EDIT: His company didn't make Wizorb or anything. But the guy had played Wizorb himself, and wanted to congratulate me for having the high score.

I'm not making fun of the guy or anything, because he seemed alright. But it was an unusual experience, overall.

You are one righteous fellow.

I quit out from a dungeon in WIzorb and then had to start over and lost all my gold. I didn't think that would happen. SO I haven't gone back to it. But I mean to.

WIZORB

Not really.

WIZ-ORBBBBBB

Yeah, that's pretty cool. You're a champion, man.

Why would anyone vote no for this?

That is mega awesome! Now what the hell is wizorb

Wow man, that's great! Awesome! Good for you!
 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

That was not supposed to mean what I originally intended it to mean. In my original post, I was supposed to be the forever alone, but when I edited it, it appeared as those I was being a jerk and implying that you made it all up, but that was not my intention. I am the forever alone.

Ask him if he plays virtua fighter.

Until he throws you aside for whoever beats you. Than you'll feel like a two dollar whore.

As a follow up, I chatted to the guy on Steam, and the guy's company (5-10 people total) is all about making games that you can't easily compare to other games and don't have any story. He's pretty much designing games that are simple and haven't been done before. Not an art game mindset, but more the mindset people had when making arcade games in the 70s and 80s when genres weren't as well established. Not really my thing, but an interesting philosophy.

@august said:

I quit out from a dungeon in WIzorb and then had to start over and lost all my gold. I didn't think that would happen. SO I haven't gone back to it. But I mean to.

WIZORB

I don't know if it has always had the feature, but if you choose "Save & Quit" from the pause menu, it essentially suspends your game, and whenever you next load up your file, you'll be back in the middle of whatever level you were on, money intact. Though yes, you still have to finish all the stages of the level to keep the money you earn, which is rather weird.

If it's awesome to you, then it's awesome.

@Milkman said:

If it's awesome to you, then it's awesome.

Milkman is making some sense there. Sounds good to me.

This is like the Last Starfighter. Japan needs someone to bounce orbs to save the world.

As of this post, 17.2% of of our so-called community said no.

Fuck those guys.

@BisonHero said:

I don't know if it has always had the feature, but if you choose "Save & Quit" from the pause menu, it essentially suspends your game, and whenever you next load up your file, you'll be back in the middle of whatever level you were on, money intact. Though yes, you still have to finish all the stages of the level to keep the money you earn, which is rather weird.

That was the thing that threw me. I was like "well, I've been playing for about fifteen minutes, time to go buy some upgrades!" Then... nope.

Can we get a link to the dude's company?

Oh yeah, well Swery follows me on Twitter.

@N7 said:

Wow man, that's great! Awesome! Good for you!

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

That was not supposed to mean what I originally intended it to mean. In my original post, I was supposed to be the forever alone, but when I edited it, it appeared as those I was being a jerk and implying that you made it all up, but that was not my intention. I am the forever alone.

Ah, the forever alone was comically aimed at yourself, for never being randomly added by a stranger? lol, I like that joke.

Before you added the explanation, I thought you were going more for a "You believed me, but weren't impressed, and figured I was forever alone if I was #1 on the leaderboards of a game". I didn't think you were a jerk, because yeah, it takes a time commitment to end up near the top of any leaderboard. I'm not super proud of the #1 rank, and the poll title was originally going to ask "Is this weird?", but "Is this awesome? Y/N" is a reference to a webcomic joke that I expect maybe one person to get.

You're in. I don't know what you being "in" entails, but MAN, you're in!

It is pretty damm cool. Now you must challenge him with the prize being..THE COMPANY!

@N7 said:

Wow man, that's great! Awesome! Good for you!

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

That was not supposed to mean what I originally intended it to mean. In my original post, I was supposed to be the forever alone, but when I edited it, it appeared as those I was being a jerk and implying that you made it all up, but that was not my intention. I am the forever alone.

Ah, the forever alone was comically aimed at yourself, for never being randomly added by a stranger? lol, I like that joke.

Before you added the explanation, I thought you were going more for a "You believed me, but weren't impressed, and figured I was forever alone if I was #1 on the leaderboards of a game". I didn't think you were a jerk, because yeah, it takes a time commitment to end up near the top of any leaderboard. I'm not super proud of the #1 rank, and the poll title was originally going to ask "Is this weird?", but "Is this awesome? Y/N" is a reference to a webcomic joke that I expect maybe one person to get.

Wizorb looks awesome, just like having a stranger that owns a small video game company following you.

@august said:

Can we get a link to the dude's company?

I didn't ask for his life story, but I got curious, so I looked around for more info. By being a company that is both small and not based in an English-speaking country, there aren't a lot of useful links. Here's one that list the games that they worked on in some capacity: http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/MNM_Software

Apparently they did some sound work on Streets of Rage 2? I read in an interview that the guy had a potentially fatal health problem and shut down the company for a few years, but he got better and reopened it under a new name. http://www.mobygames.com/company/mindware-corp

Apparently they had a period of like ten years of not making video games, and instead focusing on real life pinball (apparently one of the only remaining Japanese companies doing that). From the sounds of it, this guy who added me, Mikito Ichikawa (though he goes by Micky G. Albert, WHICH IS COMPLETELY INSANE AND AWESOME), is kinda bummed out by where video games have gone in terms of focusing so much on story and linearity and derivative gameplay design, so they mostly do pinball machines, and occasionally do (unrelated to pinball) arcadey downloadable video games. Their official website is literally the Japanese equivalent of www.pinball.com: http://www.pinball.co.jp/

I find it sort of fascinating to find out about this little corner of the world that you would never normally consider. It turns out I actually bought the WiiWare game they made a few years ago, because it had a decent Metacritic score. Not really my kind of thing because it's such a simple game where the main draw is going for high scores, but I admire the guy for having principles about game design and sticking to them. Here's an interview about the game: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2008/09/mindware_interview_part_1_maboshi_the_three_shape_arcade

Yes. That is awesome.

The question is, will he unfriend you if you lose the top spot? And would it be super-awkward if you regained #1 and he friended you again?

@N7 said:

If I could be #1 on the leaderboards for any game, only to be added by the president of the company who made the game, I would personally drive to any such person's house and cockslap whoever says that is not awesome. There is nothing to debate, and my tock will do the calking!

Just to be clear, the game company founder/president that added me actually didn't work on Wizorb at all! But he did play Wizorb, and he added me to congratulate me on being #1. Then I noticed his Steam profile mentioned his game company, and I asked him about it a bit. Wizorb was apparently made by some French developers who used to work for Ubisoft.

That probably makes the whole story sound even weirder. He seemed like a pretty cool guy, though. He really likes pinball, and he thinks video games have gotten too flashy and meaningless and full of cutscenes, so he designs the kind of video games you'd see in the 70s and 80s before video games had stories or genres. Makes me wonder what Jeff would think of him.

@LordAndrew said:

The president of the American branch of a large Japanese video game/love hotel company stopped by my Mii Plaza. Is this awesome?

Yes.

@Ravenlight said:

Yes. That is awesome.

The question is, will he unfriend you if you lose the top spot? And would it be super-awkward if you regained #1 and he friended you again?

Maybe. Yes.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is inexplicably following me on Twitter.

I have a bunch of hot chicks who can't find dates for this coming weekend following me on Twitter, beat that.