1004 Homestuck.

For the record, both of the girls’ outfits were guessed between the two sites eventually. Jo’s outfit is reminiscent of Glitter the pixie from Kidd Video and Jess is wearing something similar to Aja’s outfit from the episode of Jem titled Last Resorts. Last Resorts is the episode where Jem and Rio wrassle a bear. Yeah, you read that right. They wrassle a bear. I know that last sentence is going to make this one seem insane, but Jem actually had moments of really exceptional writing for the time. Kidd Video was pretty terrible across the board.

They released a new IOS Skylanders game AND a My Little Pony one too. They’re basically facebook games, like Smurfs or what have you. You don’t really play them, you manipulate their world like a zen garden, but that’s about it. Exactly the type of ridiculous tedium that I easily obsess over. You can import Your Skylanders into the one game, which gets you little bonuses, but you still have the option of buying in game currency. One thing both these games share is a completely insane idea of what the value of DLC is. You get virtually nothing for your money. I certainly don’t hate DLC, but a person should be able to purchase every item available for the estimated cost of the game itself, if the game is free, or for almost nothing if they already paid for the game. I shit you not, Princess Celestia costs about $70. Do you know what her powers are in game? Standing there and/or wandering around. That’s it. That’s all this thing is. A few frames of recycled animation with a skin on it. For $70 fucking dollars. It’s insane. There’s no way the development cost percipitates this kind of gouging.

The game functions more or less fine without the premium ponies. Except for the main ones are kind of part of the story and you have to buy 2 of them. Basically the game stalls out after a while if you don’t. And they aren’t cheap. Rarity is about $10. Which is more than a right thinking person would pay for the game. That said, they did a nice job. The actual voice actors did the speaking parts and they didn’t phone it in. The art is true to the show, apart from the ponies looking a little odd in 3d. Really though they translate a lot better than I would have expected. I haven’t gotten far enough to unlock Rainbow Dash, but I hear that she is much more pricey than Rarity. They really should have made the main cast available with in earnable currency. Anything apart from that is fair game in my book. Although I still think the pricing structure is insane, and greedy to the point of obscenity. Considering the fit some people pitched over Derpy you’d think the fans could rise up and get something done about this too, but who knows.

The skylanders game is pretty mercinary too for it’s part, but if you already own the Skylanders it doesn’t make you pay for them. I wouldn’t put doing something like that past Activision. If you buy a Skylander in game it costs about $8. Which makes buying them in game so fucking stupid I can’t imagine anyone ever doing it. Going to the store and buying the toy will cost you ONLY SLIGHTLY MORE and you walk away with a toy that you can use on every platform. There is no reason to EVER buy a Skylander in game. To their credit, if you enter a code from an actual toy in after you buy it in game the game refunds your gems (their currency). But it remembers which ones you buy. OH YEAH, you aren’t getting a bonus from Activision if it gives you a free one and you buy it later. Every so many levels you get a random character for free. I happened to get one I hadn’t already entered in, but it didn’t respin when I entered the code later. I was simply dicked. Not that it matters one way or another. I already have a mountain of the goddamn things, what’s one lost one between… whatever Activision and I are.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy fiddling with these games. I like seeing these little avatars wandering around on their own, and I definitely like gaining bonus stats in the real games. Still, I feel like I’ve paid enough. After buying a certain number of these things I feel like I’ve earned the right to breeze through any other offering Activision trots out. Earned it LITERALY with money. In all honesty I was able to cheat a little. You get a stipend with each Skylander, so I was able to get into building my game world a little faster than usual, but not as much as I feel I should have.

There was also a glitch. My Gill Grunt is trapped in some sort of nether region that he can’t escape from. He’s basically perpetually stuck on a quest, or something. I don’t know exactly how it happened. The problem is that Activision’s support system is shit. So unless they fix it on accident in an update he’s MIA. There’s no option to cancel a quest. There really needs to be a force quit on quests.

Which reminds me of a flaw both games share. It is far too easy to spend the special money. Neither game has a warning when you are about to. it just lets you do it. Because of this I have accidentally spent some of the bonus gems I have accrued because of finger twitching. MLP has the same problem with selling buildings. The sell button has no warning and is right next to the other options. My fingertip is as wide as the space for ALL THREE OPTIONS. Skylanders asks you if you’re sure before you sell something, but they forgot a warning for the in app purchases… (I’m raising my eyebrow so hard you should be able to hear it.) Dick move Activision. It’s one thing to be stupid on accident, but on purpose? Shame.

I have to say, these two games make Smurfs’ Village and Snoopy’s Street Fair seem charitable by comparison. The unabashed greed is almost staggering. Of course that’s not unecpected for either company, I suppose, but there needs to be some backlash on this incredibly first world problem.

16 Comments

I can’t get into those games that make you pay for every little thing. I can get behind paying for extra levels or paying for another character to play as (so the game feels a little different), maybe even paying for ultra cool things like, say, Snake’s ammo bandanna, but paying for things you need to complete the game? That’s BS. Everything you need should be right there. It’s not a fucking starter kit. It should be self-contained.

You complain about these games and the greed, and yet you just keep buying it. That’s why they will keep on being greedy, they know that even though people complain they will keep spending money. It’s like a parent yelling at an unruly child and expecting the child to actually behave. Unless the parent actually gets up and intervenes nothing is going to happen.

So stop being the angry parent yelling at their child, get up and intervene. Stop buying their high priced crap and they will eventually get the idea that people are tired of the gouging and they will lower their prices.

I haven’t actually bought anything in those games dillhole.

Wow, very mature. Calling me names because I was trying to point out the obvious. I wasn’t trying to be rude to you or even calling you names. Even if YOU personally never buy anything from those games, other people do. So what I said still holds true. Until people stop paying for things at the price they charge, nothing will ever change.

It doesn’t matter how angry and irate you get, unless you can talk other people into not paying the set price all you will do is grumble in an ineffective manner. My husband has a saying about things like this, “Do something or stop bitching about it”.

Oh, and from your rant, you give the impression that you have bought some of their stuff. These are your own words after all.

“After buying a certain number of these things I feel like I’ve earned the right to breeze through any other offering Activision trots out.”

Skylanders are actual physical things. You can use them over and over once you get one. But I have, like, a million dollars of them already. I feel like I shouldn’t have to buy magical fun bucks after spending so much already. Also, the blog IS how I get people to do or not do stuff. Enough people read this that it is possible I’m causing change. I still don’t want to say it like “we should rise up and destroy Activision” though. I don’t want that. I just want pricing for DLC that amounts to nothing really to be more reasonable.

Double also, getting called a dill hole is like barely getting called a name at all after what amounted to a scolding. If I was serious about it I would have used a more serious curse. I can tell it made you really mad though because you did the AND ANOTHER THING double post. So I apologize.

Well my apologies for scolding you like a naughty child then. That wasn’t actually what I was trying to do. I don’t really know anything about any of the games that you mention, so did not realize you were talking about an actual RL purchase.

I just get so tired of hearing people bitch and moan about things that they are actually helping to perpetuate. My bad there thinking that’s what the situation was.

But I was actually trying to be helpful too in my own way. Sad to say I’m more than a bit blunt and confrontational at times, even when I don’t really mean to be.

But I’m always willing to go back and talk it out and smooth out any misunderstandings. I love your comic by the way and Brooksie is by far my favorite character.

I feel really bad for Mike. I hope they can save his job somehow.

Also, everyone has a vice. So yours is crappy Facebook games. There are worse weaknesses to have! Like blackjack… and hookers…

I didn’t find Skylanders that bad, at all. The only issue I’ve had, at all, was my Sprocket being stuck “In Use” from a troll camp event. I’ve never felt the need to spend my gems and I tick along at a steady pace. I’ve played pretty much all of the really popular time-sync/play-and-wait “freemiun” games on iOS, especially Snoopy and Smurffs, and I felt like Snoopy sucked my soul out and set it on fire and Smurffs shoved a rocket up my arse. Skylanders is a breeze compared to pretty much all the others I’ve played. I figured it was because I owned so many Skylanders but you own far more than I (we only very recently were able to start collecting), so maybe I’m doing something wrong and missing out on something I should be doing? Or maybe I just play slow or something. I dunno. Only thing I know is its one of three iOS games that even feels worth playing to me most days.

Damn, that’s pretty fatalistic there, Thomas. If you like Mike as the manager you should at least have an idea or two to help him try to stick around. Since you always have a plan, even if you say you don’t.

I seem to remember liking Kidd Video. Or maybe I just thought Carla was hot. I dunno, it’s been a while…

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