@Cheetoman: I see some fairly valid points here. I too have found their practices a bit ruthless. The avatar stuff I think is just useless nonsense, but I guess it doesn't bother me too much if someone wants to pay for some sort of cosmetic vanity item.
Where microsoft gets under my skin is with things similar to the hard-drive pricing you mention. Its a pretty steep price for something that may end up a necessity for certain players. It has also always bothered me a little that Microsoft charges its players to go online, especially when most if not all console games use a matchmaking service. I suppose if there were dedicated servers for the popular console games I might understand it more as a means of upkeep.
This fee increase bothers me a lot as well, because it almost feels to me like exploiting a captive audience. If you want to continue playing your 360 games online, well, what else are you going to do? Buy a PC version? Depending on the number of games you play online with frequency and your rig, that might be even less economically viable.
If you aren't watching the BLLSL out of protest, this is not a post that will make you feel better. This is not the post you are looking for. Move along.
I'm stunned whiskey media was able to keep this place going without any sort of subscription offer at all for as long as they did. These are the risks that come with running a company, though, especially during massive expansion like this. It's business 101; in order to feature a service of any kind, there's a cost. I, for one, do not feel like anyone at Giantbomb has dropped the ball due to this membership feature. It allows people to show their support, and be rewarded for it. The free users (such as myself) who can't afford to donate, or don't care to, are missing out on some content, yes. But we aren't missing out on the most basic service GiantBomb provides; games reviewed by people who like to play them. I can't stand how corporate some of the review sites have become, how choppy, calculated, and sterile the reviews seem. When I watch a quick look or a video review, I feel like I'm learning about a game from people like me. People who play a game to have fun, not because of the size of its "Fun Factor." If Giantbomb can keep selling me on that angle, I am a loyalist. A free user loyalist who waves his Duder banner proudly ( which at this point today I suppose is like having a peasant wave a banner for the Lord; not exactly going to make much of an impact). If a day comes where I feel I can donate, I will. For now, I simply show my support for its right to exist.
@S2333: Funny you should mention that, because they were our initial inspiration for WoWathon. They even provided us with pointers on how to run the WoWathon. As a result, we are trying to make that constant interaction part of ours as well. Quite frankly, I think I would finally snap without it!
@Kahoona: This may surprise you given the nature of the event, but most of us on the team rarely play WoW in our spare time. We also have multiple members on the crew to try and limit the amount of hours spent in front of the screen, accounting for things like work, sleep, food, and simply some time off to decompress after longer shifts. While it is true there are people who play WoW for excessive and dangerous lengths, that is an entirely different problem that does not relate to Child's Play or Wowathon. This is an event staffed by many people attempting to draw attention and donations to the Child's Play Foundation. WoW is simply the medium of choice for this.
A few of us play regularly. I personally am doing this more for the charity, and am not such a big partaker of WoW. Almost everyone else on the team is more versed in World of Warcraft then I am XD.
@Ferginator4k: Yes indeed. The one that inspired us was actually the Mario Marathon, which takes place only a few weeks before ours usually. We did our best to base our framework off their suggestions.
@The_Laughing_Man:
First off, great username/icon. Love Ghost in the Shell: SAC. Anyway, the organization we're playing for is called Child's Play. Feel free to check out their website as mentioned in the above post if you are hesitant about the authenticity. Just don't go to Childsplay.org, because that is a violinist site, oddly enough. The site is childsplaycharity.org instead.
@ISuperGamerI:
A great point, to be sure. I suppose we're just hoping the spectacle will attract attention to the charity. Also, if enough word gets out we're hoping Blizzard gets wind of it and offers their support to Child's Play and our marathon. They already participate in the Child's Play annual auctions, so it would not be too unheard of for them to take notice.
Feel free to direct any questions to me, or to the wowathon.com chat room. Someone will be there to see them for the next week at least, I assure you.
Hello there, Duders! One of the Wowathon marathoners here. I've emailed the GiantBomb team, but given the current move into a new office and the demands of the job the lack of reply is understandable. Josh has already done a great job setting us up here, but allow me explain further. The charity we are playing for is Child's Play, which got its start by the wonderful team at http://www.penny-arcade.com/. The Charity provides toys, equipment, and money to Children Hospitals all over the world. The chip-in widget featured on the www.wowathon.com site ensures that we do not handle the money you donate, it goes directly to Child's Play.
If it still seems skeptical (and a healthy amount of skepticism is always acceptable to possess), you can get more details on the charity at http://www.childsplaycharity.org/ . You'll be able to read here about what the charity is for, and even get a description of how the chip-in widget functions. You can also click on any affiliated hospital somewhere in the world and even purchase a gift on a child's wish-list in the hospital via Amazon.com, if a straight monetary donation isn't your thing.
Even if the thought of seeing the Wowathon team play for 24/7 until level 80 does not entice you, it would be wonderful if you could check out and support the charity regardless. If it does, please drop on in to www.wowathon.com and watch us drive ourselves insane at any hour of the day- but for charity!
Edit: Fixed incorrectly posted links and awful grammar problems.
Um... can we know if its at the top or bottom of a section in the credits? After going through 6 minutes of the end credits, I've come up empty handed.
I own it. Graphically, you're right, its not a very pretty game, but I have enjoyed it so far regardless. Imagine an RTS game like Starcraft, or for a better example the first two fallouts, except you only have 1-6 units at a time and its entirely stealth based, and you're thinking in the right direction. essentially you sneak around various historical locals, knocking out guards with your group of hero characters. they all have several abilities, and a few of them have special combined actions they can do with one another. You can also switch into "action mode" on one of the caracters and control him directly in an over the shoulder view, which helps out a lot when you get caught. My only real gripe is that characters have no will of their own. For example, if during movement the characters get spotted and shot at, they will not draw their guns until you tell them to do so. They will be content to get shot right the hell up as you tell the whole group to finally start shooting.
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