Category Archives: Mail Bag

Items from the Mail Bag – Rainy March Edition

It is that time again!  Time to sort through my mail archives to see what has come my way in the last month that wasn’t worth a post by ought to get a mention, whether for real or comedic value.

Path of Exile Open Beta

In a very timely email, the folks making the Diablo-esque online game Path of Exile, a game about which I have written, have announced that this coming weekend, March 30 through April 1, beta access will be thrown open to everyone.  There is, of course, a FAQ posted with details.

Path of Exile – It is raining there too!

So if you are totally jonesing for a Diablo fix and cannot wait for May 15th to roll around, this might be an opportunity to get some click-action RPG time in.

Badass vs. Robot vs. Roger Ebert

Trexx Robotnyk wanted to let me know about the “truly unique, precious art” that is encompassed by Badass vs. Robot.

I think we call that art style “primitive”

I am not even sure where to go with this, so I’ll just quote the message in full.

A one-man operation. Destined to reshape the world order. Badass vs Robot has been temporarily unleashed to fund future development (episodes 1-3, about 1-5 playing hours, available in a week or so). In its brightest moments, small glimpses here and there, this robotic art project from Sweden sort of reminds me of mass effect 3/starwars/whatever but with heavier guitars and a cheaper price tag. Anyway, if you wanna join the fans around the globe and make this amazing space action robot saga turn into an uncontrollable behemoth on rockets, please buy a copy (you set the price). Note that this is a separate work-in-progress tech/devel funding/sneak peek release with awesome music, learn more at the homepage. And to those that hate this project solely cause it’s a difficult to grasp kinda space-art exhibition (e.g. nude politicians and a laser themed forced sterilization scene), are encouraged to share it with all of their friends. Please note that I’m not looking for investors, truly unique, precious art like this must be completely independent at all costs.

So there you have it.  Nude politicians, the laser themed forced sterilization scene, and Roger Ebert need not apply.

Blacklight: Retribution Open Beta

Back to the open beta scene, Blacklight: Retribution went into open beta… well, a month ago.  But I got the note AFTER I did last month’s mail bag.  See, timing is everything.  B:R is an online first person shooter game, a niche that seems to be growing into very non-niche like proportions.  Anyway, if you are interested, their web site is here.

EON Magazine Joins the Digital Age

Naturally, as soon as I subscribe to the physical magazine again, the folks at MMM finally deliver on their digital aspirations.

A digital edition at last!

For those interested, you can find more details on this at the EON Magazine site.  There is currently a special offer to get people interested.

Unbiased Reviews, For Specific Values of “Unbiased”

Leslie, a business development intern at FindTheBest, wanted to let me know that their site now has video game reviews as part of their engine that… I guess… allows you to find the best.  Per the email:

It allows users to filter by price, console, ESRB rating, and more. All of the information is completely unbiased and certified from sources such as Gamespot, Metacritic, and IGN.

Claiming a lack of bias on their part, I suppose, could be correct.  But when GameSpot, the site where no advertiser gets a bad review (or we’ll fire the reviewer!) is part of your sample, bias is clearly part of the equation.  Garbage in, garbage out as they say.  Anyway, I asked on that and actually got a response.

In the smart ratings algorithm, expert reviews only account for a small portion of a balanced rating system which takes into account things like number of copies sold, other metacritic ratings, as well as others. After doing considerable research we will take this feedback into account and discount GameSpots rating moving forward.

While I appreciate the attempt to quantify things, selling the most units is not always an indication of quality.  The literary works of L. Ron Hubbard and William Shatner spring to mind.  Still, it is nice to see somebody out there trying something new.

Oh, and the highest rated MMORPG on their list; the Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria expansion.  Take that for what it is worth.

Digital Kids Conference – You Need to Know!

Those in charge of the 6th Annual Digital Kids Conference, which despite its name is focused on child safety in the digital world and not the creation of electronic children (which presumably would come with an “off” button, every parents dream on occasion) seem very concerned that I be made aware of the agenda and specific events pertaining to the conference.  Hence the six email in two days things.

Consider me brought up to date, especially on the mobile app safety front.

The unsubscribe link, it does nothing!

Mistborn: Birthright – Not Wheel of Time

Brandon Sanderson, perhaps best known as the writer to pick up and (I desperately hope) finish Robert Jordan’s epically drawn out Wheel of Time saga, is having some of his own work made into a video game. (The Wheel of Time series was also supposed to be made into an MMO. What happened with that?)

Called Mistborn: Birthright, it will take place 100 years before the Mistborn series of books.  A quote from the author:

“As an avid gamer, I’m extremely excited by this opportunity,” said Sanderson. “The chance to write the story for a Mistborn game while working with a team of talented developers is, quite literally, living a dream.”

The game is scheduled to come out in the Fall of 2013.  Such information that there is available is on the game’s web site.

Items from the Mail Bag – We are Mailing it in This Month

It is time again for that “it is late in the month and I am totally out of ideas” post, which means going straight to the mail bag to stimulate… or further deaden… my creative energy.

Symphonic Zelda

I got a note from Jeannie at Fresh PR that the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess tour was adding a few more dates.  It was already scheduled for San Francisco, so the added dates in LA and San Diego didn’t do much for me, but are not doubt of great benefit to my brethren at the southern end of the state.

Zelda in Concert

Since the concert tour site linked above is missing its “about” page still, here is the speil complete with trade and copyright marks.

The name “Symphony of the Goddesses” refers not only to the concert program but also to the new four-movement symphony recounting the classic storylines from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time™, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker™, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess™, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past™. The concert also will highlight orchestral renditions of music from other series games, including The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening™ and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask™. The full orchestra will be conducted by Eímear Noone with arrangements by music director Chad Seiter.

“This concert program is a truly special event for so many people who grew up playing The Legend of Zelda,” notes Jason Michael Paul, executive producer of Jason Michael Paul Productions. “The new tour dates are helping us bring this unique experience to fans across the country.”

Since first appearing in 1986, The Legend of Zelda game series has sold more than 65 million units worldwide. The most recent entry in the franchise is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which launched exclusively for the Wii console in November 2011.

Oh, and if you are a Club Nintendo member you get a 15% discount.

Young Justice is the Best Justice

Betsi Gijanto of Little Orbit wanted me to know that the “DC Comics brand” Young Justice, which is also a TV show, and which looks to me like “League of Justice Babies” or some such, is coming to video games.  Money to be made and all that!

It will be on all major consoles, which apparently means “screw you PlayStation Vita, the Nintendo DS is the only handheld that counts” and has its own web site if you are into that.

Looking at World of Tanks on your iPhone

Wargaming.net has releases an iOS application (Android soon) called World of Tanks Assistant which will let you view your stats, your tanks, and get game related news when you are stuck in a meeting that is important enough for you to attend but not important enough for you to actually pay attention.

Sims Social Booty Call

EA would like to give me 25 units of Sims Cash if I will just come back and play their Facebook game.

What does that coy look imply?

I haven’t played the game for nearly five months, since I turned it into Sims Anti-Social.  Then I took it a step further and removed rights from the app for my account and blocked all messages from it on my wall.

Smoke Your Tires

A note from Melinda Jackson at JAG Entertainment showed up to tell me about a new iOS app (hey, this all makes sense now that I have an iPad) called Smoke Your Tires. (A Surgeon General’s warning about the harmful effects of tire smoking is forthcoming.)

It is a racing game.  There is a flash version.  It is somehow all tied to a casino at the Kansas Speedway.  Whatever.

EVE News 24

Riverini at EVE News 24 sent me a note asking if I was interested in syndicating my posts on their site.  I had to decline, in part because… well… have you read my stuff.  It is hardly news.  Half the time I refer back to their site to support my ramblings.  But mostly I feared the comment threads on the site.  I am not sure I am ready for that.

But if you are, and you are an EVE blogger, EVE News 24 might be interested in syndicating your work.  They have a post up about it and everything.  Check it out.  They actually pay you.  The payment is in ISK, but that is probably more than you are getting right now.

Popeye Comes to Facebook

Large Animal Games has signed a deal with King Features Syndicate, distributor of such comic page giants as Popeye, The Lockhorns, Beetle Baily, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Betty Boop, The Katzenjammer Kids, Sally Forth, Rex Morgan M.D., and Zippy the Pinhead, so that they can feature characters from these well-known-to-your-granparents comics in their Facebook game Picturiffic.  Yay.

And with that, I am overwhelmed by apathy and can go no further.  The 17 press releases from Gamingo will just have to find another way into the spotlight.

Items from the Mail Bag – Drunken Home Theater Install Edition

This column, while I try to do it regularly once a month, is really an event driven item.  Generally it only occurs to me to write it when I either don’t feel like writing anything (when you have nothing to say, let somebody else say it for you I guess) or when somebody sends me something so ridiculous that I am compelled to put one in the “mail bag” category.

This month, it is the latter condition.  So this month we’ll start off with the grand prize and then taper off into obscure stuff so the whole post will seem like a let down by the time you get to the end.

Sorry in advance to the focus of the end story.

Where DUI Meets Home Theater

I am no stranger to the sponsored blog post offer, but this one this one seemed to deliver a new twist.

I’d like to inquire about doing a sponsored blog post – about 150-300 words that talks a little bit about DUI law and links back to our site [redacted]. We provide premier Custom Design, Engineering and Installation for home theater and I thought we might be a good fit for your readers/visitors on tagn.wordpress.com.

That’s correct, we are speaking of a post about DUI law that links back to a custom home theater which would be a perfect fit for an online gaming blog.

So is that the best breathalyzer you sell?

(Apologies to McIntosh Labs, makers of completely awesome high end audio equipment which does not in anyway endorse this blog post or, I am going to guess, the selling of home audio equipment via blog posts about DUI law.  But I am pretty sure that if they did make breathalyzers, they would be the best you could get.)

But this custom home theater site does have a budget for this sort of placement thing.

Our budget is around $15 for the post. Is this something you’d be open to?

Also we might be interested in a small banner ad if the price is right.
Our budget is $40/year

Woo hoo!  That will get me a case of Lucky Lager and some pretzels to go with!  I just love the puzzles in the cap.

I’m sorry, but at one point I was getting like $22 a month per link to put URLs in my side bar from a company trying to game Google Page Rank. (It was $30 a month when I was page rank 5, but I fell down to 4.)  Granted, they stopped returning my calls after a while, but while it lasted that fat PayPal payment spoiled me and now I won’t even get out of bed for less that $10.

Still, if this sounds like a deal to you, I can put in a good word.

Also if you have some other sites just send them over and we might be interested in doing a sponsored post on there as well!

Just drop me a note and we’ll talk!

More Press Releases!

Laura at Cision US, Inc. dropped me a note to tell me that my blog has caught their attention and they are adding it to their database.  I will be henceforth known and listed by them as:

Mr. Wilhelm Arcturus, Blogger of the Computers & Video Games Beat.

That is almost validation of my existence.  And I love to get press releases!

Thanks Laura!

I’ll have to send her a thank you note.

Treasure Awaits, My Lord!

Lord of Ultima sends me a note reminding me that I have a daily prize waiting for me if I fail to log on for a week or so.  That always prompts me to actually log on, collect my prize, check what has happened to my empire, which is generally nothing.

Still, this seems to be working for me.  I have moved from around 350th place in the rankings to about 200th place by doing nothing.  I play on world 31 which is a truncated world with extra small landmasses, so basically about three weeks into the game all available room to build on was taken.  Since then the game has been a matter of waiting for people to give up so you can take over their abandoned towns and castles.  This has been going on for somethings like six months!  Whee, a hell of a ride!  I’m sooo drunk!

Gamingo-go-go!

The Gamingo PR Team sends me lots of press releases about their browser based games.  They just aren’t all that interesting to me.  None of them would warrant a post by themselves.  But since they are so nice and persistent and no doubt live for the days when I deign to acknowledge their existence, and never use DUI laws as a troll for links, here is a list of the games they mentioned to me in January.

It Is So Komplex!

Ioana Buliga, a musical name if ever there was one, wanted to let me know about her company, Lucid Philosophy, and their new free to play browser based game, TwinKomplex.  Probably the coolest thing about them is that there offices are in the old Tempelhof Airport in Berlin.  I am tempted to sing “Ten Tons to Templehof” and other songs of the airlift, which I learned in my mis-spent youth.  Don’t ask.

Simply Unpronounceable

The site… or company… the email isn’t clear… named Gamelosophers wants me to be a partner in… something.  DUI legislation maybe?  All I know is that they are from Amsterdam and that they need a new name.  Really.  I once worked for a company called “Smarketing,” so I know.

Oh, and make your damn URL resolve correctly without the “www” prefix.  Amateurs, I swear!

Amplify This

Emma with Amplified Media has… well… something coherent and possibly true to say about the site that implies that she or somebody at her company might have actually visited.

We love your collection of thoughts and stories on the world of online gaming. Your insights on the gaming highs and lows of 2011 was a great end-of-year piece.

If nothing else, that actually makes this email stand out from many of the others than don’t even get posted with a DUI reference.  I might have to respond to that one and find out what opportunities Amplified Media has in mind.

Always End With Namaste

Kelly Heckman, Community Manager and Cat Herder for Namaste Entertainment wants me to know beta is still coming up and that they have forums now so they can answer all of your Storybricks questions.

And, judging from the side bar, they might be at GDC or something.  I’m not sure I will make it to GDC  this year.  The usual source of Expo passes for Potshot and myself, Darren, seems to have gone off MMOs completely.  Instead he is all philosophical these days and is, if I understand it right, about to launch an offensive on the Twilight franchise.

Hey, this last entry wasn’t such a let down after all, now was it?

Anyway, until next month, respect the mail bag!

Items from the Mailbag – End of the Year, I Almost Forgot Edition

December is almost gone and I have items in my mailbag I forgot to mention!  So without further ado, I give you:

Warp Plus

Spectrum at Crimson Leaf Games sent out a notice announcing Warp Plus, a sequel to and extension and modernization of MegaWars III. Bullet points:

  • Space exploration with planet colonization and ship to ship combat.
  • Play in a galaxy that can expand to over five million stars.
  • Work independently or as a member of a team.
  • Learn the game without being preyed upon by other players.
  • Compete on a level playing field.  Everyone has an opportunity to win including free players.
  • Levels of play allow for casual or hardcore players.
  • Every campaign is unique as the players actions decide the game outcome.

But, like MegaWars III, it needs players to gel and become a community to be a worthwhile game to play.

Trion Hacking

There was the obligatory note from Trion Worlds telling me that they may have been hacked and asking me to come change the password to my account.  Their solution to the hacking apparently involves making sure that everybody’s password was longer, and contained a capital letter, a number, and a special character.

Somehow I doubt the strength of individual account passwords was what got them hacked, though if it was, they have bigger problems than I care to imagine.

Tactical Carnage

Mike from the Tactical Carnage Gaming Community sent me an invite to become a “combat liaison” at his site, or to at least move my blog there, since he could offer me free hosting and I would get more exposure.

He did not explain what a combat liaison was, the site only listed StarCraft II and Counter-Strike as related games (that has been updated since), and judging from the ticker on the front page, he get fewer views in a week as I get in a day (and I do not get that many views in the grand scheme of things) so the “more exposure” seemed a bit dubious.  Plus I am never keen to put my content into the hands of some random stranger or change my URL, probably the most valuable asset on the blog.

Still, he was persistent, following up the next day wanting a response already, so I outlined the above and asked if he had ever, you know, actually read my blog, since it did not seem to fit in at all with his site.  I signed my response “Wilhelm SynCaine de Cayeux” to see if that would cause any confusion, but there was no follow up.  Ah well.

Storybricks

Namaste sent me a note letting me know that Storybricks would be going into beta.

I am just not sure I want to play with their story development tool so much as I want to see what really smart people can do with it.  Still, it might give me the opportunity to recreate my most reknown MUD mob ever, the one named “My Ex-Girlfriend,” an NPC that would follow me around and complain loudly about all my faults and shortcomings.

Windows Phone

Not technically a mailbag item, but as I was finishing up my Looking Back at 2011 post, I got a call on my cell phone (eh?) from an evangelist at Microsoft wanting to get me interested in developing games for the Windows Phone platform.  There were all sorts of incentives and Windows/XBox Live tie-ins and he was very excited about the whole thing.  He seemed a little sad when I had to tell him I did not develop games nor did I have any tangible experience on mobile platforms, Microsoft or otherwise.

I can only imagine that he got my phone number from a resume I submitted to Microsoft for a position with the TellMe group, which actually does things I have years and years of experience with, like VXML, speech recognition, and speech app tools, design, and implementation, all of which was pretty clear on my resume.  But I guess he just saw “phone stuff” and gave it a shot.

In hindsight, I should have pointed him at Lord British.

Angry Boys with Lettuce and Tomato

Raimy of BLT & Associates (their URL is BLTomato.com, so yes, that sort of BLT) wanted to tell me that HBO was making a Facebook game related to their show Angry Boys and that I should watch their Facebook page right here.

I don’t actually get HBO, I had never actually heard of Angry Boys until that email, and I am really about done with Facebook games.  But, you know, if you are into any of that, there it is.

See what a sandwich based URL will get you?

My Phone is Developmentally Disabled

I keep getting messages asking me to download, try out, or review various iPhone and Android apps.  There were literally a dozen in my December list.  The problem is that I do not have an iOS or Android device.  I have an el-cheapo LG phone that is mostly a phone with some texting capabilities and a Bejeweled knock-off game that came with it.  So, no, I will not be trying out your phone app.

And that is it.  Now it is time to go play Laser Tag, which was my daughter’s choice for a birthday activity with her friends.  Go figure.

Items from the Mail Bag – I’m Full and Feeling Generous Edition

It is Thanksgiving Day here in the US, a favorite holiday of mine because I happen to like turkey… and most of the traditional staples of the day aside from yams… and because there is no giving of gifts or sending of cards involved.  That can wait until tomorrow.  Plus we always host, so there is no need to leave the house, though we are expecting a mere dozen around the table this year, down from double that number in some past years.

So in a fit of tryptophan fueled generosity, here is some of what has dropped into the blog mail bag.

  • BioWare let me know I am in again for the SWTOR beta. Maybe playing a jedi this coming weekend can redeem what failed to charm me with blaster combat.  A pre-order hangs in the balance.

Already installed... just need to patch

  • Mike sent me five (5) special keys for their Facebook game D&D Heroes of Neverwinter to hand out to readers.  The first five people who follow me on Twitter and tweet to me the phrase “Gimme gimme gimme I can’t help myself” in reply to the twee that links to this post will get those keys.  Figuring out my Twitter account is the only mild barrier to entry.  (It is in the side bar.  And you must follow me so I can reply directly to you with the key. You can unfollow me once I give out the codes.  I probably would.)
  • The above mentioned Mike is also trying to connect with me in Linked In.  While I have created a net persona for Wilhelm Arcturus, I haven’t really gone that far.  I did, however, continue to build such a back story for a persona I create in high school.  It is easy in Silicon Valley.  I just had him working for companies like Taligent, General Magic, and Silicon Graphics.  People from those places have actually connected with him too.
  • Violeta from Best Games Media Group Ltd. wanted me to mention a new site called Gamingator.com, which looks like it sells games.  It is probably some sort of scam.  Sure, fine, just pass me some more pumpkin pie.
  • I have a note from The Sims Social offering me 2000 simoleons (one of the in-game currencies… and not the good one) if I will come back and play, proving that no matter how many ways you tell Facebook to disconnect you from an external app, once that app has your data you can never be rid of them.
  • On the same thread of never being free from a game once you play it, Night Owl Games wants to let me know that Dungeon Overlord, their Facebook game, has left beta and launched a new world.  They even have a video on YouTube.  I tried this game back in June.  I could have sworn it was an SOE game.  Was SOE just publishing it, or was this related to the great big downsizing at SOE this summer?
  • Tracey, who might actually read the blog, wanted to know if I had seen anything about Continent of the Ninth Seal, a Korean MMO action MMO that might make it to the US next year.  Timing-wise, this might have be related to comments I made about blaster combat in SWTOR.  Amway, the answer is… well… I have now!
  • Christine Kane wanted to tell me about her article comparing Facebook to Tag.  However, the analogy breaks down really fast (when did the “cool kids” ever play tag?) and, frankly, aren’t we a little past something that says, essentially, “Hey, Facebook is popular!”  Sorry Christine.
  • And then a number of people… bots… mailing lists… whatever… somehow I got a bunch of press release about iOS or Android games which I am not going to bother to link because I do not own a device that runs either operating system… though if I had to pick one, it would be the Atari’s Greatest Hits because it works with the iCade.

That’s it.  Time for some more pumpkin pie.

Items from the Mail Bag – Whole Lotta Press Releases Edition

Once again we look into what has show up at the blog email address that didn’t warrant a post of its own, wasn’t a 419 Scam, or wasn’t an entry in the Azeroth Travel Poster contest.

  • Anthony from Gamingo sent me a note asking if it was alright to put me on his press release distribution list.  Being surprised that somebody actually asked in advance, I said yes just to encourage such behavior.  Unfortunately, a lot of his press releases have a short shelf life, while I only do this once a month, so a number of items I received won’t get any mention.
  • Vizo over at Mediocre Gamer dropped me and a few other bloggers a line to tell me that he and some other people have started up a new blog called Mediocre gamer.  So there.  Probably more mention than he got out of anybody else on the list.
  • WXP Games sent me an offer to get a review copy of Xotic for myself and my editorial staff (i.e. myself).  I declined via an apathetic non-response.  I was a bit surprised (and annoyed) that they did not include any links with this email aside from the one to their Facebook page.  What if Facebook had finally gotten around to banning me?
  • Gamingo sent me a press release to tell me that their game Cultures, which sounds like a build, explore, conquer sort of browser game is popular in both Europe and Chine.  Not so much in North America I would guess then.
  • Beau sent out a message to the MMO Voices mailing list that he is facing the decision to either shut it down or transfer the ownership to another individual.
  • Serendipitously, Zynga sent me a message the same day asking me to come back and play CityVille.  If I read the message right, it suggests that if I build an arena, Enrique Iglesias might show up.  Euphoria?
  • Riot games wanted to inform me that my League of Legends account has been inactive for a long stretch.  If I do not log in before October 30th, they will free up my display name for use by other players.  So if you were aching to be known as Wilhelm IV, you chance approaches.
  • Club Penguin wants me to know that their Halloween related events are starting.  However, Club Penguin is still a bad word for somebody in our household who still harbors shame and resentment at the whole past affair with them.  There must be a gene for passing on grudge holding abilities.
  • And, as with last month, the final mail bag update is from Jason Scott, who sent out an email about how he is now within striking distance of his Kickstarter goal to fund his planned documentary three pack, with less than $5,000 of the $100K target left to raise.  That means I am going to have to play up soon, but that is okay. (Between the time when I wrote this and the time I posted it, Jason Scott passed the $100K mark.  So his three new documentaries should be under way… in fact, he was already doing interviews for one based on how well things were going.)

Items from the Mail Bag – Everybody Wants Some Edition

Another look into the TAGN in box to see what has come my way in the last month or so.  Nobody wants to write a post for my site or come write for their site this month.

  • Raptr wants me to tell me about all the statistics they have about ‘ville games in their Raptr Report on Zynga Games.  One of the things they note is the high conversion rate of players from one ‘ville game to another.  Is that a good thing?
  • Zynga wants me to please come back and play FarmVille.  They need to read the Raptr report above.  I have long since converted through other Zynga games.  I am currently at Empires & AlliesVille, and there is no going back.  Ever.  For me at least.  I am Tom Joad, traveling west to the promised land of California.
  • Zynga, taking the opposite tack, also wants me to come play their new-ish game, Adventure WorldVille.  At least somebody gets the whole conversion direction thing there at Zynga.
  • Outspark wants me to know that Luvinia Online is out of open beta, online, and the race to level 78 is on!  Just what I needed.  Has anybody been waiting for this?  It looks very Anime.  Somebody tell Darren.
  • BlogTopSites.com wants me to know that as a registered user, I can also get on their Bloglog.com listing.  While I tinkered with their site at one point, and even had their chicklet on my side bar for a while, I decided being listed against sites promising “Club Penguin Cheats!” and what we would have referred to back in the BBS days as “waerz sites” probably was not in my best interest.  So we’re done with that, but I am still on the mailing list.
  • Merle Klein, the SEO specialist at Bigpoint GmbH, wants to do a link exchange between this site and three of Bigpoint’s game sites, Drakensang, Farmerama (really?),  and Dark Orbit.  Which is kind of strange.  It is like Safeway coming over to my house to discuss a cross-promotion between their chain of grocery stores and the garage sale I am going to hold in two weeks.  While the deal seemed to be much in my favor, I don’t really play the SEO game here.  I’m not that interested in traffic and Google already sends enough people here based on weird search terms as it is.
  • Erika from somewhere around Dallas wants to put a banner ad on my site and wants me to send her a price list.  Since she did not mention what sort of ad, I am going to guess that this is either a scam or that the ad is clearly something I wouldn’t want to post in the first place.
  • Raptr also wanted me to know that they have surpassed 10 million registered users.  Good for them.  I still only have 17 connections on the service and it primarily serves as a warning that I am coming to pee in their bushes in The Sims Social.
  • And finally, Jason Scott, legendary collect of all computer related documentation, founder of The Archive Team,  free range archivist at the Internet Archive, and creator of BBS: The Documentary and text adventure documentary GET LAMP, both of which I totally want to see and actually tried to order but they never got delivered despite Jason insisting they had been shipped and eventually I got my money back but now I am afraid to simply try and order them again lest things go awry again… *breath*… he wants me (and you) to know that he has a Kickstarter pageto help fund three new documentaries he wants to do.The planned topics are the medium of tape (cool), the 6502 Processor (very cool), and video game arcades (cool cool cool).  You can read about his plans, hear about why he needs the money, see how much he has collected so far ($72K at this point), and donate if you would like to help out by going to his Kickstarter pager here.   There are 45 days left to go and the minimum pledge is $10.

 

Rusty Hearts Wants Me to Buy a Gamepad

Another one from the mail bag I suppose.

Rusty Hearts, which I can’t recall having heard about before, a Perfect World Entertainment MMO currently in closed beta, sent me a note.  Or the people running it did.  And they want me to go buy a gamepad.

Rusty Hearts Offer

And to get me to do this, the have sent me a code that will let me buy a Logitech Dual Action Gamepad for just $4.99.

The Gamepad in Question

Granted, the gamepad is only $12.99 normally on the Logitech site (it is actually double that on Amazon), but when we’re talking five dollar game controllers, I start wondering if I ought to get one just to tinker around.

Not that Rusty Hearts seems to be my sort of game.  It is described as:

An anime-inspired, cell shaded, beat-em-up action MMORPG set in a stylized gothic world.

Sounds just like Darren‘s cup of tea… but for me… not so much.

And if I am not going to use it for Rusty Hearts, then I am not sure what use it would be.

It does seem to be one of the supported devices for Need for Speed World.  I’m not quite convinced that a gamepad is necessarily superior to the keyboard for steering control.

So what is a gamepad good for on a Windows 7 PC?  What would make it worth dropping the five dollars?

Is there a MAME front end or something that would support it?

Items from the Mail Bag – Back to School Edition

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*

Items from the Mail Bag – Monetary Impact Edition

It is time for the second edition of items from the mail bag, wherein I take items that were sent to the blog email address and let you figure out what I should do with them.

In reverse chronological order this month.

  • I have an email plea from Beau about MMO Voices.  Apparently the rent is due.  If you use the site and want to keep it ad free (or running at all, perhaps) you should go donate to the cause.
  • Chris at WordPress.com support wrote back to tell me that they are aware of the problem where the RSS feed for tags are running ~10 days behind and to thank me for my patience.  Given that the feeds lose a lot of their usefulness as a news source when they are so delayed, and that they have been broken for more than 6 months now, I might have expected a bit more than a two sentence blow-off.
  • Tracy from Virginia Web Media has an unnamed client that wants to advertise on my site.  The web site of said client has been mentioned  “…by the Wall Street Journal, UC. New & World Report, and The New York Times.”  So has the Unibomber.  And isn’t it US News & World Report?
  • Colleen at 00Shirts.com wants to give me a $50 credit for T-shirt printing so I can perhaps print up something to give away on the site.  And, if I’m happy, would I please mention their site.  Well, she got that for free, didn’t she?  But their place is in Berkeley, so they’re probably hopelessly idealistic, plus  I don’t really have a logo for the site, so I am not sure what I would have printed.  What would be a TAGN catch-phrase?  Probably an over-used conjunctive phrase.
  • Del-Taco wants me to know they now have funnel cake.  Really?  Funnel cake?  I won’t even eat that at the county fair, and this is your new big item?  Plus I bet you cook it in the same oil as the french fries.  Another part of my Star Trek Online hangover.
  • Diana of the Greater Los Angeles Area would like me to connect with her on Linked In. While Wilhelm Arcturus has email, a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, and a G+ presence (well, had, kicked for being a pseudonym), I haven’t actually gone so far as to create a Linked In account.  Maybe I should.  Anyway, if Diana only knew, she is already connected to my real name Linked In account, through my step-sister-in-law.
  • Alisha wants to provide me a 400+ word unique article that is RELEVANT to what I usually write about and 100% unique.  This high quality, relevant and UNIQUE article will help boost the standards of my site, which sounds like she might have read some of my work if she thinks she can up the average in only 400 words.  All she wants is a discreet link in the article, which will be unique to my site, in return.  So, while her return address has something about XBox Repair (a non-existent field I would think, given that Microsoft has had to extend those warranties until the end of time), I figure the link will be to porn.
  • Grim at MMOTroll.com wants me to stop writing here and start writing on his service because… well… a whole bunch of reasons.  He doesn’t even appear to be looking for free content to line his own pockets with ad revenue, unlike most other such requests I get.  Unfortunately, for Grim and some of you, after nearly five years, I have Google and a couple dozen regulars trained to find me here.  If I go there, I pretty much start from scratch.
  • And, finally,  Mike at MMORaid.com has a similar offer to Grim’s, only without as much cynicism in it, making it much less amusing, but still as unlikely to get me to switch blog hosting environments.