A Wonderful Little Game...

 I came across a Game Boy Advance a few weeks ago. It fired up so I thought I'd dig into my box of relics and I found my Legend of Zelda, Link's Awaking game...

What a wonderful little game.

Of course, it shouldn't be. 

What I mean by that is, the game is ancient, by today's standards. It's like driving a Ford Model T in the Twenty-First Century. The game is hard to see--you have to hold the Game Boy at a certain angle or you can't see anything. The controls are small, almost non-existent. It feels like it takes forever to change your weapons. But, man, is that game addicting. 

It's odd, I'm not a big gamer. I don't play games on a computer. I have no gaming consoles. I have a few games on my phone I access. But, since I bought the Game Boy and found the Zelda game, it's taken up a chunk of my time.

I posted the above photo on social media last week. It seems I'm not the only one who looks fondly upon this game. It's almost universal. Maybe it's people of a certain age where the game meant so much who share this affinity. Then again, I'll bet a younger generation who have never played the game would love it, too. 

I'm about halfway through the adventure and I still love it.Yes, it's sort of a pain to play, but oh, is it worth it?!

Customer Service...Thank Goodness For Chat

Life has changed in the past twenty or so years when it comes to customer service. Almost everything we do to resolve issues had gone from having to go somewhere to going to a website.

Customer Service has changed.

Today, my son had an issue with his latest purchase, and the boy was stressed. According to what he knew about his new toy, getting it going should have been a piece of cake. It didn't turn out that way. In fact, he was beside himself--thinking he had possibly thrown away good money on something that might not work. I couldn't help him until after work, but in the back of my mind, it sounded like an issue that could be resolved with either a phone call or an on-line chat.

Turns out Chat did the trick.

More and more I turn to the Chat option. I don't know what it is, but it seems those on the other end of the conversation know what they're doing. Sure, a phone call works, too, but with a chat, there's usually not a problem understanding someone's accent--or they understanding mine. I can't hear frustration in their voice, or other distractions. The chatting worker may be just as frustrated and distracted as their vocal co-workers. If they are, I don't know it.

Tonight's issue was quickly resolved via chat. My son was greatly relieved after the resolution. And I felt good that we were able to do it with efficiently. I guess something is lost using the Chat method. We are not two humans talking in order to fix a problem, and yes, it's a little impersonal, but there are trade-offs in all things, and to me, they're worth it. It's why I thought chatting would work tonight, why I chose Chat tonight, and why I'll keep looking for this particular method in the future.