A Tale of Two City of Heroes

Over at The Corporation (the link’s over there, lazy ass), some guy named Jiffy had gotten a letter from NCsoft about his City of Heroes CD key … it’s a dupe. So NCsoft wants Jiffy to jump through a bunch of hoops to prove he is the rightful owner and the “other guy” is the duper. Or NCsoft is the duper.

Which brings me to my Short List for Dealing with Game Companies:

1. Take it to the mattresses. Actually, the rule is “Take it to the phones”, but I like to throw in a Godfather reference whenever I can. People at work don’t like to be bothered by phone calls; I’ve been known to feign hysterical deafness so I don’t have to answer. Using the phone is the closest you will get to being “in their face”, so unless you’re willing to fly out to their offices (and if you are, seek help — you’re a catass), use the phones.

2. If the Game Company is unwilling to resolve an issue to your satisfaction, have them cut you a check for the box price + subscription fees paid to date. Until they’re willing to do that, you’re not going away.

3. I’m not jumping through hoops, so just send the fucking check already. Takes less of my time to make phone calls than to paw through boxes of receipts. (Hint: takes them less time to make YOU jump through hoops than to resolve issues on their end. See the “game” they’re trying to play?)

I think Game Companies get away with this shit because a large portion of their player base are children that are intimidated by threats of character deletions and the FBI crawling up their ass with a microscope.

Not me, I can be bought. And my price is box price + subscription fees.

Betas for the Unwashed Masses

A couple of games went open beta recently: Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War and Outpost. Both seem to be that Age of Empires in a military setting genre. WFE, if I can’t catass my way to loots and max level, I ain’t doing it. And by catass, I mean macro while I’m AFK and doing something I’d actually ENJOY.

Other news, A Tale in the Desert II is in development phase now. Trust me on this, fucking flee now and don’t even bother. I’ve been to this pit of hell, there was much gnashing of my teeth. Quoting from Betawatcher, “A Tale in the Desert continues with A Tale in the Desert II with an updated road system and better graphics.” Updating the “road system” is for losers; put in teleportation, for crissakes.

I’d rant more about MMOG travel systems and what a bunch of bullshit it usually always is, but I’m on my last cup of coffee. And that might get ugly.

Leave Nothing, Not Even Footprints

I ran across a couple of interesting websites while having coffee this morning. It was one of those “google for computer+speaker+lawnmower+Tahiti, end up in someone’s virtual living room” things.

The first is a blog focused on Spouses/Significant Others of EQ Players, and the other is a message board of a recovery program for addicted MMOG players. I skimmed a few of the posts and articles … holy f’ing shit, what a wasteland has been wrought!

At first, I thought permanent links over that way might be a good addition to my page: anti-game sentiment, stories of gamebags doing bad things, etc. Then I realized that these were people that had been destroyed by assclowns. Their former lives are smoldering ruins, for crissakes. Even the assclowns are candidly confessing their sins and transgressions.

Fuck, I can’t make fun of that. These are broken people trying to piece it all back together. My issue is with dumass games and their creators, not with players that have been ground to a pulp in the cogs. I poked around a bit, then backed out as quietly as I had arrived. I left no comment or email.

Beware the ides of March, Caesar. Beware.