early-adopter
Latest
The Repopulation needs you!
The folks at Above and Beyond Technologies are done playing jokes on you for April Fools' Day and are ready to show off their for-real content update for The Repopulation. Coming off of the player feedback at PAX East, the studio aims to increase its tester base and improve communication with all alpha testers. This will help the team achieve their beta window later this spring and shoot for a better playable demo at PAX Prime in August. Be sure to check out the extensive update notes for the latest alpha build as well as more info on how to become an early adopter.
The Daily Grind: Will you be playing Guild Wars 2?
By now I'm sure you've heard the announcement that Guild Wars 2 will launch on August 28th, 2012. With pre-purchase incentives already in place, many of the franchise's most hardcore fans have been participating in the beta weekends and are anxiously awaiting the headstart that will begin on August 25th. But not every MMO fan is 100% convinced that this will be the second coming. We've heard from several of you who will be either skipping the game entirely or simply waiting a few months until the newness wears off and the bugs are squashed. So how about you? Will you be playing Guild Wars 2 from day one? From the pre-purchase headstart? Maybe four months later? Let us know in the comments! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Early adopters penalized $85 for sticking with AT&T
So we're hanging around in the TUAW back room, drinking coffee and comparing iPhone 4S war stories when I point out that I could have saved a bit of cash by cancelling AT&T and hopping over to Verizon. AT&T penalizes many of its first-day-iPhone 4 customers by $250 for buying the first-day iPhone 4S. Verizon and Sprint do not. If you stood on line to buy your AT&T iPhone 4, your current cancellation penalty (your ETF) is likely to hover around $165 unless you're a preferred customer. (You can calculate that value over at Wolfram Alpha.) That's a good deal less than the $250 AT&T will add to the base price of their units. Loyal first day iPhone 4 AT&T customers are being penalized by about $85 for sticking with AT&T and not canceling and moving to Verizon. So Steve and Megs encouraged me to contact AT&T and see if they would do anything for me as a loyal (albeit somewhat unwilling) customer. I called up 611 on my iPhone, and went through the whole range of robots until being put on hold for about 45 minutes. Finally, a human picked up. After being transferred to someone who handled this kind of matter, I was told in no kind terms that no, AT&T would not make any adjustments. Their reply was along these lines: Even if it were cheaper to dump us and go to Verizon, you didn't so we will not make any adjustments. Harsh but realistic. So if you didn't stay up all night and place your order as I did, let me give you a few recommendations. First, call their sales department and make your case before placing any orders. Second, be willing to walk away from any call and try again. As Chris Anderson pointed out to me, a lot of this may depend on who you talk to. "Just keep trying," he suggests. "You'll get help eventually." That extra $85 would have been welcome but right now, I don't have the time. I have kids I have to take care of and work to do. If you do pursue this for yourself, and have any luck, do let me know. Drop a note to the tip line or leave a note in the comments. TUAW contacted AT&T for a statement on this post. Spokesperson Seth Bloom replied, Existing iPhone customers who are upgrade eligible will qualify for our best pricing now ... and of course many will qualify in the near future if they don't today. We want to help customers upgrade to a new device as quickly as possible - exact timing can depend on several factors unique to each account (length of contract, payment history, etc.). More details here.
Report: Wife says no, Apple says yes to iPad 2
The folks over at MacRumors heard a story that's unsourced and most likely apocryphal, but it's just too good to not share. According to "an individual close to Apple," the company in Cupertino has been going over iPad 2 returns in order to keep track of various problems with the new tablet, and among the returns was one affixed with just a little Post-it note saying something every would-be early tech adopter husband will probably understand: "Wife says no." Supposedly, the return was sent up the corporate lines as something funny, and as MacRumors says, "two of the VPs got wind of it." They decided to do something nice for the guy and reportedly sent him out a free iPad 2, along with their own note: "Apple says yes." Very cute. We've contacted Apple to see if there's any truth to this one, and we'll let you know if we hear back. Urban legend or not, it's a great story.
A Question of Quality...
I do indeed have a Three Month Rule. It isn't a staggeringly complex philosophy, and very literally means that I just wait for at least three months after the launch of an MMO, before even contemplating taking the plunge myself. It wasn't always this way mind you, and once I was a very keen early adopter, filling in beta applications with the rest and generally working myself up into a right old frenzy at the merest mention of something new and something shiny.Part of my current caution is definitely personal cynicism and a certain jaded worlds-weariness, but by no means all of it, and in many ways the Three Month Rule is very much a product of the MMOs themselves, a reaction to a regrettably lengthy succession of rushed and incomplete titles, often lurching out the door in a state of startled undress. Does the oft-repeated phrase 'It's an MMO, they're always like this' hold any water, or is there something fundamentally amiss with testing as we know it, when applied to the MMO?
The Daily Grind: Are you an early adopter?
When the hype begins a new MMO, it's hard not to get excited. Of course many of us veteran MMO players still have a chip on our shoulders from closed or changed games that leave us more than a bit ... dare we say jaded?With the increasing bonuses offered with a pre-order -- such as early beta access, in-game goodies or physical keepsakes -- being the early adopter can pay off with the right game. It can also bite you in the proverbial butt if the game turns out to be a flop. So we're curious about your adopting style. Have you pre-ordered a game in the past, and vow to never make that mistake again? Do you always pre-order and have never regretted it? Or do you implement a personal buffer zone for new games, much like Van Hemlock (our very own Tim Dale) and his infamous three month rule? Let us know!
Poll: Are you happy being a Blu-ray early adopter?
Even with some Blu-ray players checking in below $200, we'd still argue that those jumping ship to BD are early adopters. Or, at least some of the earliest. All things considered, are you happy with your decision to step up and support Blu? Do you now think upscaled DVD would've been enough? Do you wish you had jumped earlier? We reckon future success has a lot to do with how jovial existing supporters are, so we'll be interested to hear your opinions. Fire away! %Poll-26302%
So, what are you HD DVD early adopters going to do?
It didn't take too terribly long after Warner chose Blu-ray as its new best friend for every single wagon wheel to fall of the HD DVD carriage, and now that the funeral has been set, we're quite curious as to what the HD DVD early adopters plan on doing. Head over to Engadget HD and let your voice be heard -- even if it's but a whimper.
Poll: So, what are you HD DVD early adopters going to do?
Time to face the music, dear HD DVD fans. The red format is officially dead, and unless HD VMD makes an unprecedented run here in the next few weeks, we've all ideas that Blu-ray will take the throne in the high-definition disc war. That being said, we know there are hordes of folks out there now stuck with an HD DVD player -- not to mention the corresponding media -- that is quickly becoming a tainted collector's item. So, what are you to do? Move on and side with the Blu camp? Revolt and pick up a VUDU? We know it's a touchy subject, so feel free to let loose in comments below. %Poll-9774%
