Thank You Time

By Shamus Posted Monday Aug 18, 2008

Filed under: Personal 20 comments

I had this all planned out: I’d put up a wishlist of videogames that were on my “someday” list. Once every few weeks, someone might buy one for me because I just had to try this game now. It would arrive in the mail, and Amazon would include a short note from the sender, telling me the sender’s address and letting me know why they sent the game. I could then reply with a nice thank-you card to show my appreciation.

This system would give the impatient a way to get a game into my hands, and it would be a nice little bonus gift for me every once in a while. I’m so clever!

The reality was that within 24 hours I had eight games on the way. The nice note from the sender isn’t included when the game comes from a third-party seller, which was the case for seven out of the eight games.

So now I have eight games and I only got the note with one of them. (I know who sent Tabula Rasa, got the note. Thanks so much. You’ll be hearing from me soon.)

If you’re one of the generous people who sent me a gift, I really would like to send a thank-you card. Also, if Amazon had you type in a message for me, I want you to know I never got it. If you could send an email to shamus at shamusyoung dot com with your words (if you had any) and your home address (if you don’t mind me mailing you a card) I’d really appreciate it. Please include the title of the game you gave. I am curious as to who sent what. Also include your website if you don’t mind me mentioning you as the sender here on the site.

If you want to stay anonymous, that’s cool too, but my guilt-o-meter is pinging because I got a bunch of presents and I can’t say thanks.

This weekend I managed to take a bite out of that list of games. I’m handling the quickest first, which means that the MMO’s (City of Heroes / Villains, and Tabula Rasa) will have to wait, since they will no doubt dominate the blog the way Warcraft did.

 


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20 thoughts on “Thank You Time

  1. SolkaTruesilver says:

    Tabula Rasa! Tabula Rasa!!!

    I’m dying to know if it’s worth registering or not! And usually, you haven’t let me down in your reviews! Anything that you say is too “complicated” is worth buying in my book! (;)) (Aw.. I really liked Sins of A Solar Empire..)

  2. Heph says:

    I’m looking forward to them :-)

    On a sidenote, tohugh, weren’t you going to make a third and final post about the Witcher? Or has that been scrapped in favour of the Stolen Pixels about it?

  3. Shamus says:

    Final Witcher post will drop this week. Maybe tomorrow, if I can get the time to finish it up. It’s written, but needs a little work.

  4. The Lone Duck says:

    I can save you a bit of trouble. It wasn’t me. That just leaves the rest of your readers. I played a trial of City of Heroes. I really liked it, but then it got repetitive. I don’t know if the expansions and patches helped or not… Heh, could be I was just noobish back then. Kill stealing, wandering accidently into high-level areas, it’s possible that my experience was tainted by the fact I had no idea what I was doing. This was about three years ago, before I played WoW.

  5. Rob Conley says:

    If you need help with City of Heroes let me know. I am on the Infinity Server.

  6. GreyDuck says:

    Lone Duck: There’s surprisingly little kill-stealing in CoH/CoV these days… most people don’t do street sweeping except under duress (er, as required by the contact’s mission arc) so most people you meet on the street are either shopping, leveling or on their way to/from an instanced map somewhere.

    The game is repetitive, though, when you get right down to brass tacks. That’s why I have so many alts…

  7. Danel says:

    The only MMOs I’ve ever played are CoX and WoW, and the two games really are so drastically different. CoX doesn’t even attempt to do some of the things that are central to the WoW experience, and vice versa. The most annoying niggles from WoW never come up in CoX… but are replaced by problems no less annoying that never come up in WoW.

  8. Martin says:

    They were all me, and I’ve changed my mind and would like them back. You have the address. Ground shipping will suffice.

    -Martin

  9. Rustybadger says:

    I’m waiting for you to put a MacBook Pro on your wishlist so I can contribute to that!

  10. Slippery Jim says:

    City of Heroes – I am on the Virtue server – send me a tell to @SlipperyJim if you fancy hooking up!

  11. The Lone Duck says:

    To GreyDuck: Just to be clear, I was kill-stealing. Not that I knew better back then, I was just killing bad guys. I didn’t connect the angry e-motes to my actions. (Boy people sure aren’t friendly!) I had some vague idea of missions/quests, but I had no idea what I was doing. I’m sure the game is fun if you have some good friends playing. I used to have a Korean copy of the Character Creator (without the mmo) but lost it when my laptop died. I look forward to hearing about Tabula Rasa. Most of the gaming media don’t follow up on an MMO after its launch.

  12. Kristin says:

    I’m on Liberty, also known as the “Anyone PLAYS on this server?” server. For villians, I’m on Triumph. I have one alt on Champion so that I can help my bro get his new alts into his supergroup.

    Global handle Kata Spinum.

  13. Rev_Blacky says:

    I was the one that sent Carmageddon and Dungeon Keeper 2!!

  14. Vao Ki says:

    I’ll save you some trouble on reviewing CoH/CoV. These games (2 sides of the same coin really) are each 2 games in one. The first you’ll come across is creating a character. This is an ongoing process as you can change your costume at any time, and if you enjoy this type of thing (I do) then the possibilities are close to limitless and may keep you up well into the night. You have been warned. I’ve said all along that if they packaged the character creator and slapped a one-time $10-20 fee on it, it’d sell like mad.

    The other part is the game itself, bashing villains/heroes. There are no items in the game, so loot stealing is impossible. I like that part. Loot slows games down. But, as many people have pointed out, once you’ve done a few missions the game does tend to be VERY repetitive. This is why I gave it up, though I loved my characters, especially the villains.

    Repetitiveness aside, it’s well worth a look. One point of advice though: Travel powers rock, especially Super Jump, Flight, and Super Run (I think that’s what it’s called). These are even better when combined. Teleport is cool at first, but annoying on long trips, and there are many.

    I look forward to your reviews on any MMO (and the consequent Stolen Pixels material they provide), but until you get to them, enjoy the short games!

  15. Miral says:

    I played the beta of CoV, and it was awesome up to around level 12 or so (and I had one of the lesser Flight powers, which was a little slow but was still undeniably cool). Around that point though the game’s solo-ability just seemed to drop off. And I really prefer playing solo for the most part (though the option to team up occasionally is nice).

    I played the beta of Tabula Rasa as well. Pretty much completely hated that one.

  16. Chargone says:

    heh. i play city of heroes/villains too. I’ve probably got characters on half the servers, [i don’t have alt-itis, but at least half the group i play with does. it’s effects are catching.] but you’ll mostly find me on champion and virtue. global name Lux Laurentius [man, i haven’t typed that in forever. i Think i spelled it right]

    the city of games can get a little repetitive, but the back story, even to the ‘random’ missions, is useually amusing. also, you tend not to notice anything like as much if you get a good team together. and while it is soloable, teaming is Good for you.

    in my experience, most people are generally quite friendly and helpful. provided you’re polite and stuff.

    oh, and if you’re looking for actual RP [and often it’s quite good if you can get it going] virtue’s the place to go. that said, it’s the ‘unofficial’ RP server, so that’s not a limit :)

  17. Ben says:

    Did someone mention buying you Dungeon Keeper 2? One of my favourite games of all time, but spoiled a little by the fact that most levels can be beaten by sinking all your resources into 100+ mana cannons and creating a huge battery of firepower that reduces any invading heroes to a small pile of ash in seconds. Creatures are just to mop up afterwards.

  18. Sean w/o an H says:

    Out of curiosity (and since Ben mentioned DK2), did you ever consider playing Alone in the Dark? I know A) it’s a bit pricy and B) it’s DRM-laden, but I just read a really interesting rebuttal at gamecritics of the IGN review, and it’s piqued my interest in the game again. I always felt that the IGN review boiled down to “well, it plays more like RE than RE4”, so it’s nice to hear a second opinion that moves away from the hype a bit. Also, it’s nice to see a review for this game that can’t be summed up with “it’s really innovative; unfortunately, it’s a survival horror game, so it all sucks.” As always, love your blog (though I’ve never posted before) and I am really looking forward to more reviews.

    PS click here for the gamecritics article. (though, towards the end, the reviewer appears a bit too excited…)

  19. Kel'Thuzad says:

    You know KOTOR has the updated version of SecuRom?

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