so don't ask if you don't want to know
Posts tagged facebook
Dear “social” game makers,
Oct 13th
Fuck off.
Here’s how some of my social game numbers work out:
- Zynga’s Pioneer Trail. 26 neighbors listed as players, maybe 12 of whom actually play. Mission requests where you can only ask specific people for one item once a day? 8 missions plus 15 items within buildings-in-process (each requiring 15 per item), and 3 ghost town missions waiting for those to be built. All that, plus an equal number of wall-posted requests. I’m at level 95, which means I’ve been playing for quite some time. Though I love this game (my favorite) the 15 items once a day thing is killing my fun. The only good thing is that most items are reciprocal.
- Zynga’s Farmville. 50 neighbors listed, maybe 10 still play. Much better and the requesting help for missions is much more realistic. I’m at level 104 and I don’t plan on quitting anytime soon.
- Zynga’s Cityville. 30-ish neighbors and about 5-6 actual but intermittent players. Same problem with collecting items needed for missions. And most of the items are not reciprocal.
- Zynga’s Treasure Isle. I ignore anything that requires asking neighbors for anything because only one other friend still plays.
Do you see the problem? Of my 388 Facebook friends, only a small portion play any game at any one time. You’re asking too much, based on what? Registered players or actual players? Do you want to know what my favorite game is, the one I actually spend real world money on? PackRat. Because I can play without friends. Sure, friends can help each other out, but you don’t NEED them to move along in the game. I’m betting most people give up on games because they can’t advance without spamming their friends.
There’s a finite pool of people who – like me – have plenty of time to play these games. Everyone else has little time to spend going through nag-for-this-part and nag-for-that-part instead of actually, you know, playing your games. We want to build a cool looking city. We want to build interesting frontier town. We want to master crops and animals. We don’t want to log in, spam our friends and then log out to wait for those requests to be filled. Boring!
Oh yeah, stop with the pop-ups trying to get us to spam our non-game-playing friends. As soon as a new game comes out most of my friends block them. They don’t want to play. Ever.
Google -
Aug 9th
I gave Google+ a chance, I really did. I’m sticking with Facebook for now, thanks. Why?
- On Facebook, people have to ask permission (friend or ignore) to see even your most basic posts. If you set it up right, you can choose who sees what, but strangers can’t see and can’t post to your wall. On Google+ the person chooses you to share with and you then have to decide whether or not to allow it or block it. It’s the difference between ignoring the knock at the door vs pushing out the intruder. And Google+ is a glass house.
- When I’m out there perusing articles and I want to share, I can’t find an easy way to share on Google+, yet there are Facebook share buttons everywhere or I can use the share add-on on my browser. (The Google+ share on my browser is dysfunctional.) It might be because it’s too new, but I don’t have the patience for this shit.
- Google arbitrarily deleting/freezing accounts of people using pseudonyms. I know many people who use fake names for various reasons. You want to have a life, but your employer is uptight? You’re an author or actor. Or you have a plain but popular name – Debbie Walker – and you want to stand out as a specific person – spellwight.
Plus, I just don’t understand it. And it’s an ugly Johnny-come-lately.
Maybe I’ll check back in a few months to see if it’s easier to use. I love gmail and google’s search, but their google+ is really a minus for me.
Chip chip chip
May 14th
It occurred to me just now that when your friends post requests for you to vote for someone they know for some random award or contest it chips away at your integrity to follow through.
Don’t get me wrong, I posted a request just a couple of weeks ago for my friend’s daughter in a radio contest. In my mind I thought if they wanted to people could peruse all of the entrants and could choose H’s video. Or just save time and pick hers to be nice, which is what (as if anyone did) most people would do.
You see it all the time on twitter and facebook. Just now someone put out a request for his friends to vote for his cousin to get Teacher of the Year somewhere. I barely know him, I don’t know her so my vote is bogus, right? Does the fact that he has bunches of loyal friends voting make her, in fact, Teacher of the Year worthy? Maybe she IS the best teacher on the planet, but how do I know?
Sometimes we put out or respond to the requests thinking we’re doing a good thing to help someone, but isn’t it cheating? Does everything have to be a popularity contest dependent on how many friends and friends of friends you have?
Fine, it’s a minor thing (unless you’re the other guy in the contest) but I can feel it’s chipping away at our collective integrity under the guise of social media friendship.
Vajazzling?
May 28th
Facebook ad today:
Really?
Doesn’t seem comfortable to me.
“Many women are already familiar with Brazilian or bikini waxing. They’ve been there, done that, “said Dannielli Marcelino, also known in the Valley as the Queen of Waxing from Suddenly Slimmer Day Spa in Phoenix.
“Now we’re adding something a special to our Brazilian and bikini waxing services that will definitely put a ‘sparkle’ in their partner’s eye,” Dannielli added with a mischievous smile.
After all hair is removed a heart, or a butterfly, or your partner’s initials, or whatever shape you desire, made of crystals is applied to the bikini area. The crystal tattoos last about 1-5 days, and are a sure-fire way to surprise that special someone. The “Vajazzling after waxing” gives a whole new meaning to “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend!”
Ha… hahaha… hahhahahahha…. *wheeze*
What a weekend!
Feb 21st
The Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm concert was MARVELOUS Thursday night. Absolutely and totally worth the bullshit we went through before it actually started. MadCrap MadCap Theaters is THE most horrible venue I’ve ever ever been to. It’s a testament to how much I love JC and the boys, that I’d EVER go back there again. Why would anyone want to go there? They don’t give a shit about the customers, they have extremely lousy organizational and communication skills, and I’m guessing they spend hours wanking each other off rather than cleaning up the theaters. The whole experience is practically abuse and we’re paying them to do it.
Friday night was the usual #evfn, except E and Sheila weren’t there and neither was the guy they had organizing it in their absence. So of course I take up the slack and try to make sure everyone is taken care of and the newbies are introduced around. I don’t think I did a very good job as certain people walked out. Oh well, there’s always next week.
Kira and I hung out Saturday night and this morning we wandered over to a new (for us) McDonald’s, shopped at WalMart and took the light rail to downtown Tempe (yes, I live here but I’d promised Kira we’d take the train one day) to check out #comiccreate.
And tonight I get a following notification on FourSquare (a social geolocation application) for Earl Newton! Now I’ve met the man at D*C a couple of times, and maybe he would friend me on twitter where you’re getting occasional light-hearted updates/comments from people. And maybe on Facebook which is pretty much the same thing. Likely because of my connection to Evo and less on my own merit I think. Twitter/Myspace/Facebook are places you “friend” anyone you’ve ever met and then some. But wouldn’t you only follow people on a location-based application that you might, maybe, kind of EVER thought you’d actually want to know where they are? Earl Motherfucking Newton wants to know where I am? That’s soooo fucking cool. I feel like somebody now.
And Earl? If you’re a googling fool and come across this post, please don’t explain or get freaked out or delete me or anything. This is me after a couple of drinks – FREAKING THE FUCK OUT because someone of your caliber clicked on me as a connection somewhere, that’s all. Let me have this. Carry on and I’ll never bother you again.
Oh yeah, I got paid for work I did! Actual money instead of possibilities.
What a great weekend.
When worlds collide
Nov 12th
It freaks me out.
Twitter just started this listing thing. You can assign the people you follow to various lists. I got about halfway through and gave up.
Certain people are older Internet friends from the McCaffrey boards and BPOI. Some of those I’ve met in real life and a few are actual real friends now.
Certain people I’ve met through podcasting. Some of those I’ve met and are real friends, some are just fans (which is freaky in and of itself) and some I’ll never meet and really have no connection to, but follow because. A handful are writers I’ve met through podcasting who have become both semi-celebrities and semi-friends.
And then there’s the real life family, friends, kid’s friends, etc.
It’s weird enough when, because of some interesting banter or retweet, person A from list B starts following person R from list D.
Right?
This completely freaked me out today:
Katie Berry is one of my daughter’s friends we’ve known since Kindergarten. Seth Harwood is a published author and podcaster and cute as hell. They cannot know each other! Coincidence has made my mind explode.
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Kira’s vocabulary has exploded too. In the last few days she’s started say things like, “Just listen to me, LISTEN to me! Be very careful out there so the monsters don’t get you.” She’s so insistent. And today in the car when I asked her if she was going to behave in the store she answered with the most nonchalant “of course” I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Casey’s friend Charlie tells me Kira got up at the crack of dawn the other morning and proceeded to (attempt to) wash her dishes.
At this very moment she’s dancing to Funky Town in Shrek 2. I wish my camera had batteries. Crap.
