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At first, they just shared hints and tips for the games. After a while, though, the talk turned to more personal matters, and the nine women became fast friends. As one of them says, it was “the best support group you could ever find.” So three years later, when they finally decided to meet in person, their favorite game company offered them a red-carpet tour of Big Fish headquarters and an appearance at Casual Connect. (If you need an “awwww” fix, the Seattle Times has a photo of them hugging.) It was a landmark moment in a truly inspiring friendship.
If you’d like to build your own personal connections, check out the community in our Badges forum. I’ve never met friendlier people in my online life! And if you’ve ever wondered who’s in charge of this madhouse we call MSN Games, check out the following picture of our fearless leader Spicygumbo manning our booth at Casual Connect. (Hint: it’s not the zombie.)
Lucky thirteen!
Can you believe it’s been a whole year since we last celebrated our birthday? I honestly had to check the calendar to make sure I wasn’t about to be the victim of an office joke (“hey, let’s see if we can make Moxie announce our birthday three months early!”). But nope, it is indeed that time again. Thirteen years, wow. From The Village to The Zone to MSN Games, and what a long, strange trip it’s been. But now that we’re here, there’s only one way to celebrate!
I can’t tell you how much I’d love to throw a massive party for everyone who plays on the site. Of course, given that there’s an average of about 170,000 of you online at any given moment, it would nigh-impossible even to plan, let alone manage! On the other hand… hmmm… if I only had a magic wand that would bring some of our favorite game characters to life, I’m sure I could get this done. Let’s see…
Waving the magic character wand
The most important part of any birthday party, aside from the legally mandated Deliberately Bad Singing of the Happy Birthday Song, is definitely cake. (On a diet? It’s still cake. Birthday cake has no calories.) And there’s only one person in the entire videogame universe who could possibly make enough cake for all our players: Jill from the Cake Mania series. She makes cakes of every conceivable style and flavor, and her automatic frosting machine gets things done in a jiffy. And she’s no stranger to pressure, either; she’s served up her confectionary creations to mythical figures, federal agents, space aliens, hungry dinosaurs and even frantic brides. If she can keep all those folks happy, I’m sure she’d be able to supply the sweet-tooth cravings of a couple hundred thousand party guests.
And what goes better with cake than a big glass of milk? (The answer is “nothing,” by the way, so don’t bother trying to research the issue. You’ll only end up disappointed and jonesing for a glass of milk.) So who could possibly procure and deliver enough milk to go with thousands upon thousands of tasty cakes? With a wave of my magic character wand, I would summon The Smiths from Dairy Dash. These reluctant ranchers are well-versed in the art of turning grass and water into milk by running it through a cow. They’re also used to working under pressure, since their farm supplies organic produce to Flo from the Diner Dash series and her fellow fictional restaurateurs.
For a little extra decadence on each party plate, I might also call on Anna of Anna’s Ice Cream, or Evangeline Baumeister from Chocolatier (I hear her chocolate cherry infusions are very popular in New York right now). After all, if you’re not shaking and twitching from sheer sugar overload by the time you head home, it just wasn’t a good party!
Okay. Now that we’ve got the basics out of the way, we’ll need to figure out how to fit all those guests into one place! What if they don’t like each other? And fear of fears, where in the world are they all going to park? (Deep breaths, Moxie. Deep breaths.) Well, the first question is easily solved, at least. A truly great party requires an equally great party planner, and part of his or her job is making certain that nobody has to sit next to someone they dislike. I hereby nominate Miss Quinn from Wedding Dash. The way I see it, if she can keep the peace at a matrimonial shindig by keeping Chatty Uncle Frank away from Snide Cousin Edith, she’ll have no trouble at all with our own (considerably more charming) guests.
As to parking, well, that’s another matter. The Microsoft E&D Campus does have one of the largest underground parking garages in the U.S.A. (nearly 5000 spots!), but even that isn’t nearly enough. So out comes the magic character wand again, and poof! Amber from Parking Dash will take care of everything. She’ll double-, triple-, and quadruple-park everyone, and maybe even hang a few small Hondas from the ceiling if she has to. Guess that’s another problem solved!
Lastly, every great party needs the sort of entertainment that people will be talking about for years. And happily, I don’t even need the magic wand for that one. With hundreds of excellent games on our site, including 13 absolutely free multiplayer games, we’ve already got it covered.
So while I may not be throwing a party for our birthday, it’s good to know that everyone will have plenty of fun anyway. And hey, everyone goes home with a gift!
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| Tech Talk
We've had a few letters lately about banner ads causing games to freeze or "act weird." (I act weird all the time, but thank goodness we haven't had any letters about that.) The trouble is, we can't seem to make it happen on our own machines. So if you're playing any one of our games, and you encounter an ad that makes things stutter, stop, or act otherwise abnormally, we'd really appreciate a screenshot! Just snap one and send it to us at zmaster@microsoft.com.
If you're not sure how to take a screenshot, here's the rundown:
1. Press the Print Screen button (PrtScn or Prt Sc – usually located above or near your Delete key)
2. Click Start, Programs or All Programs, Accessories, and then click Paint
3. On the Edit menu, click Paste
4. On the File menu, click Save and save this file as Ad_Error.JPG
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide, and I’ll see you next time!
Ask Moxie!
Do you have a question or comment? I’d love to hear from you. Just email me at zmaster@microsoft.com and I’ll do my best to answer in one of these Coffee Breaks! Oh, please make sure to include your MSN Games nickname, so I know who to list here if I quote you!
(And if you have technical questions or problems with a game, we’ll cheerfully answer those as well. Just submit them through the support section of this site!)
More Moxie!
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