Andy McDandy Vent Page

The other week a couple of people made a post about Zen not being consumer friendly which triggered a couple others to reply in Zen Studio defense so lets look at what Zen Studios have done just in the past eight-teen months.

I discovered Zen Studios in 2020 and according to those that have been playing the Pinball FX franchise long before then have stated purchased tables have always been transferred to the next version at no cost. This we can all agree is pro consumer but since around late summer 2021, Zen Studios have been making decisions that can be viewed as anti consumer.

Up until FX3, Zen was using a in-house engine which to the players works just fine. Yes there are bugs that have been fixed and bugs that still need to be fixed but overall everyone is fine with the engine being used. Unfortunately Zen Studios decided to change engines to Unreal Engine which would be fine if customers purchased tables carried over but Zen Studios decided not to do this. As you can imagine, huge backlash ensued and made it even worst was the announcement the new FX would be Epic Games exclusive for the first year BUT won’t state when that exclusive period started and/or end leaving all their Steam customers in the dark. With their entire PC customers being on Steam, agreeing to a Epic Games exclusive had to be the biggest insult to their Steam customers. If they had done just an ounce of research, they would have read stories by game developers that took Epic exclusive deal only to regret it in the end.

Zen Studios claims that switching engine to Unreal Engine, they would be able to offer Ray Tracing and HDR. Now I’m sure Ray Tracing and HDR is good for games like DOOM, HALO, and so on but pinball? Regarding HDR, from my research on this, it appears you need to have a display that supports this new technology and since many people still do not have 4K supported displays, it’s pretty safe to say that even fewer have HDR supported displays. Again, this is pinball we’re talking about here which already looks great in FX3.

Now we move on to the next negative thing Zen Studios did. They decided that the new FX would have in-game currency, no not 1:1 currency but a mobile style currency system where x amount of money will get you x amount of tickets. With this system one will always have left over tickets resulting in more money having to be spent. This is a popular predatory method of scamming money from gamers especially on mobile which have resulted in a lot of bad publicity, especially in Europe. It has almost the same amount of hatred as loot boxes and yet Zen Studios thought adding such payment system would be a good thing. Again this comes down to no research being done or they just didn’t care and wanted to scam as much money as possible from their customers.

One of the reasons given for the ticket system was so they could make purchases cross platform. They double even triple down on the in game currency being a must for buying tables only to then release Indiana Jones that could only be purchased outside of the game. This of course got Zen Studios labelled as liars. Also, any programmer knows that you can still have cross platform purchases with a simple login system. Many games have their own login system and Zen Studios could have come out with their own if they really wanted to allow cross buy but they want to remain adamant it could only be done with the predatory payment system. Thankfully, enough players voiced their disgust against the in-game payment system and it was removed from the new FX. One can still purchase in-game currency to buy cosmetics but tables are back to being purchased through the respected store front. Zen could have simply allowed in-game tables purchases with real money using such payment portals like PayPal but again it all comes back to Zen wanting that scam ticket system.

This post is getting long so allow me to bring it to an end. With Zen Studios;

• Not importing a customers already purchases tables,
• Turning their backs on cross buy,
• Wanting a predatory in-game payment system,
• Epic Games exclusive when all their customers are on Steam,
• Changing engine no one asked for,
• Refusing to state the exclusive start/end date,
• Lack of communication with customers which could have avoided the massive negativity Zen Studios has endured

Is Zen Studios pro or anti consumer?

Several days ago I received my new bicycle, the Daymak Easy Rider which is a electric assist bike, meaning the motor will only kick in if you are peddling. As someone who loves cycling but suffer from bad knees, I have been unable to bike my usual 60km. The smallest of hills on the easiest gear would cause knee pain so when Daymak appeared on The Shopping Channel which allow buyers to pay monthly for product, I took it as a sign that it was time for a new bicycle.

The purchase did come with some freebies like a helmet and a mp3 player but since I don’t require either, I reached out to Daymak requesting if it was possible to substitute those free items for a saddle bag. A very nice lady named Monique said yes that would be no problem at all but unfortunately it did not arrive with the bike so I guess it is being mailed out.

When the bike arrived I only noticed one problem with the bike and that was a missing one bolt to hold one side of the saddle rack to the frame. I have informed Daymak and they are sending me a replacement bolt. In the meantime I went to my local Lowes and purchased the proper size bolt (M5 0.80 x 1/2″) because I had already scheduled a bike ride with a friend for yesterday. Due to crappy weather, we have not been out riding in about 2 weeks so I did not want to postpone this ride.

Some other initial issues was bolts not completely tighten. The curve handlebar could swivel up and down with just a little bit of force and the throttle came loose during the ride. Both were very easy to tighten though and once I adjust the height of the seat and handlebar, it was a great ride. I did have to remove the little back rest because I could not swing my leg over top of it and I could not lift my leg up high enough to get over the crossbar. My friend laughed his ass off at how I struggled to get on and off the bike when the backrest was attached. All good though since for the very first time, I biked lapse around him instead of the other way around.

The bike came in three colours, gray/red/pink, so I chose the red. Normally I tend to choose a dark colour for my bicycles but given this one has a battery and dark colours attract heat, I decided on the red.

The bike has around 5 assist levels while still giving you 6 gears. I have been looking at e-bikes for several months and this was the first I saw which actually comes with a derailleur. Other e-bikes only give you one gear so to have 6 was nice. I did however notice that the bike has trouble going from 6 – 5 and 3 -2 but going the other way, no problems. Not a big deal to me because I am use to bikes having trouble switching to certain gear levels. It can be the most difficult part on a bicycle to get absolutely perfect.

The motor does a great job at getting up hills and you can really feel the power when the motor kicks in.

Unlike a lot of e-bikes, the battery is removable and can be charged outside of the bike. I love this feature because I only have one friend who is also in to cycling but we don’t live close to each other so I keep my bike at his place and just take public transit to/from his house. With the removable battery, I can bring the battery home when it is time to charge it.

Overall, I am extremely happy with this bike and would definitely recommend this bike. Daymak also makes other transportation products which you can check out at www.daymak.com. I really want the Boomer Buggy so I can go do my grocery shopping without having to rely on others to take me.

Well, that is my review on the Daymak Easy Rider e-bike. I hope you enjoyed it.

Last night, Mr Kyle Curtis did a live stream to set the record straight on what has been happening behind the scenes since his hostile take over of the NonSequitur Show began, or at least since we, the fans, were made aware of it.

For those unfamiliar with the situation, Kyle Curtis and Mr Steve McRae joined forces near the end of 2017 if I am not mistaken and created a new show called The NonSequitur Show. Shortly after starting as a podcast, Steve convinced Kyle to also take the show to YouTube for which the show became a success.

Things appeared fine to the fans until the beginning of this year, 2019, where there appeared to be more episodes of Kyle with his buddies, GE, KC and Katie and less with Steve. As the months went on, Steve became less and less on the show.

When April rolled around, Steve was pretty much no more on the show and surprisingly, it all happened around the time that people were calling Steve transphobic. This, of course, was ridiculous because all Steve has said was trans people should not compete in sports with the gender they identify with UNTIL they have completed their gender conversion. That is NOT being transphobic, but Kyle’s friends like Katie are quite thin skin and would rather resort to name calling rather than have a discussion.

Now I do not know Steve, we’ve interacted a couple of times but what I know of him is what I have observed and I am confident enough that Steve is not a transphobic, racist, or anything else negative. What Steve is though is simply someone who loves having discussions, no matter the topic. That trait shows his intelligence since intelligent people are interested in discussions, not name calling.

Another instance where Kyle listened to his buddies, GE and KC, was when Steve questioned KC on being an engineer. KC, as the child she is, went crying to her hubby GE and instead of either of them being an adult and asking Steve, “why do you think that”, the two went on a temper tantrum which most likely included telling Kyle to get rid of Steve from the show.

Beginning of June I believe is when things became public and Kyle’s hostile takeover of the channel was out in the open for all to see, and boy did we see.

Since that time, Kyle has been quiet, extremely quiet while Steve has been setting the record straight as to what happened. All of it is confirmed by David (aka Booleanenator) who was the producer and also kicked off the show by Kyle.

This now brings us to last night live stream Kyle did and it was not good…for Kyle!

The first thing I noticed and so did many others was Kyle constantly swivelling back and forth in his chair. This is a clear sign that he was nervous. Now his nervousness could be that he knew what he was about to say would be lies and hoped no one would notice or he is like and just shy in front of a camera when alone.

Another thing was eye contact. I don’t recall him doing much looking directly into the camera, as if he was trying to either read from a script, keep an eye on chat or, just like the swivelling in his chair, knew he was lying.

Kyle also commented on two posts that were made on Twitter, one was about the accusations of him wearing $400 suits and the other was about KC telling everyone the night before that the live stream was being moved to last night. Kyle made a comment about those false posts and how wrong it is for people to make such false claims and he is correct BUT he doesn’t seem to be telling his little buddies, GE, KC, and Katie not to do the same. Just one day prior Katie interjected herself into the discussions on Twitter and made the claim that everything was done and over with. No joke folks, someone who claims to be a journalist and writes column pieces on Patheos, claimed everything between Kyle and Steve was done.

Katie claimed that both sides have met with their lawyers in a conference call, a deal had been agreed to, and it was now all done. When people, including myself, politely pointed out the facts, she blocked everyone, even those who were actually part of the conference call. So much for being a journalist who cares about the truth. She would fit in well at FOX News.

We also heard his reasoning for not providing the financial books to Steve which Steve has been requesting for months, yes you read that correctly. Any business partner is reluctant to hand over the books to the other partner is hiding something. Kyle now claims he was protecting Steve to which everyone in chat said BULLSHIT!

Kyle reason for not providing the name of his lawyer for the past 30 days was because he was worried the trolls would “harass his lawyer”…excuse me…what? The only way anyone who has no business to know who his lawyer is would know is if he himself gave it out publicly. Steve isn’t stupid, he is not going to jeopardize the money that is owed to him by releasing the information to Kyle’s lawyer. So that reason just doesn’t make any sense.

I could go on more but I have to get going. If people want, maybe I will do a part two but for now, I think I covered most of what I wanted to say.

Take care all.

At blizzcon last weekend, Bungie announced Blizzard fans can get Destiny 2 for free for a limited time, unfortunately, those who game on Linux PC are receiving permanent bans.

Millions around the world do gaming on Linux and many, many more gamer’s have expressed their desire in forums to get the hell off of Windows once and for all.

It is strange that game developers want to make as much of a return on their product yet they refuse to support PC’s running Mac OS and Linux.

As of this writing, Bungie and Activision are refusing to unban any gamer playing on Linux. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

At blizzcon last weekend, Bungie announced Blizzard fans can get Destiny 2 for free for a limited time, unfortunately, those who game on Linux PC are receiving permanent bans.

Millions around the world do gaming on Linux and many, many more gamer’s have expressed their desire in forums to get the hell off of Windows once and for all.

It is strange that game developers want to make as much of a return on their product yet they refuse to support PC’s running Mac OS and Linux.

As of this writing, Bungie and Activision are refusing to unban any gamer playing on Linux. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

Blizzard Entertainment was at one time the best damn video game maker in the world but then they went public which slightly lowered the importance of Blizzard own rule of gamers first.

Then came the merger with Activision and the whole “gamers first” rule was basically thrown in the trash. The whole Diablo Immortal fiasco proves that.

Another indication that Activision is killing Blizzard is with all the micro transactions, loot boxes and so on that have popped up in Blizzard titles since the merge.

Blizzard fans don’t want loot boxes and micro transactions getting in the way of their beloved game.

They are also diehard computer gamers NOT mobile. So the fact that Blizzard has stated that all of Blizzard games are coming to mobile, it is clear Activision greediness is behind the movement from computer to mobile.

Unfortunately this will result in the death of what was once a great company. R. I. P. Blizzard.

Blizzard Entertainment was at one time the best damn video game maker in the world but then they went public which slightly lowered the importance of Blizzard own rule of gamers first.

Then came the merger with Activision and the whole “gamers first” rule was basically thrown in the trash. The whole Diablo Immortal fiasco proves that.

Another indication that Activision is killing Blizzard is with all the micro transactions, loot boxes and so on that have popped up in Blizzard titles since the merge.

Blizzard fans don’t want loot boxes and micro transactions getting in the way of their beloved game.

They are also diehard computer gamers NOT mobile. So the fact that Blizzard has stated that all of Blizzard games are coming to mobile, it is clear Activision greediness is behind the movement from computer to mobile.

Unfortunately this will result in the death of what was once a great company. R. I. P. Blizzard.

If there is one thing software developers should NEVER do is lie to your customers and insult them but apparently, Wyatt Cheng did not get that memo when he became the lead developer for Diablo.

At Blizzcon this past weekend, a fan asked if the new mobile game Diablo Immortal would come to PC which is a good question given that Blizzard fans are all PC gamers. Mr. Cheng answered no to which many of the Diablo fans in attendance booed. What did Mr. Cheng do, well his reply was “Don’t you all have phones?” and no I am not kidding. This, of course, angered Diablo fans even more.

Where he lied was when he was interviewed before Blizzcon and there are also quotes of his on several gaming news sites where he says they care about the fans. If that was true, they would have NEVER created Diablo Immortal without making sure it would also have a PC release. As already explained, Blizzard fans are PC gamers, spending thousands of dollars on their computers, making sure to keep them up to date with the latest hardware. Immortal should have been announced only in markets where mobile gaming is accepted like in China. Gamers in the West do not game on smartphones. Sure, there are some people who may do a level or two of a puzzle game like Candy Crush but an action-packed game like Diablo just won’t fly with gamers who prefer controllers, keyboard and mice.

Also, a game like Diablo Immortal is going to need a top of the line phone or tablet for it to play smoothly on.  Hearthstone is a great example of how Diablo Immortal is going to run.  I have tried Hearthstone on both smartphone and tablet, both devices the game is choppy and both are fairly new being just a year old.  Now granted, these are not top of the line because, like most, I can not afford $1,000 phone or tablet.

Mr. Cheng, release a PC version of Diablo Immortal.  Diablo fans feel hurt that they will not be able to enjoy a game that takes place, according to you, between Diablo II and Diablo III.

This past weekend was Blizzcon 2018 and once again fans got to see how out of touch the company is with their own customer/player base.

I am a fan of Blizzard Entertainment and have been since someone bought me the StarCraft box set when it was released almost twenty years ago so I can say that Blizzard is no longer thinking about their clients first. It started when they became a public company and got even worst when Activision and Blizzard merged into Activision Blizzard.

So for those of you who do not yet know what happened, Blizzard decided to announce a brand new Diablo game that will take place between Diablo II and Diablo III BUT there is a catch. It is ONLY for mobile. That is right, the fans whom have been pretty much forgotten by Blizzard for the past 6 years and are all PC (Windows, Mac OS, Linux) gamers, finally get a new Diablo game but will not be playable on PC.

Announcing a mobile-only game at a convention consisting of only PC gamers is the dumbest move any company could make. This just shows how the people in charge are absolutely stupid.

Also, PC gamers know that mobile games are nothing more than a cash grab and what is even worse is this new game coming in 2019 is a 100% clone of another game created by the company Blizzard has hired to make the game. Blizzard says it was made from the ground up yet if you look at Diablo Immortal and compare it to this other game, it is clear that Immortal is nothing but a clone. Same attack effects, UI, etc…

To Blizzard, if you are reading this, get your shit together and get back to putting your fans first as you did over a decade ago. You have lost your way, especially after the merge with Activision.

So I was just about to publish the above when I saw a new video that appears to be some kind of news conference that took place at Blizzcon. Below are my thoughts on what was said.

In the video, you see two Blizzard employees, Wyatt Cheng who is head of the Diablo teams and Allen who is executive producer.

Allen states that the truth to why they are bringing Diablo to mobile is to target younger gamers whom they say are all mobile gamers. Stats, of course, say different with player retention for mobile games being no more than 5%. With that said though, they still chose to show a mobile-only game to an entire PC player base.

I understand a business would want to attract more gamers to their franchise so I don’t blame them for wanting to expand to mobile but you have to choose the best place to announce it. Blizzcon was the worst place to announce a mobile-only game for a franchise that has received very little love from Blizzard in the six and a half years the game has been out.

Another piece of information given is there will be even more of its franchises will be coming to mobile making it clear that Activision and their greedy micro transactions lifestyle is officially making its way into the Blizzard games.

The only way Blizzard can save face now to the Diablo fans is to announce that Immortal is going to come to PC.

For about a week now I have been testing a different parcel tracking app along side my usual app called Deliveries and another app called 17Track.

The reason why I started looking for another app to use is because Deliveries doesn’t track all postal companies. I found this out when an item I ordered through Wish was sent by Wanb Express. This began my search for another parcel tracking app.

Parcels has a great feature in that you can have it import your orders from Wish and a few other online retailers with apparently more to come. This feature does require some work for 3 of my items were imported with the exact same name so I had to compare the tracking numbers between the app and the Wish website so I could properly rename the items.

Another feature I find quite interesting is the app ability to add new tracking numbers when a parcel receives a new one from another company. Unfortunately this feature is not 100%. I have had a couple items get added again because of the item getting another tracking number.

There does not appear to be a way to merge items when an item is added multiple times but then I am only using the free version right now. Checking the status also tends to take a lot longer than other apps but this may have something to do with the app checking multiple carriers for each item.

Regarding the free version of the app, it has limitations as you would expect. One limitation is no more than 10 items, whether or not an item has been delivered and is now archived. This limitation is also a pain due to the app fault of adding duplicate items as explained earlier.

The free version, on top of the lack of features, also has a banner ad along the top and a subscription banner ad along the bottom which is displayed overtop your tracking list. On a tablet, the bottom banner isn’t much of a problem but on a smaller smartphone it can be annoying. I’m not a fan of this tactic to get subscribers.

Another problem I recently found with the app is that it has decided to no longer track one of my items even though the app is supposed to be checking multiple carriers. Currently Canada Post has the item but Parcels is stating that one of the carriers is no longer providing updates. No it does not mention which carrier it is getting that message from but is clearly ignoring Canada Post tracking. Deliveries and 17Track are continually to track the item.

Final thought on the Parcels app is this, at this time I won’t be buying the app but if they fix the issues I have mentioned then I may consider buying and using as my default tracking app. For now I think I will stick with either Deliveries or 17Track.