Time for the monthly look into what has found its way into the inbox of the blog email account that didn’t make it into any other posts.
Surprisingly, I did not get any offers from bots to write spam injected guest posts for the site, nor requests that I send people to read interesting articles not really related in any way to the site. Instead, this was the take:
- Zynga sent me a note to let me know they were having a back to school sale on in-game currency. That one took a second to sink in before I went, “Ah, you think with the kids at school, mom can get back to FarmVille.” (Or is it PioneerVille these days?) That is probably a more canny viewpoint than I care to admit. I keep thinking, “Who buys currency in these games?” Then I look at Zynga’s valuation and have to admit it must be a lot of people.
- 38 Studios and Big Huge Games sent me a notice about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which just wouldn’t display correctly in Yahoo mail. But Yahoo mail just forced another update on me recently, so I have no idea who is at fault. Anyway, the provided a link to view it elsewhere, and the key item for me is that it is shipping on February 7th of next year, and even that is just so I know when to look for other people to post about it. I have no plans to buy.
- EverdreamSoft dropped me a line to tell me they are going to release their iPhone game MOONGA on Facebook. Of course they are. Never heard of the game, and unless they have a plan it seems likely to sink from sight on Facebook in short order. Or get knocked off by Zynga. The game itself appears to be yet another trading card game, so it is probably not for me in any case.
- Nexeon Technologies, which I initially guessed was some branch of Nexon (it isn’t), wants me to know about updates to their MMO, Face of Mankind. My first thought was that this must be a new game, quickly followed by a second thought about how we seem to be running out of decent names for games. But then I looked at the Wikipedia article and found that they chose this name quite a ways back and that it has been live in some form since 2006. (it is on the chart!) I had never heard of it. And that name… really?
- Ibrahim, who operates the site in the UK called PictureOne, wants to do a link exchange. That is so late 90s. And I don’t do straight up link exchanges. My blogroll policy is long, complex, and still incompletely formulated. Blogrolls are complicated. I am looking to get a first draft of the policy out in the next couple of years. (Plus I notice that people view link exchanges as temporary, free to remove from their end once you link to them, like those sell-out bastards at MMO Crunch. I pulled their link in turn, that’ll show them!) In fairness, at least his site does not appear to be infested with malware like an Italian site that sent me a similar message, and it appears to be about MMOs and gaming. So good on you, Ibrahim.
- Firefly Studios wanted to make sure I knew they were going to show Stronghold 3 and Gamescom. If I read their press release, it differs from console games in that it is medieval based and voiced in bad Ren-Faire accents, though that last bit is just a guess. Oh, and it is a Windows game, so I am not sure why they brought up consoles games in the first place. Trying to inflame those PC vs. Console emotions no doubt.
- Mike at MMO Raid wants a link (there, you got one… another one!) and to let me know I can submit my articles to his site, by which I previously thought he meant write for his site. Instead he seems to be shooting for the aggregation site thing instead, which means submitting your articles to be listed there. The site has had more than 900 articles submitted, though they appear to have mostly been submitted by Mike himself, so I would guess he is looking for a little help. His site looks clean, only clips an excerpt, and directs people back to the original site for the full story, so I guess I can at least declare the site “not a bad thing.”
- My mom wanted to let me know they are planning a Star Trek themed resort in Jordan. I am sure that will keep people from overthrowing the king. Not that King Abdullah II is in the class of, say, Asssad or Mubarak, but he is the richest guy in the country and he wants to spend a lot of money on his rather narrowly focused obsession, which is the sort of thing that might make the average crown subject a bit restive. Still, live long and prosper, Abdullah II, and good luck on your quest. (My mom actually sent this to the blog mail account through the form on the About page, so it counts.)
- And, finally, Bronte wanted to let me know that his comments seem to be getting stuck in the spam filter. Yeah, it was the spam filter… *whistle*
The Ancient Gaming Noob 