Oooooh... Interesting insight with the heatmap stats. I’d forgotten entirely about those.

OK. This is making more sense now. The object placement thing I’m getting.

As I said, I haven’t played a lot of competitive shooters, but I’ve very rarely heard of a developer changing the actual geography of a map after release. I realize that they COULD do so, but it seems like they would be looking for less labor-intensive ways to balance a map than having to call in the modelers and…

Could things like the obstacle placements make a big difference? I don’t own Overwatch yet, so bear with me... When you reference “checkpoints” are you talking about the attacker and defender spawn points, or something else entirely?

I think I can see where you’re going with chokepoints and respawn, but stuff like changing vantage points so that both sides have better access to them sound like huge geography changes, which in my admittedly limited experience, developers don’t often do after they release a map.

The stuff in the article about the…

OK. Honest question:
I understand buffing and nerfing a character, but as a person who hasn’t played nearly enough competitive shooters, how does one go about balancing a MAP?

It really is :) Let me know what you think once you’ve had a chance to dive into it!

You think I could resist a piece of Grav-icana like the journal?! ;)

Oh, Narelle... I’m so glad when you write an article, because I know that it will inevitably have something to do with my favorite crossover kids/adult cartoon. :)

Building an Emergency Fund, getting out of debt, and staying there were some of the best things my wife and I ever decided on.

I’m breaking with the crowd on this one... I bought a two-person hammock and stand! I can’t wait for those beautiful Sunday afternoon naps in this baby: https://smile.amazon.com/Vivere-Double-…

...the Nintendo spokesperson then shook their head in exasperation, wondering aloud how their career had come to having to explain a Watergate reference.

Me, too! You might just become my new favorite Kotaku contributor!

A star. A star for ANY reference to Gravity Falls.

Google Fi has been EXACTLY what I needed.

As a person who owns a desktop gaming PC for my heavy-lifting, I ADORE Chromebooks as second computers.

Nope. Sign for any length of service, and it’s yours.

We got a pretty good router for free from our ISP when we signed up for fiber optic internet in Utah.

As much as I love the other one, the reveal trailer is the clear winner to me from Transistor.

Apparently, the Prime discount works on Amiibo, too!

Apparently, the Prime discount works on Amiibo, too!