Hobby Legacy

Poly Voyager 6200 UC Review: Expensive, but a hell of a headset!

Michael — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 06:48:23 +0000

The Poly Voyager 6200 UC headset is truly a near perfect jack of all trades headset for the power user. Poly, formerly known as Plantronics and Polycom, is renowned for their Unified Communications (UC) solutions such as their traditional headsets.

In the past year many workplaces have transitioned to work from home and the recent hybrid. Owing to the huge impact of Covid, business conferencing via remote options such as Zoom have greatly risen.

As such we find ourselves often on calls or waiting to be on calls. We want something convenient to use. Something not bulky and excessive such as those one ear headsets that cling on to your head.

Design

Poly Voyager 6200 UC package

Overall the bulky, but neat design of the headset, has been one of the most convenient headphones I’ve ever come across. Of course by all means I am referring to the ease of use. In particular, the headset has all that you’d expect from the UC line of products that the company stands behind.

The Voyager 6200 UC boasts a sleek and flexible neckband design. Similarly to other products such as the Sony WI-C400 or the LG TONE Ultra α. Available in both black or white models, the headphones have a rubbery texture which adds to the stability and comfort. The ear-tips are available to select through for ears of all sizes as expected. Although I would in particular have preferred to have also had foam tips included. Nothing like a little extra passive noise cancellation to sweeten the deal.

The Poly Voyager 6200 UC is simply well designed with elevated buttons for volume, mute, and toggles for noise cancellation as well as power on each side. Despite the numerous buttons on the small and sleek device, there is simply no confusion once you get down to using it. Along the unit from end to end, buttons are laid out at different segments for each function with little overlap.

Poly Voyager 6200 UC Features:

Professional-Grade audio with enhanced digital signal processing.
On-demand active noise canceling.
Incoming call alert.
Dynamic mute alert.
Class 1 Bluetooth with 98-foot/30-meter wireless range (for devices that support it).
Customizable call and media options.
Hi-fi stereo and passive noise canceling with earbuds.
Unified Communications-ready.
Dedicated mute button.
Wide-band audio and stereo telephony support.
Up to 16 hours of playback time, with 9 hours of active talk time and 14 days of standby time.

Poly Voyager 6200 UC Headset Features

Call Quality

The four omni-directional microphones with digital signal processing (DSP) that the headphone sports provides stable and crisp audio quality. Gone are the days where the user needs to shout at the front of a laptop or camera while guessing where the single low quality microphone array is.

The software is able to handle the audio paths and process accordingly to focus on the user and not the surrounding noise. Therefore providing a cleaner audio for your conference calls. Speaking of software actually, the Voyager 6200 UC as the name would suggest is Unified Communications ready. That is to say that the device is heavily certified in all areas of ones business sided conferencing solution needs. Poly Voyager 6200 UC is Certified with Microsoft Teams, Cisco, Mitel, Zoom and much more.

Poly Voyager 6200 UC Certified

In my experience I went from often being told the various built in or wired microphones that we used sounded like I was speaking out from inside closet. A stuffy closet, perhaps even under a blanket. To that of a coherent and virtually no background noise quality for others.

Audio Performance

The Poly Voyager 6200 UC surely isn’t at the level of Bose or Sennheiser. If you’re looking to drown out a sufficient level of background noise, then perhaps you’d be looking for other alternatives. The Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) technology provided for the Voyager 6200 UC like many other devices has a slight hiss or frequency noise that can be heard. That said, for a UC business headset, the level of noise cancellation is sufficient.

Stereo mode playback for listening to music or videos does not cause any distortions or audio failures. Though as mentioned, it would surely not be enough to impress any serious audiophiles. Then again these are basically in the ear small headphones.

Features wise, the user is even given an audio alert in response to any of the functions changed on the device. Toggling the device on would audibly inform the user of the battery level of the unit as well as pairing status. Similarly switching the mute, noise cancellation, or max/min volume would audibly alert the user accordingly as well. Upon receipt of a call, the user would as well receive an audible alert of the call and informed available speech commands to “accept” or “reject” the call hands free.

Battery Performance

The small lithium ion polymer battery boasts a surprisingly battery life as listed in the features. I’ve often found being able to use it in a full days work with conferencing and listening to audio for an 8 to 10 hour workday. Albeit with time that the device is also left idle.

When low battery the user would receive an audible message alert through the headset. Upon of which the user could either charge directly via micro-USB cable or use the convenient magnetic charging cradle. And yes, unfortunately as I said, the Voyager 6200 UC still sports a micro-USB as opposed to USB-C.

Price

Poly Voyager 6200 UC and case

The Poly Voyager 6200 UC aren’t exactly cheap. At $299.95 MSRP from the Poly website these are surely a hell of a headset. At a cost. All of the features are decent. From the custom charging cradle, the ANC, the audio, to the neat audible messages of status, the Voyager 6200 UC is surely a feature rich headset. One that is capable of being a convenient jack of all trades decent headset beyond just business calls.

So, is the Poly Voyager 6200 UC worth it?

Oh and did I mention it sports the latest Bluetooth v5.0 and has a class 1 BT capability? The convenience of having wireless extends to only the limit and range of your Bluetooth signal. In the case of the Voyager 6200 UC that is Class 1 enabled, we’re able to expect up to 30m of range! That’s a whole, let’s go to the kitchen and grab a snack down the hall while I’m in a conference call kind of range!

And let’s not forget the added benefit that the device is able to handle 2 simultaneous “active” connections. With the ability to save up to 8 total devices! Meaning for individuals working from home, you could essentially have both your work laptop and home computer actively paired. Maybe take a break sometime and listen to music or watch a video on your home PC. Then get a call on your work laptop, and bam, then the hands free mode kicks in and automatically diverts your audio to your work laptop for Teams or Zoom! Surely worth it for the snack time alone!

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Warhammer 40K Lost Crusade a scam to avoid!

Michael — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 19:27:47 +0000

Warhammer 40K Lost Crusade has another mishap! Well this subject is a doozy for sure. When was the last time anyone has seen first hand of a mobile game shoot itself literally in the foot with an update and community response thereafter? Ok, so don’t quite answer that. There are quite a few games on the mobile stores that fall into that narrative. However, how often do we see that with major big Intellectual Property licensed games such as Warhammer, Ragnarok Online, and etc?

Warhammer 40K: Lost Crusade in particular is another mobile spin off of the dystopian sci-fi massive war tabletop game by Games Workshop. The game is more or less another reskin of the many mobile war base building games you would have come across. Such games include titles similar to Lord of the Rings: War or Warpath. These games are often heavily “Pay to Win” as you would expect with multiple server domains popping up each week or even every few days.

So what happened?

Without a doubt Monday of this week, Warhammer 40K Lost Crusade by Nuverse, certainly pushes the envelope. After all offering even on accident 1.5 million crystals is a recipe for disaster. This is especially so when a spending player barely gets 30k from 100 US Dollars. Whenever there are issues on development, Nuverse decides to penalize their active spending player-base rather than finding a positive resolution.

Following the two maintenance’s spanning Monday evening to Tuesday morning, chaos ensued as players returned. Players woke up and straightaway found their crystal balances in the negative. Yes, Nuverse reset the crystals of hundreds if not thousands of players into the negatives. Even more disconcerting is the fact that many according to responses in the official discord were set to a blanket -120K crystal amount.

The package was made available from which players purchased. Then by the time the development noticed the game was taken down in the evening where resets occurred. After that they had another further maintenance with which they decided to do what they do best. To push a blanket penalty to all involved players and not own up or attempt to resolve their own mistake. In response to this, the community has been extremely furious.

And of course all across the recent reviews, it only gets worse. With all of the reviews along the lines of the same issues. With some even pointing out similar “mistakes” made by Nuverse in just the past week on other events.

Now keep in mind this isn’t the first time..

First thing to remember is that this isn’t the first for this game title. A major previous update failed just in a similarly spectacular fashion just months prior. As a matter of fact issues had caused players to be able to indefinitely claim major reward packages. This caused an exact similar response from the game company.

Players had been forced to deal with a heavy negative crystal credit balance from this as well. In one case on a certain server there even had been many appeals made for one player who was outright banned when attempting to speak up on the issue with support. This individual was fully ready to commit to getting back to whaling out to continue his progress. The response was, however, as expected they did not want to rectify or even work with the community for these issues.

All things considered, the game lacks many features for a quality war game. There are lack of animated content or even properly working mechanics. Just compare the recently newer Lord of the Rings: War game which boasts even animation for the combat.

My two cents, if nothing is holding you here. Find something better to play. It’s really not that hard in case of Warhammer 40K Lost Crusade.

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Is Ragnarok Origin the best new Ragnarok Game?

Michael — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 06:37:05 +0000

At last the dawn of a new Ragnarok game available for the global audience! Back in August of this year, South Korean game publisher Gravity, announced the initial pre-registration event on their official site for Ragnarok Origin.

Although this would not be the only Ragnarok Online IP spinoff that we have seen over the years. Nevertheless it is still the latest refresher that Ragnarok fans have been waiting for. Whether or not this is a good thing or bad is another story.

Ragnarok Online was first released by Gravity for the PC in 2002. During the early years of 2000, Ragnarok Online was undeniably one of the major pioneers of the online MMORPG genre. Initially Gravity adopted the subscription model for players, but over the years have since instead moved towards the Free to Play micro-transaction model. In particular, Maplestory itself did not release until the following year. Then after that World of Warcraft in particular released in the year following Maplestory in 2004. In spite of the fact that the gameplay was a 3D top down styled genre, the rich gameplay mechanics still drew many fans.

What is Ragnarok Origin?

Ragnarok Origin, also titled “Beyond Ragnarok”, is the latest reboot of the Ragnarok Online IP to release globally. As the extended title suggests, Ragnarok Origin aspires to be true to the original while still drawing the attention of new players. The game boasts of having high quality cute anime styled graphics as well as a level of customization that players would expect on a recently released MMORPG. Gravity went as far as even teasing the grand prize of a Tesla Model S for their pre-registration event which was available up until global launch.

This release like all of the other Ragnarok PC and mobile titles are all owned by Gravity. Therefore, the cash shop and micro-transactions can be expected to be very similar to the still popular Ragnarok Mobile Eternal Love (ROM) release. As a result some players may find this to be an unfortunate deterrent to pick up this game. By comparison, the core mechanics to this new release does not seem quite different than that of its predecessor.

Features

Customize their characters looks and genders.
Start as a novice and choose among available classes at LVL 10 and up.
Choose their own status and skill builds for unique combinations.
Join player-vs-player events.
Employ up to 3 mercenary NPC’s in the party for player assist, similar to the cats in ROM.
Upgrade/enhance all gears, or really just cry at the RNG failure rates like every game.
… and more!

What classes are available currently?

Available Classes

Swordsman

Wizard

Acolyte

Thief

Merchant

Archer

Consequently as Ragnarok Origin is a throw back to the original, the issue of content is seen regarding the class availability. You may have played the other Ragnarok games and have a special preference to a specific class such as the popular 1-hit champion class. Well, you are in for disappointment. By all means we would love to see some of the fun classes such as the champions, paladins, or other branch 2 classes. However, those are currently unfortunately unavailable yet as of the writing of this post.

Players basically have the simple options once they reach level 10 in the tutorial to choose one of the six basic classes. Moreover their progression currently is linear with the options only available up to the transcendent class tier.

Swordsman -> Knight -> Lord Knight
Magician -> Wizard -> High Wizard
Merchant -> Blacksmith -> Whitesmith
Thief -> Assassin -> Assassin Cross
Archer -> Hunter -> Sniper
Acolyte -> Priest -> High Priest

Is Ragnarok Origin free or worth playing?

Without a doubt Ragnarok Origin has a lot to offer. The game has a further polished and refined graphical system and mechanics that truly does feel similar to the original. Conversely the game does offer the same level of micro-transactions one would expect from these mobile titles. In a similar fashion, most of the micro-transactions are similar to that of ROM. Enough to be enticing, but at the same time not impossible for Free to Play gamers to enjoy.

There have been many bad Ragnarok releases out such as the questionable Ragnarok 2 re-spin or the many mobile variants. At the very least the polish and potential content there to come for Ragnarok Origin is possibly worth a look. And let’s be real here, we’re all crossing our fingers hoping that it won’t be another flop like Ragnarok X: Next Generation…

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What video games are considered Free to Play?

Michael — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 06:39:02 +0000

What is Free to Play?

Since the early inception of games, regardless whether they be on a PC, console, or mobile device, developers have had many attempts at different types of monetization models. There has undeniably always been free to play games. It must be remembered that kids and adults were always made available with the ability to play games such as on websites which were often with advertisements and lack of depth. Things changed quite so through the years in early 2000. In the mid 2000’s world clamored on games such as World of Warcraft and NCSOFT Guild Wars which had utilized subscription or pay to own models. However, game titles such as RuneScape and Mu Online hit the net early as 2001 which were already pushing the foundations of online free to play multiplayer gaming.

During recent years the term “Free to Play” or “F2P” coined by gamers have subsequently time risen to popularity. One almost cannot go without diving onto an MMORPG or the like without coming across the terms “Free to Play” or even more notoriously the discussion on “Pay to Win”. Furthermore with games that fall under this category, it has become greatly evident that the “Free to Play” model is certainly here to stay.

Are F2P games really free though?

Accordingly as how the term sounds, free to play games often are free to “play”. The first thing to remember is that as can be seen with many areas of life, there is often no such thing as a free lunch. To illustrate this in simple terms. It is simply cause and effect. Since as long as developers for these gaming titles are not a non-profit organizations there must be something they stand to gain. While game developers release free to play games, they are often making available ways to bring in revenue from their games in the form of advertisements or the popular micro-transaction model. Hence it is like being the individual at the grocery free food sample table. You can technically have as many free samples as is available on the cart. However, these bite sized morsels won’t fill you up truly with how small and limited they might be. At this time you might be considering whether or not to just go for it and take that wallet out.

To begin with the idea of Free to Play in fact can be summarized as an ingenious marketing method. That is to say let’s ask ourselves what is the best way to gain exposure for non-AAA game company? Furthermore for companies such as these are often foreign developers without the same level of marketing available such as NCSOFT and Blizzard had in the US. Despite the difficulties of marketing and presence, Asian game makers such as Nexon, Tencent, and Netmarble, among many others, have gained significant popularity with their game titles throughout the years.

Though on one hand free to play games are vastly popularized in gaming today, on the other hand there is often discontent from various gamers in these audiences. Even more so this can be seen with the ever so popular mobile free to play market. The underlying design philosophy of many mobile game developers is that the direction and goals always undeniably leads to monetization. With this intention in mind, most developers focus on varying degrees of free to play micro-transaction styled monetization methods for what seems to be often short term cash grab type game-play that often has mechanics that motivates the players to spend. On the contrary it is less and less seen that there are developers that spend more time developing a mobile, console, or PC paid title as the resources required are often not worth the return values. This is more harshly evident with mobile game titles as a person may find themselves hard pressed to discover a quality multiplayer type game that does not have evident characteristics of free to play micro-transactions.

Are free to play games fun to play?

While it is true that most games these days fall under the free to play mantra, there are some that have enjoyment value. Nevertheless what may be deemed fun for one person may greatly differ from another. After all many individuals that has seen the changes that the gaming community has gone through over the years may have a different expectation than someone that may be growing up now through the sea of free to play gaming options that dominate the market.

Free to play can be quite fun depending on the game title and the types of offerings that the micro-transactions provide. Often even AAA game developers these days have micro-transactions. To point out a few, Apex Legends and Fortnite are for example among the top popular titles. Surprisingly these types of Free to Play games don’t primarily demand the players to be fully content or time progression locked like many mobile or free to play MMORPG type of games. Thus making a very fair experience that results in a more of the skill based game-play that is required. Of course that is not to say you would not want end up spending in these games. By all means who wouldn’t want to be dishing out some punishment to other players while dressing up in style like John Wick or having a laugh as a giant yellow banana?

The first thing to remember for all gamers is to just have fun. That’s what games are all about. For that reason every gamer should really ask themselves one question first before looking at what others say about how “Pay to Win” a game may or may not be. Does this game have enough core game-play mechanics that I can enjoy in the capacity that I would have fun with? Despite many Free to Play games having “Pay to Win” mechanics, where the player could progress much further and quicker by spending on micro-transactions, many gamers continue on with this in mind as a challenge for these games. They see that certain game developers will have long term content barriers that the Free to Play gamers will always often catch up to the big spenders on. This is also often the issue with which many players that have spend considerably would quit after some time as they realize the new content always will result in always needing to continue further. As well as the fact that often these games will have new content which nevertheless will also provide catch up mechanics for keeping some balance with the player-base.

You often hear stories of people who spend thousands or hundreds of thousands on these mobile game titles. It’s apparent that this monetization model and philosophy is here to stay. Now all things considered while these types of games that are heavily “Pay to Win” are popularized, there are at any rate just as many other fun options such as Apex Legends to enjoy. In fact there are also some small gems in the free to play titles which can be found on mobile devices even such as Asomibo’s Toram Online or others that players can enjoy.

What is considered “Pay to Win”?

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What is considered “Pay to Win”?

Michael — Sat, 20 Nov 2021 06:11:57 +0000

The term “Pay to win” (P2W) has become a notorious term in the video game community. This is even more so with the increasing rise of the micro-transactions business model. These types of games can often can be extremely frustrating to play for gamers.

Let’s have a look at what “Pay to Win” means and dive into the subject further to better understand this topic.

What does “Pay to Win” really mean?

Often when asking various other gamers, the definition of “Pay to Win” will widely differ from one person to another. This is totally understandable as every individual has different opinions on the subject depending on their age, experiences, and finances.

To put it in simplest terms, “Pay to Win” refers to the use of money to purchase an advantage that one player may gain over those who do not spend any money. This advantage can be in many forms such as allowing the player to gain power, progress, or more importantly the valuable concept of time. Unfortunately in this regard, there is no fine line to draw as most games today, especially of the mobile genre, have micro-transactions.

This however, does not mean that game titles simply by having micro-transactions are immediately deemed “pay to win”. Most games these days, especially of the multiplayer variety, have micro-transactions such as battle passes, loot boxes, cosmetics, or similar offerings. Many titles that fall under this category often only grant these cosmetic bonuses such as emotes, costumes, or other visual flairs that have no impact on the gameplay mechanics which may provide an unfair advantage.

“Pay to Win” isn’t by any means clear and cut

As mentioned previously, the definition of “pay to win” isn’t by any means drawn on a fine line. Depending on the person you may bring the subject up with, their interpretations of the term may likely vary. Most games are different and their micro-transactions will often vary from title to tile.

Reddit and other similar forums are filled with discussions on the subject of “pay to win” to varying degrees. Some would go as far as simply viewing the matter with the fine line of spending for in-game benefits equates P2W.

While others see it as a varying degree of a gray area where paying is an alternative to playing without spending. Where the latter may not have enough of a fair chance to compete against the former without spending. This is where the matter of balance comes into heated debate among gamers.

While most of the common AAA PC and Console genre’s may have micro-transactions, they are often limited to cosmetics or in the form of early access reskinned content such as common battle pass rewards. On the other hand the mobile marketplace has delved into a harsh copy paste of the micro-transaction format which developers often push heavy cash shop content which often provide players with drastic bonuses that free players may need to spend in often cases time and effort of months to years to compete.

Mobile Games

Mobile games are likely the most notorious of the micro-transaction and commonly dubbed “pay to win” genres. Tiles ranging from games such as Clash of Clans to Nexon’s Heroes of Incredible Tales to Lineage 2 Revolution over the years have highly impacted the progression of the western mobile gaming market model. In almost all of the multiplayer titles of any RPG or leveling scale, gamers will find an available level of “Pay to Win” scaling from micro-transactions.

You can spend gems to buy time in war games or casual sim games. You can spend gems to roll for gear or cosmetics with gameplay bonuses. There are even cash shops which out right sell upgrade equipment that users may need to otherwise painstakingly farm hours or days to collect in order to make a chance based upgrade. This is where the instant gratification can be often seen by big spending players commonly dubbed as “whales” that will often just buy until they are able to upgrade as much as they can to their own personal credit limits they are comfortable with.

Are there any alternatives to Pay to Win?

Games have long since had “extra” content available even in the earliest inceptions of multiplayer MMORPG games such as Mu Online in 2001 which sported the earlier free to play models. At the time, subscription based monetization game titles became popularized such as Ragnarok Online (2002) and World of Warcraft (2004).

This model of monetization quickly shifted over the years with other non AAA title developers focused on the free to play cash shop model. While many games such as Guild Wars over the years have tested the waters on other monetization models, it is without a doubt the quick revenue model most developers today are focused on is with micro-transactions.

The only real alternative for gamers in titles with micro-transactions is for the latter type of player to put up with the pay to win and remain free to play focused. Often of which the ease of this may result in varying compromises such as approaching a more casual game-play without the need for short term gains. Often of which these short term gains will even out through the lifetime of the game as players reach the ranks of what may be considered “end game” content.

What is Free to Play?

Is pay to win worth it?

In most cases as discussed the definition lies in a gray area amongst the gaming community. Often the idea of instant gratification is most satisfying to the individual that is entertaining the thought of going the route of micro-transactions. While to each their own, the often common drawback as to what gamers would term as “whaling out” to P2W in such games is the content limitations. This is most evident in prominent mobile titles of recent years such as games including Black Desert Mobile, V4 Global, Blade and Soul Revolution, and more where players strive to be content leaders of their servers. Then upon which a large update would release and nullify all of their previous spending gains for naught as the new content would make obsolete the older status the players have attained.

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