PK is out on Apple

Title says it all. I have to get back to the game...

There's this new thing out, it's called StarCraft....

So it's Friday...

We are still waiting to hear on Apple things, the forum has pretty much become the biggest thing since sliced bread, Dave Rosenburg at CNET even wrote up a nice little article about our frustrations. Here at HQ our mood has gone from ranting, to venting, to retreating into sadness with the hopes of one day rising from the darkness with an aura of soft-white-ambient-light happiness (I see doves too, for some reason). But none of this changes things, so we have tried to find new ways to cope.

I have started knitting. True story, here's a picture:

I know it's not very far yet, it's not easy and I had to start over because I screwed up.



You can also see the latest issue of Wired in the background, there's a really good article in there by Clive Thompson on looking for new game-changing startups. I won't spoil it, but he says, "If I had to place a bet on one area [where the next big startup will come from], it would be location-based apps on mobile phones." I like to think he's talking about PK...
*I would link to it, but Wired waits about a month before it puts up articles so go get a copy and check it out.

But experiments with knitting are pretty much only being done by... me. Everyone else has started playing this new game called StarCraft, ever heard of it? Specifically we are playing the Brood War expansion. Yup, that dates back to 1998...

Things get pretty tense during the games, lots of strategy-talk and cursing goes on. Justin usually wins... by himself, against three or four others. I played once and he annihilated me in about 15 minutes but my team, which I supported emotionally from the grave, went on to win so I like to think I helped as canon fodder. Andy and Jon are pretty good and I think Alayna is a sleeper. I haven't seen Andrew and Forrest play yet, but I expect good things.

Humor helps too, here's a little comic from xkcd that's popular at HQ...


So they mock me for putting random things in here but it's Friday so who cares: here's something for your random entertainment. Have a good weekend!

Droid does PK

Happy Monday!

So you remember on Friday when I said that things would go well even though it was Friday the 13th? To quote: "So get your Androids and iPhones ready because it's going to be a good time."

Well, as I am sure most of you have found out, Apple did not approve the Age of Emergence in time for our launch. This is not entirely unexpected, Apple has been critiqued before for its approval process and has just recently made improvements to let developers know about their approval status.

Coincidentally, Facebook's developer, Joe Hewitt, announced on Friday that he was changing directions because he didn't want to be forced to deal with Apple's policies. If you ask me, I think he quit as a sign of protest because he had some inside connections and found out that Age of Emergence was not going to be approved on time. That's probably not true, but I like to daydream...

In all seriousness though, we are really sorry about the delay, we have been reading all the posts on the PK forum (yes, all 500 some) and we share your frustration. The good news is that the game will be out soon and all of us Apple users (myself included) will be able to get in and have fun.

Ironically, Verizon's Droid ad campaign has been touting all the things that it does but iPhone's don't, I guess PK is another thing they can add to the list?

Paraskevidekatriaphobia*

*fear of Friday the 13th

Don't know how often you look at calenders, but today is Friday the 13th. As you are probably well aware, this is a day that is supposed to be considered bad luck (just read any assortment of blogs and you will find out why). Wikipedia mentions, however, that there could be some good luck involved? It says that Friday the 13th is a day "which superstition holds to be a day of good or bad luck."

So we are going to place our bets on that side today and things seem to be off to a good start so far. To start, we were in the New York Times yesterday! The article was talking about how some smartphone applications are using GPS capabilities in unique ways, so obviously they had to talk about Parallel Kingdom. We even got a picture! It was pretty exciting news around here (Thursday usually aren't the most interesting day of the week).


Here's a picture of Justin checking it out, page B6 (if anyone has good instructions on how to operate a newspaper, please send them to Justin because he had some troubles at first).




Next on the list (this is a point where I would like to have some music so I could make it all dramatic): Age of Emergence is launching tonight!!! The awesome new iteration that you all have been waiting for will be out so you can finally see what we have been working on for so long. Here is a little video that shows some of our new stuff.


Looks cool, right? We think so too. So get your Androids and iPhones ready because it's going to be a good time.

To top it all off, there's water on the moon!

Good things, I'd say. Here's a little video for your viewing enjoyment (it's lunchtime and I'm hungry, if you can't tell). Have a good weekend.

So what do you think they are doing?

You are probably aware that the four scrolls have been found for the Great Scroll Hunt and the Great Library has been built, cool right? You can go here if you are a bit out of the loop.

This means that the Age of Emergence is coming out soon (this Friday at midnight), but more importantly for you this means the server is down and you are probably furious that you can't play PK, right? Well I would be ignoring my duty as the dedicate blogging reporter if I did not do some muckraking to find out what's really going on here.

The PerBlue team claims that they are making website changes and revamping things to be updated with the release of Age of Emergence, they have even created a secret language that uses words like "code" and "data" and but I have found the truth...

Andy, normally in charge of marketing for PK, says that he is working on the website and the new guide, he keeps talking about how it's "90 pages in a Word doc." Yeah, right. I'm pretty sure that he is just watching the Office Assistant paper clip as it does its tricks and hops around.


Here you see the PK team working to get the Age III fully prepared and ironed out for the launch (supposedly). They claim to be talking about code, but I think that is just to confuse me.



Jon (aka Brick) claims to be staying up all hours of the night to convert the data to Age III and supposedly he needs to eat imitation Captain Crunch so he can "have energy to keep working." Do you believe that? Neither do I, even if I did have to wake up him at his computer this morning. I'm pretty sure he is checking out the video we got rickrolled on or the new Age of Emergence trailer:



Supposedly Forrest is working on the new website, but we all know he has a thing for TFLN.

Anyway, it is a messy job unveiling the truth, but someone has to do it. I better get back to work before they realize what I've done!

Until next time, if there is one...

P.S. Ok, so I tend to be a bit sarcastic at times and this is one of them. In reality they are working really hard and if anyone is not working, it's probably me. But I'm reading this and looking at this, so it's ok.

Obama is in Madison

Big news here, Obama called us up this morning and said, "Hey guys, I'm going to be in Madison today to talk about some of Arne's school ideas with some folks. Do you mind if I stop by and see the digs?"

We had a bit of a debate here, we do have important things to do after all, but we finally decided he could stop by (as long as he signed a nondisclosure agreement beforehand). So the big guy and his buddy, Arne Duncan, are coming by HQ.

Now, normally, this might be a good chance to ask you what you might want us to talk about with Obama, right? Perhaps you are concerned about health care reform or foreign policy issues? Well... we aren't going to ask you that because we know why he's coming here.

He wants to talk PK. Yup, turns out the Prez likes MMORPG's and since he's always on the go he prefers mobile versions. It actually helps him out quite a bit, not only has been able to cover quite a bit of territory but other players also comment that he is very charismatic in negotiating deals.

We are pretty sure that he is going to come here and try to get some hints on where he can get one of the scrolls in The Great Scoll Hunt. But don't worry, we aren't going to give him any hints (we want to keep everything fair).

But you folks can find him on PK in Madison if you want... his name is PrezObama and word on the street is that he is feeling generous so feel free to go visit him.


*Alright, just kidding. He didn't actually stop by PerBlue in real life. He was really in Madison though (both real life and PK). More information here.