Let's have one of those general, talk about anything posts, shall we?  It's been a little while since I've done a good, old-fashioned ramble.

First of all, let's touch upon MLG (Major League Gaming) for a bit.  I believe it's generally accepted that League of Legends has pretty much surpassed Starcraft 2 as far as popularity and overall influence within the MLG world.  This doesn't really affect me all that much, because I don't play either game at all.  I of course HAVE played both, as I try to play just about every game that I can.  (At least the major releases.)  It does make me feel sort of left out that I don't particularly enjoy either game (for differing reasons), especially when I look at how many people do.  LoL is the most popular video game in the world right now.  It's not often that I don't like a game that a majority of people do.  Even when it comes to Call of Duty games, I'm quite sure that if I were to play the single-player campaigns of each, I would enjoy them.  I just don't, because there are better alternatives out there for me that provide a more lengthy and exploration-oriented experience.

The reasons why I don't play SC2 and LoL are quite different.  With SC2, I simply don't want to learn the game.  It doesn't interest me all that much.  With LoL, the reasons are more complex.  I would like to take the time to learn the game, if I could.  But in trying to do so a year or so ago, it became apparent to me that the community had no intentions of letting me.  Every little mistake I made was responded to with hate, exaggerated insults, and verbal abuse.  The official website of the game itself doesn't nothing to teach you the intricate nuances of the game.  The suggested items will result in getting flamed even further if you use them...even though the game is telling you "Hey, use these!"  Many times during a game, I was told to quit and never return by my team mates.  So that's exactly what I did.

The only thing that I find disappointing is that a game that seems to actually nurture a hateful community has become such a popular game with both players and the E-Sport community.  You can argue this point all you want by pointing out the tribunal and the psychologists that Riot Games hired to try and fix their community.  But honestly, with as long as this game has existed, if they really wanted to curb the poisonous mentality of their players, they would have found a good way of doing it by now.

But, as evidenced by the sheer number of people who play LoL, I'm far, far into the minority here.  Perhaps this is due to my age, where I've reached a point in my life where I find satisfaction elsewhere, and therefore have no need to prove my imaginary dominance over other people on the Internet.  Or, perhaps I've satisfied my competitive nature fully and completely many years ago, in the late 1990's, and therefore have no drive to prove myself any further.

Or perhaps I'm just a grumpy cat.

In any case, LoL is a game that I refuse to play, and it will probably remain that way forever.  I hate the camera controls, anyway.

In other news, The War Z was released on Steam yesterday, and it's causing quite the controversy.  A lot of people are suggesting that the developer rushed the game into an early release in order to beat the stand-alone version of DayZ to the starting line.  From the things I've been reading about the game, that certainly appears to be the case.  Apparently, most of the features listed on the Steam store page aren't implemented yet.  Additionally, hacking is apparently widespread throughout the game.  I say apparently a lot here, because I haven't played the game at all.  But given the comments I've read on the RPS article and the posts on the Steam forums, it seems like The War Z is a very, very bad game at the moment.

Also, yesterday I got into a argument with someone on the Internet.  That was a stupid idea, and I really have no idea why I did it.  I'll use my grumpy cat excuse again.  The topic was Borderlands 2.  PC Gamer had posted an article regarding the third of four DLC packs for the game, this one seemingly set to star Sir Hammerlock.  Someone made a comment stating they wouldn't buy the game until it was finished.  This annoyed me because someone was making a sarcastic remark about a game that I very much enjoyed, and my response was childish.  I stated, "So, by that you mean that you are waiting for a GOTY edition that contains the finished game, plus all of the DLC."  They replied, and they started with the word "No".  I probably wouldn't have continued on if they wouldn't have started with that.  But they did.  And that was insinuating that I was wrong.  I certainly couldn't let that stand.  My reply was short and simple, though.  I simply said, "The game is finished.  You just do not like the concept of DLC."  I left the conversation there, and didn't go back to it.  I didn't WANT to go back to it, because I knew I was going to get flamed.  So regardless of what that nitwit decided to say next, I was staying out of it.  In writing about it here, though, my curiosity got the better of me and I went to check on the thread.  He did reply, of course, and said something about being amazed at how shamefully brainwashed we all are, and some other nonsense that I really didn't take the time to read.  He copy/pasted a lost of stuff, I think, that he probably read somewhere else and simply regurgitated like the mindless sheep he is.  I'm not sure if he really believes any of what he says, or if he's just a troll.  It's hard to tell these days.  But that wasn't what surprised me.  It was the fact that a vast majority of the other posters actually did agree with me.  Even though I wasn't insulting him, I wasn't expecting a positive response, especially when you consider the topic.  Usually when a company wants more money, as in the case of DLC, it doesn't matter what you say.  The company is evil and the consumer is being ripped off, end of story, don't try to say otherwise.  It was sort of nice to see a bit of common sense on the Internet for a change.

On a more positive note, Far Cry 3 is still excellent.  As I expected with such a large, open world game, I'm enjoying the side missions and just the general mucking about that I can do, moreso than the main story of the game.  That main story is just kind of there, and I chip away at it every so often.  The highlight of the game for me, though, is all the exploring I can do.  I did take a few screenshots to share last night, but I forgot to hit the publish button in Steam before I went to bed.  I'll have to share those later.