theSpeakEasy

The Characters of U.B.Funkeys

Series 1 - Wave 1

Series 1 - Wave 2

Series 2 - Funkiki Island

Speed Racer Series
Cannonball Taylor

Series 3 - Dream State Wave 1

Series 3 - Dream State Chat Funkeys

Series 3 - Dream State Wave 2

Series 4 - Hidden Realm

Funkeystown Adventure Pack
Mayor Sayso
Master Lox
Henchmen

Funkiki Island Adventure Pack
Jerry Pearl
The Pineapple King
Funkiki Native

SDCC 2008 Exclusive
Dot

Unreleased Funkeys

Taejo
Bandit



Monday, December 22, 2008

Don't Panic! - Comments on the Funkey Trunk Update

There has been some grumbling and a level of discontent revolving around Funkeys 4.5 Funkey Trunk, the latest update to the U.B.Funkeys game, and I’d like to try and clear up a few misconceptions that are causing most of it.

To help out, we sent some questions along to our contacts close to the development team. Here are the responses. Keep in mind that these answers, while informative, cannot be taken as official responses like in the "Ask Funk-E" section since they did not go through all the normal channels.

Q: Is the purchased loot applied to only the account logged in or to all accounts on the computer similar to a bonus code? (This was sent before this was confirmed by some of the forum members)

A: Currently it’s a per account basis. The problem is that we cannot detect that 2 different accounts come from the same computer.

Note: This is followed up on and commented on more below…

Q: When will additional Familiars be available?

A: They will be rolling out in the next few weeks...the Familiars will never catch up to the physical Funkeys in regards to series. This is done so that they don’t compete directly with the figures. The series 1 figures are getting harder to find, so the Familiars for series 1 will be available....as we progress, Familiars will be added in a 1 to 2 series behind roll-out. Again, this reinforces the idea that in order to get the new content, you need the figures, but new users just coming in can catch up on older content if they can’t find the figures

Q: Will there be other ways to purchase loot, like through the website using unique Funkey name, or in stores like through a card purchase (like with Neopets).

A: The plan is to roll out gift-cards next year, and provide for other purchasing options...we are learning as we go, so bear with us....

Q: Will there eventually be ways to earn loot within the game as well?

A: I imagine that we will be implementing ways to earn loot; we have to gauge the overall response first.

Q: Why has Master Lox been so busy since the 4.5 update? Many are having issues trying to purchase loot and those who have loot are at time not able to spend it.

It was communicated that they are well aware of these outages and will get things fixed as soon as possible.

Also, while I can’t share the communications in their entirety, I wanted everyone to see a few snippets to help reinforce the fact that the folks working on the game are trying to make a better game in response to past feedback and not deliberately trying to just make more money off the fans.

"...I think its being a bit misunderstood. It is never the intention to make player's buy digital stuff in order to progress the game....all the Funkey trunk stuff is there if you want it, but won’t hurt if you don’t want it...like I said, the intention is to give the users who can’t find Funkeys the ability to get familiars....in addition, the games in Angus's lab are to reward those people who decide to get both a Funkey and a Familiar..."

"...the system is still being tweaked, and we’re eager to get feedback from the community. I just want to make sure that everyone knows the intention is not to squeeze extra cash out of the users..."

We had some discussion about the Familiars not having the same functionality as the real Funkeys (such as coins and trophies and such) and while the current functionality IS what was planned, the team is listening to the conversations going on in the forums and are considering what (if any) changes should be made to that.

And finally (for now) there’s the “per account” problem that many have raised regarding this update being a very expensive proposition for those with multiple users in the same house. (There are six in mine!) The answer above was that they couldn’t determine what accounts were on the same computer. They are working on ideas now. I had further communication with them about this and here are a few snippets from that...

...I agree that this is an issue, and one that we didn't anticipate...

...It is our #1 thing to discuss with the developers...

...due to timing, if we can find a fix, then it probably can’t be instituted until the beginning of next year due to end of year vacations...

...I 100% agree with the users on this issue, and will work to find a solution...

So what does all this mean? Well primarily, that the folks working on the game are working hard to make a great game for all of us to enjoy and the motives are where they should be. There ARE problems right now both technical and with some of the design, but they have acknowledged that fact and will work on fixing things. There will likely never be perfect agreement between them and the players of the game on everything, but I have faith that they are trying hard to make it a great experience for all. Give them some time to work all of this out.

Have a great time!

Labels: , ,

7 Comments:

Anonymous pit272 said...

why cant i download 4.5, i press lets go and nothing pops up and i cant start another ub funkey and it slows down my fast internet

December 23, 2008 12:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My old computer crashed 2 days ago and I got a new one today. I lost all my u.b. funkey's progress because of this. I wonder if I will be able to log on to it next year with an update??? I sure hope so, other wise I will quit funkey's because I don't want to earn all 23 of my trophies, 37,000 coins , all my objects in my crib, funkiki island extra where natives like me, gem shards, and other stuff like that.

December 25, 2008 10:21 PM  
Blogger augiewan said...

With the current outages, you can't get your old profile back, but once the connection to the Funkeys servers is back up and running smoothly, you'll be able to recreate the same unique Funkey name you had on your old computer and it'll download all of your progress including your cribs... :)

December 25, 2008 10:55 PM  
Anonymous tommyp said...

Would love to hear from anyone with a response to pit272's question. Am having the same problem.

January 9, 2009 12:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think loads of people have had the same Issue with 4.5 - lets go & nothing. reading a few blogs led me to the update folder in programfiles>ubfunkeys>radicagame and there was an update.exe file. I ran this and hey presto! my boy is so happy - he thought he'd broken it downloading the update and pressing the lets go button when i wasn't there.(he's 8)

January 20, 2009 4:22 PM  
Blogger jairo m. said...

but how can you upload it? you cant play any dream state funkeys whithout it or adventure packs.

February 6, 2009 6:19 PM  
Blogger Chad said...

well after 2 days of trying to get the trunk update to work i did go to mattel.com and found this: go to instruction sheets then type in ub funkeys you ill be sent to a page that appears like this

Your search returned 1 FAQ item.

Am I able to download the U.B. Funkeys™ Starter Software Online?
Yes, Click here.

click the hyperlink that say click here. it will prompt you to download a word doc. DO IT! there is a hyper link in there to download the 4.5 update manually it looks from the screenshots as if you may have to uninstall then reinstall with the 4.5 update but if it work its worth it.

February 7, 2009 3:07 AM  

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home


Where to buy U.B.Funkeys

Clicky Click!
Bottom Line



:: all of the materials not created by augiewan that are contained on this site are © their respective owners ::
:: otherwise... ©1997-2009 augiewan productions, all rights reserved. so there! ::
.. privacy policy ..