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  Moxie’s Coffee Break

October 2, 2006

A Time for Change

I'm not one who enjoys change all that much. I love the familiarity of my favorite things and routine rarely bores me.  I stop at the same coffee shop before work, eat the same thing for lunch, visit the same websites… and I've been this way since I was way young - I wore purple every day from the age of 2 to 7 (and I looked in my closet last night and honestly… not much has changed).  But sometimes you have to dive head first into a something new because it is just too super to pass up.

We have some major changes happening here at MSN Games in the next few weeks and I have special permission to let you guys in on some of the details. Pretty soon, MSN Games will be totally revamped – we'll have a new look, new feel and… a ton of cool new features! It's a huge change for us but it's surely going to be a good one. Our whole site will be much cooler and streamlined and your whole gaming experience will be more enjoyable.

We've been talking about the site redesign for months and months in the hallowed halls of MSN Games and it always seemed so far away. But oh boy, is it coming up and I can't wait to surf around our new site! It is going to look uber-cool and we have a great team to thank for that. Our designers have been chained to their computers for weeks trying to get all the art ready for the new look of our site and being a (novice) designer myself I know how much work goes into getting one little piece of art done (My brother-in-law knows this too since it's taken me about three years to finish the website for his market and… let's just say I'm better at writing this column.) But the new site is so pretty; I just can't help gushing about it. Oh to see just how great the site looks, check out this article to get a sneak preview of the design.

Other than the new appearance of the site, we're also going to have some neat features. The site will be a breeze to navigate meaning you'll be able to access your favorite games with the greatest of ease! We will have a brand new Fun & Challenges section so you can easily see what badges are available and what special events are going on. There are also some features I can't talk about just yet… but I promise they are great! Once we launch the new design, more improvements will be coming in the weeks to follow. You'll just have to check back often and play some games – that's pretty easy right?

A Challenge!

As you may have guessed from my past columns, I have a bit of a competitive streak. I take great pleasure in gloating to my officemates and letting out an occasional "woot" when I do particularly well in a game. However, I am greatly humbled when I visit our forums or get an e-mail from an MSN gamer talking about their incredible scores playing some of our games. My badge album is quite full of the special achievement badges and number of games played badges. But my mastery badges range from level 1 (curses to you Bricks of Atlantis!) to level 10 (I am the grand master of Jewel Quest). I would give you exact scores of my incredible achievement but uh… some of the scores have disappeared from my badge album because I've neglected some of my favorite games. I do know my high score for Jewel Quest was over 450,000 and my Hexic spinning skills have earned me about 80,000 points. Unfortunately, there are some games that I think I'm great at and I play all the time and but I only have a mastery level 6 or 7. Shucks! Must… improve… score. Click… think… faster.

So this is an open challenge to you my devoted readers. Send in screen shots of your high scores to zdeluxe@microsoft.com and I'll post the ones that are the most woot-able in this here column. Also, if you're a giving gamer and you want to see other players succeed send in any helpful tips that assisted you in getting to that most laudable score. I personally would love to know how to be better at Granny in Paradise. It's so cute and I love to play it but man that Tiki guy loves to come after Granny and knock her down.

Tech Time

Our tech issue this week involves one of my favorite word games - Bespelled. Here's what's happening:

Bespelled sometimes has issues with the latest version of Sun Java. If the game doesn't load, you can try refreshing the window. However, this game was designed to work with an older version of the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine that is only installed with Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows 2000.  You may be able to obtain the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine and install it under Windows XP, although Microsoft does not provide support for this. If the game does not load, unfortunately you will not be able to play it.


See you next time!