Madgate Opening Ceremony

So 25 days after the Madgate incident, I have finally received my DVDs through the mail today. Yipeeee!!! Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you the Madgate Opening Ceremony....

These are the boxes:



Take one of this:



Cut it here:



And Da da!!!

Box 1



Box 2



Box 3

Nintendo Wii is out, and so are the crowds.

Compared to the scene that PS3 caused just a few days ago, the Nintendo Wii launch is anything but. There are no guns, no fight, no riot and no robbery. I guess the low price of $250US helped with the "no robbery" bit. The mob probably went, "Nwh, it's only $250, not worth robbing."

Anyway, whatever the case, the Wii seemed to have had a smooth start to the launch, with ample supply all around the North American, anyone who wanted one is pretty much guaranteed to get one. And the games at launch, it seems like Zelda is making to the top of Wii chart without any problems. Funny Nintendo doesn't start with Mario, given its strong fanbase. But I'm sure Mario (in one form or another) will make many many appearance in the life of Wii.

As for the rest of the world, and that includes Japan, we'll just have to wait. Japanese launch is next week, and the European / Australiasia launch is the week after. It seems odd that the country of origin would have a wait a week before they get their hands on their console. Why? Is it some kind of ploy by Nintendo to see how it fare in NA first?

With Christmas approaching, Sony is so going to get hammered with PS3 shortage. Xbox360, hope you die in hell, and so the Wii wins.... Ah, a perfect world.

PlayStation 3 is out, and so are the guns and hammers.

While I own a PlayStation 2 and it's older brother, the original PlayStation, I have lost interested in the latest offering from Sony. I was never much of a Sonnyboy, the only reason why I got the PS is because:

1) Nintendo doesn't appeal to me
2) I hate Microsoft, and
3) Sega jumped off the console bandwagon (either accidently or pushed by someone else).

So when I hear about the PS3, well, I can't wait for the Nintendo Wii.

But that never stopped me from checking out the fuss of the PS3 launch. It finally arrived in Japan last week, and in the Yankee country on Friday.

And it is in the Yankee country that I had to laugh at them.

First up, a gaming retail store got robbed. That's right, robbed. Why? Because they have PS3s. I mean, what is wrong with you people? For fuck's sake, it's a GAMING console. It can't do anything except play games and other hi-tech whatever shit that Sony let you do. Well, of course you can sell that on eBay as well to earn some quick cash.

Then, we have campers outside retail stores where they were treated with not a PS3, but BB gun, riot, fights and robbery. Just what the fuck is wrong with the Americans? Yes, I can understand the long long long line, the super-over-inflated price on eBay, even the riot, but getting shot at? What were you thinking? "$600 x no. of people in line = $$$$$$$, let's go rob them, motherfuckers."

On other news, someone (yet again, the Yankees) would like to buy a PS3 just to kill it. You buy it, you smash it. So fun.... yeah, right. Bunch of dumb idiots.

Ahh... how I love the Yanks.

Madman $10 Sale Part 2

Madman had responded to customer's demand. And now we are going to have $10 sale Part 2. This time, it's going to spread over 3 days as to reduce the load on the server. Good idea. Plus those of us the few lucky ones who got their orders through the first time round is mostly going to leave Part 2 for the first day or so, such that those who missed out would get a chance to get what they wanted. As I have posted originally on the forum,

QUOTE

I think this pretty much sums it up.

Then:

DVDs you wanted to buy: $500
DVDs you bought: $0
Trying to get onto the server during the sale: Hopeless

Now:

DVDs you want to buy: $500
DVDs you will buy second time round: $800
Happy customers getting what they want from a company that actually cares about their customers: Priceless

That's what customer service ought to be, quick and satisfactory to both parties. I think this is the best outcome one could hope for under the circumstances.

Well done to Tim who responded in such a quick manner. Some companies try to hide their mistakes, and some just blame it on others, some don't even want to know about your problems. But to have a company that owns up to it, saying "sorry, guys, we've made poo-poo. As a way of saying sorry, we will do so and so." Now that get respects.

QUOTE

I respect Madman for what they did. Yes, it still doesn't change the fact that the server died, but to have done something about it in such a short time, it was a job well done.

So Tim and gang, well done to you. That's a birthday present no-one is going to forget anytime soon.

Tim dropped by to say "WTF!?"

No, he didn't actually said that (oh, BTW, Tim Anderson, the Managing Director of Madman, the head honcho). He dropped by today onto the forum and bascially said that he knew of the problem and he knew of the people who missed out on the sale. Now he will work through it and devise a plan to rectify the problem.

It's so good to hear from the head honcho giving these reassuring words. At least the big man is actually listening to the customers. That's what is should be all about. Some companies just don't want to know about your problem.

Well done Tim.

The Madman $10 Sales that Literally Drove Everyone Mad

It all started when Madman - an Australian anime company - had a birthday sale where all the DVDs in their back catalogue would sell for a crazy $10AUD for only 10 hours. They announced it earlier in the week, and so anime forums of all shapes and sizes started to post the info and people started to get hyped up and posting what they would get and how much they would save and so on and so forth.

Other than the ungodly (but server traffic friendly) hours of starting the sale at 2200 (that reads 10PM, that's right 10 o'clock at night) and finishes at 0800 (8AM) the next day, I thought the 10 hours sale was a great idea. So I was all excited and geared up ready for the sale.

I, for one, like many others slightly IT-knowledgable people on the forums were expecting a, how should I put it, not so smooth transaction. We were expecting the server to slow due to so many people jumping on simutaneously. I was in a state of denial, thinking that Madman would have and should have anticipated the load on the upcoming "sale of a decade" and acted accordingly.

Well, how naive I was. Here was what happened:

2150: Notice the slow response time on the website
2152: Logged into my account
2200: Sales started
2215: Added 7 items into the cart
2216: Added the 8th item, then discovered the price have changed from RRP to $10
2217: Tried to remove the previous 7 items
2220: Still trying...
2230: Still trying...
2240: Still trying...
2300: Server died. Received the 1st 503 error.
2320: Server came back up again. Everything in the basket went AWOL
0000: Added 11 items into the cart (half way there)
0024: Discovered I've added Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu V2 twice.
0043: 2nd 503. Basket went AWOL for the 2nd time
0157: 3rd 503. Decided to cut down my list by half
0210: Discovered I've added Galaxy Angel A three times
0217: Basket went AWOL for the 3rd time. Getting ready to kill the cat next door.
0227: Server died again.
0321: Basket went AWOL for the 4th time. Finding my knife in the kitchen.
0325: Decided to only get those that I really wanted (4 items)
0340: Proceeded to checkout
0359: One step away from finalising the order....... 4th 503 error.
0408: Reload the last step fail again. 5th basket AWOL
0410: Tried to re-add the 4 items into the basket.
0420: Still trying...
0430: Still trying...
0440: Still trying...
0450: Basket went AWOL for the 6th time.
0500: ZOMG, managed to add 3 items in 10 minutes
0505: Added all 4 items into the cart. Got greedy and added my 2nd bare essential list.
0510: Added another 5 items. Proceeded to checkout before the basket goes AWOL again.
0524: VICTORY at last 7hr 24min to complete the order (9 items)
0540: Placed my second order
0601: All done 21min to complete the order (10 items)
0622: Logged off, went to bed... the cat survived.

All up 7hr 45min to place 2 orders while I could have done that in 2 hours max (even with the slow traffic).

To be honest I wasn't impressed. Matter of fact, I wouldn't think that anyone last night was totally satisfied by the whole experience, regardless of whether they've successfully placed an order or not.

It was horrendously slow (expected that), basket kept on dying (did NOT expect that), and general discomfort, having to keep at it all night. Not since my physics assignment did I have to stay up till the wee hours of the morning. The biggest pain in the ass is David Copperfield kept doing the disappearing magic trick on my basket. It disappeared 6 times!

If anyone must point a finger at anything, it would have to be Madman's miscalculation of the anticipated load on the server. Sure, buying a new server to cater for this "once in a decade" sale sounds ridiculous, but measures should have been taken to minimise the load.

In the end, some got what they want, some got half of what they want, and some got nothing except for sleep deprivation. It's not good for the goodwill of the business.

All in all, it should have been better managed.

And boy, look at the messages flied in the forum. The break down was 7 pages of pre-sale hype, 4 pages of "keep trying till your order goes through" during the sale and then pages after pages of disgruntled customers who spent the whole night and got nothing for it. Well, you would have expected that. The server died, the items disappearing, the ungodly hours. It was just a bad experience for all, more so for those who missed out.