BIOSHOCK BIG DADDY BROKEN FIGURINE SUPPORT WEBSITE NOW OPEN

Last week we told you about an issue where many of the figurines included with the collector’s edition of BioShock had been damaged in shipment and that because of this, 2K Games would be setting up a website where consumers could request a replacement figurine from the company and get a printed version of the previously downloadable only “Breaking the Mold” art book for their troubles.

That site is now active, so if your Big Daddy arrived in less than pristine condition, now is the time to go about letting them know. Full instructions for the return process are included on the site – with the exception of what carrier they use for the return.

• BioShock – Official website
• Return Broken BioShock Figure, Get BioShock Art Book – Kotaku
• Big Daddy Figurine Issue – 2K Games
• BioShock: Breaking the Mold – The Cult of Rapture

CALL OF DUTY 4 XBOX 360 MULTIPLAYER BETA UPDATE

Many of you may be feeling a “small” amount of frustration with the way the Xbox 360 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare beta registration was handled yesterday. If you’re like me, all you got when you tried to register the site was problem after problem. You would think by now that companies would know it’s impossible to really survive any kind of a “first come, first serve” web registration system. Basically, the thing was doomed from the start…

Now before you think I’m going to go off on a rant, I’m not. You see, I was all ready to write an article about poor planning, the frustration and the ill will that problems like this cause, when Infinity Ward stepped up to the plate and decided to fix things. It all started with a post at Infinity Ward employee FourZeroTwo’s blog… (Please note: FourZeroTwo’s post is potentially NSFW due to language)

In a post that explained just how bothered the folks at Infinity Ward were about how the situation turned out – and more importantly, how they planned to remedy the situation, FourZeroTwo announced that the Call of Duty 4 website would be taken down for maintenance and that when it came back online, the company would take beta test applications for the next 24 hours before randomly selecting those lucky gamers who would get into the beta test.

Well, the Call of Duty 4 website is back online and, as promised, beta applications are being accepted once more. According to Infinity Ward, they will continue accepting applications until 10pm EST today, at which time they’ll begin the process of randomly selecting who gets into the beta and setting up a schedule of when those people will be getting their invites.

Let me say to any companies that may be reading this, this is how you handle customer service. Admit the problem, assure your customers you’re going to fix the issue, make sure that your customers are treated fairly and then keep them informed on the status of the problem. Initially, the whole experience left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth. While I was still going to buy Call of Duty 4, I sure as hell wasn’t going to waste my time filling out surveys or looking into other contests if this was going to be what I could expect. With one simple fix, Infinity Ward took that negative experience and boosted their reputation with many gamers.

Well done Infinity Ward, well done.

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Official website
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: Public Beta Headquarters – CharlieOscarDelta.com
• Infinity Ward – Company website
• Madness? This is BETA!!! – I am FourZeroTwo (Possibly NSFW)

GAMEFLY STOPS USING PROTECTIVE CARDBOARD MAILERS?

I think everyone who follows this site regularly knows I’m generally a pretty big fan of the service Gamefly provides, but I really have to wonder what the hell is going on over at their headquarters following their latest move.

About a week back, I received my rental of Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 in the mail and noticed that the usual hard cardboard protective sleeve the games are sent in was missing. At the time, I figured it was just a mistake and that there hadn’t been a change in Gamefly shipping procedures…

Moving right along, this afternoon, Forza 2 arrived in the mail and once again there was no protective cardboard sleeve… what the game did have was a noticeable scratch across the surface of the disc. While I haven’t had a chance to see if the game is affected in any way by the scratch, it’s certainly something that really shouldn’t be happening.

As a long time member of Gamefly, and as someone who regularly buys games from them, I can only see this as hurting their business model in the long run. Why would I want to buy games from them that I know are probably not going to be in anything close to ideal condition? More importantly, given their somewhat slow shipping times, I sure as hell won’t be willing to put up with delays from them when they have to replace games that are scratched and unplayable while I’m paying their monthly fees.

You know, if the added shipping cost of using cardboard sleeves is killing them, then raise the damn monthly rate by $1 a month or the like, but don’t take your core service and diminish it. Better yet, here’s an idea – stop running those annoying commercials during every single commercial break on some channels. Guess what? If I’m watching the show, odds are I saw the first one – save your money for keeping me as a member once I join.

I’ll be shooting an e-mail over to their customer support team once I determine whether or not the game is damaged, and I’ll be sure to report back on any reply I get. For now though, you may want to keep this in mind if you plan on using their services.