Ticket Scam - Part Two

Do you remember my last blog? Where I complained about how difficult it was to get baseball tickets? Well, here's an interesting follow up.

Over the weekend I was checking my email, as people are known to do, when I got that seemed a little strange to me. The subject line was: Thank You For Purchasing Yankees Tickets...only the email hadn't come from Stub Hub - the "3rd party" outlet I'd been forced to buy my tickets from. It came from Yankees.com ticketing. And when I opened it up, there were all the Yankees graphics and the Yankees disclaimers and links and all that lovely crap. (Of course, this really originates from MLB.com)

The real kicker here...was not only did the official Yankees site apparently know I had purchased tickets from STUB HUB (no mention of that website in the email, by the way) but it knew the EXACT GAME I had purchased the tickets for. Then it tried to pimp out tickets to another series - a series of the Yankees vs. The Mets. Yeah, because those tickets are still available.

Are they kidding me with that email? Just shove it in my face some more that you know exactly what's going on, and you could care less about it. It's not right, and it's not fair, but that's business in the society we're living in. You're getting screwed, and we don't give a shit. Thanks for the money.

Well, I won't be buying tickets to any more Yankees games or any other game where I can't purchase them directly from the box office or the official website. And yeah, there will be someone else happy to spend their money in my place. But I don't care. Because it's not mine. And it makes me feel better.

Getting Baseball Tickets Sucks

So, as I've previously mentioned, I'm a Yankees fan. And I haven't been to the new stadium yet. This is not cool. I also have many family members who are fans, so for various relatives as Christmas/Birthday gifts, I told them I would buy us all tickets to a game.

Well, single game tickets went on sale on Friday. I needed to get six. Do you know how many I managed to get via the official website? ZERO.

I was pissed off. You know why? This whole ticket thing is a SCAM. They pimp their season ticket plans all damn winter long. And then, roughly two weeks before the season starts, they put the single tickets on sale. And there are none? I was trying RIGHT when they went on sale at noon. Oh, and I have to point one thing out - there were tickets available. Oh, there were. If I was willing to pay $150 or even $300 a damn ticket. Are you kidding me? I guess someone's gotta pay Arod, but you know what? It ain't gonna be me.

So the reasonably priced tickets are gone. Can't get any. Not for any weekend game anyway. And that's the only time we can go, since we live kind of far from the stadium now. We can't just jet down after work like we used to. What to do now?

Why there's StubHub of course! Get tickets for any game from people who have tickets they want to get rid of! How convenient! I need tickets, and these people just HAPPEN to have EXTRA tickets they don't need!

Hi, people who bought season ticket plans JUST FOR RESALE BECAUSE THEY KNEW THEY COULD MAKE A PROFIT. It's disgusting. Yes, I'm sure there are people selling tickets on StubHub who are season ticket holders and do need to get rid of tickets to a game or two they can't make. This is understandable. But you know most of these jerks bought tickets during the winter long season ticket pimpfest, intending to list them on StubHub to make a profit. Because it's so easy to scalp these days. Thanks, internet. Who cares if people who actually want tickets to go to an actual game. Just give us our money. It's so frustrating, and it's really not fair. StubHub has built their business around this, obviously. And do you think the Yankees or Ticketmaster give a crap? Of course not! Either way, they're getting their money.

This practice disgusts me. And I didn't want to use StubHub, just out of protest. Because I shouldn't have to pay more than face value of a ticket I was willing to buy as soon as tickets went on sale. And it's not like this is a 2 or 3 day concert event - there's at least 20 weekend games this year. But unfortunately, I had promised other people tickets. So I had no choice. But you know what? In the future, I'm keeping in my money in my pocket. Sorry, Yankees. I'm still a fan. But unless the ticket situation improves, I'll just watch from the cheapness of my living room. Somebody else can shill out for Arod's paycheck.

Review ~ Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Saddest sentence ever.

I'm a big fan of the Ace Attorney series - I've played all three Phoenix Wright games as well as the Apollo Justice title. Miles Edgeworth has always been my favorite character, so when I heard they were making a game all about him, I knew I was going to be all over it. Who else can pull off a fuchsia suit and a caveat and still be awesome?

This game is not like the other games in the series - you are never actually in court. Instead, Edgeworth, Gumshoe, and a cast of new and familiar characters cracks cases by investigating and taking testimony out in the field.

Gameplay - You're investigating crime scenes now, and you actually get to move around. No more just pointing to stuff on the touch screen, unless Edgeworth decides to go in for a closer look. As you can see from my above screencap, you still get the sprites and all their amusing quirks. You can still shout objection if you so choose. And you're still presenting evidence and pressing people when their testimony doesn't quite add up. What's new is the "logic" feature. As you investigate, Edgeworth will occasionally come to a conclusion that will be added to the "logic" section you can access in the upper left hand corner of the screen. You can then put two together and come to a conclusion that pulls you further into the investigation. The new features in the game aren't much of a departure from past titles, and I feel it's much better then that perception crap you had to do in Apollo Justice where you basically got up in someone's face to see if they were slightly sweating on one word. Ugh. Hated that. Logic is an easy system, both to use and figure out. There's not too much mystery when you're trying to put two and two together.

Characters - Edgeworth, obviously, is the focus of this game. You're accompanied most of the time by your old pal Gumshoe, who I always enjoy seeing. There are a bunch of new characters in the game but there are also a lot of familiar faces as well. I was happy to see what characters came back for a spin in this new game. But if you're expecting to see Phoenix...don't get your hopes up.

Story - I would have to say this is probably the weakest part of the game. That isn't to say it's bad by any stretch, but compared to past games, it's a little lacking. There are five cases in the game, and they're all tied together. You kind of jump around taking on the cases out of order, which can make your mind spin a bit. The storyline is clear and enjoyable, but not particularly engaging like in past games, even though all the cases are related in this case. I found many of the cases were pretty short, except for the last one. In the true tradition of an Ace Attorney title, the last case goes on and on and on with no end in sight. And by the end you're screaming at your DS. Fun times.

Graphics and Touch Screen - The graphics are the same as they've been for the other titles. Touch screen use is pretty much the same too. You can use it to advance dialogue or move (or you can use the control pad) and you use it to access your evidence and sometimes make a response or too. You can also interact with specific pieces of evidence by zooming in and turning them around - but we've seen this in past games already too. There's really nothing new to report. Unfortunately there's no cool luminol or other crime scene tests like we've enjoyed sporadically in the past.

I really enjoyed this game - but I think I enjoyed it more because I'm such a huge Edgeworth fan. If you're a fan of the Ace Attorney series though, regardless of whether you're an Edgeworth fan or not, I think you'll enjoy it. Yes, it's a little different and I did miss being in court a little bit, but overall it's more of the same enjoyable experience with a few new twists.

8 out of 10 (The fact that Edgeworth was the main character jumped the score about half a point)

Why I'm breaking up with American Idol

I'll admit it - I've watched American Idol since season one. I didn't catch the whole thing, but by the time I started tuning in, there were about six or seven contestants left. And I've watched most of every season since. I say "most" because I tended to lose interest in most of them, and stopped watching by the time there were only a few contestants left. You gotta admit, the show is basically the same every week. People sing. A good chunk will butcher their chosen song. A few others will be good, and one, two or maybe even three if you're lucky will be amazing. This is one of the reasons why TiVo was invented. So you could fastforward through all the crap in American Idol.

This season began for me like all the others. I started watching. Even with Paula gone and Simon leaving, I went back to it like an old familiar friend. The auditions rounds were pretty standard. Hollywood week is my favorite, and it was pretty enjoyable. But once the top 24 were chosen, my already waning interest in the show pretty much died completely.

Why? Well, there are several reasons.

1. I'm not digging Ellen as the new judge. Don't get me wrong - I really like Ellen. I just don't like her on the show. I don't think she makes a good judge and I really miss the unpredictable antics of Paula Abdul. Nothing could replace that.

2. The talent this season mostly sucks. Every year they put a bunch of people through who clearly are getting pushed ahead by the producers. And America is stupid and will vote for these people because they are voting with their hearts instead of their ears. But this year, after hearing Randy proclaim "Most talent ever" like 40 times like he does every year, I quickly realized he was clearly lying. Big time. I haven't watched any of the top 24 performances. I haven't had time, so I've been reading the recaps and I was planning to go back and watch them from my DVR later. Well the recaps proclaimed pretty much every performance bad, and not only bad, but terrible. So why would I waste my time? And I'm not going to fast forward through 45 of bad singing just to see one good performance. Not worth it.

3. Which brings me to something that has never happened before. Probably the biggest reason I stopped watching American Idol is that I just don't care about any of the contestants. Not enough. Every year there's always a contestant or two that I really like and want to root for. And I'll tune in faithfully at least until they get eliminated. But this year...I was drawn to no one. And the repeated reports of subpar performances is maybe a good indicator as to why. So if I don't care, and most people aren't delivering anything worth watching, why is it worth my time?

So right now this season is a total wash for me. Oh, I'm sure I'll keep tabs on it. It's American Idol - I always do. I can't help myself. It's habit. But as far as actually watching it again... I'm sorry. It's over. And since Simon will be gone next season, I'm done.

I'm sorry, American Idol. I appreciate the entertainment you've given me over the years. But I just don't feel that spark anymore.

Oh, and it's totally you. Not me.