Tag: rage

Android · annoyances · games · iOS · stupidity

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp — What’s Wrong with the Game Designers?

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Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp - Bunnie isn't taking your shit
Angry Bunnie

Edit on Saturday, February 17th, 2018: As of version 1.2.0, the quarry help, event creature catching success rates, and, to a degree, animal requests have been addressed. Hoping to see more improvements in the future!

I’m going to assume there’s more than one person involved when it came to designing the user interface and experience. It just boggles my mind that the following was given a pass by the designers and the folks that QC’d the app:

  • Sending Shovelstrike Quarry help requests to each friend individually.
    I literally have to spend 2 – 3 minutes everyday going through my list of 20 or so active players to ask for assistance. Did Nintendo honestly think players were going to just stop at 5 people? Maybe we would if we knew who would reliably send help every single time but as far as I know, that information isn’t shown.
  • No categories for flower trade.
    Some moron on staff decided it was a good idea to just lump everything onto one page and have everyone scroll for an eternity to look for the item they want to trade. To add insult to injury, the focus will jump back to the top of the list after the transaction is done. =____= Here’s what it looks like in action:

  • Constantly needing to re-initiate conversations with animals
    I realize that this is something from the main Animal Crossing games, but in those ones, you rarely had a need to speak to them multiple times in a row. In Pocket Camp, however, you’re trying to fulfill their 3 requests so why in all hell do I have to keep tapping on the animal over and over if I have everything they need? Why not just leave the dialogue topic menu open and let me close it myself if I have to go and get the items needed?
  • Abysmally low success rates of catching butterflies during Rover’s event
    I guess Nintendo made it nigh difficult to catch butterflies in hopes that players would spend leaf tickets (a.k.a premium currency) to get Lloid to catch them. If anyone did, it was most likely the whales and they’ll spend on anything to “win”.

    Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp -- Topaz butterflies from Rover's Crappy Ass Event
    A sight like this was not uncommon.
  • Useless “cutscene” of a Re-Tail delivery
    Unless you have severely short-term memory, you are most likely NOT going to forget what completed item you just tapped on in the Crafting menu so why show your character receiving it? It may just last a few seconds but it’s completely and wholly pointless. I’ve sent in a request to have an option to turn off the scene added. Who knows if it’ll ever happen?
  • The Market Box
    You can only see a preview of the first 4 items, you HAVE to go to the user’s camp to see the rest or buy anything, and you can’t collect all the Bells you made from multiple sales at once. It seems like the people involved in making the Market Box was thinking about the most inconvenient and roundabout way of using the damn thing.

Aside from the above, Nintendo also introduced the whole gardening bit without giving a thought of making life easy for everyone when it came to accessing other players’ gardens and identifying when a friend’s flowers needed watering.

They’ve addressed these two issues in recent updates, and they’ve released a notice not so long ago stating that they’ll be making changes to some things I’ve pointed out above. It continues to amaze me how common sense escapes everyone that’s involved with making Pocket Camp.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp - Future improvements
Nintendo is too blind to realize what common sense user experience is and needs the community to tell them that.

Something I hope to see is a re-balance on animal requests since I run into situations where all 4 animals would ask for multiples of the same fruit, fish, or bugs.

I get that they want us to make use of the Market Boxes and/or stay in the game/log in a few times over the course of a 3-hour cycle to collect the necessary quantities. But realistically, that probably doesn’t happen often for anyone playing. And along with Boxes being annoying to access, a lot of players simply put in rare items so good luck finding the squids or monarch butterflies all the animals are simultaneously wishing for.

As for fruits, I’d use the fertilizer more often but that would require spending leaf tickets to replenish them so nuts to that.

Incidentally, if you’re finding certain things rubbing you the wrong way in Pocket Camp, be sure to let Nintendo know! You can access the feedback form from the game’s menu under More. Tap Misc. and then Customer Support. From there, choose Feedback. The rest should be self-explanatory.

annoyances · games · PS Vita

Freedom Wars – Suggested Improvements That Should Have Been In the Game From the Start

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I’m almost 130 hours in. It’s kind of funny considering I haven’t even finished the story yet. 😛

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about how my experience of the game could have been better had the developer done the following: Continue reading “Freedom Wars – Suggested Improvements That Should Have Been In the Game From the Start” →

annoyances · games · PS Vita

Freedom Wars Last Boss: If At First You Don’t Succeed, You’ll Have to Replay Missions Before It Again Because the Developer is an Asshole

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One of the most grating things about the last part of the game is the LENGTH of it. Under the list of missions, you’ll only see one operation, but in reality, it’s THREE FUCKING CONSECUTIVE BATTLES.

Final story mission
Whitewater consists of 3 consecutive missions. =__=

There’s the usual set up screen before each fight though so you can change loadouts, replenish combat items, and switch out party members, BUT! Should you fail in any of these three battles, you’ll have to start from the beginning again. I’m unsure if you even keep any resources you get from the missions you successfully completed.

The biggest offender, however, is the difficulty of the final fight. It is fucking dreadful and because losing here means starting from the top again, it really discourages players from replaying it to figure out what the hell to do. Instead, unless you’re masochistic and want to redo everything over and over for the sole purpose of figuring out the strategy, you will most likely just go to a message forum or Google for advice.

Of course, even with an idea of how to go about fighting the last boss more or less effectively, you still have to hope that you won’t lose all sustainability. :/ And with AI allies falling unconscious left and right, and you becoming the main target of the enemies, the possibility of not surviving until the end becomes pretty high.

I don’t get why anyone should be punished for not defeating the final boss the first time. Why the fuck should I need to redo the first two missions? It’s a sadistic and terrible design. Admittedly, the second last boss isn’t all that difficult but the stupid Abductor has high defense and HP on every bloody part of its body so the battle can drag on. But again, who WANTS to redo this fight over and over involuntarily?

I haven’t read any interviews with the developer but I get the feeling this game was made for multiplayer in mind so solo players like me and probably many others out there are shit out of luck when it comes to tougher operations, or the final battle in this case. >_> (Yeah, I know there are people that completed it without enlisting the help of other players, but skill isn’t the only factor in success. The weapons, modules, and other things come into play too.)

annoyances · PS3

PlayStation Store PS3 Avatars Rant

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Each month, I turn on my PS3 to nab the free PS Plus games, and while I’m in the store, I decide to check out what’s new in terms of themes and avatars because I’m one of the few people out there that like them and may even spend money to purchase ones I like.

It is disheartening that the quality of the avatars found on the US and Canada stores has dramatically degraded over time. I’m unsure if other countries outside of Japan have also seen an influx of these, but if you haven’t then you should count your blessings.

Continue reading “PlayStation Store PS3 Avatars Rant” →

Android · annoyances · games · iOS · stupidity

[Tiny Farm] Add me (to the Power of ∞)

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Almost a month ago, users from other Gamevil and Com2uS games decided to throw common sense and etiquette out the door and mindlessly bombard the companies’ message forums known as HIVE clubs with “Add Me” friend requests to fulfill in-game friend invite quotas to obtain special goodies and bonuses.

If you check any of the clubs, you’ll find that they’ve all been infested with these Goodies Hunters. (I brand them as such because sincerely doubt most of them are remotely concerned with actual friendship.)

Tiny Farm HIVE club infested with add me requests
At the Tiny Farm club: Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me. Add me.

For Tiny Farm players, it’s rather frustrating since we use the message board to find information about event quests/objectives and also to seek help from others to tame special animals visiting our farms. The barrage of “Add Me”s end up pushing all the questions, informative posts, and taming requests way down the page and due to the club’s ultra archaic and backwatered design, it’s impossible to quickly locate them as it has no search function or a log that lists all of your own posts. In short, you are forced to scroll through the entire slog of useless crap.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, however! While there exists another fan-run message board, it’s pretty much been abandoned since the creator, johnnysilver, has quit the game a long while back. Now a new unofficial message board has been created in the wake of this mess thanks to frequent club users, Eluzyion and Animal House. You can find it at http://tinyfarmcommunity.freeforums.net/ 😀 At the moment, it is free from obnoxious friend requests and it’ll most likely stay that way since unless spam bots start creating accounts, the forum requires registered users to log in before they can even view it. The whole reason the HIVE clubs were subjected to the abuse is the sheer ease of accessing them in-game and the fact that you don’t need to register again to use them once you have a username or auto-generated account number from the game you logged into.

So if you’re tired of how useless the Tiny Farm Club has become, consider joining us at our new home! :3

Android · annoyances · games · iOS · stupidity

Actually, It’s About the Ethics of These Mobile Game Companies

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This isn’t about issues in journalism. I chose the title because it fits the subject matter of this post. The type of ethics in question, however, is work ethics. I’m mildly miffed that no one else seems to draw attention to the incompetence of Rayark, Inc. in their lack of proofreading text in Implosion – Never Lose Hope, and GCREST with their constant careless updates of CocoPPa Play. I feel strongly about these issues because it makes me wonder why I should support companies (or continue to support in Rayark’s case since I already purchased the game) that half-heartedly work on their games.

Continue reading “Actually, It’s About the Ethics of These Mobile Game Companies” →

annoyances · life

April: 30 Fucking Days of Awareness, Appreciation, or Days

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Earth Hour and Daylight Savings are stupid
Earth Hour and Daylight Savings: They’re both stupid.

One of my pet peeves is how people can pull “awareness days” out of their asses. There’s even a goddamn website with a list of these things.

My issue is that a lot of them are either asinine or just things that should be celebrated EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE YEAR. But I suppose, in the case of Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, those can be seen as “extra special kindness days” rather than “Gee, we should be nice to Mom or Dad that day.”

One of the greatest offenders to me is Earth Hour which is annually observed on the last Saturday of March. Why only choose the one freakin’ day to “create awareness for climate change”? Shouldn’t we be doing something (like conserving energy) everyday?? I’m sure as hell aware of climate change and wholly believe in it. I don’t need 60 minutes of darkness to remind me that it exists.

At any rate, I decided to try my hand at thinking up some awareness days and decided to make every single bloody day in April a part of the madness. Some of these may already exist; I didn’t comb through that site or Google for this crap. If there are duplicates then it just goes to show how easy it is to designate a day for something mundane. 😛

An expletive is included with each day for emphasis.

  • April 1st – Look Both Ways Before Crossing The Fucking Street Day
  • April 2nd – Read a Fucking Book Day
  • April 3rd – Talk to Fucking People Day
  • April 4th – Fucking Mobility Day (i.e. walk, run, cycle, drive, roll, etc.)
  • April 5th – Fucking Immobility Day (i.e. staying stationary like lying in bed, sitting on a chair, etc.)
  • April 6th – Fucking Messy Rooms Appreciation Day
  • April 7th – The Grass is Usually Fucking Green Appreciation Day
  • April 8th – Fucking Respect All Races and Genders Day
  • April 9th – Fucking Invisible Sicknesses Awareness Day (because not every kind of illness is physically obvious)
  • April 10th – Fucking Antarctica Appreciation Day (or sub that for any country people don’t really talk about)
  • April 11th – Fucking Oxygen Awareness Day
  • April 12th – Fucking Oxygen Appreciation Day
  • April 13th – Synchronize All Your Fucking Clocks Day (if you haven’t done so already)
  • April 14th – Fucking Furniture Appreciation Day
  • April 15th – Fucking Anticipation Awareness Day
  • April 16th – Keep Dogs on a Fucking Leash When in Public Day (designated areas where they don’t need to be using one are exempted, of course)
  • April 17th – Fucking Washroom Break Appreciation Day
  • April 18th – Stop Fucking Tailgating the Car In Front of You Day
  • April 19th – Stop Leaving Shopping Carts in the Middle of the Fucking Aisle Day
  • April 20th – Stop Fucking Westernizing Shit in Foreign Moves & Shows Awareness Day
  • April 21st – Original Fucking Pronunciation Appreciation Day (e.g. karaoke is read somewhat like kah-rah-oh-ké)
  • April 22nd – Pay Attention to Fucking Fine Print Day
  • April 23rd – The Customer is NOT Always Fucking Right Awareness Day
  • April 24th – Fucking Ground Floor Appreciation Day
  • April 25th – Merry Fucking Christmas Day
  • April 26th – Fucking Obsolete Businesses Appreciation Day
  • April 27th – Fucking Sun Awareness Day
  • April 28th – Fucking Moon Awareness Day
  • April 29th – Fucking Awareness Day Awareness Day
  • April 30th – Enjoy Your Fucking Life Day
annoyances · movie · stupidity

To the Point Review for the Movie, Triumph in the Skies (衝上雲霄)

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Triumph in the Skies promo poster
Triumph in the Skies (衝上雲霄)

This is written for the benefit of folks like me who are illiterate to Chinese but can understand conversational Cantonese and watches Chinese movies and TV dramas now and then.

A super brief background of Triumph in the Skies: the Hong Kong TV series that the movie is based off of was about airline pilots, mechanics, and stewardesses and their hardships and interactions with each other. It also gave viewers some insight on pilot training and other technical but interesting aspects of being apart of an airline crew.

Note: There are actually 2 series: one from 2003 and the wildly popular sequel released in 2013. It’s the second series that gave someone the idea that there should be a movie adaptation.

You’d think that, because the movie carries the same title as the serials, as well as featuring some actors from it, it’d have a similar sort of flair.

Nope.

It is 100 minutes of pure, utter shit.

The English synopsis found at the Wikipedia gives you the plot straight-up; it’s a flick that focuses on 3 separate storylines revolving around the relationships of 3 different couples.

This is literally what you get AT FACE VALUE. The 3 tales are NOT a part of an over-arching story. You will sit there, for 100 minutes, watching a disjointed pot-pourri of random shit happening with 6 individuals that get NO character development whatsoever.

The only redeeming value is the gorgeous cinematography featuring various locales in and around England.

Triumph in the Skies would seriously be better off as a slideshow.

life

[LIFE] Let’s Talk About Great Wall Brand’s Wuji Baifeng Wan (White Phoenix Pills)

koukoupuffs2 Comments

I get nasty pangs below my tummy that come and go for about half of an entire month. The pains usually last 30 minutes to 1 hour and can happen at any point of the day. I’ve had them wake me up at 4 in the morning a few times. Not fun. I even logged some of the experiences and have yet to see a pattern in terms of the time of day they occur. So basically, I spend about 10+ days in a month feeling miserable. This is excluding the usual monthly visitor. Ah, the wonders of the female body.

My family doctor’s given me some antibiotics (Mefenamic) which do work, I guess. I mean, it’s kind of hard to tell considering the pain tends to go away by itself anyway.

Anyway, my mom picked up some Wuji Baifeng Wan made by Tianjin Zhongxin Pharmaceutical Group Corp. Ltd. under the Great Wall Brand label from a local Chinese grocery store. (You can see an image of the packaging and some general information about its uses at Amazon.) She took these kinds of pills when she was young and figured that I could give them a try too.

The pills themselves are fine but I’d really like to punch the people that designed the capsule that holds the pills because …

乌鸡白凤丸 or 烏雞白鳳丸 pills are contained in a plastic capsule that's wrapped IN WAX for some unfathomable reason.
The 乌鸡白凤丸 or 烏雞白鳳丸 are contained in a plastic capsule that’s wrapped IN WAX for some unfathomable reason.

I suppose, decades ago, this was the method used to keep the capsules from popping open themselves while in transit from the factory to the stores and they’re maintaining the tradition nowadays too? Whatever the reason may be, it really has to go. I’m not sure what the quickest method is for removing wax but I’m pretty sure nothing compares to simply opening the plastic shell. Tianjin Zhongxin Pharmaceutical Group Corp. Ltd. must be too damn poor to get new machinery and shells with clasps, I guess. Actually, I’m not sure why no reviewer on Amazon mentioned the idiotic design.

Thankfully, there are other companies that also make the white phoenix pills and don’t package them in some ancient traditional method.

Edit: We tried another brand later on which actually had an illustration of how to open a damnable capsule  — you’re supposed to apply pressure on it such as stepping on it with your foot.  9_9