I've decided to switch over to Wordpress. It's prettier, and I don't like the stupid URL I had made for this website too long ago. So I made an even stupider URL, and you should switch over to this site:
http://oftollsandrolls.wordpress.com
I've moved all the posts over there, and I won't be updating Blogger any longer. It's been a pleasure, Google, but your time has come. Later!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Pulling the rug out from under you
Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, developers of Stargate Worlds, fired their Community Manager this week. Their claim (which I believe) is that they wanted a CM who was local to the company. Now, I can completely understand that preference. Working in Seattle this summer allowed me to be so much more helpful than I could have been at home. And even now, back at school, it's much harder to stay in touch and keep up with everything that's going on around the office. But, what happened at CME is something very different. Because it is extremely hard on a community to take the CM who they've come to know and love, and throw them out for someone completely new.
I'm not like all the other forumgoers who claim that this will ruin the community, blah blah blah. But I do think that there is a balance through the development cycle of when taking away a CM can be beneficial, and when it turns harmful. CME didn't cross that line, I'm fairly certain. Yes, right now it sucks that we lost Katie, who everyone knows to be awesome and sweet and just fun all around. But I bet in a few months, or whenever the beta starts, we'll be just as happy as we were a few weeks ago.
However, try firing the CM right before launch. It's possible complete chaos will reign. Your community builds up this trusting rapport with the CM, and to have them lose that will also cause them to lose faith in the company a little. Yes, you can build it back up with someone new, as I'm sure CME will do, but it takes a lot of time and effort, during which many players might not be willing to put in everything they had been putting in. I know that I, personally, feel less compelled to help out on the forums, because I know Katie's not there to help out. I remember reading that some of the community helpers there wanted to quit in rage after hearing about it, but, thankfully, they all stayed on.
Anyways, point being, there's a balance there. I think CME will be fine from this occurrance, but other companies might not be so lucky.
PS. I need to watch the Star Wars trilogy again.
I'm not like all the other forumgoers who claim that this will ruin the community, blah blah blah. But I do think that there is a balance through the development cycle of when taking away a CM can be beneficial, and when it turns harmful. CME didn't cross that line, I'm fairly certain. Yes, right now it sucks that we lost Katie, who everyone knows to be awesome and sweet and just fun all around. But I bet in a few months, or whenever the beta starts, we'll be just as happy as we were a few weeks ago.
However, try firing the CM right before launch. It's possible complete chaos will reign. Your community builds up this trusting rapport with the CM, and to have them lose that will also cause them to lose faith in the company a little. Yes, you can build it back up with someone new, as I'm sure CME will do, but it takes a lot of time and effort, during which many players might not be willing to put in everything they had been putting in. I know that I, personally, feel less compelled to help out on the forums, because I know Katie's not there to help out. I remember reading that some of the community helpers there wanted to quit in rage after hearing about it, but, thankfully, they all stayed on.
Anyways, point being, there's a balance there. I think CME will be fine from this occurrance, but other companies might not be so lucky.
PS. I need to watch the Star Wars trilogy again.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Fringe
JJ Abrams's new show finally premiered this week. I wasn't caught up in all the hype about it, because as much as I love Lost, I think it's gotten way weird lately. I love it because I was in it from the beginning, back before it was crazy super weird. Fringe starts off with the weird, and plans to keep going, and I really have plenty of weird from Lost and Heroes combined. Anyways, I watched the Fringe pilot online yesterday just to see what it was like, and here are my thoughts.
It's not bad. It's got an interesting premise, and you do get a lot of the explanations you were interested in by the end of the episode. There's a nice twist in it which I sort of predicted, but all in all, it was a well-made episode. Though I do admit, I was extremely grossed out at the opening sequence.
My main anger stems from the blatant similarities between this and Lost. Let's see: Story starts with a plane. One actor crosses over from Lost to Fringe. The show's about psuedoscience (which sort of is what Dharma was looking at). The same guy does the music for both shows, and they sound extremely similar (complete with a crescendo into an abrupt silence before commercial). Oh, and the one passenger they pointed out dying: Passenger 108. I mean, really? You had to choose THAT number?
So, the show was fine. I'm not hooked, which is a very good thing, and I've basically decided I'll be happy enough letting the season run, then reading an entire synopsis of it next year to find out what happened. That'll be great.
In the meantime, here's the breakdown of shows I'm going to be watching this Fall:
Monday
8PM Chuck (starts 9/29)
9PM Heroes (starts 9/22)
Tuesday
10PM Eli Stone (starts 10/14)
Thursday
9PM The Office (starts 9/25)
9:30PM 30 Rock (starts 10/30)
Not too bad, I think.
It's not bad. It's got an interesting premise, and you do get a lot of the explanations you were interested in by the end of the episode. There's a nice twist in it which I sort of predicted, but all in all, it was a well-made episode. Though I do admit, I was extremely grossed out at the opening sequence.
My main anger stems from the blatant similarities between this and Lost. Let's see: Story starts with a plane. One actor crosses over from Lost to Fringe. The show's about psuedoscience (which sort of is what Dharma was looking at). The same guy does the music for both shows, and they sound extremely similar (complete with a crescendo into an abrupt silence before commercial). Oh, and the one passenger they pointed out dying: Passenger 108. I mean, really? You had to choose THAT number?
So, the show was fine. I'm not hooked, which is a very good thing, and I've basically decided I'll be happy enough letting the season run, then reading an entire synopsis of it next year to find out what happened. That'll be great.
In the meantime, here's the breakdown of shows I'm going to be watching this Fall:
Monday
8PM Chuck (starts 9/29)
9PM Heroes (starts 9/22)
Tuesday
10PM Eli Stone (starts 10/14)
Thursday
9PM The Office (starts 9/25)
9:30PM 30 Rock (starts 10/30)
Not too bad, I think.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
It's Amazing...
...what you can do with a little CSS. Check out Pirate's new website: http://www.burningsea.com. I know a lot of work went into it, but all the data remains unchanged, and it just looks ridiculously good compared to the old design. I really wish I was good at web design...
Sunday, September 07, 2008
A Moment of Your Time
Allow me to rant, yet again, for a minute.
Today, I gathered up the courage to jump into Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer mode. I always get scared the first time I play multiplayer, because I feel like I'm jumping into a pool where everyone's already been there for days, and I don't even know what the temperature's like. Weird metaphor. Anyways, I did it. The game itself was awesome. My first (and only) match I ended up playing with a developer of the game, which I only knew because I unlocked an achievement when I killed him.
On the other hand, however, I also had the unfortunate pleasure of playing with a 12-year-old. Let me be clear here. I am not an agist in any sense, mostly because when I was young, I enjoyed having conversations online with people older than me, since I could hold a coherent conversation. But when you're playing a game that is rated Mature, and not just any game, but Grand Theft Auto, you do NOT need to see a whiny 12-year-old yelling at you in his Texan accent, about how he had sex with your mother last week.
My rant is twofold here. First, obvioiusly, is how this kid got the game. I am very proud of the fact that when I worked at CompUSA, I was ALWAYS making sure the parent knew what game they were buying for their child. ALWAYS. And many times, after I explained that Game X was all about killing babies, the parents would look at me in shock (and gratitude), and tell their child there was no way in hell they'd be buying it for them. GameStop, from my experience, has been pretty good about that sort of thing as well. I'm 21, and they still carded me when I wanted to buy GTA. That's fine with me. I'm happy to do that. But what fucked up parents would let their child buy a game entitled "Grand Theft Auto"? If he wanted to buy a game called "Murder Children In Their Sleep", I bet mom and dad would happily hand over their wallets. Seriously. This is ridiculous.
My second rant is why ANY game allows for these kids to join in multiplayer, and just yell at you nonstop for 20 minutes. I'm not complaining about trash-talking. I just need a feature, like in Halo 3, to mute a person who is annoying me. It's very simple, and extremely necessary. I would've had the greatest gameplay experience today if it weren't for that young'un, and I searched around for a way to shut him up. Couldn't find anything. Developers, you need that feature. I'm afraid to play again, because I don't ever want to sit through eight people yelling at a child, and him yelling profane things back. It's just unacceptable.
We now return to our regularly scheduled program.
Today, I gathered up the courage to jump into Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer mode. I always get scared the first time I play multiplayer, because I feel like I'm jumping into a pool where everyone's already been there for days, and I don't even know what the temperature's like. Weird metaphor. Anyways, I did it. The game itself was awesome. My first (and only) match I ended up playing with a developer of the game, which I only knew because I unlocked an achievement when I killed him.
On the other hand, however, I also had the unfortunate pleasure of playing with a 12-year-old. Let me be clear here. I am not an agist in any sense, mostly because when I was young, I enjoyed having conversations online with people older than me, since I could hold a coherent conversation. But when you're playing a game that is rated Mature, and not just any game, but Grand Theft Auto, you do NOT need to see a whiny 12-year-old yelling at you in his Texan accent, about how he had sex with your mother last week.
My rant is twofold here. First, obvioiusly, is how this kid got the game. I am very proud of the fact that when I worked at CompUSA, I was ALWAYS making sure the parent knew what game they were buying for their child. ALWAYS. And many times, after I explained that Game X was all about killing babies, the parents would look at me in shock (and gratitude), and tell their child there was no way in hell they'd be buying it for them. GameStop, from my experience, has been pretty good about that sort of thing as well. I'm 21, and they still carded me when I wanted to buy GTA. That's fine with me. I'm happy to do that. But what fucked up parents would let their child buy a game entitled "Grand Theft Auto"? If he wanted to buy a game called "Murder Children In Their Sleep", I bet mom and dad would happily hand over their wallets. Seriously. This is ridiculous.
My second rant is why ANY game allows for these kids to join in multiplayer, and just yell at you nonstop for 20 minutes. I'm not complaining about trash-talking. I just need a feature, like in Halo 3, to mute a person who is annoying me. It's very simple, and extremely necessary. I would've had the greatest gameplay experience today if it weren't for that young'un, and I searched around for a way to shut him up. Couldn't find anything. Developers, you need that feature. I'm afraid to play again, because I don't ever want to sit through eight people yelling at a child, and him yelling profane things back. It's just unacceptable.
We now return to our regularly scheduled program.
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