WTF Is In A Name at Fusion Fall

So my son really wants to play Cartoon Network’s Fusion Fall. I sign up, create a character and all is going well until it comes time to create a name for the character.

First, like a lot of online games, Fusion Fall has a random name generator, but it is completely useless because all of the random names it generates have already been taken. That in itself is such a stupid “feature” I can’t believe how prevalent it is. Exactly what help do developers think they’re doing by giving me a random name I can’t actually use. Do they think “random name roulette” is a mini-game fun for the whole family?

Anyway, after several rounds of having my random names rejected, I decide to manually enter a name. To save time and frustration, I put in my own name and go on to play for awhile. The next time I login, however, I’m told my name has been rejected and I must choose another. No explanation of what was offensive or objectionable ABOUT MY OWN DAMN NAME. No guidelines on creating an acceptable name. Just, sorry sucker, see if you can guess a name we’ll actually allow.

Right, because what I really want to do is spend the next few hours trying to figure out what name will please the assholes at Fusion Fall.

Hmmm . . . so maybe I can go over to the Fusion Fall site and get some help with this. So I go on over to the Fusion Fall forums, and I’m actually going to wait until I calm down to post a nice, concise explanation of my frustrating experience.

Nope, not going to happen. You can’t Post or Reply at the Fusion Fall forums unless you pay to become a Premium Subscriber to the game. Are you f—ing kidding me? That’s the sort of epic fail I haven’t seen since Flagship Studios (which went further and barred nonpaying customers from even reading their forums, so no one would know just how much Hellgate London sucked).

And I was considering paying for this crap? Not.

The Secret Saturdays Cryptid Lab

To promote its cryptozoological-influenced cartoon The Secret Saturdays, Cartoon Network has added a Flash-based Cryptid Lab that lets the user design their very own cryptozoological creature buy selecting from various parts and then modifying/re-coloring them.

It’s no Spore Creature Creator, but considering it’s all done in Flash there’s a surprising level of customization possible.