No, nary a watch in sight!

Well hell yes! You know those awesome wristbands the nonary game participants wear in Virtue's Last Reward?

Well, ok, maybe they aren't so awesome because they kill you but let's forget that for a minute....

If this were my watch I'd send it back!

Awhile back it was revealed there would be replicas of these that worked as digital watches for anyone who preordered the game on Amazon. There was a bit of a debacle though as Amazon wasn't able to fulfill this promise to all customers. Amazon recommended cancelling and re-ordering, Aksys said you'd have a better chance if you kept your order in. Amazon said it was Aksys's fault, Aksys said it was Amazon's. Cats and dogs were living together. It was mass hysteria.

If you ask me, I'm more likely to think it was Amazon's fault, but then again I've made it very public that they have screwed me over in the past.

Needless to say many didn't get their watch. Two people who I know were among them. It was disappointing, but it wasn't the end of the world. I mean, at least they got the game itself just fine. The angry mob died down shortly and people realized how awesome the game is and all was right with the world. Lo and behold, a new hope appeared. Aksys games took whatever remaining stock they had on these watches and decided to sell them on their new online store.

My initial reaction was nearly one of rage "Aksys Games has brought back the Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward watches (while supplies last)..." Those fuc- "...in order to help raise money for relief efforts for Hurricane Sandy. By purchasing a Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward watch, you will be donating all $20.00 to the Red Cross Hurricane Sandy fund and helping those affected by this devastating storm." Well played, Aksys, well played. Needless to say any rage I had abated rather quickly. Keep in mind I didn't even preorder the game, I had received a review copy from Aksys directly so it isn't even like I was directly involved. It's simply the fact you too often see companies do all the wrong things. I am very glad to know that didn't occur this time.

Anybunny need a watch?!

For those of you asking why Aksys didn't just try to distribute the watch to those people who preordered the game and didn't get one, can you imagine what kind of nightmare it would be to get order information from Amazon to confirm all those claiming to be owed a watch? Yikes. That's one trainwreck I don't blame Aksys for avoiding. Hell, whenever I call into Amazon I don't even get help on my issue until after I've yelled at the poor rep (I do feel bad for them, but they act like complete tools) enough. It's like they have an egg timer on their desk, and once you've yelled for its duration they finally offer to make it right.

On that note, companies: if you want your customer service reps to hang around instead of turning over every month, you need to instruct them to ACTUALLY HELP. Imagine that?

Anyways, the point here is Aksys is a pretty cool guy. He raises money for Sandy relief and doesn't afraid of anything. I can wear the watch I ordered with pride, knowing that if it injects me with Soporil β and Tubocurarine at least my $20 will have helped someone!

A big shoutout goes to Ben Bateman, Editor at Aksys Games, who heard my mad ravings on Twitter and helped fix the store, allowing me to buy one of these watches. His twitter account is @benspants. I think his body is made up of 70% puns. You should follow him then bask in his nonsense!