Thursday, April 21, 2005
In Asia for Next 2 Weeks
Finals are over, yet another term done and done with, wa hoo!
I'm flying to HK tomorrow (that'll be Friday, 22nd), going to visit friends and family and such, haven't been back for nearly 5 years. Also will make a trip to Japan for some shopping/sight seeing.
Will be back May 6th, start work on the 9th.
Yeah, so...that's likely why you won't see me online much, or why I don't return any calls.
Cya'll when I get back.
I'm flying to HK tomorrow (that'll be Friday, 22nd), going to visit friends and family and such, haven't been back for nearly 5 years. Also will make a trip to Japan for some shopping/sight seeing.
Will be back May 6th, start work on the 9th.
Yeah, so...that's likely why you won't see me online much, or why I don't return any calls.
Cya'll when I get back.
Saturday, April 09, 2005
There Are Some Mighty Smart People in Marketing...
Yeah yeah, lack of updates, I know.
Actually, I did update somewhere in mid-March, but unfortunately that night was when DBA's router/Internet connection got totally fubar'd, and I ended up rewriting stuff and double posting stuff and deleting stuff and stuff...The ultimate outcome was no update =P
Let's see, in the update that those who still read this blog would have read something about:
- how I spent the first 3 weeks of March living at DB's
- challenging all the big bosses in Tales of Symphonia on Mania mode, emphasis on Kratos' 140-2 record
- random draft CCG (Wars)
- something about WoW
And in this update, we will talk about
- how I spent 80% of March and half of April (so far) living at DB's
- challenging new games such as DK Konga, Mario Tennis, and Karaoke Revolution
- random draft CCG (Recharge)
- more stuff about WoW
Hm...I wonder if there's any correlation of content between my "missing post" and this update...oh well.
What's been happening:
1. Spent pretty much the last 3 weeks of lecture and 1st week of "final study time" (Apr 1 - Apr 8) again living at DBA's. Generally a typical day goes like this: wake up sometime around 9; go to class if there are any; play WoW for a bit; study for finals for a bit; lunch; gaming break/digesting; more studying; dinner; a little bit more studying; WoW.
2. Twice in the past 3 weeks or so Bao wanted to go buy games at Conestoga. About 2, 3 weeks back he wanted to get Karaoke Revolution, so we went to Future Shop. They didn't have Karaoke Revolution, but that didn't stop us from buying games, no. End result was Donkey Konga + Bongo and DK Jungle Beat + Bongo from Bao; CSI: Miami for Alan (I think, or split between Alan and Bao); Mario Power Tennis for me (well, I paid for it, but I'll just let DB keep it).
Second trip to impulsive gaming purchases came about 3 days ago or so. This time Bao again wanted Karaoke Revolution, so we went to EB in Conestoga, 'cause Bao called ahead of time and knew they had it in stock. I had some gift cards for EB from Christmas, and I was looking for a game to burn those on. I ended up getting the new Ys for the PS2. Didn't seem that EB had $25 Phantom Braves, nor did I see God of War, oh well. Ys will do fine collecting dust on my collection of purchased and not played games (Those date well back into PSX titles such as Parasite Eve, and N64 titles such as Paper Mario)
3. So after the rather successful "blind draft" we had with Wars, a CCG which none of us (DBAJ and I) knew about prior to purchase, we decided to draft another one, a Marvel CCG called Recharge. This game was quite cheap to draft, Starters cost $4 and boosters $1.29. Little did we know that starter decks were for 2 people, so we didn't have to buy 5 =P Anywho, I think we "blind drafted" 2 boosters first (drafting without reading the rules), then went ahead and opened the starters. Essentially the game is a variation of poker, where players place "bets" (and can raise, etc, no obligation to call though) and whoever wins the fight wins the bet, and whoever wins 30 chips first wins the game. So a very simple game, we played a couple games that night, didn't play much after.
4. Started playing my Warrior again, and started a Mage in WoW. This is because my rouge is supposed to stay in a party with Duy, Alan, Jason and Ray's characters, and we won't play those until May. So I started a Mage 'cause I thought they're pretty nifty, kiting and everything. I also realized I needed a means to make some money, so I decided to farm stuff with my Warrior; he can provide my other chars with resources.
And onto the title of this entry:
As I said we went to Conestoga about 3 days back to buy Karaoke Revolution (which, is not too bad, but I still prefer regular Karaoke). After our purchases we had dinner in the food court. So there I was, walking between the 7 odd stores or so, looking at any specials and such. A&W had 2 Papa burgers for $5, which usually I'd get. However, Mr. Sub offered this "Montreal Spicy Roast Beef & Cheddar" sub, seems to be a new product.
So I went for the sub. As I was eating, I realized that the only difference between this "new" sub and a regular roast beef sub was the "spicy sauce", which, is pretty much BBQ sauce mixed with a bit of hot sauce. And I got to thinking, there must be some smart people doing marketing, because they know how to capture the human psychology of trying something new, and thinking of different ways to market the same product as "new". Make a slightly different sauce, tackle on a location reference, and give it a new name. Marvelous.
What's more of a genius concept is the "inside out Resses Pieces". Now that's genius work. We simply reverse the production process, make a product that tastes exactly, and I mean exactly the same as the original, market it as something new so we can package them as two cups instead of the usual three, because it's new. What a concept.
Takes quite a bit of brains to realize how many ways you can make the consumer purchase the same item but thinking that they bought different items. Yay marketing.
Actually, I did update somewhere in mid-March, but unfortunately that night was when DBA's router/Internet connection got totally fubar'd, and I ended up rewriting stuff and double posting stuff and deleting stuff and stuff...The ultimate outcome was no update =P
Let's see, in the update that those who still read this blog would have read something about:
- how I spent the first 3 weeks of March living at DB's
- challenging all the big bosses in Tales of Symphonia on Mania mode, emphasis on Kratos' 140-2 record
- random draft CCG (Wars)
- something about WoW
And in this update, we will talk about
- how I spent 80% of March and half of April (so far) living at DB's
- challenging new games such as DK Konga, Mario Tennis, and Karaoke Revolution
- random draft CCG (Recharge)
- more stuff about WoW
Hm...I wonder if there's any correlation of content between my "missing post" and this update...oh well.
What's been happening:
1. Spent pretty much the last 3 weeks of lecture and 1st week of "final study time" (Apr 1 - Apr 8) again living at DBA's. Generally a typical day goes like this: wake up sometime around 9; go to class if there are any; play WoW for a bit; study for finals for a bit; lunch; gaming break/digesting; more studying; dinner; a little bit more studying; WoW.
2. Twice in the past 3 weeks or so Bao wanted to go buy games at Conestoga. About 2, 3 weeks back he wanted to get Karaoke Revolution, so we went to Future Shop. They didn't have Karaoke Revolution, but that didn't stop us from buying games, no. End result was Donkey Konga + Bongo and DK Jungle Beat + Bongo from Bao; CSI: Miami for Alan (I think, or split between Alan and Bao); Mario Power Tennis for me (well, I paid for it, but I'll just let DB keep it).
Second trip to impulsive gaming purchases came about 3 days ago or so. This time Bao again wanted Karaoke Revolution, so we went to EB in Conestoga, 'cause Bao called ahead of time and knew they had it in stock. I had some gift cards for EB from Christmas, and I was looking for a game to burn those on. I ended up getting the new Ys for the PS2. Didn't seem that EB had $25 Phantom Braves, nor did I see God of War, oh well. Ys will do fine collecting dust on my collection of purchased and not played games (Those date well back into PSX titles such as Parasite Eve, and N64 titles such as Paper Mario)
3. So after the rather successful "blind draft" we had with Wars, a CCG which none of us (DBAJ and I) knew about prior to purchase, we decided to draft another one, a Marvel CCG called Recharge. This game was quite cheap to draft, Starters cost $4 and boosters $1.29. Little did we know that starter decks were for 2 people, so we didn't have to buy 5 =P Anywho, I think we "blind drafted" 2 boosters first (drafting without reading the rules), then went ahead and opened the starters. Essentially the game is a variation of poker, where players place "bets" (and can raise, etc, no obligation to call though) and whoever wins the fight wins the bet, and whoever wins 30 chips first wins the game. So a very simple game, we played a couple games that night, didn't play much after.
4. Started playing my Warrior again, and started a Mage in WoW. This is because my rouge is supposed to stay in a party with Duy, Alan, Jason and Ray's characters, and we won't play those until May. So I started a Mage 'cause I thought they're pretty nifty, kiting and everything. I also realized I needed a means to make some money, so I decided to farm stuff with my Warrior; he can provide my other chars with resources.
And onto the title of this entry:
As I said we went to Conestoga about 3 days back to buy Karaoke Revolution (which, is not too bad, but I still prefer regular Karaoke). After our purchases we had dinner in the food court. So there I was, walking between the 7 odd stores or so, looking at any specials and such. A&W had 2 Papa burgers for $5, which usually I'd get. However, Mr. Sub offered this "Montreal Spicy Roast Beef & Cheddar" sub, seems to be a new product.
So I went for the sub. As I was eating, I realized that the only difference between this "new" sub and a regular roast beef sub was the "spicy sauce", which, is pretty much BBQ sauce mixed with a bit of hot sauce. And I got to thinking, there must be some smart people doing marketing, because they know how to capture the human psychology of trying something new, and thinking of different ways to market the same product as "new". Make a slightly different sauce, tackle on a location reference, and give it a new name. Marvelous.
What's more of a genius concept is the "inside out Resses Pieces". Now that's genius work. We simply reverse the production process, make a product that tastes exactly, and I mean exactly the same as the original, market it as something new so we can package them as two cups instead of the usual three, because it's new. What a concept.
Takes quite a bit of brains to realize how many ways you can make the consumer purchase the same item but thinking that they bought different items. Yay marketing.
