Don't forget the earlier bit where we had a national government that *couldn't* pass laws and treaties that were binding on its members. It worked terribly and after a few years of diplomatic, security, and financial humiliation we realized that's a sh*tty idea and got rid of it.

Actually, as an American I'm in an identical situation. Well over half the laws I'm forced to obey aren't created by my local legislature, but are handed down as instant law by a pair of political bodies that my people have only a 2% representation in.

The Tenderloin ain't what it used to be, but there's still a few streets you can walk down and hear the vials crack under your feet. I'm not a local, but I visit a lot and I've never been anywhere that I'd be uncomfortable walking around in daylight.

I can't really even see what's going on in Thumper, I can't imagine playing it.

Blizzard has said there's an internal matchmaking system, but hasn't given any details. Level seems to be one of several factors that go into it.

I already know I'm too old and slow to play Tracer well, but I've been starting to give it a shot anyway. It's Genji that I'm terrified to even try.

You gotta spread those turrets out a bit, so the enemy dies before they can find and kill all of them. I usually put one or two on the payload to be annoying, but not all of them.

Don't forget the music!

Yes. And even better, there's a communication wheel that lets you send basic greetings and combat messages to your team without having to use voice chat.

It's possible I may have skipped a few days of work and played Overwatch more than is really healthy. My fingers and eyes hurt, the WASD letters on my keyboard are completely worn off, and somehow I just hit Level 30.

Very yes. In fact I'd say it's the perfect multiplayer shooter for people who are only kinda into shooters. Everything from the hero selection to their abilities to the user interface to the sound design is exquisitely designed to keep things fun.

Yeah, I hate that. Turns out you can use the chat panel ("p" key on PC) to mute people.

How much of a child of the '80s am I? I thought Weird Al's "Bob" video was a take-off on the video for "Mediate" by INXS, and was confused about why he was using it for a Dylan parody. https://www.youtube.com/wat…

I think the idea of "hard counters" is elite-tier gamer bullshit that's filtered down into the bush leagues. You can talk on a forum all day long about how Genji is a hard counter to Bastion, but it's all just talk until you can aim that deflect accurately.

Ditto, but reverse. I've played a bunch of Blizzard stuff, but Overwatch is the first FPS that's caught my attention in years.

Valkyria Chronicles is the only game I've nearly abandoned because the writing was so bad. I stuck through to the end, but yeesh.

If I'm allowed to pick and choose I'll take Burning Crusade-style content, with WOTLK-style catch-up dungeons and dual talent specs.

Disagree: http://www.avclub.com/artic…

Having spent more than one all-nighter on it, I can tell you that you're absolutely right, and it won't get better. FTL is not a game you play to win, it's a game you play to find out when the random number generator decides to kill you.

I'm hoping to pick up Stellaris at a Steam summer sale. I got some mileage out of Europa Universalis, but I like strategy games with a more limited number of things to think about at once, more abstracted I guess. There comes a point where you're being rewarded for successful bookkeeping rather than clever strategy,…