Simpsons Yellow Plan
Though I do enjoy the occasional episode, I'm not particularly a big Simpson's fan. But of course, I have a few friends who have essentially memorized every episode in the show's 15 year history and love to quote it incessantly when we get together to hang out. Yes, it's truly annoying once they get going, but I don't tell them that. I simply laugh and smile wanly at their inside jokes and inside I wonder what sort of people they could have become if they had reserved that part of their brain for something truly important... But I digress. It was with these friends in mind that I read this review of The Simpsons: Minutes to Meltdown mobile game with interest. I thought, "Ooh... that'll be good to show off the next time they start going on a Simpsons jag and I'm in that awkward social situation of having absolutely no idea what the hell they're talking about - at least then I'll be able to participate without dedicating a large portion of my grey matter to animated minutia."
It was a good idea in theory. But then again, in theory communism works.
A quick look for the game online, however dampened my plan considerably, as it turns out that you can only get access to the game as a part of Jamba/Jamster's $10 a month "Yellow Plan", which includes some wallpapers and ringtones as well as a supposedly continuous addition of hee-lar-ee-us Simpsons content in coming months. Okay, even then, I figured I'd sign up for the service, and see if all the content was actually worth the $10 as well as getting my hands on the game. Considering my bank account currently, this is quite a large commitment on my part... but what better conversation stopper than to whip out my completely blinged-out Simpsons(TM) phone with Simpsons(TM) wallpaper and a Simpsons(TM) ringtone and a cool Simpsons(TM) game to boot, no? However, I was still denied, since for whatever reason, my top-line LG CU500 from AT&T isn't supported in the list of compatible handsets for the game. FTW? That phone is awesome, how can it not be supported?
Anyways, long story short, I cancelled the subscription within 2 seconds before I forgot - we'll see if they actually charge me (most likely) for the month. I guess I'll have to go memorize more quotes from Wikipedia now.
I'm still pretty amazed at this Yellow Plan thing... Is there really that many Simpsons fanatics out there dedicated to the show that this sort of scam is profitable? $10 is a lot of cash for a subscription. Think of the children! Oh, won't somebody please think of the children! And besides, all those ringtones and wallpapers you can get from the web as gifs and mp3s pretty easily - and if I hadn't read that glowing review and semi-psychotic friends, I wouldn't have bothered with it at all... And even though EA Mobile helped develop the game (according to the article) they don't have any info about it on their website - not really a great way to promote a franchise if you ask me. It's crazy... As much as I'm used to it, I honestly can't wait until these sorts of subscriptions and limited distribution deals are a thing of the past in mobility, don't you agree?
Then, the doctor told me that BOTH my eyes were lazy! And that's why it was the best summer ever.
-Russ
Update: All I had to do was wait a couple days and I was able to get the game on the EA Mobile site, no Yellow Plan needed.