On Pre-ordering and the like...

As many of you know, I have a special place in my heart for gaming companies, but as of the last few years, I've being getting more and more disillusioned with the whole getup. There's the problems with the premise, the lack of quality in some areas(Although graphics seems to be uncompromising), and such... but there's one thing that gets me more then all of these: Pre-ordering.

Let me explain. Pre-ordering is one of those funny ducks when it comes to games, that I feel conflicted about. For large companies like Electronic Arts, it's evil, plain and simple. Usually these games are offered at a 20$ premium to thier standard price, and the extra content is... sad, at best. For a small company, I could understand how if you're struggling to get the resources off the ground(Like Mojang), it's vital... but when your game already has a multi-million dollar development budget, it's small beans... it's almost to the point of exploitation of the gaming public.

Let's look at a case example: Fallout New Vegas. I admit, I like to pick on this game for various reasons, some of them founded, some of them not. One of the boggest things I hate is the pre-order bundle. It's basically a cheat: You get one of five sets with your purchase that makes the early game drastically easier. For the same cost of the pre-order bundle, you can buy all five for the cost of what it would have sold for on pre-order on Live Marketplace.

It's things like this that make it seem like the companies are more serving their board of directors then their customers. I hope they all start to shape up.

A Troubling Trend...

I've been noticing a troubling trend in customer service lately, and I thought I'd blog about it here. It seems to be spreading to all sectors, but I find it most prevelent in the Online Games Sector. I call it the "We Do Whatever We Want" Syndrome, and it has some troubling implications  for the future of consumers everywhere.

It seems that a number of years ago, a near and dear company to my heart, Blizzard Entertainment, discovered that there may be potentially problems to their aging data centers. The easiest and simplest quick fix, in their eyes, was to amend the terms of use for their most played game, World of Warcraft. In short, the amendment made it so that they were not required to reimburse the player for any lost time in the game due to technical problems, or any problems of the type. This is from the Terms of Use document on the site:

THE GAME AND THE SERVICE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, AND BLIZZARD DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE GAME OR THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE GAME OR THE SERVICE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. BLIZZARD EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. 

Take a minute and read that over. It, in a nutshell, says that any warranties, stated or implied (Most provinces and states require sellers to have a 30, 60, or 90 day warranty period, with receipt of purchase) for malfunction or defect in the product. (Fun fact: This is the one way to get out of a cell phone contract; have a problem with the phone within 30 days.)

This is more of a global problem with gaming companies. Some game companies, like Kingdom of Loathing, don't have the active number of staff members needed to police the problems that arise from thier games, and as such, I have a personal patience for their responses, as most people who play their games do. Then there are other companies like Dovo Games.

It's cruel, but I have no respect for Dovo Games. Their techs are usually slow to respond, and don't respond with troubleshooting problems. Heck, this is the usual response from them:

Dear ******, we have filed your words and will submit to the related department for further check. Thank you so much for your support and patience. Wish you good luck.

This is not good customer service. It may be cruel, but I would rather have the guy who is fixing the problem respond to me rather then some automated "it's being dealt with" message. It's the same message that seems to happen every time, and I get angrier every time I see it. it makes me not want to submit bug reports, and instead exploit, exploit, exploit.

It seems like it's going to take a big case to get everyone back on track, and boy, I hope I'm not part of it.

Pockie Ninja - Basics - Simple Leveling Tips

Pockie Ninja, like many other browser based games of the type, is a grind fest. There are few easy ways to earn XP, and those that you have are either dangerous, expensive, or both. I thought I'd write a simple guide to help people along who struggle with the low levels.

#1. Complete your quests

It's a simple truth of all games like this that quests give amssivly out of proportion floods of xp, versus what one would normally get from grinding. When you have a quest avalible, do it.

#2. Save those gift cupons

There are many things that one can spend gift cupons on, but the one thing that I seem to find gives the most bang is HP/Chakra carier bags. It works in Los Noches, which saves a tonne of trouble, and it means that you can easily join groups of players with far faster computers for Slots, which seems to give a large proportion of good equipment rewards.

#3. Get apprentices

A junior player with two apprentices can net over 8000 xp a day without even playing, and one who maximises thier availible apprentices can walk away with a extra 10,000 Xp. Something simple to think about.

#4. Use xp maks and fresh beer

Fresh beer(+1.25% xp) and xp marks(varies) are a essential to any slots group or monster grind. It dosen't seem like much at first, but the extra 100 or so xp per battle really adds up in the end.

#5. Level and equip your pet.

High skilled pets can be the difference between life and death in some matches, so make sure you have one with at least one attack skill equipped. I run a potato normally with suppression(stun + attack) and block on, and it has saved my butt more times then I can count. Higher skill = tougher monsters, more xp.

#6. ALWAYS do Los Noches.

Los Noches is simply pure xp. You don't get bonuses, but it also dosen't take movement power, and seems to be able to generate 1/10th of what you need to level up each day. It's worth it. Note: XP marks do not work in Los Noches.

#7. Always do Valhala

Even if you have to run the intro course, always do val. The items, xp and stones make it one of the best areas in the game to farm, and you will never, ever regret doing a instance.

#8. Run slots at least once a day

It's a silly thing and the xp is not worth it, but there are great rewards hidden...

Pockie Ninja - Basics - Synthesizing

I thought I'd whip up a quick article about synthesizing, as this seems to be a question asked over and over on the game chat system.

Synthesizing in Pockie Ninja all goes about with the item value. Each item has it's own value rating, on a scale of 1 to 70. To understand the pure basics, this is a good general rule-

Tier 1(Grey suits and items) + 30 + 30 = Tier 2(Blue suit/item)
Tier 2(blue suits and 2 enchantment items) + 30 + 40 = Tier 3(orange suit/item)

Alright, that seems pretty simple... what's all this about 2s, 3s, 4s then?

#s is just a simple abreviation for the number of enchantments a item has. For example, if you have a sword that gives + 20 agility and +2% speed, it's a 2s sword.

So what about 2s and 3s recipies?

I... don't really like using enhanced equipment by it's enchantment rating. The synth rating is a much more even gague of what you're going to get.

Alright, I have a tier 2 suit, but it's not the one I want. What do I do?

Simple. If you synth a blue, orange or grey suit with 2 1s items as catalysts you will get a item of the same tier 100% of the time.

Dwarfishness - Fortress Planning

Well, I thought I'd write a small post on fortress design...

As most of you know, I'm a feverent fan of dwarf fortress. I love the design abilities, and engeneering traps for my enemies. At times, I try and provoke the elves and the dwarves to attack early, just to start driving them through some of my setups.

Here's my generic main gate design. I build my entrances on flat ground in contrast to most dwarf fortress designers, who build thier fortress on mountainsides. It takes more effort to begin with, but it makes it easier to direct enemies to where you want them. I also always give the enemy at least two controlled options to enter my fortress, and different gate mechanisms to control the options available.

This is my medical tower and jail. I place these off to the side, and in a fully contained area that can only be accessed from sublevel 3. This has two purposes... firstly, this means that I can keep my prisoners near medical facilities, just in case. The second thing this means is that I can do this:

Added security, let's just say...

The final steps I add is a gate on each side(north, south, east and west), a large perimeter wall, a elevated entry walkway and a Hydra Lock. The theory behind the hydra lock is simple -- If I have any people escape he main bulk of my traps, I pull a lever and my main fortress is sealed off, and that entry way, the outer ring, is completely filled with water, drowning all opposition. The main part of this is easy, resettable traps... I'll work out a post on my Hydra Lock system next... it's simple, easy to control and makes defense easy.