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Get your "Crowd Control" badge from PMOG!

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, PMOG

We've been covering the different happenings with the Passively Multiplayer Online Game for a while now, but for a change of pace, it seems that PMOG has covered us by giving us the honor of our own badge!

If you're a PMOG player and an active Massively.com reader, then don't miss your chance to get the "Crowd Control" badge for visiting Massively.com! Simply visit Massively for five days a week for two weeks with your PMOG toolbar enabled, and you'll have your new badge before you can spin around five times and say "I love achievements". Your new Massively.com badge will be displayed proudly along side your other badges, telling everyone who plays PMOG exactly where your allegiances lie.

In addition to our badge, many more badges have been added to PMOG, including the 'Thumb Buster" badge for our parent site, Joystiq. Be sure to check out all the new badges by dropping by PMOG and creating an account.

Get your "Crowd Control" badge from PMOG! originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PMOG launches, websites gain a surge in visitors

Akela Talamasca — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Culture, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, Launches, New titles, Making money, News items, Browser, PMOG

PMOG, which we've covered before, has launched today, coming out of a 10-week beta phase. It's ready for everyone to jump into, leveraging the power of constant site-surfing into a rather unique interactive experience for anyone with a Mozilla-compatible browser.

Interestingly, PMOG isn't taking advantage of the opportunity for extra revenue by allowing websites to pay to be included as special landing areas, where players could receive additional badges just for visiting. This both reflects well on them and makes the inner capitalists in us cry out in agony. Sign up for PMOG today!

PMOG launches, websites gain a surge in visitors originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 12 May 2008 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Impressions: PMOG, the passively multiplayer game

Mike Schramm — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, New titles, Reviews, Quests, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, Virtual worlds

We first reported on PMOG here on Massively back at the end of January. It's the product of a videogame startup called GameLayers, Inc., and claims to be a "passively multiplayer game." But unlike most online games, there are no clients or servers -- the game itself is played with just an extension for the Firefox browser, and instead of wandering a vast virtual world with dragons or aliens, you wander around the weirdest virtual landscape out there... the Internet itself.

It's an interesting idea, but does it work? I've been playing PMOG for about a month (the game is now in open beta), and I've amassed quite a stash of virtual cash and almost reached level four. Read on to see my impressions of the "passively multiplayer online game," and find out whether it's something worth extending your browser into.

Continue reading First Impressions: PMOG, the passively multiplayer game

First Impressions: PMOG, the passively multiplayer game originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WRUP: St. Patty's Day edition

Mike Schramm — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Opinion, Browser, Casual

Erin go braugh, laddie! Aye, it's St. Patrick's day weekend, which means that there'll be lots o' wearing o' the green and probably a little bit of celebrating and drinkin' (for those of age, of course). But being that this is a site about MMOs, there'll probably be a little game playin' as well. So What aRe yoU Playing in the world of MMOs this weekend?

I've been taking the games easy lately -- been trying to make my way into Guild Wars (as a level 5 Necromancer-slash-Monk, but I'm a total newb, so that may not quite work), and while browsing around, I've been playing quite a bit of PMOG lately. With all the invites into the beta, I'm well on my way to level 4, though as a Bedouin, so I'll have to do some mining this weekend to get back to Destroyer status. And while I'm currently waiting for the site to die down, I can't wait to jump in on Warlords Online -- Massively's own Kyle Horner tells me it's just as addictived as Puzzle Quest, and boy did I love me some XBLA Puzzle Quest (can't wait for Galactrix, either).

So what are you playing this weekend, in among all of the Irish celebrations? Leave a comment below and tell us what you're up to!

Previously on WRUP...

WRUP: St. Patty's Day edition originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PMOG beta opens up for passively multiplayer fun

Mike Schramm — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Business models, Launches, New titles, Tips and tricks

PMOG, the "passively multiplayer MMO," has been seeing some action around the virtual Massively office lately -- the game is basically a Firefox extension that sits in your browser, and lets you deploy mines, leave goodies, and create quests out of the actual webpages that you visit, and since we visit lots of pages around here, we're some pretty good players.

And now, after a showing at SXSW this week (which we should hear about soon), PMOG has opened its doors to the beta -- if you haven't started playing yet, you can sign up on their main page. In fact, here's an even better deal: I'm working on an achievement in game for inviting people, so you want an invite, leave a comment below, and I'll send you one myself.

It remains to be seen how the folks behind PMOG are going to fund this thing, but while it's in beta, things are ad-free and passively fun. The virtual landscape is still a little empty (most geek sites are pretty much plotted out, but some of the farther reaches of the net are completely quiet), but the more people that get in the beta, the more fun this game promises to be.

PMOG beta opens up for passively multiplayer fun originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WRUP: Shadow on the moon edition

Mike Schramm — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Opinion, Browser, Massively Meta

Yes, I don't know if any of you saw it (I did in Chicago), but this past Wednesday, we had ourselves a lunar eclipse, which means that the Earth went directly in between the moon and the sun, and a shadow crossed over it. Has really nothing to do with MMOs (although it probably made WoW's Lunar Festival a little more appropriate), but it was neat to see.

But today is Friday, and so it's time once again to ask you what you'll be playing this weekend. I continue to strive on towards my third 70 in World of Warcraft -- there's something about hitting that ceiling that just seems to keep pushing me onward. And I've been playing a little beta PMOG as well, in between all my usual browsing. I haven't come across too much yet (though I did complete a mission to look at a bunch of video-related sites, like YouTube and Videosift), but maybe this weekend I'll place some missions and mines around Massively and WoW Insider. If you're in the beta, watch out!

So What aRe yoU Playing in the world of MMOs this weekend?

WRUP: Shadow on the moon edition originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PMOG, the passively multiplayer game, hits beta

Mike Schramm — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:29:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Culture, Game mechanics, New titles, PvP, Making money, Quests

PMOG is a multiplayer game that's not actually a game... or is it? Developed by a few programmers who have been fishing around for funding in a few different places, PMOG is actually a Firefox extension that turns web browsing into a "passively multiplayer online game"-- as you surf different web sites, you can gain experience points and currency, and then you can use those to build a virtual empire on a meta-level. Users can build traps and set off on missions on the web, and even wage war over web sites themselves. "Playful annotation of the web at large" is how they describe it-- sounds fun.

It's just recently started up a closed beta, and apparently there's still more testing to go through before the concept is opened up for everyone to jump in on. There are other concerns, too-- privacy, and how they'll make their money (will they require users to visit certain sites or see ads to play?), but hopefully those questions will be answered soon, as they plan to have a demo at GDC (Massively will be there and keep our eyes open for it). The Passively Multiplayer concept itself is definitely an interesting one, though-- it only takes a small, even inconsequential reward system to turn something that's usually boring into something that people get excited about.

[Via Wonderland]

PMOG, the passively multiplayer game, hits beta originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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