mind that something impossibly ancient is talking inside her head, says fuck no and shoots holes into a few more hydralisks. overmind's like. "okay. I can be patient. good luck."

and thus begins this intensely awkward prolonged period, where kerrigan tries her best to get off of here, while intimately aware of the fact that she's only alive because she's been *spared*. all the while, she's paying attention to the voice inside her head... and then she unlocks the 'frequency' of zerg communications.

then she figures out how to take advantage of it.

now we get into a scenario pretty similar to blizzard's version, wherein Kerrigan becomes this "rogue element" that the Overmind is tolerating, and who is still the key to them reaching Aiur, but this time her relationship to the Overmind is much more antagonistic. She's trying to take advantage of her connection to the zerg, not work with them. and the Overmind lets her "commandeer" even an entire brood (Zasz died and she said "oh cool can i have it"), because what Kerrigan doesn't realize is that the Overmind actually totally wants her to get used to commanding the Zerg.

after all, this is the destiny it laid out for her. She will become a fine queen, once she truly accepts her future...

by the point of Brood War, she's opened up to Raynor about her awkward relationship with the Zerg, and both of them are understandably worried. However, it seems like her power over them is useful, and nothing bad's happening... yet.

and then a diplomatic fiasco at Shakuras. that one protoss didn't trust her wisdom, and she lashed out.

her anger seems to grow as she brings the scattered zerg under her thrall. she realizes her body is changing... frankly, she's let the zerg infect her, bit by bit. she has nothing to fear from it, after all. The Overmind made it clear that, as a ghost, her will could not be subjugated, and now that the Overmind is dead, there's nothing for her will to be subjugated to, anyways... so why not use the zerg to improve her capabilities?

Raaynor has objections to this. and then he has objections when she betrays her former allies. he wonders when his friend turned into a monster... not realizing, of course,

nothing's changed in her at all.

she's just come to truly understand the unconditional loyalty of the Zerg. the respect they give her as their queen. the power they offer. the ability to exact vengeance on those who wronged her (and oh so many have wronged her).

Humanity's never really fit her, anyways.

[rotting-creation]

as a long time OW fan, marvel rivals gets me excited. Blizz will finally have direct competition, meaning they now have to worry about making their game better instead of taking money from the player base as most people will be playing marvel rivals. They will have to keep the player base interested, meaning we can also pressure them more do to things we want.

As a mercy main, I'm excited to be on support. (i love maining supp)

As an adam warlock simp, i got sooooo excited to see he's being added to the game.

as both an adam warlock simp and mercy main, i am LIVING for how similar they are in terms of being able to heal + rez team mates. I know im gonna main him, not only bc i simp but also bc of how similar he is to mercy. dream come fucking true. omg.

anyways, little rant i wanted to leave :)

[kuroitsukyo]

I finally finished THIS bad boy as well! Only took me a few years... well, three weeks after a "restart" of the project. Have a rant under the cut, as usual xD

So, this is Kaya - my Arcane mage I created for the sole purpose of... enjoying Aluneth - and Aluneth, feeling peckish as usual.

I started this idea... years ago (don't exactly know when, but during Legion for sure) and got stuck during the colouring phase. But I recently got inspired/motivated to work on this again... sadly, the old line art was. Not good? The only thing I kept from back then was the line art of the staff itself (which I obviously traced, don't @ me).

So I drew some new line art and powered through the colouring in just three weeks (which is pretty short, for me. Also considering I did this thing in Paint.NET with a mouse) - the most fun part was, surprisingly, colouring the staff's crystals! Surprising because that's the part I got stuck on, in the original project. And because the magic-sucky-swirlies are kinda covering them in the final version, I made a "bare" one as well:

Uh, what else... tried some new fun things (I actually used an XOR layer in this, which is a first), learned some things as well (mostly short-cut keys that made my life a whole lot easier... why didn't I bother with them before??) and had tons of fun.

But I think that'll be it for the rest of the... year? Used up a lot of artsy energy in the past months is all I'm saying. Or, as dear Aluneth would say: "I'm... spent..."

Oh and lastly: I know we all love the Knaifu, but where's my Aluneth love, huh Blizz? (┬┬﹏┬┬)

[thetundraguild]

Oh i guess i should have expanded on our system

we are a system of two, which is a incredibly low number i feel and i (blizz) usually front, as i prefer to be more social and talkative and in our life it’s hard for us to avoid it

Winter is usually a bit more back end and just keeps us afloat a bit more, she’s very driven and i admire her a lot

We are working through our system and stuff here and there in therapy and with other systems, but we are a OSDD-1B system as there is no amnesia (at least none that i am aware of?)

and we are still learning about plurality as well we haven’t had much information up until recently on it, but had a working theory of about 8 years that is what we were, so please bare with me as i ramble and rant and post random things here ^~^

[blizzardstarx]

THIS!!!!!

[cocolacola]

moving on: this video essay posting is probably getting old but ill be damned if i didnt make a post about The Sylvanas Rant Ever

this was a recommendation for me a while back (thank you @zephazeph!) and i feel like it summarizes my thoughts on this whole arc perfectly. ranging from the misunderstanding of the Forsaken (aka blizz cant write allegories for underrepresented groups for shit) to the actually disgusting amount of blatant misogyny and guilt-tripping going on in this whole situation. with that being said, please heed the content warnings. hate to get personal rq, but this story and rant touches on things that are tough subjects for me, and it's handled with a lot of blatancy here; which is one of the reasons why this whole subject in the WoW community is so important to me.

but yeah. sylvanas DID deserve better and we all better fucking know it.

gonna sign off for a bit, stay real and... lava. eel. vore.

[ask-ssec]

What is your favorite thing about to it least favorite character, and what is your least favorite thing about your favorite character?

Author chan:

My favorite thing about Bolt is that he can be a really fun character to write. Also I love his power to death and can’t wait until those get shown off. Also he’s very VERY interesting in general. When he isn’t being a block of cardboard. I mean. I say I dislike him but this chapter has made me like him more (cause he is showing more personality than usual due to being around only Blizz). But I still think he’s a clown. And my least favorite thing about Blizz is well. A lot of things lmao. I would rant about him, but his likability has went up in the community recently so I am not going to do that until I am angry at him again. The main thing that infuriates me involving him tho, is he’s kinda BORING. Personality wise, that is. >:V it ANGERS ME cause I love him to death, but due to everyone isolating him, he is very dull AND I CANT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY RAWRRRRRR!!! *FLIPS TABLE* I DID THIS TO MYSELF

[galactic-pirates]

You know when you are trying to be patient because it’s only been a few days and that includes a weekend? Yet have zero faith it will get better?

Yeeeeeah…. I’m talking about WoW Remix. I am so disappointed in it.

Think I might do a proper blog post later to rant :(

But TLDR highlights - what was advertised, was not what went live. They got my attention with “currency for items” and “accelerated levelling”. I watched lots of videos and I hadn’t felt that positive about the game in a long time.

What I was expecting was the first character levelled would be slow/normal speed, but getting slightly faster/more powerful as they levelled up and the cloak got power. Then as the cloak was account-wide, the next character would be even faster/more powerful, and the next one even more than that. Aka the more you played, the faster the levelling and the more OP you got. I was giddy. I had planned my levelling order. I was thinking I would perhaps do 8 to knock out various heritage armor quests.

But the cloak is not account wide anymore (it was on the PTR and why would they program something so complex only to hardcode what people got instead???). Now once one character gets the top “infinite power” (ha! what a joke) achievement, any alt will simply start with the same baseline ‘upgraded’ cloak - the same. So the second or the tenth is identical. And this baseline ‘boost’ is no more than what the winds of wisdom is that they give us sometimes yet I had to earn it??

Now with the currency accumulation to buy stuff that was like double bubble. This one is probably on me because with currencies going account wide in the next expansion, I assumed bronze would be - but it’s not. Also it accumulates so slow that someone did the math. You’d have to clear mythic Siege everyday for the full 95 days to stand a chance at getting all the things, and that’s if you don’t need to use the same currency to upgrade your gear to be able to run the raid in the first place.

I just feel super demotivated when I was ready to heap praise on the mode. Because I thought it was set up super well because everything in the mode was a way to get more powerful and make progress. I had been planning on spending most of my free time in Remix. Now with how disappointed I feel I don’t really want to play at all.

Aaaaand that was basically a rant not a TLDR - oops! I didn’t even mention how broken the scaling is. Like want to get weaker and weaker the more time you put in? Yeeeah that’s how it goes. Worse I don’t think they will go “ok our bad” and revert the batshit nerf and make the cloak account wide again, because some people realised the frogs were farmable and have powered their cloak mad high. That was always a way to farm lesser charms back in the day (I did it myself sometimes when I was short) and so it’s not like blizz didn’t know that was a thing. But yeah I foresee this being the excuse now for why cloaks can’t be account wide and have to be capped :(

Their promo is about being “overpowered” so I don’t get it. Well actually I do because the community is toxic. It launched Thursday and already the “if you don’t have X or Y don’t even bother applying to the group” has started. So I sort of get why balance is a concern but at the same time it’s a limited time mode, that has no bearing on the actual live servers as it’s all locked away. Boost everyone up. Although this clearly anathema to them. I’m on a Fury Warrior and my primary stat is in the red because they have thrown a class wide nerf buff thing, that lowers my stats just by logging in. Like why? They said in an interview about powering up enough to solo raids and sure, make that possible without exploiting creative game mechanics (aka frogs). Let everyone have mad fun and not just those who have spent all day everyday racing ahead.

Sorry ranting again. I’m just disappointed. I shouldn’t have got so enthusiastic about this mode. I shouldn’t have believed the PTR or all the videos of players excitedly talking about it. I should have expected it was too good to be true. But I was counting down until launch. I hyped up my guild. I rearranged my regular Thursday night plans as I wanted to experience the chaos of the launch, and jump right in. And now yeah I am just so demotivated :(

[projectile-traumathing]

A Rant

Microsoft may have just socially become the EA of the mid 2000's.

They bought a whole bunch of companies, and then waited for a little while before axing a ton of jobs.

What a bunch of fucking idiots. And we wonder why there is a "Video Game Job Crisis!1!1!" when the companies that make billions decide upon the shortest possible route to money without investing in a usable future.

Video games as a whole have been improving, but not in the ways Bigshot Billionaire wants them to. Instead, $BB$ decides the best way to get himself a new chunk of the company (that he partially owns at best, without knowing diddly-shit about gaming as all that memory went to stock options and portfolio wrangling) is to fire as many people as under him as possible and then show record profits to his lackeys.

Fucking hell.

Maybe I just don't understand Capitalism. Thank God.

I am in a business course. Doing my college work, taking my time. And in this course, we run a hypothetical business against other students. I'm currently kicking everyone elses' arse. By a factor of 21-3 on the financials alone.

By doing what? INVESTING IN THE FUTURE.

All you have to do is get good quality up and going by testing the market and meeting demand.

Not nickle-and-diming the ever-loving shit out of your customer base and hoping and praying that they don't look away forever.

The funny thing here is that I am actually undercutting my competition while maintaining a high standard of quality, KNOWING that I'll lose some money.

As of right now, I own 70% of the market share, and am making cash hand-over-fist.

Microsoft wants you to believe that these layoffs were necessary, that everything was gonna come "tumbling down" or some bullshit.

(Hi Jesse, btw)

Their reason? "It’s hard to support nine studios all across the world with a lean central team with an ever-growing plate of things to do," ZeniMax Studios head Jill Braff added. "I think we were about to topple over."

Sound familiar? It should to y'all.

If only they had the balls to admit it.

Apparently, so rando on the other social media sites is claiming that the reason they are axing so many jobs is because they are DEEP in DEBT because the BOUGHT ACTIVISION.

Maybe they shouldn't have bought a company that is infamous for axing jobs in the first place, and maybe they should have accounted better.

Maybe, we shouldn't have people like Kotick (Acti-Blizz president) who tolerates abuse at his company and owns stock in Coca-Cola as well, which is definitely not a conflict of interest when those two things interact, be in charge of a video game company as a "gimme money faster" kind of person, while claiming that video games aren't art OR product, and should be treated only as a service.

But what do I know right? I'm just some nobody.

But boy oh boy, do I ever hope some glass on the bottom of that pyramid doesn't decide to pull a knife.