• Currently 4.77/5 Stars.

Phiber Optik to Yuri Gagarin, Rapunzel

• Currently 4.69/5 Stars.

Abraham Maslow to Pharaoh

• Currently 4.59/5 Stars.

buckyball to accent

Viewing page 1 of 5. > Viewing 4 of 17 posts.

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Getting Ready for Feb 10th

Man, I'm tired. Getting the facebook launch together has been a lot of work. But it has been worth it. We realized mid-2008 that running our own little social network was not going to work. People get tired of inviting friends, who then have to sign up for yet another web site, get the registration email, and then find a way to meet friends at the same time for games. Social networks like facebook figured out how to do these things much better than we can. Integrating the game into the facebook system lets us take advantage of all the social network strengths, and lets us focus more on the game itself.

If you like the Glass Bead Network, you're probably going to want to jump on facebook. You'll get to have your profile picture in your games themselves. Quick access to your friends lists is nice, as is getting your wins and top plays posted right on your facebook "wall". And of course, being able to sign in once to message friends, share photos, post notes, and play games isn't a bead deal.

We've not talked about it yet, but alongside the facebook launch is a totally new game variant. We don't recommend that beginners start there, but for players familiar with the game rules, this is going to be exciting. I for one am giddy about playing this new game version, which I'll save the details about until later next week. For now, suffice it to say that this is a deeper strategic experience than the basic game, the kind where everything can turn on a dime, and less advantage is given based on turn order.

We'll be emailing existing players right before the facebook launch. This is a big deal for us; we need our regulars to get online, play some games, and help out the newbies. Our hope is that the launch on facebook will find us having players online 24/7 within several weeks of launch, owing mainly to the viral effect of players inviting their friends.

So clear your calendars! Just kidding. But be excited for February 10th. I am.

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New Features

There's a new client up. I'm not fond of the new site feature, which is win/loss records on your opponents' profile page. Mainly because I'm trailing rcall so badly.

This release is mainly in preparation for our Facebook launch. I'm really excited about the launch, not least of all because it will put us within easy reach of so many players. This will solve so many problems that we currently have, including better communication between players with calendars and messaging, inviting friends to play, and so on. Great plays will show up on players' Facebook feeds, which will create automatic interest for those on their friends list. Players will also have their profile photos show up right in the game client, making the whole experience a bit more friendly.

We're calling the Facebook launch a "beta" release mainly because we don't yet have the infrastructure to support an enormous influx of players. If that happens, we'll obviously regroup long enough to solve the problem. But until we have a feel for the kind of attention we'll get, we're playing it safe with the "beta" excuse. :-)

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What's Going On?

Many of you know that GBN was created by three people in evening hours, and that two of those (the developer two) took new full-time jobs in recent months. But in spite of appearances, a lot is going on. We continue our slow crawl towards funding, for one. For two, we'll have a new game client up soon with several enhancements. And for three (and most importantly), we're working right now on porting the project to the Facebook platform.

Why are we doing such a thing? Well, it doesn't make sense for us to run our own little social network here on the site. Sure, we'll continue to support it as is. But Facebook integration will give us a means of rapid growth of our player base. Things will work basically the same as they do now, only you'll be able to access the game (and play it) more simply from Facebook.

More soon!

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Next Mind the Gap

The new Mind the Gap puzzle will be posted Monday.

• Currently 4.02/5 Stars.

• Currently 2.48/5 Stars.

• Currently 2.69/5 Stars.

• Currently 4.11/5 Stars.

• Currently 2.69/5 Stars.

• Currently 2.69/5 Stars.

• Currently 3.37/5 Stars.

• Currently 2.00/5 Stars.

• Currently 3.08/5 Stars.

• Currently 3.37/5 Stars.