Raised expectations

[simont]

I was annoyed yesterday by the ‘Mindbender’ level set (apparently lifted from a '90s game which I never played) in the puzzle game ‘Mirror Magic’. It advertises 100 levels, but it turns out that everything from 51 to 98 inclusive are pointless test levels, most of which are uncompletable due to not having an exit door anywhere, and even if they were they wouldn't actually be puzzles. That's annoying: I was really enjoying that level set. It's much more interesting than the ‘Deflektor’ set (which is lifted from a '90s game I did play). I'd just thought to myself ‘ooh, I'm half way through, which means there are another fifty levels of this high quality to look forward to’, and then found there weren't. Bah.

What's particularly annoying is that it wouldn't have been a disappointment at all if the maximum-level indicator had said ‘52’ from the start instead of ‘100’; I'd have felt a sense of achievement at completing the game, and only a mild sadness that there weren't any more fun puzzles to solve. So if anyone else is contemplating playing Mirror Magic, I thoroughly recommend the Mindbender levels over the Deflektor ones, but don't be fooled into expecting 100 of them!

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I remember deflaktor. I think. I must try this one.

That is annoying in all walks of life. "Your call is in a queue. It will be answered in ten minutes," -- OK, it might make me more likely to wait, but I'd be *happier* if it just gave me an every-five-minute countdown to a decent estimate at the true wait. "There may be some slight discomfort." AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHH! Has something gone wrong? No, this is normal, I just didn't know.

[sparksoflight.livejournal.com]

Hello Simon, this is Miranda, I met you at a RockSoc pubmeet when I was with _proserpina_, and then again at The Calling. You introduced me to a very nice girl who I believe was called Rachel. And people talked about cats.

Just saying hello, anyway!

[simont]

Ooh, didn't know you had an LJ. Hello!

In case it's useful: the Rachel to whom I introduced you to is xanna, and the Owen with whom you and I talked about cats is stephdiary/stephdairy (the former is an RSS feed containing his diary, the latter is an LJ account he uses to read friends-locked things).