A Break From Tradition - Phone Calls

Bit of a thoughtful post today under the title "A Break From Tradition".

We had a phone call today, and as usual I didn't answer it as it's often a cold caller or an advertising firm (Perhaps they're one and the same), and it caused me to think about how people react to these calls and treat the person on the other end of the line, and the large amount of hypocrisy often present in these rants or attitudes.

At the end of the day, the person on the other end of the line is no different from you or me. They're there to do a job, to earn a living and to get through life. They're doing what they're told to by their superiors, and you can't fault them for that. Yes, I'll agree that ringing your house after around 7-8pm is perhaps rude, but I don't think it gives anyone a right to spout such venom at the poor person on the other end.

I'll use my mum as a great example of what I mean. She comes home from work and sometimes rants about rude customers she's had, how they treat her rudely and so forth. And yet when the phone rings and it's someone doing their job, she's rude to them. How is that an appropriate way to behave? The person on the other end of the line has probably been treated like that all day, perhaps all week. They're polite to you (Well, as polite as one can be in that job) and I would say that you should be polite back to them. They're human beings after all!

I had a job that wasn't too different in nature. I was on what's called "front cover" for part of a job, and the point of that task is to approach customers who've walked into the store and ask them to sign up to something (Usually a catalogue). You get *so* many people being rude to you that it's really morale destroying. "No, I don't speak English" is a common one. Rarely a "No, thank you" or a pitying glance, just "No" or something equally blunt and rude. You quickly begin to give up hope with it because it's just this barrage of rudeness, people not being courteous and negativity.

I'm not going to pretend to be some moral arbiter who tells you how to live your life, nor how to behave. I'm not doing this post for any particular reason. I just think that a bit of courtesy is required. Imagine you're the person on the other end of the line. Would you like to be treated like you just treated them? No, I would guess not.

Oh dear, oh dear...

Yes... I finally gave in and signed up for that I'm-A-Twit lark. I'll probably be chirping once every blue moon about pointless stuff.

P.S. Buy The Book of Transformations by Mark C. Newton when it comes out. That's an order.
P.P.S. I really need GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City. Need more beeg American tee-tees.

Dwagginz Plays... Dwagginz Plays - Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (Part 2)

I've been a bit quiet recently, partially out of apathy for the game and partially because I've been playing other things like Star Wars: Battlefront II and Grand Theft Auto IV. But I haven't completely given up with it. So, Dwagginz, what have you done up until now?

Well, I gave in and got a one month membership...

Firstly, I was wrong. It's £3.99 for a month, which sort of changes my perspective on membership. It's a lot for not a lot. You unlock more costumes (And they're adding more) and things, but nothing ever feels like it's [i]worth it[/i].

The Tower Defence game (Republic Defender, I believe) really ramps up in difficulty once you get to the member stages. I suspect it's aimed more at the older players, but I'll admit I really began to struggle with it. You don't get a lot of time on the Daily Trivia quiz (Members Only!) to answer the questions, with the end of the question's audio being close to the end of your allotted time. If you factor in the bugs and so forth, CWA is quite a challenging game for the market it's aimed at.

Overall, I think Clone Wars Adventures is a mixed bag. The games seem a bit too difficult, and whilst it may encourage parents to join in, I think both child and adult will find themselves frustrated within a short timespan. All there is to do, beyond running around and exploring a handful of areas (With nothing to find, I might add) is play the mini-games. You can try to socialise if you like, but I'm not sure I could recommend it. I never used the chat system but if it's like FR's then it'll be very crippled and restrictive.

My honest opinion, at this moment, is to wait for more content to be added. More items to buy, more customisation options, more levels and so on. With games like Free Realms around which are arguably more accessible to younger players and which have a higher content level for free players, I think CWA pales in comparison. Yeah, it's a bit fun, but that's it. Free Realms, in my opinion, is much more deserving of your time and (If you so choose, money).

Will I continue with this game? Perhaps. Will I do so as paid? Not unless SOE give me a reason to.

Dwagginz Plays - Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (Part 1.5)

I'm going to play more later, but I've had a bit of a sleep after playing for another hour or two last night. I tried a few more of the games on offer, including Blaster Training, Lightsaber Duel and Force Perception. I wouldn't say they're excessively buggy, but I felt that they were a bit poor quality, especially Force Perception.

Blaster Training is basically like the duck shooting mini-games at fairs. Targets pop-up and you've got to hit the targets (As long as they're droids, that is! No shooting Anakin in the face!), with "head shots" resulting in a critical hit, taking them out in one go. It bases your score on how many droids you hit and what your accuracy is at the end. For the most part it's fairly simple and I managed to get a chain of roughly 20 critical hits, but it's also quite easy to miss, especially when you're aiming in the rear rows of targets.

Lightsaber Duel is more in line with beat 'em' up games like Tekken and Street Fighter, albeit with a Star Wars twist. You have to press the arrow keys in the right combination of four (Such as Up Down Left Down) before the timer empties to execute an attack. If you do so successfully, you contribute to your combo meter. After a few attacks, your combo meter fills and if you do the correct combination then you execute a much stronger attack against your opponent. Sadly, this game is prone to bugging out. You can press the keys too fast and it seems to pause for a second or two before registering them. I've also had situations where I'm using a combo move and the opponent attacked me before I finished, although it wasn't possible for me to "type" any quicker. I would say it's one of the least forgiving games in CWA, and I only went against three opponents (Obi Wan, Ashoka, Barriss Offee) before the game reminded me to stump up some money.

Force Perception is the worst game out of the lot. It's buggy, it's very unforgiving and it's frustrating. You have to find five differences in the two images, but the two images are never the same, there's always a subtle difference. I had one of Aayla Secura, and whilst the difference in her pose was minimal, it was still there. You've also got a small area to click on for a difference, and each incorrect click docks 1000 points. Yes, if you miss by a pixel you lose 1000 points. I basically gave up with this game because it's just so infuriatingly broken.

I also played around with the SC store last night, and found an option to switch between items which are bought with SC and those with Credits. The amount of items to buy is still rather small, but I found some nice pieces that really tempt me into getting a membership.

More to come later...

Dwagginz Plays - Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (Part 1)

Let me introduce you to Bassi Gammaslide, my character in Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures. Through her I'll be exploring the game and commenting on what I do and don't like about it, and what I think of the title overall.

I'd heard about it a little during its beta, and the Free Realms-esque nature of it appealed to me. Free To Play (F2P), casual friendly, mini-games and so forth. It's something you can load up on a Sunday evening and lose a few hours to, basically.

Free Realms, for those who don't know, is another F2P game that's developed and maintained by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), the same people who maintain Vanguard, Star Wars: Galaxies and, of course, EverQuest and EverQuest 2. It's a game clearly aimed at pre-teens (or the early teens), but it's by no means unsuitable for adults as a lot of the games it contains are great for adults too. There's a large world to explore and you earn coins to buy clothing, items and other things, or you can use Station Cash (SOE's microtransaction currency) to purchase items that you cannot earn in-game, most of which cunningly require your membership to use.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (CWA) is effectively a cut down version of this with a Star Wars theme. Coming from a game like Free Realms, I find this a highly disappointing release as there's much less to do without a membership. Membership is $4 a month, and the payment reaches a maximum of $45 for a lifetime membership. Those using proper money can be expected to stump up about £2.60 a month, going to about £29 for a lifetime pass. That isn't including Station Cash top ups, however. I have no figures to hand, but 500 points (which isn't a lot) costs around $5, i.e. around £3.20. Membership unlocks a fair portion of the game, and I'll go into that as I comment on the game.

The interface for the game is clear, colourful and stays within the Star Wars theme. There's a lot of white and a lot of blue, and plenty of images. Below is a roughly labelled image of what you'll see in-game. The "Game" button only appears if you're in the vicinity of that activity. In this picture, my character is stood next to a pile of broken droids which trigger that activity. Your character's balance of both currencies is clearly displayed next to the options, and the button to open the store (Which also carries non-SC items) isn't too intrusive, although I would feel it better as a button in the bottom corner of the screen.


I started by running around the area your character begins in, which is the "Store" district. This is where most of the merchants hang out and you can by bikes, furniture, costumes, robots and other items here. It was quite busy with players, and those who have a membership are denoted with a gold name and an icon next to it. You can usually tell them apart from normal members due to the different costumes they often wear. For example, I saw one member in the guise of one of those rolling-up-in-a-ball droids from Episode 1.

One of the things I loved about FR was the variety of activites for your character. You could walk out of the social zones and explore. You could run all the way to the beach, or you could run into a haunted forest. You could race a car and then go and cook some food that you earned in a minigame last week. Even despite the variation, the activities felt linked together. In CWA, they feel so much more distant. I controlled R2D2 in a "platformer" (It sort of was but wasn't), I catapulted Jar Jar Binks into a dung heap and I flew Anakin's ship. Only one activity I did (I didn't do them all, by the way) used my character, and that was bike racing. Bike racing was pretty good fun, although I found it quite easy. All you have to do is race around a track, collect the boost (green) power ups and avoid the deceleration (purple) ones. I came first in every race I did (Except one where I lost by 2 seconds because I crashed into a wall) with no challenge from the other players.

Ah, yes, I was going to talk more about membership. If you're wanting to get more than a couple of hours out of it, or if you want to have your "own" character, then a membership is necessary. All the games have levels past a certain point blocked off to non-members, many of the purchasable items require a membership and really it's half a game without them. And that's where my main gripe is, especially with Free Realms around. That game allows you to customise your character to some degree, there's a wide selection of free and/or in-game items to be gotten without membership and, if I'm truly honest, I felt that a membership wasn't necessary to get a lot out of that game. CWA has swung to the other end of the scale and I honestly feel it takes away from what could be a great experience.

I'll write part 2 later ;)