Lightning GXC: Dr. Horrible in SoCal, James Bond in Britain!

Recap: Congratulations to Yoshi for clearing the board in yesterday's Mario Heroes game! Architects of the victory were:

• Cdr. Cdr. Mark Nagy
• Cdr. Kenneth Barry '08
• Cdr. phillip morrin '08

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Today's Lightning Games are:

1. Dr. Horrible in SoCal!

Teams:

1. Dr. Horrible
2. Bad Horse
3. Moist
4. Penny
5. Captain Hammer

Map: SoCal

Time: 2pm EST

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2. James Bond in Britain!

Teams:

1. Daniel Craig
2. Sean Connery
3. Pierce Brosnan
4. Roger Moore
5. Timothy Dalton

Map: Britain

Time: 7pm EST

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Letters from the Trenches: The Alliance that Held

by Emma Elfeirr, field journalist

Alliances are fickle things. They get broken all too easily. Suddenly, the team you trusted in your fight against an enemy has allied with your enemy and is ripping through your weakened borders, spelling the end of your team. Other times, you are the one to turn on an ally. You can see them getting too strong, too powerful, so you ally with weaker teams so you can be the strongest. We all know how it goes.

I, however, have lived to see an alliance never truly broken. An alliance so perfectly cohesive, it was shocking.

10pm rolled by, and the Russian Writers lightning game began. We chose the south. Red chose our northern border and up. Green claimed the northern most part of Florida. Purple ended up on the east coast, trying hard to make up for their under-sized team. Blue seemed a bit confused on where to go and never really managed to get good footing. It took a few turns to get situated, just like most games, especially lightning, but by about turn 7 or 8, we had worked out decent borders. Sara West and I, commanders of red and orange respectively, agreed upon an alliance before the game even begun, as fighting four other teams at once is never a great idea, and purple asked for some help, being the underdog, so our three teams allied together against blue and green.

The orange team was pretty much good to go, nice and cozy in our southern lands with red and purple between us and any enemies. Meanwhile, blue and green irritated the heck out of our allies. Within a few turns both asked for some help with our enemies, as would be expected of their ally. We could have stayed back while our allies were being attacked or even taken advantage of the weak borders we shared, but we didn't. Were the situation reversed, we trusted that our allies would aid us against our enemies and not destroy us. Plus, it would be fun to rip through an enemy, and we'd get more territory, the key to winning.

Using the waterways, we managed to send large numbers of troops at green from both sides of Florida. By turn 18, we split their empire of 30 connected territories in pieces, the largest only 9 territories. That was only possible, of course, because red and purple, our loyal allies, were protecting our other borders and fighting green's southern front. Through our combined effort, blue, green, nor any other enemy that we could have had, stood a chance of winning.

All too soon though, green was forced to shield, blue already long gone, and our three teams were left with no one to fight but our own loyal allies. We merely swapped while green had their shield up, dreading when we would have to turn on our own allies. Finally, however, the time came, and we all agreed that we shared the victory and that we would fight out the last few turns of the game just for our own enjoyment.

My team barely won, by only one territory over red, but it didn't matter. No matter who had the most territories at the end, each of us knew that it was only possible because of the other two teams. Had purple and red not stood between us and enemies to start the game, we wouldn't have had enough energy to wipe out green. Had we not fought to save our allies, they would not have survived, and my team may have been overpowered by green coming at us. Had red and purple fought each other as they likely would had, were it not for their common allegiance with the orange team, both would have been crippled, in turn leaving my team less chance to survive. But by sticking with each other as loyally as we did, we ensured that we would be the top three teams and proved that loyalty and trust wins wars, not backstabbing and lies.

(WANTED: field journalists! If you think something of note occurred in your team or in your game that everyone ought to know about, just type something up an send it to emmanuel@gocrosscampus.com, and I'll have it up as soon as possible!)

Bacon

Cdr. Zach "Falchion" Hallum '09 and Bryan "The Aussie Nightmare" Doreian '09 from the 2008 UAA Championship are having a thrilling discussion about bacon on site chat...we didn't think these images should disappear into internet obscurity, hence, for better or worse, they're gathered here for posterity.

Lightning GXC: Mario Heroes in Charity City!

Recap: Congratulations Wakko for completely clearing the field in yesterday's Animaniacs game! (Respect to Yakko as well! Looking at the replay, both teams put up a spirited fight.) Cookies for:

• Cdr. Victor Manuel Garcia '08
• Cdr. Ryan Parr '12
• Cdr. Kenneth Barry '08
• Cdr. Emma Elfeirr '13
• Cdr. Cid Campeador '08

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Today's Lightning Game is Mario Heroes in Charity City!

Teams:

1. Luigi
2. Yoshi
3. Mario
4. Toad
5. Peach

Map: Charity City

Time: 7pm EST

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Introducing GoCrossOffice!

When our team launched GoCrossCampus late last year, we saw the potential teambuilding applications of our game for companies.  But we hardly expected the level of interest we've seen -- including from brands such as Google, Vivendi and Digitas.  

Companies want to move past the ropes course and adopt a teambuilder that belongs in the 21st century.  Over the past several months, we have modified GoCrossCampus to a create fun, high-impact teambuilding program.  GXO is now more than just a game -- it's a way to build new communication channels, raise morale and analyze pre-existing leadership structures within an organization.

To learn more about the program and view the case studies we have completed on the game with Google and Vivendi, visit the GoCrossOffice site here:

http://www.gocrossoffice.com 

We are now looking to increase the profile of our program and bring on new clients.  If you have any suggestions of companies or people who may be interested in GXO, please let us know, or feel free to pass the site along to them.  Also, if you have any feedback on the program, I would love to hear it.

Lightning GXC: Animaniacs on Mars!

Recap: Congratulations to Team Blue Barracuda for coming out on top in yesterday's Legends of the Hidden Temple battle! The Barracudas were led to victory by:

• Cdr. Sara West '08
• Cdr. Emma Elfeirr '13
• Cdr. Dan Miller '09

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Today's Lightning Game is Animaniacs on Mars!

Teams:

1. Brain
2. Pinky
3. Wakko
4. Yakko
5. Dot

Map: Mars

Time: 10pm EST

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Lightning GXC: Legends of the Hidden Temple in Florida!

Recap: Apologies for the late update. Awesomeness stops for no one, however!

Congratulations to Dr. Pepper for dominating in the Soda game, Chekov for coming out on top in the Russian writers game, and Burger King and Chris for laying down the law in the Fast Food and Family Guy games, respectively.

Soda:

• Cdr. Inar Graur '08
• Cdr. Kenneth Barry '08
• Cdr. phillip morrin '08

Russian writers:

• Cdr. Mark Nagy
• Cdr. Emma Elfeirr '13

Fast food:

• Cdr. Jake Sundstrom
• Cdr. Charlie Caulder '10

Family Guy:

• Cdr. Sara West '08
• Cdr. Alex Gurany '12
• Cdr. Emma Elfeirr '13
• Cdr. Tina Dc '11

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Today's Lightning Game is Legends of the Hidden Temple in Florida!

Teams:

1. Green Monkeys
2. Red Jaguars
3. Silver Snakes
4. Blue Barracudas
5. Purple Parrots
6. Orange Iguanas

Map: Florida

Time: 9pm EST

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Letters from the Trenches: Pepsi and the Second Soda War.

by Emma Elfeirr, field journalist

It has been very clear that most GXC-ers don't like Pepsi since the first Soda War. Pepsi was simply wiped out, seen as the annoying fly in your room when you're trying to sleep. It can't really do anything to you, but you want that pest dead! Pepsi never stood a chance.

The second Soda War, however, was a totally different story. This fly was not ready to die. I came late to the game to find Pepsi struggling to hold a fort, and not much else. We were surrounded by a great big mass of Coca-Cola who just wanted us dead, since everyone knows that Coca-Cola and Pepsi are bitter rivals. Despite our efforts to ally, they didn't want any help from a team that was sure to die in the next few turns.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pepper grew unstoppable (starting the game with 3 times as many players as the two smallest teams gave them an early edge), and teams either ran for their lives or begged for mercy. Pepsi, however, refused to give up.

By turn seven, we were locked up in our fort, no other territories left. Most would have shielded. We had more faith in ourselves though, and decided to risk dying for a chance to place. Fiercely, the Pepsi team held their fort while Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper both distracted Coca-Cola. And then we struck! With a spur-of-the-moment idea, we managed to cut straight through Coca-Cola's empire and shield, leaving a nice, impenetrable wall between Coca-Cola's rather pissed off forces and their vacant territories below.

Coca-Cola was soon forced to shield, Mountain Dew, overrun by Dr. Pepper (they didn't get a shield up), joined ranks with Root Beer and those struggling to hold anything. It was, very clearly, a fight for second. A fight which Pepsi, the smallest and weakest team right from the start, should never have had a chance to compete in, let alone win.

Yet win, we did. We wiped out Coca-Cola quickly while Root Beer counted the minutes until they would die. Then, despite Dr. Pepper's threats to kill us first if we fought back, we ripped straight through Dr. Pepper, via the Skyway. Root Beer's shield went down, and the bloodthirsty Dr. Pepper-ites couldn't resist destroying them, despite their threats against us.

The game had been over for Pepsi right from the very start. When I joined at Turn 4, there was hope for nothing more than pity. By Turn 9, our only shield was up. At Turn 27, we made our last stand and won the second place we refused to give up on. The credit, of course, goes to the fiercely determined troops of Pepsi.

***If you think your team deserves special mention for a game well played / all around awesomeness, send a field journalist's report to emmanuel@gocrosscampus.com and it'll be up as soon as possible!

You know you're addicted to GXC when...

1. You try to impeach your parents.

2. You've actually met people you met through GXC, including those from other teams.

3. You personally know more people through GXC than at your own school

4. You MET almost all the people you know at your school through GXC

5. You've used the term "go cross X" when giving direction.

6. You stay in the chat rooms after your team has been eliminated.

7. You stay in the chat rooms after the game has ended.

8. You chat via GXC with people in the room with you.


compiled from feedback forum contributed to by Matt S, JC and Opie.

Star Wars Dinosaur?

Following the excavation of a dinosaur in the All-India Bollywood Championship map further sightings have been reported. Behold, the triceratops lurking within the Star Wars Turn 9 map. Does this mean something...?

Thanks to Emma "the Emma Effect" Elfeirr for calling this on game chat!!

GXStudios Original Video: Facebook

The third and final video of the series.

Also, the most absurd. 

Thoughts? Should we make more of these? Let us know in the comments.

GoCrossCampus: Facebook from GXStudios on Vimeo.

GXStudios Original Video: Student Government

The second installment of the series.


GoCrossCampus: Student Government from GXStudios on Vimeo.

GXStudios Original Video: Umbrella

Check it out. The first of three sweet GXC 'instructional' videos featuring Matthew O. Brimer as Mac Commander and Henry Finkelstein as PC Commander, in a spoof of the popular... well, you can figure that out for yourself.

GoCrossCampus: Umbrella from GXStudios on Vimeo.

Lightning GXC: Sodas in Disney World, Russian Writers in Florida!

Recap: Congratulations to the Soccer Team for dominating in yesterday's Sports game, and to Team Cash in the Money game! Success engineered by:

Sports:

• Cdr. Sara West '08
• Cdr. Tammy Tang '11
• Cdr. Emma Elfeirr '13
• Cdr. Quint Sakugarne '08

Money:

• Cdr. Mark Nagy
• Cdr. Andrew Montoya '12

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Today's Lightning Games are:

1. Sodas in Disney World!

Teams:

1. Coca Cola
2. Mountain Dew
3. Dr. Pepper
4. Root Beer
5. Pepsi

Map: Disneyland

Time: 2pm EST

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2. Russian Writers in Florida!

Teams:

1. Dostoevsky
2. Chekhov
3. Nabokov
4. Tolstoy
5. Pushkin

Map: Florida

Time: 10pm EST

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