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Screw this, I'm outta here!
Aug. 16th, 2011 07:20 amDecided yesterday for several reasons not to bother playing Gardens of Time anymore.
Well, first of all, during the first five days of joining, you're supposed to receive a free bonus of silver coins or a mystery gift each day. When I tried to collect yesterday's bonus (multiple times throughout the day, before deciding, fuck it), I kept getting a message saying that I couldn't claim it. Turns out I'm not the first person to have this happen to, and that someone is already looking into it.
More importantly, though, is anything about buying gold bars. The most obvious way to get them is to pay for them with real United States dollars, and the few other ways I know of are to complete surveys and offers on Facebook itself (which don't yield many), write winning posts on GU! (only five or ten will be selected, and only about other online games, which I don't have much experience with), or, oh, by signing up for a free trial on Netflix. With that last one, you can get something like 125 bars, but only if you don't already have an account on that site. (Look, I know it's a promotion, but that's just really discriminatory against everyone who already rents or watches stuff there. Not like it would hurt business to give gold to existing members, would it?)
Yeah, I tried gathering coins on from GU! tasks (including trying out another game called DD Tank) to redeem for Facebook credit, but it turns out that those obtained from offers and surveys aren't redeemable. Actually, I had read as much somewhere, but assumed it was erroneous since someone else seemed to say otherwise. That was all cleared up when I read that only coins obtained by shopping or writing posts are redeemable. So basically, that means that the only way to earn gold bars is to spend money (even if indirectly), something which I do not intend to do even after I land a job, since I would like to save up to run Retro Savior.
Until Mom showed me the game only a few days ago, I never had any intention to play online games like these, but I thought that as long as I'm actually doing more than grinding levels and spending real cash, maybe it would be worthwhile. But, this whole article by Cracked.com couldn't sum it up better: These games are meant to suck you into a vicious cycle of playing and spending, even long after you get bored of them.
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Showed Mom the above-linked-to article when she got home, after explaining the other reasons for quitting. She then explained to me that Marie used to play Farmville some time ago, but at some point quit, and the people running it lost interest in her after trying to lure her back in for a last few times. I had also mentioned that I had sought a way to close my account on the game, and she showed me that I can do so by removing the application for it from my FB account.
After having checked out the aforementioned DD Tank much earlier on, I had thought of going to GameStop to buy something for my Nintendo DS, not just to get my mind off of GoT before being able to just put it behind me, but also to have some fun customizing characters in a game with a real goal (something which won't be possible in Monster Collection Chronicles). However, even after Mom showed me how to remove the app, I still figured I might continue studying Japanese the next morning, and just buy a game anyway to pass the remaining hours of that day.
Mom drove me there shortly after I had dinner, and I looked around at a whole bunch of games. Eventually picked out Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (out of eight games I had gathered before getting in line), but reading this review confirms that this was a mistake, as far as the gameplay (most important aspect of any game, w/ certain exceptions) goes. Well, good thing it only costed $10, and even though there are no refunds on it, maybe I'll be able to redeem it later on for store credit.
Of course, I didn't exactly have anything in particular on mind. I just wanted everything to be a surprise until I picked something out. Not like I'm gonna go there, make a list, go home, look up some reviews, and then go back a second time to pick something, am I? I mean, I know there is a website for the store chain itself, but do they keep track of what they have at any individual store?
Well, first of all, during the first five days of joining, you're supposed to receive a free bonus of silver coins or a mystery gift each day. When I tried to collect yesterday's bonus (multiple times throughout the day, before deciding, fuck it), I kept getting a message saying that I couldn't claim it. Turns out I'm not the first person to have this happen to, and that someone is already looking into it.
More importantly, though, is anything about buying gold bars. The most obvious way to get them is to pay for them with real United States dollars, and the few other ways I know of are to complete surveys and offers on Facebook itself (which don't yield many), write winning posts on GU! (only five or ten will be selected, and only about other online games, which I don't have much experience with), or, oh, by signing up for a free trial on Netflix. With that last one, you can get something like 125 bars, but only if you don't already have an account on that site. (Look, I know it's a promotion, but that's just really discriminatory against everyone who already rents or watches stuff there. Not like it would hurt business to give gold to existing members, would it?)
Yeah, I tried gathering coins on from GU! tasks (including trying out another game called DD Tank) to redeem for Facebook credit, but it turns out that those obtained from offers and surveys aren't redeemable. Actually, I had read as much somewhere, but assumed it was erroneous since someone else seemed to say otherwise. That was all cleared up when I read that only coins obtained by shopping or writing posts are redeemable. So basically, that means that the only way to earn gold bars is to spend money (even if indirectly), something which I do not intend to do even after I land a job, since I would like to save up to run Retro Savior.
Until Mom showed me the game only a few days ago, I never had any intention to play online games like these, but I thought that as long as I'm actually doing more than grinding levels and spending real cash, maybe it would be worthwhile. But, this whole article by Cracked.com couldn't sum it up better: These games are meant to suck you into a vicious cycle of playing and spending, even long after you get bored of them.
-----
Showed Mom the above-linked-to article when she got home, after explaining the other reasons for quitting. She then explained to me that Marie used to play Farmville some time ago, but at some point quit, and the people running it lost interest in her after trying to lure her back in for a last few times. I had also mentioned that I had sought a way to close my account on the game, and she showed me that I can do so by removing the application for it from my FB account.
After having checked out the aforementioned DD Tank much earlier on, I had thought of going to GameStop to buy something for my Nintendo DS, not just to get my mind off of GoT before being able to just put it behind me, but also to have some fun customizing characters in a game with a real goal (something which won't be possible in Monster Collection Chronicles). However, even after Mom showed me how to remove the app, I still figured I might continue studying Japanese the next morning, and just buy a game anyway to pass the remaining hours of that day.
Mom drove me there shortly after I had dinner, and I looked around at a whole bunch of games. Eventually picked out Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (out of eight games I had gathered before getting in line), but reading this review confirms that this was a mistake, as far as the gameplay (most important aspect of any game, w/ certain exceptions) goes. Well, good thing it only costed $10, and even though there are no refunds on it, maybe I'll be able to redeem it later on for store credit.
Of course, I didn't exactly have anything in particular on mind. I just wanted everything to be a surprise until I picked something out. Not like I'm gonna go there, make a list, go home, look up some reviews, and then go back a second time to pick something, am I? I mean, I know there is a website for the store chain itself, but do they keep track of what they have at any individual store?