Filed under: Contests

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.

EVE pirate corp Hellcats running player event, Saturday Oct 24

by James Egan Oct 22nd 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Contests, Events, in-game, PvP, News items, Giveaways

Hellcats is well known to many EVE Online players as the game's only all-women pirate corp. They're holding an in-game event this Saturday, October 24th -- The Hellcats Pub Party -- which sounds like it'll be a good time for all. Hellcats CEO and EVE underworld celebrity Mynxee had this to say about the event: "This party is intended to express our appreciation of fans and friends plus give folks the chance to hang out, share stories, wave e-peens, and get to know each other. I promise to drink much wine and act outrageous while giving away all sorts of goodies."

Those "goodies" will include pirate faction cruisers, pirate faction and officer modules, rigged ships, forum sigs and blog banner art, and InterStellar Kredit giveaways in 50 and 100 million ISK chunks. (Plus, Hellcats corpses... don't ask.) If any EVE players have donations they'd like to add to the prize drawings, you can contract them in-game to Mynxee with the description "Hellcats Pub Party Donation". She'll credit all donors for their contributions during the giveaways.

Turbine begins LotRO Lottery on my.lotro

by Rubi Bayer Oct 22nd 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Contests, Events, in-game, Giveaways

Turbine is encouraging North American Lord of the Rings Online players to give my.lotro a try if they haven't yet, by offering some in-game rewards in the form of a lottery. Players just need to log in to my.lotro to see what drawings they are eligible for, enter, then check back after the drawing to see if they won.

The lottery system is character based, which opens the door for more personalized prizes. While we all love in-game cash and items, things specific to your character are even more fun -- some lottery drawings will give "specific rewards based on a character's class, race, level, etc.," so take that into account when you choose which of your characters to enter with.

Because my.lotro is currently in beta and Turbine is anxious for players to test it out and give feedback, the current lottery system is a daily event through the end of the month, and winners will receive a level-appropriate amount of silver and two bundles of fireworks delivered via in-game mail. Good luck to all who enter!

Hero-Con contests revealed

by Rubi Bayer Oct 18th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Contests, Culture, Events, real-world

With Hero-Con less than a week away, Paragon Studios and NCSoft look to be living up to their promise of a bigger and better Hero-Con this year. They've promised closed beta keys for the upcoming City of Heroes expansion Going Rogue to all attendees, and even created a mission arc in-game that ties into the convention. They've also been hinting at some great activities at the convention, and yesterday they gave us all the information we've been waiting for.

It's a fan convention near Halloween, so nobody should be surprised to hear there's a costume contest Saturday night after the banquet dinner. Five winners will be chosen, and they just ask that you leave any realistic (i.e. dangerous) weapons at home, and skip the costumes that are trademarked outside the CoH universe. There will also be trivia challenges running throughout the day on Saturday -- 30-minute qualifiers leading up to an on stage trivia competition between the six highest scoring qualifiers.

The big fun, however, looks to be the live mission. Teams of eight will compete in a series of missions to be the first to find the 10 keys of the M.A.G.I. vault. You and your team (make your own PUG joke here) can sign up at the registration area on Friday.

Good luck, have fun!

MMO giveaway trend continues with Station Access Passes

by Rubi Bayer Oct 15th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Contests, Culture, News items, Giveaways

Is the Christmas season coming early? Contests and freebies seem to be the name of the MMO game this month, with all kinds of in-game and physical items being offered by fans and games alike. We've even gotten in on the fun here at Massively.

Now Sony Online Entertainment has teamed up with sci-fi and fantasy blogger Patrick (Pat's Fantasy Hotlist), to offer an extremely generous gift: 20 six-month Station Access subscriptions. Patrick says "As I mentioned a few days ago, in an attempt to bring the disparate factions of the fragmented SFF fandom together, I'm collaborating with the nice folks at Sony Online Entertainment to see if we can bring some SFF gamers into the fold."

"Nice" is a bit of an understatement. Each access pass is worth around $180, and the only thing you need to do to enter is send an entry email. Twenty winners will be chosen at random from everyone who enters by October 25th. Patrick's got full details on his site and SOE has the information as well, so good luck to all.

Win yourself a Guild Wars 2 art book from Massively

by Shawn Schuster Oct 13th 2009 at 12:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Contests, Lore, Guild Wars 2, Massively meta, Giveaways

During PAX this summer, ArenaNet announced a new art book, showcasing the amazing talent that they've somehow been able to harness all in one studio. This book was given away at the convention and is now sold at their Penny Arcade or NCsoft online store, but will not be available anywhere else. That's why we're extra happy to announce that we're giving one away to a lucky winner this week.

As part of our commitment to never accept gifts from publishers, we're giving away this art book (valued at $30) in a random drawing. To enter, simply reply to this post between now and Friday, October 16th at 8am EDT. At that time, a winner will be chosen and contacted. Limit one entry per person. Winners must 18+ and live in the US or Canada (excluding Quebec). Check out our complete contest rules page for more information on eligibility.

Before we pry our hands from this coveted hardcover book, we took some photos of a few pages to let you know what you're trying for. Follow along in the gallery below for only a sample of what to expect.

[Update: Comments are now closed, winner to be contacted shortly]

Gallery: Guild Wars 2 Art Book

Final Fantasy XI holds a contest to draw the professor, Vana'diel's newest royal successor

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 8th 2009 at 6:30PM

Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Contests, MMO industry, News items, Consoles

We have news for all of you readers, you can now draw pictures of your future fearless leader! Final Fantasy XI's Lady Shantotto is the focus of the mini-expansion, "A Shantotto Ascension," and she wants to make sure her reign begins with your full apprehension!

If you are artistically inclined, then drop by the Final Fantasy XI website in time! There you will learn the contest's basics, so hopefully you can learn enough to face it. Many renditions of her fabulous nature will be chosen, but only a few will get the medal that is golden!

Those selected to win a prize will see it appear right before their eyes. A Nomad Moogle Rod is the contest's winning, and we think you'll find that the item will keep you grinning. Target a fellow party member and before you can say do-si-dori, a gift will end up in their inventory!

So don't wait and stop to yawn, or else this contest will have come and gone!

Sincerely, Professor Shan... er... the Massively.com staff. O~hohohohohohohoho!

Neo Steam lets in the soul reapers

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 8th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, Events, in-game, News items, Neo Steam

It's October, and that means all of the spooky Halloween events are coming out of the woodwork. But how many of them are offering you a pair of steampunk goggles for completing them? Well, only one right now -- Neo Steam.

Atlus is throwing open the doors to the Underworld, and all sorts of creepy-crawlies are invading their fantasy steampunk MMO. Defeating these event monsters will get you souls to trade in to special soul reapers to claim pumpkin seeds and pumpkin pie for recovery purposes, but the big 250 soul turn in will get you a special pumpkin hat (as seen above) to commemorate the event.

However, some monsters will drop event tickets, which enters your account in for a chance to win a pair of handcrafted steampunk goggles. So, what are you waiting for, an invitation? Kill stuff, get loots!