Divine? Setup
Wild Divine came yesterday. I wasn't really in the mood for that sort of gaming.... But the packaging drew me in. Everything is well presented with great artwork and a strange black felty plastic surrounding all the parts. Setup is fairly simple. You insert disc one, it copies everything over. You insert disc two, it copies everything over. Then reboot (strange for an OSX app, but not a big deal). Once you've resarted, you can plug the sensors into a USB port and start the game.
...So you'd think.
On first run, the game forces you to register. This practice is becoming more and more common, as game companies try to fight piracy. With Wild Divine, you have to have the custom biometric sensors to play, so copying the game and giving it to a friend isn't an issue. Under those circumstances, forced registration seems a little strange. The only reasons I could think for having it were completely marketing driven. This was confirmed when I exited out of the game to register through my web browser. In addition to putting in the serial number, you're required to enter both an email address and a telephone number before you can play the game. The Wild Divine people seem like good well meaning folks... But there's absolutely no circumstance when I want them to call me on the telephone. Really, I just want to play the game they made. Nothing more.
...So I entered fake info.
Next, your supposed to get an activation code. Instead, I got an error. Thankfully, they're currently providing 24 hour 800 number support. I called and talked to a very tired sounding woman. She said there was a problem entering newer serial numbers into the database. No one could register. She gave me a fixit code. I was going to grill her on why they require my telephone number to play the game.... But based on the tone of her person, I think registering every single user over the phone has already made the sillyness of it all apparent.
The emergency fixit code worked and, finally, I had myself a video game to play. ...Almost. Once activated, you need to check and make sure the hardware is registering you. There are three sensors, two that measure sweatgland/temprature things and one that measures your heart rate. My sweatglands were broadcasting beautifully, While my heart beat was no where to be found. A quick two fingers to the neck confirmed that it wasn't a user issue. The fingertip sensors that monitors your heart (it's clearly marked, and has to go on your middle finger) is considerably smaller than the other two sensors. My smaller than average finger wasn't hitting it properly. After quite a bit of experimenting, I was able to get it to work by either holding my hand so the weight of the sensor caused it to pick up, or resting my hand on the table (so the natural weight of my hands caused it to pick up).
Thirty minutes in to what was supposed to be a quick try out, I was actually playing the game. Needless to say, at this point I really wasn't in to it. I knew this already..... The thing is, the game works. It told me the same thing. An "event" where you juggle balls by getting yourself energetic and worked up, required no effort on my part. They jumped right off the screen. Starting a fire by relaxing wasn't working as well. I couldn't get it more than half way. A good 10 minutes into trying, Lane called from North Carolina. Two minutes into our conversation, the fire was blazing. ....And my faith was restored. I decided to quit for the night... and make a fresh start sometime over Christmas vacation.
Expect a full review of the game then.
...So you'd think.
On first run, the game forces you to register. This practice is becoming more and more common, as game companies try to fight piracy. With Wild Divine, you have to have the custom biometric sensors to play, so copying the game and giving it to a friend isn't an issue. Under those circumstances, forced registration seems a little strange. The only reasons I could think for having it were completely marketing driven. This was confirmed when I exited out of the game to register through my web browser. In addition to putting in the serial number, you're required to enter both an email address and a telephone number before you can play the game. The Wild Divine people seem like good well meaning folks... But there's absolutely no circumstance when I want them to call me on the telephone. Really, I just want to play the game they made. Nothing more.
...So I entered fake info.
Next, your supposed to get an activation code. Instead, I got an error. Thankfully, they're currently providing 24 hour 800 number support. I called and talked to a very tired sounding woman. She said there was a problem entering newer serial numbers into the database. No one could register. She gave me a fixit code. I was going to grill her on why they require my telephone number to play the game.... But based on the tone of her person, I think registering every single user over the phone has already made the sillyness of it all apparent.
The emergency fixit code worked and, finally, I had myself a video game to play. ...Almost. Once activated, you need to check and make sure the hardware is registering you. There are three sensors, two that measure sweatgland/temprature things and one that measures your heart rate. My sweatglands were broadcasting beautifully, While my heart beat was no where to be found. A quick two fingers to the neck confirmed that it wasn't a user issue. The fingertip sensors that monitors your heart (it's clearly marked, and has to go on your middle finger) is considerably smaller than the other two sensors. My smaller than average finger wasn't hitting it properly. After quite a bit of experimenting, I was able to get it to work by either holding my hand so the weight of the sensor caused it to pick up, or resting my hand on the table (so the natural weight of my hands caused it to pick up).
Thirty minutes in to what was supposed to be a quick try out, I was actually playing the game. Needless to say, at this point I really wasn't in to it. I knew this already..... The thing is, the game works. It told me the same thing. An "event" where you juggle balls by getting yourself energetic and worked up, required no effort on my part. They jumped right off the screen. Starting a fire by relaxing wasn't working as well. I couldn't get it more than half way. A good 10 minutes into trying, Lane called from North Carolina. Two minutes into our conversation, the fire was blazing. ....And my faith was restored. I decided to quit for the night... and make a fresh start sometime over Christmas vacation.
Expect a full review of the game then.