This author is currently on hiatus for the ignoble cause of mugging. The public is advised to remain calm, as this routine protocol has been shown to have no effect on one's violent tendencies in 96% of cases.
| Tuesday, January 02, 2007 |
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Ahh, it's not been a very happy new year for Asia this year at all. Before Chirstmas, the monsoons brought days of consecutive rain and unpredictable weather, flooding many areas in the region, and in Singapore, washing lots of plants and money down the longkang (i.e. drain). Then, we had the Taiwan earthquake which severed the undersea cables and caused havoc in the cyberworld to both heavy gamers and businesses alike across Asia, when people were stranded with laggy and unstable internet connections if they could even be established at all. There was some cause for celebration, though, when Saddam Hussien was finally hanged, although some people believe he could have been tortured for all his evil sins before he was hanged. However, i think that would be almost as inhumane as the terror Saddam caused during his reign. And now, The Wicked, a popular riddling site set up by Singaporean Tay Wei Kiat, has suddenly shut down, with a weird notice saying, "Brought to you by V-IX". It's quite a coincidence that this unexpected closure occured just a few days after an offer to take over The Wicked fell through (view the related posts on Wei Kiats blog here and here.) Currently, the Wicked community is in chaos, since a new batch of 30 levels had been released on New Year's Day (a day before the V-IX message appeared) with a promise of an iPod Shuffle for the first player to solve level 100. Players are reportedly going crazy after being unable to proceed with solving the levels, to such an extent that certain players have imagined that Wei Kiat had been kidnapped by coins. Word has it that it was V-IX who had wanted to buy over Wicked, but they hijacked The Wicked since the deal did not work out. On the other hand, suspicious members have speculated that this was all a set-up by Weikiat, cleverly designed (or perhaps not so cleverly) to fool people. Whichever the case is, it is anyone's guess. There have been many PMs from puzzled players sent to my account, 1CentCoin, on the Wicked forums, where i am a moderator, but I do not know what is going on etiher. The other active forum mod, woonie, appears to have no knowledge about this issue too. In fact, it looks like the players are delving deeper into this mystery, with weird files and folders dug up on the V-IX server, and already know more information than I do. I have even sent Weikiat an email regarding this issue, but have not yet received a reply of any sort. It's really unfortunate that this V-IX incident just had to pop up on the last free day we have to solve the Wicked, since the long weekend and school holidays end tomorrow and we will hardly have much time anymore to spend on the Wicked, what with school and work. But then again, when were New Years ever perfect? |
'Twas teh winnar at 1:52 pm.
