July 20, 2010
Today, we’re happy to introduce video embedding on Akoha. When playing a mission or leaving a comment, your video link will now be automatically embedded. Sites supported include Youtube, Vimeo and Viddler.

Simply copy/paste the URL for the video in the text description, and voilà! Here’s an example:

Which will look like this:

You can also share video links in your private messages. Isn’t this exciting? I know I can’t wait to include some of my favorite Youtube videos in my mission plays!
Sign in to check out the new feature, and start sharing!
July 12, 2010
There have been plenty of awesome Akoha mission plays over the past week. In case you’ve missed them, here are my top five favorites starting with:
jblueblade’s Holy Toast!:

This is such an awesome picture. HOLY TOAST! (take a picture of food that looks like a person). She cooked meatloaf for a Halloween Party, and added this caption to the picture – “Dead meat is always scary”. Priceless!
The next four all revolve around fur
Jdilelle’s FURRY HOME: Find a forever home for a homeless pet.

dawg_copper’s FURRY FRIENDS: Take a picture of an animal doing something adorably human-like.

Anky’s FURRY OIL SOAKER: Make your own hairmat or hair boom for cleaning up an oil spill.

MacrossFiru’s FURRY HOME: Find a forever home for a homeless pet.

Share your favorite mission plays with us.
If you haven’t tried Akoha yet, sign up today!
June 28, 2010
We’ve just added new gifts for you to share with fellow Akohans

To leave a gift: First, earn tokens by playing an Akoha mission. The number of tokens you earn depend on the mission difficulty. Then, select a mission play that you enjoyed reading about, and click “Leave a gift” to reward the player who shared this mission. Here’s an example of gifts given.
If you haven’t joined Akoha yet, sign up today and try something new!
June 23, 2010
Dear Akohans,
We’d like to thank you for sending your thoughts to the people and the wildlife living on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and for doing your part in the relief efforts. We’ve created five Akoha missions that we hope you’ll enjoy playing and sharing with the community. Click on the mission titles to play or to see how other Akohans have played each mission.
Oil Foil: Share what you think is the best way to clean up or prevent an oil spill.
Save the Oiled Pelicans: Raise money for a wildlife conservancy organization helping the oil spill’s animal victims.
Heroic Friends: Show your support for a friend working as a disaster relief worker for the oil spill.
Furry Oil Soaker: Make your own hairmat or hair boom for cleaning up an oil spill.
Miracle Worker: Participate hands on in the disaster relief effort for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Oiled Brown Pelican at Fort Jackson, Louisiana Oiled Wildlife Center. (photo IBRCC)
June 21, 2010
Five brand new Akoha missions for you to play this week:
Standing Ovation: Perform something you love in public.
Lyrical Genius: Come up with the worst line ever written for a song.
Mirror on the Wall: Share a story of how you learned to accept and love your physical appearance.
Soothing Solace: Volunteer at your local cancer treatment center.
Hip Hip Hooray: Propose a toast to honour a person sharing your next meal
Enjoy!
June 8, 2010

This past weekend, I took part in two bike rides, the Tour La Nuit and the Tour de L’Ile in Montreal, as part of the Montreal Bike Fest. The former involves cycling 20 km at night on closed-off roads, and the latter takes you on a tour of the island of Montreal, covering 50 km. For amateur cyclists, this is an annual opportunity to test your cardio while participating in a massive group ride. It’s also a good time to break out the glow sticks and play Glow in the Dark.

For me, both tours highlighted the powerful effect of a critical mass, an amount of people so big that it affects everyone in the group. Indeed, with over 30,000 participants in total over the weekend, it was easy to enjoy the crowd effect and go with the flow.

It also highlighted the impact of a group on motivation.
On Sunday, Montreal was rainy and cold – not the most pleasant conditions for a long ride. However, knowing that 20,000 people out there were also braving the cold and rain, my girlfriend and I had all the motivation we needed to complete the 50 km tour.

So today I’d like to highlight missions that encourage group participation, because doing things with friends or strangers is plain fun!
You might also think of the following as single player missions, but wouldn’t they be great played with others as well?
Enjoy!
