#and when it was done I opened the app… and I was at LEVEL 94 BABY!!! MY OLD ACCOUNT WAS BACK 😭 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wherethewindtakesher · 5 years

Note

actually all qs cuz I wanna get to know u :) boink!

OF COURSE BOINK ANON!

I will be excluding the ones Ive done (:

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans? Wine glasses/water bottles c:

3. bubblegum or cotton candy? Bubblegum! im not really a big fan of cotton candy tbh.

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups? for some reason, soda from plastic cups hit different 😞

7. earbuds or headphones? headphones in the winter, earbuds in the summer.

9. favorite smell in the summer? the smell of my oncoming de- the smell of flowers blooming.

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day? it depends, some mornings I skip breakfast all together, others i’ll have a light snack, or I just have some cereal or make an egg.

12. name of your favorite playlist? ‘Recently added’

13. lanyard or key ring? landyard so I can find my keys easily. I still lose it tho-

14. favorite non-chocolate candy? spicy or sour candies are dope a f.

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment? The first book I read that I actually enjoyed was twilight.

16. most comfortable position to sit in? with my legs w I d e open because I cant sit properly.

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes? my tan/floral converses.

18. ideal weather? cloudy, cold, and raining 😌.

19. sleeping position? on my stomach, leg raised to my abdomen while the other is in the open air, and hands underneath my pillow. the BEST.

21. obsession from childhood? picking my scabs-

22. role model? my mom and sisters.

24. favorite crystal? garnet. It’s also my birthstone! I have it as a gem for my class ring.

25. first song you remember hearing? “bidi bidi mom mom” by selena quintanilla.

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather? if it’s not scorching hot, go on walks.

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather? snuggle up in a blanket and watch movies.

28. five songs to describe you? ‘humble’ kendrick lamar, ‘cry baby’ melanie martinez, ‘stupid’ ashnikko, ‘paparazzi’ lady gaga, ‘or nah’ ty dollar $ign.

29. best way to bond with you? send me M E M E S-

30. places that you find sacred? my bed.

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names? ripped jeans, boots, a crop top, and a jacket.

33. most used phrase in your phone? fuck.

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head? that empire carpet wash commercial.

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing? DAT BOI.

37. suitcase or duffel bag? duffel bag.

38. lemonade or tea? how about both of them combined 😉.

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie? I hate pie 🙊

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school? someone brought a gun and it fell out of their backpack during 2nd period.

41. last person you texted? @caws5749

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets? pants pockets. BUT THE DEEP ONES NOT THOSE SMALL FUCKING ONES.

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket? hoodies or a bomber jacket.

44. favorite scent for soap? Lavender.

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero? superhero!

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in? naked-

47. favorite type of cheese? queso fresco.

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be? mango.

49. what saying or quote do you live by? “im a bad bitch you cant kill me”

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have? anytime my friends and I joke around.

51. current stresses? school, personal issues, and my NEW JOB THATS RIGHT YALL YO GIRL EMPLOYED.

52. favorite font? calibri.

53. what is the current state of your hands? kinda rough but smooth.

54. what did you learn from your first job? that people fucking suck.

55. favorite fairy tale? little red riding hood.

56. favorite tradition? eating tamales during christmas time.

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome? that im not perfect, my flaws are just as beautiful as my perfections, and that im just ug-

58. four talents you’re proud of having? im not talented aT ALL. uh...

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be? ‘let’s fuck ‘em up’

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be? sasuke from naruto or mey-rin from kuroshitsuji.

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.? “see you in a minute”

62. seven characters you relate to? natasha, cristina yang, dexter, ford, thor, scott lang, and tony.

63. five songs that would play in your club? ‘bodak yellow’, ‘man of the year’, ‘rockstar’, ‘bickenhead’, ‘slumber party’.

64. favorite website from your childhood? I forgot the name but it was that educational site with the orange robot and human.

65. any permanent scars? my entire body is riddled in scars no joke.

66. favorite flower(s)? hibiscus and roses.

67. good luck charms? my dog’s name tag.

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried? onions-

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned? that cracking your joints won't give you arthritis.

70. left or right handed? im mixed handed but I do the majority of stuff with my right.

71. least favorite pattern? plaid.

72. worst subject? MATH FJSKSJKFSJS I HATE IT.

73. favorite weird flavor combo? have yall tried chocolate milk with chicken nuggets-

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen? 8-9 because I tend to fight back and not admit there is something wrong going on 😬.

75. when did you lose your first tooth? 2nd grade I believe.

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)? for some reason my love of tater tots has come back.

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill? uh cacti?

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store? coffee from a gas station cus im not trying to die-

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo? oh man, I look like shit in both of them. School id.

80. earth tones or jewel tones? earth tones!

81. fireflies or lightning bugs? ive never seen either 😔.

82. pc or console? i’ve own consoles for most of my life.

83. writing or drawing? writing. I cant draw very well.

84. podcasts or talk radio? podcasts! I listen to ‘last podcast on the left’.

84. barbie or polly pocket? barbies! did anyone make their barbies have sex or was it just me-?

85. fairy tales or mythology? mythology. yall don't know this but I have fallen into the greek mythology rabbit hole-

86. cookies or cupcakes? I fuck heavy with cupcakes TILL THIS DAY.

87. your greatest fear? to see those I love die.

88. your greatest wish? to be happy.

89. who would you put before everyone else? myself.

90. luckiest mistake? guessing on a question and getting it right 😎.

91. boxes or bags? i’ll go with boxes. it makes everything easier to stack and organize.

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights? fairy lights are so pretty.

93. nicknames? clown by @caws5749, bottom by @domromanoff, and variations of my real name.

94. favorite season? fall/winter TIMEEEEE.

95. favorite app on your phone? mario kart. if anyone wants to be friends give me your friend code-

96. desktop background? it’s black with a colorful smoke cloud exploding.

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized? mine and my oldest sister’s because she has had that same number since I was in the WOMB.

98. favorite historical era? I would say the WWII era since ive studied more about it than any other era.

UPDATE; this would've been done last night but my screen decided to just crash and not save anything I had done and my girl sent my ass to bed so I couldn't finish it but here ya go boink!

3 notes · View notes

whatshehassaid · 5 years

Text

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans?

Coffee mugs and wine glasses

2. chocolate bars or lollipops?

Lollipops

3. bubblegum or cotton candy?

Bubblegum

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?

Quiet, sensitive, shy, creative

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups?

Soda bottles, glass ones

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?

It differs, usually it’s closest boho/pastel. I just wear whatever I like.

7. earbuds or headphones?

Headphones

8. movies or tv shows?

Depends. I like both

9. favorite smell in the summer?

Freshly cut grass, peaches

10. game you were best at in p.e.?

Soccer

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day?

Depends on how I feel... sometimes just toast & coffee, sometimes fruit & coffee...

12. name of your favorite playlist?

Changes all the time, right now it’s one of my own on Spotify called Indie & More

13. lanyard or key ring?

Key ring

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?

Fuzzy Peaches

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?

Um... technically I read it in high school, but not for an assignment, just because I wanted to: 1984 by George Orwell... (I was kind of protesting my own English teacher for not putting it on the list of books lmao)

16. most comfortable position to sit in?

I dunno, half laying down, I guess?

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes?

I have a pair of thigh high faux suede go-go boots I wear a lot... either those or sandals

18. ideal weather?

Warm but not TOO warm. Warm with a nice breeze

19. sleeping position?

I sleep on my stomach a lot.

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?

In bed

21. obsession from childhood?

Ancient Egypt

22. role model?

I don’t... really have one?

23. strange habits?

I wouldn’t call it a strange habit, but I run my hands through/play with my hair a lot

24. favorite crystal?

Rose quartz or opal stones

25. first song you remember hearing?

Oh jeez, I dunno... first one I think of is Love Song by Sky, but that’s DEFINITELY not the first since it was made like, 7 years after I was born

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?

Read outside in the sun

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?

Read inside with hot tea (lol)

28. five songs to describe you?

Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd

Cherry by Lana Del Rey

The Show by Lenka

Q.U.E.E.N. (feat. Erykah Badu) by Janelle Monae

Lovely (feat. Khalid) by Billie Eilish

29. best way to bond with you?

Hmmm, be honest and open, I guess?

30. places that you find sacred?

I... don’t know? My bedroom is my favorite spot....?

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?

Hahaha, I don’t really kick ass and take names.

32. top five favorite vines?

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

33. most used phrase in your phone?

Uhhhhhhhhh............ I don’t know?

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?

Those Wayfair commercials are...... quite sticky

35. average time you fall asleep?

12am-2am

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?

It’s either that Numa Numa video, the Can Haz Cheeseburger cat or the He-man what’s going on video

37. suitcase or duffel bag?

Suitcase

38. lemonade or tea?

Why not both?

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?

Again, why not both?

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?

I haven’t been in school in almost a decade so... Um... I don’t know? I can’t remember anything really

41. last person you texted?

....wouldn’t you like to know.....

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?

I like both

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?

Hoodies and leather (faux) jackets are my fave.

44. favorite scent for soap?

I like shea butter and cocoa butter...

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?

Sci-fi fantasy (I do like some superhero stuff too though)

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?

BIG T-SHIRTS (no pants or socks, I HATE sleeping in pants and socks)

47. favorite type of cheese?

I love cheese so... either goat cheese or mozzarella

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?

Oh, that one’s easy. Cherry.

49. what saying or quote do you live by?

I don’t really live by a specific quote or saying

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?

It’s a tie between scenes from Bridesmaids, Night at the Roxbury & Dumb and Dumber

51. current stresses?

Health stuff (for both me and my mum), money issues, crush issues...... lol

52. favorite font?

I’m boring. Arial

53. what is the current state of your hands?

Uh, I have nice nails right now and my hands are moisturized... I have a huge burn on my thumb though. (Weirdest questions....)

54. what did you learn from your first job?

That companies and your bosses don’t give two shits about you.

55. favorite fairy tale?

Disney version of Beauty and the Beast.... I guess?

56. favorite tradition?

Getting Chinese food on Christmas Eve

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome?

Abuse, Crohn’s disease emergency surgery, Anxiety (still overcoming that one every day)

58. four talents you’re proud of having?

Video editing, drawing, graphic design, and writing (though I don’t write a lot anymore).

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

Uh... ow?

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be?

MAGICAL GIRL ANIME!!!!!!

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?

Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light

62. seven characters you relate to?

Audrey Horne (Twin Peaks)

Aria Montgomery (Pretty Little Liars)

I don’t... really have many others....

63. five songs that would play in your club?

Stuff by Janelle Monae and Beyonce for sure

64. favorite website from your childhood?

Miniclip and Candystand lmao

65. any permanent scars?

Yes. Surgery scar on my abdomen

66. favorite flower(s)?

Hibiscus and sunflowers

67. good luck charms?

Nah, not really

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried?

One of those vomit flavored Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned?

I have no idea. I can’t think of anything

70. left or right handed?

Right handed (I am, anyway)

71. least favorite pattern?

Those really old school Italian lady florals... hahaha

72. worst subject?

Math, I really was bad at math and I still am

73. favorite weird flavor combo?

Is cheddar and apple a weird flavor combo?

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen?

Well..... I’m always taking advil ‘cause I’m always at a level 5. Thanks, chronic illness!

75. when did you lose your first tooth?

I have no idea, ask my mother

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

Poutine (how Canadian of me)

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill?

Never done it, so I wouldn’t know.

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store?

My grocery store has pretty good sushi, so sushi.

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo?

Don’t have either, so... hahahaha!

80. earth tones or jewel tones?

Jewel tones.

81. fireflies or lightning bugs?

Fireflies!

82. pc or console?

Console

83. writing or drawing?

Drawing.

84. podcasts or talk radio?

Podcasts

84. barbie or polly pocket?

I’ve always been a Polly Pocket girl, but OG Polly Pocket

85. fairy tales or mythology?

Mythology

86. cookies or cupcakes?

87. your greatest fear?

Abandonment, Loss...

88. your greatest wish?

Love and contentment

89. who would you put before everyone else?

Does it sound selfish to say myself? I mean that in the best possible way ‘cause only I can take care of myself

90. luckiest mistake?

Ummmmmmm, no idea...

91. boxes or bags?

What is with these questions? It depends, I guess.

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights?

FAIRY LIGHTS AND SUNLIGHT

93. nicknames?

Sarie, Sar, my dad called me Turkey as a kid (god knows why)

94. favorite season?

Autumn

95. favorite app on your phone?

Spotify

96. desktop background?

It’s Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss”

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized?

Not many anymore...

98. favorite historical era?

Ancient Egypt... uh... Victorian era and 1920′s... but just the aesthetic... not... the uh.. lol, reality.

#about me #long post #sue me i was bored

4 notes · View notes

wondroussimmer-blog · 6 years

Photo

GET TO KNOW ME-

Basically, no one actually tagged me in this, but I thought i’d give it a go anyway seeing as this is a new blog and you guys can get to now me a bit, so I tag anyone who sees this and also wants to have a go...

________________________________________________________________

1. What is your full name? I’m not putting my last name on here, but my first name is Maja (Miya) 2. What is your nickname? I don’t really have one 3. Birthday? January 1st 4. What is your favourite book series? I don’t really read book series’ 5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts? Not 100% sure, I don’t believe in the sort of ghosts you see in films, but I think I believe our loved ones stay with us in some way. As for aliens, idk, we can’t be the only life but idk. 6. Who is your favourite author? I find the fault in our stars quite overrated, but i’d say John Green because some of his others are my favourites! 7. What is your favourite radio station? BBC Radio 1 8. What is your favourite flavour of anything? this is such a weird question, how can you have a favourite flavour for everything? but if it’s sweet, definitely strawberry! 9. What word would you use often to describe something great or wonderful? Again, weird question, but i use so many words for this, my most used are probably lovely and amazing 10. What is your current favourite song? this changes alll the time, but right this minute it’s probably sunflower by post malone and swae lee 11. What is your favourite word? is this a thing? 12. What was the last song you listened to? vacation by hippo campus 13. What TV show would you recommend for everybody to watch? big mouth, orphan black, queer eye, dexter 14. What is your favourite movie to watch when you’re feeling down? the breakfast club or mean girls probably 15. Do you play video games? only the sims 16. What is your biggest fear? probably the death of people close to me, and in the future not being able to have children 17. What is your best quality, in your opinion? probably that i’m a friendly person 18. What is your worst quality, in your opinion? i’m v insecure 19. Do you like cats or dogs better? DOGS... always dogs! 20. What is your favourite season? autumn/winter 21. Are you in a relationship? yes 22. What is something you miss from your childhood? having way more friends and barely any responsibilities 23. Who is your best friend? my boyfriend 24. What is your eye colour? blue 25. What is your hair colour? brown 26. Who is someone you love? my boyfriend and family 27. Who is someone you trust? my boyfriend and closest family 28. Who is someone you think about often? okay wow, so much variety in these answers but the same as the previous two answers 29. Are you currently excited about/for something? christmas and my birthday 30. What is your biggest obsession? probably sims 31. What was your favourite TV show as a child? Probably Tracy beaker or that’s so raven 32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone? my boyfriend 33. Are you superstitious? only slightly 34. Do you have any unusual phobias? cracking knuckles, moths (but only indoors), realistic looking mannequins and gas masks... so not much 35. Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? behind, every single time 36. What is your favourite hobby? playing sims, graphic designing, video editing 37. What was the last book you read? The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks 38. What was the last movie you watched? Muppet’s Christmas Carol 39. What musical instruments do you play, if any? I play a bit of guitar and can play the mr bean theme song on piano if that counts 40. What is your favourite animal? dogs 41. What are your top 5 favourite Tumblr blogs that you follow? I definitely have more than 5 42. What superpower do you wish you had? be able to teleport and go invisible 43. When and where do you feel most at peace? probably at home with my boyfriend 44. What makes you smile? sorry if this is becoming a boring answer... but my boyfriend! also my dog :) 45. What sports do you play, if any? I don’t at the moment, but I have done tennis, dance (ballet, tap and modern), swimming, karate, speed skating and netball 46. What is your favourite drink? water... how boring ik 47. When was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter or note to somebody? Last month, I made my boyfriend a scrap book as one of my boyfriend’s presents for our anniversary and wrote some letters as part of it 48. Are you afraid of heights? not if it’s a secure height 49. What is your biggest pet peeve? I have wayyy too many and so many grammatical ones, I absolutely hate when people incorrectly use was and were, so if someone said ‘we was going’, I think it’s quite an essex thing but I hateeee it, I can’t stand bad grammar, but also slow walkers, people who walk through the door without looking behind them to hold the door open for people behind, other drivers not indicating, people that have to be louder than everyone else, people that chew with their mouths open... basically I have a lot and this list could go on and on and on 50. Have you ever been to a concert? I’ve seen all time low, the 1975, imagine dragons, sunset sons, ed sheeran and paramore in concert so far and i’m seeing panic! at the disco in march which i’m MEGA excited about!!! 51. Are you vegan/vegetarian? vegetarian 52. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? This would change all the time, it went from radio dj, to dancer, to teacher when I was really young, then architect when I was a teenager, and now it’s clinical psychologist which i’m slowly working towards 53. What fictional world would you like to live in? I’ve not got a clue 54. What is something you worry about? EVERYTHING! I get a lot of social anxiety, so basically whenever i’m out of the house i’m worrying about absolutely everything and it’s the worst and gets me super down, so yeah, love that 55. Are you scared of the dark? okay so I don’t like leaving the dark, i’m fine being in the dark but I hate when i’m home alone and have to turn the lights off in the living room, kitchen and hall to go to bed... if that makes sense 56. Do you like to sing? i’m someone that, at home, is constantly singing, and when it’s only my boyfriend around, if one of us says a sentence that can in some way relate to a song, i’ll immediately sing it, but I suck so I won’t ever sing in public 57. Have you ever skipped school? in school I faked being ill a few times to get off of school, but in uni i’ve skipped way too many lectures over the past 3 years 58. What is your favourite place on the planet? I absolutely adore Spain, but also Belgrade (i’m half Serbian) 59. Where would you like to live? If not my current home town, i’d love to one day live somewhere like Norway or Sweden 60. Do you have any pets? yep, i’ve got a french bulldog 61. Are you more of an early bird or a night owl? I wake up pretty early, but I hate to start the day early 62. Do you like sunrises or sunsets better? sunsets. 63. Do you know how to drive? Yep 64. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones? the sound of headphones but I normally use earbuds 65. Have you ever had braces? nope, thank god 66. What is your favourite genre of music? this really ranges from charts, to indie rock, to ‘former emo kid’, to early 2000s r&b, to musical theatre 67. Who is your hero? probably my boyfriend 68. Do you read comic books? no 69. What makes you the most angry? as we’ve already gathered, I have a lot of pet peeves, so a lot! 70. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book?a real book! 71. What is your favourite subject in school? I currently study psychology which has been my favourite subject since A levels, but during GCSEs I enjoyed maths 72. Do you have any siblings? 1 younger brother 73. What was the last thing you bought? some christmas presents for my boyfriend’s cousins 74. How tall are you? 5ft4 75. Can you cook? yes 76. What are three things that you love? spending time with people I love, travelling, collecting photos 77. What are three things that you hate? busy places, cheats, confrontation 78. Do you have more female friends or more male friends? I actually barely have any so this is kind of hard to answer 79. What is your sexual orientation? straight 80. Where do you currently live? England 81. Who was the last person you texted? my mum 82. When was the last time you cried? I’m not actually sure, which is funny because I cry all the time and super easily 83. Who is your favourite YouTuber? I have so many: in terms of sims: lilsimsie, urbansims, sophsims, simkim, plumbella, in terms of lifestyle: louise pentland, in terms of fashion and beauty: samantha maria, tati westbrook, busybee carys, patricia bright, antonio garza, and others: shane dawson, sarah baska, kendall rae, jaackmaate, and loads more! basically, if i’m not on tumblr, i’m on youtube, if i’m not on youtube i’m playing sims, and if i’m not on sims i’m on tumblr... 84. Do you like to take selfies? rarely 85. What is your favourite app? any social media 86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like? fab 87. What is your favourite foreign accent? Australian and Scottish 88. What is a place that you’ve never been to, but you want to visit? I have so many but I won’t bore you with another long list, so just a few: Sweden, South Africa, Iceland and Canada 89. What is your favourite number? 1 90. Can you juggle? no 91. Are you religious? I was baptised but don’t really consider myself religious 92. Do you find outer space or the deep ocean to be more interesting? both as interesting as the other 93. Do you consider yourself to be a daredevil? not really 94. Are you allergic to anything? no 95. Can you curl your tongue? yep, one of my weird ‘party tricks’ is I can actually curl it 180 degrees 96. Can you wiggle your ears? no 97. How often do you admit that you were wrong about something? not as often as I should 98. Do you prefer the forest or the beach? probably the forest 99. What is your favourite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you?my dad probably gives the best life advice but there’s too much to put here 100. Are you a good liar? It depends 101. What is your Hogwarts House? Hufflepuff 102. Do you talk to yourself? All the time 103. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? I N T R O V E R T, i’m so introverted to the point I hate it but seriously struggle to change it 104. Do you keep a journal/diary? no but I have in the past 105. Do you believe in second chances? it depends 106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do? Hand it in 107. Do you believe that people are capable of change? It depends 108. Are you ticklish? VERY 109. Have you ever been on a plane? manyyyy times 110. Do you have any piercings? nope, I have but not anymore 111. What fictional character do you wish was real? no idea 112. Do you have any tattoos? nope 113. What is the best decision that you’ve made in your life so far? I’m really not sure 114. Do you believe in karma? to an extent, but at the same time bad things seem to happen to good people, sooooo 115. Do you wear glasses or contacts? neither 116. Do you want children? yes 117. Who is the smartest person you know? my cousin 118. What is your most embarrassing memory? omg my whole life is filled with embarrassing memories that I seem to always remember at the most inconvenient times or when i’m about to go to sleep that just haunt me out of nowhere...fun 119. Have you ever pulled an all-nighter? yes 120. What colour are most of you clothes? black or white 121. Do you like adventures? yep 122. Have you ever been on TV? no 123. How old are you? 20 - nearly 21 124. What is your favourite quote? not really sure. 125. Do you prefer sweet or savoury foods? sweet

8 notes · View notes

endenogatai · 4 years

Text

Google is now publishing coronavirus mobility reports, feeding off users�� location history

Google is giving the world a clearer glimpse of exactly how much it knows about people everywhere — using the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to repackage its persistent tracking of where users go and what they do as a public good in the midst of a pandemic.

In a blog post today, the tech giant announced the publication of what it’s branding COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports, an in-house analysis of the much more granular location data it maps and tracks to fuel its ad-targeting, product development and wider commercial strategy to showcase aggregated changes in population movements around the world.

The coronavirus pandemic has generated a worldwide scramble for tools and data to inform government responses. In the EU, for example, the European Commission has been leaning on telcos to hand over anonymized and aggregated location data to model the spread of COVID-19.

Google’s data dump looks intended to dangle a similar idea of public policy utility while providing an eyeball-grabbing public snapshot of mobility shifts via data pulled off of its global user-base.

In terms of actual utility for policymakers, Google’s suggestions are pretty vague. The reports could help government and public health officials “understand changes in essential trips that can shape recommendations on business hours or inform delivery service offerings,” it writes.

“Similarly, persistent visits to transportation hubs might indicate the need to add additional buses or trains in order to allow people who need to travel room to spread out for social distancing,” it goes on. “Ultimately, understanding not only whether people are traveling, but also trends in destinations, can help officials design guidance to protect public health and essential needs of communities.”

The location data Google is making public is similarly fuzzy — to avoid inviting a privacy storm — with the company writing it’s using “the same world-class anonymization technology that we use in our products every day,” as it puts it.

“For these reports, we use differential privacy, which adds artificial noise to our datasets enabling high quality results without identifying any individual person,” Google writes. “The insights are created with aggregated, anonymized sets of data from users who have turned on the Location History setting, which is off by default.”

“In Google Maps, we use aggregated, anonymized data showing how busy certain types of places are—helping identify when a local business tends to be the most crowded. We have heard from public health officials that this same type of aggregated, anonymized data could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat COVID-19,” it adds, tacitly linking an existing offering in Google Maps to a coronavirus-busting cause.

The reports consist of per country, or per state, downloads (with 131 countries covered initially), further broken down into regions/counties — with Google offering an analysis of how community mobility has changed vs a baseline average before COVID-19 arrived to change everything.

So, for example, a March 29 report for the whole of the U.S. shows a 47 per cent drop in retail and recreation activity vs the pre-CV period; a 22% drop in grocery & pharmacy; and a 19% drop in visits to parks and beaches, per Google’s data.

While the same date report for California shows a considerably greater drop in the latter (down 38% compared to the regional baseline); and slightly bigger decreases in both retail and recreation activity (down 50%) and grocery & pharmacy (-24%).

Google says it’s using “aggregated, anonymized data to chart movement trends over time by geography, across different high-level categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential.” The trends are displayed over several weeks, with the most recent information representing 48-to-72 hours prior, it adds.

The company says it’s not publishing the “absolute number of visits” as a privacy step, adding: “To protect people’s privacy, no personally identifiable information, like an individual’s location, contacts or movement, is made available at any point.”

Google’s location mobility report for Italy, which remains the European country hardest hit by the virus, illustrates the extent of the change from lockdown measures applied to the population — with retail & recreation dropping 94% vs Google’s baseline; grocery & pharmacy down 85%; and a 90% drop in trips to parks and beaches.

The same report shows an 87% drop in activity at transit stations; a 63% drop in activity at workplaces; and an increase of almost a quarter (24%) of activity in residential locations — as many Italians stay at home instead of commuting to work.

It’s a similar story in Spain — another country hard-hit by COVID-19. Though Google’s data for France suggests instructions to stay-at-home may not be being quite as keenly observed by its users there, with only an 18% increase in activity at residential locations and a 56% drop in activity at workplaces. (Perhaps because the pandemic has so far had a less severe impact on France, although numbers of confirmed cases and deaths continue to rise across the region.)

While policymakers have been scrambling for data and tools to inform their responses to COVID-19, privacy experts and civil liberties campaigners have rushed to voice concerns about the impacts of such data-fueled efforts on individual rights, while also querying the wider utility of some of this tracking.

And yes, the disclaimer is very broad. I'd say, this is largely a PR move.

Apart from this, Google must be held accountable for its many other secondary data uses. And Google/Alphabet is far too powerful, which must be addressed at several levels, soon. https://t.co/oksJgQAPAY

— Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl) April 3, 2020

Contacts tracing is another area where apps are fast being touted as a potential solution to get the West out of economically crushing population lockdowns — opening up the possibility of people’s mobile devices becoming a tool to enforce lockdowns, as has happened in China.

“Large-scale collection of personal data can quickly lead to mass surveillance,” is the succinct warning of a trio of academics from London’s Imperial College’s Computational Privacy Group, who have compiled their privacy concerns vis-a-vis COVID-19 contacts tracing apps into a set of eight questions app developers should be asking.

Discussing Google’s release of mobile location data for a COVID-19 cause, the head of the group, Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, gave a general thumbs up to the steps it’s taken to shrink privacy risks. Although he also called for Google to provide more detail about the technical processes it’s using in order that external researchers can better assess the robustness of the claimed privacy protections. Such scrutiny is of pressing importance with so much coronavirus-related data grabbing going on right now, he argues.

“It is all aggregated; they normalize to a specific set of dates; they threshold when there are too few people and on top of this they add noise to make — according to them — the data differentially private. So from a pure anonymization perspective it’s good work,” de Montjoye told TechCrunch, discussing the technical side of Google’s release of location data. “Those are three of the big ‘levers’ that you can use to limit risk. And I think it’s well done.”

“But — especially in times like this when there’s a lot of people using data — I think what we would have liked is more details. There’s a lot of assumptions on thresholding, on how do you apply differential privacy, right?… What kind of assumptions are you making?” he added, querying how much noise Google is adding to the data, for example. “It would be good to have a bit more detail on how they applied [differential privacy]… Especially in times like this it is good to be… overly transparent.”

While Google’s mobility data release might appear to overlap in purpose with the Commission’s call for EU telco metadata for COVID-19 tracking, de Montjoye points out there are likely to be key differences based on the different data sources.

“It’s always a trade off between the two,” he says. “It’s basically telco data would probably be less fine-grained, because GPS is much more precise spatially and you might have more data points per person per day with GPS than what you get with mobile phone but on the other hand the carrier/telco data is much more representative — it’s not only smartphone, and it’s not only people who have latitude on, it’s everyone in the country, including non smartphone.”

There may be country specific questions that could be better addressed by working with a local carrier, he also suggested. (The Commission has said it’s intending to have one carrier per EU Member State providing anonymized and aggregated metadata.)

On the topical question of whether location data can ever be truly anonymized, de Montjoye — an expert in data reidentification — gave a “yes and no” response, arguing that original location data is “probably really, really hard to anonymize”.

“Can you process this data and make the aggregate results anonymous? Probably, probably, probably yes — it always depends. But then it also means that the original data exists… Then it’s mostly a question of the controls you have in place to ensure the process that leads to generating those aggregates does not contain privacy risks,” he added.

Perhaps a bigger question related to Google’s location data dump is around the issue of legal consent to be tracking people in the first place.

While the tech giant claims the data is based on opt-ins to location tracking the company was fined $57M by France’s data watchdog last year for a lack of transparency over how it uses people’s data.

Then, earlier this year, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) — now the lead privacy regulator for Google in Europe — confirmed a formal probe of the company’s location tracking activity, following a 2018 complaint by EU consumers groups which accuses Google of using manipulative tactics in order to keep tracking web users’ locations for ad-targeting purposes.

“The issues raised within the concerns relate to the legality of Google’s processing of location data and the transparency surrounding that processing,” said the DPC in a statement in February, announcing the investigation.

The legal questions hanging over Google’s consent to track people likely explains the repeat references in its blog post to people choosing to opt in and having the ability to clear their Location History via settings. (“Users who have Location History turned on can choose to turn the setting off at any time from their Google Account, and can always delete Location History data directly from their Timeline,” it writes in one example.)

In addition to offering up coronavirus mobility porn reports — which Google specifies it will continue to do throughout the crisis — the company says it’s collaborating with “select epidemiologists working on COVID-19 with updates to an existing aggregate, anonymized dataset that can be used to better understand and forecast the pandemic.”

“Data of this type has helped researchers look into predicting epidemics, plan urban and transit infrastructure, and understand people’s mobility and responses to conflict and natural disasters,” it adds.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/2Jy2fb9 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425

0 notes

ropedropnet · 5 years

Text

Disney Parks Related Thoughts from Disney’s Latest Earnings Call

NOTE: You can view the transcript from a number of places online, but this is the one I used: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4238411-walt-disney-company-dis-ceo-robert-iger-q1-2019-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single. Also, the quotes below are from Bob Iger.

The first quote will come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following Disney Parks, Disney has tried to get more money from each of their guests (and, apparently, it has):

Growth in operating income at our domestic parks business was driven by higher guest spending at the park and higher occupied room nights at the hotels. Attendance at our domestic parks was comparable to the first quarter last year. However, per capita spending was up 7% on higher admissions, food and beverage and merchandise spending. Per room spending at our domestic hotels was up 5%, and occupancy was up 3 percentage points to 94%.

Again, no surprise to anyone that follows this stuff.

This next quote talks about how Disney feels that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is, essentially, going to market itself:

And I would say, by the way, on the marketing expense side, don’t expect much. I’m thinking that maybe I should just tweet, “It’s opening,” and that will be enough. I think we’re going to end up with incredibly popular and in-demand product with these two new lands. They’re large. They’re beautiful, and they’re extremely innovative. And they obviously leverage the popularity of the Star Wars brand. And I think that we’re going to have absolutely no problem gaining attention for them or to them, and it’s not going to take much marketing to do that. That’s a signal that I just sent to our parks and resorts people to keep that budget really low.

Iger says that now, but I can’t imagine we’re not going to see a decent amount of advertising as the opening of the land gets closer. Maybe not for the holiday season (which would be popular anyway), but leading into 2020 and the “slower” periods of January and February.

This next quote combines pricing with everyone’s (no one’s?) favorite topic: IP in the theme parks. For better or worse, Disney seems to be saying that part of the reason for the increased popularity in the parks is the additional IP that Disney has been adding to them. Relatedly, Disney is using this increased popularity to raise prices:

Steve, on the first part, we’ve been witnessing, over the last few years, a substantial increase in the popularity of our parks. A lot of that has to do with how well they’ve managed and the kind of investments that we’ve made not just operationally but in expansion and the use of IP that’s extremely popular. In doing so, what we’re also trying to do is to use that popularity to manage guest experience a little bit better in the sense that – and we know that crowding can be an issue, and that when our parks are the most crowded, the guest experience is not what we would like it to be. And so we’re leveraging the popularity to obviously increase pricing and to spread demand, to get much more strategic about how we’re pricing. So the parks are still accessible, but in the highest peak periods, we’re trying basically to manage the attendance so that the guest experience isn’t diminished by the popularity. And I think, because of the nature of the investments we’re making, we’ve been fairly vocal and transparent about those investments, the two big Star Wars, Toy Story Land that just opened up in Florida, the work that’s going on in Hong Kong and in Paris and Shanghai and in Tokyo and all the great expansion and IP that we’re putting in. That popularity is going to continue, and with that’s going to come the, I guess, enviable task of balancing that popularity with guest experience and price elasticity.>

Again, for better or worse, new attractions at Disney parks are going to based on popular IP while the current crew is running things. That seems pretty clear.

As to using pricing to “manage attendance”, I think the unique nature of Disney parks, specifically destination parks like Disney World, undercuts that argument. As I’ve said (and heard others say) since Disney went to seasonal / surge pricing, some people can only take vacations during “peak” Disney times. For those people, the pricing isn’t a discouragement, it’s just an increased cost for their trip. People with the flexibility to travel when they want were alredady factoring in the crowd levels when making their travel decisions. Though I doubt Disney would ever admit it, I bet the increased pricing over peak periods has done nothing to crowd levels, but has simply increased Disney’s profits for those periods. That’s “fine” if that’s Disney’s goal, but to say the goal is to “managed attendance” seems disingenuous.

This last quote comes from earlier in the call, but ties the theme parks into Disney’s upcoming streaming service:

As I mentioned earlier in my prepared remarks, we have an event on April 11 when we’re not only going to demonstrate the app, but we’re going to talk in great detail about our strategy, the impact of our current businesses and the impact on our bottom line. And so I think we’ll answer a lot of the questions then. But what we’re basically trying to do here is invest in our future. And the investments that we’re making in both the technology side and in creating incremental content are all designed so that long-term this business will become an important part of Disney’s bottom line and long-term strategy So I think you have to look at this. It’s almost the equivalent of deploying capital to build out our theme parks when we could have deployed the capital in a variety of other directions. This is a bet on the future of this business. And we are deploying our capital basically so that long term, the growth of this company is stronger than it would have been without these investments.

It seems like Iger is saying that the build out on theme parks was a bet on the future (which seems to have paid off so far) and the build out on the streaming service will be much the same. Personally, I’m interested to see what the whole Disney+ experience will be like, especially initially when Disney still has content deals keeping some of its in-house content on other services. Of course, if Disney’s original content is ready then the service might really hit the ground running.

The post Disney Parks Related Thoughts from Disney’s Latest Earnings Call appeared first on Rope Drop [dot] Net.

from Disney Parks Related Thoughts from Disney’s Latest Earnings Call

#walt disney world #disney #Featured #Walt Disney World #earnings #star wars

0 notes

sheminecrafts · 4 years

Text

Google is now publishing coronavirus mobility reports, feeding off users’ location history

And yes, the disclaimer is very broad. I'd say, this is largely a PR move.

— Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl) April 3, 2020

Perhaps a bigger question related to Google’s location data dump is around the issue of legal consent to be tracking people in the first place.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2Jy2fb9 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 4 years

Link

In a blog post today the tech giant announced the publication of what it’s branding ‘COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports‘. Aka an in-house analysis of the much more granular location data it maps and tracks to fuel its ad-targeting, product development and wider commercial strategy to showcase aggregated changes in population movements around the world.

So, for example, a March 29 report for the whole of the US shows a 47 per cent drop in retail and recreation activity vs the pre-CV period; a 22% drop in grocery & pharmacy; and a 19% drop in visits to parks and beaches, per Google’s data.

Google says it’s using “aggregated, anonymized data to chart movement trends over time by geography, across different high-level categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential”. The trends are displayed over several weeks, with the most recent information representing 48-to-72 hours prior, it adds.

While policymakers have been scrambling for data and tools to inform their responses to COVID-19, privacy experts and civil liberties campaigners have rushed to voice concerns about the impacts of such data-fuelled efforts on individual rights, while also querying the wider utility of some of this tracking.

And yes, the disclaimer is very broad. I'd say, this is largely a PR move.

— Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl) April 3, 2020

Perhaps a bigger question related to Google’s location data dump is around the issue of legal consent to be tracking people in the first place.

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2Jy2fb9 ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes

thatsnotcanonpodcasts · 4 years

Text

Kirigami, Anime & Remake

Here we are again the latest episode from the triplets of Nerdity, that’s right folks those wacky goofballs have done it again. First up we have Buck bringing us news about new robots using the art of Kirigami. The art of cutting paper, in this case it is cutting and folding paper. This method has been applied to robotics with some awesome results. Now while it is only early days, we ask you to remember the Origami claw we featured a while back. With this in mind you will understand why Buck is excited, and Professor joins in with the excitement. This is just the start of the show and it is already looking fantastic.

Next we look at the dismal lack of taste exhibited by the foolish bunch of weirdos in Hollywood behind the Golden Globes. That’s right we said it, actually Buck did if any snipers are being sent for reprisals. But seriously, just get those idiots to go look at some of the amazing work in animation out there. It doesn’t have to be all CGI, honestly Hollywood was built on proper special effects. These days they struggle to do anything outside a computer lab. While we are not meaning to insult CGI and the wonders it can produce, why can’t we have some proper animation and anime getting awards. When can we see some real special effects like we used to get back in the day. Not meaning to sound as grumpy as Buck or as old as a Boomer but seriously the talent involved in special effects was astounding.

Last we look at a remake of Sonic 06 that is actually looking good. That is until corporate lawyers realised they could make money by getting it shut down. Take a moment and open the link, doesn’t that look so much better then what was dumped on the market like so much garbage? The amount of work involved must be mind-blowing, but there may be hope for the future. Want to know what that might be, well you will need to listen in to find out. You thought I was slipping and going to tell you everything, but believe me, there is so much more for you.

We finish with the regular shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and special events. As always we hope you take care of yourselves, look out for each other and stay hydrated.

Self-folding robots using kirigami

- https://techxplore.com/news/2019-12-robots-self-folding-kirigami-materials.html

- https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/12/11/1906435116/tab-figures-data

Anime Movies snubbed from Golden Globes - https://www.cbr.com/golden-globes-shuts-out-anime-films-promare-weathering-with-you-i-lost-my-body/

Sonic 06 Remade by a Fan - https://www.engadget.com/2019/12/11/sonic-p-06-unity-pc-fan-remake/

Games currently playing

Buck

– Pirates Slay - https://www.crazygames.com/game/pirates-slay

Rating: 4.5/5

– Frenzy Retribution - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1108560/FrenzyRetribution/

Rating: 4/5

Professor

- Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition - https://store.steampowered.com/app/813780/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition/

Rating: 4.733/5

Other topics discussed

Kirigami Definiton (variation of origami that includes cutting of the paper, rather than solely folding the paper as is the case with origami, but typically does not use glue.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirigami

- https://www.origami-resource-center.com/kirigami-for-kids.html

T-1000 (A fictional character in the Terminator franchise. A shape shifting android assassin, it was created by Skynet. The T-1000 is described in Terminator 2 as being composed of liquid metal, or a mimetic polyalloy (nanorobotics) that it can manipulate to assume various forms.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-1000

Origami Gripper (A team at MIT CSAIL have been working on a solution to this problem, which they call the Origami gripper. The gripper consists of a flexible, folding skeleton surrounded by an airtight skin.)

- https://hackaday.com/2019/03/18/origami-gripper-is-great-for-soft-and-heavy-objects/

Microbots (tiny nanobots constructed by Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6)

- https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Microbots

Poisoned books in universities

- https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-three-poisonous-books-in-our-university-library-98358

Shadows from the Walls of Death (printed in 1874 it is a noteworthy book for two reasons: its rarity, and the fact that, if you touch it, it might kill you. It contains just under a hundred wallpaper samples, each of which is saturated with potentially dangerous levels of arsenic)

- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/shadows-from-the-walls-of-death-book

South Korean Cinemas suing Disney over Frozen 2

- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/03/disney-sued-frozen-2s-monopoly-south-korean-cinemas/

Banana on the wall masterpiece and aftermath

- https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/the-banana-on-the-wall-was-a-masterpiece-until-somebody-ate-it-20191209-p53i0u.html

- https://nypost.com/2019/12/09/banana-wall-vandalized-with-jeffrey-epstein-theory-at-art-basel/

PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen) (is a single by Pikotaro, a fictional singer-songwriter created and portrayed by Japanese comedian Daimaou Kosaka.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPAP_(Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen)

Banksy painting purchased and shredded

- https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/banksy-s-shredded-painting-stunt-was-viral-performance-art-who-ncna921426

Money Heist (Spanish television heist crime drama series.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_Heist

The Grand Tour (created by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May, and Andy Wilman, produced by Amazon exclusively for its online streaming service Amazon Prime Video)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Tour

Black Sails (American historical adventure television series set on New Providence Island and written to be a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sails_(TV_series)

P.T. (initialism for "playable teaser") is a first-person psychological horror video game developed by Kojima Productions, under the pseudonym "7780s Studio", and published by Konami. The game was directed and designed by Hideo Kojima, in collaboration with film director Guillermo del Toro.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.T._(video_game)

Fan Remake Of P.T. for free (indie developer managed to remake the P.T. demo and give it out to the general public for free, so for everyone who missed out on it years ago can play the fan remake right now.)

- https://www.cinemablend.com/games/2444440/you-can-play-a-fan-remake-of-pt-for-free

Konami shuts down P.T fan remake

- https://www.cinemablend.com/games/2450779/the-pt-fan-remake-was-just-killed-by-konami

P.T fan remake Developer offered an internship

- https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/13/17570252/pt-on-pc-fan-remake-cease-desist-pulled

Markets (Age of Empires 2 building)

- https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Market_(Age_of_Empires_II)

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (also known as Soviet Ukraine, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from the Union's inception in 1922 to its breakup in 1991.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Soviet_Socialist_Republic

Shoutouts

17 Dec 1989 – First episode of The Simpsons airs in the United States with the episode titled Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, although it was titled onscreen as "The Simpsons Christmas Special" -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_Roasting_on_an_Open_Fire

17 Dec 2003 – SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first powered and first supersonic flight, which was also the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic first powered flight. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne

17/12/2019 - Shoutout to the New South Wales and Queensland Fire fighters along with their Rural Fire Association Queensland Raffle

- https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/very-unpredictable-fire-conditions-forecast-for-nsw-amid-soaring-temperatures-volatile-winds/live-coverage/76f62241194e47b012e83caf81c535a8

- https://www.rfbaq.org/au75

Remembrances

20 Nov 2019 – Tony Brooker, British academic, was a computer scientist known for developing the Mark 1 Autocode language. He also designed the compiler-compiler which is a programming tool that creates a parser, interpreter, or compiler from some form of formal description of a programming language and machine. He died at the age of 94 in Hexham - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/technology/tony-brooker-dead.html

17 Dec 1907 - William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-Scottish (of Ulster Scots heritage) mathematical physicist and engineer who was born in Belfast in 1824. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form. Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour. While the existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known prior to his work, Kelvin is known for determining its correct value as approximately −273.15 degree Celsius or −459.67 degree Fahrenheit. He died from a severe chill at the age of 83 in Largs, Ayrshire - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomson,_1st_Baron_Kelvin

17 Dec 2016 - Henry Judah Heimlich, American thoracic surgeon and medical researcher. He is widely credited as the inventor of the Heimlich maneuver, a technique of abdominal thrusts for stopping choking, described in Emergency Medicine in 1974. He also invented the Micro Trach portable oxygen system for ambulatory patients and the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve, or "flutter valve", which drains blood and air out of the chest cavity. He died after complications from a heart attack at the age of 96 in Cincinnati, Ohio - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Heimlich

Famous Birthdays

17 Dec 1905 - Simo "Simuna" Häyhä, nicknamed "White Death"by the Red Army,was a Finnishsniper. He is believed to have killed 500 men during the 1939–40 Winter War, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war. He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30 rifle, a variant of the Mosin–Nagant rifle, and a Suomi KP/-31 sub machine gun. His unit's captain Antti Rantama credited him with 259 confirmed kills by sniper rifle and an equal number of kills by sub machine gun during the Winter War. Häyhä never talked about it publicly but estimated in his diary that he killed around 500. He was born in Rautjärvi, Viipuri Province. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4

17 Dec 1920 - Kenneth Eugene Iverson, Canadian computer scientist noted for the development of the programming language APL. He was honored with the Turing Award in 1979 "for his pioneering effort in programming languages and mathematical notation resulting in what the computing field now knows as APL; for his contributions to the implementation of interactive systems, to educational uses of APL, and to programming language theory and practice". He was born in Camrose, Alberta - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_E._Iverson

17 Dec 1929 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress known for her role as Barbara Wright in the BBC science-fiction television series Doctor Who. As the history teacher of Susan Foreman, the Doctor's granddaughter, Barbara was the first Doctor Who companion to appear on-screen in 1963, with Hill speaking the series' first words. She played the role for nearly two years, leaving the series in 1965 at the same time as fellow actor William Russell (who played the companion Ian Chesterton). Hill returned to Doctor Who in 1980 for an appearance in the serial Meglos, as the Tigellan priestess Lexa. She was born in Birmingham - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Hill

17 Dec 1975 - Milica Bogdanovna "Milla" Jovovich, American actress, model, and musician. Her starring roles in numerous science fiction and action films led the music channel VH1 to deem her the "reigning queen of kick-butt" in 2006. In 2004, Forbes determined that she was the highest-paid model in the world. Jovovich gained attention for her role in the 1991 romance film Return to the Blue Lagoon, as she was then only 15. She was considered to have a breakthrough with her role in the 1997 French science-fiction film The Fifth Element, written and directed by Luc Besson. She and Besson married that year, but soon divorced. She starred as the heroine and martyr in Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. Between 2002 and 2016, Jovovich portrayed Alice in the science fiction horror film franchise Resident Evil, which became the highest-grossing film series to be based on video games. She was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milla_Jovovich

Event of interest

17 Dec 1903 – The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It flew about four miles (6.4 km) for four times. Today, the airplane is exhibited in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. The U.S. Smithsonian Institution describes the aircraft as "the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. The flight of Flyer I marks the beginning of the "pioneer era" of aviation. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer

17 Dec 1957 – The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The missile named (R&D) Atlas A 12A which was an SM-65A Atlas landed in the target area after a flight of 600 miles. This was the first Atlas with a functional guidance system.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-65_Atlas

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-65A_Atlas

- https://web.archive.org/web/20060204073649/http://www.geocities.com/atlas_missile/Chronology.html

18 Dec 1971 – On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the sixth in the James Bond series was released, with its premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. As On Her Majesty's Secret Service had been filmed in stereo, the first Bond film to use the technology, the Odeon had a new speaker system installed to benefit the new sounds. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Her_Majesty%27s_Secret_Service_(film)

- https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/movies/ohmss_premiere?id=04625

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

Facebook

- Page - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/

- Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/440485136816406/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamated

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrS

iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094

RSS - http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rss

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nerds_amalgamated/

General Enquiries

Email - [email protected]

0 notes

thecinemaelite · 6 years

Text

Since I’ve gotten many people telling me to play the new God of War game, I have finally succumbed to the peer pressure. Of course, since I’m a connoisseur of narrative storytelling, I decided to play the previous six games as well since I’ve never played any God of War games in my life. So, here are my retrospective thoughts on the franchise as a whole, and collective reviews for all seven games that currently exist (excluding the side-scrolling phone app game. I’m not that desperate for entertainment).

God of War HD (2005)

Played on: PlayStation Now

Time to Beat: 8h 41m

MetaScore: 94 Critic / 89 User

My Rating: 8/10

So, an “80%” is not the first grade that came to mind while playing this game. At the beginning, I loved the gameplay and plot but while the story stayed pretty top-notch, the gameplay suffered severe quality fluctuations. Given that this game is 13 years old, functionality and fluidity are critiqued with bias but I can say this fairly objectively: parts of this game are relentlessly frustrating. There are sections where ultimate surgical precision must be maintained by the player, but not by the game. By that I mean that you’ll have to weave between dangers but the “hit boxes” for these dangers are far from exact: this game and its controls are often clunky but at the same time, you’re asked for perfection which makes many aspects of this game simple lucky coin flips. I also appreciated the camera work at times but at other times, it seemed like the absolute stupidest idea in gaming history. The variety of angles is “cool,” but often troublesome and easily substitutable for a simple third person close follow camera type. Artistic, not practical (which is a good way to describe a lot of the mechanics) which is a trait that breeds annoyance almost consistently. Either way, if you have the patience and interest in going back to play this game, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with the overall experience.

2. God of War II (2007)

Played on: PlayStation Now

Time to Beat: 8h 44m

MetaScore: 93 Critic / 89 User

My Rating: 8/10

The first game I thought was a fantastic story burdened by clunky mechanics that turned parts of gameplay into outright chores but this game was almost the opposite: a smooth game without as impressive a narrative. I never really wanted to beat the game in order to see what became of my playing, but rather to beat the game in order to move onto the next one. Instead of this rags-to-riches plot that made the first so compelling, this is just a revenge tale that plays pretty much the same. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the game but before I go into my positives, I thought I’d get the negatives out of the way beforehand. So, let’s move on to the good parts: damn this game was fun. The added scale and spectacle truly made this feel epic mostly in the sequences that allowed you to fly Pegasus, climb up Titans, and just prove that you are the God of War and not just a soldier of death. Being able to fight Zeus and feel like you’re able to kick his ass given the work you’ve done to upgrade your attacks and weapons was extremely fulfilling. The puzzles weren’t nearly as puzzling but being able to sprint through them just sort of added to the power I felt at the controls of our anti-hero. It’s a ton of fun, that much I can’t deny. Flying with the wings of Icarus was also an added bonus which brings me to my favorite and least favorite parts of the game: the lore it swims, and sometimes drowns, in. Look, it’s really great to interact with Greek gods, Titans, and other creatures of lore but sometimes I thought that the game would have benefitted from re-writing some of these elements. Mainly, 10-arm 10-boobed Great Uncle Ugly that you have to beat towards the end. That was more offputting and disgusting than threatening and I wanted to get it over with more than I did want to feel accomplished by beating him. It’s still a great experience and I enjoyed it slightly more than the first, the mechanics were the most cherished improvement.

3. God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008)

Played on: PlayStation Now

Time to Beat: 3h 13m

MetaScore: 91 Critic / 86 User

My Rating: 5/10

I’m not too sure what I expected from this entry, I suppose that the main reason for this game’s existence is to re-introduce this series to players who would like to play more of the same thing they’ve been playing. Instead of at home, though, it’s on the go. Chains is really just rehashing the least epic portions of the first two games. Honestly, how many times am I going to have to level up the same damn blades? It’s like this character has memory loss and I gotta retrain him every few months. I get that this is a prequel but there are many ways to still have made it more unique. This game is just like the first game minus the God battles. And the final boss? We meet the character RIGHT before we have to fight her, it’s the biggest left-field random “surprise” and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes— the final ending just feels tacked on last-minute. There’s not too much else to say, it doesn’t feel fresh but if you like God of War then this will most likely please you. Or, you’re like me who likes the first two games but this one felt like getting a hair in my salad.

4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010)

Played on: PlayStation Now

Time to Beat: 4h 08m

MetaScore: 86 Critic / 85 User

My Rating: 9/10

Without a doubt, this is my favorite of the four God of War games I’ve played so far. To me, this is a near perfect edition of the God of War style and mechanics, and adding a great story on top of it. Full of epic moments, thrills, chills, action, drama, and deep character relationships, Ghost of Sparta amazed me around every turn…and this was a PSP to PS3 port? That’s even more amazing. The visuals and gameplay were better than the PS2 games for sure and I can’t wait to see what III and Ascension offer after this amazing entry. Really, my only problems have been problems with the other games as well: the chests, the inability to load single chapters, and the confusing bonuses. The chests are absolutely ridiculous even still, especially when you’re fighting and need to open one right next to you but it flashes different colors so you have to wait for the right one, and hope that you don’t get hit in the meantime. It’s not a skill-based mechanic, it’s a cheap tactic that absolutely needs to disappear. The inability to load earlier chapters bugs me as well because to go back to get just one Gorgon Eye that you missed means replaying the ENTIRE campaign over again which, again, is cheap. It definitely ruins any replayability and so far, this would be the one God of War game I’d go back to play for shits and giggles. Lastly, the confusing bonuses… there are some things I grabbed throughout the campaign that told me I’d have to beat the game to use. Upon completion of the game, nothing in the menus at all gave any hint on how to use these items. I started up a new game and was able to choose my outfit but I still couldn��t figure out how to use these relics, so I just turned it off and decided to write this review before moving onto the next game.

5. God of War III Remastered (2010)

Played on: PlayStation Now

Time to Beat: 9h 26m

MetaScore: 92 Critic / 88 User

My Rating: 9/10

There are so many aspects of this game that have been greatly improved upon in comparison to the games that came before it. For one, it’s graphically gorgeous. I played the Remastered version so that may have helped a little bit but either way, the epicness of the game was achieved due almost exclusively to the graphics that helped sell it. This was also the first game that I played on Normal difficulty since the first game. The clunky controls of the earlier entries infuriated me and I played on Easy simply to finish the game as fast as possible (the only real reason I’m playing any of these is because I want to go into God of War IV knowing as much of the backstory as possible), and playing this on normal kicked my ass a few times. Because of this, I had to be much more careful with my attacks, timing, and maneuvers which inherently makes you more invested in the game and character. So, this might not be an objective statement due to the difficulty change but I did feel like this game was more of a challenge which made it slightly more fun, and definitely more rewarding. On the other hand, this game was a lot more gruesome… like, a lot. Almost disgustingly so, at times, as blood would literally cover the screen. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily bother me but as this was the first HD-feeling game, the first graphical change that I noticed was the gallons of blood erupting from every enemy. It was slightly offputting but honestly, did a lot to help sell the legendary fantastical nature of a game revolving around the God of War. Probably my favorite aspect of the game was when you could pick up and use artifacts from the gods and demi-gods that you killed. Whenever you take down one of these mythological characters, you assume some of their powers which was a design that made every few chapters feel extremely fresh (something that was desperately needed after binge-playing all of these games in less than 2 weeks). The final boss fight was another element of the game that changed-up the God of War- fighting paradigm by making it extremely reminiscent of Mortal Kombat (see above image). The hack-and-slash followed by rapid button-mash nature of the boss fights have grown a little slate so having a boss fight in this new style was more than welcome. Overall, I don’t think this game has quite the intimate character-driven story of Ghost of Sparta but it makes up for it in its epic finality which offered a lot of fun, fresh, and exciting gameplay elements.

6. God of War: Ascension (2013)

Played on: PlayStation Now

Time to Beat: 8h 22m

MetaScore: 80 Critic / 76 User

My Rating: 8/10

Ascension is (yet another) game that takes place before a previous game and because of that, the stakes don’t feel as high since we’ve seen the world of the future. However, Ascension manages to take that basic prequelitis disease and make it exciting. Of course, he is not a god (yet) so he doesn’t have the ability to use all of the magic and powers that he has in the other games, but we were still able to experiment with godlike abilities through artifacts and assistance. Since this takes place before he decides to hunt down and kill Ares, he’s still on the good side of every God, using their abilities at times to aid him in battle. However, the most beneficial tools that we were able to use were just basic items, giving us a taste at how good of a warrior Kratos is, when he can’t rely on the powers of the gods. Aside from that, the story was okay; it definitely didn’t do anything to impress me until the very end as it seems to be more of the same yet again (instead of battling the Sisters of Fate, it’s now the sisters of Fury. Another four letter “f” word…darn) and honestly, I didn’t know WHY I was doing a lot of the things that I was doing. Go here, fight them, swing there, fix this, do that, yadda yadda yadda but the upgraded mechanics and gorgeous visuals made the dead-horse ride much less of a chore. Like the other games, this one also called upon you to use the directional pad in order to change weapons but Ascension did things slightly differently by having each directional button give you a different elemental power to use (Zeus’ lightning, Hades’ souls, Poseidon’s ice, and Ares’ fire) in order to make the mechanics familiar but offer something new. There were a few things that infuriated me about the updated combat mechanics, though, and one of them was the Rage Meter. I liked the general idea of it but in practice, it was rarely used and felt nearly useless. Another thing that I despised was how the Quick Time Events worked. When you attack an enemy until they’re ready for a Finishing Move, grappling them will execute one of four things: a button-mash, a QTE, a fighting mini-game, or a death animation. I like all of these in theory, but since you never knew which one you were going to get, sometimes you’d prepare for the wrong one and then die because you didn’t get a warning. For QTEs specifically, the button demand was excruciatingly random. I love little details like QTE demands being mapped to button commands that make sense, such as X for jump. In Ascension, that’s not the case. There’s no skill involved in the QTEs and it took the fun out of playing those sections…especially because it’s the very last thing you do. One of the reasons that Halo 4 was so painfully underwhelming is because the game ended with a QTE boss fight, for the first time in the series. Ascension is full of those (like the other God of War games) but the reason I hate them so much is that the buttons they ask you to press often don’t make sense. That being said, the fighting minigames were stellar and I really hope to see more things like that instead of QTEs in the 2018 game. Other than that, there were a lot of aspects of this game that I loved a lot more than the other games. First, the voice acting. I’ve never been a huge fan of the quality of voice acting of Kratos but it was perfected in this game and I can really tell that the actor’s skills have improved greatly. Second, the puzzles. There were a lot more puzzles in this game that really made you think about what you were doing and what needs doing (and in what order) which felt a little (way) too much like Uncharted but given that this is the sixth game in the series, a little fresh air was more than welcome. On some levels, I’d finish a puzzle and walk past a chest before opening a door (planning to go back to the chest) but instead, the door would close behind me and the chest was lost. That’s an over exaggerated example but there were at least half a dozen times in which events close to that happened, frustrating me to all hell. Twice, I even purposefully killed myself in order to load the last checkpoint but it would instead take me past where I wanted to be. Either way, it didn’t harm the game too much (aside from the fact that I was 2000 red orbs away from a trophy for unlocking all of Kratos’ upgrades) and I still had a lot of fun. I’d say it’s in my top 3 GoW campaigns so far and although it was quite different, it was a lot of fun as well.

7. God of War (2018)

Played on: PlayStation 4

Time to Beat: 31h 53m

MetaScore: 94 Critic / 92 User

My Score: 10/10

God of War IV is nothing short of absolute perfection, and an immense improvement on the previous games in the series. This Norse God of War game breathes new life into the franchise, taking not only an entire mythological history and swapping it for another but also switching up the gameplay, style, aesthetic, and changing the very nature of the old hack-and-slash platformers that these games are known for being. Of course, pieces of the game are still reminiscent of the old style but for all intents and purposes, this is a new type of GoW game altogether… and it’s beautiful. My biggest gripes with the other games are now not in the series at all anymore: the helpful health, magic, and rage chests alternating between what they offer: gone. The tedious button-mashing to defeat bosses, open doors, and any other interactable objects: gone. In exchange, God of War IV dilutes those elements or replaces them completely. Sure, there are small stones that may change color depending on what they offer but by no means are they the only source of that object and really, are almost entirely missable. Button-mashing is only in the game less than a dozen times and it’s also mostly avoidable, or completely necessary to put you in Kratos’ shoes (as far as effort goes). While not open world, the map is large and explorable, spanning out from the center like a spider’s web. In this way, it would be most accurate to draw comparisons to Rise of the Tomb Raider or Bioshock where there are not “levels” to progress through the story, but chapters that take place in different areas that can be accessed at any time. In aesthetic, though, comparisons between this game and Skyrim, Middle-Earth, The Witcher or Dragon Age can be drawn as they revolve around a slightly more medieval-fantasy genre. Really, calling this game “Rise of the Tomb Raider meets Skyrim” would be a great way to look at this game as a whole. The other GoW games took you from point A to B to C, and so on. This game, on the other hand, lays out A-Z all at the same time and you get to decide which letter you approach first. From there, A2, A3, A4, and other sections of each letter can be unlocked, if that analogy makes sense. It’s not quite a “play your way” sort of story but the kind of variations and customizations that are offered astounded me, and I still can’t stop playing. The map is very large but I do have a few problems with it. For one, some sections of it are quite maze-like. Since it’s a spider-web shape, you have to follow trails to get between certain sections which means if you want to travel to a different area, you’d have to trek through the trails and are unable to find shortcuts. For example, I wanted to beat the Valkyrie in The Mountains but the Yggdrasil door closest to it took me to a spot 1400m away: above where I wanted to be. The map has no apparent depth when looking at it from above and not being able to rotate it or change perspective became troublesome at times. That is probably the biggest thing I would change as it slowed down my gameplay quite a bit. That being said, my problems with the map stop after Midgard and since there are 5 other realms to explore (all smaller) the problems are mostly limited to that realm. Niflheim, Muspeilheim, Helheim, and Alfheim are all explorable and each offers their own unique perks, challenges, and areas to devote your time to. The best part: you could play the game without even venturing once into two of those places which end up serving as a complete bonus for players who wanted to experience more of the worlds Santa Monica built for us. Speaking of the developers: this game has, by far, the best story of any game I’ve played in a very long time. The action and emotion are both astronomically impacting and both aspects make the experience as a whole entirely unmatched. The voice acting as well has been vastly improved; Kratos is no longer a sort of eye-rolling dialoguist but now is a rusted poet full of heart and buried emotion. It truly was a heartbreaking, heartwarming, and mesmerizing experience following Kratos and Atreus on this journey. The characters were also one of the strongest points by far. Kratos and Atreus, Brok and Sindri, Mimir, Freya, Baldur, and everybody else were just so well written and portrayed; there wasn’t a single flat character in the game. The heroes, as well as villains, were extremely deep and emotional, all containing arcs and stories that are impossible not to be invested in. Brok and Sindri are the best comic relief I’ve ever encountered in a video game, Baldur is one of the most brilliantly conflicted villains, Kratos is helplessly badass and magnetic, and Atreus should have his own game series as well. Honestly, there’s nothing not to like about this masterpiece. I could go on for hours but I think I’ve sold this game enough and just hope that just one single person out there who hasn’t played this game is reading this review is now convinced to give it a try, I’ve succeeded. Borrow it from a friend, rent it, buy it, however you can. Scrape pennies out of the couch and call in your favors: God of War IV is the must-play game of the year.

Series Retrospective & Overall Thoughts

As of writing this sentence, I’ve put 88 hours and 12 minutes into the God of War franchise, with nearly 46 of those being from the most recent entry…which is more than half of my total time playing them. What started as a simple assignment (beat the campaigns, write the reviews) became an emotional investment. I’ve grown to love this series even though many of the titles were quite repetitive as they started asking you to do the same things over and over again. The first six games had their ups and downs, wavering in quality of story and visuals whilst requiring ungodly amounts of button mashing but then came 2018’s God of War which blew everything out of the water. How this game reinvented the franchise astounds me for a few reasons, one of which I have been saving for this section of the post: I played six God of War games in two weeks and the final game was the most satisfying. Yes, they started to feel stale to me after the second game but the new God of War is something so fresh and so new that it felt like something completely different (in the best ways).

As mentioned in the individual reviews, the games started to get stale (especially Chains of Olympus which offered neither a fresh story or gameplay experience). Ghost of Sparta gave us an amazing tale, III offered the most epic visuals, and Ascension gave us the best gameplay. III stood out to me for it’s Mortal Kombat boss fight, Ascension for it’s Uncharted-style, and God of War IV felt like Tomb Raider meets Skyrim. The strength of this franchise has become its variation. As we’ve seen with the LEGO games, the Guitar Hero games, and most recently, the Call of Duty games, audiences will turn on a franchise if it stops reinventing itself. God of War has managed to avoid that because it’s not afraid to change up its pace. I can’t thank creative director Cory Barlog enough for his decision to do just that.

The longest franchise I’ve played in the past is Halo (Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, ODST, Reach, and 4) but I never played them consecutively as I did these games. So, it makes sense how this series when played religiously back-to-back may get old but to then have the last game be the most time consuming yet inventive and beautiful was such a treat. If I ever go back and play the God of War games again, I’ll likely simply stick with this new one. If anything, maybe play Ghost of Sparta since it was one of my favorites, or III and Ascension since they were visually appealing, but I’d be robbing myself by playing a God of War game and not have it be this most recent one.

Games Ranked

Ranking titles is one of the most challenging tasks for myself as I constantly remember aspects of one while forgetting aspects of another and then juggling which parts mean more to me but as far as overall experience goes, I think this order satisfies my tastes fairly well.

God of War (2018)

God of War III

Ghost of Sparta

Ascension

God of War II

God of War

Chains of Olympus

All of these games were really enjoyable (aside from Chains which I thought was a pretty boring experience) and even though ranking them may seem like the games down the list are of low quality but don’t let that fool you: all are worth playing.

What Order to Play In

If you’re like I was, and are interested in getting into the God of War games, I’ve thought of the best way to play them in. Since they were released out of chronology but certain stories reference others, playing in either release order or chronological order can be problematic. So, here is the order that I recommend:

God of War

Chains of Olympus (if you want)

Ghost of Sparta

God of War II

God of War III

Ascension

God of War (2018)

The reasoning for this is that Ascension takes place first but references III and has better graphics than all of the other games, and while the PSP games were released between II and III instead of I and II, playing them out of order allows you to play II and III back-to-back which is what I wish I would have done as they lead into the next game seamlessly.

Future Hopes

Without a doubt, I want Santa Monica to continue what they’ve done with this newest title. The tone, story, scale, open-world flavor, side quests, characters, and general aesthetic of this Norse-themed reinvention needs to continue. I’d love to go to the other realms that weren’t explored in GoW4, I’d love to see what happens with a few characters whose future roles were teased, and I absolutely need to see the rest of Kratos’ days as the Greek God of War.

The text in the following paragraph is full of spoilers, I recommend skipping past that paragraph if you don’t want to or already know these things.

I want to see Freya take up her previous role as the Valkyrie Queen for Odin, and set out on a path of vengeance against Kratos and Atreus. Maybe Loki has a brief or extended stint on Asgard’s side and Kratos has to battle Freya and the Asgardians alone during Ragnarok. There are so many options for what could happen in a sequel, and one of the largest plots I can think of is Kratos vs. Thor since Atreus’ reveal as Loki has a history of interacting with Thor and Odin. Although, more father-son drama may start to feel repetitive.

Cory Balrog and the rest of the Santa Monica team said that since this game took 5 years to build from the ground up, the next games wouldn’t take nearly as long and they have quite a few more stories up their sleeves. Time couldn’t move fast enough in order for me to play these games as soon as I’d like to.

Anyways, I think that’ll do it for my God of War Series Review! I hope you enjoyed yourself and as always, thanks for reading and I’ll see you soon!

God of War: Series Review Since I've gotten many people telling me to play the new God of War game, I have finally succumbed to the peer pressure.

#ascension #athena #chains of olympus #cory barlog #ghost of sparta #god of war #greek #kratos #loki #mythology #norse #playstation #ps4 #santa monica #thor #video game #zeus

0 notes

martechadvisor-blog · 6 years

Text

Google I/O Brings New Tools and Features In Adwords and AdMob

I/O is an inspiring moment. Every year, it's exciting to connect with the developer community and hear about all of the amazing things they are building especially mobile apps.

These apps are the very reason many people consider their phones indispensable. People use these apps to stay connected, be entertained, and get everyday tasks done. Last year alone, people downloaded 94 billion apps from Google Play.

This means more opportunities for developers. With millions of apps in the ecosystem, ads have to work harder to make the app stand out. And with users being more selective about the apps they keep, one needs to create user-first ad experiences to monetize effectively.

To build a successful app business, one needs tools that help to grow and earn more. That’s where Google can help. Tomorrow morning, you’ll hear about ads innovations designed to help you do just that and examples of developers who are thriving with them.

Grow user base

Developers have driven more than 10 billion app installs with AdWords. This week Google announcing several new innovations to help you find valuable users for your app.

Surface more relevant content in the app promotion ads

70% of users decide whether to install an app based on how much they’ll use it. To provide users more helpful information, Launches a beta that allows developers to surface relevant app content within ads. For example, Wish, a shopping app can link its product catalog to AdWords and surface relevant in-app product images and descriptions directly in its ads. This beta will be available in the coming months.

Get more people playing the game

Another way to help developers find new users is by making app discovery easier. For gaming developers, Google launched Google Play Instant in March to enable new players to try the game without having to download it first. Recently started early testing to make Google Play Instant compatible with AdWords. Users can then try out games directly from ads across all the channels that Universal App campaigns reach.

See a complete view of advertising results

To give a complete picture of how ads are working, Google is planning on making view through conversion (VTC) reporting available to AdWords app advertisers later this month. With VTC reporting, one can understand which viewable ad impressions were associated with conversions. For example, one can use these reports to better understand how well video and display ads influenced app installs. VTC reporting will consider only impressions that meet the Media Rating Council (MRC) definition of ad viewability.

Earn more from app

Save time and show value with standardized ad measurement

When developers sell ad placements in their app, advertisers want to know if their ads are being seen and are working. To date, developers who needed to report viewability data to advertisers have had to integrate multiple SDKs and reconcile disparate methodologies. To address this, Google joined an IAB-led working group to simplify and standardize in-app viewability measurement. IAB Tech Lab’s Open Measurement SDK integrating into our Google Mobile Ads (GMA) and Interactive Media Ads (IMA) SDKs. This solution will save developers time and reflect the true value of their app inventory. Starting this week, developers on DoubleClick AdExchange (AdX) and DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) can request to join this beta.

Optimize rewarded ads in AdMob

More and more users engaging with rewarded ad experiences. Users opt-in to view ads and in exchange receive in-app incentives or digital goods, such as an extra life in a game or content that she would have had to pay for otherwise. Since launching rewarded ads last year, seen a 9x increase in impressions, across both free and paid apps.

To help developers make the most of their rewarded ads, introducing rewarded reporting in AdMob. Developers on AdMob will have access to rewarded ad metrics such as opt-in rate, consumption rate and rate of reward use. With these insights, developers can finetune their rewarded ads, addressing questions such as: ‘Do more users opt-in when the ad is shown after Level 1 or Level 4?’ ‘Which type of rewards do users prefer — coins or lives?’ ‘How often do people use their rewarded items?’. Rewarded reporting in AdMob will be coming soon as an open beta to developers with linked Firebase and AdMob accounts.

It's always inspiring to attend I/O to see all of the innovations that developers are building.

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor

#martech #marketing #technology #business #cmo

0 notes

eelgibbortech-blog · 7 years

Text

Client management the Mad Men way, with infographic (July 2017)

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

This July, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the premier of season 1, episode 1 of Mad Men, the 1960s era show that validated and united everyone who’s worked in advertising.

Ten years later, we’re still nostalgically sharing marketing insights coined by Don Draper and consoling ourselves with Roger Sterling’s account management axioms:

“My father used to say this is the greatest job in the world except for one thing: the clients.”

Ahh… the double-edged sword of clients.

Despite his mastery of persuasion, Don Draper couldn’t handle client management on his own. After losing the Hilton account, he confessed:

“I can sell ideas, but I’m not an account man.”

If even Don couldn’t hack it, what hope is there for the rest of us who are trying to manage clients and creative work sans account team? Well here’s the thing – Don may not have been an account man, but he was surrounded by some really good ones. And there’s plenty we can do with what they shared in Mad Men’s seven seasons.

So I’ve assigned myself the oh-so-difficult job of binge-watching Mad Men to collect these 5 lessons on account management. They’re good for the 21st century, too. And perfect even if you’re in a creative agency of one.

1. “Stop writing down what I ask for, and try to figure out what I want”

Application: Learn about your clients’ desires, culture and communication styles.

Remember the scene? Heinz baked beans could not be satisfied. They rejected every creative approach presented, and they were getting tired of saying no. Peggy met their specific requests, but had failed to understand their desires.

(Image source)

In your role as a copywriter, you need to get inside the heads of your target audience.

In your role as account manager, you need to get inside the head of your client.

Readers of Copy Hackers know that you can learn a lot about your target audience from review mining. This is much harder to do when you have an audience of one, and when you’ve never met that person IRL. Here are some tricks to make it a bit easier to figure out what your client wants.

Use social profiles to connect (but don’t be creepy about it)

It’s not always easy to discover your clients’ interests outside of the projects you’re working on. One way to get to know you them better is from their social media profiles.

Help desk software company Groove does this well. Groove follows its customers, taking note of interesting Tweets and mentioning them in their interactions.

If a company with over 6,000 users can stay connected to its clients with social media, it might work for you too. It also might make you feel like a stalker just thinking about it, which could be why you’re not doing it already.

Selling 1-to-many products online is a different game than nurturing 1-to-1 client relationships, where you’re more colleague than company. If you’re worried about crossing the line between light intel and full-blown creepster, ask yourself:

What would Zappos do?

Zappos retweets great customer quotes.

Zappos does not troll through its customer’s daughter’s birthday albums, liking and commenting on the photos.

Being professionally connected to your clients can give you valuable insights into how they see themselves (like discovering the reason your client never opens your reports is because she identifies as a storyteller who’s a marketing manager in title only).

Learn their preferred communication style

Find out what your clients want by figuring out their personality and communication style.

There’s no shortage of profiling systems. I like any framework that can be useful without needing to administer an actual test. The DiSC framework is helpful since it can be focused on workplace behavior.

You can assess your client just with a squint test, and use your findings to inform your interactions. How you’d craft an effective client email, for example, would depend on their DiSC profile:

Dominance (D-style): Keep the email brief and use a subject line that gets to the point.

Influence (i-style): Use energetic language. Exclamation marks and emoticons are usually appropriate.

Steadiness (S-style): Use polite, courteous language and make them feel needed.

Conscientiousness (C-style): Write a straightforward email that includes details, objectives and expectations.

If you want more profiling nerdiness, Crystal is an app that estimates DiSC-style personality insights based on social media and other data. Here’s a screenshot of Crystal telling me to chill out in my communications with a client:

There’s a lot your clients value that they won’t tell you directly. Profiling can help you anticipate needs and adjust your approach.

Learn the company culture & stages of change

To help your client grow, you need to start where they are. What does the company believe about itself and its customers? What are your client’s core values and mission?

If you don’t know how to answer this, you can usually find it on LinkedIn or the current version of their website. As self-delusional or inaccurate as this material may be, there’s a reason it had sign-off and is live today.

As an account manager, you’ll need to work with, not against, your client’s existing beliefs and values. You should also know why your clients chose you as a partner. Was it:

Fit. Your voice and approach are a perfect match for your client.

Aspiration. Your client sees your work or process and thinks “we need that here.”

Change agent. Your direct contact likes your style, and wants you to help change an organization that doesn’t yet agree there’s a problem.

Hired muscle. You’re there to get work done, not challenge the status quo.

Change is not easy. It happens in stages, over time. Knowing what your client believes and what your role is will help you determine how much effort is necessary to “nudge” your client towards new beliefs and worldviews.

Unless you’re a perfect fit for your client, you’re likely to meet resistance as your client begins to consider and take steps toward the next stage of change.

Whether you’re involved in a rebrand, a push for testing, a change in positioning or any other challenge to their identity or culture, understanding the stages of change will help to know how to best manage the relationship.

2. Your work doesn’t speak for you

Application: Show your client the process and benefits of your work.

Remember the scene? Don Draper is man of mystery. Never one to talk about his past, he demurred in an important interview, resulting in an underwhelming article and a lost opportunity for publicity. Don defended his approach, saying “my work speaks for me.” Bert Cooper shot back “turning creative success into business is your work. And you’ve failed.”

(This image is from the end of the episode, where Don does a 180 and owns the interview. Watch the clip here.)

As creatives, we want our work to stand on its own, no explanation needed.

So there’s a certain kind of punch-in-the gut disappointment that comes when you’ve sent your client your best, most compelling creative work, and the email you get back says:

This is not what I expected. Can you explain your process here?

Luckily, the discipline of conversion copywriting has armed you with a deep knowledge of persuasion that can be applied to client management and business success.

Reverse the Curse of Knowledge

We’re trapped by the curse of knowledge, meaning that once we know something, we forget what it’s like to not know it. We forget that most of our clients don’t specialize in our field and don’t intuitively understand the benefits of the work we provided.

Features and benefits for the win

At some point in your copywriting career, you’ve probably lectured patiently educated another person about the difference between features and benefits.

Features are what the product does

Benefits are what the features solve

Good copy is benefits-focused. So are good client presentations and deliverables.

Think of features as your deliverables and their components: Sales pages, emails, cross-heads, fascinators, tone, social proof, etc.

Benefits are how the features will help your clients get the outcome they want. What’s the benefit of running this email? How will using testimonials improve conversion rates?

Until you have sign-off (and sometimes even after that), you’re still “selling” your ideas to a client who doesn’t know how your work will solve his problem. As in the comic below, paint a picture of the result for clients, don’t just hand them a can of (powerful, high-converting) spinach.

(Image source)

You don’t need to unpack every choice or quantify its expected lift, but providing some high-level prompts of “so you can…” or “this helps to…” can give your client the context she needs to understand and agree with your strategy.

The “because” technique

Giving people a reason — any reason — to say yes is usually better than no reason at all. A 1978 study showed that people were just as likely (93% vs 94%) to let others cut in line for a copier if they had a placebic, obvious reason (“because I need to make some copies”) as they were for a real reason (“because I’m in a rush”).

Creating a habit of offering a reason, even if it seems self-evident (“because the research shows this is what your customers want”), can help combat the curse of knowledge and get client buy-in.

Cheat your way to more transparency

Everyone wants to buy from companies that are transparent, and many people insist they’ll pay more for transparency. Whether or not that’s true, being transparent and being perceived as transparent can involve different values and skillsets.

I feel I’m being transparent if I have nothing to hide; I’m honest and meet my deadlines.

But my client doesn’t feel I’m transparent. The project is due next week and she doesn’t know if I’m 20% done or 90% done. She doesn’t know anything about my process. She’s needlessly anxious and frustrated by all the unknowns.

Harvard marketing professor Michael Norton says that to be transparent, we should have a strategy in place to show our work. He uses Domino’s Pizza Tracker as a case study for how businesses can be more transparent.

The pizza tracker is a wildly successful web app that shows the steps of preparing a pizza. But it doesn’t actually reveal new information: we already know the steps and sequence for pizza delivery.

So what makes the tracker such a huge hit? This is Norton’s explanation of why people love it (you can watch the 3 minute clip here):

“There’s something very psychologically compelling about…being able to see that it’s happening. We really like to feel that there’s a person, scrambling around doing stuff for us, because it means we’re really important.

The more we can see into the process…the more we feel really good about the output of that process.”

Even if it’s human nature, having a client who delights in my scrambling to finish tasks for him is at odds with my ideal workflow. I’d rather go the Domino’s route of providing that feeling of transparency, without actually checking in every hour, being micromanaged, or resorting to passive-aggressive communication until one of us fires the other.

The pizza tracker’s success can be explained by the labor illusion: people are happier if they feel like we’re working harder for them – whether or not it’s true, and whether or not it improves the outcome.

Here are some ways to show your client all your hard work:

Use a collaboration tool. With a shared collaboration app (like Slack, Trello or Basecamp), the work you do stays top-of-mind, rather than lost in a crowded inbox. Let wins and milestones linger, rather than immediately archiving completed work.

Share the steps. Create distinct steps on the path between start and done, and help your clients know where you are on the journey. Document and communicate the tasks. “Phases” are good, checklists are awesome. (If you know how to use an actual progress bar for this, please share in the comments.)

Break up deadlines. This is especially useful for large projects that you’re likely to procrastinate anyway. Assign due dates to smaller steps of the process, rather than having everything due at once.

3. Don’t let your client near the check

Application: Give your clients the VIP treatment and remove the “pain of paying.”

Remember the scene? Legendary account man Roger Sterling gave Lane Pryce some sage advice as he prepared for his first client dinner. Among secrets of which drink to order and how to get the client to fill out his own RFP, he suggested: “Get your answers; be nice to the waiter; don’t let him near the check.”

(Image source)

As a copywriter in the internet age, you’re probably not closing clients over steak dinners or renewing contracts from courtside seats. I’ll be forever grateful that I can keep clients without having to play golf.

But there’s a hidden cost to this low-cost way of business: losing the chance to grab the check. There are some real advantages to giving clients the VIP treatment. Here’s how to be the hero without buying the next round.

How to “get the check” with strategic gifting

Smart account managers wine & dine and otherwise lavish attention on their clients to leverage the rule of reciprocity, which is that people are likely to return the favor and give back (in the form of loyalty, repeat business, referrals, etc).

John Ruhlin, author of Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention, says that most businesses miss out on the powerful rewards of gifting for a simple reason: we aren’t focused on it. We’re too busy running the day-to-day.

Here are some of John’s spot-on suggestions for how to gift strategically:

Make a plan for gifting. Keep a grateful mindset, and reinvest in the people who helped you get where you are.

Give inspirational, “just because” gifts that provide real value. Gifts that are merely transactional (thanks for the referral) can feel tit for tat and have less impact.

Get the most bang for your gifting buck by avoiding “crowded” times (Nov – December) or expected occasions.

There’s a difference between a gift and a promotional item. If it has your brand on it, it’s a marketing tool. Real gifts are engraved with the recipient’s name, not yours.

You can “validate and fascinate” your clients by paying attention to what’s going on in their lives. Here’s an example of ConvertKit getting it right:

(Facebook screenshot, used with permission)

Show appreciation for the people who help your projects get done

Not only can gifting deepen client relationships, it can also help establish a better working environment. Here’s one more example of the power of gifting, for good measure…

My friend Becca works full-time on a sheep dairy farm, and she freelances as a data analyst. Her screen time is quite limited due to her massive chore schedule. She needs to get all the data in the right format on the first try to stay productive during her office hours. That almost never happens.

The reason Becca isn’t answering her email.

One of Becca’s district contacts is especially responsive and accurate with data pulls, so Becca sent a nice box of chocolates to express her gratitude. Her contact feels appreciated in a thankless data job and keeps prioritizing Becca’s work. Becca’s attempt at work-life balance is much easier.

Don’t charge your clients for each bite of pizza

If you want to keep your clients happy paying your fees, consider their psychological triggers around pricing. Your clients, like their customers, overvalue free. Dan Ariely explains:

FREE! gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuable than it really is.

Create bonuses, value-adds and (reasonable) all-inclusive services. Keep these extras top-of-mind in your deliverables and invoicing. Help your client maximize perceived wins and minimize perceived losses when it comes to their budgets.

Ariely also points out that people go to absurd lengths to avoid the pain of paying.

In one study, a pay-per-bite fee structure turned a nice Italian meal into an evening of agony for his students.

(Image source)

Here are some suggestions for how to make the pain of paying less intense for your clients, modified from Dianna Booher’s What More Can I Say?:

Bundle items to increase perceived value, and reduce the number of small purchases your client needs to make.

Offer different payment options and terms, including payment plans.

Don’t make your client feel nickel-and-dimed by adding small fees after the primary sale. (The more you think through the full scope of similar projects, the easier this gets.)

You can also minimize or restructure unsexy business costs. Let clients see certain fees are waived or included for them.

4. Half the time in this business, it comes down to, “I don’t like that guy”

Application: People aren’t just motivated by outcomes. Be Likable.

Remember the scene? Sales were flat for Admiral Televisions, and arch-rival-to-the-entire-Creative-Department Pete Campbell had an innovative solution. By advertising to a high-value, untapped demographic, Admiral could reach a warm market and secure affordable media space. Unfortunately, his racist clients didn’t care for the opportunity, or him.

After the meeting, Pete protests, “It seems illogical to me that they would reject an opportunity to make more money.”

(Image source)

Roger was not sympathetic. “I don’t know if anyone ever told you,” he said, “half of this business comes down to ‘I don’t like that guy.’” (Watch the clip here.)

People like you less if you don’t care about them

Researcher Wendy Levinson observed that there are 2 kinds of physicians: those who get sued and those who don’t. Quality of care being equal, the surgeons who were never sued had this in common: They spent longer with their patients, were more likely to participate in active listening, were more likely to explain their process and laughed easier.

Doctors with good bedside manner are more liked by their patients – who knew?

But “be friendly and likable” can be intimidating (if obvious) advice, especially for those of us who don’t identify as popular or extraverted or someone whose heart doesn’t start beating faster when the phone makes that “ringing sound.”

Keeping that study in mind, let’s flip the learnings and look at what the sued doctors have in common:

They were rushed and didn’t spend much time with their patients.

They didn’t actively listen or validate.

They didn’t explain what they were doing.

They didn’t find ways to connect and laugh with their patients.

These frequently sued doctors assumed their role as an authority excused them from being caring and empathetic. It didn’t. It never does.

Your clients are no different from these patients. Outcomes matter, but we’d all rather have great outcomes delivered by someone who isn’t cold or hostile. Especially when we’re scared or confused or our narrative is being threatened, we want to be treated with care and dignity.

The bar for being likable is not that high – you don’t need to win a congeniality contest, you just gotta treat your clients like people, and treat people like they matter.

Your client is driven by her dreams and fears, not “data”

Conversion copywriting is an increasingly measurable field. Especially when it comes to testing, we talk a lot about removing our own ego to “let the data decide.” The paradox is this:

Our clients are not data-driven. They are emotion-driven.

Your client wants to stop the test early because he doesn’t want to waste more money on a losing test (loss aversion), even though statistical significance hasn’t been reached.

She crafts self-soothing, unlikely theories about why her favorite variation lost (it kept the wrong kinds of people from buying) because of ego involvement.

When he agrees to the winning treatment, it’s not because he’s a cylon programmed to value wins over losses – it’s because he’s a human who likes to win.

You already know that people buy with emotion and justify with logic. But how do you win your clients over emotionally in a data-driven industry? Persuasion expert Blair Warren says:

People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions and help them throw rocks at their enemies.

Think for a minute about difficult clients you’ve had and how you’ve responded to them.

Did you “set expectations” for their million-dollar ideas, rather than praising their ambition?

Did you let them know they weren’t seeing better results because their strategy, funnel, page or product was weak?

When they looked to you for projected outcomes, did you remind them there are no guarantees?

Did you set them straight that what they suspect is the problem isn’t actually the problem?

Did you suggest that their preoccupation with their competition is misplaced?

Confession: I’ve done all those things. This is not easy stuff to put in practice. But I’ve learned that when I react to a client as if the situation is “me vs you,” even if what I’m saying is 100% correct, they don’t care. When I reframe as “us vs them,” I can provide the same information, and I usually manage to get buy-in.

5. If you don’t like what they’re saying, change the conversation

Application: Reframe the conversation to keep your client focused on what matters.

Remember the scene? Is change good or bad? You can’t win taking sides on that question. So when Don was asked to fight bad publicity about Madison Square Garden, he didn’t try to convince Manhattan they were wrong.

“If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”

(Image source)

Don reframed Penn Station’s stalemate debate about the merits of change into an inspiring promise of rebirth for a decaying city. Was SCDP really fired by its biggest client (Lucky Strike cigarettes)? No, his agency is just committed to health and could no longer promote tobacco.

Everyone with clients should learn the art of reframing, or we’ll find we “don’t like what’s being said” far too often.

The surprising reason we give so much attention to things that don’t matter

In subjective fields like design and copywriting, strategy meetings often devolve into discussions about button size, word choice and colors. Parkinson’s Law of Triviality explains this phenomenon:

The less important a subject is, the more time people will spend discussing it.

This principle (also known as the bike shedding effect) is not as cynical as it may sound.

People (not just clients, this includes you and me) are 1) more likely to have opinions about subjects we understand, and 2) less likely to weigh-in about a subject we’ve never heard of or can’t relate to.

I have nothing to say about the critical debugging problem the programmers are grappling with, but I have some strong opinions about why the graphic above is not attractive enough to be used in this article.

Your clients want to feel like their ideas are important. Owning and reframing the conversation lets you leverage their interest in contributing, without treating them like the Creative Director or Editor-in-Chief. (Really, what do we expect if we’re emailing documents and asking for feedback and edits?)

How one designer convinces his clients that “shop talk” is uncivilized

Here’s how Pentagram principal designer Michael Bierut reframes the conversation with his clients. He says:

“I do anything to avoid talking about typefaces, white space, composition, or colors. When the subject comes up, I act as if that’s something civilized people shouldn’t be discussing during business hours…

If you do it right, the conversation you have with the client is 99% about their business and their goals, 1% about these esoteric tools we have at our disposal to help them achieve those goals.”

Bierut frets about typefaces for “hours on end.”

But not in front of clients.

Keep clients focused on their goals, not their opinions

Give clients a framework and criteria to evaluate the project. Paul Boag recommends giving your client a specific role based in their expertise:

Focus on the user: Keep the client thinking about what the user needs.

Focus on the business: It’s the client’s job to ensure any design meets business objectives.

Focus on the problem: The client’s job is to identify problems. It’s your job to suggest solutions.

Over on the Copywriter Club podcast, Joanna Wiebe shared some ideas for reviewing copy. She suggests sending the copy an hour before the review. In the review, don’t jump into showing them the copy. Instead, lead clients through the process you followed to arrive at that copy, like so:

These are the goals. This is what you wanted us to work toward. Here’s what we learned… As a reminder, here’s the process that we go through to arrive at this copy that I’m about to present to you today. Here are some interesting findings and now here is the copy and let me walk you through it.

Framing the conversation around goals and processes helps clients understand how to meaningfully contribute and can keep the Law of Triviality at bay.

When all else fails…

For those times when a client refuses to let go of her need to “make a mark” on the project…

Offer functionally useless choices. If your client must touch the project creatively, you can let her make functionally useless choices. Just like you’d encourage a toddler to choose between the blue shirt and the yellow shirt, give your clients options that won’t affect the outcome of the project (hair color of the avatar, name of the test or treatment, etc).

Thank you, Buzzfeed, for making us feel like our random choices matter.

Try the duck technique (use with caution!): Some frustrated creatives resort to the duck technique, where they intentionally add a decoy to their work to give clients something to correct. This can backfire if the client likes the decoy, or if the decoy makes you look incompetent for not having corrected it yourself. Be sure to only use decoys that won’t harm your credibility if they’re approved.

Your 5 Take-Aways for Client Management

Lesson 1: Find ways to meaningfully connect and communicate with clients. Learn what drives them to say yes, and how to help them make changes.

Lesson 2: Overcome the curse of knowledge by showing your clients the benefit of your work. Keep them happy by showing the steps of your work.

Lesson 3: Use strategic gifting and help clients avoid the “pain of paying.”

Lesson 4: Clients are not data-driven. Apply Blair Warren’s one-sentence persuasion plan to keep them happy and on your side.

Lesson 5: Keep clients focused on goals, not opinions. Give them a framework to use to review the project.

To help you remember even more of Mad Men’s lessons for account management, check out this handy infographic:

I’ve used the titles account executive (AE), account manager and client manager interchangeably, as if they’re the same role. They aren’t. But if you’re wearing all the hats anyway, there’s not a meaningful difference.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Source link

The post Client management the Mad Men way, with infographic (July 2017) appeared first on Ebulkemaimarketing Blogs and updates.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2npmzDd via IFTTT

#ebulkemailmarketing #marketing #seo #autoresponder #internet marketing

0 notes

mbaljeetsingh · 7 years

Text

A Comprehensive Guide To E-Commerce Platforms

Did you know that bandwidth overage charges are (still) a problem and most users prefer not to rely on a developer? Well, I talked to 917 (real-life) users and created a guide to help others find the e-commerce software that suits them best.

I completed this guide by searching for websites built with e-commerce software (you can verify by looking at the source code — certain code strings are unique to the software). Once I found a website, I (or one of my virtual assistants) would email the owner and ask if they’d recommend a particular software. Typically, they’d reply and I’d record their response in a spreadsheet (and personally thank them). Occasionally, I would even go on the phone to speak with them directly (although I quickly found out that this took too much time).

Here’s what I discovered.

Further Reading on SmashingMag: Link

Customer Satisfaction Link

I calculated customer satisfaction by finding the percentage of active users who recommend the software:

E-commerce software Recommendation % Shopify 98% Squarespace 94% Big Cartel 91% WooCommerce 90% OpenCart 88% Jumpseller 86% GoDaddy 83% CoreCommerce 80% BigCommerce 79% Ubercart 78% Wix 76% Magento 74% Weebly 74% 3dcart 72% PrestaShop 70% Goodsie 65% Spark Pay 65% Volusion 51%

Shopify is the pretty clear winner, with Squarespace close behind — but both companies are actually complementary. Shopify is a complete, robust solution that works for both small and large stores, while Squarespace is a simple, approachable platform that works well for stores just starting out. (Worth noting: I’ve done similar surveys for portfolio builders5 and landing-page builders6, and Shopify is the only company I’ve seen score higher than 95% in customer satisfaction.)

But looking only at customer satisfaction is not enough. After all, e-commerce platforms have different strengths. So, I also asked users what they like and dislike about their software and found some important insights about each company.

Shopify (98%) Link

What Users Like Link

App store and features

“The best thing is that you don’t need a developer to add features… there’s a ton of apps available.” | “Their partner ecosystem is best.” | “Shopify has any feature under the sun — if you think you need it, someone already created an app.” | “Access to Shopify Apps is great.” | “There’s heaps of third-party apps you can integrate easily that I believe are essential to growing a business.” | “So many third-party apps, templates that other platforms aren’t popular enough to have.” | “There are many apps that can help with customization issues.” | “There are a ton of great third-party apps for extended functionality.”

Ease of use

Users love Shopify’s App Store. (View large version8)

Squarespace (94%) Link

What Users Like Link

Ease of use

“It’s very easy to use.” | “The e-commerce is so easy to use.” | “It’s easy to configure, simple to add, delete and modify our inventory, and most importantly it allows us to easily keep track of our ins and outs with helpful metrics and sales graphs.” | “It’s very easy to set up.” | “The user interface is easy to use.” | “Commerce is really nice and easy to set up.” | “Love the interface, very easy to work with.” | “I find it easy to use.” | “It was pretty easy to set up and has been a snap to maintain.” | “It’s all pretty smooth and easy.” | “It’s super-easy.” | “I’ve tried Drupal, WordPress… the interface and creative ability of Squarespace is much superior.”

Templates

“Has some great templates for a good-looking website.” | “Squarespace is an easy way to get a great looking site.” | “The sites are beautiful.” | “The templates and editing features on the blog and site are super-easy.” | “The thing I like most are the beautiful and easy templates.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Limitations

“The only thing I would say they need to improve is allowing more than one currency on the e-commerce site, which currently is not available.” | “It works pretty good for basic sales of items.” | “There are some limitations in terms of customizing, but they are minor.” | “If you are using it as is and just need the limited feature set that it comes with, it’s a great option.” | “Overall, it’s great for putting a few simple products up, but if you need anything beyond their default cart options, get a proper Squarespace developer or someone to set up a Shopify site for you.” | “It is really a great place to start, but unfortunately a place that is easily transitioned out of once the business begins to grow.”

Shipping

“My partners have had some concerns with the shipping aspect, though.” | “Yes, I would recommend it, but Squarespace needs to have calculated shipping for all the plans.” | “The shipping is still something I wish was a little easier.” | “The only thing I would say is that, for me, the shipping options are more limited than I would like.” | “There are some features I wish were better implemented in the base package (like shipping integration for international orders), but I’d recommend it.”

Users love Squarespace’s sleek and simple themes. (View large version10)

Big Cartel (91%) Link

What Users Like Link

Good for new stores

“I would recommend Big Cartel for smaller shops.” | “I would recommend it, especially startup users.” | “It’s a great place to start out!” | “We’d recommend it for similar businesses, especially those just getting started.” | “It is a great platform for something really simple and was very easy to set up.” | “Big Cartel is great for beginning stages of a store. We’re actually entertaining moving to a new platform right now.” | “It’s quite good for a small company or startup, for sure.” | “I’m finding that in the early stages of the business, it’s extremely handy for stock listing and very straightforward to use.”

Ease of use

“It’s very easy to use.” | “It’s very easy to use, navigate and customize the shopfront.” | “I am particularly fond of the back end and the admin tools. They make maintaining and shipping products a breeze.” | “It’s super-simple and really user-friendly.” | “I’m not savvy, so it works well for my skill level.” | “Easy to set up… and easy to control and set inventory.” | “They make it so easy to have a beautiful website.” | “For just a few items, Big Cartel totally gets the job done and is user-friendly.”

Price

“I only have to pay $9.99 a month for Big Cartel. That’s a huge perk for me.” | “Low price point and easy to use.” | “The rates are the lowest considering all the things you’re able to do.” | “I have found the cost is a lot better than my Etsy store.” | “You get a great platform for a great price.” | “Compared to Etsy, the fees are ridiculously cheap!” | “One fee a month, no item fees per listing… There is an option to open a store for free with five listings. This is an amazing feature.” | “Their prices are also very reasonable.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Limitations

“Lacking in features.” | “It is limited in terms of themes… You always know when you’re on a Big Cartel site.” | “It does most of what I expect of it, but also has limitations.” | “The one problem I have is that the only options for receiving payments are PayPal and Stripe.” | “If you want more of an interactive site with blogs and videos and whatnot, I think there are better options out there.” | “We are currently moving over to Shopify because we have maxed out Big Cartel’s limited 300-item store capacity. That is the only downside of Big Cartel.” | “You are limited by what Big Cartel allows you to do. For example, there are certain promotions that I would like to do, but currently Big Cartel has no way of allowing it.”

Big Cartel is simple, which makes it easy to use and perfect for stores just starting out. (View large version12)

WooCommerce (90%) Link

What Users Like Link

Extensions

“Many useful plugins for it.” | “So many features.” | “There are plenty of add-ons with it to customize shop as we need.” | “Fully customizable.” | “The plugin architecture is great.” | “It also has a lot of plugins.” | “It’s very good if you are looking for something that can do anything… there are extensions available, and coders who can write plugins.” | “I’m a fan of the plugins because it allows for a lot of customization.”

Ecosystem

“The ecosystem is well supported.” | “Great support with a whole online community dedicated to it.” | “I’m always able to find the answer to any question I have, either through the official WooCommerce knowledge base or in the community forums.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Developer may be required

“Custom modifications do require somewhat advanced developer knowledge.” | “WooCommerce does require knowledge in website building… At one point, it became extremely slow, and I couldn’t figure out where the problem was.” | “What should be native often requires plugins or coding.” | “Very customizable with some code editing.” | “WooCommerce definitely requires a solid knowledge of the inner workings.” | “There definitely is a learning curve, but it is not too hard to master.” | “It had to be highly customized for us by our website developers.”

WooCommerce users love the huge selection of extensions they can add to their stores. (View large version14)

OpenCart (88%) Link

What Users Like Link

Extensions

“There are plenty of extensions (free and for purchase).” | “Tons of extensions to make it really awesome.” | “OpenCart extensions… have been very valuable and reliable.” | “Customization does need IT capabilities, though.” | “The software is only as good as its implementers.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Often requires a developer

“It took some PHP programming to get it completely as we wish, but now it works fine and suits my goals well.” | “If you do not have someone capable of working behind the scenes, it would be difficult to manage.” | “I’d recommend it if and only if you have at least some knowledge web programming (PHP, JavaScript, XML, MySQL, etc.).” | “Not recommended for anyone without some web programming knowledge.” | “With the right technical staff, yes I would.” | “If you would be a serious user, I can recommend OpenCart, but also I would recommend hiring a developer to make all custom improvements.” | “Yes, I would recommend it as a good platform with cheap extensions.” | “There is also a large amount of high-quality extensions.” | “Tons of plugins, both free to paid.”

Extensions can create bugs

“When you modify it, it does amazing things but is super-finicky.” | “Buying and installing extensions is a bad idea… It’s not a plug-and-play procedure.” | “As we grew bigger, there have been headaches, mostly to do with third-party extensions clashing with each other.”

OpenCart offers a large marketplace of extensions, which users love. (View large version16)

Jumpseller (86%) Link

What Users Like Link

Customer support

“The Jumpseller team is also very helpful… They’ll walk you through the process of making website [changes], so you can really understand.” | “Technical support is great, always helpful and fast.” | “The best thing is its excellent service, very fast and efficient.” | “Support has worked well so far. When we’ve submitted a query, we’ve gotten quick feedback.” | “Fast and good email support.” | “The customer service is very responsive and helpful.” | “The email response time is super-fast. If I have one question or doubt regarding anything, from design to DNS configuration, they’ll reply in less than 15 minutes!”

Using it for Chilean and international stores

“Our store is based in Chile, and another feature we appreciated is that it had full integration with local payment systems.” | “Has local credit-card options (in our country).” | “Recently, they integrated the price list of one of the shipping companies most used in our country.” | “The good thing is the translation tool.” | “I can tell you that we have selected Jumpseller because we are selling in Chile, and the store was very well integrated with the most popular payment methods, couriers, etc.”

Users recommend Jumpseller for managing languages and international stores. (View large version18)

GoDaddy (83%) Link

What Users Like Link

Ease of use

“It is easy to set up.” | “Easy to maintain.” | “Fairly user-friendly.” | “They really made everything so simple to make extremely intuitive changes quickly.” | “It’s easy to work with.” | “I would recommend it for a new user because of the ease of use in building a store.” | “Easy to use and have had no issues.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Limitations

“There are design limitations, though.” | “It is lacking in several business customization respects.” | “I wish there was a little more customization allowed.” | “There are some design limitations unless you know HTML.” | “Product is good but has many limitations.” | “I like it, but it does have limitations.” | “It has some limitations, but I have been able to work around them.” | “It does have its limitations on customizing, though.”

Credit-card processor options

“It would be better if it allowed shoppers to use a credit card to place an order, even if we don’t use their approved credit-card processor.” | “We were happy with them for years, and then out of the blue, the payment processors affiliated with GoDaddy dropped us.” | “We will be switching all of our stores from GoDaddy in the near future because it does not allow you to use the merchant service of your choice. You are forced to use Stripe.”

Users found GoDaddy easy to use, though limited. (View large version20)

CoreCommerce (80%) Link

What Users Like Link

Support

“Tech support has always been responsive and friendly.” | “Good customer support.” | “I have been able to live chat or call with questions without issue.” | “The support is excellent.” | “Very quick responses to any of our requests.” | “Their support is very good.” | “Their customer service is absolutely the very best.” | “You can always call them 24/7 if you need any kind of support, and it doesn’t cost any extra money.” | “Their tech support is awesome.” | “Tech support has always been responsive and friendly.” | “CoreCommerce’s service is good. It has a mom and pop feel to it.”

Price

“Price for the features and benefits given is exceptional, and no one we’ve spoken with can come close to the value.” | “It is a very cost-effective solution.” | “It is also very affordable.” | “I have yet to find another platform that offers the same value as CoreCommerce (at least for our particular business).” | “Prices are good.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Feels outdated

“Technologies are old, and they are very slow to update it.” | “It feels like the year 2003.” | “Outdated and uninspiring admin panel.” | “They’ve been a bit behind the times with integrations (still no Bitcoin, for example).” | “They are using an antiquated system, which doesn’t bode well for tie-in structures for the future.”

Difficult to use

“I do find the GUI to be somewhat frustrating and unintuitive.” | “It is annoying when you [have] to update each thing in multiple areas.” | “It is not intuitive or user-friendly.” | “The product was flaky. Flexible but badly designed in lots of areas.” | “Control panel sucks.”

Users found CoreCommerce difficult to use. (View large version22)

BigCommerce (79%) Link

What Users Like Link

Customer support

“I emailed the president [of BigCommerce] at 1:00 am requesting help… Within 10 minutes, [he] was on it with compassion and ready to help. They have bent over backward for me.” | “They provide excellent customer support.” | “If nothing else, they seem to have great customer service.” | “More than anything, we care about customer service, and BigCommerce provides excellent customer service.” | “Technical support has been great.” | “Great support.” | “Their tech support is 24/7 and is very responsive to our questions.” | “Customer service… is very helpful.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Price

“Their pricing structure is punitive for successful businesses… This is surely a recurring theme if you’ve reached out to many B2C website users who have grown their site.” | “A bit pricey when your sales hit over $300,000 a year.” | “[Recently,] my monthly payments increased from $25 to $250 due to my business exceeding the annual sales of their intermediate plan.” | “Because of our sales volume, BigCommerce frequently increases our monthly fees based on increasing sales. This has become very expensive.” | “A bit pricey.” | “We feel it is overpriced these days.” | “Their pricing structure makes no sense, but I’ve been with them for seven years.” | “I would recommend BigCommerce. Pricing is a bit high, though.” | “I personally think the pricing is a little steep.”

Managing products in BigCommerce (View large version24)

Ubercart (78%) Link

What Users Don’t Like Link

Not for non-developers

“Not as friendly for a non-developer or an individual who just wants to set up shop on their own and doesn’t have a technical background.” | “Ubercart works well as long as you have an experienced programmer.” | “Please note that it would require a developer who knows Drupal, because many aspects needed customization.” | “[I would recommend it ] if you’re comfortable with Drupal.”

Difficult to use

“Ubercart is OK, but it is hard to customize.” | “The learning curve is quite steep.” | “It can be a bit tricky to get your store looking just the way you want.” | “Ubercart isn’t the easiest to set up or work with.” | “The only disadvantage of Ubercart is the complex configuration of the store system.” | “It’s not as plug-and-play as Shopify.”

Users found that Ubercart works best if you have a developer on your team. (View large version26)

Wix (78%) Link

What Users Like Link

Ease of use

“The e-commerce site is beyond simple to use.” | “I would recommend it on one level: It’s easy to use. I can do all the building and updating myself, and so that’s good.” | “Easy to use.” | “Easy to build and maintain.” | “It is user-friendly, easy to set up and modify.” | “It’s super-easy to use, and it seems like everyone who’s ordered from me has also done so with ease.” | “If you want a simple storefront, it’s pretty straightforward, easy and cheap.” | “It is easy to set up.” | “It’s easy to use and user-friendly.” | “It was pretty intuitive to set up.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Limitations

“It is basic.” | “There are some limitations with shipping and accounting (sending to QuickBooks, etc.).” | “A little limited in some options.” | “I have not been able to make it work in the way I need.” | “I cannot update the inventory amount.” | “We had so many different options, which the configuration of the store and products did not allow us to do.” | “We also wanted to be able to get customers reviews and could not do it.” | “My main complaint is the lack of customization options — for example, not being able to display a price per pound.” | “If you want a variety of options and a wide range of modifications, it is not ideal.”

Users found Wix easy to use but limited. (View large version28)

Magento (74%) Link

What Users Like Link

Highly customizable

“We have complete control over our Magento store and have customized it extensively to meet our needs. That’s what I like most about it.” | “The amount of customizations and extensions available are endless.” | “It has an unparalleled level of customization and freedom.” | “It has a lot of great customization features.” | “It’s pretty powerful.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Difficult to use

“Probably the steepest learning curve.” | “It’s very expensive to get changes made.” | “Magento is overkill for what I need to do on my site.” | “User interface is not as easy as it could be.” | “It can be a real pain sometimes.” | “Complicated to set up.” | “It’s got a steep learning curve.” | “Magento has a huge learning curve.” | “It breaks for no reasons, and it breaks if you add anything to the site.” | “Always something going wrong for no apparent reason.”

Often requires professional help

“You will need a good PHP programmer if you intend to add anything to it beyond the default installation.” | “If one wants to really change Magento, one needs an expert.” | “Needs a good specialist to partner with to get the best out of it.” | “I would recommend it as long as you have a true Magento-certified developer to hold your hand the entire way and to create your site and work with you.” | “Magento is good if you’re a web developer and have coding skills.”

Users found Magento difficult to use. (View large version30)

Weebly (74%) Link

What Users Like Link

Ease of use

“It is very easy to use.” | “It was easy to use without web design experience.” | “It is basic and easy to use.” | “I have enjoyed the ease of Weebly and what you can accomplish with the tools.” | “It is extremely easy for me to use.” | “I’d recommend it because it is so easy to set up and track inventory.” | “This is one of the easiest [e-commerce platforms] I have used.” | “I do like the online store with Weebly because of the ease of use.” | “Weebly is really easy to use.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Third-party hosts

“[Weebly] is offered through MacHighway, which I use for my hosting, so there were some glitches in the beginning that probably wouldn’t have been there if I’d gone straight through Weebly.” | “Just make sure you buy the Weebly subscription directly through weebly.com and not through a reseller, because I lost a whole website that way.” | “I would recommend it but only through the Weebly host.” | “The B.S. part is that since day one, iPower (a third-party Weebly host) claimed I was getting an ultra-premium package but was only paying for basic. I would go to edit a product and nothing worked. I’d call customer support and they’d tell me I need to upgrade. This has happened to me twice in three years with them. I’m hoping they get stuck with a class-action suit for fraud.” | “iPage is my host for Weebly. Because of this, I don’t have access to all of the features Weebly offers.” | “… Full access to all of the Weebly features would sort that at once, but iPage (maybe I should change) wants to lock me in for three years and pay the full amount up front!”

Limited features

“If you want a more customizable tool, then this might not work for you.” | “Weebly is missing some of the critcal things that we want from an online store.” | “I am hoping that they have, or will come up with, an automatic shipping calculation.” | “The only hiccup is when I need to change my prices. I have a lot of inventory, and I have found that the easiest way (relatively speaking) to do this is to change each one individually.” | “You can’t do everything design-wise on it.” | “It was perfect for me at first, but I have grown out of it very quickly [because of limited features].” | “The Weebly platform is not scalable. There is no element to customize your cart.” | “The shipping is a problem because it can’t be adjusted for lighter, heavier or multiple items.”

Users found Weebly easy to use but limited. (View large version32)

3dcart (72%) Link

What Users Don’t Like Link

Bandwidth overage charges

“If you read the forums, one problem that continually arises, and one that I have, is bandwidth. It seems that I’m always going over my bandwidth, even though I have relatively few products and dump files regularly.” | “3dcart charges for bandwidth, so serving lots of digital products from your server might not be a great idea depending on your budget.” | “They charge you for data, and it adds up.” | “It tends to use a lot of bandwidth. My store doesn’t have a huge amount of traffic (yet!), but I still go over my plan just about every month.”

Customer support

“Their comments are snarky, and their help is judgemental in that they always place blame on the customer, and it can take up to a week for them to solve a problem.” | “”Customer support has a laissez-faire attitude.” | “I have to really keep on them when I open a ticket, or I may not get a response for days.” | “I would say the biggest con has been customer service.” | “I would characterize them as almost disrespectful.” | “Their lack of support [was surprising].” | “The tech support also cannot help with even the most basic HTML questions.” | “Technical support online isn’t the best.” | “The help line is not very helpful. If there is a problem, such as the system stops taking orders or accepting credit cards, they assume it’s a problem on your end.” | “Their live support sucks.”

Difficult to use

“I feel the product is terribly cumbersome.” | “The admin interface makes it very difficult to find what settings I’m looking for.” | “It is awkward and not very user-friendly.” | “My website is with 3dcart, but it is overwhelming.” | “It is a little quirky in the back end.” | “I personally find it difficult to make even simple changes to.” | “Some of it is not very intuitive, so you have to keep clicking around until you remember where everything is.”

Users found 3dcart difficult to use and were frustrated with the bandwidth overage charges. (View large version34)

PrestaShop (70%) Link

What Users Like Link

Modules

What Users Don’t Like Link

Difficult to use

“You need to be quite a good geek to understand everything.” | “We’ve encountered and still are encountering lots of problems with PrestaShop.” | “PrestaShop isn’t as user-friendly as others are nowadays.” | “The admin panel is not user-friendly.” | “I don’t recommend it for a beginner or if you don’t have much technical skill.”

Buggy

“I hate it… It’s buggy and impossible to upgrade easily to newer versions.” | “It’s kind of an unstable, slow system for me, but I think in the near future it will be more stable and fast.” | “We have lots of problems with PrestaShop.” | “No, I would not recommend it. Buggy as hell.” | “No, I would not recommend it. Too heavy and too slow.” | “The back-end pages sometimes take an age to load — even for simple stuff.”

Users found PrestaShop buggy at times. (View large version36)

Goodsie (65%) Link

What Users Like Link

Good for beginners

“Quick and easy. I think its simplicity best suits the light or new user.” | “Great for people with no knowledge [of how to build a store].” | “For someone with zero experience building a website, I found their product to be so easy to navigate.” | “I highly recommend it for beginners.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Pricing

“Way too expensive.” | “There are cheaper options out there that do the same thing.” | “I liked Goodsie when I started with them five or six years ago, but their prices keep going up.” | “Prices were hiked above what they should be, so I am about to change.” | “The price went from $15 to $30 per month not too long ago.”

Users suggest Goodsie’s simplicity makes it good for beginners, although it is expensive. (View large version38)

Spark Pay (65%) Link

What Users Like Link

Customer support is prompt

“Whenever we’ve needed support, their help systems are very responsive.” | “Spark Pay’s technical support is excellent.” | “Very responsive for help.” | “They have been responsive to any needs I’ve had.” | “I find their customer service to be quite responsive.” | “Tech support is very responsive via phone or email.” | “They have been very responsive to helping out with general website questions and problems.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Bandwidth overage charges

“The main thing I don’t like are the extra bandwidth charges.” | “Nailed with huge bandwidth charges.” | “They are little hidden fees for going over your bandwidth account file storage and product count if you don’t keep an eye on them.”

Difficult to use

“Spark Pay is not simple!” | “They have a ton of features built in — most of them are half-baked and don’t function 100%, which has led to frustration.” | “[Needs to] reduce the bloat in their software.” | “Unless you have a designer and/or developer on staff, or at the very least a very computer-savvy non-techie, it’s virtually impossible to understand Spark Pay.” | “Their web editor is clumsy.” | “Their platform is buggy.” | “It is crazy complicated to make even some of the most mundane changes.” | “Their system bogs down so much that only the most minor of changes are doable.” | “Clunky UI, way too much complexity. Just a nightmare to deal with.”

While prompt, customer support can be disappointing

“There service desk really isn’t one. They have no formal (or competent) escalation process.” | “They are not nearly as responsive to fixing significant issues as they should be.” | “I feel like the platform has a lot of tools to offer, but few resources to teach you how to use them.” | “Technical support is rather lacking. When you do finally get someone to answer the tickets, they do a very minimal amount of work and effort to correct the problem.”

Users found Spark Pay difficult to use and were frustrated by bandwidth overage charges. (View large version40)

Volusion (51%) Link

What Users Like Link

Customer support

“Their technical support department people are top-notch… I’m extremely impressed with them.” | “The [support] team at Volusion is knowledgeable, and that is highly important.” | “Their customer support is excellent.” | “Their support is superb.” | “Support is second to none.” | “There technical support team is also very good in helping to fix any issues that we might have had.”

What Users Don’t Like Link

Bandwidth limitations

“The one thing I can’t stand is the amount of bandwidth they provide you with. [It] will easily be gone in a week if you have a lot of visitors.” | “They don’t have adequate bandwidth plans, and their billing for bandwidth overages is highly irritating.” | “Site traffic is pricey.” | “I originally used very large images for my products and received some rather stiff hosting fines for going over the stupidly low bandwidth level.” | “The way they charge for bandwidth caused us to have obscene overage charged for months.”

Expensive

“It is particularly expensive, and the costs weren’t clear [when we started].” | “Once the site is built, they nickel and dime you for every little thing imaginable.” | “I also used the Volusion SEO team and that was a joke. $1600 a month!” | “Not the least expensive around.” | “I would caution new users to be aware of hidden costs. Email addresses are extra. An SSL certificate is extra. A service to check the reliability of each credit card is extra. SEO and design services are phenomenally expensive.” | “Going by the prices they charge for SEO packages, they’re aiming at companies far larger than mine.” | “If you want anything besides barebone offerings, everything else is available… for a price.” | “I just wish it was a little cheaper.” | “Volusion keeps [the initial setup and customization] complicated, hoping that you will pay them to do it for you.”

Difficult to use

“The back end is not user-friendly.” | “The UX is confusing and bloated, but I’m used to it.” | “There is a learning curve, so it takes a while to get going. And if you want customization, be prepared to learn it yourself or pay some hefty fees.” | “It’s not straightforward and is prone to errors.” | “If you change a font size within the text, you then lose all other formatting — nothing major, but annoying and time-consuming.” | “It’s quite clunky to manage content and design.” | “There are random glitches throughout the site that have probably cost me thousands in abandoned carts.” | “One thing that is hard for me is manipulating website elements. GoDaddy was easier for me.”

Users found Volusion difficult to use and expensive. (View large version42)

Conclusion Link

It’s worth noting that this is not a list of all e-commerce software currently available in the world. Instead, I’ve only included software for which I was able to talk to a minimum of 30 users (and I was not able to find 30 users for several companies).

But this is a fairly comprehensive list of the most popular e-commerce platforms. Furthermore, these are the thoughts of real, verified users. I hope it’s helpful in your search for the right e-commerce software!

(vf, al, il)

1 http://ift.tt/2nzd1S6

2 http://ift.tt/1UxB6WQ

3 http://ift.tt/2oEzfWx

4 http://ift.tt/2oEuJHL

5 http://ift.tt/2epGRYL

6 http://ift.tt/2oEkEum

7 http://ift.tt/2oEryzC

8 http://ift.tt/2oEryzC

9 http://ift.tt/2oEuFb5

10 http://ift.tt/2oEuFb5

11 http://ift.tt/2nHh1yK

12 http://ift.tt/2nHh1yK

13 http://ift.tt/2oExHMt

14 http://ift.tt/2oExHMt

15 http://ift.tt/2nHddNV

16 http://ift.tt/2nHddNV

17 http://ift.tt/2oEAWDl

18 http://ift.tt/2oEAWDl

19 http://ift.tt/2nH9LmH

20 http://ift.tt/2nH9LmH

21 http://ift.tt/2oElS8P

22 http://ift.tt/2oElS8P

23 http://ift.tt/2nH45cc

24 http://ift.tt/2nH45cc

25 http://ift.tt/2oEppUO

26 http://ift.tt/2oEppUO

27 http://ift.tt/2nHdekX

28 http://ift.tt/2nHdekX

29 http://ift.tt/2oEAW6j

30 http://ift.tt/2oEAW6j

31 http://ift.tt/2nHe0yA

32 http://ift.tt/2nHe0yA

33 http://ift.tt/2oEExS8

34 http://ift.tt/2oEExS8

35 http://ift.tt/2nHesN3

36 http://ift.tt/2nHesN3

37 http://ift.tt/2oElTJV

38 http://ift.tt/2oElTJV

39 http://ift.tt/2nHajbW

40 http://ift.tt/2nHajbW

41 http://ift.tt/2oEADIG

42 http://ift.tt/2oEADIG

↑ Back to top Tweet itShare on Facebook

via Smashing Magazine http://ift.tt/2nGZ3MX

#IFTTT #Feedly