darkSpyro

Now that i have a ninjini I am offically done with this stuff. I havent mentioned the swap game to the kids and they know nothings of it. I sure hope that this is the last stupid piece of plastic i have to get.

Jade Flashwing. Scarlet Ninjini. Molten Hot Dog. Sidekick Giants.

<Ducks and hides>

I wouldn't be so sure about that. If the kids go to school, then they will probably hear about the new game. But you could always say no or limit the number of figures they are allowed to have out of the total number that will be released.

I breathed a sigh of relief myself after being the first in line to pick her up this morning. I am not even entertaining the idea of buying Swap Force. The toys look stupid to me and the game doesn't seem to have moved forward at all. So I can now look forward to other video games, lol.

I am going to wait to hear more about Swap Force before I decide. I can always wait until the game is out and read a review if I am not sure.

Quote: ziggymoonunit

I breathed a sigh of relief myself after being the first in line to pick her up this morning. I am not even entertaining the idea of buying Swap Force. The toys look stupid to me and the game doesn't seem to have moved forward at all. So I can now look forward to other video games, lol.

Uh, it HAS improved. There's jumping, better graphics, swap force zones... should i go on?

Quote: ziggymoonunit

I breathed a sigh of relief myself after being the first in line to pick her up this morning. I am not even entertaining the idea of buying Swap Force. The toys look stupid to me and the game doesn't seem to have moved forward at all. So I can now look forward to other video games, lol.

You deserve an award for mind reading. Took my exact words from me.

Quote: X-Treme

Quote: ziggymoonunit

I breathed a sigh of relief myself after being the first in line to pick her up this morning. I am not even entertaining the idea of buying Swap Force. The toys look stupid to me and the game doesn't seem to have moved forward at all. So I can now look forward to other video games, lol.

You deserve an award for mind reading. Took my exact words from me.

Booooooo! just kidding. Yeah burnout is bound to happen. I hope they are doing more than what we know so far--they're going to need it to keep guys in the franchise. Otherwise, it's safe to say there will be quite a bit of turnover here.

Quote: voodood90

Uh, it HAS improved. There's jumping, better graphics, swap force zones... should i go on?

It's not known how jumping will actually impact or positively impact gameplay--it really depends on level design. Better graphics are frankly expected, as it sounds like the engine currently in use has a few miles on it. Swap force zones is cool but to me it's just another limiting factor like the elemental zones--at least it looks like you can actually DO SOMETHING material in these zones--the elemental zones were primarily for hat and legendary treasure/soul gem searches.

I'm not trying to be negative nancy, but Vicarious and Activision better bring their A game. To me that means there better be MORE than what I've seen so far. And I'm also glad that others are voicing their dislike over the new character design--looks like they are making them look like toys for 3 year olds with the larger size and cartoonish colors.

My thoughts exactly, Monsinour. Activision is more concerned with pumping out as many new figures as possible instead of keeping existing figures relevant and improving gameplay.

I wasn't able to get Ninjini today but I agree. After Giants, I am done. This is getting ridiculous.

stop complaining if you dont wanna buy them then dont!!!!

Quote: shroom boom

stop complaining if you dont wanna buy them then dont!!!!

THIS

what the hell is wrong with you people? you're happy the last figure is released so now you dont HAVE to buy more? thats the most ridiculous way of thinking ive ever come across

i can only assume there is sarcasm in this post, as if you truly despised the game you wouldn't have a forum account on a fan website

/facepalm

^ It doesn't mean that we can't share our opinions.

Just going to buy Swap Force Starter Pack, see what's up and complete the game, return it, and maybe buy a new copy when they go on sale steeply like Giants already is starting to. If I do get the game, I won't buy any extra figures, until they're ALL out, and then I'll just get one of every Swap Force Power, or maybe even just cheat them through packaging. I can activate the Swap Gates without buying every Swap Skylander if I ask my dad to help me. And I'm buying toys only as they go on sale. Unlike Giants, I'm not planning to get the reposes or ingame variants this time. Right now, I'm only looking forward to buying whatever Tech puts forward and Wash Buckler, maybe Stink Bomb. I'm probably not going to buy any new "plain" characters besides three or so, because they won't be able to access anything that my old toys can't.

See, thing is, I own every single figure that's been made available in Australia so far, a few variants, paid $200+ for my sets of Sidekicks- I even own two of Jin Saotome's customs. The collection I amassed in Spyro's Adventure should have meant something in Giants. Instead, they added nothing to my overall bonuses, and just let me play some new challenges and quests and level them a bit, which I was going to do with their reposes later- so I ended up looking forward to buying reposes to not use the characters that will inevitably become outdated and inferior to them. I do enjoy doing everything in Skylands all the time, but it's sickening if I want the best version of a character I need to buy them again- path switching should have come with everyone, including new figures, LightCores shouldn't have existed. Now I don't want to buy any more characters because I know they will do the same thing every game, which is basically a road block from the series.

It's fine buying the same game three times to me as long as I enjoy it- but it's not fine to me to buy another whole series of so many toys, which I've already experienced, to be able to do Heroics (which I enjoy and want to play) with new ones, and to have figures that aren't obsolete. To add onto that, Countdown already looks like generic hurler, and the Swap characters shown off don't seem to be too much fun to use thus far. Neither does the jump mechanic look like it will evolve the game like it should judging by the gameplay seen.

Activision are jerks with their releases, and it's an absolute shame since the games TFB and VV made are so good. Since replaying it on my PC I honestly think that Spyro's Adventure is all around best now. Now I sort of regret gobbling up Giants.

I feel stupid for not expecting this because it's Activi$ion whom publishes.

Wow, such Negativity towards Activision and Skylanders?

Seriously, if people didn't know what they were getting into when they started then they had NO clue about life.

I mean, a Game with collectible figures! Who would have thought they would milk it with limited edition figures, re-posed figures and new character sets.
It's almost like they are trying to make money of it!

I was a tiny bit disappointed they didn't push things a little more with giants, but on the whole its a fun game.
I've not collected anything for years and have quite enjoyed getting new figures and leveling them up.

I am sure there were a lot of people that said "I'm out" when Giants came along, and I am sure a lot more will do the same before Swap-Force, that's fine for them.

But also be sure many more will START with Swap-force and quite a few will carry on.

Nobody is holding a gun to your head to buy a figure so you have no right to moan about buying them.
There has always been a huge crowd of people complaining about the price of video games "these days" but they carry on buying them in huge numbers. If it was really that bad people would just stop, obviously they don't care enough to put their money where their mouth is.

Just a quick reply to Voodood90 - Jumping and better graphics are not going to make me spend that kind of money on a game.

The problem isn't that we're forced to buy new figures. Cause we're not.

It's that- in many's opinion- they punish for having old series characters: they release new versions of the same characters, and give them an extra power. Fine. But then they strip away something those figures unlocked from the start and always should have- Heroics. Why should we buy characters? We know that they will make 100% superior versions in the next iteration, and then take away something that our toys originally had. They can add to the new, but there's no reason to steal from the old. They can make money without being that much jerks.

I wouldn't be surprised if this happens- when Swap Force comes along, at least 5 more Heroics will be missing from the list, S2s will no longer be able to switch paths, only blue bases will unlock Heroics plus their variants unlock more new ones, and the returning favorites get something even better than what the S2s have. Actifreakinvision.

Not to mention the figurine releases just are a headache for nearly everyone, which is probably the biggest reason I'm not clamoring for Swap Force- unless you have very good patience over their descisions...

I did say that I was going to be done when Giants came out- but that's because back then, I didn't like Spyro's Adventure Wii and expected to dislike Giants Wii even more. I only wanted the 3DS version of Giants. Ironic that I stopped looking forward to the 3DS version once it was announced that n-Space were developing it, and that I now waste my life on the console version while the 3DS cart sits in its designated spot in my console's bag with no playtime since leveling up my past few figures.
I AM looking forward to Swap Force and I like Giants, and I'm thinking far more differently of Swap Force than I did of Giants, but I'm NOT looking forward to the stupid contry exclusives, late releases, and mediocre stock I'd see in my area again if I were gonna hunt again. So in my case I wouldn't exactly call it fair to compare my reaction to Swap Force/Giants.

...

Quote: IJJusion

Quote: shroom boom

stop complaining if you dont wanna buy them then dont!!!!

THIS

what the hell is wrong with you people? you're happy the last figure is released so now you dont HAVE to buy more? thats the most ridiculous way of thinking ive ever come across

i can only assume there is sarcasm in this post, as if you truly despised the game you wouldn't have a forum account on a fan website

/facepalm

Well noob, I have this acct so I could find the toys from last game. S:sa is such a better game than this. It was new, different, and unique. Giants is just a rehash of the same stuff. I also have this acct so I can keep in contact with my auzzie friends and work out sending them their stuff.

Now, I have an opinion about this game and its useless pieces of plastic just as you do. My opinion is different than yours but its not right or wrong. Since you know nothing of my parenting you didn't know I limited the kids to 1 new giant and 1 new sklander and that was it. Since my daughter picked ninjini, I had to wait, and wait, and funking wait til now just to get the 4th one of the 4 I "had" to buy. Next time you decide to extend your e-peen, don't base it on an assumption. This may be a fan site for spyro, but I am not a fan of it. I use the site to track down toys like most parents on the site. You do know what happens when you assume right?

In all fairness they didn't take "away" anything from the old figures.

They still work exactly as they did in Spyro's adventure.

Not having the same features in the new game is simply and honestly a way to make you buy S2 figures to play with the S2 game.
I can't blame them for wanting money.

They could quite honestly have brought out a new portal and blocked the old figures from working entirely !

With the number sold it's obvious that people will buy them despite these issues. It is important to understand though that the release of new games/figures in NO WAY detracts or removes from the old game/figures. They are exactly the same as they always were.

Sorry just to add,
"They can make money without being that much jerks.", true. Raise this issue with them and see what they say. Hopefully you could prevent the same happening in the future.

As for,
"We know that they will make 100% superior versions in the next iteration"

Have you ever bought a PC, TV, Games console or any electronic device?
It's the same with toys too. New ones come out that are better than the old ones.

Nothing much you can do about that, its just life.

A couple things... Pyrofer if you look down in the lower right corner you will notice an edit button use that instead of double posting...


I knew that when Giants came out and they were doing S2 that some people would be mad. I don't get all of the hate to a company because they are making money. If you came up with the idea for this wouldn't you try and milk it for all of it's worth. Imagine if Apple quit after making the first Ipod or Iphone. They make new version of them that do basically the same thing. They have some improvements but at the end of the day they do the same thing and cost more money.

I am not trying to get in the middle of all of this drama, however to the OP did you really think that this was not going to turn into something like it has when you posted it? Was this thread really needed? I have refrained from posting about a post that made awhile back in the trading card thread. Calling us all suckers for collecting those. If you don't want to collect them, or think your kids own useless plastic that is fine. I bet it makes your kids happy, right? Even if you think that they are useless, I am willing to bet your kids got/get plenty of enjoyment from the figures and that should make you happy.

They DON'T work exactly the same. I've said this several times: they don't unlock Heroics. It may not affect their gameplay directly, but I want to play the old Heroic challenges with new characters. And I don't want to buy a third set of the same characters to do that again. Heroics are actually my favourite feature of the games, and without them, I would have finished Spyro's Adventure, then sold everything but the 3DS game and its three figures. I find them enjoyable, and I want to be able to do them with new characters without needing to buy characters I've owned for two years again.

Series 1 toys have had a feature taken away in Giants- unlocking Heroics. I don't even want to know how many hours I've spent playing and enjoying those challenges, and for those like me dedicated to completing every single one with every single toy, it'll last boundless hours. Thing is cost of buying the new versions to unlock the Heroics to use with the new games doesn't nessecarily mean it's good value. And I can't just use my new figures in the old games with those Heroics, because as everyone knows, they won't be patched(not that I'm particularly bothered by wether they're patched for Newlanders).
A loyal customer who has bought every figure shouldn't be punished. I feel like I do get punished when a superior version of a Skylander I have gets announced, becuase I know that the figure I just had and played with for, what, a few hours... Will then be left on the shelf gathering dust since I'll only be using the newer version, which means I've just wasted money. Which is not a nice move by Acti, wether it makes them money. The worst part is that besides a few select rare ones, everyone knows Series 1 toys are entirely less useful now unless you only play SSA, so you'll have a very difficult time even getting rid of them.

"They're still selling" is a point I've mentioned a few times in other topics, actually. I don't really see what this has to do with the argument of S1s and S2s.

The difference with consoles, TVs, computers et al, is that those rarely need to be upgraded. Most times those kind of things last at least five years. Paying $350 to buy a new games system after using your last one for such a time is much nicer than buying the same characters over and over yearly because the old versions don't unlock features they used to. I still own a 42" TV from 2006(which I actually prefer to my 3DTV)... Guess what... It can watch everything the new ones can and will continue to be able to until there is a hit successor to HDMI.

I don't even know what we're yelling about anymore... Oh well I like pizza, but only the Margherita ones with nothing but sauce and cheese and sometimes basil...

We are not yelling, just discussing with vigor

S1 figures still do everything they did in S:SA.

They don't do the same things in S:G, but that's a different game.
Activision didn't take away the Heroic challenges you unlocked with S1 figures in S:SA so they did not lose anything.

They just didn't give them the same feature set in the new game.

They still work in the same way they always did in the same game they always did.

Anyway, its a moot point, if you FEEL bad then that's how you feel and Activision should take this into account.
The last thing they want to do is alienate their customers.
They are making a lot of money from Skylanders, if they want to keep doing so they need to retain customers. Just rolling in cash while the getting is good and screwing the people that helped you get there is not a sound business move and almost always ends up badly for everybody involved *cough*Sony*cough.

Quote: X-Treme

Quote: ziggymoonunit

I breathed a sigh of relief myself after being the first in line to pick her up this morning. I am not even entertaining the idea of buying Swap Force. The toys look stupid to me and the game doesn't seem to have moved forward at all. So I can now look forward to other video games, lol.

You deserve an award for mind reading. Took my exact words from me.

i agree 100% with you both... i have a few giants left to get, then it is full stop. this swap force thing just look half arsed and it is not 'toy for bob' making it. it also don't have online game play, so the replay value is like none...

Quote: kappapopm

Quote: X-Treme

Quote: ziggymoonunit

I breathed a sigh of relief myself after being the first in line to pick her up this morning. I am not even entertaining the idea of buying Swap Force. The toys look stupid to me and the game doesn't seem to have moved forward at all. So I can now look forward to other video games, lol.

You deserve an award for mind reading. Took my exact words from me.

i agree 100% with you both... i have a few giants left to get, then it is full stop. this swap force thing just look half arsed and it is not 'toy for bob' making it. it also don't have online game play, so the replay value is like none...

I couldn't agree with you more, Kappa!! I will complete my Giants collection, and POSSIBLY get the reposed "lost-landers" if they're even made, and if playable in the S:SA game (or even Giants), only because I really liked a lot of those characters...

I think it is a little too soon to say if I people are going to quit. I think things will change when we know more stuff about it.

^ Could be... I know if they add a multiplayer online option I personally might reconsider

There is no way I'm quitting. I'm going to get all the figures for Swap-Force.

Quote: Bazinga

I think it is a little too soon to say if I people are going to quit. I think things will change when we know more stuff about it.

giving us jump, better graphics, yet again another 5 hours of single player game play, badly designed figurines and more areas you cant enter before you buy more... the shine have worn off, i am not buying into it. if you dont have more to offer in the third game of the series. if nothing drastically are changed and they give us more replay value with online game play. i think it is game over for the skylanders... also remember we pay like 1000++ dollars or more for this game. and they dont give us a upgrade for our older skylanders. they just make new variants of them with the upgrades, and we need to buy them if we want to upgrade. right there it is something fundamentally wrong with the whole concept. when you pay 1000++ dollars for a game, you gotta give a bit more back. this greed they show will ruin the whole skylander experience and it will end up going the same way as the guitar hero games...

Quote: Monsinour

Now that i have a ninjini I am offically done with this stuff. I havent mentioned the swap game to the kids and they know nothings of it. I sure hope that this is the last stupid piece of plastic i have to get.

You think the game is stupid and the characters are useless crap, yet you put in the extra effort to get Ninjini when it is just being released and hardest to find? You know full well they will learn about swap force when its out in stores and advertised ad-nauseum during kids' cartoon show commercials. Then what?

Personally, I have enjoyed skylanders. Each of the games were given as either birthday presents or christmas presents. Most of the extra characters were earned by my kids through doing chores around the house. The most annoying part: my son asking constantly what he can do to earn more money after the house is squeaky clean and no more chores need to be done. Never spent more than retail and when I can get it cheaper, I pass along the savings to the kids. When swap force comes out, it will likely be a christmas present. No need to buy all the characters, since we have all the elements covered. The kids can buy the new ones as they become easily available if they want to save up for it or birthday presents.

I understand what you are saying Kappa. I understand that some people want Online play. That is not a deal breaker for me. I get the money aspect and everything. The thing I don't get is when we haven't had their hands or actually got to play with them. Or seen more of them then just what was in the trailer, everyone says the toys are badly designed. We are still 5-8 months away from release. Things can change in the design. Once people have had a chance to get their hands on some of the toys and play around with them, then we can start calling them badly designed.

The whole problem is that why just send out 10,15, or however many to TRU. Why not just saturate the market with Ninjini Why do they have to come in spurts! There gonna make their money so why not just make everyone happy!

@Bazinga

they are not only cheap bargain bin looking but... when you have the age group this game are meant for. many parents have said that figurines in two parts is not a good idea, things get easily lost and break, buying a new is very costly. the swap design is great on paper but not that great in real life.

Quote: kappapopm

Quote: Bazinga

I think it is a little too soon to say if I people are going to quit. I think things will change when we know more stuff about it.

giving us jump, better graphics, yet again another 5 hours of single player game play, badly designed figurines and more areas you cant enter before you buy more... the shine have worn off, i am not buying into it. if you dont have more to offer in the third game of the series. if nothing drastically are changed and they give us more replay value with online game play. i think it is game over for the skylanders... also remember we pay like 1000++ dollars or more for this game. and they dont give us a upgrade for our older skylanders. they just make new variants of them with the upgrades, and we need to buy them if we want to upgrade. right there it is something fundamentally wrong with the whole concept. when you pay 1000++ dollars for a game, you gotta give a bit more back. this greed they show will ruin the whole skylander experience and it will end up going the same way as the guitar hero games...

There is something called the point of diminishing returns. This is the point where your continued investment yeilds smaller rewards.

At face retail value, to reach that point of diminishing returns (which imo is the game, a character for each element to unlock the elemental areas and the adventure packs) you need to spend a max of $175 for SSA ($75 for the game, $80 on adventure packs, and $20 to get the remaining life and air elements) or if you didn't wait on the adventure packs, add in an extra $30 for fire, death, and earth elements. Anything more than that and you aren't receiving much more than you already have. The extra characters give you, on average maybe an hour extra gameplay, but not new gameplay, just repeated gameplay to pay for character upgrades.

Giants is a bit more expensive (assuming you don't have SSA) at $205 to get the game, all the elements, and the adventure packs. But if you have SSA, then all you need is an additional $60 for the portal owners pack.

Of course, you can play all the main storyline with just the starter packs.

Now, as has been said many times, no one forced you to pay $1k for the game. On top of that, you knew essentially what the game offered with just the starter pack. Saying you should be getting more value for your $1k investment when you knew what you were in for with the initial $75 investment...well there is only one person to blame for that.

Quote: kappapopm

they are not just badly looking... when you have the age group this game are meant for. many parents have said that figurines in two parts is not a good idea, things get easily lost and buying a new is very costly. the swap design is great on paper but not that great in real life.

not sure I buy this. The obvious inspirationfor the Swap force idea is Lego. Skylanders has long been compared to games like Lego Star Wars and the Swap mechanic is the Skylanders answer to Legos' ability to customize your in game character. Skylanders are not small, they are certainly larger than your average Lego minifig. Nobody complains that being able to remove a minifigs head (and hat and torso) is a bad idea because the head might get lost, so I just don't see this as a valid compliant against Swap force.

Quote: kappapopm

@Bazinga

they are not only cheap bargain bin looking but... when you have the age group this game are meant for. many parents have said that figurines in two parts is not a good idea, things get easily lost and break, buying a new is very costly. the swap design is great on paper but not that great in real life.

My answer to the whole they are going to get lost.... is it Acti's job to make sure the kids and parents keep track of them? Also, if they break Acti has always done a great job at doing replacements and what not.

Quote: wickedrunt

The whole problem is that why just send out 10,15, or however many to TRU. Why not just saturate the market with Ninjini Why do they have to come in spurts! There gonna make their money so why not just make everyone happy!

.. and lose all of the buzz as quickly as it comes. When people are looking for Skylander they are talking about Skylanders. When they are talking about Skylanders other people are going "Hey what is this thing all about, maybe I should check it out".

Quote: kappapopm

@Bazinga

they are not only cheap bargain bin looking but... when you have the age group this game are meant for. many parents have said that figurines in two parts is not a good idea, things get easily lost and break, buying a new is very costly. the swap design is great on paper but not that great in real life.

Based on the promo video, the swap force characters are about the size of a giant, or roughly twice the size of a regular skylander.

You are worried about loosing half of a swap force character, but not worried about loosing a regular skylander, which applies to all the games, not just swap force? If you loose a skylander, you can't play the character at all, whereas you'd still be able to use the remaining half of the swap force with other swap force characters. You might have a greater need to replace a regular skylander if it was the only one of that element you had. Hard to say what the in-game need for a whole swap force character will be.

Breaking shouldn't be much of an issue. Glue fixes most problems and rarely are the RFID chips broken, so the toy remains wholely playable in-game.

Quote: Rhonan

Quote: Monsinour

Now that i have a ninjini I am offically done with this stuff. I havent mentioned the swap game to the kids and they know nothings of it. I sure hope that this is the last stupid piece of plastic i have to get.

You think the game is stupid and the characters are useless crap, yet you put in the extra effort to get Ninjini when it is just being released and hardest to find? You know full well they will learn about swap force when its out in stores and advertised ad-nauseum during kids' cartoon show commercials. Then what?

When peeps here post the hot toy alert, how freaking hard is it to find? really, how hard? the kids had a delay due to snow, TRU opened @ 10. school started @ 10:30. Their school is 5 minutes from TRU. Seemed to make perfect sense to me.

I can hope that they dont find out about swap force. Just like i hoped they wouldnt find out about the disney crap. They found out, but havent said a word about the disney crap in weeks. Then what? Well, its a simple "no, you cant have it" away for me.

I will buy this game and I will complete it. I will just buy the Swap Forces and newlanders. NO S3 AT ALL, unless it's a figure I don't have.

I'm not decided yet on what ill buy or when. I know I dont want the game when it comes out right away. But I might pick up a few figures. If people are tired of it, im not suprised at all. Its a very expensive game/hobby if you get addicted to wanting them all. Im a young adult, and I need to start thinking about saving up for a house. I cetainly am addicted to buying these things, i will not deny that. If I can over come that addiction to save for some thing like a house, then I will more than likely cut back a lot.

But honestly, the games have never been packed full of fun, longevity, or a lot of quality. So it really does come down to this...are you buying the toys because the game is amazing? or is it because so many of us are drawn in by the "gotta have them all" ploy, that we have the game just to test them out, and it feels pointless to have the figures without the game?

Quote: Monsinour

Quote: Rhonan

Quote: Monsinour

Now that i have a ninjini I am offically done with this stuff. I havent mentioned the swap game to the kids and they know nothings of it. I sure hope that this is the last stupid piece of plastic i have to get.

You think the game is stupid and the characters are useless crap, yet you put in the extra effort to get Ninjini when it is just being released and hardest to find? You know full well they will learn about swap force when its out in stores and advertised ad-nauseum during kids' cartoon show commercials. Then what?

When peeps here post the hot toy alert, how freaking hard is it to find? really, how hard? the kids had a delay due to snow, TRU opened @ 10. school started @ 10:30. Their school is 5 minutes from TRU. Seemed to make perfect sense to me.

I can hope that they dont find out about swap force. Just like i hoped they wouldnt find out about the disney crap. They found out, but havent said a word about the disney crap in weeks. Then what? Well, its a simple "no, you cant have it" away for me.

So, if the next one is a simple "No, You can't have it." why did you let your kids get the giants?