Assault on the Inbox: Weekly marketing e-mails

What wonders does the in box of mystery hold for us today? Cryptic announces veteran rewards for players who keep an active subscription to Star Trek Online. Saith Cryptic: “Skill point bonuses, titles, costume pieces, character slots… Veterans will be rewarded every 100 days! Rewards will be retroactive, too!” Nice of them! They’ve also announced a “Come back to STO” weekend and a “Recruit a Friend” program; all these kick off May 7. ...

April 30, 2010 · 3 min · 450 words · Tipa

Assault on the In Box, Friday edition

Lots of people really do ask me what I DO in EverQuest? Truth be told, most of the time I am either working on my Epic 1.5 (the rogue epic quest is THE WORST of them all), do monster missions for gear and experience, or do the Boomerang! event in Brell’s Rest. It’s a simple arena game; everyone in the party chooses a team – red, blue or gold, like in Star Trek – and each is given boomerangs in their opponent’s two colors. You enter, are transformed into a gnoll of your color, and you run around and fling boomerangs at enemies while dodging boomerangs thrown at you, as well as explosive barrels that drop randomly from the ceiling. You get one point for hitting an enemy; lose one point for being hit twice and lose five points for being blown up by an explosive barrel. After five minutes, the top three get gold tokens (used to buy high level uber weapons), and everyone gets silver tokens appropriate to their point total, used to buy a wide variety of gear and augments. ...

April 23, 2010 · 6 min · 1191 words · Tipa

The West Karana Friday Offer Wall!

Unlike other offer walls, this one probably won’t infect your computer with anything TOO harmful. Like watching pretty alien spaceships blow up in all sorts of interesting ways? I do! I bought Gratuitous Space Battles the day it came out and every now and then, I build some fleets and watch them get crazy on the devious (but not as devious as me) enemy. Positech Games sent me a 25% off code for the game, good for seven days only, and two of those days have already passed, so if you’ve been wanting the game, be the first to use up this discount code when ordering: BNXP00099. ...

April 16, 2010 · 2 min · 375 words · Tipa

Weekend gaming: Super-rich edition

Before I get started, I just want you all to know that I don’t have to do this. No, really. I’m about to be rich. VERY rich. I just got a VERY intriguing email…. i have a secured business proposal for you in the turn of US$85,000,000,00 and we shall share in the ratio of 60% for me and 40% for you. Should you be interested, contact me back. ...

January 19, 2010 · 7 min · 1474 words · Tipa

Daily Blogroll 10/14 - Puns R Us edition

Earth Eternal’s Sylvan have to put up with this every day…. First off, responding to parental concerns that their children would be gambling away their RMT currency for minimal rewards, KingsIsle has announced that the “wishing well” cash slot machine will NOT be making it out of test. Thanks to Fallon of Diary of a Wizard for the scoop! Kaozz of EC Tunnel has compiled a list of a lot of Octember All Hallow’s Eve events for all the major MMOs – including Maple Story, big props for including even the MMOs that are way more popular than WoW – so there’s your to-do list for fall fun. ...

October 14, 2009 · 2 min · 385 words · Tipa

Daily Blogroll 10/10: Short Week edition

I’ve been playing a bit of Earth Eternal since it went into open-closed beta yesterday. Since I think we’re still unable to actually show the game, here’s a picture of the upcoming stop motion/cgi film, Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. Now, I don’t KNOW that Sparkplay’s gonna close down to go to the premiere, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Should kids gamble on the Internet? Evil Theurgists wonders why KingsIsle is encouraging kids to blow their parent’s moolah spinning the virtual wheels of Wizard101’s new slot machine – where you spend 15 (and up) Crowns to win the usual prize of 20 gold. You get 15 twirls a day and the rewards are minuscule so… let’s hope this is one feature that doesn’t make it out of testing. ...

October 9, 2009 · 3 min · 443 words · Tipa

Daily Blogroll 10/8: Inappropriate Birth Metaphor edition

Awwww, over-protective mommy ship takes cute baby alt-ship out for the first time! Yes, I’ve joined the ranks of EVE pilots with two accounts; the lure of EVE’s Power of 2 promotion and the savings in time by having a second account for salvaging, hauling, and extra drones was just too much to ignore. If you think THAT picture is just too twee, check THIS one out. ...

October 8, 2009 · 4 min · 827 words · Tipa

Daily Blogroll 9/23 - All Queued Up Edition

“It would like them much; but an ye wot how dragons are esteemed, ye would not hold them blamable. They fear to come.” – “Well, then, suppose I go to them instead, and—” – “Ah, wit ye well they would not abide your coming. I will go.” And she did. She was a handy person to have along on a raid. – Mark Twain, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” ...

September 23, 2009 · 4 min · 773 words · Tipa

Daily Blogroll 9/22 - Server is Down edition

Aion launched yesterday for pre-orders. Cownose got in. Petter had the five hour queue (and he’s under deadline!) Heartless_ isn’t playing, but loves him some queues, anyway. Lars got to level 3, server kicked him off, welcome to four hours in the queue. Naamah got in, but his friend had to wait three hours. It’s a good thing, though. I think he kinda has to be positive about the whole thing, though. AT&T and NCsoft conspired against Keen. ...

September 22, 2009 · 5 min · 934 words · Tipa

Daily Blogroll 9/17 - Kanye edition

Guy just keeps popping up everywhere, don’t he? I am playing Runes of Magic now because, hey, WoW is coming out with a new expansion that I probably won’t play, so why not reminisce about good times in WoW by playing some other game? Runes of Magic only allowed me to pick from two races, Elf and Human. I thought they had some short folk in the character concept art, but I guess those were just meant to be children. It’d be kind of cool, by the way, to start of as a child in an MMO (optionally, anyway), and play children’s games of crafting, socialization, war and magic while slowly aging and learning more of the wider world and your place in it. ...

September 17, 2009 · 7 min · 1333 words · Tipa