Month: November 2005

This week’s Games of our Lives is Demons to Diamonds. Anyone remember this game? I loved it when I was a kid.

Long before the Atari 2600 unsuccessfully tried to duplicate arcade classics like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, its programmers created wonderful little games that engaged imaginations as much as hand/eye coordination. Demons To Diamonds
took things one step further and put real life into its 8-bit graphics
with a cool little story in the instruction manual, which set the game
at a carnival, and included a churlish demon who told players, "So come
on, reach for your laser, exercise your trigger finger on us. Put us
through our paces and we’ll dazzle you with demonic tricks!" Players
knew right away that they were in for a good time.

[. . .]

Kids today might not like it because: After years of online gaming, playing with a person who is sitting the same room frightens and confuses them.

Kids today might like it because: The manual tells them, "Although DEMONS TO DIAMONDS was
primarily designed for children in the 6 to 12 age range, we find that
people of all ages enjoy this engaging game." Don’t argue, just do what
the manual says and nobody will get hurt.

Check out the full column. I think I snuck some funny into it, and I don’t want to rob the AV Club of your precious clicks.

Eleven days ago, Sean Bonner reported his unfortunate experience with Screamfest at Universal Citywalk, and I wrote a post about it where I said:

I hope that they’ll
make good on their promise to provide full refunds to the people who
couldn’t get them at the theatre . . . if they care at all about
their reputation, I’m sure that they will.

There are a ton of events scheduled for the rest of the weekend —
events that I’d really dig, like a screening of Friday the 13th — but there is no way they’re getting any
of my money until those refunds go out.

So we have another example of the importance of the reputation
economy. If I just read their website, I’d be totally into Screamfest.
But now? Until they give me a good reason to change my mind, Not so
much.

A couple of days later, Sean reported that all was not well with the unfolding saga:

. . . as of this moment I still haven’t received a refund for anything. What
I have received are a few e-mails arguing the situation and so far
claiming that I will NOT be receiving a full refund.

Sean detailed the exchange he had with one of the organizers, which when read objectively gives the appearance of an exhausted person, who is just trying to make sure that she’s not getting scammed by a cranky attendee. This is entirely understandable to me, as I’ve dealt with some unscrupulous fans and promoters over the years, and I can’t even begin to tell you how low some of these people will go to rip you off. Ultimately, they confirmed that Sean wasn’t one of those grifters, and he reports today that the organizers of Screamfest refunded all of his money.

I’d happily like to report that I’ve gotten a full refund for the tickets for both movies.

Good on ya, Screamfest organizers. We who are on the outside will never know what sort of issues you all had as you pulled this event together (unless you choose to share them with us, and that’s entirely at your discretion), but we know now that if something goes wrong with one of your customers, you’ll do the right thing. Whatever you refunded in cash, you’ve earned back tenfold in the Reputation Economy.