Supercharging Enjoyment: The effect of fast Internet on my gaming life

Growing up in South Africa, having a fast Internet connection meant you could watch videos on YouTube without having to pre-load them. When I moved to Korea over two years ago, my definition of what fast Internet meant changed. Now I could download entire games in under an hour, and watch live streams in high quality. This movement to fast Internet changed the way I game drastically.

South Korea boasts the fastest average Internet connection speed in the world at 20.5 megabytes per second (Mbps). It also has the highest percentage of broadband higher than 10, 15, and 25 Mbps per second. South Africa’s average internet speed is a paltry 3.7 Mpbs, more than 6 times slower. South Africa’s peak connection of 18.9 Mbps doesn’t even breach Korea’s average speed. I had one of the better connections in the country, and I was still astounded at the difference.

Gotta go fast!

A faster, more reliable connection to the Internet has meant many things for me as a gamer. I can download games much more quickly. A beefy triple-A game that I would have had to leave downloading overnight in South Africa is ready to go in under an hour in South Korea. As a result, I am now much more willing to purchase a game on sale. I want to play it on a whim, I can start a download and be playing it within the hour – there is no pre-planning required. Because I can download and play new games so rapidly, I am now much more cognizant of how much time I spend playing any particular game. I no longer put hours into a game because it’s better than waiting for a new game to download. I don’t play games past the point at which I stop enjoying them.

The most prominent example of this to me was my experience with Sukeban Games’ VA-11 Hall-A. I enjoyed the first couple of hours exploring the world of robotic cyberpunk bartending. The fact that it seemed to be a visual novel with a small bartending mini-game intrigued me. I spent a handful of hours happily serving a colourful host of robotic characters their desired alcoholic beverages. After a particularly long session of the game, I took stock in my head. I mentally assessed whether I had enjoyed that playing session. I decided I hadn’t. So I uninstalled it and browsed my embarrassingly large Steam library for a new fix. I was playing The Game Bakers’ Furi within 20 minutes.

I now spend less time invested in games that are not right for me. This means that I have more time to dive wholeheartedly into games I enjoy. I quickly establish whether I am interested enough in a game to stick with a game until I have completed it. Then, I act on that decision. I have finished more single-player games recently than I had in my last few years back home, without letting up my love affair with Dota 2’s unmatched online multiplayer experience.

Higher-quality internet also means better connections to the online gaming world. This includes online games, streaming sites like Twitch.tv, and video sites like YouTube. I am no longer worried that my connection will drop in the middle of a game of Dota 2 or Hearthstone. In the past, this would mean agonizing defeat unrelated to my mediocre skill level in both games. I lose enough because I’m a scrub, I don’t need technology acting against me as well. With Korea’s superb Internet, all my online gaming grief is a result of my skills, not my game connection. I also consume a great deal more gaming-related video and stream content now than I did back home. My wife and I watch our favourite streamers while we eat dinner, and the quality is always set on the highest. I watch replays and guides for Dota 2 and Hearthstone. I also try to keep up to date on the latest news in the world of esports and gaming as a whole.

Looking back on these changes, I believe that they are largely positive. I only play what I am truly enjoying, and I play more often because of this. I have matured from a frothing-mouthed gaming cultist into a seasoned games enthusiast. I am now willing to opine maturely about the latest gaming scandal or development in the world of gaming. I do not feel the need to flash my gaming credentials nearly as much as I did back in South Africa. Now, gaming arguably plays a bigger role in my life now than it did then. Korea truly is a gamer’s paradise. When the time comes to leave its sheltered shores, I will miss many things. I suspect that the Internet speed might be up there with my newfound friends and life experiences.

A Good Few Days

I have neglected you, dear readers, and for that I apologize. I bring much news! The time between my last post and this has been filled with positive events for Kris and I. I have covered my first Esports event, successfully applied for a Dota 2 magazine, played some Ultimate, and taken another step towards that opaque concept known as adulthood.

The news of which I am arguably most proud is my coverage of the recent HearthStone Seoul Cup World Invitational. The tournament hosted 8 of the top HearthStone players from around the world in two days of single-elimination competition. A few days before the tournament, an expansion was released for HearthStone, resulting in some crazy, fresh strategies to be showcased at the tournament.

While I did enjoy watching the games immensely, my most significant moments lay just outside of the arena. I managed to secure interviews with StrifeCro and Reynad, two prominent personalities in the HearthStone scene. Reynad is a name that I have known for a while, but never explored deeply enough to have a personal opinion on. He deeply impressed me with his knowledge of the game, and love for both HearthStone and Esports in general. I gained immense respect for him in our short conversation. I have long been a fan of StrifeCro, and he lived up to my every expectation as a kind, soft-spoken gentleman. I even managed to get his signature and a picture with him. My inner fanboy was bursting with glee.

I transcribed these interviews and turned them into features for GosuGamers. The StrifeCro interview even managed to reach the front page of the HearthStone subreddit! I was happy that my hard work and overcoming my shy nature paid off. I believe that my interview with Reynad will be even more popular, but it has yet to be released.

My other major Esports-related success came from the Dota 2 sphere. A few weeks ago, I responded to a post on reddit calling for Dota 2 writers to put together a magazine about Dota 2. There were apparently over 240 applicants. I was one of the 6% who were judged as worthy. I am working on my first piece for the first issue, and I hope to live up to the faith that has been placed in me.

After a busy few days of writing and teaching, I was happy to enjoy a long weekend. Kris and I spent most of Thursday and Friday relaxing, catching up with friends, and doing some Ultimate practice. It felt good to throw a disc again, and the practice would prove necessary. On Saturday, we had a chilled picnic for a friend’s birthday. Nothing went too out of hand, because we all had Ultimate the next day.

Sunday came around, and with it our first games of Ultimate for several weeks. We played three games, and had played some of the best Ultimate that we have all season. However, our team’s play was let down by small mistakes being punished by the opponents, and we lost all three of the games. Our team was a little downhearted, but we all enjoyed the day despite the losses.

This morning, I received word that I have been accepted for a credit card. Whilst this might not seem like that big of a deal, I was genuinely worried that I would be rejected due to the part-time nature of my job. I am glad Korea thinks me responsible enough for a credit card. I’m not sure I would trust me. When the card arrives, I will be finally be able to book plane tickets to Seattle for the holiday that Kris and I plan to take in August. As August is drawing ever closer, every day that we can have to complete the American visa application process may prove to be necessary.

So, all told, a good few days indeed. I am making my way in Esports slowly but surely, I am making sure I don’t turn into a pudgey doughball, and things are coming together for the big trip in August. I will strive to blog more regularly, and let you all know how things are going as they happen, and not all in one go like this. Here’s hoping that the majority of my updates are as positive as this one!

 

New Experiences and Post-Guest Normality

On Sunday evening, we bid my aunt farewell after a truly refreshing and heart-warming nine-day stay. My girlfriend Kris and I did our best to try and entertain her. We showed her as many of the sights, sounds, smells, and experiences as we could. After her stay, we were exhausted and saddened. By showing her Korea, we were reminded exactly what we enjoy about the country. Despite this, while she was here, I was expecting to hit a wave of productivity after she left. Now that she has gone…it just hasn’t really happened.

My aunt’s visit was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Korea so far. Like the rest of the visits from relatives that we’ve had, we spent the time showing my aunt what we love about Korea. We visited Seoul multiple time to explore the city as best we could. We saw Nanta, the fantastic Korean cooking musical dance comedy show. Yes, I was picked to go up on stage again – I maintain my 100 percent participation rate in Korean theatre. We ate all of our favourite dishes.

This visit, we chose to go one step further. Because my aunt visited for so long, we had more time than usual that we needed to fill. So, we did a few things that even we hadn’t done before. My aunt and I visited the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Kris, my aunt and I went strawberry picking. Finally, we saw some new films that none of us had seen. This combination of old and new made my aunt’s visit one to remember for her and us.

 

Now that she’s left, I should be rapidly progressing with all of my endeavours. Even though my teaching schedule has become more full, I still have a good amount of time to devote to other interests such as writing and streaming. Disappointingly, it hasn’t really happened that way. I have largely been very lazy and content to derp on the Internet and just play games. This blog has been far too long in coming. I haven’t written much for GosuGamers. I haven’t even managed to keep my fledgling stream schedule.

However, the last few days haven’t been entirely without achievement. I applied for my first credit card (approval will hopefully come soon). I did manage to stream a bit of HearthStone yesterday. I was quite happy with my technical performance, even if I was the only one watching myself. Most notably, I have arranged to be the official GosuGamers media rep at a HearthStone tournament in Seoul this weekend. I am nervous to talk to some of the players that I’ve been watching for a while, but I am also excited for my first event as an interviewer, photographer, and journalist.

My time in Wonju continues to be filled with a mixture of adventure, fun, work, poductivity, and laziness. I am still struggling to find the balance between producing content and enjoying the freer schedule of part-time work. Luckily for me, Kris has been behind me all the way. She might come home and be jealous of my free time, but she has been the support that I need. She has given me space to find my own motivation, but also pushed me when I really needed a push. The coming weeks and months look to be more of the same rollercoaster. I can’t wait to ride.

 

JARAXXUS IS…sorry.

Friends, the Legend dream is dead. I thought I’d be up front about that. I was hoping to update you all saying how proud I was of my new ranks, and how I am close to achieving my goals. Alas, this is not the case, for a number of reasons. I was simply not winning a high enough percentage of games. My aunt arrives tomorrow for a 9-day stay, during which my 6-hour HearthStone marathons will seem a little rude. Finally, I’ve been experimenting with a new deck, and it hasn’t been winning many games. However, it has won over my heart.

For the majority of my HearthStone experience, I have been a player who has played mainly decks that aim to end the game quickly by attacking my opponent before attempting to control the board. With the newest deck that I have been trying, I have pushed my skills further than I think they ever have. In the process, I have also fulfilled an unrelated HearthStone dream of mine. This dream revolves around owning a particular card. Which card is this?

LORD JARAXXUS. Since I first started playing HearthStone, Lord Jaraxxus has been a card that I have wanted to craft, but could never truly justify it. Decks that used Jaraxxus have always included other expensive-to-craft cards that I didn’t have. This meant that, up until recently, I did not have the card pool to use Jaraxxus in an effective way. Until recently. Over time, I have picked up these other cards, unwittingly paving the way for the Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion to burst his way into my collection.

But why have I wanted this card so badly? It’s just a card, right? Not really. He may be a powerful card (hence his expensive-to-craft nature), but he is far from the best card in the game. He fills a particular role, allowing slower decks to continually pile on the pressure as the game goes on.

Also, he just happens to be the most awesome card in the game to me. No contest. Take a look, through this cool video:

Whilst mine may not be golden (as the one in the video is), the responses are still as epic. Up until now, I’ve been fairly stingy with my crafting. Jaraxxus was as much a craft for usefulness as the sheer joy of finally obtaining something you have wanted for a long time.

And he’s won me some games. He’s also lost me some games. Unfortunately for my Legend run, he’s lost more than he’s won. And yet, every time I play the card, I smile. I couldn’t care less. I have been losing without even being salty about it. I may not be closer to Legend, but I’m improving as a player and having fun whilst doing it with the help of my demonic buddy. Maybe I’ll get Legend next month. Maybe Jaraxxus will help me get there. Whether he does or not, I look forward to spawning a host of Infernals and laughing maniacally.

 

 

 

The Grind

This month, I have made a decision to do something that I’ve wanted to do for many a month. The particular endeavour in question requires patience, concentration, and, more than pretty much anything else, time. What is this task that will require the entire month of April to complete? Is it some momentous, life-altering paper that will shake the foundations of society itself? Have I begun to knit? No, my goal is even more geeky and niche than those – I have decided to make a run for Legendary rank in Hearthstone.

For those who don’t know, Hearthstone is Blizzard’s free-to-play online card game. The cards are very colourful, bright, and feature many pleasing sounds and flashing lights to reel in the kids. However, beneath this pleasant exterior lies a card game with significant depth, variance o play styles, and competition.

The game has a number of play modes to suit all tastes. There is a casual, once-a-week Tavern Brawl, where the game rules get mixed up and everyone has a jolly good time. There is the Arena, where you pay in gold to draft a unique deck from a slew of three-card choices. Finally, there is Play mode, where you construct decks using cards from your collection (which is grown by earning or buying card packs) and pit your deck against real-world players. Whilst there is a friendly option, the core of Play mode is the Ranked ladder. It is in this ladder that my grind lies.

In Ranked mode itself, there are 20 ranks, above which lies the elusive Legend rank. Every time you win a match, you gain a star and move up a little towards the next rank. Every time you lose, you lose a star and slip closer to where you started. Up until rank 5, you can go on a winning streak after three successive victories, and earn double stars for each win until you lose a game. This allows you to be able to go through the lower ranks more quickly.

At rank 5, the winning streaks stop. This means that the grind is slower. The players here are all trying to reach Legend. Rank 5 is accordingly considered the half-way point for the grind to legend. The better winrate that your deck has, the fewer games you will have to play to get to Legend. Here is a handy table from Tempostorm to demonstrate. This is the amount of games that you will have to play in order to reach Legend from Rank 5, depending on the win rate of your particular deck.

 

Considering each game takes approximately 8 minutes to play, that adds up to a lot of time spent for an achievement and an in-game card back.

I haven’t even reached rank 5 yet – at time of writing, I sit hovering around rank 10. I have ground my way up, but I still have a long climb ahead. I believe I can make it. I just need to play as much as I can, and I will eventually get there. Whilst I may not be the most skilled, I know that I am good enough to duke it out with the other aspiring Legend players.

All in all, I have many hours sitting in front of my computer ahead of me, trying to outwit a never-ending horde of faceless opponents standing in my way of glory. I hope that I will have enough time to get there. I have been streaming most of my grinding over at twitch.tv/pizzadogcasting. So, if you feel like hanging out in the digital world, watching me get frustrated and happy and frustrated some more, I’d love for you to join me in my pursuit of digital prestige. Now I have to go and get a few more stars before bedtime.