selama libur kemarin, of course, i played monster hunter. that game will never die
sebagai testimony terhadap pernyataan tersebut, saya bertemu dengan seorang teman lama dari capcom-unity. we haven't seen each other in YEARS (let that sink in for a while... 2 tahun++ nggak ketemu seseorang, dan setelah saya pindah merantau, berkeluarga, punya anak, dsb, we both are still playing the sama game! kurang hebat gimana lagi coba?), and boy... she's every bit as good as i remembered she was.

kita decide untuk hunt alatreon. i decided to leave my trusted gun and picked up a hammer. she was hammering too.
kurang 5 minutes into the quest, masalah nongol: satu orang bilang "can i have cool drinks?". gw udah facepalm so hard, tangan gw tembus sampe kebelakang kepala. tadi pas sebelom hunt gayanya udah pada meyakinkan banget semua gak sampe semenit kemudian orang itu mati. respawn, terus gak tanpa lama2 & pake basa basi dulu, dia mati lagi. gw langsung ketik "stay base ", alias lu orang daripada nyusahin, mending diem ajalah di markas.
orang normal mungkin udah ragequit terus abandon, but that's not unity's way, so we keep on hammering.

and then i started to notice something: she's always swinging next to me.
dimanapun gw berdiri & mengayunkan itu hammer, there she was, swinging her hammer.
FYI buat yg gak tau: hammering ala was one of the hardest thing to do. window of opportunity nya sangat ketat. 95% of the time, kepalanya bakalan terlalu jauh diatas untuk dijangkau hammer.
karena jendela chance yg spesifik, ada kalanya kita masuk go in for the hit barengan. but nobody launch anybody, gk ada yg mental kena tabok hammer masing2 yg segede dosa itu. the accuracy level was no less than "surgical".



and i was smiling...



kapan terakhir kali agan main game, terus saking excitednya bibir sampe gerak sendiri ke posisi senyum?

it was friggin amazing. padahal posisinya udah 2 death, 1 kali lagi ada yg koit, quest failed. but we're absolutely DANCING through the quest.
gak sampe 15 menit, both skypiercers broken. goddamn both. u try that and tell me that it's easy.

hunter ketiga did okay. he kept his calm and didn't die, while still contributed some damage. gak lama kemudian, ala met his inevitable death.
that was more then awesome... that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the reason why i love videogames nonetheless.



ON THE OTHER HAND, i also played splatoon
of course i played splatoon, it was splatfest!

tapi pengalaman splatfest gw kali ini beda jauh dengan pengalaman splatfest pertama
i was changing teams over and over again, berkali2 dapet teammates yg cupu luar biasa. ada kalanya gw setim sama 3 orang lv 20, tapi dibantai HABIS sama tim lawan... like 20% vs 70% results. dan gw seringkali top position dari segi inking ground maupun splats. what kind of lv 20s are you people?!?! patient grinder yg kalah terus selama 20 level??

nevertheless, i carried waterslide team sampe gw mencapai waterslide king. gw udah cukup convinced bahwa waterslide akan kalah battlecount. gw cuma berharap team waterslide menang popularity contest dengan angka yg cukup... which didn't happen. akhirnya rollercoaster menang battlecount dengan angka yg teramat sangat telak, popularity waterslide nggak cukup untuk ngejar angka itu. congratulations team coaster, kalian para kings yg dapet 24 seasnails TOTALLY EARNED IT we team waterslide REALLY SUCKS

sambil ngitung my measly 18 waterslide king seasnails (it's a joke. i'm happy with 18 bahkan runner up di winning team hanya dapet 16 ), i started to evaluate: why did we suck so hard??
ternyata jawabannya adalah para masters. saat splatfest, para masters yg biasanya terasingkan di mode ranked battle pada turun gunung semua. ketemu dengan cupu2 pemain reguler turf war.

bahkan gw mencium adanya koalisi... pada beberapa jam terakhir splatfest, ketika rata2 orang yg melek splatoon sudah mencapai splatfest rank yg memuaskan (the kind of people who know splatfest schedule, and actually waiting for the event to come), dan orang2 di team waterslide sisa para lv 5,6,7, ato mentok2nya lv 12 - 16, tiba2 aja SEMUA lawan gw di tim coaster adalah 4 orang lv 20 yg gerakannya terorganisir. bisa jadi entah di sebuah forum entah dimana, beberapa ranked battle masters planned that: "hey, let's push through splatfest in the last hours, when all the competitions are already gone"

bisa jadi.



kita semua tau bahwa 4 player co-op adalah mode ideal dimana peran masing2 player bisa benar2 berada dibawah sorotan: if u're good, u WILL help the team. if u suck, most probably the team would hate u.

and i hate my waterslide teammates.
i'm sure that at a couple of my lowest, my teammates hate me.

nintendo NEED to get splatoon out of the "friendly - pick up and play - multiplayer" game.
kalo agan ke eshop page nya splatoon, banyak gamer sependapat dengan saya, dari pilihan:
- audience: everyone vs. gamer
- gameplay: casual vs. intense
mayoritas memilih splatoon sebagai game for EVERYONE dengan INTENSE gameplay. berarti walaupun semua orang bisa memainkannya, tapi ada mechanic yang cukup dalam untuk diexplore disitu.

mariokart8 saja yg sangat kompetitif di level turnamen, disepakati gamer untuk mencapatkan rating EVERYONE & CASUAL.
pada level quickrace, semua orang balap dengan fun, tidak ada konsekuensi nyata atas kekalahan, dan u don't hate anyone after the race -okay, u probably hate that one person who keep throwing red shells at u.

i gotta say that i'm not a big fan of that system. splatoon bukan mariokart8.
heavily randomized hub yg menjaga experience tetap kid-friendly, namun menghalangi player untuk semakin mengenal satu sama lain harus dikurangi.
no, i'm not saying that splatoon should be CoD dengan voicechat dan anak2 kecil bule annoying yg kerjanya nyumpah serapah mulu. but for god sake nintendo, give us that 8 friends match, dan 4 friends vs 4 friends options already.




weekend itu monster hunter mengingatkan & menegaskan kembali pada saya bahwa game memang bukan hanya tentang grafik seperti yg selalu diteriakkan fanboy PS4 & PC mustard rice. bahkan game bukan hanya tentang gameplay seperti yg selalu diteriakkan oleh fanboy nintendo. but game are also about the people you played it with.

it's about friendship. it's about knowing the person at the end of that other controller.
bukankah kita selalu berbagi second controller itu dengan teman dan saudara kita? we older brothers at the helm, with our little brother playing as luigi or tails on the second controller.

race mk8 dengan anak2 kaskus emang beda rasanya dengan random race sama bule. it's like u got something to prove. karena kita saling kenal diluar game, it's like we got something to say to each other -through gameplay!kena redshell dari bule sih biasa. tapi kalo kena redshell dari khidjoe, i could almost hear him laughing, and i will be like "ohhh, imma get ya bro. u just sit tight. imma get ya..."
"berkomunikasi" melalui gameplay itu emang sesuatu banget bro that was the next level, and it will always be the next level.