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Letters and Numbers

The right combination of letters and numbers converts meaningless “noise” into cognitive communication. Communication is only the understanding that noise can convey meaning in a structured sense, and thus a translation from thought. Yet even unstructured noise can be given meaning with the right understanding between two individuals. Language and communication is a barrier none but the closest can break.

 

<3

 

Musically Motivated

What is going on everyone? It has been a while. So why have I not posted in a while? Motivation. Or rather, the lack there of.

It has been an interesting time for me. I have been extremely well motivated to do a lot of things, just not to write. I just started a new year at Uni, and for some reason, I was really pumped to not just meet new people and make friends, but to meet up and spend time with old friends. That went really well. I have had some especially fun times with some close friends recently.

I am happy. Yeah. Pretty much.

I have been trying to locate what has been motivating me to be so outgoing, and funnily enough, It is music. Among other obvious things of course. Close friends and “wingmans” and anyone who you can invoke the Bro-Code with.

Anyway, I have been listening to a lot of different types of music lately, so I have attempted to figure out what a song does to me. I remember, after a certain horrific event in my life I started listening to Time – David Guetta. I listened to this song because the lyrics meant something to me, even if the lyrics are quite odd.

Lyrics are not the only thing that can make a difference. A song like ‘Gone Away – Bag Raiders’ changes the way I feel. Just with the beat and the singers style. Or Kickstarts – Example. That song reminds me of extremely fun situations out enjoying nightlife.

So just a quick post today, but I would love to know what songs have changed your mood. What your favorite songs remind you of. I would love to know what songs you listen to. 

Comment guys :)

I am writing to fill the time now. Just because I have nothing in particular to write about. So forgive my lack of skill at writing plox.

The weirdest thing happened the other day. I had the best luck ever.

In a rather controversial attempt to ruin my day, it was the 13th. Weird huh. What tops it, is the fact that I went to a relatives house, and saw their black cat, and then went home and accidentally chipped a mirror. Noticing all of these things, I went outside and got the ladder.

Just to spite fate, I deliberately walked underneath the ladder.

So, would you kindly, Picture a guy, walking over the broken shards of a mirror, holding a black cat, under a ladder. Tempting fate? Maybe. However, maybe each instance of bad luck was trying to kill me all at once and kept screwing each other up. Like that Simpsons episode. All trying to fit through the door at once.

As I emerged from a surreal reality. Of Adds and Orcs. Finishing my dungeon for a few JP, I hear a soft rumble in the distance. I return to my other world, only to be shocked sharply back to reality by a gunshot. Groggily I stumbled through the darkness to the window, tripping over spent Mother cans and tic-tac boxes. Sliding open the curtain, I was blinded by holy fire. As my eyes adjusted to the sunlight, I realised that it was not a shot I had heard. It was a car door slam. I heard that rumble again, my mouth going dry. I was hungry.

Picking up the brick I dialed call connect, and after a moment, I was drawling through the phone asking for the greasiest food in existence. Walking out of my room, suffering only one bout of vertigo on the way down to the atrium, I spied the black box of ivory. Siting down to bang out a melody, engrossed in memoirs and emotion, lost in the jigsaw of time.

Snapping out of my reverie at the thought that I may be late, and at this screeching then crashing sound. I took a second to organise my thoughts, and wake from the haze.

Rushing out, I found myself pulling out in reverse even before I was even in the car. Driving out of my street, I was a witness to a horror movie. Or rather, just an unfortunate accident involving two cars. It occured to me that had I been observant enough to watch the pieces of time as they fell about me, I would have left slightly earlier. The witness may well have been the victim. Or even the antagonist…

So later that day, decided to go and get something for lunch. So I called up the fast food place and made my order. I was going to go down and pick it up. I then stepped outside and hopped in the car. As soon as I started the engine, it started raining. Can you see where this is going? Not likely.

And thus, the weirdness starts. I drove past the accident that could have been me, and in one minute, I was at the shops. It stopped raining for me to get out. I was watching indicating to park. Some guy in a ute cut me off and stole my park. So I found another park. Then I got out and went into the shop. (I was running late)  They had accidentally made a mistake while cooking my food, but by the time I had arrived, they had noticed the issue, and corrected their mistake to finish up as I walked in. Then they said sorry for the wait, No charge on the food. Sweet!

As I left the shop I walked past a ute with a fresh dent in the side from the car next to myself. Grinning, I went home to enjoy the rest of the day.

What the fuck. Weird right?

Bonus points if you actually read this post.

Stupidity? Wow. How surprising.

So I have gotten back into WoW. Again.

One of the things that I hate about this fact, is that as soon as someone finds out that you play WoW, they instantly stereotype you. I mean really. I play WoW, so that must mean I am a fat unemployed slob who lives alone in my mothers basement at the age of 35. Do you think that I am that person? Do you think that I shy away from sunlight, as it would undoubtedly set me on fire? This is not twilight.

Sorry to burst your bubble. But I am not “That Guy”. I do play games alot, and I may not sleep much. However, I do have a social life, and my diet does not consist of nothing but Redbull and Cheezos.

Instant stereotypes like this are hilarious. However. When taken seriously, they are infuriating. For example. Teasing one of your mates because he is white and cannot jump? (Insert Movie reference here) Racial/Gender/Preference stereotypes: Can be funny in the right situation. Racial/Gender/Preference slurs: Not really funny, right? Right. People who actually take things like that seriously, or actually mean it, are either stupid, or woefully uneducated.

Stupidity is a resource that is abundant in not just gaming forums, but out there. In the real world. Why are people so DUMB?? Or worse, ignorant. “You’re so Ignant!” Seriously. I am a technical customer service officer. I fix people’s problems all day. So I would know.

Some people. I hope whoever is reading this is not “That Guy”. If they are, I am sorry. But I fucking hate you. Are you that person who calls up asking to be registered for an online service when you don’t own a computer? Or are you that guy in trade chat who writes “Why do they call the Xbox 360, a 360: Because you do a 360 and walk away” Seriously. Seeing that once may make people believe you are an idiot. Seeing it more makes people think you are a dumb troll.

“I cannot access the file on my CD”
Go to the Start Menu.
“Where is that?”
***15 mins later***
Okay so you cannot see your D: Drive?
“No. I don’t understand. The CD is right here on the desk.”
*Facepalm*

Why is the world built this way? Why is there always one class dunce? One stupid customer? One idiotic acquaintance. Do we really need that? Can we live without idiocy? “The village called: They want their idiot back.”

Sometimes, It appears that my friends and I are the only intelligent people on the planet of the Apes.

So tell me. What is the dumbest thing you have encountered?

Rationally irrational

Apparently I am a Demi-God. Who has lived for 4000 years. And has molded a civilization so powerful that it spans Half the globe with others cowering in terror. Plus I have a spaceship that can fly to Alpha-Centauri. Sound far-fetched? Or like I have gotten into a fist fight with little E? “You been drinkin’ bro?”. If so, then you defiantly are not a gamer.

I have been waiting for Civ 5 for a long time. And It is well worth the wait. So good. Bringing back the micro-management that the pro’s like, while also providing fully automated options making the game so idiot-proof that a drunk, stoned and blind sloth could still win against easy difficulties.

People don’t really know what to expect with a Civ game. And the rewarding aspect of the game is nothing like other games. It is not fast twitch orientated. And it is not like a standard RTS like Starcraft or Age of Empires. It’s more like a… S? It’s not really real time is it.

TBS. Turn Based Strategy.

The great thing is seeing your puny settler and warrior grow to become a technologically advanced empire that spans half the globe. Seeing that accomplishment is quite rewarding. Yes, Civ is not for everyone. And a lot of people that hear about the 35 hour games, and having to control 30 cities and an army think that it’s too much. Scary almost. But it really isn’t.

If you just do what the computer tells you to do, automate your workers and scouts, the only thing you need to worry about is when to attack or expand. And if you open the advisors tab, they tell you when to do this too! For me, the automated worker option is great, because I tend to have huge sprawling empires by the end of the game. Having 20+ cities and micromanaging them all is slightly annoying. I just micromanage the big important cities. If that still is slightly scary, you can turn the game size down. So instead of a 12 player map, play a 2v2 map. And as for sitting there playing for 4-6 hours… Why? Just because I do that, doesn’t mean you guys have to. It’s turn based. Have 10 turns every night. Or save it when you get tired. Go play some FPS.

I am really happy about most things in Civ, however, the diplomacy is still screwed up. One turn I’ll ask for open borders, they will say no. Then next turn they will ask me for open borders. Wtf? And when we are at war, and I am crushing them, they have the nerve to ask for peace at the cost of me giving them all my gold, a city and all my strategic resources. Then I’ll take one more city and they will ask for peace with no extras. Why would I say yes when I could take more of your cities? They change their minds like a drunk person’s standards. Yes I do understand that their diplomatic actions are based on human irrationality. But it is still dumb. They should have fixed that.

Also, AI and city-state actions suffer from the same thing. The AI are always so irrational in what they want and how they move. They won’t let a barbarian attack you, then attack you after you are weakened. And only in the really hard difficulties do they think about terrain advantage. Plus, They retreat at almost no health, rather than recognizing that there is no hope. And the city-states only care for the annihilation of other states. Bloodthirsty bastards.

Overall, however, Civ is an amazing game, successfully sticking to the “one..more..turn..” effect, and I do recommend getting it, but only if you understand that it’s not the type of game that you can play all in one hit unless you are a gaming freak who doesn’t sleep. Like me.

Civilization V has taken its place as a game I will fill a bit of time with over many years.

Oh and just two unrelated add ons: I just got asked if I liked to drive stick by a lady colleague of mine. I said I prefer automatic transmission. i.e. Putting my foot down and it doing as its told.

I thought it was funny.

And I was driving with a fellow gamer. The windscreen fogged up. “Display issues!” “Yea… it’s probably a driver issue” … “wow”

Ahhh bad puns are bad.

Reach out. Get your carbon copy today!

So I bought Reach. Went to the midnight launch. And lo and behold. Yet another (Insert Audioslave hit here).

Looking at the steretypes of the people that had turned up to the midnight launch. Bungie has hit the gold mine. There were a few people who looked like serious gamers, but generally, the turnout consisted of “wogs” whos only possesions are a fully sick doof doof car, a flatscreen telly, an xbox, an “amusing clock and a sackfull of porn”. Young guys that obviously want the next installment to finish their collection of games that consist of nothing but Halo, COD and perhaps splinter cell were also amoung the turnout. Then the 14 y/o kids that manipulated their parents to go and get the latest installment of the game they would die without. Plus there was a few indie rockers, a hipster and some lonley goth guy. Bungie has a monopoly on the first person shooter market. And Halo is a game for everyone.

The thing that makes the Halo franchise so successful isn’t the fact that it is a good FPS game. It’s the fact that it is so easy and the way they have marketed the game. Not just gamers play halo. Ever since Halo: Combat Evolved, people who don’t usually play games found halo easy and fun to play. Especially with a group of friends. So when they play games, They play Halo.

This is the underlying reason that Halo is so successful. Bungie found a formula that worked. And they stuck with it. Halo: Combat Evolved became a classic. Easy, and great multiplayer for its time. Then when the 360 came out, Halo 2 became huge. But in reality it was just a carbon copy of the first. Sure they made huge aesthetic advances, introduces new weapons and dual wielding. But really, it was the same game. A great game. Much better than the first. But really, the same.

The jump from Halo 2 to 3 was much the same story. And as before, Halo 3 made huge improvements on the second installment, and the multiplayer was exceptional. ODST marked the first appearance of firefight, which was great except the fact that there was no matchmaking function let it down. ODST, however changed the game drastically with no overshields. The campaign was harder (not much harder through), and it was possible to die. The change of the formula was an experiment for Bungie, as they got an idea of what their target market wants. Unfortunatly, most people found the ODST campaign not as good as the campaigns of the previous games. People only bought ODST for the extra multiplayer functions in Halo 3. Firefight, however, was a hit. A great innovation.

There is nothing wrong with releasing the same game over and over again, just as long as each one has significant improvements and they get it right.

Reach was Bungie’s ultimate goal. In the entire franchise, nothing comes close to how good Reach is. Yes they have had 6 years and 4 other games to get it right. But they have finally gotten it right. Grats Bungie. Reach changed play style through the campaign (Even if it is still easy), and the introduction of loadout based matchmaking gametypes is amazing.

In a deeper sense of the game, they have encompassed the best of all the games. Bringing back some of the early mission styles and the pistol of Halo one, the health aspect of Halo one and ODST, the obvious play styles of Halo 3, The change to the general idea behind the campaign is the structure of the levels. You can now see a remarkable similarity between the levels and “Trench warfare”.

When you kill a bunch of enemies and advance to the next line of cover, the Covenant then retreat to another line of cover. When playing on legen – Wait for it – dary, it is possible to just bull through the middle of the lines screaming “I’MA CHARGING MY LAZORZ!!!”, however, it is much easier to take on the flanks, forcing them to fall back, and not bothering about the middle (Except if headshots for guarenteed kills arise) untill they can’t retreat anymore. And fortunatly, with the additions of a few skulls on legendary, instead of three shotting brutes with the DMR, it becomes a little harder. Especially since the DMR is the replacement of the battle rifle, and is a little weaker.

In case anyone asks, Yes. I have finished the campaign on legendary.

*Spoiler alert!!!* *Spoiler alert!!!* Do not read next paragraph.

The annoying thing about the campaign is it does not really fit in with the books. The story line had the Piller of Autumn on the ground of Reach, where as in the books, Cortana was already on the Pillar before the Battle of Reach started. And they were in orbit. I don’t understand? Don’t take me word for word on that, since it has been a while since I have read the books, but seriously. And Dr Halsey? In the books she isn’t a complete bitch.

*End spoiler alert*

The change they made to the ranking system is another advancement that many people will like. Being able to rank up offline, in the campaign or in firefight is a great addition, making it possible for people who aren’t too good at the game to be able to rank up instead of banging their face on a brick wall repeatedly. For some reason, chewing on bricks isn’t fun for some people. New gametypes and the addition of matchmaking in firefight is another improvement. But the idea behind the loadout based games is great. Although some are overpowered. Like dropshield for oddball. Just last night I got a few triple kills with the skull in hand in one game of FFA Oddball. Or dodge/sprint with a sword.

Other changes to matchmaking include the general structure of the maps. Most maps are either cramped with tight spaces and perfectly suited to close combat. Or they are huge, suited for vehicles and sniping. However, Due to a lot of maps having a close quarters aspect, players are now relying heavily on grenades. I have yet to decide if this is a good, or a bad thing. But it takes no skill just to constantly lob grenades at people. Not that it really matters.

What I find dumb in Halo games is how people don’t play for the objective. In oddball, people try to kill me on the other end of the map to the oddball. Wtf? Sure if it’s a dead giveaway kill. Or if you are killing the leader (Which I was). But if you have to go out of yourway to kill someone, Why eliminate the competition for the oddball holder? Jump on them as they engage the oddball holder. Seriously. What is this. I don’t even.

All in all, even if Reach is just another Carbon copy, It is a briliant carbon copy. The last true Halo game. So if you haven’t played any Halo games, don’t bother about anything but Reach. I do recommend getting it.

Killed by a 60 year old.

So I played Splinter Cell: Conviction again last night. It’s pretty good. I do like it, even if I was slightly disappointed.

The fact that Fisher should be like 60 now made the gameplay a mix of BOOM Headshot! And, how the hell can he do that? With ensuing hilarity imagining voice sets such as “I retire at 65. … Bitch.” While performing a hand to hand kill. Ignoring this however, It was generally to easy. Hey Fisher! I heard you were easy! Fisher! I heard you were single! Do you like long walks on the beach, Fisher!? Is it hard to please a man Fisher!?

They went away from the main idea of the original Splinter Cell to make the game more of a shootout rather than the stealth orientated infiltration style game I was expecting. Those previous games in the series have all been quite difficult. (Relative to the new one) The new one, you can do the missions stealthily, but it is far easier to just kill everyone in a firefight. Particularly since you now lack some of the abilities from the previous games.

So why are games so easy? Look at the classic Halo 1 through 3. You could put that shit on legendary, put a few skulls on, standing out in the open “Accidentally” dropping the soap, and you still couldn’t die. In Halo: Reach they made an attempt to make the game harder, but even still. Just because in reach they made it possible to die, It wasn’t nearly probable enough. It’s the same with COD and other, usually popular, Franchises. Why do they make it so that some old guy who lost his thumbs back in ‘Nam can still finish the single player campaign?

I like the idea about having an INSANE difficulty. It makes for fun and improves my skill as a gamer on the whole. You don’t need to play the game on a difficulty so high. So for casual gamers, or gamers that aren’t as skilled at a particular game type that is fine (I am horrible at RTS). Take Ashe, in League of Legends, for example. She is a Whore: Cheap, Easy, and most people fuck her up. It’s because she is easy to play, and you don’t have to try. It is good to have that option though. However, it is different if you are a skilled player and want a challenge, a Pro, or you are just playing with mates and like the idea of getting raped by thousands of zombies while cracking lame jokes and having a few beers. You cannot make the game harder to experience this if you are not provided with the opportunity to do so.

So come on Game companies! The difficulties should range from the “Your enemies bend over for you” through “Don’t drop the soap” to the difficulty where the enemies kill the game designer before naming it. Sure don’t make it impossible, but make it so you have to think about what you are doing. Use some strategy. Fight to hold the high ground. “Sir! We’re surrounded! – Excellent. We can shoot in any direction.” Is NOT a valid strategy.

I don’t believe it!

Faith? I ‘ardly know her!

Of course when running for your life jumping across buildings and the like, It is a bit hard to get to know you. Jus’ sayin’. And why can’t you reload? Are you retarded Faith? I’m going to beat you to death with a giant “X”.

Have faith my son. … Yo dawg. I heard you like condemning people. So we put a condem in you so you can be condemned while condemning. Yes. I realize it’s a bad play on words that doesn’t make any sense and people won’t get. And yes. I realize its misspelled. Most of my words are. Stupid going backwards and forwards from Australian to American spell check.

Ah well.

[Cut to the point]

I don’t really believe anything that I haven’t proved/thought up myself. Even if I am not the first person to think what I believe.

But Muuuuum! The interwebs never lies!

Seriously. Do you really believe the internet? Why would you do such a thing? Frankly, I think that believing things said on the internet would possibly be one of the stupidest things humanity has been inclined to do. You must have headcrabs! But we have to ask ourselves: What are the main reasons we should doubt the validity of the internet?

Well OBVIOUSLY. We have a Rapist. In Lincoln Park.

Let us take a look. Clairvoyance for once. First, we have egotistical personalities posting controversial items in a childish attempt to be recognized. Oh man! All those social faux pas! The path to improve our standing in the eyes of our peers has now asserted itself onto the internet. People are posting things for attention. The more views you get…. No wait. The more Facebook friends you have, the more popular you are considered to be. Oversimplification? Maybe. True? Maybe. You can’t really trust me, because I am guilty of it too.

Second, we have those lovely things everyone loves: Trolls. Those people who know your mother intimately, and insist that you never had a Dad. Those people who insist real life items are photo-shopped, and apparently know your sexual inclination even when you don’t. Why do they troll? Simply for the pleasure of making the emo kids cry? i.e. Star wars kid? Or is it some obscure mating ritual? We may never know. But the main thing to take away from the trolls, is that they are posting what their opinion is.

Thirdly, there is the standard “I’m addicted to quizzes, liking groups, birds, or updating my status every 5 mins” social butterflies. Tweets like “Man, that was a great burrito. Here comes the gas” Or “I just opened the fridge now, But I have no idea what to have.” And later “ On second thoughts, I won’t eat anything. I’m too fat”. So what is the main idea of MySpace, Twitter, Facebook … WordPress? Getting YOUR opinion across.

There is seriously not much on the internet that is not a matter of opinion or viewpoint. Previously, the intertubes and real life have been separate, however, this observation on humanities cyber activity has led me to take a look into the effect this may be having “IRL”. And then, like the crisp morning sunrise, it dawned on me. Twice. (The second one was awesome.) There is almost nothing that is not a matter of opinion. Seriously. Think about it. Politics? I can run the country better then you, or, don’t vote rabbit, he has big ears, or even: A woman? Running the country? Well at least our cuisine will improve. It is all view point. Opinion. A battle of popularity through media.

And now to my real point. (The other one wasn’t sharp enough to hit the mark) Media.

General media is a huge culprit of this. One, the journalists have their own opinion and have to sell their story to make money. They may or may not omit certain facts to do this. Different news companies are competing for the same market, News companies make deals. Do we hear anything without someone’s opinion clouding the issue? Is there any source of information that gives both sides of the story. And all the facts? Or do we hear just what they want you to hear? Think about it. So, out of principle I don’t believe it.

[Cut to, the cherry lights in the rear view]

Back to you Donny Vermillion.

Rioting in the streets!

What is your light bulb Riot?

MMMMMMMMMatchmaking. Oh how I LOVE brilliantly contrived systems that no matter how badly they perform, are still considered amazing and absolutely flawless by the creators. I mean seriously. Whether it is an ELO system, or something more akin to a prestige system, there are very few systems that actually suit the games they are instituted on.

In most games I seriously dislike getting boned over and over… and over again. But funnily enough, I would prefer not to win over and over again. How would I get better? In snowball orientated games, this is one of the most common problems that this particular type of game has. For an example, last weekend I got together with 3 other mates to play a 5 man game (League of Legends) forcing us to Pug one player. Usually that player sucks, and we have to carry him through. I’m definitely no amazing player, But I sure as hell am not a scrub.

It literally goes: Win, win, win, win, win, win, win, Loss?, win, win, win, win. With one or (If you are really really lucky) two really close games. And then, ELO decides that you are winning too much and starts giving terrible players to fill the Pug spot. And decides to match you against people who are expected to bone you. And it goes: Loss, loss, loss, loss, win, loss, loss (Rage quit).  C-C-C-C-Combo breaker!!

Lather rinse repeat.                                                                                             

I know that the obvious solution to fix this issue is to play 5 man premade, but I will get to this later. 

Why does it go Win*10, loss*8, Win*10, loss *8

And not, win, loss win loss? An even game should have a 50-50 W/L chance.

You would think that with nearly 700 games, they would have gotten my ELO right by now.

Cool story Riot.

The objective of a matchmaking system is to make the majority of players have evenly matched games, is it not? People who do not call missing players cause rage from many players that are average or better in skill, so why do I get stuck with a Shaco who gets killed by golem at level 1 gets Tiamat and does not call miss? Inducing calls of “L2P!!” and “UR A BAD” through “Umadbro?”. Or a Tyr who takes revive and clarity. No, scratch that. ANYONE who takes revive. Jus’ sayin’.

Revive??? OH GOD QUEUE DODGE NAO!

Through one game, I had a revelation when the rain was pattering softly against the roof and the eerie flickering of the computer screen light refracting through the window. Listening to the quiet metallic beat emanating from my headphones as each players comments about their respective mothers ticked progressively across the screen in [All] chat. I realized. Riot fucked up.

Bad players are bad. If they lose heaps they will be like “Losing that much in a row completes me…. <3”

Or, more likely, they will just rage quit and stop playing causing revenue loss for Riot. And as for good players, why should people be teamed up with scrubs? To make the win loss ratio 1:1? Why can’t they team you up with people your skill, and play against people ranked higher? I stopped playing for 6 months just because I was tired of having to carry to victory. Either steamroll, or be steamrolled. [Insert witty pun about Blitz and steampunk being awesome here]

I would believe that the majority of players in the game are Pug players, or play in a group of less than 5. Why does the matchmaking force people who are even a little bit better than average to play in 5 man teams in order to get a good even game? And this brings up another problem. Because of the fact that the ELO for premade teams takes something like the average of the ELOs and adds an amount to “Balance out the advantage a premade gets with familiar teammates and communication.” For an average player, who would most likely find players that they picked up from solo queue, the addition of the “Communication” ELO is too high.

I do understand, however, that if people who are “Pro circuit” and can “solo their entire team if you scrubs didn’t feed” decide to premade a 5 man consistently, or with friends, that the communication is there. And also, the pro guys that top the leader boards and whatnot would have communication and team composition down perfectly and that the communication bonus in this situation is completely legitimate.

The attempt at solving this issue was made by introducing ranked games. However, the average player (and all the scrubs) can still enter the ranked system, and they want to because that is the only way they can play with the draft game type. I believe the solution to this would be an institution of player pools. Beginner through Pro. As with anything once chosen, the rank goes up and down as needed by win/losses, but cannot be changed by the player once chosen. Adding another aspect of matchmaking to the ELO system would narrow the win/loss streaks. Improving it further can be easily achieved through the addition of functionality like:

  1. At level one you choose your player pool like usual.
  2. At level 30 you choose your player pool again, however, if you are a good player that wins a lot, disabling beginner options and the like. (Level one starting in the Pro pool would probably not do so well without the masteries and runes)
  3. The introduction of a quiz with a few questions on typical game play to recommend a player pool. (i.e. Do you pay attention to team comp?, or, Will you play lots of premade games? How many champions can you play “well”? Do you use vent?)
  4. Player pool preferences over ELO with ELO determining the boundaries of player pools, Expanding the search for additional players/teams.
  5. Beginner premade teams don’t get ELO bonus for communication, whereas Pro does.
  6. Achievements (Which will be implemented soon anyway) for selecting  a player pool and not going up or down a pool.
  7. High ELO against low ELO has a 20 min surrender time.
  8. Exponential ranking system – The more games you win/lose in a row (proportional to how many games played), the faster you rank up/down.
  9. Cool league-like summoner names for the pools. Caster Minion – Melee minion – Cannon minion – Super minion – Golem/lizard – Dragon – Baron? (Purple caster minion is OP)
  10. League lore could continue through the ranking process

Furthermore, in an attempt to even out the playing field, good players are forced to play carry Deeps when they might want to play a tank, or support. And beginner players always play carry dps because they want to be good, or don’t have the skill in playing more. If Riot were to fix the matchmaking system so that champion selection isn’t the quickest to get Shaco, Heimy, Ashe or even “Win Nao” in effect, they could make more money, as people would be more interested in buying tanks, or support champions. The highest played characters are ones that you put your face on the keyboard and roll. Or  right click win characters. If players were not so worried about losing continuously, people would try more difficult toons, and the range of bought characters would increase.

There are just some of the ideas off the top of my head. I haven’t thought about it too much, But it seems to me that this would solidify the beginner through average player market for Riot.

That’s my light bulb.

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