Many of us, old timer RPG fans, were excited when Xenosaga Episode I hit the game stores. Remembering the fulfilling game play and a captivating story that Xenogears, the sequel to the series in the works, enticed us with we all hurried to get our hands on the first in the 7 part series. The original game left many unanswered questions and a lot of grounds for imagination. The timeless classic that presented the gamers with the deep philosophical content combined with innovative game play and old school battle systems made RPG players long for more action and the anticipated excitement of the prequels to the story.
Xenosaga, the greatly anticipated project, came as a disappointment to many awaiting its release. To start, Episode I hit the hard core players with the realization that there were no stores available to upgrade the armor and weapons, which is a must for the old school fans. There was no way to buy anything, only to find items buried deep within the game, many of them in the side quests, which often turned out to be annoying and way out of the way of the main story. The battle system, although still turn based, was underdeveloped and left you wishing for more. The cut scenes ran long and interrupted the game play almost every 15 minutes. At some point in time it would seem like you are watching a movie instead of playing a game. The game offered grossly around 35 hours of game play, side quests not counting, unlike the original game which offered hundreds of hours of play.
Layout of the game is also not very favorable as there is still not much of an environment control and some angles make it very hard to see the full picture. The battles are all planned; there are no random enemies that can be encountered. Most areas, once cleared will not offer any more enemies to battle, which makes leveling up very hard to do. But even the leveling up is not very important because the hardest battle encountered will be the battle with the final boss.
The game ends abruptly, without even the smallest indication that you might be close to a finish and leaves the player with even more questions unanswered than before the game was started.
In its attempt to sell the popular story of the original game Namco, the unlikely successor to the Square Enix project, fails to produce the quality work expected by millions of gamers worldwide.
But even considering the fiasco the first episode created, hopeful RPG players still decided to give the second episode a chance and were disappointed yet again. The battle system remained as underdeveloped as before. Cut scenes became even lengthier, side quests more abound, although not really adding to the main story game play. The only store that existed in the first episode was completely eliminated, not even allowing for a chance to sell the junk that was occasionally picked up in battles. Some battles were made more complex without really any reason for it.
Across the board the only real thing that ties Xenosaga project to the original Xenogears is the story which promises to eventually give answers to the questions left behind by the Square Enix team. But is the story, no matter how compelling and structured, worth paying fifty dollars for each episode, which repeatedly fail to live up to the expectations of anticipating audience? It would not be a surprise if in the end, when all 7 episodes are produced, Namco will come out with one game that will combine them into one continues game.
Download Failure To Launch
Mobile content consists of ring tones, logos, pictures, wallpapers and other content offered on web sites for download. Just surf the web and you will find many web sites offering services – some topic specific, other country specific. Frequenting forums recently, I found disgruntled clients in South Africa that wanted to download mobile content, but the ring tone or logo failed to download. As a result the “networks” and Mobile phone companies are blamed for this failure of delivery.
The actual post I refer to started off with a warning about a scam where people received “Please call me” SMS. In response to the “please call me”, the customer was kept online having to answer senseless surveys with the call charges running up on their phone bills. The South African networks issued a warning against this scam that was doing the rounds.
Reading the posts I was quite astounded with the level of ignorance from the public side. Immediately legitimate SMS competitions (premium rated SMS) were drawn into the conversation with clear customer dissatisfaction being expressed. The following accusations were made in the particular post:
1. Networks were blamed for delivering the 072 “Please call me” SMS and supporting such practice.
2. Companies offering SMS competitions were blamed of not stating the cost per SMS clearly.
3. Mobile content companies were blamed for false advertising and clear anger was evident where customers submitted and paid for a download, but did not receive it.
Let's take a look at this situation:
1. Networks being blamed for delivering “please call me” SMS:
For those that are not familiar with the ”Please call me SMS” system here is a simple explanation. The system works on the old land line “collect call” basis where the mobile phone user send a SMS to someone they know to phone them. The person responding to the “Please call me” returns the call and foots the bill for the call.
I think the initial intention for the service was to render assistance to people that could not afford the call or run into trouble without prepaid airtime to phone for help in a crises situation. It was not long, however before the opportunity was grabbed by abusers of the system.
What the scammers do, is to send out “Please call me” SMS to random mobile phone numbers. The recipient unknowingly returns the call as they do think that it is from someone they know and requires assistance. The bad thing about the “Please call me” SMS is that the recipient has no way of knowing who sent the SMS as it does not support sender ID.
Upon answering the call, it turns out to be a call center doing a survey. The caller is kept online for as long as possible as each minute is charged to his/her phone bill at ridiculous rates – as much as ZAR 50-00 per minute. 10 Minutes online, results in ZAR 500-00 mobile phone bill of which the scammer in question get revenue share from the networks.
Issues at stake that we should question:
SHOULD THE NETWORKS BE BLAMED FOR THIS PRACTICE?
1. Working with the networks myself, I find it hard to believe that they will support such practice. Normally with any promotion the client has to state the nature of the promotion, as the Networks have to check whether or not the promotion is anti-sp@m policy compliant. Should the networks not investigate complaints like these and send out a Press release stating their position towards these sort of scams? Where are the network public relations officers?
2. Isn't it the mobile phone user's responsibility to NOT return any suspicious calls or SMS they receive?
3. Where does supplier responsibility end and customer responsibility start?
Both Victor Nunn & Marinda Stuiver are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
