Day: November 3, 2021

Wizards Unite Is Ending, Part II

I realized that I feel about the departure of Wizards Unite like I did when a dear friend’s girlfriend broke up with him. He was devastated and, while I empathized with his devastation, I was kind of expecting their relationship not to work out.

One of the reasons that I saw the end of Wizards Unite coming is that they clearly weren’t making a lot of money from players — the daily goal list had an optional “get a reward for watching a commercial.” And that, by itself, wasn’t what made me think that Wizards Unite wasn’t long for the world. It was the fact that the button didn’t work.

I mean, it would work eventually. Occasionally. I’d click on it and nothing would happen. I’d click again. Still nothing. I’d tap it repeatedly. Nothing. Sometimes closing the game and opening it again would work, but even that was no guarantee. I mean, I’m trying to get your sponsor to pay you and I can’t? Why?

There have been a lot of things that WB Games dropped the ball on. Wizards Unite has an event that rotates through where the player is interacting with things from the Fantastic Beasts movies and it requires the player to open portkeys by walking. Only one cannot open portkeys without the game open. Notice that in other games that use the same engine as Pokemon Go the game counts steps even with the game closed. Wizards Unite, not so much.

And the folks at WB Games kept dinking around with things. They had a nice set of tasks for their “brilliant events,” and they started messing with them. My personal favorite was when you had to interact with other players. Only, there are no other players, as far as I can tell. Okay, that’s a bit of hyperbole. I mean, there’s a fairly active community on Reddit, for example. However, both of the communities that I participated in before discovering the Reddit community have died. I finally had to strongarm Evelyn into starting to play so that I could get her to be my friend for those events.

I had a lot of fun playing Wizards Unite. It’s just that if I were to list the things I enjoyed about the game, a lot of it would sound like the same things I find fun about Pokemon Go, and whoever is running the servers for Pokemon Go (Niantic, I think) cares more about keeping stuff running and relevant than the people at WB Games did.

I’m giving Pikmin Bloom a shot. That’s the game that the people on the subReddit seem to be migrating to. So far I’m not sure I get it, but at least it counts your steps when you’re not playing the game.

Wizards Unite is Ending

I have to go get ready for work in seven minutes. Since this is sort of time-dependent, I’m going to post this whenever that time hits and if I’m not done with my thoughts by then I’ll make a Part II later.

Just before I went to sleep last night, I saw the announcement in Wizards Unite that the Wizards Unite servers would be shut down on January 31, 2022.

I really wish I could say that I’m blindsided and heartbroken, but while I’m kind of sad, I’m not really surprised.

First, Wizards Unite was repetitive. I mean, I understand the whole collect items until you have them and then prestige the page and start over mechanic, but . . . why? I mean, once you’ve “returned” the same “foundable,” like, 100 times or whatever. Why?

Second, why are so many we rescuing the most powerful wizards in history from things they handled in the books? The number of times we have to rescue Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Parvati from their boggarts? Really? Why?

The overarching storyline didn’t really matter. I run my phone in other languages, including Traditional Chinese characters, and I have real trouble reading Traditional Chinese characters. Did my inability to understand all of the developments of the storyline impede my gameplay? Not at all. Again, why?

Content Creators: The Try Guys

Last year, I started a tag called “Content Creators” in an effort to scare up something to write about.

Well, once again, I’m trying to scare up something to write about, so here we are again.

I could’ve sworn I’ve written about the Try Guys before, but maybe that was just about the concert that I went to with Ray a couple of years ago.

Try Guys Tryceratops at concert in 2019
Yes. I’ve clearly written about the Try Guys concert, since I had this in my already-posted photos.

First, a small content warning. I love The Try Guys, but a lot of their content is based on food. If videos about food are an issue for you (disordered eating, autism-spectrum sensory issues, etc.) be selective about their videos.

The group of men who call themselves The Try Guys started out as a . . . channel? troupe? theme? on Buzzfeed. They developed a following, so in 2018 they left Buzzfeed and formed their own company. Since then it’s been fun watching them grow.

The four “guys” of the Try Guys are (alphabetically by first name) Eugene Lee Yang, from Pflugerville, Texas; Keith Habersberger, from Carthage, Tennessee (though he went to Illinois State University and lived for a time in Chicago); Ned Fulmer, from Jacksonville, Florida (though he also lived in Chicago for a while); and (my personal favorite) Zach Kornfeld, from Scarsdale, New York.

Over the years since the Try Guys have left Buzzfeed, we’ve watched Ned become a father (twice!), Keith and Becky settle into married life, Zach and Maggie’s relationship, and have gotten to know Eugene’s partner of 9 years, Matt.

The Try Guys YouTube channel has a number of ongoing series, including 4 vs. 1, where the Try Guys collectively try to beat a champion in some area (chess, soccer, poker, etc.). They usually lose, but it’s always a fun time and also very educational.

There’s also Eat the Menu, where Keith, well, tries everything at a (usually chain) restaurant. This has given birth to another feature on the channel, the Food Babies. Two of their staffers (editor YB and associate producer Alex) originally were tasked with finishing up the things that Keith didn’t finish on Eat the Menu. Now the Food Babies have their own series and they also frequently appear in food-related Try Guys videos.

Mostly the Try Guys video is comedy, but they can be educational as well, as when the Try Guys went to Australia, and in the 4 vs. 1 videos, where we learn about the sports/competitions and how they work.

Today we have a not-so-Gratuitous Amazon Link. I think I’ve listed this before, but what the heck. The Hidden Power of F*cking Up, by the Try Guys is a great book in which the Try Guys confront their own weaknesses. For Keith, it’s his health; for Eugene, it’s family love; for Ned, it’s fashion; and for Zach, it’s romantic love (though Zach’s cooking with gas on that one now thanks to his relationship with his fiancee Maggie).