The RPG Geek

Moving On...

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:13:00 +0000

... to Wordpress.

I've had my blog here for several years now, but I think it's time to move on to Wordpress. I've been using Wordpress more and more for work and it's just really easy to use and features tons of handy widgets. I'm sure blogger offers most of those same abilities, but it just seems easier to move on to Wordpress.

You can continue to read my blog here:
http://jasondferguson.wordpress.com/

Thanks!

Community Management: Thou Shall Not Lie

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 14:46:00 +0000

I recently attended SIEGE 2010 in Atlanta, GA and one of the reoccurring themes I was pleased to hear from public relations professionals, marketers and community managers was the importance of “being genuine with your users.” This includes not only being honest when you’re caught red handed, but also means you have to be open with your users about potential issues.

As Sanya Weathers recently explained, sticking your head under a blanket and hoping nobody notices your mistakes isn’t good community management. You have to be open with your community: apologize and address the issues. Expanding further, it’s not enough to just address the issue; you have to honest about it too. Trying to cover up your mistakes with excuses and lies is only digging yourself deeper.

To anyone that has worked in community management, this probably seems like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, some companies find it easier to fabricate a story as opposed to trying to explain their way around mistake or uncomfortable situation. It makes sense that the temptation to lie would arise. After all, you don’t want to reveal something that could tarnish your company’s image. But lying to your community is actually significantly more dangerous than telling the truth.

You think you can lie and get away with it? Don’t count on it! Never underestimate your community. Your most hardcore users are watching everything you do and somehow manage to find even the smallest, most secretive updates to your site. And in this time of exploding social media, your secrets will spread like wildfire through Twitter and Facebook they’ve come to light. You can’t contain it. The obsession and dedication that you typically value from your community will be the very thing that brings you down.

There’s always a chance that you’ll be able to get away with your dishonesty, but is it really worth the risk? Of course not. It’s disrespectful to the people that you depend on for your product’s success and it’s setting you up for drama if (or when) they find out. When your secrets come to light, you risk angering your community, damaging your reputation and losing users.

One of the primary duties of a community manager is to handle communications with your user base. This relationship is necessary for helping you gain feedback about your product and keeping your users informed. A community manager needs have earned the respect of the community, be able to relate to the users and talk to them at their level. If your users don’t trust your community team, then your community manager is totally worthless to you. Even a small lie can severely damage the relationship between your community team and users, so I can’t emphasize the importance of honesty enough.

Everyone knows that some information can’t be shared with your community. Your users might not like it, but they understand the concept of confidentiality. However, there’s a big difference between withholding confidential information from users and outright lying to them. Whatever you CAN tell your community, you SHOULD! There’s no need for secrets. As an added bonus, having an honest and open community team allows you to control the release of information and keep rumors and exaggerations at a minimum.

Lying might seem like the easy way out of a tough situation, but being honest, apologizing and admitting to your mistakes is the best way to keep the trust of your community. Not to mention, if your company truly values their users, then the least you can do is be upfront with them. A good community manager should be able to handle a community crisis and should be empowered with the ability to be truthful when these situations arise.

StarCraft II Choices

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:12:00 +0000

I finally started playing StarCraft II, which is obviously an amazing game. I'm addicted to playing and loving the new units and story so far. Anyone that knows me probably also knows that the original StarCraft is my favorite game of all time.

Although, I admit I have one complaint - the choices. As an RPF fan, typically I love being offered alternate paths and having the freedom to impact the game, but this isn't really one of those cases. I hate permanently missing out on a potential upgrade just because I chose to research a different upgrade. As a strategy game, shouldn't I be given both options and allowed to strategically decide at the time which best suits me?

I'm also not a fan of how the story progresses. I don't really need several options about which mission to do next. I'd much rather KNOW which mission comes next both story-wise and difficulty-wise. Giving players the option to jump around and choose how they progress just seems to break the story up. Ideally, I'd like to have various options about how to proceed, but I want enough direction to make a decision about how to do it.

Still, I'm not done with StarCraft II so I'll reserve my judgement. And either way, I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience so far.

Ipad Gaming

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:21:00 +0000

I admit, I'm not big on mobile gaming. Sure, I have a cell phone just like everyone else, but I use it primarily for talking and texting. Aside from the N-Gage I had years ago, I've never done much mobile gaming (boy do I miss Pocket Kingdom...).

That's all changed recently because I've jumped on the bandwagon and purchased an ipad. It surprises me to say this, but it's a handy little device that I'm finding myself using constantly. And of course, it's great for gaming. Whether you're competing for mayorships on foursquare or downloading an addictive casual game to play during your spare time, the ipad is great for gaming. Of course, I'm sure an iphone is is great too, but I haven't sold out that much just yet...

Although not quite a "game", Foursquare is my favorite so far. I'm sure it's much more convenient to play on an iphone, but I'm still very addicted. Robot Unicorn Attack is a surprisingly fun, high quality game that I downloaded right away - you can also check it out free online here: http://bit.ly/d4am53. I keep meaning to try out Pocket Legends as well - a full MMORPG for iphone and ipad. And it seems like tons of new games are coming out all the time. I'm also having tons of fun with Angry Birds.

Definitely plan on exploring some more games on my ipad. Any suggestions out there? I wish they'd port Pocket Kingdom!

Edit: ZOMG!!! I just discovered Battle Bears and I love it! Violent, hilarious and addictive. Check it out if you have an iphone or ipad. http://www.battlebears.com/

Worst Starcraft General

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:50:00 +0000

I adore Starcraft. It's among my favorite games of all time... if not my #1 fav game ever. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to play SC2 yet (been too busy), but I've seen a ton of hype for it. I'll correct that soon enough, I promise.

I recently came across this SC video and it totally cracked me up. For those that have spent HOURS playing SC like me, you'll get a kick out of this. Seems appropriate right now with so much SC hype. Enjoy! (caution, vulgar language!)

http://bit.ly/9jZJHo

Lifetime Free Realms Membership

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:46:00 +0000

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Free Realms from Sony Online Entertainment. As you can imagine, I was pretty thrilled when I found out that they were going to be offering a lifetime membership to the game for only $29.99.

Membership gives you access to member only items, marketplace discounts, access to all job classes, and upgraded home, monthly membership packages, and more! It's a great deal, so don't miss it if you're a Free Realms fan.

Unfortunately, I haven't had much time lately to spend in world. At least now when I return, I'll still be a member and will have accumulated all of the monthly membership goodies. And for only $30. Woot!

More info here:
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2010/07/soe-offers-lifetime-memberships-for-free-realms.html

Prince of Persia Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Mon, 31 May 2010 05:34:00 +0000

So I went out and saw the recently released Prince of Persia film. I'm sure you've all seen the commercials and all the gamers out there are very familiar with Prince of Persia.

I'm not a film critic, so I won't go into any huge details here. If you're a hardcore PoP fan, you might appreciate seeing the popular game brought to life on the big screen. The value of the film probably ends there, though. The acting is bad and the whole thing comes off as very cheesy. Some of the action sequences were neat, but dragged on with over the top action and not enough use of the sands of time. And I have to admit, action films definitely lose something when there's no REAL violence.

Unfortunately, everyone knows videogame movies have a reputation for suckage. Overall, PoP was far better than the Street Fighter, Super Mario, Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne films, but inferior to Silent Hill or Mortal Kombat. Not a bad film. Not a good one either.

zOMG!

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:42:00 +0000

I was recently encouraged to check out zOMG, an MMORPG attached to Gaia Online. I can honestly say, I've become pretty hooked.

zOMG is very easy to pick up and play for just a few minutes at a time. It loads fairly quickly, doesn't require any big downloads, and is free to play. The mechanics are also pretty easy to get the hang of, so the learning curve is quite small.

Another thing I love about zOMG is the character customization. There are just SO many ways to customize the appearance of your avatar with different clothing, hairstyles and accessories. If you're familiar with the Gaia community, your zOMG avatar is the same one that you use on their forum.

zOMG is still in Beta, but it's a very polished game. The environments are beautiful, the sound effects and music help bring the cartoony world to life. I definitely suggest you give it a try!

www.gaiaonline.com.

RPG Heroes Are Jerks

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:19:00 +0000

Here's an absolutely hilarious video from College Humor about how RPG Heroes are Jerks. Think about this next time you start rummaging through a peasants home in search of gold and potions.

Very funny - must watch! Thanks to Bethblog for posting this and bringing it to my attention. :)

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

City of Eternals

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:24:00 +0000

So lately I've been checking out City of Eternals, a vampire themed MMORPG.

City of Eternals is free to play and connects with your facebook account. You can post updates of your progess to facebook (which your friends will probably hate), invite friends to join, declare your facebook friends as your minions to complete special tasks for you, and connect with City of Eternals players through facebook.

It's a fairly casual/social experience, so there isn't a lot of RPG depth. If you're hardcore, you might be disappointed. But so far I've found it to be an interesting adventure. It's easy to pick up and play for just a few minutes, you can customize your vampire in numerous ways, and it's free to play. Enough depth to keep me interested, but still light enough to not wear me out!

I will admit, I've run into some bad slowdown and bugs, but the game is still in Beta.

I'm a n00b, though, so there's plenty more to explore. Check it out for yourself at www.cityofeternals.com.

PlayStation Move Video

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:41:00 +0000

An entertaining video about the PlayStation Move. Enjoy!

New Issue at Just-RPG

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:29:00 +0000

Looks like I skipped over posting a few recent updates at Just-RPG. Here's some of what I've missed. Be sure to check out http://www.just-rpg.com for even more!

Elven Legacy Review
Torchlight Review
Dragon Age: Origins Review
Persona PSP Review
And more!

Facebook Game Addiction

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:50:00 +0000

For the longest time I had avoided playing any Facebook apps. After all, I'm not really a big Facebook fan in the first place (The site is unorganized and confusing if you ask me and I'm just not super social anyway).

Despite my efforts, I was apparently just putting off the inevitable. Everyone I know seemed to be playing SOMETHING on Facebook and they were constantly encouraging me to give it a try. And as a gamer, I found myself growing more and more curious what the fuss was all about. I decided to give it a whirl and test the waters. I wanted to see what was out there, why people liked it so much, and why the gaming industry was going insane over it!

Naturally, one of the games I started off with was Farmville. I mean, over 70 million people are playing Farmville, so there must be something to it, right?

I made an effort to limit the number of Facebook games I played so that I could still keep some sort of a life. Of course, that didn't last long. I started logging in multiple times per day and made sure that checking the status of my Facebook games was one of the first things I did in the morning and last things I did at night before bed. I even dished out some cash to purchase virtual currency for some games.

The more I played the more time these games were stealing from me. I would login and waste hours doing monotonous tasks such as feeding my fish or harvesting my crops. When I was only spending a few minutes per day playing, it wasn't so bad... but as your game expands to new levels you end up killing more and more time. Easy to see how people end up blowing HOURS in these games.

Making it all worse, what was I gaining from this whole experience? No, these weren't real fish I was feeding or real crops that I was harvesting, so there's no 'real world' benefit. And unfortunately, I wasn't even having fun playing these repetitive games any more. I finally came to terms with this and decided to stop wasting my time playing a game I don't even like. My test was complete!

It's really easy to become addicted to these games. All of your friends are constantly harassing you to play them through Facebook requests, they're easy games to pick up and play, they prey on your instincts to care for things like plants and pets (you're always thinking "oh, I had better water my crops!" and "I bet my virtual pet is hungry"), it allows you to compete with your friends and work on achievements, and they're attached to Facebook... and everyone is on Facebook.

Of course, this is all severely exaggerated. I was never one of those crazy people logging in at 4AM just to make sure my crops were still alive and I never dropped my offline life to make sure my virtual fish were healthy. But the point remains the same - these games are easy to get addicted to and many people continue to play them NOT because they are fun... simply because they are addicted. Sadly, this takes the enjoyment out of gaming and turns it into a chore!

Don't get me wrong, there are some really fun games out there and the social gaming trend is leading to some really great breakthroughs in the industry. I'm still exploring the realm of social gaming and will keep on enjoying what it has to offer. But I think I'll avoid the addictively un-fun games for a while. :)

Ember Realms Sneak Peek

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:35:00 +0000

Not too long ago I came across Ember Realms - an upcoming browser based massively multiplayer strategy game from Night Owl Games. It looks pretty promising. Check out the video below to judge for yourself. Link to the official site below too, but there isn't a whole lot of info yet...

Night Owl Games site.

Free Realms Mounts

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:03:00 +0000

Free Realms has just added two mounts to the game - a dragon and a dinosaur. Members can purchase these beasts and ride them around the game. Best of all, they travel at a much faster speed than players will be used to moving.

They're pretty awesome looking. Nice addition to the game! I'm logging in to buy one now....

Free Realms Reaches 8 Million

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:56:00 +0000

Impressive. Sony Online Entertainment has just announced that Free Realms has reached an impressive 8 million unique users. Here's a little snippet from the press release:

“Free Realms is more than just a virtual world for our players; it is a portal for imagination. A place where players transform their house into a jumping maze for friends to compete or a petting zoo that boasts all their pets,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “Our job as developers is to listen to and predict what they want and give them the tools that inspire and compel them to share their experiences with eight million others.”

And of course, some hints at what they have planned. Sounds fun!:

Later this week, Free Realms is scheduled to kick off the Festival of Hearts, a special month long event that celebrates love, friendship and kindness. All players will be able to participate in themed events, daily social activities and storyline quests that incorporate traditional items and rewards which embody the holiday: hearts, candies, forget-me-not cards, flowers, love potions and more. Heart Breakers are invited too, as even the Stone Hearted can participate in the world events that ensue. New Hippo, Tiger, Beetle, Groundhog and Owl pets will also be available in the Marketplace.

To play Free Realms, visit: http://www.FreeRealms.com.

MagiQuest Beta

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:18:00 +0000

So I've been playing the MagiQuest Online Beta lately, which is a game I've been looking forward to for months now. If you're not familiar with MagiQuest, check it out here: http://www.magiquest.com/.

Anyway, the game seems promising so far. There appears to be somewhat of a following from Uru, since I believe they have the same developer.

Instructions for the Beta are here. Check it out!

Zynga Helps Haiti

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:37:00 +0000

There's a pretty good chance you play Farmville... considering something like 70 million people are playing it. I'm literally playing Farmville right now as I type this.

If you're an avid Farmville user and want to help make a difference in the world, why not buy some White Corn? 100% of the purchases will go to Zynga's Haiti relief efforts. Previous Farmville charity efforts have been pretty massive, so I expect this to raise a lot of money. White Corn costs 25 Farm Cash. Looks like I might need to go out and buy some Farm Cash...

Anyway, full details in the pic below:

Update: Just wanted to throw in that Zynga is also helping with Haiti through Fishville. Image below!

Free Realms Rant

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:36:00 +0000

So after finally getting some time to play around with Free Realms after the BIG update last month, I don't think I care for most of the combat changes.

It's much more fast paced, now, which is nice. However, battles are so easy there really isn't any challenge or strategy in it anymore. The additional powerups are neat in theory, but with battles being such a breeze, I never really need them. I miss all my cool, old abilities as well. Attaching abilities to weapons is a nice touch, but unless you really look close, it seems there isn't much difference from one ability to another.

Who knows, maybe I just need to go explore some harder battles.

Too Much Farming

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:32:00 +0000

After only a few days of Facebook gaming, I've come to realize there are really only 3-5 different games on Facebook. And then dozens and dozens of others that just recycle those same 3-5 formulas.

The farming games seem to be the most over-used.

Sega Stopping Mature Wii Games

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:30:00 +0000

Sega has announced that they are unlikely to publish any more Mature rated games for the Nintendo Wii.

This comes after relatively weak sales from MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill, as well as EA's Dead Space.

Not a horribly shocking revelation, I suppose. The Wii audience is younger than the PS3 or Xbox 360 audience, so I wouldn't expect impressive sales of "M" rated games on the Wii. Read the full story on gamasutra below:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/26667/Sega_Unlikely_To_Do_More_Mature_Wii_Titles.php

Chat Filter Fail

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:51:00 +0000

So I ran into a bug while playing Free Realms today. I contacted a staff member called a referee and got a prompt response. Below is them TRYING to help me out (I blocked out the name of the specific referee to be nice). All of the ### are words being hit by the filter.

If anyone can tell what he's saying behind the chat filter, that would be great. I guess they need to do some work on their filter!

For what it's worth, he later elaborated and helped me through the issue. But it gave me a really good laugh! :)

Steps to Kill a Community

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:53:00 +0000

Came across this article online titled 'How to Kill a Community in 10 Easy Steps'. Pretty interesting and definitely worth a read:

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/116198

Facebook App Games

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:28:00 +0000

Well, I may have finally given in. I have to admit, I've never been much of a fan of Facebook (despite me being logged in right now).

Anyway, it seems that everyone I know is addicted to some sort of Facebook game. I've played a few, but have never really put much time into any of them. I think my brother may have finally convinced me to give Farmville a second try.

Any other suggestions for games? I've tried Barn Buddy as well and so far I think I like it better than Farmville.

We'll see how it goes...

Gamasutra's Top Games of the Decade

noreply@blogger.com (Glacian) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Gamasutra.com has named their top 12 games of the past decade. An interesting read. If you haven't played these games, I suggest you do (although, there are some I haven't played either).

Overall, looks like a good list to me. I am a bit sad to see Halo make the top list, though. And the fanboy in me wishes KotOR was on there. Oh well, there have been so many good games this decade that you can't possibly fit them all on a top 10 list.

They also posted an honorable mentions list. Glad to see Katamari, BioShock and Puzzle Quest all make the cut. And thrilled to see Vagrant Story on there since it's so often overlooked.

Most of my favorite games of the decade were on the honorable mentions list rather than on the top 10. But this whole thing reminded me how far behind I am with my gaming nowadays... (which happens when all of your consoles start breaking)

UPDATE: Did want to specify, these lists were compiled by gamasutra but the votes came from readers.