Tikis Stay Warm With a Grab Bag of Pogo Questions!

Red: Yeah, what’s up with all those scientists talking about global warming? Sometimes I have a hard time believing it. I guess they know better though, eh?
Green: I don’t know. It doesn’t feel any warmer to me. Those fancy-pants scientists promised me warmth! I dressed accordingly and now I’m freezing!

Red: What do you say we do an episode of Tiki Brothers Talk Tech to warm ourselves up? We could do some pre-spring cleaning of some questions I’ve been kickin’ around the office lately. Let’s see what comes out when I reach into my bag of letters.

Grandpa Grumpy McGee from Walla Walla Washington asks:
“Why isn’t Pogo Perfect? I pay GOOD money to play on Pogo and there is so many things you guys don’t get “right”!”

Green: Whoa Nelly! Do I sense a little hostility here! Come on’! Nothing is perfect! Well, besides my surfing skills! *wink* right Red?

Red: Do you want me to ask that poor sea otter you almost took out?

Green: Maybe not. Point taken. Anyway… Grumpy’s question is a bit vague. Do we have anything more specific, maybe along those same lines?

Red: Sure why not. Here is a pretty common one:

April C. from Niagra Falls, NY asks:
“When there is a known bug with a game, how come Pogo takes ‘forever’ to fix it?”

Green: Ah, this is a bit more specific. Let’s get this over with so I can get back to warming myself up next to the space heater.

You may be very surprised to know how much goes into fixing a bug. Believe it or not, it’s not just “find a bug, squash it!” Pogo is a virtual anthill of activity day in and day out addressing site issues and fixing bugs. For 95% of bugs out there, there are a number of things that have to happen to get things back on track.

First, we need to hear about the issue. And trust me, we will. For every issue on Pogo we usually get tens to hundreds of emails about it from concerned customers like you April.

Second, we have to reproduce the issue. This means we must go through the entire process that you went through when you first saw the bug. It can take a while to load up the game or site feature and then we have to see if we can get the reproduce the issue. Sometimes depending on the issue, this can be easy, or impossible, especially if the issue is intermittent or on your end.

For example, let’s say there’s a bug in Poppit! that only occurs if you pop a certain number of red balloons and then a certain number of green balloons in a certain order when 74 balloons have already been popped, during a time when Spike is leaning over, and there is one unused power-up. As you might imagine, it can take a great deal of time to reproduce that bug.

Red: Third, we have to identify the problem. This is usually done by our engineers, it can take some time. Engineers must prioritize the bug based on the size of the bug, how many people it is disrupting, how long it will take to fix, and a whole bunch of other criteria.

Fourth our Engineers need to formulate a fix for the issue. Depending on how complicated the issue is, this can be quick, or it could take days or even months.

Fifth, our QA team (Quality Assurance) team must check to make sure the fix doesn’t cause any other unforeseen issues with this game or other features of Pogo.

Green: And finally! Most fixes must wait until our weekly Tuesday morning updates in order to sync up with other site changes with any other changes we make with Pogo.

Red: Ooh, that takes us right into the next letter, Green!

Sleepy Sally from Sleepytown Idaho writes:
“I’m an insomniac and I would love to play Pogo at 3:00AM on Tuesday morning, but Pogo is ALWAYS down! What gives?!”

Green: Hehe, there’s one in every town, eh Red?

In order to keep everyone on the same page including our Customers, Engineers, QA department, Marketing and Customer Service department etc. Pogo does a site wide updates on Tuesday mornings around 2:00AM Pacific Time.

We figure that at this time most people will be sleeping and not affected by an outage. Even if we are not updating a specific game, or part of the site, we take the entire site down, reboot the servers, add fixes for games, add new games, add other site features, and do other various other housecleaning tasks.

Might I suggest watching infomercials on the television at this time? Or hey, how about some Pogo downloadable games?!

Red: Ready for a few more Green? No? Well Too bad! Haha!

Donald D. From Hartford Ct. writes “This or that game says ‘Coming Soon,’ but it takes FOREVER for them to come out! How do you guys define ‘soon?'”

Green: Sheesh! Speaking of our Tuesday mornings updates… This is another thing you might see during one of them: New games!

What’s cooler than that, huh? But you wanted a definition of soon. Alas, my friend, games are very complicated things. When we first say “soon” we mean soon. Unfortunately, things happen and sometimes “soon” turns into “at some point in the nearish future.” If all goes well, then it releases. On occasion “soon” will mean “it’s going to be released when it’s good and ready!”

You have to understand that Pogo always wants to make sure we “get it right” when we release a new game. Sometimes technical issues arise and on occasion, we must delay the release of a game.

For instance due to some unforeseen issues with Hog Heaven when it first came out, we had to take down after a few hours and address those issues before we could put it back up. Eventually it showed up again, and judging by the number of people playing it, it was worth the wait, don’t you think?

Hah! I’m on a roll, got one more for me Red? I think I see the sun poking through the clouds.

Red: Oh yes… I’ve got one for you!

Dr. Gordon F. from Black Mesa Az.
I would love a Goatee for my Pogo Mini to wear! Can’t you just make it for me already?

Green: No! Bwahahahhahaha!

I’m just kidding. Sort of. But seriously Gordon! Making Pogo Mini items is a serious undertaking, and it’s not as easy as it looks. First we have to decide what we want to release, and we get thousands of people just like you who want their Mini items created.

Just like the other content on the Pogo site, new Mini items have to be decided upon, created, configured, tested, and verified to make sure everything fits *just right.* We are careful about what we release. So, be patient, your Mini item or hairstyle just might appear on Pogo eventually. Who knows, maybe someday you will get that goatee you’ve been dying for.

Red: How about one more Green!

Green: No way! The Sun just came out! I’m outa here! Gonna go surfing! Bye everyone! (Bolts out of hut)

Red: See-ya Green! I hesitate to tell him that even with the sun out, it’s still in the mid 30’s… but I guess he’ll figure that one out on his own.

Bye everybody, enjoy Pogo, try to keep warm. Remember, nothing cuts down on greenhouse gas like huddling under a blanket and playing Pogo!

I wonder if Green will notice the superglue on his surfboard. Mwahaha!