Category: Gaming

Loyalty programs (in console gaming)

Today I’d like to briefly talk about my limited experiences with loyalty programs in gaming, console gaming. The whole situation with Steam, Origin, GreenManGaming etc.  where it kind of pays NOT to be loyal to just one or two will not be talked about here at the moment.

First and foremost: in my experience, Sony’s PS+ program is the very best one right now.

Reason’s are simple: I have gotten more out of my first 10 months than is worth the price tag for the subscription. I’ve played more games than I would have if it had not existed, and all of them combined would have cost me so much more. Please note that I only have a PS Vita which means I’m basically missing out on a lot of value without a PS3 to enjoy the free PS3 games from PS+. I know some would argue that it isn’t truly free, and that is true. But I calculate that once I get past the 50$ that I could have dished out for a certain number of games…..the rest is free by default. I was never a console person because work has me in weird locations at times, but a handheld is perfect for someone like me. I do have a 3DS, but so far I’ve paid for almost every single game on it, except for that special 30$ promotion when you buy Fire Emblem AND SMT IV, which is enough to get a third game worth 30$ or less. One big fact that I am excited about: PS+editions of PS4 games. This is one console that I may just get on day one if possible. They are truncated free versions of some PS4 games available for PS+ers (weird word huh?). It’s almost like a F2P version of those games, all you need to do to access certain content is pay for it, or pay an amount to access the whole game like everyone else who bought it does (at a discount for you of course). How AWESOME is that as a big fan service to loyal customers. So, yes, for me PS+ is the best loyalty program there is.

In second place comes of course Club Nintendo. Why? Because I’m not much an Xbox fan so I can’t give my opinion on that frankly (although, the new Live Gold rewards look like they will give PS+ a run for their money given time and momentum). CN is not as rewarding in terms of games as PS+, but it’s great for people like the Japanese market because they base their rewards more in swag than in digital games. You can redeem your coins for some old-ass digital versions of past console games or for swag (shirts, plushies, calendars, posters). I have a Teddy (from Persona 4) plushie, I am man enough to say it, and it feels good. Sure, it remains hidden from the potential ladies, but having a physical reminder of a character I like is cool, having posters of my favorite games up in the game room is also cool. When the console is off and you are sick of showing high scores to friends, what better to entice their jealousy??

I’d love to join Microsoft in their new journey with the X1, but unless I win the lottery I can only choose one. I recently sold my Wii, hoping to get a Wii U, but I’m not so sure anymore…

Loyalty programs are important for a business IMO, it’s what influences my choices of airlines. It even most of the time takes me towards Best Buy rather than Amazon, despite better prices and free 2-day Shipping. Because I know that in the long run, I will somehow get more back from one company for all my dollars spent than from the other. I hope they all realize that and get to work on it. At the end when the competition gets fierce, who’s the winner really? The companies of course!
But we consumers can also get something out of it eh?

Pains of technology

So my keyboard is almost totally messed up! Thank God for Microsoft and their accessibility features on Windows. Between dictating on my shiny new Plantronics GameCom 780 Gaming Headset with Surround Sound – USB Compatible with PC and the onscreen keyboard, I am still more or less functional!!! Now…the wait is on for the replacement parts to get here…. Jezi banm fòs!!!

New experiences

 

OK, so I took a 3DS. Some of my friends would say: “But you still have a DS lite from 5 years ago!!!” Examine the words people…..FIVE years ago. Now it’s a complete mess, with a desensitized touch screen and an upper screen just dangling but still lights up, and completely unresponsive shoulder buttons.
My first experience with 3D in gaming was with the ever-excellent Batman: Arkham Asylum. Using my brand new fresh out of the box laptop (old one barely held an hour of charge anymore), and “NVidia 3D vision discover” with simple Anaglyph glasses. It was fun, very. Mostly because Rocksteady did such a great job with the atmosphere and gameplay; seeing the cape flow behind you with such depth was exhilarating for a big fan of this character. I mention this because I need you to understand that for me making the switch was never quite about the 3D, but about the backlog of DS software that I just could not let go (Layton, I’m looking at you, sir) and about how much I appreciated what I consider as the most ass-kicking price cut ever in a hardware’s first year!!
Still, I had my doubts about what the glassless 3D tech would be like to me. I was wrong. It is rather nice, but not indispensable. One would wish that the angles at which the 3D can be viewed were wider, but beggars can’t be choosers. It’s a start, and the future can only be brighter no? So far I haven’t played any software where the 3D really makes a difference, I have a lot of reviews on Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 so I WILL definitely try them out to see if the hype is, in my eyes, justified. But I need to finish what I already have first! Cave Story 3D, that I’m currently playing along with the 2 latest Laytons 😉 , is a great one as you all may know, but the 3D is not indispensable. The extra dimension adds to the atmosphere for me, but most of the time good old 2D is all I need to progress.
What I DO like are the 3D videos. I can already dream about what this will mean concerning all those 3D movies out in Blu-Ray….maybe soon it will be possible to download 3D versions of these movies for the smaller screen???? No, I don’t have a Blu-ray. Yes, I know what sacrilege!! What I do have sitting in front of the TV is a broken down PS3 giving me that $^@#^ YLOD way too often!!!! I could’ve just got myself a new one right? Too discouraged man. The 360 had its RROD, but what did the Wii have? Verily, no Nintendo hardware has EVER given me such problems and if it weren’t for exclusives on other consoles, I would’ve stuck to my PC gaming and a handheld.
I am so far satisfied with this piece of hardware; I have no idea of how it will face up in my opinion with Vita, because the price of software is very important for me, along with the quality of the exclusives. The price of the Vita memory cards is ridiculous, but not knowing what they cost to manufacture I can’t say more than that. I will wait and see; I heard that Pushmo is THE killer downloadable app for the 3DS, so it’s next on my list to try out. Keep in touch…

Skyrim: taking an arrow to the knee

It’s official and everyone knows it, Bethesda has delivered a PHENOMENAL arrow to almost every other RPG making company’s knees out there this year. The amount of creative thinking gone into this game is rather awesome and it is never ever enough to keep repeating it.
What I most wanted to get into actually is “creative writing”. There is some fine writing in all the quests and the books found in-game, but most of all, with the way each gamer plays, the choices we each make, there could be room for each and every one of us to write a story. Just like many writers have built upon the Star Wars universe amounting to so many novels scattered in a chronology all to the joy of us readers and for the profit of Lucas and Co. the Elder Scrolls saga could actually milk its cow the same way, allowing the most creative of us to express our adventures to the public all the while building upon the mythos and making some money for both sides.
Seriously, chatting with a good friend of mine who chose to be a werewolf, is a blast! Comparing our approaches, our difficulties, the perks we choose….the diversity is immense! The stories told by the quests remain much the same with the final choices limited, then again “it’s the journey that counts” :
“In the end, it’s not how long we lived, but how fully we lived.”
 
what we live and see through our characters’ eyes from the beginning of each quest, makes the whole difference, make the whole EXPERIENCE. And it shows in the design choices of the devs, not giving any XP as the reward to a quest like other games or limiting the amount of gold reward (not to exaggerate) quickly makes a player deduct that the meat of what you can get out of a quest is within said quest itself! Get it now!!!