Review of Pixie Hollow - A Male's Perspective

Elitekill4

Yes, I am male. No, I am not homosexual, asexual, or mentally messed up in the head. I got extremely bored so I decided to try something that you'd consider "a girl's MMO". It was actually quite fun... actually, that might be hinting that there's something wrong with me.

 

Onto the review.

 

A summary:

 

Pros:

Browser-based, so no need to download.

User-friendly.

Finally something that little girls can play. W00t.

 

Cons:

The game is very, Very, VERY grindy.

 

A more indepth review:

 

Graphics:

Not really much I can say here... it's web-based.

 

Gameplay:

The gameplay is grind galore. I mean, it's like, when a little girl plays this kind of game, when she gets a blueberry or whatever, it's like this:

*little girl picks up twigs* OMG YAY A TWIG! *dances*

But for us grinding machines, it's more like this:

*me picks up Twigs* Okay, only one less to go. /sigh.

Onto the quests. The quests are quite fun and engaging, though some of the quests are Members Only, unfortunately. The minigames are quite fun and kept me going for a while before I got bored.. What about players? Most of them are randomly adding me all the time so it's kinda irritating sometimes when a fairy adds me for no apparent reason. Although, I suppose, it IS a girly game so it probably has loads of little girls who like to chat about this and that... teehee... *perverted eyes* Heh. You never saw anything.

 

Music:

The music fits in with the background. That's pretty much only what I can say.

 

Summary:

Uhmmm... well, it's a good game for smaller children (say about ages 5-10?). I think this because, although the game is in fact grind-orientated, it still has that element which I would think appeals to young chidlren. I would not recommend this game to hardcore gamers because this game is grind-infested. Ouch.

 

Rating: 7/10. This is a great game undoubtedly, but could use some tweaking to make it less of a grind fetish.

 PS: If you want my fairy's name, I'm known as "Phoebe Wildcurl" on PH.

 

LynxJSA

 

The game, character creation especially, seems brilliantly done. Looks like Disney is having fun getting into the MMO scene - PotC, World of Cars and others are also Disney MMOs. I don't remember seeing it advertised, so I'm curious what kind of a following it has.

 

Link: http://pixiehollow.go.com

Elitekill4

Yeah. I already got like 100 spider silks and can't buy anything with it because I'm not member yet.

 

I spent 20 minutes of my life just now wasting my time in a minigame to try and get more ingredients. XD

EDIT: From what I can gather, I assume that because this is a game based entirely on Fairies, the fact that this game is made for female gamers is probably staring you in the face.

altmed

OK,

 

Now for a Female perspective... From someone who bought a 6-month membership...

OK the ideas/designs are really cute, yet after about a month of playing it part-time, there wasn't anything else to do (This is on a paid membership) - No more closet space, no more room for much of anything. Many players started deleting things they had earned to make space for some new things, THEN they added space for 5 more items, and there was a bit of an oproar.

They added some events, like "Games Days", the Never Egg Hunt", and so on, and still not much of anything to do...

 

For summer, they did a HUGE update, and apparently didn't do even remedial beta testing, and here come even more glitches!!!

 

I've played a LOT of games but have NEVER seen ANY on-line game (Or for that matter even a game in Beta Testing) with so many glitches! The clothing & other items you collect stuff for magically disappeared, you can't buy anything new, as they sent me an email stating that it's still tehre, but you can't see it or use it (ANd I'm paying for this why!?!)

 

There's always some glitches, some of the sub-games that don't run properly, things that don't give you credit properly, and with this latest update, it's messier than ever!

 

If I had a monthly membership, I'd have cancelled already, but since I bought a 6-month membership, and it's nearly up, I'm not likely to renew. I'd like to see a group that knows how to program, knows how to test, and does so before they make new plug-ins to the game get ahold of this.

 

It has the potential to be a blockbuster game, but because of the glitches, mis-spellings, sending you to the wrong places for quests, the disappearing items you worked for, and I could go on and on with the glitches to the game, as well as the excuses and the "we'll have it fixed soon, and then anther problems comes up &/or there is nothing to do!

 

One of my characters is stuck getting the same quest over and over, and is stuck in a loop, can't buy anything (even when I've gotten rid of things, although the email I got said it was the stuff that disappeared that we can't see that's taking it's place.. yeah right!)

 

There is simply NO excuse for the amount of problems in the main game, the sub games (some are fun and work well, others are well.. I only play them for quests, and only a few levels, or it says "We've had a connection problem", and you loose ALL your points.. There's no way to recover them, no matter how long you've been playing! YOu have to go back in and start all over again!

 

They added a bakery and you need cookies to eat for quests... Lately cookies for some have simply not shown up after wokring to make them!!! SO, if you're out of cookies, your stuck and not able to do your quests either!!!

 

The game is REALLY cute, has some really cute subgames, but after about 5 months of playing it (and being bored waiting for new things, and I'm not talking about just me, I'm talking about my friend's granddaughter who is 8 now), the problems with submenus for parts of the game covering other essential parts of the game, the "friend request" mess (you could not even play game and had to dump nearly your entire friends list, or every time you came in and out, it got in the way of you playing the game!!!), they have that so you can turn it off not (default should be off, as you can look at your friends list, and if you want to meet someone (which you apparently need to do for some quests), they can give you a hollar on the chat feature (My friends and I got SO frustrated with the limitations on the chat on the game, we use another chat program so we can communicate, as you can't even say the names of many of the things in the game on the chat! Why? I have no idea!) I understand having limited chat for childrens' games, and they *DO* need to be careful of course, but  some of the limits seem ridiculous!

 

There's not nearly enough storage space or closet space for members to earn/buy items from the game.

 

This *COULD BE* a really fun game to play, but my friend's grand daughter quit playing almost altogether because of the glitches and being frustrated.

The updates are NOT done frequently enough (not even for kids), and when they do them, you can expect a MASSIVE AMOUNT of glitches. I think after this last update, I've spent prolly more time filing "problem reports (glitch reports), than I have playing the game...

 

This game should have never left BETA testing, AND they need to test updates BEFORE they put them on-line for members to have to file masses of glitch reports (which you have to leave the game to do) and try to fix it on the fly, OR close the game down again and again to try to fix them!

 

There are FAR too many free games that are just as fun, and even more MMORPGs that have subscriptions that don't have NEAR the amount of glitches as this one does.

 

They are selling the game off of toy sales, the movie and apparently other methods, and their servers seem inadequate to handle the traffic they do have (When it is busy, you can bet you'll be dropped off of the game!)

 

Again, Disney should have NEVER taken this game out of BETA testing, and if the updates are SO problematic, they need to have on-going BETA testing for the updates BEFORE they put them on-line!

 

Cuteness: 10

Potential: 10

Stability of connection: week-days: 8 , week-ends and holidays: 2

Updates  (If working: 9) If not working properly: 0

Overall, I'd have to give the game about a 2/10

It's not worth the subscription, and like I said before, outta still be in BETA testing to get all the bugs out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elitekill4

@Altmed: Wow, thanks. I should probably put some of that stuff in since I've never really been Member yet so no lags.