QUESTION ONE: So, I don't know if you've heard about this yet, but it's kind of hilarious. There's this controller called the Avenger, which was apparently designed especially for disabled players, and is a nifty piece of technology in its own right. The company that makes them, N-Control, outsourced their PR and customer support to Ocean Marketing, which is actually one guy, Paul Christoforo. Last week, e-mails came to light through several places (notably super-popular gaming webcomic Penny Arcade) of Christoforo being horribly unprofessional when dealing with customer issues, and things quickly spiralled out of control, with Christoforo getting fired (obviously) and then apparently deciding he wanted to fight the entire Internet. Anything to say about this whole situation?
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 | | Dan Watson |
This was probably the single best story to break before the new year started. This guy was off the wall crazy. This is one of those guys that you hear about going on just chaotic shootings. His comment was the best of "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM CAPABLE OF." Really? Really? How childish does this sound? You know who says things like this, people that are so bat-shit crazy that they really aren't capable of much at all other than being crazy and sitting alone in a rubber room. Companies really should do their due diligence to make sure the support they hire is capable to handling simple customer issues. I went to Walmart this past week and you could tell the difference in staff that should be there and shouldn't especially in the return section of the store. Some people just aren't cut out for working with clients and customers.
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 | | Todd Vote |
I read the emails and this guy was just full on himself. Christoforo thought that name dropping would be all he needed to scare gamers away from askin him questions. It was great once the guy from Penny Arcade got involved and started talking about him being banned from PAX. Christoforo had no clue who he was, and once he found out he came back begging for forgiveness. The guy got exactly what he deserved. The only part that sucks is people hearing about this story and automatically blaming The Avenger controller and it's manufacturers. The controller has been given a heaping helping of rotten reviews on Amazon and other places. That's not cool considering it was an outside PR firm that was being all douchey. Let the actual controller be judged on whether or not it is helpful for handicapped gamers.
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 | | Jimmy Chavez |
This kind of shit pisses me off! I've worked in fast food, bowling alleys, electronics repair and even in the military and I've always been professional. Nothing gets me more angry than to hear about some douche bag treating a customer of theirs like crap instead of being professional and handling the situation as best they can. This asshole got what he deserved and is not the victim in any way, shape or form. He has no one else to blame other than his own dumb ass.
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 | | Trace Aber |
First off, I think the entire situation got blown way out of proportion by the internet. Yes, Paul Christoforo was absolutely wrong in how he handled the situation, and him trying to fight the "internet" is a bad idea, but this story got so much attention and coverage it quickly became annoying. People deal with terrible customer service reps all the time, but due to it being a slow new week this got plastered everywhere. The guy sucked at his job, was fired, and that should have been it. Instead, people are dragging this out far longer than it needs to be. |
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 | | Quizmaster |
Todd's got the right answer, for 82 points, because Christoforo's faux pas has led to a bunch of bad Amazon reviews for the product itself, and it really doesn't deserve that. The man himself, however, deserves everything he brought down upon himself. The Greater Internet F***wad Theory works both ways, after all.
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QUESTION TWO: Here's something you may or may not have forgotten about: Sonic 4, a game done in the style of the original 2-D Sonic games, was originally released in 2010 as an episodic downloadable game. Well, Sega has finally announced that Episode II will be released sometime in 2012, well over a year after Episode I. Which is heading into Half-Life II levels of delay. Did you even remember that this game existed? Also, has Sega made a huge mistake by taking so long to release the second instalment?
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| | Dan Watson |
I didn't even remember this game was around. Haven't we seen a few Sonic games since this was released? I figured it had just been written off and put to sleep after a few failures. I think what needs to be done is the series needs to just be put away for a few years like Mortal Kombat did. After about two or three years of no games and no mention of Sonic, bring back Sonic in a totally new revamped game. Make it a platformer instead of the 2-D side scroller and then maybe a bit darker of a title. I am not sure exactly how, but go back to Dr. Robotnik capturing animals and make it darker that way.
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| | Todd Vote |
Though I hadn't played much with first game I hadn't really forgot about it. I just assumed the game under-performed, and that we were not getting a second instalment. If the game was going to be in development this long, I see no issue with letting gamers, especially those who paid for the first game and are waiting for the second game, in the loop a bit. They could have announced the game a bit sooner. But at the same time, Sega was hard at work on Sonic Generations, so maybe that contributed to things a bit.
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| | Jimmy Chavez |
Nope, I had no idea about Sonic 4. I was never a huge fan of Sonic so after Sonic and Knuckles came out, I pretty much left the series. Was it any good? Either way, Sega may want to do something to get some attention on this one. I consider myself a casual gamer and I had no knowledge of this. How many others out there fall into that same boat?
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| | Trace Aber |
I've been looking forward to this game since Episode 1 came out, but they definitely hurt themselves by waiting so long to release the second episode. While I'm sure they had to dedicate a large portion of their resources to Sonic Generations, the timing couldn't have been worse. First off, I think Sega killed any potential success of this episodic deal by waiting so long to release the games. Hell, we don't even have a true release date yet. Secondly, the entire appeal of Sonic 4 was that it was in the tradition of the old 2D games, but the recently released Sonic Generations did that already, is complete, and features 3D levels as well. It's like they totally forgot about Sonic 4 until the day before their announcement or something. |
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| | Quizmaster |
Trace gets the gist of it, for 238 points. I understand they wanted to do something big for Sonic's 20th anniversary, but the fact they managed to put out an entire separate Sonic game before the second episode of Sonic 4 suggests that maybe it wasn't a huge priority for them, which could be a big mistake.
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QUESTION THREE: Nintendo has announced that they will be showing off the Wii U at the Consumer Electronics Show in a couple weeks, however, they've also said the display will come with no new information or details. With the system set to be released in the second half of this year, shouldn't we have something more than a few demo videos and a tablet controller at this point, especially if Nintendo expects to dig out of the hole they got into in 2011?
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| | Dan Watson |
Nintendo again is dropping the ball. They should be selling this harder than a drug dealer pushing crack to kids. By not giving information to anyone they are shooting themselves in the foot again. Wii was given tons of publicity especially with the concept of motion gaming. Nintendo lost a large fan base when they went to such a specialty concept that limits the games that many loved. The graphics were subpar and the games weren't amazing for the most part. Nintendo should be showing us a full first year schedule of amazing games while also giving us a price range of games, console, and these stupid controllers/tablets.
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| | Todd Vote |
Nintendo may just be in panic mode. The 3DS launch may just have scared them a bit. I would think that with the console releasing this year, they would want to start getting some info out there. Perhaps just how powerful the machine will actually be, or what all the system will be expected to be able to do. But who are we kidding, as long as it has Mario it'll be fine, that's what they really learned from the 3DS, right?
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| | Jimmy Chavez |
Uh, yeah. If the system is set to come out this year, shouldn't they be closer to having a complete working system to show off? If nothing new is presented then what else is there to keep building up people's anticipation for its release? If gamers just keep hearing the same info over and over, eventually they get bored with the whole endeavor and move on to something else. Maybe Nintendo is trying to just surprise everyone and will blow the gaming world away and present previously unknown features. One can hope right?
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| | Trace Aber |
I think it's ridiculous that Nintendo is advertising the fact that nothing new will be displayed or shown off. I understand them wanting to save their big secrets for E3, but to not give anything new is plain stupid in my book. Hell, just announce some third party games or something...anything. They might as well not even show up at CES - they'd save money and time that could be dedicated to, you know, putting work into the Wii U, which apparently is not even close to being where it needs to be. I've grown up loving Nintendo, but this move just boggles my mind. |
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| | Quizmaster |
Everyone's pretty much in the same ballpark on this one, splitting the 2946 points. The common belief is that Nintendo will have a whole bunch of information for E3, but if that's the case, why even bother with CES at all? It'll just be a whole weekend full of people asking if there's any new Wii U information that you've decided not to give them for some reason.
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QUESTION FOUR: And in case you wondered just how far video games have come: in the United Kingdom, the military has been forced to upgrade their tactical training simulators because the graphics are so out of date that it's too distracting for anyone who has played a modern FPS like Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3. What do you think about that?
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| | Dan Watson |
Video games are apparently extremely influential and very true to life in many games. I am bothered when I play original Xbox games so I could only imagine what this military was dealing with. Hell, the barefoot bandit learned how to fly using flight sims so I would hope that the military starts taking advantage of the technology to train soldiers more efficiently and effectively. Imagine if they were able to train solders to disarm bombs or use different technology without risking any lives. Imagine how much money this could save countries as well.
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| | Todd Vote |
I think it is interesting. I really can't believe that the training sims would be that out of date with new military intel and arsenal being implemented all the time, you would think they could not afford to have outdated training materials. It is good they are updating no matter how you look at it, but I guess it is a bit sad that it took video games to make them realize this stuff.
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| | Jimmy Chavez |
That figures. A lot of military equipment is older than dirt so that is not very surprising. At least they're upgrading. More importantly, it shows just how far video game technology has come from the Atari 2600 days to modern times. It's really amazing if you go back and look and the evolution of games as the years moved on to the present day.
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| | Trace Aber |
I don't know much about official military training simulators (shocking, I know), but I can respect the UK's decision to keep their simulators as up to date as possible. Looking at photos of the simulator they use, Virtual Battlespace 2, I can see why people would get distracted. They aren't actively bad, but when you're trying to simulate real-world conflict you're going to take notice to your surroundings, and dated technology becomes apparent much quicker. I wonder if it's more than just graphics though, and if you can blame potentially dated gameplay for any of the observed distractions? |
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| | Quizmaster |
I can't be the only one who got images of the UK military training by using old copies of Wolfenstein 3-D, can I?
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BONUS QUESTION: Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?
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| | Dan Watson |
I did. A watch, Halo, Metal Gear Solid, tons of candy, NBA 2k12, Assassin's Creed....oh ya and a visit to WWE Monday Night Raw. Now I am hoping to visit Extreme Rules in April here in Chicago so if anyone has an extra ticket help me out. Easter gifts are always welcomed.
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| | Todd Vote |
I didn't get a dang thing video game related outside of a 1600 MS points card from my brother Al. But these days, Christmas around my family has become about the kids, so it's all good. Seeing the kids open presents is the best part of it all anyways, am I right?
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| | Jimmy Chavez |
I got a bunch of new pairs of underwear and socks, so yes I did.
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| | Trace Aber |
I got a lot of alcohol. So yes.
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