While I am definitely not a part of the alpha tech testing, I did had a chance to see how the game works and where is blizzard going with it. Thanks to Hafu and TotalBiscuit for providing us with some gameplay and description of the mechanics. Now, let me sum up what I had found.
Heroes of the storm is an incoming free to play MOBA game. Something like League of legends or Dota. There is kind of a boom in these games so it shouldn't be a surprise everyone want a piece of the cake. While some are dying, some are flat out failures there are still attempts being made. Why I think this one might be different? To see why it might succeed I will focus a bit on the problems and weak points of the current kings of the genre and therefore where is a room to snatch some players.
Do something else
I've seen a lot of complaints in the spirit of "it has no items wtf..". People who believe they are the fans of genre are in a lot of cases actually fans of a specific game. They then proceed to go whine how that game has something and this game doesn't. In a bad case (think of Warhammer age of reckoning) the developers will actually fall for that and start to steer the game closer to the original one. When that happens, people who played and enjoyed the game will leave, because a lot of them actually play or played the original one and has no reason to play two identical games. Making an exact copy of something just flat out doesn't work in the game industry. This is something that Blizzard sees and I hope they will stick to the plan.
Complexity does not equal depth
Depth is defined as a number of meaningful choices player has available to solve the particular challenge. Complexity is about a number of elements player has to be aware of to actually make an informed choice. In other words, how obscure and complicated the rules are. Depth is fun, complexity isn't. Now there is another, often overlooked, value that is very important when trying to craft the best available player experience - pace of the game. Not on it's own but in relation to two mentioned aspects. The faster and more action packed game is, the less complexity will be players able to deal with. League with health, armour, magic resist, percentual penetration, flat penetration, true damage, mixed damage, runes, modifiers, critical chance, critical modifier, conversion ratio, percentual attack speed reductions (abilities affected by Ability power/ Attack damage), masteries, tenacity,... is too complex for basically anyone to be able to judge the effect of their actions precisely and Dota2 is definitely not better in this. It is a super complex excel table kind of thing to figure out what is actually a better choice. Most of the players use a specific build for their champions that they found crafted by someone else on sites specifically designed for that (mobafire.com, solomid.net) and few of those players actually make changes to those builds to reflect type of enemies they face. So in reality gold and item mechanics in League of legends or Dota2 adds no depth for most of the players that actually play it.
That is where I see one of the good choices Blizzard made - HotS don't have gold, or items at all. They obscure the gameplay and put a pressure on out of game preparation which is impossible to really make since the number of champions and possible combinations and builds. That is why flavour of the month champions are so strong within League ( I don't play actively dota2 so I can't tell) - people just go with whatever professional players think is the strongest as they trust their opinion. Less obscuring complexity also mean the game will be more accessible to people who would enjoy it but would be scared off by the sheer amount of information it looks like they would have to acquire - the biggest reason why a lot of people didn't pick up either of the biggest moba games. If you just read through the mechanics I mentioned earlier - when faced with it, many people just decide not to bother as it looks more complicated than it actually is.
Snowball is anti-fun
Experience is a snowball mechanics, who kills the other player is restricting him from gaining experience and therefore is building advantage and making it easier to defeat him again. Gold works in the same way and these mechanics are additive. Everyone can remember how much fun they had when they played an actually equally matched game of LoL. These are the best games we ever played, burnt into our memory. Snowball mechanics are here to disable this. Most of the league games are decided at minute 20. Sometimes it just takes another 20 to make it happen. And it is a stomp. If one side is getting absolutely destroyed it is not much fun for either side. Yeah, you can pump your ego but that is about it. There is no challenge in winning a game where you are 20.000+ gold ahead. By removing one of those mechanics HotS managed to keep mechanic rewarding the player for defeating his opponent without shutting enemy down entirely. This makes the game harder as you have to consistently outplay your opponent rather than just have a good pick and than press the advantage. It is much more fun for both sides.
No hard counters
So many games in existing popular mobas are decided in champion selection. Even the professional players, therefore the best, most available to judge the effect of their item builds, says often "we were outpicked". Gold therefore doesn't even add depth in this matter. While branching skill trees that allows you to redefine the role of your character within the game - now that is a meaningful mechanic. It allows player to just play whatever champion they like and tailor him during every match to deal with the tactics enemy is using. example - there is a support champion that can pick if his heal ability will as a secondary effect make ally invisible or shield him from incoming damage. Stealth can be a great utility tool if enemy has a long range artillery champion you have to deal with, while shield is important if they execute their play around picking one target from your team and assassinating him. That is a great way to deal with problem of missing variety that item builds brought to game without having to deal with it's downsides.
No farming
While some people like that, a lot of people don't care about minions when all they want to do is fight other people. With the heavy focus on farming in the two dominant moba games, a good way to distinguish yourself and open to the new segment of the market - is to entirely remove that part. It also makes sense considering there is no item mechanic in the game. Ability to defeat neutral monsters to make them join you for a time is a great way to deal with this problem as well. With heavy focus on champion fights, their choice to allow all core abilities at lvl.1 shows that Blizzard is very much aware of the differences they must adjust to.
So to sum it all up - Heroes of the Storm look great. Blizzard definitely went to a great lengths to identify the core problems of the current giants and avoid them while keeping as much fun as possible. From what I had seen, their observations were on the spot and a game itself will be a gaming experience comparable to few others and will be consistent about it.
I am sorry TB, but I have to disagree, there is a lot of reasons why would people who enjoy playing Dota2 or League switch to HotS - most of them, just like you, don't have any illusions about being a pro player and enjoying the game is frankly more important.
Saturday, 15 March 2014
Station 22: part 2
Silence in the dark
"You may enter." The voice of Rinn, the Overseer of the station 22 was calm and precise. He maintained an absolute control, which made reading his emotions from the tone impossible. He usually does. Shael, the young Seraphim walked into the room as clueless about the reason for her summoning as when the message had come. Fifteen local years she was here in training and he never broke the schedule. This must be serious.
The Overseer was standing in the front of a holographic galactic map. That, was most unusual as the Station 22 had a sole purpose of watching over a single planet. Overseer Rinn, unlike most of the Seraphim, had no use for sentiment or distractions. That was one of the reasons why his office was completely empty apart from the holo-projector. Walls were in monotonous grey without any shiny surfaces and without any windows.
It would be appropriate if she waited in silence until the Elder would decide to speak to her, however being eager to impress and to dive deep into her new job and it's secrets she cautiously asked about that which would seem obvious.
"Are we selecting a new place to relocate the project?" The implications were clear and not so well hidden anxiety and a speck of fear were coloring her voice. He didn't bother to look at her. He had no need to. "Your concern is noted. In time, when you will study them closer, you will learn to free yourself of such attachments. Morality is an empty concept. Necessity is what matters here."
He turned around and looked her in the eyes. "We still have a control over the population and there are no indications that this Cycle will end differently. We will initiate ending stages of this Cycle within the fifty local years." He understood her relief and how did she came to that conclusion. She just joined the staff and therefore, she was still under the influence of the Community conditioning. The idea of ending the life of one thinking being was a horrifying barrier for her, several billion and a habitable solar system with it was probably something her mind could not even grasp yet.
The Overseer Rinn turned back to the map. "I had called you here, because something indeed had changed. But not on Terra V. We received a report from the Community that an exploration ship was lost. There was no accident and no violent end was felt. It is as if the connection had disappeared, as the report states." Now that was an alarming information. Shael, while being incapable of psionic connections herself, knew very well how it works. If any psionic entity linked with the Community was killed, the death would had been felt. Even if the unlucky person drove at hyper-speed to the black hole. "I am sending you Shael, to investigate what happened."
On her way to the hangar bay the blue haired novice was nervously listing through the mission briefing material. She was in turmoil. Why did he send her? There were a lot more experienced agents and the Overseer would never give mission of such importance to someone without an extensive field experience. The idea that he would be testing her or gave her a chance to prove herself was ridiculous, he doesn't think that way. So why would he pick her? The question had burned through her mind even as she was in her assigned small covert-operation frigate uploading the coordinates. Her first real mission is to find what could have silenced an entire exploration cruiser. It had a crew of thirty... as her thoughts had wandered trying to find the answer in the mission data, the surface of the Terra V appeared as her ship flew through the hangar doors. She glanced at the marble of life, alone in a tiny ship for two and found her answer. "I am the least valuable asset he can sacrifice."
"You may enter." The voice of Rinn, the Overseer of the station 22 was calm and precise. He maintained an absolute control, which made reading his emotions from the tone impossible. He usually does. Shael, the young Seraphim walked into the room as clueless about the reason for her summoning as when the message had come. Fifteen local years she was here in training and he never broke the schedule. This must be serious.
The Overseer was standing in the front of a holographic galactic map. That, was most unusual as the Station 22 had a sole purpose of watching over a single planet. Overseer Rinn, unlike most of the Seraphim, had no use for sentiment or distractions. That was one of the reasons why his office was completely empty apart from the holo-projector. Walls were in monotonous grey without any shiny surfaces and without any windows.
It would be appropriate if she waited in silence until the Elder would decide to speak to her, however being eager to impress and to dive deep into her new job and it's secrets she cautiously asked about that which would seem obvious.
"Are we selecting a new place to relocate the project?" The implications were clear and not so well hidden anxiety and a speck of fear were coloring her voice. He didn't bother to look at her. He had no need to. "Your concern is noted. In time, when you will study them closer, you will learn to free yourself of such attachments. Morality is an empty concept. Necessity is what matters here."
He turned around and looked her in the eyes. "We still have a control over the population and there are no indications that this Cycle will end differently. We will initiate ending stages of this Cycle within the fifty local years." He understood her relief and how did she came to that conclusion. She just joined the staff and therefore, she was still under the influence of the Community conditioning. The idea of ending the life of one thinking being was a horrifying barrier for her, several billion and a habitable solar system with it was probably something her mind could not even grasp yet.
The Overseer Rinn turned back to the map. "I had called you here, because something indeed had changed. But not on Terra V. We received a report from the Community that an exploration ship was lost. There was no accident and no violent end was felt. It is as if the connection had disappeared, as the report states." Now that was an alarming information. Shael, while being incapable of psionic connections herself, knew very well how it works. If any psionic entity linked with the Community was killed, the death would had been felt. Even if the unlucky person drove at hyper-speed to the black hole. "I am sending you Shael, to investigate what happened."
On her way to the hangar bay the blue haired novice was nervously listing through the mission briefing material. She was in turmoil. Why did he send her? There were a lot more experienced agents and the Overseer would never give mission of such importance to someone without an extensive field experience. The idea that he would be testing her or gave her a chance to prove herself was ridiculous, he doesn't think that way. So why would he pick her? The question had burned through her mind even as she was in her assigned small covert-operation frigate uploading the coordinates. Her first real mission is to find what could have silenced an entire exploration cruiser. It had a crew of thirty... as her thoughts had wandered trying to find the answer in the mission data, the surface of the Terra V appeared as her ship flew through the hangar doors. She glanced at the marble of life, alone in a tiny ship for two and found her answer. "I am the least valuable asset he can sacrifice."
Wednesday, 12 March 2014
League weekly: 5 reasons why your support loves you
We all had bad Marksmen (or ADC if you like) in our lane. We all heard and exchanged stories about them. Yeah, yeah, they are Jerks. We know. There was written and spoken (thank you Sky) enough about that already. I think it's time to recognize those carries that make us enjoy the game. Playing with those is just pure happiness and fun.
1. For the glorious followers <3
It is great and warm and special feeling if you make a play, set-up the enemies and your partner dives in to be on your side, mindful of your actions, and extinguish their tasty lives. Few things can compare to the bot lane harmony, when you just fit each other and step by step, you, together, orchestrate a symphony of death and suffering upon your enemies. When you can join the flow and feel the dance... you have my thanks and appreciation.
2. For those who believe in us
We love the trust you put in us when we hold the shield for you. It is a delight to see you melt their faces while we peel them from you. It is a good game if you know when you have to run, and when you can leave that pesky bruiser to us. If you don't flee the fight like a panicked chicken every time enemy glances your way it feels worth the time and effort to feed and protect you.
3. For those who cover our back
Keeping vision is a dangerous job, many supports lay down their lives trying to do their duty to keep the team and you safe. If you rather miss a minion or two to be in reach, to cover our back while we ward a dragon, we love you. CS is important, but only so much and I am glad you recognize the importance of safety.
4. For those who appreciate
I'll gladly sacrifice my life to get you out of the sticky situation if you say thank you afterwards, instead of excuses and blame. Mistakes happen, you got carried away and didn't noticed my ping. You were out of position and a gank came. It doesn't matter, I still like you and will dive in to give you a chance to run, if you afterwards say "thanks for saving me". I will happily work my fin off for you, even for a simple "GJ" after a bubble catch set-up double-kill.
5. For those who understand
I love you if you understand I am just a human. I can miss a bubble or a snare. I can miss-click and decorate the middle of our lane with a ward instead of taking a sip from a potion. I might heal or exhaust a wrong person in the heat of a battle. I really try, but I can make a silly mistake. It is a huge relief, a great feeling when you just laugh it off, pat me on the back and move on.
You see? It i not hard to make your support happy. Be a decent person. Be considerate, polite and aware of the work we do for you and we will work hard to make you happy as well. We will do it even if you are an abusive prick but this way you can feel better about yourself and we will cherish the memories of playing with you.
1. For the glorious followers <3
It is great and warm and special feeling if you make a play, set-up the enemies and your partner dives in to be on your side, mindful of your actions, and extinguish their tasty lives. Few things can compare to the bot lane harmony, when you just fit each other and step by step, you, together, orchestrate a symphony of death and suffering upon your enemies. When you can join the flow and feel the dance... you have my thanks and appreciation.
2. For those who believe in us
We love the trust you put in us when we hold the shield for you. It is a delight to see you melt their faces while we peel them from you. It is a good game if you know when you have to run, and when you can leave that pesky bruiser to us. If you don't flee the fight like a panicked chicken every time enemy glances your way it feels worth the time and effort to feed and protect you.
3. For those who cover our back
Keeping vision is a dangerous job, many supports lay down their lives trying to do their duty to keep the team and you safe. If you rather miss a minion or two to be in reach, to cover our back while we ward a dragon, we love you. CS is important, but only so much and I am glad you recognize the importance of safety.
4. For those who appreciate
I'll gladly sacrifice my life to get you out of the sticky situation if you say thank you afterwards, instead of excuses and blame. Mistakes happen, you got carried away and didn't noticed my ping. You were out of position and a gank came. It doesn't matter, I still like you and will dive in to give you a chance to run, if you afterwards say "thanks for saving me". I will happily work my fin off for you, even for a simple "GJ" after a bubble catch set-up double-kill.
5. For those who understand
I love you if you understand I am just a human. I can miss a bubble or a snare. I can miss-click and decorate the middle of our lane with a ward instead of taking a sip from a potion. I might heal or exhaust a wrong person in the heat of a battle. I really try, but I can make a silly mistake. It is a huge relief, a great feeling when you just laugh it off, pat me on the back and move on.
You see? It i not hard to make your support happy. Be a decent person. Be considerate, polite and aware of the work we do for you and we will work hard to make you happy as well. We will do it even if you are an abusive prick but this way you can feel better about yourself and we will cherish the memories of playing with you.
Station 22: part one
A long time ago I tried to revive forums of the @itsHafu with a several projects, including Station 22. It didn't work and it remained a ghost town. But, It doesn't mean I can't salvage my own work and share it with all those like 20 people, who actually read my blog ( I feel so special).
This project named as a station 22 was a simple idea, I will write a story, and let it go it's way. I have no idea where it goes and will write it on the go. No plans ahead. Basically web-comic style but by a person who can't draw at all. No retcons - what happened happened and will affect the future of the story. I, of course, may be inspired by the comments below and work it in. Care to join me on an adventure?
Station 22
"I am Rinn, the Elder and Overseer of station 22. Welcome among us."
Young Shael was intrigued and nervous. She never thought she could be of any aid to the galaxy as she was born with extremely rare disability - a psi-negative syndrome. Person with PN could not be connected to the minds of others and therefore was denied the access to the common mind and subconsciousness of the Community. This disability also prevented affected mind to be read by the others. This communication defect prevented her from gaining any position within the galactic community. Not only she could not operate any machinery or communicate at normal level... the people of the Community feared her kind. It was a common belief that PM's were born without a soul.
"Thank you Elder Rinn for this opportunity. May I compliment you on your uncommon skill in using a vocal communication sir? For it is truly outstanding." Shael felt flattered and amazed that someone beyond her caretakers took time to train the vocal abilities to communicate with her.
"Thank you young one. You will find out that it is not as uncommon on this station. We are very unique on many aspects. From serving staff to our assignment. We all are psi-negatives." The Elder was speaking slowly as if he had all the time in the world. His voice was calm and fluid. It was obvious he was using it for the whole life, which could be a thousands of cycles. His head horns were magnificent but he did not wore any horn-rings that would help Shael identify his age.
"I am sure you are eager to learn and find out why you had been invited. Let us look outside." Tap on the panel in the middle of the room lit up the holoprojector. Now she did believe everyone was PN here. Control panels... not mind commands. This whole place was build to accommodate and work with people like her.
"Do you know the legend of the Silent ones? The story of the soul-less devourers of the galaxy..." Shael did not answer, it was a rhetorical question. Everyone knew the story of the biggest threat the Community has ever faced and rise or Seraphim as the defenders and rulers of the galaxy. Also, a sad thought, a reason why people of the community were terrified of her.
"The story itself starts more than a two hundred thousand cycles ago. The ships of the unknown species has emerged over the colony of Seh'rai. They did not tried to make contact. Just stopped on the orbit and waited. Operators on the orbital station could not feel anything. It was like the ships were abandoned. They were a complete mystery. After a few rotations it was decided that a boarding party would be sent to investigate. When their ship approached the strangers... they fired. A plasma beam tore through the scouting ship completely obliterating it and killing everyone aboard. The attack begun. Until than a violent death was something unheard of. A sentient being killing another one was unthinkable and the echo of the event resonated throughout the common mind. Thousands had died that day. The entire colony was exterminated, hunted down to the last one and murdered by the marauders in their shimmering armors and deadly weapons."
The Elder had took a moment of silence for those whose spirits were lost. Shael stood there and did not dared to interrupt the silence. It was horrific to just imagine such a destruction and merciless brutality.
"The war that followed took millions of lives and the galaxy was almost overwhelmed. Only the sacrifices of the Seraphim, our kind, were able to stop their advance. Any other race that met the Silent ones either died, or if they fled, their souls became corrupted. That is the reason why our kind rules over the Community as watchful protectors. We found a way to fight and managed to defeat the plague of the Silent ones. They fought until the last men and it was right as none in the galaxy would know peace as long as they existed." A very dark and depressive end indeed Shael thought. A complete destruction of an entire species...
"Here, is where legend is wrong, young one." That statement froze young Seraphim. Is he saying that there are still Silent ones alive? She watched his hand point at the image shown by the holoprojector. It was a solar system. Nothing unique, just several planets. But the third one from the star seemed rich in water and that it might be able to sustain life despite it's small size.
"This is Terra V. The fifth homeworld we built for the Silent ones. We keep their civilization on pre-stellar level and prevent any ship from making unintended contact. We block all the signals coming in and from the system. These coordinates are marked as a black hole within the map of the galaxy. We watch and interfere to drive their civilization in cyclical patterns so their empires rise and fall and do not advance too much. If they manage to find a way around that, unify their empires and advance technologically too much, we are forced to collapse the sun of the system and move to a new Terra. We can't afford the risk of Silent ones freeing themselves. This is the biggest secret Seraphim have."
Shaela felt dizzy, taken by the shock. There were no secrets within the Community. You can't hide something or lie within the mind merged with others... now it started to make sense. That is why PN's were working here. They could keep secrets and if what he said was true none other would be suited to watch over the silent ones. Every psionic entity that managed to connect to the one of the silent ones were corrupted and had to be euthanized before it could spread madness to the Community. Such alien were the minds of the Silent ones.
"I see now. The only question I have is: Why?"
Shael asked, puzzled by this. The risk seemed just too high.
"The other secret we Seraphim have is that we did not really challenged and stood up to the might of the Silent empire. It started to crumble from within. To fight is their nature. When victory was for them but a formality, they started to quarrel over the empire and the distribution of power. We stopped being an opposition to them so they turned on each other. Their empire was divided and weakened by the war waged within so when we led the counter-offensive, they ignored us. They believed we are weak and unworthy as opponents so if someone fell to us they believed it was his incompetence, not our strength. That is their weakness."
The sense of bitterness was felt within words of the Elder. Did he take it as a weakness that their race did not possess such a potential for destruction? Maybe he is watching the silent ones for too long thought the young blue haired recruit. How do you recognize Corruption of the Silent?
"So, we are studying them and keeping them under control because they are the known evil?" The conclusion was obvious, but cynical.
"Very good. The history taught us that we are never safe. A new threat might emerge in the same sudden and brutal manner as the Silent ones did. It is why we saved them. Their mind, their ruthless nature a complete disregard for life in general, makes them an ideal warriors that could probably stand up to any challenge."
"So, our job here is to keep them pacified and ready until the Community is threatened again and than we would..."
"Release them on the galaxy again."
This project named as a station 22 was a simple idea, I will write a story, and let it go it's way. I have no idea where it goes and will write it on the go. No plans ahead. Basically web-comic style but by a person who can't draw at all. No retcons - what happened happened and will affect the future of the story. I, of course, may be inspired by the comments below and work it in. Care to join me on an adventure?
Station 22
"I am Rinn, the Elder and Overseer of station 22. Welcome among us."
Young Shael was intrigued and nervous. She never thought she could be of any aid to the galaxy as she was born with extremely rare disability - a psi-negative syndrome. Person with PN could not be connected to the minds of others and therefore was denied the access to the common mind and subconsciousness of the Community. This disability also prevented affected mind to be read by the others. This communication defect prevented her from gaining any position within the galactic community. Not only she could not operate any machinery or communicate at normal level... the people of the Community feared her kind. It was a common belief that PM's were born without a soul.
"Thank you Elder Rinn for this opportunity. May I compliment you on your uncommon skill in using a vocal communication sir? For it is truly outstanding." Shael felt flattered and amazed that someone beyond her caretakers took time to train the vocal abilities to communicate with her.
"Thank you young one. You will find out that it is not as uncommon on this station. We are very unique on many aspects. From serving staff to our assignment. We all are psi-negatives." The Elder was speaking slowly as if he had all the time in the world. His voice was calm and fluid. It was obvious he was using it for the whole life, which could be a thousands of cycles. His head horns were magnificent but he did not wore any horn-rings that would help Shael identify his age.
"I am sure you are eager to learn and find out why you had been invited. Let us look outside." Tap on the panel in the middle of the room lit up the holoprojector. Now she did believe everyone was PN here. Control panels... not mind commands. This whole place was build to accommodate and work with people like her.
"Do you know the legend of the Silent ones? The story of the soul-less devourers of the galaxy..." Shael did not answer, it was a rhetorical question. Everyone knew the story of the biggest threat the Community has ever faced and rise or Seraphim as the defenders and rulers of the galaxy. Also, a sad thought, a reason why people of the community were terrified of her.
"The story itself starts more than a two hundred thousand cycles ago. The ships of the unknown species has emerged over the colony of Seh'rai. They did not tried to make contact. Just stopped on the orbit and waited. Operators on the orbital station could not feel anything. It was like the ships were abandoned. They were a complete mystery. After a few rotations it was decided that a boarding party would be sent to investigate. When their ship approached the strangers... they fired. A plasma beam tore through the scouting ship completely obliterating it and killing everyone aboard. The attack begun. Until than a violent death was something unheard of. A sentient being killing another one was unthinkable and the echo of the event resonated throughout the common mind. Thousands had died that day. The entire colony was exterminated, hunted down to the last one and murdered by the marauders in their shimmering armors and deadly weapons."
The Elder had took a moment of silence for those whose spirits were lost. Shael stood there and did not dared to interrupt the silence. It was horrific to just imagine such a destruction and merciless brutality.
"The war that followed took millions of lives and the galaxy was almost overwhelmed. Only the sacrifices of the Seraphim, our kind, were able to stop their advance. Any other race that met the Silent ones either died, or if they fled, their souls became corrupted. That is the reason why our kind rules over the Community as watchful protectors. We found a way to fight and managed to defeat the plague of the Silent ones. They fought until the last men and it was right as none in the galaxy would know peace as long as they existed." A very dark and depressive end indeed Shael thought. A complete destruction of an entire species...
"Here, is where legend is wrong, young one." That statement froze young Seraphim. Is he saying that there are still Silent ones alive? She watched his hand point at the image shown by the holoprojector. It was a solar system. Nothing unique, just several planets. But the third one from the star seemed rich in water and that it might be able to sustain life despite it's small size.
"This is Terra V. The fifth homeworld we built for the Silent ones. We keep their civilization on pre-stellar level and prevent any ship from making unintended contact. We block all the signals coming in and from the system. These coordinates are marked as a black hole within the map of the galaxy. We watch and interfere to drive their civilization in cyclical patterns so their empires rise and fall and do not advance too much. If they manage to find a way around that, unify their empires and advance technologically too much, we are forced to collapse the sun of the system and move to a new Terra. We can't afford the risk of Silent ones freeing themselves. This is the biggest secret Seraphim have."
Shaela felt dizzy, taken by the shock. There were no secrets within the Community. You can't hide something or lie within the mind merged with others... now it started to make sense. That is why PN's were working here. They could keep secrets and if what he said was true none other would be suited to watch over the silent ones. Every psionic entity that managed to connect to the one of the silent ones were corrupted and had to be euthanized before it could spread madness to the Community. Such alien were the minds of the Silent ones.
"I see now. The only question I have is: Why?"
Shael asked, puzzled by this. The risk seemed just too high.
"The other secret we Seraphim have is that we did not really challenged and stood up to the might of the Silent empire. It started to crumble from within. To fight is their nature. When victory was for them but a formality, they started to quarrel over the empire and the distribution of power. We stopped being an opposition to them so they turned on each other. Their empire was divided and weakened by the war waged within so when we led the counter-offensive, they ignored us. They believed we are weak and unworthy as opponents so if someone fell to us they believed it was his incompetence, not our strength. That is their weakness."
The sense of bitterness was felt within words of the Elder. Did he take it as a weakness that their race did not possess such a potential for destruction? Maybe he is watching the silent ones for too long thought the young blue haired recruit. How do you recognize Corruption of the Silent?
"So, we are studying them and keeping them under control because they are the known evil?" The conclusion was obvious, but cynical.
"Very good. The history taught us that we are never safe. A new threat might emerge in the same sudden and brutal manner as the Silent ones did. It is why we saved them. Their mind, their ruthless nature a complete disregard for life in general, makes them an ideal warriors that could probably stand up to any challenge."
"So, our job here is to keep them pacified and ready until the Community is threatened again and than we would..."
"Release them on the galaxy again."
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
League weekly: Happy to be silver
No I didn't just escape the dreaded bronze tier. This is not an uplifting story of someone escaping the deepest levels of Elo hell by taking control of their rage. I never even was in a bronze tier and never really raged. I went straight to high silver since I started to play ranked and my MMR even put me against gold-low plat at a time. I just found curious and interesting how people put so much value into rising up the ladder. I'll share my thoughts on why is that at the end of the post. Right now, I'll just tell you why Silver is a great tier to be.
1.) You are not bronze
Nothing against bronze people, if everyone's skill just rose by a miracle hundred-fold, there would still be bronze tier and a lot of people in it. Someone always will be the last one. No-one would boast about that tho. Who would put up in his living room a diploma saying "The lowest rated racer of the season" - yet that is what bronze tier medal precisely means and it is probably a reason why most bronze players are so tilted and angry. Every time they look in their profile to make changes in masteries or anything they get hit in the face with a huge placket saying "you are a looser". At least that is how they probably feel about it.
Being silver tho is entirely different stuff. People are way more relaxed simply because they are the guys in the middle no one cares about. They are not the best, not the worst. Being o.k. is fine. You can sure do better if you try harder but you don't feel ashamed about your status. You can chill out, try hard in games and feel good if it works out and be ok with it if it fails. Nothing is a big deal.
2.) I am the best player around
Well now that is the attitude that is really common in basically every other tier. In bronze, the denial and tilt is super hard so people feel like they are so much better than all these scrubs that are just dragging them down. Gold and platinum people mostly think they are far better than they actually are and are arrogant and pushy-ragey as they feel that the tier they really deserve (diamond ofc) is so close. You rarely see bigger bunch of arrogant self-entitled privileged "I-am-the-one-who-knocks" jerks than what you can find in these two tiers. They are actually good but their over-inflated ego just makes them insufferable to play with.
In the silver tier of course are all the gold-diamonds passing through, but that is a minority. Generally, people I had a chance to play with mostly accepted their status and were more realistic about their own skill level. If someone is saying "I am where I deserve to be" it is most likely a silver player. They want to get better but they are not so passion-burned about it. It is kind of similar to people talking in the tea shop about how cool it would be to get super rich. It might be, but they don't exactly loose much sleep about it.
3.) Skill level
If you want to be diamond or platinum player you have to play. You have to play a lot. Like daily-kind of lot. The mechanical skill in league rusts so fast it isn't even funny. I didn't had time to play for 5 months and when I came back I could barely hit an auto-attack. If you want to play a serious game with challenging opponents without goofing around, while being able to log-in on weekly basis - silver is a great place to be. You can basically keep your mechanics steady and put up a fight at the level sufficient for the tier without sending your team to full rage mode because "fck*ng marksmen can't CS for sh*t".
Why are people so fixed on diamond dream?
The problem with the Rage in league comes from a simple and understandable source. Growing up is hard. You are born as this tiny defenseless baby and you are the center of everything (in normal healthy family). You are this special, unique, above all others, person destined for greatness. As you slowly grow up you will find out that that is simply not true. You are important only for your family and few of your friends and everyone else frankly doesn't give a damn that you even exist. You are just an another face in the crowd. And most likely, whatever you choose to do in life, you will be average at it and it will take ages and immense dedication even to come close to the best.
How is this related to league? As people see their other illusions evaporate in the light of reality and see how they are not better then people around them, the range of things in which they can excel gets more and more narrow. As they gave up on being famous actors, sportsman, heroes, scientists, artists... they fear that they betray their family who saw so much potential in them, that they fail their own expectations of grandeur. This transition from a child to an adult is happening usually between 15-25 (but it depends on the person, some may never grow up in this sense) which, not surprisingly, is a huge demographic for games. Especially league of legends. Add that there is a big and sparkly professional league, famous players, millions of people watching... and that all they have to do to become one of these stars is get to diamond, than challenger and get noticed. Right? So as everything else is fading and takes way too much effort and hard work, this just means they have to do what they like to do anyway. And here we are, diamond tier as one of the last way to prove ourselves that we really are the chosen ones, easy and in reach, you just have to get where you deserve to be. But these r*tarded f*cktards just feed and troll and drag you down. People can't accept the reality that they are simply not as good at this game, that they are not specially gifted and smart and it's not someone else fault - because they would actually had to become adult and accept that greatness is not born, but build over time and they will most likely never reach it. They would have to accept that it is o.k. to be just OK. And that is super hard to do with all those "dream big" motivators around.
1.) You are not bronze
Nothing against bronze people, if everyone's skill just rose by a miracle hundred-fold, there would still be bronze tier and a lot of people in it. Someone always will be the last one. No-one would boast about that tho. Who would put up in his living room a diploma saying "The lowest rated racer of the season" - yet that is what bronze tier medal precisely means and it is probably a reason why most bronze players are so tilted and angry. Every time they look in their profile to make changes in masteries or anything they get hit in the face with a huge placket saying "you are a looser". At least that is how they probably feel about it.
Being silver tho is entirely different stuff. People are way more relaxed simply because they are the guys in the middle no one cares about. They are not the best, not the worst. Being o.k. is fine. You can sure do better if you try harder but you don't feel ashamed about your status. You can chill out, try hard in games and feel good if it works out and be ok with it if it fails. Nothing is a big deal.
2.) I am the best player around
Well now that is the attitude that is really common in basically every other tier. In bronze, the denial and tilt is super hard so people feel like they are so much better than all these scrubs that are just dragging them down. Gold and platinum people mostly think they are far better than they actually are and are arrogant and pushy-ragey as they feel that the tier they really deserve (diamond ofc) is so close. You rarely see bigger bunch of arrogant self-entitled privileged "I-am-the-one-who-knocks" jerks than what you can find in these two tiers. They are actually good but their over-inflated ego just makes them insufferable to play with.
In the silver tier of course are all the gold-diamonds passing through, but that is a minority. Generally, people I had a chance to play with mostly accepted their status and were more realistic about their own skill level. If someone is saying "I am where I deserve to be" it is most likely a silver player. They want to get better but they are not so passion-burned about it. It is kind of similar to people talking in the tea shop about how cool it would be to get super rich. It might be, but they don't exactly loose much sleep about it.
3.) Skill level
If you want to be diamond or platinum player you have to play. You have to play a lot. Like daily-kind of lot. The mechanical skill in league rusts so fast it isn't even funny. I didn't had time to play for 5 months and when I came back I could barely hit an auto-attack. If you want to play a serious game with challenging opponents without goofing around, while being able to log-in on weekly basis - silver is a great place to be. You can basically keep your mechanics steady and put up a fight at the level sufficient for the tier without sending your team to full rage mode because "fck*ng marksmen can't CS for sh*t".
Why are people so fixed on diamond dream?
The problem with the Rage in league comes from a simple and understandable source. Growing up is hard. You are born as this tiny defenseless baby and you are the center of everything (in normal healthy family). You are this special, unique, above all others, person destined for greatness. As you slowly grow up you will find out that that is simply not true. You are important only for your family and few of your friends and everyone else frankly doesn't give a damn that you even exist. You are just an another face in the crowd. And most likely, whatever you choose to do in life, you will be average at it and it will take ages and immense dedication even to come close to the best.
How is this related to league? As people see their other illusions evaporate in the light of reality and see how they are not better then people around them, the range of things in which they can excel gets more and more narrow. As they gave up on being famous actors, sportsman, heroes, scientists, artists... they fear that they betray their family who saw so much potential in them, that they fail their own expectations of grandeur. This transition from a child to an adult is happening usually between 15-25 (but it depends on the person, some may never grow up in this sense) which, not surprisingly, is a huge demographic for games. Especially league of legends. Add that there is a big and sparkly professional league, famous players, millions of people watching... and that all they have to do to become one of these stars is get to diamond, than challenger and get noticed. Right? So as everything else is fading and takes way too much effort and hard work, this just means they have to do what they like to do anyway. And here we are, diamond tier as one of the last way to prove ourselves that we really are the chosen ones, easy and in reach, you just have to get where you deserve to be. But these r*tarded f*cktards just feed and troll and drag you down. People can't accept the reality that they are simply not as good at this game, that they are not specially gifted and smart and it's not someone else fault - because they would actually had to become adult and accept that greatness is not born, but build over time and they will most likely never reach it. They would have to accept that it is o.k. to be just OK. And that is super hard to do with all those "dream big" motivators around.
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Kingdom come: Deliverance and ethnicities
A certain blog (A people of Color in European art history) nudged at new and upcoming medieval RPG game which aims primarily on historical authenticity.
Their problem is, as expected considering the name of the blog, that there is basically none non-white person in the whole game and adding a playable female character was a stretch goal on kickstarter.
Well I would like to tell something to the author of that blog, any anyone who is willing to listen.
As a girl, I am sorry that I can't play for something I can easily identify with, but the truth is, within the Czech 15 century society, the role main hero is to play was basically impossible for women. They aim for historical accuracy and from history we know this - while Joan of Arc was sending letters threatening to invade Czech kingdom for it's heresy (they rebelled against the Church and the Usurper king) there were none of the likes of her on our home soil. Because of the different roles of women within our society at the time (no they weren't oppressed like somewhere else) in aim to contain that authenticity they would have to basically made an entirely new game (story-wise) for her. The reactions and interaction of the NPC's with her would be that different. While I would love that, I understand that in a partially community financed project it just isn't realistic. But maybe, if game is successful we might get a datadisc?
Now for the men of color problem in the game. There is one thing to be understood about Czech republic and it's predecessors (first republic, bohemian kingdom, great moravia) - we never had a system of slavery. Because of our in-land position we didn't even have colonies (despite being quite a powerful state). In that is rooted another thing - our population is very homogenic. We are mostly descendants of slavic and keltic tribes. The only big non-national minorities (meaning not germans, slovaks..) ever living here were Gypsies, which at the time were prohibited to live at our soil (yeah, people of the time weren't particularly fond of nomadic style of their lives and considered them filthy and thieves and hunted them down. That is sad but undeniable.) - and they are not really even a different race - And Asians mostly came here in the 20th century. When creators of the game say that there are not basically any people of color in that time it is entirely true. They might be on paintings but that doesn't say anything about the life here. To put it in perspective, you could make a game without a black man (not asian though, they came in great numbers and integrated quite nicely everywhere) from current day and still be accurate. I lived and moved around Czech republic quite a lot and while I've seen a black man in movies, photos etc. I didn't seen one in person until I moved to the capital city at age 18. Why? Because there are still basically none. There are some foreign students, some tourists and some business men and few others. Their numbers are in dozens maybe hundreds if you feel really optimistic. Really, there is so few of the black people in the Czech republic that national statistical office doesn't even keep data to show and they track almost anything.
As author of the blog mentioned that Mongolians were on their campaign throughout the Europe - and Mongolians or Cumans are actually seen in the kickstarter trailer at 1:26 - http://youtu.be/nyfmd9ZMyIw?t=1m26s - but even that is questionable and because Mongolian armies weren't really in the Bohemian kingdom itself and definitelly not at the time. They passed through the southern Moravia in 13. century on their way to Austria and that is basically about it. They didn't even do any real damage. Battle of Legnica happened in Poland. So beyond our borders. While English Wiki is claiming that they controlled Moravia that is a common mistake coming from bad translation of one famous Czech chronicler of the time (Dalimil) which confused them with Cumans, which were fighting in a Hungarian army - these really did sacked the Moravia (but not controlled it either). And those were defeated near Olomouc nearly 150 years before the events of the game and left no settlement or people of their own. Game itself takes place in 1403 while the whole Mongolian presence an proximity of Bohemian kingdom ended in about 1250. So the units in the trailer itself are most likely part of the Hungarian Cumans fighting in the army of Sigismund of the house of Luxemburg - the man who in history, just as in game, captured his brother Wencelaus IV. And using these on itself is probably just a guess as I believe we don't have any evidence that Sigismund really used them.
You say that " women and people of color just aren’t realistic enough" well unfortunately, you are right. We aren't. Czech royal court and University was very inquisitive and explored the world so art with people of black color is nothing surprising - considering that symbol of Bohemian Kingdom is a lion which never even lived here.
So with all due respect, the creators of the game did nothing wrong. They are historically accurate. Czech kingdom (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia) just isn't another England, Spain or Portugal. I can't blame creators for not adding an African folk when you consider that you can walk a whole day through our capital and not meet a single black men or women on most days (if you avoid Wenceslas square where several of them work in a steak house, one is a homeless and a few drug dealers - I am not kidding sadly, looks like criminal groups are more open to bring overseas labor force than corporations).
Their problem is, as expected considering the name of the blog, that there is basically none non-white person in the whole game and adding a playable female character was a stretch goal on kickstarter.
Well I would like to tell something to the author of that blog, any anyone who is willing to listen.
As a girl, I am sorry that I can't play for something I can easily identify with, but the truth is, within the Czech 15 century society, the role main hero is to play was basically impossible for women. They aim for historical accuracy and from history we know this - while Joan of Arc was sending letters threatening to invade Czech kingdom for it's heresy (they rebelled against the Church and the Usurper king) there were none of the likes of her on our home soil. Because of the different roles of women within our society at the time (no they weren't oppressed like somewhere else) in aim to contain that authenticity they would have to basically made an entirely new game (story-wise) for her. The reactions and interaction of the NPC's with her would be that different. While I would love that, I understand that in a partially community financed project it just isn't realistic. But maybe, if game is successful we might get a datadisc?
Now for the men of color problem in the game. There is one thing to be understood about Czech republic and it's predecessors (first republic, bohemian kingdom, great moravia) - we never had a system of slavery. Because of our in-land position we didn't even have colonies (despite being quite a powerful state). In that is rooted another thing - our population is very homogenic. We are mostly descendants of slavic and keltic tribes. The only big non-national minorities (meaning not germans, slovaks..) ever living here were Gypsies, which at the time were prohibited to live at our soil (yeah, people of the time weren't particularly fond of nomadic style of their lives and considered them filthy and thieves and hunted them down. That is sad but undeniable.) - and they are not really even a different race - And Asians mostly came here in the 20th century. When creators of the game say that there are not basically any people of color in that time it is entirely true. They might be on paintings but that doesn't say anything about the life here. To put it in perspective, you could make a game without a black man (not asian though, they came in great numbers and integrated quite nicely everywhere) from current day and still be accurate. I lived and moved around Czech republic quite a lot and while I've seen a black man in movies, photos etc. I didn't seen one in person until I moved to the capital city at age 18. Why? Because there are still basically none. There are some foreign students, some tourists and some business men and few others. Their numbers are in dozens maybe hundreds if you feel really optimistic. Really, there is so few of the black people in the Czech republic that national statistical office doesn't even keep data to show and they track almost anything.
As author of the blog mentioned that Mongolians were on their campaign throughout the Europe - and Mongolians or Cumans are actually seen in the kickstarter trailer at 1:26 - http://youtu.be/nyfmd9ZMyIw?t=1m26s - but even that is questionable and because Mongolian armies weren't really in the Bohemian kingdom itself and definitelly not at the time. They passed through the southern Moravia in 13. century on their way to Austria and that is basically about it. They didn't even do any real damage. Battle of Legnica happened in Poland. So beyond our borders. While English Wiki is claiming that they controlled Moravia that is a common mistake coming from bad translation of one famous Czech chronicler of the time (Dalimil) which confused them with Cumans, which were fighting in a Hungarian army - these really did sacked the Moravia (but not controlled it either). And those were defeated near Olomouc nearly 150 years before the events of the game and left no settlement or people of their own. Game itself takes place in 1403 while the whole Mongolian presence an proximity of Bohemian kingdom ended in about 1250. So the units in the trailer itself are most likely part of the Hungarian Cumans fighting in the army of Sigismund of the house of Luxemburg - the man who in history, just as in game, captured his brother Wencelaus IV. And using these on itself is probably just a guess as I believe we don't have any evidence that Sigismund really used them.
You say that " women and people of color just aren’t realistic enough" well unfortunately, you are right. We aren't. Czech royal court and University was very inquisitive and explored the world so art with people of black color is nothing surprising - considering that symbol of Bohemian Kingdom is a lion which never even lived here.
So with all due respect, the creators of the game did nothing wrong. They are historically accurate. Czech kingdom (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia) just isn't another England, Spain or Portugal. I can't blame creators for not adding an African folk when you consider that you can walk a whole day through our capital and not meet a single black men or women on most days (if you avoid Wenceslas square where several of them work in a steak house, one is a homeless and a few drug dealers - I am not kidding sadly, looks like criminal groups are more open to bring overseas labor force than corporations).
Sunday, 2 March 2014
Girl's view on guns
I see a lot of discussion around the topic. I live in a country where owning a gun is legal and getting permit isn't hard. Yet there isn't many guns around since it's not exactly a part of our society. You want a gun? Fine, as you wish. It just isn't relevant to your social status or anything. To put it bluntly, people here just don't care. And that is how it should be in my opinion. However, not every country is like that and the topic of guns is very heated topic. I would like to offer my view of the problem.
Self defense
I am slightly above average height girl that is fit and strong. I am trained in martial arts and I was unlucky enough to actually be in a situation where I had to defend myself. Simply run away just wasn't an available option. I can tell you this much - street thugs and aggressive violent people in general love martial arts so I have no advantage there. However they are more experienced in using it in real situation, they are also usually bigger, heavier and stronger. Being a bit faster, isn't actually that much of an advantage. And believe it or not while man may just give up his earthly possessions, girl who surrenders might suffer a fate a lot worse than just losing wallet and a mobile phone.
So what options does an average girl really have?
A knife! - that actually helps against single attacker. Carry one with you every time you know you will go anywhere alone. Girls were raped during a daylight hours too. Single attackers tend to ambush from behind using surprise as a main factor. Tackling you and getting into a brawl before you can run. Having a short blade in a sleeve or in the thigh pocket is a great help. If you have long hair - needles to pin it down are useful too. Actually works better than a gun in this particular scenario. But once there is more than one person it's useless.
Call for help! - ok now that is a joke. Unless you are a police bait and your unit is just around the corner it will most likely not do any good. Criminals usually don't pick spot to commit their crimes on the places where it would help you and even if they do, it is rare that someone would respond to it otherwise than maybe calling a police. I know that from experience. Even in the urban area, that might take several minutes. And that is in a situation where seconds matter.
Pepper spray! No, not really effective. You have to be within very short range and when you are, time opponent needs to jump to you even if you have it drawn is too short. Threat of a spray is low (meaning you wont scare them away with it) and if there is more of them - it is entirely useless. Also, doesn't have to work on everyone, especially narco addicts might not even register it. In a situation where assailant has already hands on you (ambush from behind etc.) you will disable yourself just as well.
Pull a gun - now we're talking. If you are weaker, less prepared and in a disadvantageous situation (you always are, attacker is the one who picks time, place and a victim) while still have some space (common gang mugging scenario) gun can scare them off and if needed it can be an effective weapon even against multiple opponents. You may still go down but you at least got a chance.
Gun accessibility
Biggest and most common anti-gun argument. If we allow people to buy guns criminals will get them. I can understand the sentiment, but the truth is, there is a big black market of guns. Wishing it away is not an option. Organized crime will always have guns, people with some connections to underworld too. Thugs, street gangs. All of those will have guns if you want it or not. In my country occupying Nazis issued ban on guns of any sort and for not giving your weapon up you would be executed, without any legal process. The police state and army oversight was as harsh as you can imagine in occupied state. And yet, there were hundreds of thousands of guns. Taking means of self defense from the law abiding citizens means only giving an edge to the criminals. Which btw. takes me to "no gun zones".
USA, you are crazy. Seriously. If someone wants to slaughter a bunch of innocent kids in the school or people in the theater - he will not stop before a "no guns beyond this point" sign. But it will assure him that he will not be stopped by anyone. That is how the guy picked the theater for a shooting spree on batman premiere. If someone wants to kill as many defenseless victims as he can than "no gun zone" is a huge invitation for a psychopath. And if you think no guns at all in the hands of public would solve this particular problem - let me remind you that in Germany was a mass murder in school done by a home made spear. 10 victims dead, 22 wounded. Oh and there was one with a knife in china that was stopped by a citizen with a gun.
Also, there was a questioning among inmates and about 70% of those confessed that at least at one occasions they decided not to attack because the victim might had been armed. So just ability to own means of self defense on itself is decreasing crime rate.
TL;DR
Girls, old people and generally everyone not a young well trained and fit male, needs a way to defend themselves. Gun is the only effective way that does not rely on physical prowess and have a very high threat (meaning you can scare people off with it).
If you feel like leaving a comment, sure, go ahead.
Self defense
I am slightly above average height girl that is fit and strong. I am trained in martial arts and I was unlucky enough to actually be in a situation where I had to defend myself. Simply run away just wasn't an available option. I can tell you this much - street thugs and aggressive violent people in general love martial arts so I have no advantage there. However they are more experienced in using it in real situation, they are also usually bigger, heavier and stronger. Being a bit faster, isn't actually that much of an advantage. And believe it or not while man may just give up his earthly possessions, girl who surrenders might suffer a fate a lot worse than just losing wallet and a mobile phone.
So what options does an average girl really have?
A knife! - that actually helps against single attacker. Carry one with you every time you know you will go anywhere alone. Girls were raped during a daylight hours too. Single attackers tend to ambush from behind using surprise as a main factor. Tackling you and getting into a brawl before you can run. Having a short blade in a sleeve or in the thigh pocket is a great help. If you have long hair - needles to pin it down are useful too. Actually works better than a gun in this particular scenario. But once there is more than one person it's useless.
Call for help! - ok now that is a joke. Unless you are a police bait and your unit is just around the corner it will most likely not do any good. Criminals usually don't pick spot to commit their crimes on the places where it would help you and even if they do, it is rare that someone would respond to it otherwise than maybe calling a police. I know that from experience. Even in the urban area, that might take several minutes. And that is in a situation where seconds matter.
Pepper spray! No, not really effective. You have to be within very short range and when you are, time opponent needs to jump to you even if you have it drawn is too short. Threat of a spray is low (meaning you wont scare them away with it) and if there is more of them - it is entirely useless. Also, doesn't have to work on everyone, especially narco addicts might not even register it. In a situation where assailant has already hands on you (ambush from behind etc.) you will disable yourself just as well.
Pull a gun - now we're talking. If you are weaker, less prepared and in a disadvantageous situation (you always are, attacker is the one who picks time, place and a victim) while still have some space (common gang mugging scenario) gun can scare them off and if needed it can be an effective weapon even against multiple opponents. You may still go down but you at least got a chance.
Gun accessibility
Biggest and most common anti-gun argument. If we allow people to buy guns criminals will get them. I can understand the sentiment, but the truth is, there is a big black market of guns. Wishing it away is not an option. Organized crime will always have guns, people with some connections to underworld too. Thugs, street gangs. All of those will have guns if you want it or not. In my country occupying Nazis issued ban on guns of any sort and for not giving your weapon up you would be executed, without any legal process. The police state and army oversight was as harsh as you can imagine in occupied state. And yet, there were hundreds of thousands of guns. Taking means of self defense from the law abiding citizens means only giving an edge to the criminals. Which btw. takes me to "no gun zones".
USA, you are crazy. Seriously. If someone wants to slaughter a bunch of innocent kids in the school or people in the theater - he will not stop before a "no guns beyond this point" sign. But it will assure him that he will not be stopped by anyone. That is how the guy picked the theater for a shooting spree on batman premiere. If someone wants to kill as many defenseless victims as he can than "no gun zone" is a huge invitation for a psychopath. And if you think no guns at all in the hands of public would solve this particular problem - let me remind you that in Germany was a mass murder in school done by a home made spear. 10 victims dead, 22 wounded. Oh and there was one with a knife in china that was stopped by a citizen with a gun.
Also, there was a questioning among inmates and about 70% of those confessed that at least at one occasions they decided not to attack because the victim might had been armed. So just ability to own means of self defense on itself is decreasing crime rate.
TL;DR
Girls, old people and generally everyone not a young well trained and fit male, needs a way to defend themselves. Gun is the only effective way that does not rely on physical prowess and have a very high threat (meaning you can scare people off with it).
If you feel like leaving a comment, sure, go ahead.
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