one better

To avoid the direction my blog is headed – a twitter repository – I thought I’d add a new post.

This weekend I wanted to move all my content between an old Xbox 360 & a new Elite Xbox 360.  At first I thought this would be easy…  Essentially I’m transferring data between to PC’s.  And what’s this?  They both have USB ports?  The plan formulated quickly…  Just get a USB cable and attach the two Xbox’s together.

I was wrong (also a great Social Distortion song).

There’s a special Xbox 360 Hard Data Transfer Cable.  Of course there is.  And it’s ONLY $20.  Only.  When a USB cable transfer method (which it appears this mostly is) would have been free.

So – first complaint – that’s all sorts of lame.  Thanks Microsoft.  For nothing.

Second complaint – and I’m not sure who to blame this on – is DRM.  Since I’m not paying for a transfer kit I’d only use once, I used my memory card to transfer over ALL my save data.  There were several gigs so this probably took about half an hour.  Which is fine, I saved $20.

The problem came when I was trying to move my DANTE’s INFERNO save from my hard drive to my memory card.  And I could not.  It tells me I can not transfer data from one storage device to another.  Even though I’m signed in with my account (I realize that portion of DRM might make sense).

I don’t know which company’s fault this is…  Either way, even though I paid money for BOTH products, I cannot move my data around.  So it really doesn’t matter where the fault is – it really doesn’t.  I’d LOVE to not be sold software and hardware that cripples simple tasks like that.

In the end I had to boot up the game and then select a save from the hard drive.  I then was able to create a new save on the memory unit.  But guess what?!?  I’ll then have to launch the game, select the save game from the memory unit and then save a new game onto the hard drive.

Awesome.

Way to go everyone.

iTampon is trending ahead of #apple right now.

shouldn't that be iPad?

The internet triumphs even over the best marketing in the world.

MadTV called this over 2 years ago.

Somewhere a marketing executive is reconsidering pushing for this name.

It wasn’t that difficult.  I just stopped clicking on the icon in my quick launch bar.

The reason behind my quitting is simple.  The game doesn’t end, it doesn’t progress, it doesn’t have a compelling storyline.  For awhile it was fun to see how many levels I could progress through – to try and catch my friends.  But once I got into the 125-130+ range, the fun just stopped.  So now the game sits at my current level:

I know the revelation that nothing happens in the game  & that it doesn’t progress are not earth shattering.  In fact I knew that going into it.  For that matter I’m impressed that millions of other people have played & will play [progress] much farther than I will.

The game makes money & people want to play it.  Good for them.  I quit.

My Girl.

I’ve been playing a lot of Borderlands lately.  I really like it – but there’s one big issue I see with it.  Multiplayer is effed unless you and the people you’re playing with are all at the same level.  Here’s why…

First – you cannot complete any main missions if the party leader is a higher level than you.  This makes sense since the game is very linear – there’s a story you have to follow.  The only way this could have been different is to make a more GTA-style storyline, and then we’d be left with a very different gameplay experience.

Second – and this is really the game design choice that grinds my gears…  If I join a friend who’s a higher level – say 5-6 levels – than me, the following things happen:

1. My weapons do little or no damage against most enemies.
2. One hit will at best drop my shield & the majority of my health & at worst drop me to a second chance.

Those two issues alone make it almost impossible to have an enjoyable experience online in a party of mixed levels.  The above mentioned things happen because the game ups the difficulty of enemies when there are multiple players.  This is compounded by the fact that Borderlands makes enemies that are outside a certain level impossible to kill regardless of your level.  This means that if you run across an enemy, even by accident, and when you have it in your cross-hairs, a skull appears, you better haul your ass out of there – because you cannot kill it.

All of these design choices (with the exception of the enemy difficulty) make sense from a design standpoint when taken individually.  Unfortunately, when combined, and put in a real world situation where not everyone  progresses through the game at the same speed they make the online experience not nearly as enjoyable as it could have been.  That said, I understand why the choices were made the way they did.  The game could have just been that much more.

Picture from (ign.com)

Not fun.

Why?

Hardly anyone I know has an invite.

Also – it’s a separate e-mail address.

And – it only works if both people have it.

So – why would I give someone my wave address?

It’s like having a new electronic toy – without batteries to make it work.

This is an interesting point regardless of your thoughts on Health Care.  It is  posted in the comment thread for this article on Digg.

Surprisingly – not posted on the Huffington Post.  It shows the countries that have universal health care – provided, most likely – by US war funding.  I did just enough research – I actually read part of the Iraqi Constitution.

Article 30

First: The State shall guarantee to the individual and the family – especially
children and women – social and health security, the basic requirements for living
a free and decent life, and shall secure for them suitable income and appropriate
housing.

Health Care.  Also, sounds a little socialist to me.  It’s hard to be sure since a TV Pundit hasn’t yelled this at me yet.

Second: The State shall guarantee social and health security to Iraqis in cases of
old age, sickness, employment disability, homelessness, orphanhood, or
unemployment, shall work to protect them from ignorance, fear and poverty, and
shall provide them housing and special programs of care and rehabilitation, and
this shall be regulated by law.

MediCare.  I want protection from ignorance too.   Does that mean education?  Or just a constant, quality propaganda machine telling them to stay calm & carry on.

Article 31

First: Every citizen has the right to health care. The State shall maintain public
health and provide the means of prevention and treatment by building different
types of hospitals and health institutions.

That was easy.

And what do we get?

The following (also via Digg.)

LMFAO

While driving down El Camino this morning, I passed this pillar of intellectal discourse…

That's some great layout, Lou.

I don’t care if he’s for or against Universal Heathcare.  Though I will say it’s – to me – curious that a general contractor, who may pay for his worker’s healthcare, is against this.   But I digress…

My REAL problem with him is the MAO picture he’s got going on.  A quick search of JUST WIKIPEDIA – not even a real historical book – it appears MAO NEVER – EVER – provided Universal Healthcare.   He did provide a massive famine as part of the Great Leap Forward – but I doubt this guy is implying Obama will create a famine.  Or is he?  MAO – in China – according to Wikipedia:

… is officially held in high regard in China where he is known as a great revolutionary, political strategist, military mastermind, and savior of the nation.

So, as you can imagine, I’m confused as to what this guy is trying to insinuate with his banner.

People like this pollute the discourse.  It’s fine he doesn’t want Universal Healthcare – though I’d wager a lot of money he’ll EXPECT Medicare someday. In the meantime, quit being such a dumbass.

Thanks,

The rest of us who actually thought this all through.
PS. Is that an original design?  Or can I download the pattern of the internets & take it to my neighborhood Kinko’s and have them whip that up?

PPS.  Pretty sure Communist color is RED not ORANGE.

Tim Roth could see right through this promotion.

While I was reading KOTAKU I came across this GEM of an idea from SONY San Diego.  They are offering the CHANCE – the OPPORTUNITY – to work on (SONY’s words) the most highly anticipated games in the industry. As a CONTRACT QA tester.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with game testing.  Here are the qualifications for this position.

1. You must be alive.

Simple right?

Typically these contract positions last from 3-6 months.  There are NO BENEFITS, at best $12/hr pay rate, & the pleasure of doing THANKLESS WORK.  In case you’re unfamiliar with what game QA involves…

You’re doing the SAME EFFING THING for 8-12 hrs a day.  And that thing is playing a game in some state of completion.  Usually it’s a game you don’t want to be playing.  And if it is something you’re interested in, you WILL NOT CARE about this game after you’re done testing it.

So that’s the PRIZE.

DAMN GIRL.  Give me some of that!

*I should point out I got into games as a QA tester.  That path works.  But to put a QA job on a pedestal is really giving a false sense of AWESOMENESS to it.

Hey Internets.

It seems Tiger 10 has some issues when chipping from the lip of a deep bunker.  It appears there are only animations for characters to stand on a FLAT SURFACE.

I can’t stop playing…

Well, that’s not entirely true…

At level 32 the fun for me has started to ebb.  It’s not that the gameplay has changed – it hasn’t.  It’s not that it’s even any less addictive.  What has changed is how obvious the lack of balanced gameplay is…

There’s ONE HUGE AREA that I think needs to be reexamined from the ground up.

MAFIA SIZE

Now I get this from a marketing position.  By constantly offering RARE items & other power-ups to Mafia’s that ALWAYS seem to be 1-3 members above where I am – the game is trying to encourage me to get my other friends who are not playing to get in on it.  I get it – it’s trying to  spread like a VIRUS.   Now that mechanic is established here’s why it SUCKS…

I don’t have very many friends.  I have even fewer friends who play Mafia Wars.  So my little MAFIA of 19 has hard time competing with any mafia with even 2-3 more people in it.  So while I may be evenly matched from a LEVEL perspective with MANY other players – that number is ultimately TRUMPED by the size of the Mafia.

Again – I get this too.  There’s an ATTACK/DEFENSE bonus that’s built into MAFIA SIZE.  But – there’s is NO APPARENT level restrictions or mafia size restrictions when attacking people.  What this ultimately leads to is that with VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS I will always – ALWAYS – attack someone lower than me.  Both in LEVEL & MAFIA SIZE.  I’ve also noticed this happens to me when I’m attacked.  It’s almost ALWAYS someone from higher level & bigger Mafia.

Ultimately this mechanic is a COLOSSAL FAILURE from a game balance perspective.  The ONLY reason for this mechanic’s existence is to grow the amount of people playing the game.  Otherwise I cannot imagine a designer would not think – WAIT – this. does. not. work.

That’s all.  Mafia size being tied to ATTACK/DEFENSE stats creates unbalance problems that make the game less & less fun the higher I get with a SMALL mafia.