Filed under: Contests

Fallen Earth screenshot contest winners announced

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 20th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Screenshots, Fallen Earth, Contests, Culture, Events, real-world

It's a beautiful day in the badlands, with the sun shining down on you unprotected in the wilderness, surrounded by horrible creatures and with only a few dozen bullets left before you are completely defenseless. What's not to be thankful for? Fallen Earth might not seem like the most appropriate setting for a Thanksgiving celebration, but the game recently held a screenshot contest for either what the player's character is thankful for or a "traditional" celebration in the wasteland. Yesterday, the winners were announced, with the top entries all receiving special in-game food that offers buffs and the essential proper nutrition for surviving the hostile environment. The first-place winner also receives a Fallen Earth t-shirt.

A small gallery is also available, with the three winners and the honorable mention available for viewing. It's not every game where appropriate holiday celebration includes heavily-armed men standing on a farm surrounded by corpses, but it works for Fallen Earth and should provide the game's players with some appropriate chuckles. Or, given the context, perhaps "inappropriate" is more apt.

Turbine announces the winners of the Broctober contest

by Rubi Bayer Nov 18th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Contests, Free-to-play

Back in October, DDO Unlimited announced a fun little contest looking for responses to their (in)famous Broccoli vs. Beholder video. First prize was 5,000 Turbine points and the coveted title "Gweater Dwagonmark of Fwiends". (No, seriously. That's a great title.) Second and third place winners received Turbine points and a "Dwagonmark of Fwiends"title as well.

The results are in, with the winning "Broccoli vs. Wraith" video keeping the Turbine staff in stitches with the expressions on Broccoli's face and the farcical chase through the corridor and doorways. Congratulations also to second place winner Korin Geholtz for showing us Broccoli's attack on Stormreach, and Zac C.B./Sioyin Chua for Broccoli vs. Ham with bonus points for great music.

Korin Geholz also gave us an additional treat by giving Tasty Ham his very own Facebook page. Congratulations to all of you from Massively, and thanks for the laughs!

Mission Architect contest launched in City of Heroes

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 12th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Contests, Events, real-world, News items

If you like creating content, the Mission Architect system in City of Heroes offers a lot of venues for your creativity, and it's certainly one of the most-touted features of the game. Now, you might be able to get more than just the joy of having other people play through your creation as a prize. There's a new contest on the official site that promises to be the first in a series, allowing a lucky designer to receive a special title and possibly even the coveted Designer's Choice award for their mission.

Sound like your sort of contest? There's a single catch -- you have to work within a given theme. In this case, the mission arc has to involve a hero doing evil for the greater good. That's a theme so ripe for exploration that we're all but certain several people came up with mission arcs just reading the line, so if you're firing on all cylinders take a look at the official rules and then get cracking. The contest ends on December 7th, plenty of time for crafting whatever story you think is best -- and considering City of Heroes: Going Rogue will be out before we know it, the submissions may wind up being more appropriate than you think. Considering that... well, who knows what winning might do for your future? Best to get to work.

Flyff adds a new expansion, wings, and a reason to grind your life away

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 11th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Flyff, Contests, Events, in-game, Expansions, Patches

It's a Flyffy day today as the free-to-play game's newest expansion, "The Lost Continent" arrives on the servers and brings a whole new continent to the world.

Centering around a darker atmosphere than the upbeat game usually provides, the new continent of Shaduwar adds in some dark dungeons and dangerous new enemies to the game. But, that's not all. Finally, for the game being centered around flying characters since its inception, they're adding wings to the game. It only took them, what, four years to add wings to the game about flying? Better late than never, if you ask us.

Plus, Flyff users will now have incentive to log on and play in the form of a 35 day marathon "Play for Rewards" contest. All players have to do is simply log onto Flyff each day for one hour, and the game will tally up the days you do this. Every five days, the game will provide you with a rewards pack, and on the 35th day of playing you'll be entered in to win a 50" HDTV. The team is giving 4 of those bad boys away, making this quest certainly worth the hour per day grind.

Where in the Champions Online world is Carmel Santiago?

by Rubi Bayer Nov 10th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Contests, Culture, Champions Online

That is the big question in Champions Online. Ring any bells? Community member Mr. Funsocks began this contest yesterday and plans to continue it on a weekly basis, offering up a pretty nice prize in exchange for your time. Just meet up at Club Caprice at the appointed time and pay your 50n entrance fee. The money goes into a pot along with an additional 5g from Mr. Funsocks. The first person to find this strangely familiar person wins the pot. There are a few rules, including "no excuses", that you can read in the forum thread along with details on where, when, and how.

The contest thread sparked an interesting discussion exploring copyright, fair-use, parody, and Cryptic's wishy-washy policies regarding these issues. It will be interesting to see how that conversation plays out, but in the meantime big thanks and kudos to Mr. Funsocks for creating what looks like a great community event.

Runes of Magic celebrates 10,000 Facebook fans

by Rubi Bayer Nov 9th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, News items, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic

Some people will jump on any good reason to celebrate, and we love them for it -- especially when "party" equals "giveaway". Runes of Magic is celebrating a milestone: 10,000 fans on their Facebook page.

They're celebrating by sending fans on a scavenger hunt. Runes of Magic wants you to take a look around their social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, and find four gold coins that they've hidden. The coins spell out a word when put together. Find the word, head over to the contest page to enter it, and you've got a chance at winning. Ten people will be drawn from the pool of correct entries, with the first prize winner receiving a Leadtek Winfast GeForce GTX 275 graphics card. RoM t-shirts and mugs are up for grabs for nine more people.

To see the list of sites to visit, check the list on the official site, and good luck!

Pumpkin contest winners for Final Fantasy XI

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 8th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Contests, Fan art, Events, real-world, News items

As Halloween fades into a memory of candy, costumes, and cheaply-made outdoor decorations, the MMOsphere slowly closes its doors on the various holiday events. Final Fantasy XI's pumpkin-carving contest on Allakhazam has finally drawn to a close, with the votes in and tallied and the winners determined. And if you doubt that there's a great deal of talent and originality on display with the contest, the excellently-rendered San d'Orian knight charging into battle above wasn't the winner -- they placed fourth.

Third place went to a rendition of the title image for this year's Halloween event, while second place went to Final Fantasy XI's resident mad professor herself. First place went -- quite deservedly -- to this hauntingly well-rendered image of a tonberry in the darkness. The official announcement includes a tally of the votes, but that might not be quite as exciting to casual observers as a gallery of all the entries. Congratulations to the winners, and here's hoping that next year brings still more pumpkin-carving fun for FFXI.

Fallen Earth wants to know what your clone is thankful for

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 5th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Contests

A cache of weak petroleum; cool Interceptors; sweet ammo drops; and having friends to face it all with. These are just some of the many things in Fallen Earth that clones might well be thankful for. Of course, if you think you can capture what you're thankful for in the wastes of the Grand Canyon, then the Fallen Earth team wants to hear from you. They're holding a screenshot contest in an attempt to find out what passes as an "authentic" Thanksgiving now that society has been mutated, fractured, and factionalized.

The idea is simple. You and up to four of your friends get together and hold your own Fallen Earth post-apocalyptic style Thanksgiving: killing, looting, maiming, working together, talking about the day's events over a nice warm Unicorn Whiz Beer -- whatever you think fits best. Then e-mail your entry off to fecontest [AT] fallenearth [DOT] com by Friday, November 13, and cross your fingers. Three winners will be picked for the contest. The first-prize image submitters get a sweet Fallen Earth t-shirt and a choice of some special in-game holiday noms for up to 5 people. More details and those pesky rule things can be found over on the Fallen Earth site for those interested. In the meantime, we're off to the wastes to figure out our own Thanksgiving entries!

Runes of Magic announces screenshot contest winners

by Rubi Bayer Nov 4th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, Events, in-game, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic

Runes of Magic went all out this Halloween with lots of special items, games, decorations, and even some contests. The screenshot decoration contest asked players to decorate their houses, their guild halls, and even themselves in their best Runes of Magic Halloween style to compete for in-game prizes. Players had a great time with the contest, deploying armies of ghosts, witches, pumpkins and candles in their houses and guild halls. They decorated themselves just as thoroughly, with a combination of whimsical and scary Halloween costume pieces.

Runes of Magic announced the winners today, with first, second, and third place winners in the house and costume categories, and a single winner in the guild hall category. Each winner will receive their choice of a costume package for their character, with a number of choices for both male and female characters.

Congratulations from us to all of the winners, and enjoy your costumes!

Guild Wars announces art contest winners

by Rubi Bayer Nov 2nd 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Contests, Free-to-play

At the beginning of October, Guild Wars announced that their annual Halloween art contest was open for entries. After sorting through hundreds of submissions, they announced the winners on Friday. As always, fan creativity shone in the form of costumes, lawn decorations, drawings, carved pumpkins, and even a ceramic siege turtle that fires pumpkins instead of jade.

ArenaNet seemed very happy with this year's entries: "We were so impressed by both the Halloween spirit and the quality of artistic talent in our community that it was hard to choose only ten winners and ten honorable mentions."

Twenty winners were chosen from the submissions for some great prizes. The top three winners scored a signed copy of The Art of Guild Wars 2, the top ten received a signed Guild Wars art print, and all twenty winners won an exclusive Mad King's Guard minipet. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Fallen Earth costume contest winners announced

by Krystalle Voecks Oct 29th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Contests, News items

The apocalypse: place of beat up armor and scavenged and repurposed items galore. While this means you're in great luck for making an outfit in-game, it makes things a bit more difficult when it comes to making a Fallen Earth costume in the real world. Do you stay true to the game and only use things that look the same as existing gear? Or do you get creative in your costume scavenging and let your imagination run wild? Well, this year it would appear that the entries for the second annual Fallen Earth costume contest did both.

The three categories awarded for this year's contest winners were Most Original Setting, Most Accurate Game Costume, and Best Inside Joke on Scavenging, which went to Sinoth, blackenedlegions, and spookdi respectively. There were also four honorable mentions (faust, Schipperke, Beorend, jac428) and a shout out to one of our staffers who sent in a costume too. Be sure to go check out the gallery of winners for some pretty cool post-apocalyptic costumes!

MicroWarpCast interviews EVE lead game designer Noah Ward

by James Egan Oct 28th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Podcasts, EVE Online, Contests, Game mechanics, Interviews

The EVE Online-focused podcast MicroWarpCast returned this week, hosted by our friend CrazyKinux with guest Noah Ward (aka CCP Hammerhead), who is a Lead Game Designer at CCP Games. We mentioned a while back that the winner of a contest CrazyKinux was running would get to interview an EVE developer on the podcast. People entered by writing an article on planetary control and how this could be implemented in EVE Online. The winner was Xiphos83 from the EVE blog "A Misguided Adventurer" who wrote about about a siege system that could be used in planetary conquest. As the contest winner, Xiphos83 posed questions to Noah about some of the current or controversial issues in the game.

This led to Noah explaining CCP's reasons for limiting the use of the directional scanner with a timer -- a major issue cited by many players who either hunt others or want to evade attackers -- due in part to player macroing of directional scans. The directional scan will never go back to how it was since that system was too easily exploitable, but he asserted that the devs have tried to balance performance for the players with server demands.

Turbine and Xfire think you need a new computer

by Rubi Bayer Oct 26th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Contests, Giveaways

They want to give you one. No, really. At the beginning of last week Xfire and Turbine announced that they were teaming up to offer prizes for joining the Xfire community and playing Dungeons and Dragons Online.

There's still time to get in on the contest. The requirements for entering are pretty easy: join the Dungeons and Dragons Online Official XFire Community and play DDO while signed into Xfire. The prizes are divided into four categories, and your prize category is determined by how many hours you play between now and November 2nd. Playing 50 hours puts you in the drawing for a 24-inch widescreen monitor and a new computer with a generous helping of bells and whistles or a shiny new graphics card. Playing 25 hours puts you in the prize category for a 23-inch widescreen monitor. If you're short on time, one hour of playtime will put you in a drawing for 1500 Turbine Points, and who doesn't love a virtual gift card?

In all 33 people will be chosen to win, so look here for details, here for those pesky rules, and here for the Xfire DDO community. Good luck!

Spin a spooky Fallen Earth tale for in-game prizes

by Krystalle Voecks Oct 25th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Contests, Culture, Events, in-game

With the Days of the Dead in full swing in Fallen Earth, various different player groups are holding their own events. If you love to spin spine-tingling tales of terror set in the post-apocalyptic world of Fallen Earth, the players at The Shop (with help from Saints Incorporated clan) have a great contest for you! They're looking for player-submitted spooky stories for their Halloween Narrative Contest - and you could score some sweet prizes in the process!

The idea is pretty simple: write a story of no more than 2500 words having to do with something evil, spooky, scary, or macabre. Some suggested examples were digging around in a crypt for treasures, fighting off Blight Wolves, or even throwing a Halloween party at The Shop. The first prize winner will make off with 45 blue chips and their choice of an Electric Motorbike or a Dune Buggy. Second place will win 30 blue chips and whatever vehicle isn't chosen by the First place winner. Third place will take home 20 blue chips. For all the specifics, be sure to head over to the Fallen Earth forums and read all the delicious details. Good luck to all who enter!

Happy Halloween from Taborea

by Rubi Bayer Oct 23rd 2009 at 11:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, Events, in-game, Runes of Magic, Giveaways

Earlier this week we mentioned that Runes of Magic is one of the many games celebrating Halloween for the next week or so, but their celebration is definitely worth a closer look.

The party in Taborea includes everyone's favorite event: a giveaway. Give your character a Bat Witch Hat on us, and keep an eye on the Runes of Magic Facebook and Twitter pages for more freebies. If a hat isn't enough to satisfy your Halloween spirit, decorate yourself, your house, and even your pet with the Halloween bundles. They'll be around until November 1st.

Once you're suited up and decorated to your heart's content, log in and show it off for the in-game decoration contest. Screenshot your costume, house, or guild castle and send it in by the 28th for a chance to win an in-game Halloween decoration. You'll also want to keep your costume on for the in-game events from the Community Events Team. There are three games to participate in: Hide-n-Seek, Your Scary Costume, and Offer to the Goblin King, scheduled for each Friday and Tuesday until Halloween.

Finally, RoM goes real life -- they want photos of your real life Halloween decorations that have a Runes of Magic theme. Send them in by the 30th, and if your entry is posted you'll win even more in-game goodies.

Runes of Magic has put together quite a party - happy Halloween from Taborea, indeed.