Everything pretty much started with Mark suddenly asking…
Absolutely nothing!!
Some people told me they got a t-shirt.
“Oh wow! You must be such a winner right now.” -.-
So when my boyfriend got to meeting me, I was having a terrible bitch-fit.
However I consoled myself that the waiting was over. Till he said that he had to go back to Funan IT Mall to queue again!!
Because apparently the first 3 hours that he queued up, was only to obtain a blardy registration number!
What kind of event planner would do such a thing?
The event was the launch of the game. And naturally, you would sell people your game, right?
That’s the whole purpose!
Mark: The official launch time is 3PM in Singapore.
Me: Okay. So why don’t they just start selling at 3PM onwards?? So people won’t queue for 3 hours for a bunch of numbers – and queue again! It is just doing double-work!
I went with Mark anyhow to Funan IT Mall. And after a while, I calmed down. I was too busy trying to spot females in the crowd.
There were only 2 main categories of females then:
1. Gamer-girls. Pretty easy to tell.
2. Disgruntled girlfriends. Like myself.
So the event went on as expected…
The emcee was hyping the crowd, “3…2…1!!!!”
And everyone went wild!! I, for one, never really thought that gamers were to kind to cheer. I was proven dead wrong that day.
They cheer!! Some of them even squealed!!
I admit I suffered a tad of culture shock.
And the emcee went, “Your souls now belong to Diablo.”
I went, “No kidding.” And looked up at my gamer-boyfriend who returned guilty looks at me.
Then they announced the oh-so-lucky gamer who was the first in line and would receive the collector’s edition of the game worth about SGD100!
The fella walked up on stage and he looked terribly fatigued!!
Then I found out why when the emcee said, “This man was queuing since 6AM the day before! On 14 May!!”
OH.MY.GOODNESS.GRACIOUS.GOD.AND.ALL.OF.HEAVEN.AND.EARTH.
That would have made his wait approximately…. 33 HOURS!!!
At that moment – I felt so proud of my boyfriend for exercising a certain extend of self-control. *proud gleams* At least he wasn’t all that obsessed!
Though that fella is pretty smart though – in stores, the collector’s edition is worth about $450 now! Wow.
However I was still turned off by the absolutely poor planning of the event.
Basically it goes like this –
1. Let obsessed-gamers queue up from any time they want. (Apparently 33 hours ago was the record…)
2. In the morning of 15 May, booths would be set up at the event to give out registration numbers to the gamers – each registration number has a total of about 15 gamers with the same number.
3. Gamers will all gather around for the countdown to 3PM Singapore time.
4. Everyone goes nuts.
5. Registration numbers would be flashed on TV screens placed all over the event area, gamers with the numbers shall come forward to collect.
6. Approximately 15-20 gamers would go up to the Collection counter, where they would check each box they have purchased for all the contents.
BRAVO!! SO BLARDY EFFICIENT!!!
Y’see, I don’t see the logic behind making your customers stay behind for soooo many hours.
Once you have people for that many hours – means you need to pay staff to take care of them for that many hours. Plus, the longer you have people around – the longer time there is for trouble to brew.
Then Mark brought me down to his homeland – the land of gamers. And almost immediately, I guessed why.
It was pretty downright obvious that the only reason why the event planners had absolutely no qualms about cramming up close to 1,500-2,000 people together was because of….
The sponsors!! Y’know those booths that were set up there? Y’know those logos on the banners?
Then again, this is all entirely my own speculation.
Hardcore and loyal gamers might come screaming, “You alien-of-our-world!! You have no right to comment on our world when you know nothing of it!!”
Ah, exactly. With attitudes like this, it is no wonder the event planners were confident of enslaving you all.
Tsk.
And if you really want to be mean about it – gamers pretty much live in their virtual reality realm. Now, I honestly have absolutely nothing against that!
Please, I’m dating a gamer.
However what I was really cheesed off was the fact that the event planner did a terribly shabby job and was obviously out to squeeze out whatever penny they could from the consumers.
Fine, the game took forever to develop.
That’s why your game costs about $100!! A typical game is about $50-$70…
If you really want to look at what I’m getting at… I’m actually on the side of the gamers.
*halo glows* Haha!
No, seriously.
I cannot stand how the event planners seem to be treating the gamers. I looked around at them – all anticipating and excited about their new toy.
And what happens?
Those blardy idiots extort them!
For God’s sake! They should hell be cherishing each & every one of the gamers because they are the ones that make the whole event a success!!
Oh wait. The event was a fail.
The game seems pretty good so far though.
…except…. Servers always seem to be down.
Nope, I don’t play it. But I have enough friends around who play it and always complain about it.
And lookie here – another news article!
Korea (gamer-rich country!) has some really pissed off gamers who are really turned off by the servers constantly being down that they requested for their money back. But… Surprise-oh-surprise… Your game developer doesn’t seem to give a damn. Read it here!
Hmm….
Now I really wonder why-oh-why do gamers even bother?
You want the game? Fine.
But lookie here – they want you to queue up for soooo many hours of your life, to get something that you could get elsewhere too! All because, why?? They want to squeeze whatever they can from you!
You want to play the game? Fine.
But guess you can’t as often as you want – because your developer has sucky servers and half the time you’re looking at some “Error 37” page or something.
Lets look at the facts here.
Blizzard took 10 years to establish the game – I’m sure they knew the hype about it.
When the demand is so high, it is pretty obvious that the price would be high too.
However, seems like nothing is really worth the money here.
Time wasted.
Extra money spent.
Frustration.
And hardly much game-time because of servers being down.
Since Blizzard knew of the demand of the game – why such poor servers?
And if you want to say, “Ooh!! Servers are sooo expensive to rent/buy!!”
Okay… But, hello? You do realise that this game is more expensive than usual games right?
I mean, if you pay more – you naturally expect that the production costs should be more.
However, dear gamers – I’m afraid that you all have been treated shabbily.
1. You waited soooo long for this game.
2. You pay more than usual for this game.
3. You wait longer than usual for this game. (unbelievably so)
4. You’re somewhat “pressured” into spending more at the event itself.
5. You always encounter down servers.
And as a girlfriend of a gamer, I feel frustrated along so.
For one, I spent tiring hours queuing up with Mark.
For another, he often neglects me… Then comes back complaining about the server. -.-
So… Why-oh-why is everyone still so hyped up about it?
No doubt, Diablo 1 & 2 were practically groundbreaking!! But that’s the past.
Diablo 3 doesn’t seem as good, does it? It can’t even play on offline-mode like Diablo 1 & 2!
Even if it doesn’t live up to the grand expectations set – it doesn’t even live up to decent expectations.
I’m already pretty disgruntled as a neglected girlfriend…. but for my boyfriend to neglect me over something so disgustingly pathetic?
I don’t know if I want to slap someone from Blizzard, or the event planning company, or my boyfriend.
Blizzard – for not taking care of their gamers decently.
Event planning company (they say it is Asia Soft) – for having such disgusting organisation skills for the event.
Boyfriend – for making me queue and neglecting me over something so irritatingly sick.
Bah.
Time to find a hobby.
X.O.X.O. Love. Love.
Gera Shen 