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Mr Granstaff

Mr Granstaff's Blog (69 followers)

Feb29
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It's possible I've brought this up in the past, but something has been grinding my gears since late last week. Yes, yes - I realize this may happen far too often.

OK. Probably happens.

...

Oh, all right.

There's usually something that gets under my skin at least once a week, whether it's on this site or in real life. More so on this site though and that's because I can't look that person in the eye, grab their keyboard from them and holster it back in their pocket because they're not using it right.

See? I'm the better person because I bet you thought I was going to say, "...smash their keyboard across their face" like in that movie, Wanted.

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I've heard it makes you the better man to walk away, but that doesn't sound any fun to me...

Believe you and me, I'd rather slap a choke hold on them any day of the week.


  • Another Case of Condescension


Anyway, back to what's been on my mind. As someone who frets over unlocking online achievements soonest, I noticed that there were several Xbox One achievements that were flagged in an Online Game Mode. I mean, I understood the reasoning behind it.

Well, let me stop there. it's probably best for me to go ahead and let me just quote someone from the Game Info Editor team in response to one of my recent submissions:

Mike Marcelais said:
Hi, Mr Granstaff

On the XBox One, you can only unlock achievements when online, although you can make progress towards unlocking achievements offline (but they won't unlock until you actually go online later). At the time, we decided that since you had to be online to actually unlock the achievement that all XBox One games would be flagged as 'Online Only'. This policy also applied to the Windows 10 games (which share the same achievement mechanism).

More recently, the team decided to change back to using the online/offline as applied to the 360 (although it can be much harder to verify correctness). However, with hundreds of already flagged XBox One games on the site, it takes time go back through all of the titles and reflag them. Priority is on the newer titles, the more popular titles, and the titles which have been getting public flagging submissions (as we'll fix up the online flags at the same time). We hadn't gotten around to this (and many other) titles yet.

But since you asked, we have fixed up this one as offline is appropriate. Thanks. toast
Hm. Before I forget to ask this, picture this scenario: your network is down, you're playing a Xbox One game and you meet the requirements for an achievement. Do you get that toast notification for the achievement right then or do you have to wait until you get back online?

And, before I continue, I understand the Game Info Editor team has an incredible workload, so I'm not hating on them. I'm very appreciative on what they do. Rarely, but whenever I turn in submissions, I try to be as descriptive as possible so they're not doing any extra work on figuring out what I'm trying to get at.

The thing that grinds my gears is that I don't understand why some others face palm themselves when people bring up that Xbox One should be set up like the Xbox 360 is.

The way I see it is that while you can unlock Xbox 360 achievements offline without a time stamp, you still need to hop back online in order for the rest of the world to see that you actually unlocked it. I feel like it's similar to the Xbox One. You can still unlock achievements offline, you just need to hop back online for everyone else to know that you did. The only difference is that you'll get a time stamp no matter what.

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Did you follow that? I'm not repeating myself. Ha.

Recently, I just submitted a handful of submissions to a few Xbox One games I already started and while the Editor team was super fast on resolving some of those submissions, I had the unfortunate pleasure to hear back from some other users on this site who were absolutely know-it-alls and just all around condescending. I replied back to them with my usual flair. I'm not one to roll over, as you all should know. Attitude adjustments is my specialty.

I mean, I seriously don't enjoy wasting my time with people that act that way and remain narrow-minded. They pretend to be superior, but if they're wanting to come across that way, they should really keep up with the times before making themselves look ignorant.

Someone should really invent a breathalyzer specifically for keyboards or any electronic device used for communicating because I swear people like that must be drunk or something. People can't act that stupid sober...can they?


  • UHH...


Debating on registering for this contest that's coming up. I adjusted my Games Collection where I'll have a healthy amount of locked achievements. Around 3,000, which is more than enough for the 2,000 achievement requirement that's been laid out. I'll probably still adjust it so it's closer to 2,000 because there are some games I want to take my time with and don't want to rush the experience when it pertains to the story. That and the fact that I just don't want to start some of my other games.

Now, it's definitely not to gain an unfair advantage or anything like that. In fact, when it comes to a contest like this, I don't see how it would be an advantage no matter how much I alter my collection. You and your opponent is tasked to get the same exact achievements, so... there's that.

At any rate, the contest is definitely interesting. As long as I can break even in the contest -- meaning I have to at least win one week -- I'll be a happy camper. I can't be getting eliminate from the contest winless!

Ha. Watch me get paired up with the eventual finalist or something. That would be my luck.

Other than that, I'm out!




[UPDATED: February 16, 2016]

* updated boost list

Want to boost? Play some co-op? Trade games with me? If so, click the spoiler tag below:

*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***


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Posted by Mr Granstaff on 29 February 16 at 20:16

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Tressilation I'm glad they've switched to not flagging solo offline game modes as online. It makes sense to be online to register the achievement, but not to earn it and I've always felt flags were a mechanism for earning achievements not having them register (glitchy achievement flag aside I suppose). I always get frustrated when I'm trying to set up a list of online achievements to do and have to sit there and figure out if something that is flagged as online is actually online or is just flagged that way because you have to upload the data. But people get so over themselves sometimes with pretty much everything and look for technicalities rather than understanding that the function of something is a lot more important in a lot of cases.

And I wouldn't smack them with a keyboard -- I'd go all Typing of the Dead on them and type in the words that appear above their head and watch them explode, because reasons.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-ko7myVEAAGAVA.jpg

On the contest end of things -- it seems neat and you're right that altering your games collection doesn't give you a true advantage over another person. Although I would say that there are some games where I am nearing the end of a long grind in that if I get matched up with someone who needs it as well that I would have a huge advantage. So I guess in that sense you could alter your list to make those games more likely to be chosen but with needing 2000 achievements to pick from I doubt it would be any sort of an effective strategy making it more-less an even playing field. It's an interesting concept though and I too hope I make it at least out of the first week :P
Posted by Tressilation on 29 Feb 16 at 20:43
SpeleoFool +1 on only flagging achievements "online" if you truly must be online to unlock them. I replayed most of Child of Light offline because one of the achievements glitched on me, and I didn't want to throw away my character progress by overwriting my cloud save. I'm also considering doing Advanced Warfare's Exo Survival offline, because (a) it's easier, and (b) the game has frozen / servers lagged out on me twice during online games in the high 40's, which takes about 90 minutes to do.

I decided not to pursue the UHH competition because my high completion % doesn't play well with its structure. I only have right around 200 achievements remaining, and those are literally the last things I want to play for. So, either it picks stuff like Bejeweled 2 achievements that nobody will earn in a week, or I bean dive my card with all the short Indie games I picked up for GTASC last year and haven't played yet. Either way, didn't seem like an interesting competition for me.
Posted by SpeleoFool on 29 Feb 16 at 21:27
Mr Granstaff @ Tressilation - Yep. I agree that it makes more sense to be consistent with how the Xbox 360 was flagged. Like I said, I could see the Editor's thought process, but I think it was the wrong call, respectfully.

I have to look up Typing of the Dead. I have no knowledge of this. Reminds me of a game -- that I never played -- where a keyboard was a weapon... Saw it on a YouTube clip once.

Yeah, contest seems like it'll fun to participate in and hopefully make some new friends in the midst of battle.
Posted by Mr Granstaff on 29 Feb 16 at 21:56
Mr Granstaff @ SpeleoFool - How does the achievements unlock while offline using the Xbox One? Do you still get the toast notification?

Ugh. Nothing is more frustrating than to get kicked out when you're more than halfway into a time consuming event.

Oh, yeah. Gamers who favor high completion percentages probably doesn't need to apply in the UHH. That's one of the reasons why I may not participate, but I probably will. The Bean Dive was going to knock me down anyway.
Posted by Mr Granstaff on 29 Feb 16 at 21:59
dlCHIEF58 I just looked into the UHH competition closer as I blew over the title when I first saw it posted. I'm somewhat interested and definitely qualify - in started games I have 16,378 achievements available! Add in the games I own (probably another 150-200) and that really balloons my available pool. Might just give it a shot to try and clean up my completion ratio and past bean dives. Just need to decide which strategy is best - leave my unstarted games on or remove them.
Posted by dlCHIEF58 on 29 Feb 16 at 22:08
Shinnizle I'm glad they changed it too, to be honest. I understand the reasoning behind the way they did it in the first place, but in doing so, they had completely invalidated the flag itself. It literally became worthless.
Posted by Shinnizle on 29 Feb 16 at 23:21
Juicyjams #1 you owe Juice some steel battalion time when I get back to Georgia on the 25th,
#2 I am interested in your rabbids game for the 1 and I will bring wolfenstien on orders with me if you want to boost I don't have much left but will help you finish.
Posted by Juicyjams on 01 Mar 16 at 01:09
Mr Granstaff @ dlCHIEF58 - It's safe to say you meet the qualifications. Ha.

With me, there are some games that include Main Story achievements, so I didn't want to include them in my Owned list. Didn't want to be put in a predicament where I needed achievements to win a head-to-head or potentially ruin the story.

That reminds me, I need to go back into my collection and look over my Games With Gold - I may not want to start a few of those either.
Posted by Mr Granstaff on 01 Mar 16 at 15:28
Mr Granstaff @ Shinnizle - Agreed. I figured out why they originally set up the flagging that way, but it really did make the Online Required flag meaningless in Xbox One games.

I hate to say it, but the ball was dropped there. We all can't be perfect though. At least they're in the process of fixing it.
Posted by Mr Granstaff on 01 Mar 16 at 15:42
Mr Granstaff @ Juicyjams - I owe you nothing but peaches! laugh

That's cool. I need a reason to play Steel Battalion. I hope I haven't lost my chops, but I enjoyed that game despite the reviews.

Right on. Someone else actually showed interest in that game too, so first come - first serve! :)

Very cool about the assist with Wolfenstein. It's highly appreciated.
Posted by Mr Granstaff on 01 Mar 16 at 15:44
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