Mom Gamers

GoPets is the cutest pet game ever so far. They had some financial issues last year and had to lay everyone off; keeping a no-staff of the president and his wife. It was only a matter of time before the company totally shut down. I wish this game could have gone on forever - I obtained many great friends and a real-life job through this game. I hope to forever continue to reap rewards from my relationships from this game, and to help these friends in the same ways.

I've not seen my pets in a year and was just thinking of them last night. I was so tempted to try to login but didn't want to feel the pain of seeing my pets, and the pets on accounts that my kids created, knowing that i.) our accounts would probably be messed up (lost land if not logged in in a long time) and ii.) the game could close at any time and I didn't want to get freshly attached again, even to a broken account. It really was the best pet game out there, and I hope we can see the likes of it again one day - even better.

It's really sad to see the game totally go. It was special to be able to login to my kids' accounts and play with pets they created, with desktops they layed out. Even though they no longer played, it was special to me, as I'm sure it was to other parents. Many parents with very young children created accounts for their kids, so they'd have the good items when they grew up. The good, rare items traded for a HUGE amount of shells! Also I remember a story of a girl whose dad created an account and she wanted access to it because he had died.  It was wonderful to be able to care for these virtual pets and it will be so sad to see the company totally shut down this wonderful virtual world.

Here is the forum post from Erik:

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:18 am Dear all GoPets Players, It is with profound regret and sadness that I compelled to report that we will have to shut the GoPets and GoDance service down. It has been a privilege to work closely together with you the fan base over the past 5 years - over a million pets, 150,000 custom items, robust trades and countless adventures – all wonderful. At the core of the issue is that despite heroic work by staff and volunteers the fundamental structure of GoPets including being a client vs. a web application and numerous others challenges, we could not grow GoPets large enough to be self-sustaining. The staff members have moved on to good jobs, and GoPets itself will be carefully archived – for now there are no plans – but there can be hope. The target for end of service is November 7th, 2009. We suspended payments earlier this week and we will be using our remaining savings to best refund remaining subscription time to the best of our ability. Other details of the shutdown process will follow. I would like to thank the special volunteer players who have made extra ordinary contributions of creativity and sweat over the past year – all amazing. Also, I must thank Mike, Ken, Nancy, Houston and Tony for keeping GoPets running for the past year as well as creating GoDance with such a small staff and huge time pressure. It was always a tough situation but I think you can be proud of what you created. Finally, I must thank my wife Kaiwen – Lotus. GoPets could never have been created without her adventuresome spirit to move to Korea in 2003, and since then she has grown into our community leader, our localization leader and most recently a prolific designer. Beyond all that she has been my partner through all of these ups and downs and has endured and helped solve all of chaos to our family and personal lives. Deep sadness, -Erik

I love looking at lists of peoples' favorite games, and hearing about the best games they've ever played.  I like to see if my faves are on the list, as well as maybe discovering a new game!

Here's what Taichi Inuzuka from Square Enix has to say about Dragon Quest:

What is your favorite game you have every played on any console and why?

"This is not promotion or anything, and it comes from the bottom of my heart, but I think DRAGON QUEST IX is the best and favorite game I've ever played. I've played around 500 hours so far. Reasons are because I could play such a long time and haven't felt almost any stress while I play."

No stress - hmmm...sounds like a game I'd love to try!

The author of this article says:

"I’m pretty excited, I have to admit. I want to ding 80 before Christmas, which should be easy enough (again, level 49 right now) but my play schedule is pretty wacky."

Well. I have to say that I'm 52 and hope to be 80 by then too. I figured it's going to take me that long. I don't know how my friend did it. He made a little mage two weeks after I made my lock last month. He's at 80 already and no he's not on the referral program. MAN. I asked him how he does it and he just giggles. He plays a lot of hours, definitely. He's a fast leveler.

This article includes a link to some Facebook games and apps that have been subject to hacking. I'd avoid all the apps on this list:

• MyGirlySpace
• Ferrarifone
• Mashpro
• Mynameis
• Pass-it-on
• Fillinthe
• Aquariumlife
• CityFireDepartment

I've been wanting to try Aion for some time. This review makes me want to do so even more quickly!

"I've been hooked on this for some weeks and can see I'd like to play this long term as it's fun and feels different from other similar MMORPGs.

"It's a standout title all on its own - which is a good thing as it doesn't need the inevitable comparison with WoW." 

Sorry I've been away for several days; was fighting off some virus. I did play WoW some; I'll be posting a related article soon.

Today I decided to try out Artix's AdventureQuest Worlds. I wanted to try it out because it looked interesting, is free, is browser based, and has reached 10 million players in 10 months. OK mostly because it's reached 10 million players in 10 months!  Who doesn't want to see what that's all about?

I go to the site, and create an account.  In the character creation screen, you have some control over the look of your character - hair style and color, and skin and eye color. You can choose to be a warrior, mage, priest or rogue. I wanted to choose rogue, or my typical warrior choice, but I decided to try a mage.

You get a little intro story...

...and you're dumped into the intro area.

I had a little bit of a hard time figuring out where to go. The quest givers are extremely easy to see. I suggest using the map if you get lost.

Here's the main map - if you get lost just look into the center and zoom in on that area:

Techmamas is a great site for tech news that appeals to women, mothers and families. A recent article covers girls and mom gamers!

"I have seen an increase in my mom friends gaming habits as well in the following areas:

• FITNESS: Moms that are too busy to go to the club are taking advantage of the family Wii and exercising with the Wii Fit or EA Sports Active.
• INTERACTIVE FAMILY TIME: When it is "screen time" moms are finding that using interactive gaming makes it a family affair. Guitar Hero,Rock Band and Wii Music are popular for the musical family. Multiplayer sports games like Wii Sports are also popular with families, but I even heard of moms that challenge their husband to Wii Tennis after the kids go to sleep. Other multiplayer Wii games that my mom friends use with their families are Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy, Big Brain Academy, Animal Crossing: City Folk and Carnival Games."

Enchanted Island is a recently new Facebook game. It's done by the folks that do Growing Gifts. Enchanted Island is a different kind of game, what's known as a passive game. You can keep it open in your browser tab and come back to it during the day every 15 minutes to play. It's a game of patience!


On Enchanted Island, you start out as a visitor to the island.  In town you meet up with folks who help you out along the way. You acquire a wand which helps you grow flowers. As you cast and grow more flowers, your skill level increases, as does your silver and gold. Silver is used to purchase more flower seeds, pots, wands and clothing. Gold is used to purchase special seeds and potions.




Casting is 2 casts every 15 minutes. The game runs in a tabbed window of your browser so you can visit and cast at your leisure. It's a relaxing game.


A visit to Kendral the herbologist will provide you with information on all the flowers you've grown. Shadowed flowers designating that you have more to discover. You'll get statistics on what you've grown: how many of a particular type, how many three-in-a-rows, comparison of your numbers with top growers. The flowers are beautiful and colorful.








Viewing your profile will give you information on what you've currently got on your flower stand. As well, it's fun to look at other folks' profiles to see what they have sitting on their stands.

Additionally, you can see the pots you have in your inventory, seeds, and special quest items.

You can also see your badges. There are seed badges, quest badges and other special badges awarded along your journey.













Hops is the keeper of the forum and written historical information on the island. The forum has a group of good folks and the staff is communicative. They're working all along to keep the game fun and interesting.

Some folks have complained that getting 2 casts every 15 minutes is boring. Where's the excitement? Where's the fast action? This game isn't about that. You'd be surprised how many 15 minute segments you can miss when playing, if you don't pay attention. The game's passiveness makes it a wonderful tiny enjoyment to a busy day.