There are so many pet-related mini items to spend tokens and gems on, we couldn’t decide which ones to grab first — so we got them all! In addition to the totally great animated mini pet items you can buy with gems, there are a lot of static ones available for tokens (for those of you who can’t, won’t, or don’t use gems) too!
Starting July 16, Pogo UK is offering their first Playfest! This one is the Summer Sizzler. For those of you who don’t know what a Playfest is: “It’s a chance for you and your Pogo friends to play together in a UK side-wide event, all working to complete the same Playfest game goal. Each time you complete a Playfest goal in the featured game, you’ll be entered for a chance to win great prizes. Playfest goals are announced at the start of each event.” Although non-UK players will not be able to win prizes, we’ll probably be able to earn 5,000 tokens for completing a game goal.
The Playfest will be celebrating the Hasbro games coming to Pogo UK. There’s a note in the article about why non-US/Canada players won’t be able to play Scrabble, as well. “Specific to Scrabble, Hasbro holds the rights to Scrabble in the US and Canada only, so we will not be able to make the game available to players outside these countries.” However Monopoly, Yahtzee, and others will be available to the non-US/Canada Pogo players soon.
Our friend Steph wrote in to let us know that for her, Pogo has been on the blitz this morning. Every time she’s changed pages on the site her token amount, gem amount, favorite badge, and messages are displaying improper amounts. She’s written in to tech support with screen shots and hopefully they’ll get it resolved, but she wanted to make sure that if anyone else was out there experiencing problems with the site: you aren’t alone! Thanks Steph!
Hey UK players! Don’t forget that tonight is Bingo Night. Join in the social and earn 6,000 free tokens when you play Bingo Luau. Meet in either “Eyes Down (UK)” or “Legs Eleven (UK)” to socialize from 6 to 7 pm (although playing in any room at any time during the day will get you your tokens.)
There are a variety of amusement park/theme park/carnival mini items coming soon. The new backgrounds feature a “water tubes” ride, a dad and his son at a Pogo-themed amusement park, a host of a balloon-popping carnival game, and the park’s main street at night. Goodies you can get for your minis include a Word Whomp gopher toy, a Club Pogo photo prop (where you stick your face in and become Spike the cactus), cotton candy, a Spike toy, and a stuffed panda bear. And last but not least, there are some outfits too: a couple casual summer-type outfits for both men and ladies.
Pogo’s created some great exercise-themed, animated badges for a new Premium Album coming soon. Each badge features a Pogo character doing some type of workout. There’s Tex Carter from Tri-Peaks on an exercise bike, Payday Freecell’s King on a mini-trampoline, a Squelchie jumping out of his fishbowl to hit a punching bag, the Word Whomp gopher on a treadmill, and Boogie Bear from Tumble Bees lifting weights. That’s five badges and challenges for this upcoming album so far. We’ll keep you posted as we hear of a name and what these games’ challenges will entail.
Euchre - Following Suit Badge
Win 1 game by 2 points or more this week!
Payday Freecell - Royal Highness Badge
Clear 175 “Payday Scratch” bonus cards this week! (4 bonus cards per game — win the game to collect your bonus points!)
UK Players (and those of you in other non-US/Canadian countries): reader Johanna has written in to let us know how you can access Pogo’s new Scrabble game. It’s a bit sneaky, but it’s the same way all of us US/Canadian folks got the special Club Pogo UK badge a little less than a year ago.
1. Go to Pogo Help and click My Account (on the left side), then enter your Pogo screen name and password.
2. Then in Pogo Help, click My Account (on the left side) again, it takes you to EA sign in screen. Enter your Pogo user name and password again.
3. Enter your Pogo password again and click the submit button.
4. Click “Edit member info” and change Country to USA, and ZIP, for example, to 94065 (Pogo’s zip code). Click Submit.
5. Exit the account, close all internet browser windows, open browser again and you can go play Scrabble. (If you see credit card stuff, start over from step 1.)
In addition, this trick also lets you use gems if you were credited with some or if you won some in a spin.
Hah, we’re patting ourselves on the back now — Scrabble was released today and we were right on the money with our latest prediction. Drop us a line if you’ve got any fantastic hints or tips on how to play.
Update: We’ve received a few emails today regarding the fact that non-US/Canadian players cannot play Scrabble. We have not heard whether or not a UK version will be released soon, or for any other of Pogo’s country-specific sites. We assume this is because of Hasbro’s trademarks and copyright on Scrabble properties, but it could be also due to the variety of differences between US English and UK English.
Seven of the eight badges that had been created earlier for Scrabble (eight being the five game award badges, two special badges, and the NSA badge) have been updated, from just the Scrabble logo and a number and/or words to some pretty nice graphical scenes. The NSA badge remains the same and still looks similar to the NSA logo itself. The Play Now graphic has also been created and the help pages have been written.
We’re going to venture that Scrabble is pretty close to release (although last time we hazarded a guess at this type of thing we were, well, off by a few months…oops).
