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  • Games on the PlayStation Vita and where Sony went wrong

    Games on the PlayStation Vita and where Sony went wrong

    I’ve now had my Vita for over a week and have had a chance to buy some games – both from the PlayStation Store and physical versions from a shop. During the course of this I’ve been frustrated at the lack of thought that appears to have gone into this.

    Let’s start with an obvious question – why is Sony still selling physical copies of games? Why aren’t they all downloadable (as they would be if you were using a Smartphone – their competition these days)?

    Well, the reason I’ve bought physical copies is for 3 reasons…

    1. The price of the Sony Vita memory cards means that it becomes expensive to download them and store them yourselves
    2. You can re-sell physical copies, unlike downloads
    3. The online copies are more expensive, even though they involve no physical shops or packaging

    Of course, a physical copy means that each game card I have to take with me – having it built into the Vista would have been a real boon, and one of the advantages that smartphone gamers have.

    The re-sell issue is not a great one and if the 3rd issue was resolved it wouldn’t be too great a problem. Why are the online versions more expensive?

    There’s probably still a need for physical copies but why not make them more expensive than the online equivalents – that will move people more towards those unless they really have a need for a physical version. It will also mean that the re-sell value will come into it less. Or how about this for a barn-storming idea – trade-ins for downloaded games? Get bored of the game, delete it and get a portion of your money back.

    Lastly, let’s tackle that stupid problem with the memory cards. Why have Sony done it? Proprietary, expensive memory cards. With Sony profits dwindling and a history of customers hating this kind of thing, why would they do this? They’ve already stopped doing this on their phones, for instance – first they started using Micro SD cards for storage and then swapped to Micro USB for connection. Now the Vista comes out with it’s own proprietary port and a brand new card format. It’s stupid. Sony are stupid.

    Sony are aware that they need to target more than just the hardcore gamer with this machine but I think they’ve missed another trick. A further frustration I’ve found with the games is a complete lack of instructions – the physical copies don’t come with a paper manual but each game, wherever it was sourced, comes with an electronic one. However, I’ve yet to find out that isn’t 99% T&Cs and safety guide followed by 1% of story. Assistance with the game is nill. Examples include Wipeout 2048 and Super Stardust Delta. The latter was purchased from the store, as many games are exclusive to that – I bought one that comes with extra features. However, the download was small and the game didn’t install. It would seem – I think – that it simply unlocks the game and extras in the store – they have to be downloaded separately. Not that this was documented anywhere, this is just from my own investigation.

    The game menu, as well as an electronic manual, also has an internet link – maybe I’ve been unlucky but every time I’ve tried one, rather than send me to a useful web page run by the game publishers, it’s instead performed a Google search for the name of the game – not very useful!

    So, I downloaded the Stardust package which installed and added the game. I then downloaded the “extras” package which downloaded and… nothing. Is it supposed to. I start the game… do I have the extras that I paid extra for? No idea.

    Why is the “Online” button on the front screen of the game greyed out? Is that normal? All of this I have no idea about because the manual has no detail on this at all. A quick Google and it appears the same is being discussed in forums – nobody appears to know.

    Why is this Sony’s fault? Because they control game distribution and packaging and their name is splashed all over the start of every game. They have the ability to set a minimum standard – a standard that, at the moment, is severely lacking.

  • How to suppress Skimlinks for some content in WordPress

    How to suppress Skimlinks for some content in WordPress

    is a great way to moneterise a blog. Once signed up and approved you simple need to add a line of JavaScript to your site and it will add moneterised links to your output. However, you may be adding sponsored posts or your own links and may not want Skimlinks to modify the entire, or portion of, the post.

    (more…)

  • Fibre Broadband Options

    It’s a while until my O2 broadband contract expires but, none-the-less, after all the issues I’ve had with them I’ll be keen to move on. It’s therefore worthwhile keeping an eye on the state of the market in the meantime.

    As I now have both cable and FTTC available to me it would seem churlish to not make use of it. Having said that, a quick broadband speed test still shows that I’m getting around 12Mb downloads on my ADSL+ line.

    So, here’s what I’ve found. All represent broadband, line rental and free calls for evening and weekends. They are all 18 month contracts too.

    BT Infinity. 40Mb downloads. Total cost is £28 pm with a £25 connection fee.

    Plusnet. 40Mb downloads. Total cost is £29.48 pm with a £4.99 fee for sending you your router!

    Virgin Media. 30Mb downloads (the speed is due to double in my area sometime after October). Total cost is £37 pm.

    Of course, it’s never that straight forward. All of these either have limitations on their service (e.g. “traffic shaping” or download limits) and/or appalling customer service.

    Maybe it’s a case of “better the devil you know” – I am, at least, well versed in the ways of their customer services departments.

    So how does all of this compare, price wise, to O2? It’s difficult to say as they appear reluctant to give straight pricing on their website (they give totals but include special offers, which I’m attempting to exclude from these quoted prices). It shows £16.25 pm, but this includes my £5 for having an O2 phone plus various current offers. At least you get truly unlimited downloads.

    Needless to say, O2 is still a lot cheaper than the current fibre options. It’s such a shame the O2 don’t offer fibre broadband and don’t appear to making noises that they will.

  • Automatically adding Simple Social Bookmarks plugin to your posts

    My Simple Social Bookmarks plugin is incredibly powerful. However, if you don’t have coding skills or access to your theme files then adding it is rather difficult.

    If you’re in this situation, then here’s the solution (in a future release of the plugin I’ll automate this)…

    Open up the functions.php file in your theme folder and add the following lines…

    // Add to Post

function add_ssb_to_post( $content ) {

    // If a single post or page, add Social Bookmarks

    if ( ( is_single() ) or ( is_page() ) ) {
        if ( function_exists( 'simple_social_bookmarks' ) ) {

            // If URL Shortener plugin exists generate a short URL for the page

            if ( function_exists( 'simple_url_shortener' ) ) {
                $shorturl = simple_url_shortener( '', 'service=bit.ly' );
            } else {
                $shorturl = '';
            }

            // Add Social Bookmarks to bottom of post

            $content .= '<p align="center">' . simple_social_bookmarks( '', $shorturl ,'', '' ) . "</p>n";
        }
    }
    return $content;

}
add_action( 'the_content', 'add_ssb_to_post' );

    I know it seems quite long but it has assorted checks to ensure that the plugin is active PLUS it will integrate Simple URL Shortener in as well. You’ll need to change the Simple URL Shortener parameters as appropriate (it’s currently set to use bit.ly) as well as Simple Social Bookmarks. I’ve also set up some CSS to centre the resulting bookmarks on the screen.

    When done, you should have your social bookmarks added to the bottom of every post and page after the content.

  • Bingo sites join the social web

    Well, it’s been a while coming. Bingo sites in the UK seem to rely on extravagant adverts on TV with big named stars but, unlike everyone else, appear to be missing what everyone else is milking – social media!

    That’s now been corrected with new sites which offer directory and review services for such bingo sites. Yes, like everything else we now have a way of comparing and commenting on the options!

    For instance, WTGbingo is an online bingo directory that gives you information about UK bingo sites – new sites, promotions, special deals, etc. Each site can be searched and there are reviews from those that run the site. The one thing currently lacking, at the moment anyway, is the ability for visitors to the site to review the individual companies. In the meantime they’re making good use of Social media “like” features, such as Facebook Like, Google +1, Digg, etc.

    It’s been an eye opener too. I didn’t realise, for instance, that there were different types of online bingo sites – no deposit bingo sites, for example.

    As the bingo sites all jostle to be the best the inevitable flashy websites and advertisements give way to the inevitable – search engines, comparison sites and social sharing, to make the whole experience easier. Welcome to the 21st century, bingo!