OwnedCore Report #59: An interview with KillerJohn -sponsored by MMOGOLD4USA-

Welcome OwnedCore to another installment of the OwnedCore Report. This week was actually dope as far as gaming goes. Fortnite had the most attended virtual concert ever, the mythic race in WoW began, and there are now confirmed reports that a Titanfall battle royale game is coming. On top of all this news I got to talk with KillerJohn the creator of TurboHUD and ask him a few questions about what he has been up to.


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Interview with KillerJohn

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With the new Diablo Season just coming out I figured this would be a perfect time to talk to one of the biggest names in the community, KillerJohn the creator of TurboHUD. I want to thank him for his time because I know he works a lot not only on TurboHUD with the new season but also in his career outside of TurboHUD.

Ken: How has KillerJohn been since we last talked back in early 2017?

KillerJohnThank you for asking, I have a lot of stress nowadays but I will survive. It is great to see many people still use TurboHUD and it keeps me on the surface after every Diablo patch…



Ken:Being a legend in the Diablo community how do you feel about the current state of the game?

KillerJohnI don’t think I am a legend in the community because my person and role are at least controversial in the Diablo community. Answering to the question I think the game is in the same phase as Diablo 2 was in 2005: an abandoned, sinking but still beautiful ship with lots of potential which will be never exploited by the creator due to it is financially not reasonable to maintain.

About the “creator”: Activision drove away Enigma, who was one of the last torchbearers in Diablo 3 modding community. Loosing him is a huge emotional loss – and obviously it makes my life a lot harder after every patch. It took a few hours to update HUD with him, but since he disappeared it takes 20-40 hours for me. I never criticized Blizzard publicly but I do now. They don’t give the users anything nowadays, but when somebody does, they drove them away. They clearly don’t care about their users, they don’t care about the game, they don’t care about their legacy. But they care about their badly designed encryption algorithm published on GitHub. Congratulations, I hope you are proud of yourself! Each and every HUD plugin developer takes more care of the players than Activision does, every single day.



Ken:Can you maybe go into the Enigma thing? I am sure a lot of people are out of the loop on who Enigma is and Blizzard driving him away.

KillerJohn:Nope, sorry. I think it is all up to our imagination at this point.



Ken: Back when we last talked you said you started TurboHUD because you found that D3 lacked essential UI information and was too distracting. Has Blizzard improved it at all?

KillerJohn:I really don’t want to be rude, but they didn’t improve it at all. They gave Armory to the users (in 2.5.0, March 2017) and now the greater rift keystones are displayed along crafting materials instead of using the space in the inventory. And nothing else. I think a progressing HUD-plugin developer could semi-reproduce these features in a week (which is forbidden because it would need mouse automation). But, again: I am sure this is not caused by the lack of developer skill or game designer imagination on their side, but because the game is abandoned now. Hopefully not forever.



Ken:Do you yourself play Diablo still or is TurboHUD the only connection you have left to the franchise?

KillerJohn:No, I stopped playing Diablo 3 forever. The game’s investment:reward ratio is currently infinite:zero.



Ken:When it comes to both gameplay and UI do any other ARPG's entice you to either play or possibly inspire you with UI ideas for TurboHUD?

KillerJohn:No, I am too busy to play time-consuming games :/ When I have some free time then I enjoy playing casual PS4 games with my kids, like Rayman or Beat Saber, and Clash Royale. I had many ideas regarding the UI, I implemented them, then I extracted into opensource plugins and then I passed the torch to the plugin developers – now they can form the UI of the game (I mean TurboHUD) as they like.



Ken:What are your thoughts on Path of Exile's current success?

KillerJohn:Sorry, but I am not aware of that game. I heard about it a few years ago but then it looked like a beta garage game compared to Diablo 3.

Ken:(Proceeds to link him POE stuff to show him its success as of lately)

Ken:Would you ever make a HUD for POE?

KillerJohn:Well, if I would play with it, and it would require a HUD and I’d have time to develop one then of course I’d do!



Ken:Being that you are in the Diablo scene I have to ask you your thoughts on the whole Diablo Immortal fiasco. What was your reaction, were you surprised, what is the future of Diablo?

KillerJohn:It is good you are asking this now and not then, because I am much less upset currently. I think it is reasonable on their side: money, money, money. Mobile game + microtransactions = money. That’s all we need to understand Activision. On our – hardcore PC gamers’ – side this is clearly sad and overwhelmingly disappointing.

I can’t understand any company who decides to betray their fans they built on in the early years. Yes, they are free to do anything, but loyalty does not rule out creative freedom. Totally unrelated, but Linkin Park was in total denial when their fans outraged by One More Light. Yes, it was creative freedom, but in fact it looks clear they wanted more money from the pop music lovers – by betraying their fanbase. Without them they would be nothing, just the 1000th unknown band from the 1990s. Just like Blizzard (I mean Activision, which in fact explains a lot). And of course, this is only the emotional crying of a loyal fan, they are free to do anything, and I play Beat Saber instead…

I hope the rumors about Diablo 4 are true, and then maybe I’ll have a reason to sit back in front of my desktop PC once again in my life.

Ken: Apparently Diablo 4 was going to be a Dark Souls style game for awhile there but they scrapped it. You have any thoughts on that?


KillerJohn:I think Diablo is ARPG and my personal opinion is that first person view would be a huge mistake.



Ken:Could a Diablo 4 MMO-ARPG work? Something along the lines of Lost Ark or Devilian if you've heard of those.

KillerJohn:Yes, I heard about Lost Ark, but it is still nowhere near of Europe, but I never heard about Devilian. I was never a fan of MMOs, and I have no opinion about it would work or not. I guess it would work for MMO lovers and not work for ARPG lovers. On the other side I doubt they would create another MMO because it would cannibalize the income from WoW.



Ken:Last time we talked you said TurboHUD was bigger than anything you ever made for a game. I assume that still stands today but have you had any grand ideas come to mind for other games?

KillerJohn:I switched for non-game related software pet projects instead, so I have nothing in my pocket for any other games.



Ken:Its been almost 2 years since the whole hosting thing happened with Proboards and you brought it back to OwnedCore stating “TurboHUD born on OwnedCore, and I guess it will die there too.” Has your stay here on OC since that hosting issue been good? Is TurboHUD thriving?

KillerJohn:Yes, it is wonderful to be here! It is a good experience to be here and the community looks like healthy (but a bit inactive :wink: ). I want to thank you again for giving us a new home!

Ken:You mention you play VR games like Beat Saber. Do you think VR is the future or a fad? If it is the future how far away do you think we realistically are from it being the main source of gaming?

KillerJohn:Definitely not - at least until something like Matrix is created. Currently VR is not limited by resolution or sensors but the simulation of movement. And while your room is finite, the virtual world can be “virtually” infinite. I think this problem cannot be solved PROPERLY without directly altering our brains so we think our legs are moving, but they are not. Most games never moved out from the flat screen – no stereoscopic 3D, no VR. In my opinion it is just another entertainment format.

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Gaming News from Around the Globe

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The Marshmello Concert

If you haven't heard yet the largest virtual concert ever happened Saturday. Marshmello and Epic Games came together and created an event that will stand the test of time. At first there were leaks of a Mashmello event due to skins of him being data mined but nobody knew exactly what the event would entail. Turns out for about 30 minutes Fortnite took off all the modes. Solo, duo, squads, and any limited time mode were not visible. The only mode there was an event with a Marshmello banner. It was labeled as a squad event. Once you joined it nothing seemed to different as it put you on the starting island waiting for everybody to load in per usual. But once you got dropped on to the real map you noticed everybody was dropped instantly and all above Pleasant Park. Inside the suburbs was a gigantic stage with lights and everything and once you got down there...a timer. Counting down the minutes and seconds until the concert. The clock hits 0 and boom Marshmello comes on stage and what happens next is one of the most impressive gaming/media collabs I have witnessed. A full blown concert, low gravity moments, and best of all it was all live. The music set was not but according to Marshmello himself he was actually live talking on the mic. So when he said something in the mic it was actually him if you were there for the original event (there were some reruns of it). All in all, Epic did it again. I don't see how any company is going to come close to what they are doing with Fortnite's success for a long time.





The Mythic Race

As I am writing this there are now a whopping 28 guilds 8/9 Mythic. Limit getting to Jaina a whopping 5 days ago. The race started off as most people expected with Limit and Method way ahead of the competition. Exorsus, Future, Pieces, FatSharkYes, and a couple others steadily chugged along behind them. But it seems Jaina is not a boss to be reckoned with and it isn't just her difficulty. Apparently Jaina is littered with bugs. Method on stream mentioned Jaina was giving 4 additional Chilling Touch stacks during the Phase 1 transition. Outside of the bugs people are comparing Jaina to Archimonde in the sense that she will probably be a well over 500+ wipe count boss before she is taken down. To me, this is a good thing. It know that these guys get themselves insanely geared for progression and cut a lot of corners for advantages but it still sucks seeing raids cleared so fast. Make them insanely hard I say.

What about you? Do you think they should keep bosses at around 250-300 wipe counts or make the last boss insane?




Apex Legends

According to Nibellion's Twitter EA and Respawn Entertainment were dropping a F2P BR game set in the Titanfall universe called Apex Legends. “Described as a mix between Blackout and Siege”. EA has trademarked the name Apex Legends in late 2018. Playapex.com even links to EA's website. And BOOM. Geoff Keighley known as the Game Awards guy tweeted “Apex Legends incoming: Tomorrow after the #Superbowl the team @Respawn will be revealing its new battle royale game.” After this was tweeted all the sudden a ton of influencers started acknowledging the game's existence with the #ApexPartner hashtag. Names like Shroud, TSM Myth, TSM Hamlinz, CourageJD, and more. Since there has been leaks of the map and a teaser from the Apex Legends live stream.


Leak of Map

Teaser Gif

Teaser Gif 2

Teaser Gif 3

Teaser Gif 4

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Clips of the Week

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The most ghetto stream setup

Insane stream production

When she actually gets the microwave for you to see

Uhhh

Don't floss in Finland