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    1. Does the frequent addition of content to esport games delegitimize them?

      This questions ultimately rests on the supposition of what a game intends to be or what esport should be. This is partially why it probably won't spark too much discussion, but I'm interested in...

      This questions ultimately rests on the supposition of what a game intends to be or what esport should be. This is partially why it probably won't spark too much discussion, but I'm interested in your opinions nonetheless, especially when it comes to the current state of esports. It seems to me that when we are talking about rules in any kind of sport we want to change as little as we can over time. If the rules changes enough, you could argue that people have over time played what essentially is a different game. It becomes harder to compare achievements between players within the a timeline. Meta's and achievements will only really be comparable after games has stopped adding content such as new heroes or mechanics. With a lot of games there seems to be a major content patch, then long period of balancing and this cycle basically repeats itself. Another point is that by adding content and changing the meta you are preventing the current players from reaching their full potential, the older players from retaining their hard earned experience and discouraging new players by promising them a game they can never "beat". That is until the content stops coming in and in today's world that might mean that you are not able to play at all due to a lack of dedicated servers. Further the players that might once have stuck to it might already have left, leaving no opponents left to play against.

      This superficial take ultimately comes from someone who hasn't really played esports except a little bit of 1.6 counter strike and counter strike global offensive. It always struck me as odd that with MOBA's and especially with shooters such as overwatch and siege, that there seem to be no pushback on this. When I ask people that prefer this sort of drip-feed-service, what I usually hear is that it's something that is necessary to keep them engaged. Isn't there ultimately a trade-off here, between a sort of accessible fun and lack of constancy which prevents players from reaching their full potential?

      I immediately see the talking point of financial aspect of games. It seems to me however that Quake and counter strike largely went without major changes when compared to modern esports games. Are there any good broad rules we can use when designing esport games in order to avoid the issues mentioned here?

      In an ideal world, do you agree that we generally don't want kind of content and/or rule change that we see today?

      If there is a need to add content (such as heroes) to keep a game feeling "fresh". Is there an acknowledgement here that the core-gameplay isn't engaging enough? I think there is a case to be made here when it comes to MOBA's since knowledge (about enemy heroes abilities) plays a more central part when compared to more archaic shooters. Is this indicative of a an audience that is more interested in an entertaining service, rather than a (e)sport that seldom changes?

      When we look at games such as world of warcraft, which isn't an esport, yet there are achievements and historic events so to speak which became cheapened or not attainable until what was basically a restart of the timeline (story of the game). Is this not what we are risking with current service models in modern esports?

      15 votes
    2. Adding native scheduled/recurring topics, let's figure out which ones we want to have

      I've just pushed up a commit that adds the backend for configuring and posting topics automatically on a schedule. I'm still working on the UI to be able to set them up through the site, but I can...

      I've just pushed up a commit that adds the backend for configuring and posting topics automatically on a schedule. I'm still working on the UI to be able to set them up through the site, but I can add them manually pretty easily now.

      So first, thanks very much to the people that have been manually posting these recurring topics for months. They've been a source of lots of great conversation, and I really appreciate people making sure to keep posting them regularly. Thanks also to @hungariantoast and @deing specifically for doing the work of writing a script to do automatic posting, and the kinda-API-wrapper that it uses. That made sure that multiple of those topics were posted consistently for quite a while before I got around to implementing this.

      I'd like to start setting up all of the recurring topics "properly" in the new system, so let's talk about which ones we already have, and potentially some others that we'd want to add. We should probably also try to space them out a little, so there's not a dump of them at the same times. Here are some of the ones that come to mind immediately for me, but I'm sure I'm missing some, and if there are others that you think would be good to have, let me know. I know there are other ones that have dropped off and it would probably be good to resurrect them:

      Group Topic
      ~anime What have you been watching/reading this week?
      ~books What are you reading these days?
      ~comp Fortnightly programming Q&A
      ~creative What creative projects have you been working on?
      ~games What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
      ~talk What are you doing this weekend?
      ~talk What are you doing this week?

      There are also some others that vary every week, so I probably won't be able to set those up yet (like @aphoenix's recent ~games.tabletop weekly discussions), but once there's a UI we should be able to start configuring them ahead of time.

      Any thoughts on those existing recurring topics, suggestions for new ones to add, or old ones to bring back?

      62 votes
    3. What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?

      What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well. Sorry, I...

      What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.

      Sorry, I usually post this on Monday and just realized I didn't do it this week. I'm bad at this and obviously need to add a proper scheduled-posting feature.

      19 votes
    4. What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?

      Sorry, I was away last week and didn't post this, so it's been a couple of weeks now since the last one. So, what have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are...

      Sorry, I was away last week and didn't post this, so it's been a couple of weeks now since the last one.

      So, what have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.

      19 votes
    5. What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?

      I started this last week, and plan to continue posting this topic weekly. So, what have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just...

      I started this last week, and plan to continue posting this topic weekly.

      So, what have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.

      26 votes
    6. What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?

      A few of the other groups have been doing recurring topics like this, and I think we should really do it more regularly in ~games too. So, what have you been playing lately? (Please don't just...

      A few of the other groups have been doing recurring topics like this, and I think we should really do it more regularly in ~games too.

      So, what have you been playing lately? (Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game as well.)

      31 votes
    7. Does anyone use a trackball mouse?

      I've been curious about making a switch for ergonomics and just lack of space on my desk. Do you recommend it for gaming? Any guidance on genres that do or don't work? I mostly play real time and...

      I've been curious about making a switch for ergonomics and just lack of space on my desk.

      • Do you recommend it for gaming? Any guidance on genres that do or don't work? I mostly play real time and turn based strategy games or point-and-click style games such as Diablo on my computer. I don't generally go in for twitchy FPSes, but I'd like the option.

      • Opinions on index vs. thumb?

      • How long was the adjustment period to get used to it?

      • Any recommendations on good ones to buy?

      • Are there any advantages I'm not thinking of besides just being better for my wrist?

      • Disadvantages besides, potentially, being less precise than a mouse?

      • Are there any tradeoffs with going wireless?

      9 votes