#already got my flying gauge as high as it can go for my story progression. ive just been exploring and collecting gems

[orcelito]

Playing gravity rush really does feel like coming home

[thelongestdamnreviews]

Mega Man Network Transmission

Mega Man Network Transmission is one of those games I've had forever due to buying it at GameStop back when they actually regularly stocked GameCube games.  It took about six and a half hours to finish.  Through the magic of emulation, I used an Xbox 360 controller and had to play around a little with the controller settings in Dolphin since the GC and X360 layouts are a little different. 

Nothing serious, considering you never need to use either stick.  Jump on Xbox B, fire on A, use chips on Y. 

TLDR The Good 

Callbacks to the Classic series - From the disappearing block puzzle in Ice Man's stage to having reversed gravity sections in Gravity Man's stage, people who are familiar with the Mega Man Classic games will see some nice references to the Robot Masters here in the stage gimmicks.  Some viruses come straight from the Classic games and aren't found in the other Battle Networks! 

Great music - Even the "basic Internet" theme is high-energy and gets you in the mood to beat the crap out of some viruses.  Every other stage has its own theme and I found myself not really liking only a handful of tracks...amusingly enough, the remix of the home theme from MMBN was one of them. 

Flexibility/Customization - Much like the BN games, you can stick whatever chips in your Folder, but there are no Chip Codes and copies of a single chip stack to a set limit instead of each taking up a Folder slot.  Chips also helpfully tell you in what situations they can or can't be used (on the ground, in the air, on a ladder, while using a wire hanger) as well as how many MP each use burns.  PowerUPs return for the Mega Buster to boost its damage, its rapid-fire capabilities, and enables/quickens charging too. 

Shh, I X series now.  The wire hangers show up in a few stages but there aren’t any vertical ones at least. 

TLDR The Bad 

Early-game hell - Your Mega Buster starts out horribly weak, you have a small variety of chips that are also weak, and said chips are your best means of actually killing viruses to get more chips.  The first boss in the game can kill you in about four hits with the right Armor and mercy invincibility is extremely short.  It's not that bad afterwards but it's far from the easiest sidescroller Mega Man game, potentially worse if you're not used to how chips operate in the context of the gameplay.  Like having an MP meter but also so many uses per chip. 

Some grinding required - You'll need to kill viruses quick and with little to no damage taken to get them to drop chips, and you'll need to pick up Zenny coins in the field to fund increasingly-expensive upgrades and other chip purchases.  This ties back into the hard start but at least you can immediately use chips you pick up if you’re already using them, or once you shuffle your Folder if not. 

RNG screwage potential - Just like the core series, you can still end up with a bad draw of cards in the Custom menu.  You'll have to wait longer than in the BN games for the Custom gauge to fill due to the more actiony aspect of the gameplay, but you can get up to ten chips to show up on future draws and you can eventually find/buy FastGauge and FullGauge consumable items. 

Trying something new here with the review format.  Why not put some TLDRs on top? 

It's been a month since Lan and MegaMan.EXE defeated the WWW's Life Virus and peace has returned to the land.  But now there are rumors of an even worse virus making the rounds and a tainted vaccine that's making Navis go crazy.  Time to jack in and uncover the mystery of the Zero Virus!  Huh, where have I heard that term before? 

TrustMe.exe has encountered a problem and needs to restart. 

Mega Man Network Transmission is a mashup of Classic Mega Man platforming with elements of the Battle Network series.  MegaMan.EXE runs, jumps, shoots, and slides through a variety of stages while navigating around traps and destroying viruses in his way.  You place chips in a Folder and these are randomly selected when you call the Custom screen and you can then use said chips a limited number of times, limited both by what you find and buy but also the arbitrary limit the game sets.  I didn't play one stage long enough to see if completely-expended chips were made reusable when you burned through the rest of your Folder, however.  There's also an MP bar that limits your chip spam but at least it constantly regenerates.  The elemental strength/weakness system is still in place and since this takes place before Battle Network 2, you still have elemental Armors to mitigate damage instead of Styles. 

Hitboxes are pretty tight so I’m unfortunately eating the shock in this picture.  I need a better system to take screenshots. 

I mentioned earlier that the Mega Buster is lackluster at the start and it's telling when it takes you ten shots to kill a basic Canodumb, or three with maxed Damage.  It gets better with more levels in Charge, to the point it almost becomes a gamebreaker because of how quick it is at max Charge, limited by a full-power charge having annoyingly short range and you losing your charge level when you take damage.  When aura-equipped enemies start appearing near the end, your Buster won't be able to make them vulnerable so try not to neglect your Folder like I did. 

Chips mostly behave the same as they do in their core series with several adapted to 2D gameplay, and there are still Program Advances too.  Even a basic Cannon + Hi-Cannon + M-Cannon combo gives you ridiculous firepower that also makes you invulnerable for several seconds--and it only uses one copy of each chip in the combo!  You can only have one active chip/PA at a time of your ‘hand’ of five and you use L/R to swap through them, or you can trigger Standby Mode and freely swap while the game is halted (though the Standby Mode notification blanks out most of the action). 

Unlike the regular Battle Network games, you don't play as Lan at all.  He shows up in the story and he tools around in his room when you're not jacked in, but that's it, no skating through the overworld this time around.  Several characters show up in portrait form but otherwise aren't even given models.  And speaking of models, every Navi you beat creates a toy figure in Lan's room of that Navi which I thought was a nice little touch.  And because I don't really have anywhere else to fit in this complaint, the Japanese-only audio kind of got on my nerves and very little of it is actually subtitled.

The jack in sequence is kinda impressive the first couple of times, but you can’t seem to skip it--and you have to watch it in reverse when you jack out! 

 Stages are pretty basic Mega Man fare.  Flat sections, sections you can slide through, ladders, enemies, spikes (that actually only deal 200 damage this time around so you can survive them after several HPMemory upgrades), instant death pits, the works!  Work your way to the end of the stage and face the boss in a battle to the death.  You're given a confirmation before entering the arena and almost all of them have a big health recovery behind the portal so you can heal up before duking it out.  I oddly got Mega Man ZX vibes with the way you enter new stages from the central Internet stage (ZX) and where you pick from stages without knowing who the boss is beforehand (Advent).  I mentioned the Classic Robot Master stage references but not every stage has them (SwordMan's doesn't seem much like the one in MM8) or the boss doesn't match the stage (ShadowMan's stage has the platforms from Guts Man's in MM1). 

I generally get frustrated when taking on disappearing block puzzles, but none of them in this game were all that bad.

Progression starts you against FireMan.EXE as the first boss, then you have to track down GutsMan.EXE, and you're given small batches of stages to choose from before getting railroaded again.  Navi difficulty is kind of all over the place--BrightMan was my bane yet SwordMan that came after him was no problem.  Interestingly, you can slide between the legs of some Navis and come out unharmed.  There's an area on the map where you can refight defeated Navis for their chips based on your performance.  Some bosses have gimmicks like BrightMan’s shield and a counterattack, or GravityMan having a tiny vulnerable area while you manually switch gravity by jumping.

  I found the game to be pretty hard, a bit more than the average Mega Man sidescroller.  I've played every Classic game apart from Mega Man 11 and I still had a bit of trouble, like QuickMan's stage having instant-death lasers that never turn off once activated.  There are other parts where you need pretty good timing on your jumps and your slides to avoid unnecessary damage.  I wouldn't say the game is unfairly hard other than at the start so if you can soldier through that, you might be able to enjoy yourself.  Lan will always notify you when you hit zero BackUps, so you should probably jack out to not only refill your extra lives, but also to keep everything you picked up during this outing.  Having to work back to the boss room is a chore, but being able to exit a stage before defeating the boss is very rare in any Mega Man game. 

You can’t seem to jack out during a boss battle and you can only save in Lan’s Room, so try to be careful! 

And I did enjoy the game.  Great music and fun familiar gameplay were a great combo, and it didn't outstay its welcome.  Farm 10 DoubleJump chips off of the flying penguin enemies in WaterComp's starting area and you'll be able to explore a little more in the cyberworlds since there are no Mega Man X-styled permanent upgrades or anything.  I found the controls to be pretty tight and there are a lot of chips to collect, a secret boss to unlock, and a variation on the ending too.  If you're a fan of 2D platformer Mega Man games, you'd probably like this one.  And even if you're more into Battle Network, the game isn't so hard as to be unfair. 

And if you’re emulating, you can abuse savestates to get through the bank lasers.  Cough. 

More like, “I can feel wanton cyber-murder coming on!” in my experience. 

[nimrodinked]

On MMO's, and Making the Player Matter

I have always liked the concept of an MMO. Having slow, but constant progress on a single character as they journey through the world, taking quests and slaying enemies from 1-5 for glory and fortune. The problem I had found for the longest time was staying invested for long periods of time. True, many MMO games boast a litany of opportunities to get yourself lost in the world, but of all the ones I've played, FFXIV has kept me the longest with it's content. I confess that I played plenty of old-school WoW, tried ever other free MMO I could get my hands on, and still found myself only really drawn back to Final Fantasy. It's a unique blend really, with simple (by MMO standards) class designs that forgo over-complications and far, far too many skills and spells to use for smaller wheels of abilities, augmented with a job-unique gauge to manage on top. This shifts gameplay from mindlessly hurling damage into the opponents face to a more streamlined, easier to comprehend system. That is to say, unlike playing WoW, where my poor goblinoid brain was overloaded by the sheer amount of Rogue damage buttons to press, FF keeps me engaged without overloading on which button to press in my 54-button combo. Not to mention that you can simply swap classes (outside of instanced dungeons) anytime you feel the urge, and I've taken that liberty quite often, rolling over to Dancer and Machinist for fun before rotating back to my tried and true Black Mage. Freedom of movement is quite liberating, and FF doesn't stop at classes for that, allowing instantaneous travel from any point in the world to any crystal station you've visited already, in addition to having a dedicated teleport location you can return to on cooldown, a la WoW's hearthstone. On top of that is the regular flying mounts, though FF gets a leg up once more because any and every mount I've come across has been flight-capable, even if it's a bit ridiculous for a behemoth to ascend to the air by clawing through nothing. This is bit of an exhaustive list so, suffice it to say that FF has quite a bit going for it that makes me keep coming back.

Beyond the gameplay however, Final Fantasy XIV actually reels you in with the story. I was frankly surprised when, after giving the game up for an extended period of years, I came back and pretty much remembered everything that had occured in the story to that point. The story quests are memorable, but beyond just being good writing they pretty frequently move into cutscenes, where it becomes quite a bit more difficult to just skip through the dialogue. Sure, I will admit that I skip some dialogue from lesser engaging story beats, but given a cutscene, I generally try to pay attention, and have found that I actually quite enjoy the events unfolding before me. I know the characters, their stances on certain topics, their job class, hell I remember Thancred's embarrassing tidbit of being a former street-prowling scoundrel, as little as that affects the major story. That's a testament to just how engaging everything is, and the cutscenes, voiced or not immensely help with that. What I find even better, and what's becoming even more prevalent in later story beats, your character is an active and important character in the story. You really feel like you, as the character in game, affect the story and have an emotional impact on those around you. Hell, I was nearly brought to tears seeing one of the major characters of the current arc killed off, due in no small part to how well the cutscene was executed. It's all got such a loving craft to it, and judging by some of the more colorful and wacky sidequests featuring a quirky inspector, someone is really enjoying the effort and time they're putting into the game. The end of the main content also caps off with a 47 minute cutscene that gripped me the whole way through, text-auto scroll making it feel more like an anime episode than a game.

I'm certain the game isn't for everyone. Not everyone likes the MMO genre, and differences do make for a spice of entertainment in life. I'm also certain, however, that the game is crafted from the ground up with care, and if you give it a chance it may just capture your interest. I mean really, the most popular meme from the game is just a homestuck-esque copypasta imploring the reader to try "Critically acclaimed MMO FFXIV now with free content up to level 60 including heavensward expansion" which, honestly is an amazing deal meme aside. So, to anyone out there that wants to dip their toe in, to the WoW fanatic on exodus, the newbie without a clue about keybinds, to anyone that wants to see what the fuss is, check it out. That's all from me, I've got a player market to flood with cheaply-produced high value player weapons. Ciao!

[ncmagroup]

Your ideas will never fly if you can’t move people to action

by Michael Thompson

Imagine you are the CEO of a multinational company, and you are propositioned by a young founder to leave your position to join forces with their four-year-old company that started out of a garage.

If you are anything like me, the decision would be a no-brainer: Why roll the dice on a “maybe” when your reality was a sure thing?

This too was the initial thinking of John Sculley, former CEO of Pepsi, when faced with the exact circumstances stated above.

However, Sculley’s thinking immediately changed when the young founder gunned a knockout pitch that simultaneously hit both his heart and head:

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

When we think about how to build success, most people think about grit, determination, and patience. And don’t get me wrong, these characteristics are indeed important.

But if you want to be successful in 2019, we must also learn how to be more persuasive. This is for the simple fact that no matter how great your ideas if you cannot move other people to action, they will never fly.

To get you started on your journey to be more persuasive, below are a collection of persuasive phrases that have helped me time and time again during my twenty-year career in sales, communication, and career coaching.

However, before we jump into the list, I want to make one thing clear: If you want to be more persuasive, you cannot see “No” as the enemy. The most persuasive people do not lose a wink of sleep when it comes to being rejected. But what does keep them up at night is the “I don’t know,” aka — the dreaded undecided.

That being said, the purpose of the list below, is not to help you move everyone to action. The purpose of the list below is to help you move the right people to action. The people who already have a spear in the closet and are eager to finally have a chance to throw it.

Let’s dig in.

1. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you about this proposal?”

This may sound basic, but just hear me out. Most likely, when asking someone how they feel about a proposal, you will get a safe answer. Most people’s instinct is to then follow up that answer with the standard: “What can we do to make it a 10?”

But instead of moving north, flip the script and ask them why they didn’t say a lower number.

According to Daniel Pink, the New York Times bestselling author on motivation and human behavior, this fun little switch accomplishes two things.

First, by forcing the conversation to start positive, the person you are speaking with will begin to justify for themselves why they should indeed work with you: “Well, I do like the time-saving aspect of your product.” “Well, it will save us money.” “Well, the company you represent does have a great reputation.” All of which are much more effective than you listing out the positive characteristics of your proposal.

Secondly, by starting with the positive aspects, it will make it much easier for the person you are speaking with to lower their guard when it comes time to talk about what is holding them back from making a decision.

Like I alluded to in the intro, the biggest impediment to progress is indecision. This nice little turn of phrase works like magic to cut through this confusion.

2. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how close are you to making a decision, but you can’t say 7?”

Over the years, Tim Ferriss has graced us with a million and one nuggets of wisdom. But when it comes to persuading others, the question above may be the most valuable.

In the world of persuasion, seven signifies “Let me think about it,” which if you ask anyone in sales, the number seven, 99% of the time, is just a polite way of saying, “No.”

However, the question above forces people to give you an answer. By reading their body language, and listening to their tone of voice, you can easily tell if a six really means — “Not a chance.” Or if an eight really means — “You got me, but I need just one more push.”

So force people to give you an eight. Then ask them what needs to happen for it to be a ten.

Or force people to give you a six. Then steal a line from Daniel Pink and ask them why it wasn’t a lower number.

Both of these questions will help you to better understand what the joy and pain points are of the people you are speaking with while giving you a gauge of how close or far away they really are from moving forward.

3. “Here is what most people do next.”

If you want to move people to action, no matter how much you may want to shake someone and say, “This is what you need to do,” you can’t.

However, the words, “Here is what most people do next” serve the same purpose. But are cushioned in much softer language.

By using these words you gently guide people into having to make a decision as to whether they will take the next step or not. Again, their body language and tone will tell you everything you need to know. Are they pausing? Are they keeping eye contact? The signs are everywhere as long as you pay attention and ask people where they truly stand.

On top of that, the words, “Here is what most people do next,” also serve two more benefits.

First, they provide safety in numbers. This is because it shows that other people have made the same decision in the past — and it worked out just fine for them.

Lastly, these words get people thinking about what they would miss if they passed on the opportunity, which according to Robert Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion, motivates people much more than simply listing what they will gain.

4. “If I can do A, B, and C for you, will you move forward?”

This is a simple way to measure interest and better identify exactly what the person you are speaking with both wants and needs. I used this phrase every day for five years in my first sales job, and it worked like a charm.

After getting clear on exactly what the person in front of you is looking to accomplish, simply end your conversation with the words — “From the time we have spent together, I can tell that A, B, and C matter a great deal to you. If tomorrow when we talk we can accomplish these three things, will you move forward?”

This question is very hard to walk away from. As a result, out of courtesy, most people are going to say yes. Since most people don’t want to break their word, you can use this courtesy to your advantage and use it as a way to hold them accountable if they begin to get cold feet.

5. “How open are you to…?”

If you were to ask the people around you if they considered themselves open-minded or close-minded, what do you think they would say?

Open-minded, right?

So when gauging the interest of someone, use this to your advantage. Ask the people that you want to persuade how open they are to trying new things or how open they are to get started today.

If they say they are, shut up and break out the paperwork.

If they say they aren’t, ask them the following question that everyone wants to know the answer to, but few actually ask…

6. “What is stopping you from moving forward?”

Hands down the biggest impediment to getting things done is not knowing exactly why someone is not moving forward.

So save yourself the headache and just ask.

The sooner you know where people honestly stand, the sooner you can identify if there is a real possibility of them moving forward with you or not.

7. “I bet you are a bit like me and…”

The easiest way to get people to say “Yes” at the end of your proposal is by getting them to say “Yes” throughout the conversation.

The beauty of the words, “I bet you are a bit like me” is they accomplish just that while framing the benefits of your proposal in a way that makes them envision using it — which can be extremely persuasive.

“I bet you are a bit like me and you like to try new things?”

“I bet you are a bit like me and have little time to waste, so you jump at the opportunity to try out a new process to speed things up?”

“I bet you are a bit like me and love to save money while reducing the headaches in your life?

All of these phrases are very difficult to say no to, and as your conversation progresses, it can also be used to warm the water of your clients if you feel that their feet are starting to get cold.

8. “Take a second and imagine…”

There is a reason I began this article with the word imagine. This is because it tells you that a story is coming, and much like the words “Once upon a time…” they immediately grab people’s attention. This is for the simple fact that all of us love a good story.

Not only that but like I alluded to in the point above, people never do things without first imagining themselves doing it. So use this to your advantage and use the power of storytelling to help them envision their life with or without your product or service.

Imagine the smile of your wife’s face when she opens this gift.

Imagine how happy your boss will be when he/she saw that you took the initiative.

Just imagine…

9. “I’m not sure if this is for you.”

Most people do not like to be pressured into making decisions. The beauty of the words above is they immediately take the pressure off and put people at ease.

However, if the people you are speaking with are anything like me, the odds are high that as soon as they hear the words, “I’m not sure if this is for you,” they will be immediately intrigued.

“I am not sure if this product is for you, but is there anyone in your office who would be interested in learning more about our team building platform?”

“I am not sure if this course is for you, but do you know anyone who is interested in learning how to write more effective copy?”

“I am not sure if my services are for you, but do you know someone in your network who is looking to create more opportunities?”

These questions immediately get people’s attention. And if they are indeed looking to accomplish what your proposal provides, they are sure to respond with the words every person in sales (which is all of us) long to hear — “Tell me more.”

Pulling It All Together

Over the last twenty years, I have worked across three continents. The one thing common to all the successful people I have met is they’re like Steve Jobs—they know how to move people to action.

But they didn’t leave it to chance. They took courses on how to be more persuasive. They had coaches that taught them how to give persuasive presentations. They took sales jobs despite being scared to sell.

They collected persuasive phrases like the ones above that benefitted them, and more importantly, the people they were working with.

In short, they did the work. And they did the work because they understood that their future depends on their ability to persuade today.

Most people have good ideas. The problem is most people don’t know how to sell them. Imagine if you were one of the people who could? How would your life be different?

Persuasion is a skill.

The question then becomes: are you someone who is going to learn it?

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

Persuasive Phrases: 9 Lines That Will Get People to Commit Your ideas will never fly if you can’t move people to action by Michael Thompson Imagine you are the CEO of a multinational company, and you are propositioned by a young founder to leave your position to join forces with their four-year-old company that started out of a garage.