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Coder wins a thousand Twitter contests using a bot
You've probably seen "retweet to win" contests on Twitter, and maybe even won a t-shirt, concert tickets or marshmallows. But computer engineer Hunter Scott completely automated the idea and created a bot that entered every Twitter contest it could find -- 165,000 in total. As a result, he claims to have won four contests a day for nine months, for a total haul of over a thousand prizes. A lot of that swag was terrible, and a lot of it he couldn't accept. But the interesting part was how he allegedly managed to beat Twitter's system.
Guild Wars 2 hosts a Wintersday twitter contest this week
The holiday season is over. It's over. We're done. But you could still win some stuff from Guild Wars 2 if you're willing to slap some stencils up on your window. The team behind the game is hosting a Twitter-based contest this week, starting today and running until January 9th, with one lucky winner each day receiving a Griffon Mail Carrier. How can you win? Put some Guild Wars 2-themed stencils up on your window of choice, take a picture, and tweet it to the main Twitter account for the game this week with the hashtags #GW2 and #Wintersday. For those not feeling terribly creative, there are pre-made stencils available to fulfill the requirements. Sure, maybe you're happy to have the holiday decorations taken down, but if you want that mail carrier, you'll get to it. There's still time to enter the other Wintersday contests as well, although those are a little more elaborate; you can read the full details on the contests page.
Secure a Skyforge beta key through a gems minigame
Wanna win a beta key for Skyforge, the upcoming sci-fantasy MMORPG from My.com/Allods Team? I hope you like minigames, then, because Skyforge is going to make you play a minigame to earn that video game beta key. From today to December 23rd, players can log into the game's website to play a daily round of the minigame, called Aelion's Treasure. There's more at stake than just keys, though: In the mini-game, players have seven attempts daily to find as many blue gems as possible on a board of 21 gems. To win a closed beta key one should collect 5 blue gems. Along the way they'll find several surprises, and a special leaderboard will keep track of players' progress. The top 20 players on the leaderboard each week will also receive an invitation to Skyforge closed beta. Additionally, the player who places in first in the leaderboard rankings each week will receive a Sound Blaster EVO ZXR Headset. Other prizes include an exclusive Skyforge Souvenir Gift Set, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 graphics card. Hey, at least it's novel, right? The game's first technical beta ran earlier in November. We don't yet know exactly when the beta will begin, though given the duration of this promotion, we can hazard a guess.
Win a PlayStation 4 from Massively, Joystiq, and WoW Insider
How would you like to win a free PlayStation 4 console? That's what we thought. Today might just be your lucky day; the entire Joystiq network has partnered with PenFed for a PS4 giveaway that begins... right now. We've got a handy Rafflecopter giveaway badge below to help you enter; you can earn up to three chances to win by participating on social media here, plus there are more chances to win on our sister sites: WoW Insider and Joystiq. a Rafflecopter giveaway One winner chosen from the total of entries on all three sites will be contacted via email to receive one PS4. Entries will be accepted until the contest's end on Tuesday, October 21st, at 11:59am EDT. Good luck!
Guild Wars 2 launches new WvW meta-contests
Most PvP contests require you to actually be good at PvP. That seems fair, really, just as cooking contests generally work best when they feature people who are at least passingly familiar with cooking. But the two new Guild Wars 2 WvW contests don't actually require you to be any good at WvW, just good at showing the feature off. ArenaNet has partnered with Overwolf to kick off two WvW contests that are all about promoting and celebrating WvW, even if you aren't much of a player. The first contest is looking for the players who use the Overwolf application while streaming, aiming for the highest number of concurrent viewers on Twitch. Whoever wins gets some SteelSeries peripherals as well as 8,000 gems. Meanwhile, if that's not your thing, you can also create a WvW War Report, share it via YouTube, and be eligible to win 5,000 gems if your offering is the best. So it's not about your PvP skill here, just about your ability to entertain people via that skill (or lack thereof).
Wings Over Atreia: The spoils of Aion's fifth anniversary
Another year has flown by! Aion is turning five years old, and that means it's time for Daevas to enjoy cake and presents during the nearly month-long birthday bash. What goodies are in store during this year's North American festivities? Associate Product Manager Sean Orlikowski has shared with us the schedule of events that span from today until October 8th; it includes contests, buffs, double drop rates, and a special anniversary-day GM hosted event. There's also a special new Daevonian armor set for only 1 NCoin (which is practically free) that even new players can use.
Get your Dizzel beta item key today here on Massively
Just as our sister site Joystiq did yesterday, Massively is giving away a boatload of Dizzel beta codes to our readers today -- specifically, keys for a Chrome Assault Rifle usable in the game. Dizzel is a free-to-play multiplayer third-person action-shooter by OGPlanet and Neowiz that falls into our Not So Massively category, but we think it could appeal to our regular MMO audience as well. Plus, free stuff! Interested? Just clicky the buttons below to grab your Dizzel item code, then follow these instructions to redeem it: Via official installer: Sign up for a free OGPlanet account by downloading the Dizzel Installer. Once Dizzel is installed, login to the game and create your character. Go to Dizzel's Redemption Page and enter your key code. Finally, check your in-game 'Storage' to add your items to your inventory. Via Steam: Download and Install Dizzel through Steam. Once you're in-game, locate and click the 'Shop' button on the top menu. Press the 'Cash Reload' button located on the bottom right. Steam's Cash Purchase window will be displayed; you will notice 'Item Package Redemption' on the right section. Please input your Keycode, and press 'Redeem,' and allow up to 15 minutes for delivery. Your item will arrive in your Inventory's 'Storage' section.
Get Skyforge closed beta keys in a social media scavenger hunt
Did the upcoming title Skyforge grab your attention during its Gamescom panel earlier this month? Are you now looking forward to delving into the class-swapping system for yourself? If so, we've got good news: You have the chance to nab a key that guarantees access to the closed beta! Obsidian is having a scavenger hunt giveaway on the game's official Twitter and FaceBook page, getting a total of 100 keys into the hands of fans. Numerous keys have been posted already, so if you want one of them, keep your eyes peeled. If you don't win, however, you can still sign up for a chance to get one on the official site. [Thanks to Dystopiq for the tip!]
Elder Scrolls Online's 'Tales of the Dead' contest seeks storytellers
If you've spent even an hour in an Elder Scrolls RPG, you're certain to have stumbled into one of the iconic corpse-and-letter storytelling scenes created by the writers and world builders. This week, ZeniMax is giving Elder Scrolls Online players the chance to join in the fun via a contest titled Tales of the Dead, which asks gamers to put pen to paper in the service of describing this cheerful scene: To participate, take a good look at the image [above]. Then, create your own fictional entry of 500 words or less that tells us more about the scene. You can write a short story, a journal entry, or any other kind of fictional text that sheds more light on what happened to cause this grim tableau. Once you're happy with your creation, post it in the contest entry thread. We'll start accepting entries today, August 11th, and will close the contest this Friday, August 15th at 11:59PM EDT. If you're one of the three winners we announce on August 29th, you'll receive a $25 electronic gift certificate to the Bethesda Store and an ESO t-shirt of your choosing! The complete rules are available on the ESO forums. Good luck topping A Falling Wizard!
Want to see your artwork on TERA's load screens?
If you've ever looked at TERA's loading screens and thought "I can do better," well, put up or shut up. En Masse is hosting a contest designed to spice up the waits between zones in its fantasy action MMO. You'll need to come up with original artwork (i.e., no screenshots), and you'll need to submit your entry no later than August 17th. You could win a new avatar outfit for your trouble, as well as the chance to see your work -- featuring your character and server names -- in the game. Click through the links below for more details and the full contest rules.
Win an iPad Mini and SteelSeries headphones in Massively's Gameloft giveaway
What better way to celebrate Memorial Day than with free stuff? Massively has teamed up with mobile developer Gameloft this week to give away both an iPad Mini with Retina Display and a set of SteelSeries Siberia V2 Heat Orange Edition headphones to one lucky reader of Massively or our sister sites, Joystiq and WoW Insider. Gameloft is the company behind Order and Chaos Online, a multi-platform mobile MMO featuring questing, PvP, mounts, and guilds. It's currently free on the iOS App Store for a limited time. Here's how you can enter to win: Download Order and Chaos Online on iPhone or iPad (it's free!). Create a character within the game with this symbol included in the name: ^^^ Post that character's name in the comments of this article and enter via the Rafflecopter widget below. a Rafflecopter giveaway You can also enter directly on Joystiq and WoW Insider. Good luck, everyone!
The Daily Grind: Do you enter MMO design contests?
The Star Citizen community is in the midst of coming up with some pretty amazing designs for the game's Next Great Starship contest. Cloud Imperium's space sim isn't the first MMO to offer players a chance to get their creations in game, though. EVE Online has hosted a similar contest in the past, and SOE is of course collecting a ton of community-made assets both in Landmark and via its Player Studio initiative, so it's clear that content crowdsourcing is here to stay in one form or another. What's less clear is how the community feels about it, and how many members of said community participate in it. Fortunately we have The Daily Grind, in all its completely unofficial and unscientific polling glory. What say you, Massively readers? Do you enter MMO design contests? Have you ever won? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Cast your vote in the Blizzard Stream Awards
Blizzard Entertainment has paired up with popular streaming website Twitch for a new contest specifically designed for streamers. The Blizzard Stream Awards are to recognize and reward streamers of Blizzard's entire stable of games, from World of Warcraft to Hearthstone and more. In order to qualify for the contest, streamers must be a Twitch partner streamer who has showcased content from one of the four Blizzard franchises between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013. The contest has fourteen different categories, split into two groups -- poll categories, and data-driven categories. While the data-driven categories are based purely on data gathered by Twitch, the poll categories are up to community voting to decide. The nominees for the categories have been announced, and voting is now open -- but if you want to get your vote in, you better do it soon. Voting closes next Wednesday, February 5. Winners will be announced on February 7 on Blizzard's official site, and also on the official Twitch blog.
Officers' Quarters: 8 gift ideas that won't break the gbank
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. The holiday season is all about giving. It's the perfect time of year to hold contests and giveaways. Doing so can be a great way to build morale in your community or attract new players. Giving gifts to your officers as a guild leader is also a heartfelt way to show appreciation for their hard work throughout the year. However, many of the most desired items can cost a fortune in gold. For officers, manpower is often much easier to come by than raw currency. Here are eight items that make great gifts or prizes without bankrupting your gbank. 8. Discombobulator Ray Where to get it: An engineer can learn the schematic in Gnomeregan. Wowpedia has a walkthrough. It also has a small chance (0.5%) to drop from Mekgineer Thermaplugg, the last boss of the dungeon. What it costs: A small amount of gold for materials: bronze bars, silk and wool cloth, and jade. Why it's a good gift: Many players don't even know this vanilla-era item exists. It has a unique and hilarious effect, and you don't have to be an engineer to use it. It's also a devastating item for low level players to unleash in PvP.
Massively Giveaway: Inferno Legend VIP bundle
If you ever wanted to play the bad guys in Diablo instead of the good guys, then Gamebox's Inferno Legend might just be for you. The isometric, turn-based action-MMO launched its open beta yesterday and allows gamers to play as everything from evil faeries to samurai because why not? So let's get some free stuff to go with our evil faeries. Gamebox has given Massively a slew of VIP keys for a bundle of free items in Inferno legend, including 150 Diamonds, 20,000 Gold, 200 Power of Faith, 200 Power of Lineage, 100 Wickedness (*wink*), and an exclusive pair of shoes called Pilgrim's Trail, which when equipped increase the character's speed based on his or her level. The bundle also includes beta access. To apply your key to your account, login to your Gamebox account or create a new one, click "code," input your gift code, and then click "claim." This is a worldwide giveaway open to everyone everywhere (yay!). The keys are set to work right now and will last until we run out. Enjoy!
The Queue: Not what it was a moment ago
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. My original subtitle for today's edition of The Queue was "afadsgsg." Figured I should probably change it. Furthermore, I chose today's header image by going to a depth of 200 pages in our archive. Kruphix asked: How do you feel about sub-race options? For example, you can choose, once you pick a dwarf for your race, to be a bronzebeard, wildhammer, or dark iron dwarf. Each would have its own benefits - maybe cosmetic, maybe more practical in terms of gameplay. Different orcish clans (Frostwolf, warsong), maybe some troll tribes uniting under the horde, etc.
Reminder: Entries for the BlizzCon 2013 Talent Contest due August 6th
If you're interested in showing your talents to the world on the BlizzCon stage, here's your reminder that the deadline to enter the Talent Contest is fast approaching. And if you've got Blizzard-themed talent to show off, don't let not having BlizzCon tickets deter you: the top four teams will get round trip airfare, hotel lodging, airport shuttle transportation, and admission to BlizzCon 2013 so they can perform their routine on the BlizzCon stage. And that's in addition to some very nice cash prizes. Think you have what it takes? You'll have to record a 2-minute video of your talent to submit to Blizzard by August 6th. Check out the official rules and Blizzard's contest page for full details. And, of course, good luck from WoW Insider!
Guild Wars 2 announces the Bazaar of the Four Winds
After four hours of tantalizing speculation, Guild Wars 2 has officially announced the game's next major update, the Bazaar of the Four Winds. Once again, there's something coming in from the sky, but this time it's not a group of pirates that seek to murder you and take all your stuff; it's a group of traders and merchants on the Zephyr Sanctum, bringing a new air of excitement to the normal proceedings of the eponymous bazaar. In a more practical sense, the update offers three new minigames (with one sticking around as a permanent addition), a reward system for account achievements, and a new PvP map. The improved achievement UI should help getting those rewards a bit easier, while the addition of Build and Repair Mastery in WvW should help out players more prone to smashing one another with weapons. So get ready for drinking, racing, exploration, and trading when the update touches down a week from today.
Name this Repopulation zone, win a $100 Kickstarter pledge
Want to leave your mark on Above & Beyond Technologies' new Repopulation sandbox? You can via a contest that will allow players to name a newly created zone in the sci-fi game. Entries must be submitted via a forum thread or Twitter, and finalists will go into a pool of five from which the winner will be selected by a poll. Said winner will receive a $100 Kickstarter pledge to the game or a bump if you're already an early adopter. Full details are available at The Repopulation's official site.
EVE Online collecting player stories, CSM elections halfway over
In a lot of ways, EVE Online players are a lot like vikings. Or so CCP's new promotional video would have you believe. It draws comparisons between early Icelandic settlers carving out their place in the world to players in the galaxy of EVE Online doing much the same. It also makes the fine point that we would know nothing about the settlers of Iceland were it not for the few who took the time to write about the events of the time. The fine scholars at CCP want to preserve the history of EVE Online in a similar way, and they want players' help to do it. Internet spacefarers can go to the EVE True Stories site and submit their favorite tales, which will be voted upon by fellow players. One lucky player will even win a trip to Iceland to visit CCP's studios and take in the splendor of the country. EVE players and politicians may also want to remember that the 8th Council of Stellar Management elections are halfway done, and voting will close on April 17th (that's today!) at 7 p.m. EST (midnight GMT). So if you want to make your voice heard, head on over to the election page and cast your ballot. Also, don't forget to check out the True Stories video after the cut.SM
