by Lure on February 9, 2010
As promised (in Picman’s “formal explanation” forum post), Draddog has some exciting events in store to make our time at Big Sea Games more fun, and they’re starting this week! There are two notable events starting soon: one’s a daily trivia and the other is a lucky Valentine’s week.
Draddog’s Trivia will be an event where Draddog will spend 2 hours in the game rooms asking trivia questions and rewarding the first correct answer with a coupon code for a game from the Big Fish Games Game Collection. The news release states it’ll start “Tuesday, February 18″ so we’re not sure if that means Tuesday February 16 or Thursday February 18. Either way, there is more information on the schedule in the forums.
And from February 12 through 18th, Big Sea will be adjusting the jackpot spins in our favor! “While the Jackpot payouts are not going to change, your odds of getting a larger Jackpot are better. Some players will even hit the big Jackpot with all 7 letters!” So, if you’re into padding your token totals, that’ll be the week to play as much as you can.
We’d love to hear your experiences with either of these events, so please come back and let us know if you have a chance to play the upcoming Draddog’s Trivia or if you win a jackpot in the week to come. See you in the comments!
Update: This week’s trivia schedule is as follows (turns out it was February 9, not 18th!):
Tuesday 02/09 – 1:00PM to 3:00PM
Wednesday 02/10 – 10:00AM to 12:00PM
Thursday 02/11 – 3:00PM to 5:00PM
Friday 02/12 – 2:00PM to 4:00PM
All times are PST and the event will take place in random game rooms. Categories for the trivia questions will be “general trivia, pop culture, and the like.”
by Lure on February 5, 2010
Be sure to check out the “formal explanation from BFG” in the Big Sea Games community’s Chit-Chat section. In it, Picman — who is Paul Thelen, the owner of Big Fish Games — explains the state of the site and some of the upcoming plans. It’s not good news by any stretch of the imagination, but it at least puts an explanation behind the lack of new games, updates, and fixes to current problems that we’d all expected.
Here are some highlights:
We have struggled to balance the elements of what makes Big Sea Games special with the need for revenue to fund this project for the long term. As such we have redeployed most of the Big Sea Games engineering staff to another project while we evaluate our options.
That pretty much means there won’t be any new games (and probably not the promised redesigns that are still left), but he goes on to list what their priorities are and are not:
Prior to being able to communicate a formal plan, here is what you should expect:
- A good community of people to play games and interact with
- Great customer service
- A stable site to play the games your currently love
- Some fun upcoming events and promotions (watch for news from Draddog about this in the coming days)
- Opening up the registration process to users on the wait list (coming soon)
Here is what is unlikely until we have more concrete plans:
- New games or new features. These require significant engineering, testing, and technical support.
So, we’re left waiting again, and this isn’t really news to any of us who have been paying close attention, but at least we’ve got the hope that they’ll focus their efforts on stabilizing the site and bringing in new people to enjoy what we’ve had since August.
I’m not feeling positive about this news, but I don’t want to be negative either. The truth is that I’ll be sticking it out and waiting for whatever comes, whether or not it was what we all had expected. Something important to keep in mind (and this is just my interjection here): the site’s been in beta for almost six months. To some people, like those of us who have been patiently waiting for new games and fixes, a six-month beta period is a long time but I suppose in the industry and in the whole scheme of things, it’s not that long. Perhaps we should take a look back at what they have accomplished instead of focusing on the promises they’ve failed to keep? Don’t get me wrong, I’m frustrated right along with the rest of you, but it’s probably more of a problem with their communication than implementation and Picman’s post is one step in the right direction in my view.
I am, however, really excited at the prospect of new users coming in off the wait list. I think it’ll reinvigorate the site at least for a few months (though I fear new players will — just as we did — grow bored with the current content if there are no new games or updates for a long period of time) and I look forward to meeting new people making new friends.
How do you feel about this announcement? Is it going to change anything for you? I’d love to hear all of your thoughts.
by Lure on February 2, 2010
In the past few weeks, Big Sea Games has published the following How to Play pages:
* Suits Me Pyramid
* Mush!
* Deuces Wilder
As usual, we’re linking these for future reference from our pages that contain Ranks and Awards information for every game at Big Sea.
If you’ve got any additional hints or tips to share for any of these games, please leave them for your fellow Big Sea fans!
by Lure on January 29, 2010
Big Sea Games has announced a new maintenance schedule. From now on, there will be a maintenance period (read: downtime) every Tuesday from 10am to 11am Pacific time.
Starting this Tuesday, February 2, Big Sea Games will be offline from 10 AM to 11AM every Tuesday. We will be conducting normal server maintenance to help our server performance and improve stability. We will begin at 10 AM Pacific time (click here to see what time that is where you live). The site will return within the hour.
Please expect the site to be down between 10 AM and 11 AM Pacific time every Tuesday morning. Our apologies for any inconvenience.
If the Big Sea Games site is down, take a look at your clock and calendar: if it’s Tuesday between 10 and 11a Pacific, it’s scheduled maintenance.
by Lure on January 15, 2010
Big Sea has finally posted How to Play Plunder! I know a lot of you were waiting for this one!
Also, don’t forget that wayyy back on Talk Like a Pirate Day 2009, we shared a few hints and tips for Plunder.
If you have any other hints or tips, feel free to add them in a comment below. Thanks!
by Lure on January 6, 2010
Happy New Year everyone!
First of all, I’d like to thank all of you for your patience over the last few weeks while I took some time off after the birth of my son. Second of all, I’d like to especially thank Charlie for checking in with me and helping me catch up after my little vacation! Thank you thank you thank you!
Big Sea Games has put up How to Play posts for the following games:
Thunderbolt 21
L.O.B.E.
SnowGlobe Slots
Unwell Mel
As always, these will be permanently linked from the Game Ranks and Awards pages as well.
Another small news item is that the Daily Poll — which broke with an update in December (or was it November?) and was only displaying your answer to the poll as opposed to a percentage chart of everyone’s answers — has been moved from the front page of the site to the Big Sea Games Facebook page. At the time of this post, a recent Facebook update from Big Sea Games states “We have moved our Poll of the Day to our Facebook page for the time being! Check back each weekday for a new poll!” but there have been no polls posted (yet).
And on a related note, Big Sea Games has been publishing the new game from Big Fish Games on a daily basis to their Facebook page. I understand that it’s “content” and it’s “related”, but isn’t that something that should be reserved for the Big Fish Games Facebook page only? My point of view is that I’m already a fan of both pages; should I un-fan (unfollow? unsubscribe from?) Big Fish Games since I’m now getting duplicate information (not to mention that I’m already getting the daily game splash in my email)? Are there any Facebook users/fans out there who have an opinion on this?
And don’t forget to become a fan of the Big Sea Fans Facebook page, it’ll automatically let you know when something new is posted here.
There’s also been an update to our broken friends lists:
We have restored functionality to the friend’s list. If you have over 20 friends, you should see them now. The issue with certain browsers pushing friend’s off the edge of the screen still persists however and will be resolved at a later date.
Thanks
Draddog
For what it’s worth, the latest version of Firefox is one of those “certain browsers”.
Did I miss anything newsworthy? Have you seen any news around the Big Sea Games site in the past few weeks that you’d like to share with everyone? Feel free to leave a comment below discussing updates or changes you’ve experienced. Thanks!
by Lure on December 7, 2009
Big Sea Games has posted How to Play Farm 52. This was a much-needed guide, as people were constantly searching for more information on how to play beyond the basics and beyond the almanac.
It’s a pretty long guide and it definitely covers the basics, but as is probably to be expected it doesn’t contain many hints or tips for beginners or for seasoned veterans who may be looking for another way to earn cash. Our old guide for Farm 51 still applies if you’re looking for somewhere to start, at least.
Do you have any additional hints or tips for Farm 52 you’d like to share?
