In Which Medicinal Warlock Writes Articles
For our 1600th post, Medicinal Warlock looked back at some of his favorite articles on our blog. It was a great little compilation of articles, but he didn’t include any of his own. Since he’s one of our most prolific contributors, I thought I’d highlight–in no particular order–some of my personal favorites of the many articles he’s submitted to the Daily SPUF!
This is my favorite of the articles Warlock has written about the TF2 cosmetics because it covers a lot of interesting ground about the cosmetic’s real-life counterpart and ties the hat into the history of Team Fortress 2. I never knew the Trophy Belt was the only cosmetic to get an HWM model, nor did I know that it appeared in Meet the Spy. The starting nine cosmetics have always held a special place in my heart because of their impact on TF2 and the gaming industry as a whole, not to mention the Prussian Picklehaube was my first and favorite cosmetic in TF2. Speaking of which…
This article expanded Warlock’s traditional formula by analyzing an entire spectrum of cosmetics, as opposed to focusing on one or two. It discusses the prevalence of Medic military cosmetics, something I never thought about before. It is rather odd how so many of Medic’s available outfits emphasize combat uniforms. Personally, I think the Prussian Pickelhaube is partially to blame, by setting the trend, much like the Pyro’s Beanie is responsible for so many Pyro cosmetics being goofy as opposed to fire-related. I also like how this article delved into Team Fortress Classic, linking its very combat-oriented Medic to the new trend.
Articles that list their favorite elements across many different games are a mainstay in most gaming blogs, but The Daily SPUF is surprisingly light on this sort of content. I’ve written a few articles comparing content from multiple games, and I was excited to see an article where Medicinal Warlock took the list format and covered a bunch of badass weapons. Like him, I love Just Cause 2 and Half Life 2, but I’d never played Serious Sam 3 or Painkiller before his articles recommended them, and I had a blast in each one.
I love Pokemon, so it was exciting to see somebody other than myself write an article dedicated to their favorite Pokemon. One of the greatest things about the franchise is how effectively it leads the player into forming bonds with their team, bonds that can last long after you’ve finished the game. The turn-based gameplay and rock-paper-scissors matchups create a combat system where individual Pokemon have crowning moments of awesome but the victory belongs to the entire team, and Warlock’s article shows how much of an influence a bundle of cute pixels can have on a player’s life. I also appreciated learning we both have plushies of our favorite ones! Outside the mainstream games, Arcanine is a flagship species in Pokemon GO, due to its pre-evolutionary form being the most common fire type in the world. I have two that I regularly use to assault any Exeggutor or Venusaur defending gyms.
And finally, an article that covers two of my favorite topics in gaming: nudity and the infamous shooter Loadout. Loadout is the Richard Nixon of shooters; it did amazing things, it did terrible things, and it removed itself from the industry after public opinion turned against it. At the time it was one of my favorite shooters due to its weapon customization system, but Warlock covers a few elements of the artstyle that I’d never duly considered, such as the gore system. Loadout was one of the most gruesome shooters out there, especially when it’s not a horror game, and the player characters got really badly maimed throughout the course of a match, and it’s a testament that they managed to make the game cartoony enough that this wasn’t off-putting.
One of the only upsides to SPUF’s untimely death and the community’s forced migration to SPUFPowered was that Medicinal Warlock finally got to create an account and converse with the rest of us in a forum environment. He’s been announcing new articles in the Daily SPUF thread and it’s been great to get to talk to him on a more conversational basis. Thanks for being a dedicated a frequent contributor to the blog, Medicinal Warlock!