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David Pogue and his 'Take Back the Beep' campaign
David Pogue, who writes on tech for the New York Times had an interesting and thoughtful column yesterday. He's been complaining about the ridiculously long messages the cellular carriers stick on to the end of your voicemail message. He's right, too. But what I hadn't realized was that these incessant and long messages add to your air time and are bringing in millions of dollars of extra, and unearned revenue to the cellphone providers. Here's a sample from the column of how, instead of a simple beep, the phone companies game the system to add to your minutes: * Sprint: "[Phone number] is not available right now. Please leave a detailed message after the tone. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press pound for more options." * Verizon: "At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options. To leave a callback number, press 5. (Beep)" * AT&T: "To page this person, press five now. At the tone, please record your message. When you are finished, you may hang up, or press one for more options." * T-Mobile: "Record your message after the tone. To send a numeric page, press five. When you are finished recording, hang up, or for delivery options, press pound." It would be nice to be able to turn this stuff off, but it really isn't possible. There is one nice surprise in all this bad news. When Apple made the deal with AT&T, Apple insisted these messages not be on iPhone voice mail. When you call me you get MY message, and a beep. Just like that. No "dial 2 for the temperature in Des Moines" or "touch the pound key three times quickly, pause and one more click to get customer service if you are north of latitude 40 degrees." This is an example of something Apple and AT&T did that actually benefited iPhone owners, especially given all the latest circus with Skype, SlingPlayer, and Google. Pogue has this exactly right. Cellphone users should complain to high heaven about these rather egregious violations of common sense and just plain smart customer relations. iPhone owners got off easy with voice mail. But we're bearing a heavy load as Apple and AT&T try to outdo each other in alienating their customers. There oughta be a law.
Palm complains about Apple to USB governing body, while Pre / iTunes sync "fix" is explained
You should be refilling that popcorn bucket right about now. While we thought the next round of the Pre / iTunes syncing fiasco would probably be something simple like Apple releasing another quick patch, Palm has stepped it up a notch by complaining to the USB Implementers Forum over what it sees is "improper use of the Vendor ID number" by the gang at Cupertino. What the company means is that when an ID is applied for, a form is signed that states:"Unauthorized use of assigned or unassigned USB Vendor ID Numbers and associated Product ID Numbers are strictly prohibited." The implication here is that Palm believes Apple is violating this stature by disallowing certain Vendor IDs -- namely, Palm's -- from using iTunes. So how'd Palm manage to "fix" that syncing hole Apple managed to fill? From the looks of it, by misrepresenting its own Vendor ID, so that the Pre now shows up as a iPod / mass storage device made by Apple (ID 0x05ac) as opposed to one by Palm (ID 0x083) -- hence the complaint. Of course, lying about your own ID would seem to break with the aforementioned rule, too, so what we're left here is some muddled grey area and Palm apparently being okay with fudging some data to correct what it sees is an injustice. If anyone's curious, DVD Jon points out that the root USB Node is still identified as "Pre," so we very likely could see another round of these shenanigans in the not-too-distant future.Finally, now's as good of a time as any to take a look at some of the peripheral casualties from this war of attrition. In an essay on his personal site that's been circulating the interwebs, Marc Deslauriers outlines the pangs he and the Linux community have felt over the years trying to use iPods on the open source platform, surmising that Apple is intentionally and repeatedly seeking ways to block non-iTunes programs from syncing in any way with its devices. This story is far from over, and as ugly as it looks now, it's probably only gonna get worse.[Via Digg and Pre Central]Read - Marc Deslauriers, "Goodbye Apple"Read - Palm's lodges complaint with USB IFRead - USB Vendor ID applicationRead - Palm Pre USB hack confirmed
Valve updates Team Fortress 2 for fairness, community responds
When Valve introduced the first four class updates to Team Fortress 2, an achievement system was used to help unlock new weapons and items. According to Valve, that system did not work as intended. In the end, instead of playing the game toward fun and rewarding goals, hardcore players would grind achievements to unlock the game's latest weaponry. At the time, users complained the achievement system was changing the landscape of Team Fortress 2's online community -- mostly because some of the achievements were so difficult to acquire regularly.In response, Valve has changed the new weapon system with the latest update (Spy & Sniper). In the new system, Team Fortress 2 utilizes Valve's Steam Cloud, automatically rewarding players new weaponry and items previously only attainable through completing achievement related tasks.According to Valve, the new system is designed to reward gamers based on how long they play Team Fortress 2. Play more, get more. But according to the game's forums -- and multiple emails to Joystiq -- some players are unhappy with the changes.
Dealing with temporary changes in-game
Larisa's got a good rant about something I've considered before in a slightly different context: players aren't very good at anticipating how temporary game changes will work out. We, as a group (not individually necessarily), are quite quick to judgment when we see changes to the game, and the word Larisa uses is "conservatism" -- she notes the examples of the reaction to the zombie outbreak and the Children's Week batleground issues, and says that players "tossed the gift away, like spoiled kids." We (again, in general, not you specifically) have a very short view of how temporary changes will affect the game, lambast Blizzard for changing what didn't need to be changed, and very often, when the dust settles and the zombies are gone or the event is over, we realize that it wasn't so bad after all.She's not talking about class changes here -- those are more permanent changes that affect the basic rules of the game. But specifically with temporary events (I'd even throw the Brewfest controversies, and the Headless Horseman complaints in the mix), players sometimes have reactions that are way out of proportion to the events themselves. These holidays and world events are temporary: shouldn't we just enjoy them while we can?It's definitely a valid point, and something to remember for the next time a temporary event throws off your usual routine in-game. The fact is that we players are spoiled -- Blizzard generally does a great job keeping this game fun, and so when even a little issue sneaks into the game during a temporary event. But Larisa promises that next time she gets shaken up by a temporary change, she'll give it another chance. Sounds like a great idea to me.
Blizzard gets an F at the Better Business Bureau
Looks like quite a few of those players who threatened to complain about Blizzard ended up doing so: over on the local Better Business Bureau website for Blizzard's region, our favorite game developer has earned an F. The BBB says that they've been given this rating "for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law's licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company's industry is known for its fraudulent business practices." Ouch. We don't really know that any of those things are true about Blizzard's way of doing business, but there are certainly many people on the forums every day who claim that the first two especially are major issues.Personally, I'm as big a critic of Blizzard as anyone when I think that there's something to complain about, but this rating hardly seems justified -- even if the BBB has received tens of thousands of complaints, that's still just a small portion of the playerbase. And despite the occasional downtime and various class nerfs, they hardly deserve an F rating, especially when a company that many people really do have issues with is riding along with an A rating. The BBB page also says that Blizzard's mass bannings have been a factor in many complaints -- there is probably no distinction made (or that can be made) in terms of complaints between people who have broken the ToS and people who have not.At any rate, even if the F rating is there, it obviously has very little effect on Blizzard's business -- how many of you ran to check the rating before you decided to subscribe to World of Warcraft? It seems like a few customers (who may or may not have broken the rules to begin with) have ruined Blizzard's reputation with the BBB, but it's fairly apparent that the BBB doesn't hold much sway among Blizzard's customers anyway.[Thanks ThisURLNotFound!]
Officers' Quarters: Time for another rant
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.In my first rant last year, I called out all the officers who, in the dark times before Wrath went live, resorted to rampant poaching -- rather than alliances -- to keep their raiding guilds afloat. Today I am going to rant about nonofficers. And specifically, against my better judgment as a contributor who would like to continue writing this column for WoW Insider, I'm going to rant about some of the people who obviously read this column and have written me to ask for advice. I appreciate the fact that you think of me as someone to turn to for help. It's certainly flattering and I have tried to give you the best advice that I can. However, I have been trying to answer a lot of e-mails over the past week and I see the same type of complaint over and over again. I won't use a real e-mail as an example, because I don't want to embarrass anyone, but the gist of these e-mails goes like this:Hi, Scott.I am not an officer in my guild. I am a member who attends raids and earns loot. But I don't like a decision the officers have made, or I disagree with the way they run the guild. How can I change the guild to be the way I want it to be?Sincerely,Concerned Player
Christmas gifts Apple could give me
It's the Holiday Season, and over the years I have happily spent a lot of my XMAS money with our favorite fruit named company. My love affair with Apple products goes back to the venerated Apple II. I do have a couple of PC laptops in the house, and of course I can also run Vista on VMWare Fusion, but I'm pretty much a Mac guy through and through. Always have been. Always will be.Nevertheless, I'd like to find some gifts from Apple under my tree this year. They are not big deals, but would be greatly appreciated. So Kris Kringle, if you're listening, pass these on to Mr. Jobs and friends. How about some documentation? I know Steve thinks books are dead, but in the old days Apple documentation was really first rate. Remember that old MacWrite manual? Apple, I know you are in the electronics business, but reading help files on a laptop screen that covers up the application I am trying to learn is a bit of a pain. When you release an update to an iPod, iPhone or OS X how about telling me what the update really does. I know you have gotten better at this, but why should people have to guess all the features and fixes that you have put in? Just own up to it and trust your customers. Find another partner in addition to AT&T for the iPhone. My phone is a great product that is significantly damaged by an inferior, unreliable network. To me, "more bars in more places" means I'm looking for bars to find a stiff drink so I can recover from my frustration with dropped calls, poor signal strength, and sporadic 3G coverage. A lot of your products get really warm. My MacBook Pro can be a sizzler on my lap. My Mac Pro keeps my office pretty warm, and I don't need those high temperatures since I'm in Arizona. Don't get me started on the Apple TV. I do think it is a great product, but I'm thinking I could make a fondue on that top surface. There is no fan in the Apple TV and when I put it in standby to spin down the hard drive it wakes up by itself paying no attention to my command. If I want to be ignored, I can walk into any Home Depot. (Update: Some users say the Apple TV does have a fan. I regret the error. It's still too darned hot!) OK. it's not a big list, but it's a list just the same. What's on yours? And to all, a good night!
Cable One makes some HD channels viewable only with CableCARD / STB
At first glance, we assumed that Cable One had relegated a number of channels to switched digital video, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Instead, company officials have proclaimed that "cable programmers like Discovery HD, Nat Geo HD and ESPN HD have requested their signals to be scrambled," meaning that subscribers will now need to fork out for a CableCARD or cable company-issued set-top-box in order to see all 24 high-def stations offered in Sioux City, Iowa. Ah well, you've been looking for a valid reason to make the leap to a carrier with a real dose of high-definition anyway, right?
Apricot yanks Linux option for PicoBook Pro: it's for your own good
Just last week, we heard that Apricot Computers would be offering its PicoBook Pro with Linux or Windows XP, but evidently its marketing department caught wind of the same trend that MSI picked up on earlier this month. If you'll recall, MSI found that Linux-infused netbooks get returned four times as often as units with Windows XP, and while the official word is that Apricot "made this decision to ensure customers had a smooth installation of their operating system," our bets are that it's just sidestepping the potential headaches associated with selling something outside of the status quo. As of today, the Windows XP version (or only version, as it were) is going for £299 ($483) -- a full £20 ($32) more than the previously cheapest edition.[Via Yahoo!]
Multi-touch display giving Dell Latitude XT users fits?
Dell's Latitude XT is a pretty special piece of equipment, namely because it boasts multi-touch capabilities while being a Tablet PC. Unfortunately, it seems that quite a few users are growing increasingly frustrated with the touch-lovin' screen, with GottaBeMobile going so far as to call Dell out to remedy the myriad issues with its N-Trig digitizer. Among the problems are "digitizer not found" errors upon restart, a digitizer that won't work properly without a few reboots and a nice selection of applet loading errors to top things off. It seems the readers of the aforesaid site aren't faring too well either, with the forums filling up with folks eager and willing to yell "amen!" and "me too!" Are you also experiencing wonky N-Trig problems? Are you fed up with Dell's public silence on the matter? Or have you figured out a solution that you've been keeping all to yourself for the past seven months? Chime in down below.
Forum post of the day: Honor, glory, and coercion
This may come as a big surprise, but not everyone likes to do Arenas. Even some who very much enjoy Battleground play, are not enthralled with the small-scale and highly-competitive arena environment. I'm of the opinion that if you don't enjoy the arena, you probably shouldn't do it. Sasquach of Bahazzar is with me on this one. Like me, he enjoys arenas and is not partial to the PvE game. Sporting a 2300 rating for Season Three, he's looking forward to doing arena matches in wrath. The original poster vented his frustration that all PvP gear has an arena requirement on the test realm. Though Battlegrounds and Arenas are disparate systems with divergent goals and playstyle, Blizzard is putting rating requirements on all PvP gear. Even playing battleground after battleground, players will have to do arenas in order to don any PvP gear.
Wii Warm Up: Stick a fork in it
What are you sick of? We're looking at big parameters here -- you can go with characters, franchises, certain complaints ... pretty much whatever you want. Listen, it's the weekend, and tomorrow, you probably have school, work, or some other reason to stop playing, so let's take some time to get your complain on. You know there's something you never want to hear/see/read again.
Shamus Young talks about his favorite WoW nitpicks
Most folks are probably at least aware of Shamus Young's DM of the Rings series. It was the only web comic I've ever religiously checked every day, on the off chance the creator was feeling kind and had put up an extra comic. DMotR has long since finished, but Shamus is still out there blogging on various gaming topics. Shamus started playing World of Warcraft about a month ago, and has been having the same growing pains many of us rookies did in our younger levels. But since Shamus is something of a name in the pen-and-paper gaming Internet circuit, it's interesting to see what he has to say in his review of WoW. His first complaint is about low drop rates for quest items -- yeah, the eyeless Murlocs of Westfall spring to my mind. Most of the other issues are pretty familiar (bag space, respawns, res sickness). But one that did really stick out for me was a complaint about the in-game day/night cycle. Shamus would prefer a four-hour cycle to Azeroth's day, so that he could actually see the change. I think it's a fair point, even if we have heard it before. So, Shamus's list doesn't really bring a brand new light to how we view Azeroth, but it's still an interesting read.
Age of Conan surpasses 700k registered users
We've been quite taken aback by the responses many players direct at Funcom's Age of Conan. We're not sure if the accusations of the game being a "beta version" or just a "total POS" are the product of unrealistic expectations or are just general animosity towards a game that, at launch, lacks the polish of its biggest competitor. If you've got your ear to the ground, all this rabble-rousing would give the impression that Funcom's early success would be short-lived.The indication from Funcom however, is that this grumbling hasn't affected sales. They put out a press release today revealing that Age of Conan is sitting at over 700,000 registered subscribers worldwide. Game director Gaute Godager made sure to reaffirm the company's focus on shoring up the existing weaknesses in the game, acknowledging that retention is as important as aggressive growth in the MMO game. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Age of Conan destination page, including all of our interviews, hands-ons, galleries and original features!
Scattered Shots: Hunter problems and predictions
Scattered Shots is for hunters. 'Nuff said on that topic. The Freezing Trap David was stuck in last week also wore off a little bit, thanks to Daniel, permitting him to write once more without his fingers snapping off from the cold.In the wake of the recent confusion regarding Scare Beast, once again some hunters have gotten to complaining a lot about the state of their class. While on one hand, there are certainly problematic issues hunters are having, it's really not fair to say that the class is broken. It isn't -- being a hunter is more fun than its ever been, and it looks like this class will only get better in the future.Nonetheless, looking at the problems we do have might give us a clearer sense of where we're going in the future. With more and more information coming out about Wrath of the Lich King, and especially since Blizzard started asking for feedback from hunters, it's worthwhile to have a look at what holes do exist for our class, and how future changes might seek to plug them up.
Player vs. Everything: Those poor, poor designers
I've gotta hand it to MMOG designers. They really kind of get shafted. They spend weeks, months, and years fine-tuning tiny aspects of gameplay that you never even notice or care about (like the amount of silver that level 12 murlocs drop), coming up with interesting quests, trying to innovate the game enough to keep us interested, and developing a stream of content that's regular and enthralling enough to satisfy our all-encompassing hunger for more, more, MORE! While they do this, they have to pay attention to a million other things: time constraints, budget constraints, balance considerations, community expectations, and their pushy producers who want them to get the job done now, even if it means they can't include all of these cool features they have in mind. When they finally put the finishing touches on this labor of love that they've slaved away on for so, so long, they deliver it out into the excited arms of the community that's been eagerly awaiting the game since they announced what they were working on in pre-alpha. What happens then? Worst case scenario, everyone hates the game and it sinks like a stone to the trash pile of the bargain bin (along with the shattered hopes and dreams of the entire team that worked on the game). But even in the best case scenario, everyone loves the game for about two weeks until they notice all the little flaws that they don't like about your particular design. Then, they start picking it apart bit by bit. "Why didn't you do this this way?" they ask. "Why didn't you make this quest reward better? Why are Mages better than Rogues? Why isn't my +3 sword worse than a +3 axe against Ents? Here's how I think you should fix this awful, terrible, no-good, very bad game design."
Wii: The bad and the ugly
Even Wii lovers can find a few things to complain about, but let's be real here -- if you're going to complain, make sure your beef is accurate (and worth writing home about). Chad Sapieha of the Globe and Mail's Controller Freak blog seems to disagree with that, however. While we have to offer up kudos over the fact that he spread the anti-love around evenly among all three current-generation consoles in his recent post of hate, we still take issue with some of his Wii complaints. His first complaint about the Wii is that it isn't as cheap as it appears. In order to play the best multiplayer games on the system, he says, within the comfort of your home with friends, you have to buy three more controllers and three nunchuks. To support this, he uses the examples of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii Sports. However, you don't need four nunchuks for the latter unless you feel like building a rounded tower, and the only game that even requires four Wii remotes is four-player tennis. As for Brawl, it seems likely to us that most Wii owners who have picked up Brawl have a GameCube controller or two lying around, and since that seems to be the preferred way to play anyway, that certainly cuts down the expense. Next he mentions the required investment of a 4 GB card for "avid downloaders," but we're of the opinion that "avid downloaders" who are strapped for cash might just do what Nintendo recommends, and download, delete, and re-download at need. We're not saying the Wii's storage system is without problem, but a 4 GB card is hardly a must.Sapieha's other complaints strike chords, however, even if one is the most rehashed complaint of all: friend codes. His other issue? The lack of demos for Virtual Console games. While we agree that demos would be awesome, there's no shortage of videos of Virtual Console games available. Not only can you get them on Nintendo's official site, but you can see 'em right here, too. It may not be as good as a demo, but it's better than nothing.The point? If these are the worst things we can find to complain about, Wii owners are doing okay.
Scene selection on Blu-ray
Sure, the main reason we want an HD movie disc is for the ultimate experience in audio and video quality, but another great benefit is supposed to be an improvement in the interactivity and user experience, and this is the part that is lacking in at least one way -- yeah, we agree, there are plenty of things to complain about. One thing we've noticed on just about ever Blu-ray movie is that for whatever reason the author doesn't take advantage of all the screen real estate when it comes to helping you find the scene you're looking for. Instead of filling the entire screen with thumbnails from each scene, there are only a handful, and just like DVD, you have to thumb around the remote a lot to figure out which scene you're looking for -- while at the same time they waste the rest of the space on the screen. So if any BD authors are out there reading this, do us a favor and take advantage of the that big screen HDTV we've spent our hard earned money on.
Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 HD DVD arriving sans quality?
It's not like we haven't seen a high-profile HD title released without the expected level of quality, but it seems the QA lapse is bugging the HD DVD camp this go 'round. Apparently, hordes of angry Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 HD DVD buyers are flocking to message boards to grumble about the shoddy packaging, scratched up discs and other picture / audio niggles that certainly should not be appearing on a $70 (or more) box set. As the above image illustrates, it seems that some buyers are receiving the set only to find a plethora of unwanted scratches (presumably due to misaligned packaging), and if the stuttering playback wasn't bad enough, some customers are also finding image quality / audio sync issues with the included mini series. So, dear readers, have any of you experienced similar headaches? And if so, what's your plan of action?[Image courtesy of Amazon / J. Ryder, thanks Robert P.]
Preordering through Capcom a Tribulation in itself
Completed Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations yet? Great! Then spare a thought for the poor saps who preordered the title online through Capcom, and who are still waiting on their copies, despite the game being released over a month ago. Infendo reader Andrew flagged up the problem yesterday, and it appears he's only one of many on Capcom's official message board who have been prevented from getting their law on. In fact, we can totally understand the grumpiness in this thread, especially as it took a whole month of customers ranting just to get a faintly apologetic response from a Capcom representative. Now, Capcom has chosen to appease the baying mob with -- can you guess? -- yes! A 10% off coupon for its online store! You just couldn't write it any better. Capcom has since told Andrew his game has shipped, though there's still no word on the awesome Phoenix Wright plush that was being dangled in front of those who preordered the game. Objection indeed, Capcom.
