Wendy’s has gone full Wendy’s, releasing a 15-hour RPG based on the fast-food chain’s branding.

From the article,

WendyQuest was developed in collaboration with 81monkeys, a Canadian-based company, based on the 2D style of turn-based JRPG classics like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. As more and more games launch with full AI use disclosures, the WendyQuest Steam listing proudly proclaims the game as "100% fresh and 100% human made."

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[–] 74 points 1 day ago* (12 children)

The rewards aren’t entirely free — to actually redeem them, you’ll have to make a "separate qualifying purchase."

Okay, so they're coupons. You advertise to yourself for hours on end to get a few measley, regular-ass coupons.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 day ago

    FREE Medium Fry w/ purchase
 FREE Small Classic Frosty w/ purchase
 FREE 10 PC Nuggs w/ purchase
 FREE Biscuit or Croissant w/ purchase
 FREE Dave’s Single w/ purchase

    Yeah considering the app deals already have most of these same deals all the time they aren't very impressive. I guess it would depend on what purchase means. If it's $1 min then I guess it could be ok. Right now they normally have a free fry, wednesdays is free 6 piece, and a big one thats been around is buy a dave single or 10 piece get one free which is prob the best deal atm.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 day ago (9 children)

    I'm not gonna play but I'm real curious if it's any good. I remember the Chex quest game and the taco bell's Tasty Temple Challenge from back in the day that had like some actual fun to them

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Don't forget Cool Spot, an actual full-price retail game from the Genesis / SNES era that was basically a live advertisement for 7-Up.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Don't know how good it could possibly be, but I know it won't replace Sneak King in this guy's heart.

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  • [–] [S] 22 points 1 day ago

    I mean, devil's advocate, they could have released it for people to advertise to themselves, and give them nothing at all.

    There's a lot of negativity around advertising, and I completely understand why. I use a PiHole, adblockers, etc, I get it.

    But this seems so harmless to me. It's a free game that, by all accounts, looks pretty good actually, and at the end of it you can get some coupons.

    Personally, I'm not buying American when possible, so Wendy's is not an option for me anyway. I might still check this out for the funsies.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 day ago

    So they can spend however much money to develop this but can't staff their stores, and need an AI bot to manage their drive thru. Sure, Wendy's, whatever.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 day ago

    My guess is it will go something like this:

    In order to redeem your coupon for a free Frosty ^with^ ^purchase^ ^of^ ^regular^ ^meal^ please enter your information below.

    Full Name Email
    Phone number
    Date of Birth
    Address
    SSN
    Mother's maiden name
    Credit Card Number ^for^ ^age^ ^verification^

    ✅ Sign up to receive marketing emails ^REQUIRED^

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  • [–] 11 points 1 day ago

    Honestly I prefer this style of advertising over all others. A lot of real effort has to go into making these games (assuming no ai was used).

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    Things like this start out as a joke, but many cartoons are already just marketing for toys, and video games are getting stuffed with more and more product placement. I fear that the success of things like this and the ikea skyrim mod are the first steps into a disgusting era of nothing but branded media.

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  • No thanks, brand.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 hours ago

    Actually tried this game and here are some observations -

    1. It runs fine on Steamdeck without any tweaking. The Steamdeck Compatibility rating didn't make this clear, so it is worth noting here.

    2. It isn't a horrible RPG. If you are a grizzled veteran of more complex JRPG mechanics and elements, you're going not going to be blown away or anything. But it is playable.

    3. The dialogue and puns are cheesy if self-aware.

    4. It's free, and there are coupon rewards for beating each section. This requires the Wendy's mobile app, which I don't use or care about. I eat traditional fast food maybe once per year. But it might be a upside for someone.

    5. I have to think the title "WendyQuest" is a nod to the historically significant PC game promo ChexQuest.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago

    ooh. so many free with purchase rewards. I can't contain myself.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Doubt.

    Wendy's doesn't make real food.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago

    Yeah as someone who grew up outside the US, I can't eat it. Maybe if I grew up eating it I could stomach it. The poor quality of fast food was one of the really noticable things about moving to the US.

    McDonalds in the US is foul compared to McD in either australia or taiwan. Wendy's and BK are basically inedible. In australia, burger king is called hungry jacks and was actually pretty good. I never tried it, but literally every single american in china ranted at me about how good chinese kfc is. Don't even get me started about 7/11 food in asia, which is often legit good.

    I mean it's still fast food, but the 3-5/10 of the rest of the word is very noticably better than the 1-2/10 of US fast food.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 13 hours ago

    Sounds like the normal Canadian couponing system to me, just with extra steps.

    FREE *

    • (with purchase, cannot be combined with any other offers, one coupon per client only, expires 5 days ago, cannot be transfered, purchase must be at least $10 before taxes).
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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    I sorta thought mmo's would have product placement. The extreme sword of mountain dew.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago

    I’m reminded of way back when the marketing department for Chex was somehow allowed to dress up a kid-friendly Doom mod for a packaged advertisement. And so, we got Chex Quest.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Reminded me of that pinball thing BK did a few months ago. It was difficult to play but you still were offered the same shit that you are offered whenever they sent you those sheets of coupons in the mail.

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  • 22 comments in c/nottheonion@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    (The previous one was the pen-and-paper RPG Feast of Legends. I wonder if they take place in the same Wendy's cinematic universe?)


    Edit: they put a reference in as an easter egg, LOL:

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  • [–] 20 points 1 day ago (11 children)

    So, is this 15 hours of play to obtain one free junior sized Frosty?

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  • [–] 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.

    As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.

    We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.

    Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    15 hours of player to get 5 chances at one free item.

    If you are going to play the game anyway, it might get you to a store, but you're not gonna feed your family meat/potato/milk farming the Wendy's game.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    FREE Medium Fry w/ purchase

    FREE Small Classic Frosty w/ purchase

    FREE 10 PC Nuggs w/ purchase

    FREE Biscuit or Croissant w/ purchase

    FREE Dave’s Single w/ purchase

    I think these are the rewards for beating each boss. Definitely better deals straight in the app, but it's still kind of cool they went through with all this effort. A little weird as well considering they have been losing money for years now. Maybe invest that money into providing the "better" quality food they used to instead of cutting corners and removing items that were great and now gone.

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  • [–] -3 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    they went through with all this effort

    I wonder how many dev hours it took to make a 20+ year old style game with AI assistance...

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (2 children)

    with AI assistance…

    Or you could read the article.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 day ago
    [–] 5 points 1 day ago

    The game's made with 100% real free trade humans? Sounds good.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago*

    Uhhh, sir this is a Wendy's RPG.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    I mean. I am all for good drive through.

    But if the premise is to get you hooked on junk food by gamifying it… that’s kinda icky.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    First an Emo album, and now this? Shaking my head smh...

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