Play.com

Based on a survey of nearly 1,200 UK consumers, we ranked 25 firms. Here are some of the details:

• Top five in the rankings:
  • Play.com [#1]
  • Amazon UK [#2]
  • John Lewis [#3]
  • ASDA [#4]
  • Tesco [#5]
• Bottom five in the rankings:
  • British Gas [#25]
  • AOL [#24]
  • Virgin/NTL Telewest [#23]
  • BT Internet/Openworld [#22]
  • Vodafone [#21]
• Retailers took the top 8 spots, but here are the leaders in other sectors:
  • Banking: Lloyds TSB [#8]
  • Mobile: T-Mobile [#17]
  • ISP: BT Internet/Openworld [#22]

We'll be fielding the survey again in the US in a few months, so keep your eyes out for Forrester's second annual Customer Experience Index later this year.

The bottom line: There's room for customer experience improvements everywhere.

* Agnetha Faltskog: That's me...best of
* Bette Midler: Beaches soundtrack
* Burt Bacharach: The Burt Bacharach Story
* Donna Summer: The 12" dance collection
* En Vogue: Best of
* Pearl Jam: Ten
* Rufus Wainwright: Rufus Wainwright
* Rufus Wainwright: Want 1
* Rufus Wainwright: Want 2
* Shakespear's Sister: Long live the queens
* Suede: Singles
* Tears for Fears: Collection

Whilst we know Nintendo are hard at work on the future iteration of the popular Pikmin franchise we're still no closer to knowing when we will actually see it, thankfully Play.com could have solved that niggling issue with the game pre-listed on their website as arriving March 27th 2009.

Source

Sacré mois de juin!… C'est sur Xbox 360 que j'ai décidé de faire le plein de nouveautés.
On retrouve donc en version PAL-UK commandés chez Play.com les deux titres de la licence LEGO (qui seront bientôt trois, rejoins par l'homme chauve-souris) : Star Wars - La Saga Complète (sorti en fin d'année passée) et Indiana Jones (tout frais du 6 juin, qui a profité de la sortie du 4ème film de la saga pour pointer son nez mais ne se consacre pourtant qu'aux trois premiers épisodes).
Tandis que le sanglant Ninja Gaiden II et le non moins décoiffant Race Driver : GRID en version NTSC-US Region Free ont été achetés sur Play-Asia.com.

On notera que Ninja Gaiden II bénéficie dans sa version US d'un fourreau cartonné en relief du plus bel effet (**collector** :-p)

Now, when was this beta going to start again?

Nothing at my house though :-(

But hey, it's progress

As a trill man, yeah I’ve been downloading shit, but not in the amount of what I buy. My reason for downloading is to check the quality of the album. Because the few minutes I get in the store are not enough to secure that the album I thinking of buying is good enough to use money on. I’m a student, which means that I got only a small bit of my cash can go to music buying. That means I’m in the target group of the music labels. The youth are the original age where top selling artist try to get attention from. I understand why? Because where easier to make decisions for, since with are small age span get influence from the folks around us and easy adapt to the situation. Even with music taste as well. For instants I didn’t listen to urban music before a friend of mine put a cool tape of UGK on the speakers and the feeling were instant. Since that day it has been no other choice than that kind of shit. An A&R can’t get opportunity with the common people except the people around him. But that has nothing to do with downloading right?

Downloading is in my opinion wrong. Yes, I download myself. I’ve want lie. But it’s my test to see if it is quality or bullshit. What if it is from one of favourite artist? I’ll buy the disc no matter what. You dig? T.I.’s Paper Trail is bought what so ever. Young Buck’s Product of the South, don’t even ask. It’s an easy choice. But hell, what about this new dogs on the market? Would I buy their record?

Nope. That’s a damn lie. Why should I? The artist doesn’t have any track record and maybe even working with the people who have but still got hotter features then himself. Take Plies and the singles from his first album. It was with Akon & T-Pain. Both of them had a major effect on the sales. For one reason their hot artist with a bigger fan base then Plies. I don’t hate on Plies, I’m just real. Why buy scrimps when you get lobsters for the same price ay?

Just to put some numbers on the table from Britain, 95 % of the people in a test said they where downloading half of what they listened to on their IPods. If they have a 2 GB player, which means that 1 GB is downloaded material. In other sense it is about 10 – 15 albums on the IPod that is downloaded. Is the industry stupid?

My reason for saying that is this task. When billion after billion IPods and other MP3 players where sold. The industry sold bad MP3 the DRM shit. The product that made the copy of the song locked to a area or a single player. So if the IPod quitted to work. And you wanted to copy it back to the computer. The file would say fuck you and fuck you for buying me. So DRM are made for the labels and artist but not the listener. It helps the control like a old soviet laws did with Russian public. If you don’t follow the law we send your ass to Siberian winter to get some coal barrels. ITunes is working fine with the prices on the single song and the album but without DRM it got weak quality. Its around 90 MHz or something like that. When really good MP3 quality is around 120 – 175 or more. So your buying a small but bad shit instead of paying the whole price for a disc. Where a lot of the tracks sucks dick if your not a Stan of some kind. But the good news on ITunes is that they got a new style of shit called Plus that is worth the cash. That is made for the consumer.

I’m maybe old fashion. The reason is that I want to really own the disc. Not only on MP3 if the computer just falls to bits and pieces. I’ve got an opportunity to relocate the music on a new laptop. That’s a reason why I buy my shit either on the local music store or on Play.com and Amazon. The local music store has a small place for Urban so its not often I buy something there. But on the internet it’s something else. It’s easy to find opportunities to find the special disc I want to have in my collection and even the newest music fast. The bad shit about buying on the internet from a European side. Is that I takes from 1, 5 week to 3 weeks to get the disc thru the mail system. That’s kind of long wait and you wish the store was better locally.

The worst about the music industry is that both gaming and movie industry is more professional about the consumer. For few guests – the first the gaming companies is smart enough to make internet games and special games for the consuls like Playstation 3. The meaning by this shit is that the consumers get problems with making copies of the game and they need to buy the shit even if it is crap or something worth the wait. Even movie industry who could have in the same situation that the music. Isn’t feeling it in the same way, why? Yes we could download the movies right away, but it is really bad quality with Chinese text. Nobody wants that on their TV screen except the Chinese downloader’s. So if the consumer wants good movies or TV series they need either to buy it or watch it on cable. That in big sense meets the demand of the consumer. The best thing about the movie business is that the adaption is not only with small local dvd stores around the globe. But you can easily buy the one year old movie on the grocery store. With the best stars at a fair price even cheaper than the album who is one year old. You dig what I’m telling in your face?

Piracy may kill the industry that we have known from birth. Motown isn’t working no more. Murder Inc? fuck it. Def Jam? Shut up! Atlantic? Nah man. Virgin records? Tree loving ass bitches. I’m just kidding but what is happening. It’s maybe going to what it was supposed to do. The true talents going back to sell and not what the director of UMG says going to sell. Consumers may get the ultimate choice of how the music industry work. Because the way its done right now. Nobody except a few of the independent companies can make a reasonable amount of cash. Back to basics. Where are the consumers? What does he need to get? What satisfy him? How much will the consumer pay for the product? Old companies can get their shit right. Consumers use technology and change it to the best for us. The music industry need to see that we will continue to that. The same is for movie industry. I’ve wont pay a buck for HD DVD as long the playstation 3 got Blue Ray player. That is some bullshit. So step your game up music industry. Please your costumers. I’m pleased but its still hard for me to not order shit from the U.S. to my home and wait tree weeks to get the shit I want. Music Industry should have the motto: Get Rich or Die Tryin’. If not you’ll die out in high speed. Because the youth you wish to fit to will run in another direction. Peace

• A little bit of the old, a little bit of the new: this was the mantra of the devs who came to the Games Day convention, parceling out a few new snippets of info (10 character slots! population caps! expansion in the works!) and regurgitating a lot of older stuff. Many visitors noted that 8 of the classes were unavailable to play on the show floor, including the elusive Black Guard.

Beta Ticker:

• 736,315
• +7,469 from last week

Quote of the Week:

• "Paul runs on love, kindness, and the blood of many elves!" ~ Mythic rep

New WAR Sites & Blogs:

• Like Facebook? Like WAR? Then here you go: The Warhammer Online Facebook page.
• /random might not be new, but it's a great catch-all WAR blog.
• The Captain's Blog covers WAR, Warhammer 40K and Warhammer tabletop.
• The White Tower of Hoeth may be just a blog baby, but it's a hefty baby boy!
• Warhammer Online Gaming Scene told me they were going away, but I guess they're back!

From EA Mythic:

• EA Mythic's Event Calendar -- find out where WAR will be showcased next!
• James Nichols explains who's handling the customer service for WAR in different regions.
• WAR Europe confirms that the Play.com's codes are sent.
• Josh Drescher clarifies what can go on at the Games Day event.
• James Nichols gives us a taste of Warhammer's "fluff" -- one of my favorite MMO features.
• Get the straight scoop on server/realm population caps from James Nichols (with a short follow-up here).
• Jeff confirms that only 16 of the 24 classes were available for play at Games Day.
• Various rule set servers are in the works but nothing definitive, James says.
• EA CEO: WAR won't rival WoW

Misc. News:

• Warhammer Online will be showcased at this year's diminished E3 in July.
• Play.com is still having problems with the whole pre-order situation.

Podcasts:

• ChaosCast Episode 2: Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By
• Podcast of Reckoning Episode 3: What does the newsletter entail?

Articles & Commentary:

• Hardcore Casual deduces: we need WAR already!
• Keen's Korner: Which class looks the most appealing? It's a classy piece.
• Wrenn's take on Warhammer's graphics, over at Warhammer Peaceniks.
• War Noob asks, "...but what if WAR gets terrible reviews?" Will you still play?
• TTH has organized all their zone overviews on one handy page!
• "By the Gods!" at Warhammer Gaming Scene covers the major deities of WAR.
• "WAR for the Win" at Game Zig replies to my "How WAR Can Win" article -- does he agree?
• Book of Grudges digs around in the whole "no official WAR forums" pile. Stinky!
• "MMORPG Burnout and... Anti-Burnout?" at The Greenskin gives us a lovely new gamer definition to memorize.
• Snafzg penned a follow-up, second draft analysis of the recent WHA what-class-will-you-play poll. Great reading, check it out.
• Champions of Stuff throws their hat into the ring as to release and beta speculation.
• Werit (heaven help you if you mispronounce that as "Wart") looks at WAR's ability for a character to level up via PvPing.
• How can you sex up the Hammerer? Book of Grudges has some kinky ideas.
• Order of Destruction wants Mythic to get a commercial out on TV, ASAP!
• Svoald comes up with a few WAR conspiracy theories. I think WAR shot JFK, after reading this.
• /random looks at how we can build a Warhammer server community.
• Dreaming a fantastic dream, The Cogworks thunks up fun ways for WAR to make alt leveling more enjoyable.
• Book of Grudges has some nice Baltimore GamesDay review quotes and info tidbits.
• Read a lengthy GamesDay review at Alpha Guild.
• More Games Day wrap-up at Only-WAR.
• "Some Pretty Good Reasons Why Warhammer Looks Like It Might Be Awesome."
• Book of Grudges debate whether a guy's manhood is threatened by playing a Witch Elf.
• Ten Ton Hammer's started an Orc screenshot gallery -- see how they've changed over time!
• Khaos chooses an army (part 3). Part 3 of what? I feel like I'm loading a computer game with 15 old 5 1/4" floppy disks.
• War Noob asks, "Should all classes move at the same speed?" Personally, I'm hoping to crawl everywhere. Maybe skip.
• Keen examines the server queues hubbub.
• "How to take criticism (from a pro)" reexamines the whole PC Gamer UK article in a new light, responding to this blog post by the author.
• Here I thought I was in Detroit that weekend...
• Werit looks at DAoC to speculate as to what incentives WAR might feature in getting people to play the underdog faction.
• The White Tower examines Destruction's apparent domination in the gamer mindset.
• "Early Access? Bring it on!" Book of Grudges declares.
• Only-WAR goes to Games Day 2008 and brings back a personal tale of love and laughter.
• Bo from The Greenskin looks at the graphical style of different MMOs -- and why some connect.
• Wrenn looks at AoC and speculates how it might affect WAR.
• War Noob looks at the three most popular WAR forums, and explains why you should care.
• How incredible, exactly, will WAR's end game RvR be? WAR Gaming Scene reports.
• War Noob doesn't want WAR to be as popular as WoW, and he has good reasons for it.
• "Can Warhammer Online kill the powerleveler?" Honestly? I don't think so.
• WAR City Sieges FAQ at TTH
• Tobold looks at the server population issue and decides nobody can play.
• Hardcore Casual says "RELAX!" about server population queues
• TTH's Top Ten Insights from Games Day 2008.
• Another convert -- Gordo is joining the WAR side of the force!
• CyberVic analyzes the Zealot gameplay video from Games Day 2008.
• Book of Grudges asks, "Do we really need different server rulesets?" I, for one, would like to see a banana ruleset.
• Gear v. Skill. Who will win? Who will get the girl, and who will cry themselves to sleep at night on their huge pilla?
• JeuxOnline looks at how WAR might distinguish itself from the rest of the MMO pack.
• Order Strikes Back: Swordmasters of Hoeth. About darn tootin' time!
• One word: ZERGHAMMER!
• TTH looks at how the human race has evolved in the past year (in WAR, of course).

Databases & Forums:

• Warhammer Vault has upped their guild database to an impressive 520+.
• Another week, another awesome Forum Watch at The Greenskin!

Videos:

• The Cogworks has a cute chicken gameplay video to watch.
• Games Day 2008 Q&A Part 1
• Marauder gameplay
• Engineer gameplay
  
• Guild Vendetta interview: Part 1 and Part 2
• WAAAGH!
• Paul Barnett at Dreamhack
• Dark Elf Sorceress @ The Captain's Blog

Fun & Games:

• Play the WAR slot machine!
• The Secret Life of Mobs new comic -- "The Inquisition"!
• Interview with a Witch Elf at Order of Destruction.
• There's a great new goblin fan art over at Warhammer Vault.
• In "Werit captures a Greenskin!", a dwarf and a greenie face off in a hilarious battle royale.
• Gene Simmons in WAR?
• Keen shows off a reader-submitted Spore Squig!

It has come to our attention that some websites are reporting that play.com have sent out the beta access codes. Unfortunately this is incorrect, however we are due to send out our beta access codes soon and we estimate that they should be with you within 7-10 days. The Warhammer Online beta has yet to start and we will be sending the codes shortly so that they will be there in time for access to the beta when it opens.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience and valued custom.

I know it seems odd to the non-UK crowd that we're so obsessed with this but I promise we won't mention it again after the boxes arrive ;)

It sounds as though they are actually sending out pre-order packs rather than just emailing (and since my email has not yet received a beta code, I'm guessing this is the case.)

*HMV apparently have some stock of the CE pre-order pack still on their shelves for those who've missed ordering at Play.com.

That being said a couple of people on Freddyshouse forums have reported phoning up and being told the keys were in the process of being sent out now, so who knows!

By Adam,

Regular followers of my humble ramblings will have noticed of late that I am obsessed with Race Driver: GRID. I just thought I’d post some of my initial impressions and experiences of the game, along with my reasoning for getting the game in the first place.

Background
Quite simply, it all started with the demo for Race Driver: GRID. The handling of the cars was a bit tricky, but once I had mastered the controls it was good. Real good. I wanted more. I suppose the GRID demo has been one of the rare few demos that I have hammered. Then the reviews started coming in...

Extract from 'Hands-on with Race Driver GRID'

Read the full article on Los Havros- my gaming blog.  Fresh full of the latest PS3 news, snippets and opinion.

Price: 14.99

Eh bien tout un lot de jolies choses :-p

Nous commençons donc avec le sympathique Colin McRae : DIRT dans sa version PAL acheté 25€49 sur Play.com qui décidément propose des tarifs réellement alléchants! À moi le Pike's Peak en Peugeot 405 T16! :-p

Sinon comme vous pouvez le voir le format récemment abandonné par Toshiba s'installe définitivement chez moi avec ce lecteur HD-DVD dédié à la XBOX 360 payé 49€99 ainsi que le Coffret Trilogie Jason Bourne regroupant les trois excellent films mettant en scène Matt Damon pour "seulement" 32€45 chez Amazon.fr.

Le Coffret n'est pas vraiment à la hauteur de la série… Vraiment chiche…

Nous finissons en beauté sur le coffret collector du Tombeau des Lucioles(29€49) un "vieux" film d'animation du très renommé Studio Ghibli. Je ne l'ai pas encore vu mais il s'annonce très émouvant.

Le packaging est constitué d'un étui fourreau contenant un fascicule sur le film et le studio, le roman dont il est inspiré et enfin la pochette dans laquelle sont fixés les deux disques.

Aujourd'hui réception de mon premier jeu acheté via Play.com et première déception : il s'agit du mauvais produit :-s

En effet j'ai passé commande pour un exemplaire de God of War sur PS2 facturé 25€49 et me voilà avec la version Platinium d'une valeur de 20€99…

Sinon il faut avouer que la livraison est très rapide et surtout gratuite !

The whole purpose of this event was to promote 2008's line up of video games, hosted by the huge entertainment online retailer, www.play.com. Clearly they're keen to raise their public profile higher from simply a competitive website offering free delivery, as they really pulled out all the stops by offering generous prizes for games tournaments. A Soul Calibur IV competition offered a tricked out SUV as a prize, and a Pro Evo Soccer Tournament had a staggering £50,000 jackpot.

Among banks of game console pods showing games which have already been released (like Devil May Cry 4, Pro Evolution Soccer and Need for Speed), there were a few new unreleased games available for the public to try out. The most popular one by far must have been EA's upcoming Rock Band.

What I really like about Rock Band is the huge emphasis on teamwork. Taking cues from its rival franchise, Guitar Hero, the multiplayer is at the heart of the game (knowing you're not the only person in the room cradling a plastic toy guitar is a reassuring feeling!). Rock band has some nice touches, like the way someone can “die” halfway through a song and can only be revived if their bandmates pull together and all hit certain notes in perfect time. The triple syncronisation bonuses also reinforce the co-operative nature of the game, its something which I'll be looking forward to later.

The majority of the stands at the show offering new games were showing looping trailers which avid games fans would have already seen, but all the same it was great seeing them in high definition on 60” plasma screens and reveling in the experience with other punters.

As exciting as it was, the constant bombardment of loud noises and flashing lights became quite exhausting after a while, and I retreated to a small bank of Xbox 360 pods running some Streetfighter 2 Turbo. I consider myself quite good at Streetfighter, but when a guy wearing a Streetfighter T-Shirt stepped up to challenge me (“Hear comes a new challenger”) I knew I was in for some competition. After suffering an embarrassing losing streak, I clawed back some pride by finally beating him. It turns out he was a tournament level Streetfighter player, and he invited me to join his online Streetfighter community.

For its first show, play.com live was quite impressive, offering lots of games to see, competitions to enter, and lots of entertainment like live bands on stage and Las Vegas dancers to promote the recent Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 game. I just hope that if they do another show next year, there'll be more playable new games on offer.

Dave Gahan - Hourglass
Depeche Mode - Exciter
Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel
Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour
Pet Shop Boys - Very
Pet Shop Boys - Actually
Depeche Mode - Songs Of Faith And Devotion
Front 242 - No Comment
Erasure - Pop (Yes, it's a compilation!)
Alphaville - Forever Young
Mesh - Who Watches Over Me
Universal Poplab - Uprising
Fluke - Six Wheels On My Wagon
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Kim Wilde - Kim Wilde

Tip Of The Day : Play.com - A place to buy stuff....with free shipping

I got 85% on my Direct & Electronic Marketing coursework

I'm chuffed because I thought that it was a very hit or miss essay, depending on which way my lecturer took it I would get a very good, or very bad mark...for some reason I was inclined towards very bad.

In any case I'm not sure it deserved such a high mark, but on re-reading it I realise it was a good piece of work and answered the question which was to compare and contrast two Direct Marketing organisations (I choose Amazon & Play.com - obvious examples but I enjoy Amazon's direct marketing) based on my subjective experience. I enjoyed re-reading it but as my housemate Jamie said it doesn't have my "usual spark".

In any case here it is and my feedback;

Direct & Electronic Marketing Assignment

Direct & Electronic Marketing Feedback

P.S - anyone I trackbacked I referenced in my assignment (academia and blogging collides!)

We're finally getting some feedback from those who attended the Play.com event at Wembley this weekend. The promise of getting hands on with some hot upcoming games was a huge draw for gamers in the UK.

Resistance 100 gives his impressions of a hands on with Haze. Mmmm, nectar. Also, read Ripten's experiences with the delayed 'horror war' game.

Ripten reports that the advertised chance to get your hands on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was a load of crap. Unless of course a huge poster is your idea of hands on...

PS3 Attitude have a full write up of the first day of the event and here are Play.tm's experiences of the weekend.

Burnout Paradise is £29.99 on the PS3 and £24.99 on the 360, damn those pricy Blu Ray discs!

Final Fantasy 1 and Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions are going for 12.99 each on your favourite handheld console (PSP).

In the never ending world of the PS2, you can pick up GTA: San Andreas for the measley £9.99. The perfect way to get ready for GTA: IV.

Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox) is down to £17.99.

Unfortuntely, theres nothing really for Wii owners, with Metroid Prime and Resident Evil: the Umbrella Chronicles both clocking in at £29.99. Look elsewhere for those two as im sure you'll get them cheaper. Same story for the DS, maybe Play arent big on Nintendo.

All of the above can be found here.

Keep spending your money, otherwise the government will just find new ways to take it from you!