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  Moxie’s Coffee Break

July 23, 2007

More summer fun

Among the thousand things I love about summer is the flood of new action, sci-fi, and fantasy movies. Some friends and I escaped the heat last weekend with a “theater crawl” around town, catching various blockbusters at our favorite cinemas. And there are so many good movies this year! If it tells you anything, I actually didn’t have time to play games at all last weekend. (Not one!) Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time.

This is a complete tangent, but do you know what I really miss? Buttered popcorn. I miss going to the movies and buying a big bag of fluffy, greasy, salty popcorn with actual melted butter on it. I remember needing to shake the bag vigorously to distribute the butter; otherwise there’d be one bone-dry section of popcorn and a corresponding part that clumped up solid when the butter congealed. And of course it always tasted fantastic. The popcorn was one-third of the reason I went to movies as a kid. Popcorn, cheesy special effects, and the possibility of sneaking into the other theater to see a second movie.

Much as I adore the big-budget, dazzling visual feasts that motion pictures have become – Transformers was sweet, sweet eye candy – I do secretly pine for the days when an afternoon at the movies meant cheap admission, rubber monsters, and real buttered popcorn.

Go, go, GoPets!
I’ve been looking forward to this announcement for… wow, nearly a year now! (It’s been top-top secret until just lately.) But now it’s online for all to see, and I can finally talk about GoPets for Messenger! Pictured to the right is my own GoPet, a kitty named Moxie, in her natural environment. You can choose to adopt either a virtual cat or dog, and customize their fur color and pattern however you like. Then just let them loose in your Messenger window as you chat with friends, and they’ll explore and play. Better still, your friends’ pets will visit your pet (and usually mooch for food) when they’re offline.

The basic version of GoPets is free: just sign in and create your own pet! Every time you interact with your pet, you’ll earn green “shells”, the game’s currency. Spend those shells to buy food and drinks for your pet, or pick up some cute virtual accessories. Use some of the game’s more creative features to earn pink shells, which can buy even nicer goodies for your pet. There’s a huge range of outfits and decorations available, from seasonal favorites to fantastic costumes to haute couture. You can decorate your GoPets window in traditional Asian style, explore the deepest jungle, or take your pet to the beach. It’s all up to your own creativity, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about MSN Games players, it’s that you’re very creative. So make sure to add “MoxieMSN” to your GoPets friends list, because I’m looking forward to meeting your pets!

Oh, and one more thing: the first time you see a Go-dog waddle onto your screen in medieval plate armor, it’s a guaranteed laugh.

The pursuit of trivia
You know, I’m not usually a big fan of trivia games. That’s not because I think the games are poorly designed, or even because I prefer playing other types of game; entirely the opposite. It is 100% because I suck at trivia. I know practically nothing about current pop music, I don’t have the time to watch nearly as much television as I’d like, and I’m completely hopeless when it comes to remembering the primary exports of assorted European countries. Frankly, if it weren’t for science, sci-fi, and sports, I’d spend every trivia game looking like a deer in the headlights. A very small deer, in very big headlights.

I point this out primarily to explain why I recently walked into our writers’ room (they call it the “editorial pod”) and told them that I loved them. Fantasy Films Trivia. Summer Blockbusters Trivia. Pac-Man Trivia. Hollywood Animals Trivia. Hair Bands Trivia. I’m not sure why all these great topics happened all at once, but I’m so thrilled I can barely click. I may not know a thing about chick flicks or rap musicians, but I can quote entire scenes from many fantasy films and name any 80’s tune in three notes. This is my kind of trivia, and I’m going to enjoy it! Because next week, they might very well be on to TV sitcoms, or kids’ books, or something else that falls outside my admittedly geeky scope of knowledge. You never know what’s next!

Tech talk
One of the more common emails our support folks have received over the past few days goes something like, “so, what happened to Pat Sajak’s Trivia Gems?” As it turns out, the game had several technical problems, so we’ve removed it from the site for the time being. Of course, the team is currently working on fixing these issues, and we’ll have the game back online as soon as possible.

Practical upshot: if you’ve been looking for it, you can stop doubting your sanity or your eyesight.

See you next time!