When I downloaded Parallel Kingdom by PerBlue Software, I never expected it would be such an interesting game that frankly got me excited about the future of iPhone apps.  But first I should begin by relating the rather strange hassle I had in actually first playing the game.  When I first grabbed the app in the App Store, I was looking forward to trying it.  But when I had time to test it out, it was in a place where I had no signal on my phone.  And Parallel Kingdom definitely requires a good signal.  I was unable to register.  So after that, it just slipped my mind for a long time.

Recently, I saw the icon on my phone and realized I should give it a try.  But when I went to try it, I couldn’t register an account or log on.  I didn’t know what the heck happened…did the developer go out of business or something?  Was it my phone?  I searched for Parallel Kingdom in the App Store but the one I saw was different than mine.  Mine was Parallel Kingdom: Age of Exploration and this one was called Parallel Kingdom: Age of Gathering.  Of course, I clicked on it anyway.  I learned that my version was just dead…the Age of Exploration had apparently closed and a new Age had begun.  Not a big deal…a minor annoyance of sorts.  I just found it strange that they went with an entirely new app rather than an update.  But now I’m thinking this relates to their long term business model.

But on to the actual game…you do have to register an account.  It is nice that you can do this directly from your iPhone and don’t have to go to a website.  Also, the information required is minimal.  Oh, there is an option to get some kind of text updates on your phone but there was no way in hell I wanted that going on.  I don’t need to get a bunch of texts about a game cluttering up my iPhone usage.

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