Saturday, July 10, 2010

The Midway (release report pt4)

Ok, so this is less of a report than it is an update. But i really liked the way the title showed, some form of consistency from me, not that it happens too often :)

The Midway appears to be a huge success. It is very popular in the Home circles and we have heard an awful lot of praise. Which is truly appreciated. Most things have not gone wrong, altough a few things have. So i will list a few god/bad things:-


The Bad,
1. SDTV issue is a biggie. when 10% or so of your clientel cannot play your games. It is bad. The fix should be live already.
2. Darlas Darts Prize 6, male version only. In home this special TShirt appears to be white. There is a shader issue with the object and somehow we missed it. It will be fixed on the 15th.
3. Meet Darla time is silly. We did not do a special version of The Midway for europe. so they got the same time offset from GMT that America did. This is bad when Darla appears at 5 in the morning in England. Paris fared little better with her appearing at 6am. I have read of people setting their alarm clocks to go online and meet her. BAH! This will also be addressed on the 15th of July. The new time will be 6 hours earlier.
Ok more bad things later when i recall them.

The Good,
1. The Midway spaces always look busy when we go there. It is a joy to behold so many people running around in there and making it look busy. It was part of our dream to see a space in home that did not look dead, or populated by zombies. From what we saw people really like the fact the place is happening. The spectator mode was a lot of trouble to make work, and i feel players or even just visitors are appreciating this.
2. People are really prepared to spend money on these simple little games. Yeah, we wondered at first. Knowing it is a casual market is one thing, appealing to it is another. We think we got it mostly right.
3. We felt before launch that a number of our games could be considered too hard. We are pleasantly surprised by peoples willpower and dedication to winning all the prizes. It is amazing to us that so many people already own a Golden Jacket.
More positives in a later post as well.

Info..
I was informed that there were 50 instances of The Midway running on Thursday morning when it launched. Is this a lot? I don't know. Probably about 2500 people. I sure hope there are more people in home than that, but still a great start...

The Golden Crown has been seen in Home now. I believe a number of people have figure out where it comes from, etc.. but i can reveal the truth. We check your inventory when you enter The Midway, and if you own a Golden Toilet, then we GIVE you a free Golden Crown. We also hope to do this kind of special bonus rewards system for future releases, in relation to our older releases of spaces and items etc. I sure hope that it is a recurring theme for Mass Media.

G'night.

3 comments:

  1. uh oh we may just now have to fill Midway with Zombies lol .....and it was me and a few friends who figured out the golden crown debacle .........I have Been in HOME since it started back in the closed beta days.....and i can tell you 50 instances at one time is quite alot for home...And in the two years of updates ive never seen something so anxiously awaited for or as popular once it did get here...the only other space that has drawn this much attention is Sodium One ...they got some competition now ...and the mention of Midway 2 has ppl biting at the bit ...i can name at least 10 ppl who have spent at least 20 dollars , Home is just jammed full of ppl who want ALL the rewards and will stop at nothing to get them......to me and almost everyone i know this space is a giant Success for HOME and i and others love the fact we can watch ppl play ...plus it lends me to help ppl out in ball squeezer which i couldnt do if they couldnt see me .Thanks again for the hours of fun

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  2. Hey matey, Thanks a bunch for your kind comments. I have forwarded them to the team you got me so excited. The Midway two is planned as a Quick expansion so i hope you are not disappointed with it.However i am hopeful Midway3 the final chapter will have a lot more interesting things for me to wrte hehe.

    Laters
    Da Voodoochief

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  3. well after hearing about it in the first place and now being there its better than i was expecting.....was a bit miffed we were gonna have to pay for tickets as were alot of ppl...but the price is nice and all those who were saying they wouldnt pay are into their 5th or 6th set of tickets lol ....been some speculation on what 2 is gonna bring some think rides and are kinda hoping for that ....others just more games but the 5k and 7500 tiles with ? got ppl wanting more ....and now u say midway 3? now u really got me excited lol .....i assume there will be more games to play and if so are they done or is it still in the air?........ cause alot of ppl have made suggestions as to what they would want to see....well time to go back to the midway ...Darts is giving me a fit lol

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