darkSpyro

Hello everyone! My name is Andres and I am half of the team of the FPM Play podcast. My son Jacob, 6, and I host a weekly pop culture podcast. One of the topics we talk about is video games and one of our favorites is Skylanders. We will be recording our second Skylanders themed episode tomorrow and I am reaching out to the community for help.

We have landed an interview with Alex Ness from Toys for Bob and wanted to reach out to other Skylanders fans and have them submit questions via email (fpmplay@gmail.com) or by voice mail (704-266-2FPM or 704-266-2376). We will ask questions about the current game, the new mini-skylanders promotion and of course Skylanders Giants.

The podcast is for kids so please feel free to have your kids submit questions. We need all questions by 12pm on Tuesday 7/24/2012.

Thanks so much!!!

Andres & Jacob - FPM Play
http://www.fpmplay.com
http://www.facebook.com/TheFPMPodcast

mini-skylanders = sidekicks! Not sure where my brain was at!

Can we ask questions from here? I guess so, if everyone else is. Here's mine:

Will series 1 Toys be sold after Giants?

is it possible to ask if the skylanders talk during ctuscenes in Giants?
- and Which skylanders were ideas in skylanders spyro's adventure, and were used in Giants (if there was any)?

I assume we can ask questions on here since there isn't any apparent reason for me not to, so:
In the original game, many Skylanders were stronger than others, and almost all Skylanders were better on one upgrade path than the other. Will you attempt to make the Skylanders more evenly balanced in giants?
When do you plan on officially revealing all the new Skylanders and remodels?
Will there be a third Skylanders game? If so, will the skylanders who weren't redesigned in Skylanders Giants be remodeled when it is released?
Will there be waves of characters like in the original game?
Will all cutscenes be skippable?
Will you be using some of the fan's suggestions?
Will all characters talk when you put them on the portal?
How many levels will there be?
Will there be adventure packs?
Will there be new variants?
Will the new Skylanders have Wow Pow upgrades?
Will the upgrade system be the same (new attack, three basic upgrades, two upgrade paths (and for the new characters, Wow Pow)), or will it be changed (more upgrade paths, more basic upgrades, etc)?
Are there any elements from the original game that will not be included in Giants?
Will old levels and heroic challenges return?
Will there be new hats in Giants?
In the original game, I liked some hats better than others, but I never really used the ones I liked since I decided that stat boosts were more important than personality. Will you remove the stat boost part of hats in giants?

When will there will be more characters revealed?
Will sidekicks do attacks?
Will the sidekicks have any purpose in the game other than to stand and jump?

i have one...

will there be online multiplayer co-op/battle modes?...

If Skylanders is targeted at kids, why did they make it impossible for kids to get variants? My son has been looking for any variant since January and has not even found one. Are you going to make it easier and give kids a chance to get variants like when the blue bash came out or when the red drill sergant came out.

If Skylanders is released worldwide, why don't you also release all the figures worldwide to give kids a chance to get the figures? This includes flocked stump smash and sidekicks promotions only in the US. Will they be release in Europe?

Edit: Push for an answer - what's he going to do to address my issues above.

Why don't they sell all available Skylanders (including ALL variants) at the activision shop. So if you want to buy a clear cynder or flocked stumpy, you just visit the Activision site and buy it at retail with free shipping.

Well,bonbonsalad covered most of the things we want to know,but...
...What will be the changes between the difficulty modes(Normal,Hard,etc)? As in changes in the enmies,puzzles and levels...

Will Skylanders Universe have updates to accomodate the new Skylanders,or there'll be a new online game?

Will the price for the Portal Owners pack be changed? Considering the changes from the normal Starter Pack,many noticed the price was rather unfair because the only change is the lack of Portal and two figures.

Will waves be released worldwide at similar times? During Spyro's Adventure,countries like Brazil had an enormous time gap inbetween Waves,and even released them in the wrong order(like Hex before any other Undead,Wham-Shell but no Camo or Warnado).

Guys thank you so much for the questions!!! I am compiling them now. The interview should be online by this weekend. I will report back on how things went.

I can't see why not.

Our interview with Alex was pushed to Friday so the episode will not be online until next week. There were a lot of great questions and I have compiled them into a list ready for the interview. If anyone has anything else they would like to add you have until Friday 7/27 at 9am EST.

Could you please show us which questions you're going to use? And by the way, when I asked if there were any elements from the original game that will not be included in Giants, when I said "elements", I meant features, like lock puzzles, pushing turtles and thing like that, not Magic, Tech, Life, Undead, Fire, Water, Earth and Air.

Wow. Many of these question are either cry baby questions "I can't find all the skylanders I want so make another just for me!!". Or "Here a loaded question putting words into your month that has no Safe answer or actual bearing on the game."

Way to go guys. I guess I expected a little more. Some of you did good and I assume the OP used those not the rest of the garbage.

hope your not talking to me about the top bit
I was just wodering about the actual development in characters.

Quote: Earth-Dragon

Wow. Many of these question are either cry baby questions "I can't find all the skylanders I want so make another just for me!!". Or "Here a loaded question putting words into your month that has no Safe answer or actual bearing on the game."

Way to go guys. I guess I expected a little more. Some of you did good and I assume the OP used those not the rest of the garbage.

Who asked those kind of questions?

omg
Activision has found us!1


(How do we know your for real?)

I only have one question.
Will Jet-Vac be available in a single/triple pack? I don't want to waste an extra 20 dollars just so I could get him. Same applies to Pop Fizz.

Hey guys. I wanted to come back with an update. Alex gave us an awesome interview. We thought it was going to be about 30 minutes but it lasted about an hour. We had a lot of questions and we could not ask them all. If you listen to the show I used the forum handles on air before I asked the questions. The show should be up on Tuesday or Wednesday. I will post back when it's online.

BTW, the Toys for Bob team does know about this site so they probably are reading the forums. I thought that was pretty cool.

- Andres

As cool as this was, I listened to it and it hurt my ears.
I heard this 5 year old screaming Madagascar 3 andsome other random stuff.
But they still asked the questions so good.
I rate this 18/25
No offense to anyone.

sorry to bump this, but are you going to post the interview here? I'm really eager to hear it!

Sykotek, I chose not to call anyone specific out since they were spread fairly.

There is a difference between asking a question to get a definitive answer and asking a questions that implies an individual opinion is fact (which is not fact just opinion) and yet you want it to be addressed. If the OP is running any sort of professional session, he could have cleaned up the wording. So instead of saying "The game lacks......Are you going to fix it!?" you say "It seems the game lacks....in some areas(specify). What do you plan to do to improve on this". You're giving the company the benefit of the doubt while asking them to address the problem. These guys aren't lawyers or politicians and there is only so much they are allowed to say at any given point.

Here was a big no-no:

In the original game, I liked some hats better than others, but I never really used the ones I liked since I decided that stat boosts were more important than personality. Will you remove the stat boost part of hats in giants?

This question does two things incorrectly. It assumes his opinion on the hats is universal. It also assumes that his remedy is the only possible solution. Let's take time to squeeze the whine.

In the original game, some of us liked some hats better than others, but never really used the ones they liked since they decided that stat boosts were more important than personality. Do you have any plans to address this like remove the stat boosts, or perhaps let you pick a stat boost you've unlocked regardless if whether or not you wear that hat or a hat at all?

This phrasing changes it from a personal gripe to something at a few share. It also throws put the "I want a yes or no answer damn it!!" feel to the question. You have now also stated alternatives they may look into, even if they haven't done anything about this to this point.

The interview is live!! Go check it out here: http://fpmplay.podbean.com/201...ness-interview/

Quote: FPM Play

The interview is live!! Go check it out here: http://fpmplay.podbean.com/201...ness-interview/

hey, thanks for asking my question, I really appreciate it
(sorry if I sound, but did you miss my other question?it's alright if you did or if you didn't and didn't want to ask it )

At 45:25 of the podcast, Alex Ness stated that Giants isn't having online co-op. But they hope to look it down the road one day.

Though Alex Ness said before in an interview about Giants not having no online co-op since April 2012: http://www.officialnintendomag...ONM-General-RSS

Quote: Aura24

At 45:25 of the podcast, Alex Ness stated that Giants isn't having online co-op. But they hope to look it down the road one day.

Though Alex Ness said before in an interview about Giants not having no online co-op since April 2012: http://www.officialnintendomag...ONM-General-RSS

and with this answers in mind we just know that giant will not be the big success they are expecting... their loss, for not including one of the most wanted features in a skylander game 'online multiplayer'.

SSA became a big success, even without online, Kappa.

I don't see how lack of online ruins the game, if it didn't ruin SSA.

Ah,I guess the interview had some good stuff to be learned(Hat Store in Giants,Alex mentioning how Kaos' boss battles were taken from Touhou series or other Bullet Hell games),but,if you ever do this again,I'm not sitting through 36 minutes to start hearing our actual questions.Up until that point,all I heard was stuff we knew about since the E3 and your son repeatedly asking for a custom Stealth Elf/some ninja thing. I thank you for taking your time to interview Alex Ness and use some of our questions(though,sir,I'm a girl),but the majority of it just felt like a waste of time.
And if I ever hear anyone asking for a Kaos toy again before the third Skylanders game,I'm going to hurt something. Darkspyro users are enough,but interrupting Alex just to ask what we know that won't happen anytime soon almost made me close the site and wait for someone to post in this topic any important information.
(sorry if this sounds like a rant,but I just lost my patience after some time.)

oh and by the way FPM, I'm a her, not a he

I sort of agree with bifrost, because we knew about the adventure pack stuff and the variants not looking like that in-game, but I have to say, no one knows everything and it was a good interview after all.

Hey guys, sorry for the delay on commenting. We went on vacation right after we posted the episode.

The show is geared towards kids 5-13 years of age. I know that this group is up to date on Skylanders and what was announced at E3 but we wanted to speak to some of those items for our general audience and for those parents that listen with their kids that do not follow E3 news.

The show was very long so we did not have time to ask all the questions.

CrystalHero37 - Apologies. I should have asked gender before I assumed.

Thank you guys so much for you participation and helping to make the interview a success. I am still working on getting some contest items from Activision. If we get some cool stuff I will come back and let you know and we will do a drawing with just the names of the people from this forum that submitted questions.

@FPM Play: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to ask questions.

Quote: FPM Play

Hey guys, sorry for the delay on commenting. We went on vacation right after we posted the episode.

The show is geared towards kids 5-13 years of age. I know that this group is up to date on Skylanders and what was announced at E3 but we wanted to speak to some of those items for our general audience and for those parents that listen with their kids that do not follow E3 news.

The show was very long so we did not have time to ask all the questions.

CrystalHero37 - Apologies. I should have asked gender before I assumed.

Thank you guys so much for you participation and helping to make the interview a success. I am still working on getting some contest items from Activision. If we get some cool stuff I will come back and let you know and we will do a drawing with just the names of the people from this forum that submitted questions.

no problem, people mistake peoples gender's on the internet all the time

Ok, back with an update. We did get a prizes from Activision and Alex. Alex sent in a Large long-sleeve black Stealth Elf shirt that is very cool. As a thank you to this community for help with the show we will only be putting users that sent in questions in this thread into the drawing for the shirt. All the emails submissions we have received for our contest will go towards the other prizes but this shirt will be won be someone on this thread.

I put a preview of the shirt below. We are going to draw the names on our next podcast. I will send the winner a private message to get their address so we can mail it to them.

Thanks again!

THAT SHIRT IS SO COOL, thanks for showing
can't wait to see who wins!

Meow,this shirt looks so darn cool,but if it can't be sent internationally,I wouldn't mind leaving me out of the drawing ._. Being from Brazil,I know too much about how messed up mailing items around here can get(got a Hex figure stuck in between USA and my home for months and not even the shipper could get it back),so it's better if people who can get it easily have better chances >w>

Thanks for the heads up Bifrost!

I've removed my questions. I'm also not interested in the drawing. It's a long sleeve shirt and it's so hot right now, I don't even want to think about it.

um, is it possible to ship it to aus? not saying I'm gonna win, but just making sure you know I'm a bit far away.

@crystalhero37 - you are still in the drawing. We are going to pull the name of the winner on the next episode in the next few days.

I will post the name of the winner here after I PM the them.

Quote: kappapopm

Quote: Aura24

At 45:25 of the podcast, Alex Ness stated that Giants isn't having online co-op. But they hope to look it down the road one day.

Though Alex Ness said before in an interview about Giants not having no online co-op since April 2012: http://www.officialnintendomag...ONM-General-RSS

and with this answers in mind we just know that giant will not be the big success they are expecting... their loss, for not including one of the most wanted features in a skylander game 'online multiplayer'.

well, as much as online would be cool, i gotta ask, whats the big deal with it not having online? if you have online PVP you are mostly going to play against attack spamming cussing 7 year olds. and most of them will ragequit, and the battle might even count as a tie... any ways, 2 player online would be just as bad, on player would take all the money and the person playing with you might just suck. unless you were thinking about playing with friends, then i gotta say: invite them over.
i think 4 player battle mode would be a lot better.

anyways, back on topic, i really wanted that shirt, too bad i wasnt here before to send in questions.

I won the t shirt. AWESOME... . Going to send email soon, but I only have time to post. I will probably tomorrow.

Quote: SparCrux1101

well, as much as online would be cool, i gotta ask, whats the big deal with it not having online? if you have online PVP you are mostly going to play against attack spamming cussing 7 year olds. and most of them will ragequit, and the battle might even count as a tie... any ways, 2 player online would be just as bad, on player would take all the money and the person playing with you might just suck. unless you were thinking about playing with friends, then i gotta say: invite them over.
i think 4 player battle mode would be a lot better.

anyways, back on topic, i really wanted that shirt, too bad i wasnt here before to send in questions.

But there WON'T be cussing 7 year olds because there WON'T be voice chat. It's not needed, and honestly, if you show me anyone who would want it that badly, I would be genuinely shocked.
Two simple rules for Battle: Take character off Portal? Loss. Ragequit? Loss.
But the thing is Skylanders NEEDS it right now to be any fun, because there is no Post-game content whatsoever, it's not fun enough to replay, there are no new characters on the horizon, and most people don't have anyone to play with locally. Honestly I'm having more fun tracking down all the variants I need then actually playing the game at all. I only really enjoy Universe any more.

I agree with you about Co-Op though... It'd be a doozy to set up anything efficient for that.

Quote: Nibelilt

Quote: SparCrux1101

well, as much as online would be cool, i gotta ask, whats the big deal with it not having online? if you have online PVP you are mostly going to play against attack spamming cussing 7 year olds. and most of them will ragequit, and the battle might even count as a tie... any ways, 2 player online would be just as bad, on player would take all the money and the person playing with you might just suck. unless you were thinking about playing with friends, then i gotta say: invite them over.
i think 4 player battle mode would be a lot better.

anyways, back on topic, i really wanted that shirt, too bad i wasnt here before to send in questions.

But there WON'T be cussing 7 year olds because there WON'T be voice chat. It's not needed, and honestly, if you show me anyone who would want it that badly, I would be genuinely shocked.
Two simple rules for Battle: Take character off Portal? Loss. Ragequit? Loss.
But the thing is Skylanders NEEDS it right now to be any fun, because there is no Post-game content whatsoever, it's not fun enough to replay, there are no new characters on the horizon, and most people don't have anyone to play with locally. Honestly I'm having more fun tracking down all the variants I need then actually playing the game at all. I only really enjoy Universe any more.

I agree with you about Co-Op though... It'd be a doozy to set up anything efficient for that.

im just saying, most online battles make ragequits ties. a good amount-anyway. and online pvp really doesnt seem fun, you're either too good, or you go against attack spammers, this rule fits for local play too.

Quote: princessluna409

I won the t shirt. AWESOME... . Going to send email soon, but I only have time to post. I will probably tomorrow.

that's great, congrats big time luna!