Tag Archives: Raptr

The Raptr Catalyst

Raptr, the gaming social network and tracking software thing, and competitor to Xfire, has been working on their Raptr rewards again.

Last time around I got some cosmetic goodies in Rift for the Storm Legion launch.

This time they have been working with CCP for the launch of the Retribution expansion.

So if you use Raptr, play EVE Online, and rank at least “experienced” in the number of hours tracked in EVE, you should check you Raptr Rewards, as you might have an Inner Zone Shipping Catalyst waiting for you.

(Click to make that bigger, like just about any picture on the blog.)

Raptr Reward for Retribution

You have to claim it, get a code, go enter a code, log into your account, and so on and so forth.  And it didn’t even work for me the first time I tried.  I suspect it failed because I used Raptr’s browser.  In a real browser it worked however, and after that you can claim it like you do any other gift item from CCP, via the little gift box icon on the character select screen.

So I claimed it, logged in, and assembled it right away, then took it for a quick spin.

Gift Catalyst in Flight

I named the ship “Killmail Bait” because I am sure somebody will want to shoot it just to have a new and different ship on their destroyed list.

I did stay close to the station

The ship itself isn’t really anything special.  It looks to be a re-skinned version of the all-too-famous suicide gank destroyer, the Gallente Catalyst.

Stock Catalyst Footage

Other than that, it appears to be the same.  Same number of slots at high, medium, and low.

Inner Zone Shipping Catalyst Fit Screen

It might actually have a bit more heft on the power grid and CPU fronts, if the Catalyst article on EVElopedia is up to date.  It also seems to be beefier on defense.

Ironically though, for a something called a “shipping Catalyst,” it does not hold any more cargo than the standard model, with the same 400 m3 of storage.  Maybe they meant “slightly more secure” shipping.

So I have a somewhat beefier Gallente destroyer in my ever growing fleet of ships.

I am not sure what I am going to do with it.  I could take it out to null sec and keep it around for comedy ops, or to just be the odd ball ship on kill mails.

I considered opting-in on the Goonswarm Secret Santa program so I could give it away, though in reading the “Dear Santa…” thread, I don’t see a lot of people asking for a slightly better Catalyst.

I could always have another screen shot contest with this ship as one of the prizes.

Or I could let it sit in my hanger like several other one-time ships I have gotten in the past.

What would you do with the Inner Zone Shipping Catalyst?

Items from the Mail Bag – Prizes, Discounts, and Volvo

Time for a return to this irregular feature where I pull items from the blog’s email in box and display them for all to see.

I haven’t done this for a bit because most of the blog email has been music industry press releases or people asking me to please review their iOS or Android app.  However, aside from the Pet Shop Boys (and I am sorry for you guys if it has come to sending press releases to the likes of me) I haven’t a clue about any of the musical acts.  And as for iOS and Android apps… well… most of them were unimaginative knock-offs of other games from indie devs and I have a general editorial policy of not posting about such things if I do not have anything nice to say.  Big companies or big names can survive some mocking.

Still, a few items worthy of mention or mockery have shown up, so on to that.

Raptr Gives Me Some Hats in Rift

Raptr is the game time tracking tool I have been using since late 2010. (See me here)  It is a competitor to Xfire and was, in fact, created by some of the same team that originally created Xfire.  My main complaint about Raptr is that they do not display game time stats the way Xfire does, so you cannot do things like Nosy Gamer’s weekly Digital Dozen.

Instead they are trying to be more of a social network.  They want you to interact with your friends there.  They want you to do reviews there.  They want you to blog there.  And the really want you to hook Raptr into your other social networks.

I have done the latter primarily because I have a special crap Twitter feed you should not follow and a Facebook profile you probably shouldn’t be friends with. (Because look what happens.)

And, they offer up special deals, which usually amount to “please come play this game, we’ll give it to you at a steep discount and/or free.”  But once in a while, something I actually want comes up, like hats.  I just got this in email last night.

This was part of a push to get you to connect Raptr to Facebook I guess, but it actually came with a prize I might wear in Rift.  While I can run around with awkward mis-matched armor, I will go out of my way for a good hat.  So I get this next week when Storm Legion goes live.

A hat and goggles!

I am also eligible for a helm that looks like it was inspired by Half-Life 2.

Good for the aspiring cyclops

I think I will just stick with the hat and goggles.  I wonder if they can be dyed?

Meanwhile, if Trion is going to work with Raptr, I wish they would get Rift achievements hooked up into Raptr the way Steam and Blizzard have.  Ah well.

World of Tanks and Veterans Day

Wargaming.net is doing a special for Veterans Day and Remembrance Day.  They have a charity offer for veterans organizations, plus the usual buffs; 5x bonus experience for your first win of the day in each of your tanks and they are giving credit bonuses to a few tanks I do not own. (B1, T-34, M4 Sherman and PzKpfw VI Tiger)  Details here.

And they are giving away 24 hours of Premium service, which enhances your experience and credits earned even further.  The code for this is VETERANSDAY and you can read about how to redeem the code here.

LOTRO – Spend More, Save More

Lord of the Rings Online also has a deal going this weekend which basically amounts to the false economic proposition of “the more you spend, the more you save!”

The offer

If you were planning to buy something expensive, this might be a boon.  However, I cannot see myself spending 3,000 Turbine Points just to save 30% off of something.

EQInterface Prize

The team at EQInterface, which hosts UI mods for EverQuest, along with sibling sites for EverQuest II, Vanguard, and World of Warcraft, was celebrating their 10th anniversary back in… August I think.  They had a trivia contest about the site and I apparently was a winner.  I got a notification about it back in September.  However I still haven’t gotten anything because they are still trying to get in touch with all of the winners.

So I continue to wait, but I still endorse their site for UI stuff.

Crash with Volvo

I keep getting notices from Volvo about their new iOS/Android game called Volvo Transporters.  I suspected it would mostly be an ad for Volvo, but I grabbed it because it had the virtue of being free.

Volvo truck off the rails

And, yes, it is something of an ad for Volvo.  It throws little Volvo factoids at you like how much food in the EU is hauled by Volvo trucks or that if you lined up all the Volvo buses ever made you would be well on your way to simulating the 405 freeway at 5pm on a Friday.

Basically, you drive a truck… a Volvo truck no doubt, but it is too small to see the logo… and have to drive over power ups to transform your truck into the vehicle appropriate for the hazards in the area.  So for fires, you need a fire trucks, garbage requires a garbage truck, piles of muck require a front loader and so on.

Front loader in action

I will say I was happy the game was not one of those tilt-to-steer apps.  I find that the iPad has too much mass to steer smoothly or accurately and so the big reason I think that Sonic the Hedgehog racing game is horrible is because I cannot steer very well.  That and it is such a complete rip-off of Mario Kart games I am surprised that Sonic doesn’t feature a mustache and a little red hat.

That said, it requires a finger swiping action to steer which, combined with the odd “two-thirds off the rear quarter and fluctuating” viewing angle, wasn’t exactly winning me over.  But then again I have big hands with all the agility of a cinder block, so maybe I had best stick with board games like Ticket to Ride on the iPad.  You can see a video of somebody who can actually play the game here.

All in all though, I came out of the game having crashed often and with no additional desire to buy a Volvo.

Which is to say, I would still like an 1800ES.  But that desire goes back a long ways.

Raptr Gets Analytical or Only 18,999 Hours to Go!

Raptr put up a several blog posts and sent me two email messages, all about the new stuff they are launching that lets you… well… compare your epeen against your friends.  Click on the picture below to see it in full size.

Raptr looks at my games...

I think Raptr must be primarily a console gamers destination if 36 games on my system puts me 26 games ahead of the average Raptr PC user.  Either that or Steam users… those of us who must resist their insane sales… are not well represented.

And the last bit, my summary, makes me think they haven’t quite got their system tuned:

Lightning Bolt!  You and 0% of Raptr users have more RPG games than anything else in their game library.  You put on your robe and wizard hat…

I suppose it depends on how you define the games.  I notice that that Raptr still seems shy about calling out MMORPGs.  Of course, that might be because MMORPG players are batshit insane.  I offer this up as proof.

While I might be an Elite World of Warcraft player, I have still been measured and found short a whopping 18,999 hours and/or achievements to be the #1 WoW player on Raptr.  If we take that as just hours of play, that is over two years of constant, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week play.

Meanwhile, on the EVE Online front, I am 103 hours shy of Elite status.

Other games in which I rank as elite for one reason or another:

  • Lord of the Rings Online
  • Rift
  • Need for Speed: World
  • Defense Grid: The Awakening
  • EverQuest II Extended

Elite status seems to be a pretty arbitrary thing.

Addendum: And if you want to be my friend on Raptr, I am wilhelm2451, as usual.

Raptr: MMOs? None Were Released in 2011

Raptr, the game play tracking and social network tool thing that seems a lot like Xfire… because it was created by the same people who made Xfire… where was I going with this…

Oh, yeah.

Raptr announced their Most Played Games for 2011, restricted to games launched in 2011, despite the fact that we still have 23 days to go here.  Maybe nothing else important is launching this year.

What?  Star Wars: The Old Republic is launching this year?

Well, too late and too bad!

In fact, of the categories Raptr chose to acknowledge, MMOs barely make the cut.

The categories are:

And while you might think “Open-World Game” would include MMOs, that is actually just single player open world games like Batman: Arkham City or L.A. Noire.

No, the only mention of MMOs is in the final category, the one about Paid-to-F2P conversions.  That covers MMOs, because it seems if you ran some sort of crime or crime fighting MMO… Champions Online, DC Universe Online, City of Heroes, All Points Bulletin, or… well, it doesn’t quite fit but I’ll make it fit… Global Agenda… then apparently 2011 was your year to go Free to Play.

So, from one angle I suppose congratulations are in order.  Raptr managed to do a “Most Played” list that squeezed in MMOs from such an angle that they avoided mentioning any fantasy MMOs… like Rift maybe… along with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Was it really that bad of a year for MMOs?  I know my 2011 MMO Outlook ended up on the sad end of things, but were there really so few launches?

Was the slide to F2P really the big event for 2011?

Items from the Mail Bag – Whole Lotta Press Releases Edition

Once again we look into what has show up at the blog email address that didn’t warrant a post of its own, wasn’t a 419 Scam, or wasn’t an entry in the Azeroth Travel Poster contest.

  • Anthony from Gamingo sent me a note asking if it was alright to put me on his press release distribution list.  Being surprised that somebody actually asked in advance, I said yes just to encourage such behavior.  Unfortunately, a lot of his press releases have a short shelf life, while I only do this once a month, so a number of items I received won’t get any mention.
  • Vizo over at Mediocre Gamer dropped me and a few other bloggers a line to tell me that he and some other people have started up a new blog called Mediocre gamer.  So there.  Probably more mention than he got out of anybody else on the list.
  • WXP Games sent me an offer to get a review copy of Xotic for myself and my editorial staff (i.e. myself).  I declined via an apathetic non-response.  I was a bit surprised (and annoyed) that they did not include any links with this email aside from the one to their Facebook page.  What if Facebook had finally gotten around to banning me?
  • Gamingo sent me a press release to tell me that their game Cultures, which sounds like a build, explore, conquer sort of browser game is popular in both Europe and Chine.  Not so much in North America I would guess then.
  • Beau sent out a message to the MMO Voices mailing list that he is facing the decision to either shut it down or transfer the ownership to another individual.
  • Serendipitously, Zynga sent me a message the same day asking me to come back and play CityVille.  If I read the message right, it suggests that if I build an arena, Enrique Iglesias might show up.  Euphoria?
  • Riot games wanted to inform me that my League of Legends account has been inactive for a long stretch.  If I do not log in before October 30th, they will free up my display name for use by other players.  So if you were aching to be known as Wilhelm IV, you chance approaches.
  • Club Penguin wants me to know that their Halloween related events are starting.  However, Club Penguin is still a bad word for somebody in our household who still harbors shame and resentment at the whole past affair with them.  There must be a gene for passing on grudge holding abilities.
  • And, as with last month, the final mail bag update is from Jason Scott, who sent out an email about how he is now within striking distance of his Kickstarter goal to fund his planned documentary three pack, with less than $5,000 of the $100K target left to raise.  That means I am going to have to play up soon, but that is okay. (Between the time when I wrote this and the time I posted it, Jason Scott passed the $100K mark.  So his three new documentaries should be under way… in fact, he was already doing interviews for one based on how well things were going.)

Items from the Mail Bag – Everybody Wants Some Edition

Another look into the TAGN in box to see what has come my way in the last month or so.  Nobody wants to write a post for my site or come write for their site this month.

  • Raptr wants me to tell me about all the statistics they have about ‘ville games in their Raptr Report on Zynga Games.  One of the things they note is the high conversion rate of players from one ‘ville game to another.  Is that a good thing?
  • Zynga wants me to please come back and play FarmVille.  They need to read the Raptr report above.  I have long since converted through other Zynga games.  I am currently at Empires & AlliesVille, and there is no going back.  Ever.  For me at least.  I am Tom Joad, traveling west to the promised land of California.
  • Zynga, taking the opposite tack, also wants me to come play their new-ish game, Adventure WorldVille.  At least somebody gets the whole conversion direction thing there at Zynga.
  • Outspark wants me to know that Luvinia Online is out of open beta, online, and the race to level 78 is on!  Just what I needed.  Has anybody been waiting for this?  It looks very Anime.  Somebody tell Darren.
  • BlogTopSites.com wants me to know that as a registered user, I can also get on their Bloglog.com listing.  While I tinkered with their site at one point, and even had their chicklet on my side bar for a while, I decided being listed against sites promising “Club Penguin Cheats!” and what we would have referred to back in the BBS days as “waerz sites” probably was not in my best interest.  So we’re done with that, but I am still on the mailing list.
  • Merle Klein, the SEO specialist at Bigpoint GmbH, wants to do a link exchange between this site and three of Bigpoint’s game sites, Drakensang, Farmerama (really?),  and Dark Orbit.  Which is kind of strange.  It is like Safeway coming over to my house to discuss a cross-promotion between their chain of grocery stores and the garage sale I am going to hold in two weeks.  While the deal seemed to be much in my favor, I don’t really play the SEO game here.  I’m not that interested in traffic and Google already sends enough people here based on weird search terms as it is.
  • Erika from somewhere around Dallas wants to put a banner ad on my site and wants me to send her a price list.  Since she did not mention what sort of ad, I am going to guess that this is either a scam or that the ad is clearly something I wouldn’t want to post in the first place.
  • Raptr also wanted me to know that they have surpassed 10 million registered users.  Good for them.  I still only have 17 connections on the service and it primarily serves as a warning that I am coming to pee in their bushes in The Sims Social.
  • And finally, Jason Scott, legendary collect of all computer related documentation, founder of The Archive Team,  free range archivist at the Internet Archive, and creator of BBS: The Documentary and text adventure documentary GET LAMP, both of which I totally want to see and actually tried to order but they never got delivered despite Jason insisting they had been shipped and eventually I got my money back but now I am afraid to simply try and order them again lest things go awry again… *breath*… he wants me (and you) to know that he has a Kickstarter pageto help fund three new documentaries he wants to do.The planned topics are the medium of tape (cool), the 6502 Processor (very cool), and video game arcades (cool cool cool).  You can read about his plans, hear about why he needs the money, see how much he has collected so far ($72K at this point), and donate if you would like to help out by going to his Kickstarter pager here.   There are 45 days left to go and the minimum pledge is $10.

 

Big Fish? Small Pond? Both?

I was looking at my Raptr profile this morning, and one item caught my eye.


That first one, for my worgen Maloney says that I was one of the first 200 Raptr users to get that achievement.

And the reason it caught my eye was that the likelihood of me being the first 200 WoW players to do anything in any group of players of reasonable size seemed remote to the point of pigs flying.  And that achievement especially is not a tough one to obtain.

Of course, the population might not be of a reasonable size.

It is limited to Raptr users, and only those users who play World of Warcraft and who have bothered to add it to their profile and who run the client that does the tracking.  It addition, the user also has to then manually add specific characters.  Only the achievements of those characters get tracked.

So I could be something like the 20th player on Raptr to get the achievement for all I know.

I couldn’t get a fix on exactly how big the active WoW population is at Raptr.  If I search on people who play WoW, the number is less than 500.  But if that were really the case, I would imagine that a lot more of my achievements would be in the “first 200” range.  Instead, most are like that second achievement, which merely points out what percentage of WoW players on Raptr who have the achievement.

I am still looking for more stats on how big the WoW population is on Raptr.

149 Hours in a Single Week and Other Cataclysm Play Time Tidbits

I signed up for Raptr (ID: Wilhelm2451, in case you couldn’t guess and if you want to see what I’m playing) as part of a plan to see what game I play the most in 2011.

And so far, it has worked pretty well.

If nothing else, it seems less problematic in actually tracking time than X-Fire used to be, which is why I kept uninstalling it.  Plus it lets you manually add games that the scanner misses.  How long have people been asking for that in X-Fire?

And, like X-Fire, Raptr (whose founders include some ex-X-Fire people) likes to publish some gaming stats, including a little press release they just sent me.

Mountain View, CA – December 17, 2010 – Raptr, a popular game tracking application, has released some new playtime stats for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Not surprisingly, the top 11% of hardcore fans are driving the majority of overall playtime. In fact, the top player for World of Warcraft on Raptr clocked in 149 hours in one week. That’s a little over 6 days straight.

On the flipside, overall playtime averages for WoW were nearly identical to other top FPS games on console. For WoW, the average total playtime on the 1st day of release was 6.23 hours, which is comparable with such top-tier game series including Call of Duty and Halo.  The average game session length is 2.1 hours, which is also comparable. How is that possible considering how different these types of games are?

Digging into the data we see that the reason these averages are so closely aligned is because while there may be avid gamers out there who are regularly clocking in +30 hours a week (which is about 1/3 of the overall audience), there are also a significant number of gamers that play less than 5 hours a week. Even in a massively addictive and deeply enthralling game like WoW, a good chunk of leisure gamers will only play a few hours here and there, even if they got the expansion pack on day one. There appears to be a distinct ying yang balance between avid gamers and leisure games in just about any game, which results in playtime averages that hover around the same range.

Other interesting stats:

  • World of Warcraft playtime has grown 5 times since the summer of 2010, as previous subscribers flocked back to the game to drive up overall playtime to record highs.
  • World of Warcraft time played per day has grown 1.5 times since the summer of 2010.
  • World of Warcraft playtime per week has grown to 20 hours – almost double of what it was in the summer of 2010.
  • World of Warcraft stole the most playtime hours from StarCraft 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and League of Legends.

For more details on the World of Warcraft: Calaclysm report, head over to Raptr’s blog at:
http://blog.raptr.com/2010/12/17/raptr-world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-report/

Some interesting tidbits there, but I want to know who was the guy who played WoW for 149 hours straight during a single week.