Beta humpday continues …

For those who don’t know, I like games. Online games, offline games, video games, board games, card games, casinos, pretty much any game. Of course there are certain types of games which I like more than others but generally speaking I’m a gamer. With that in mind it should not surprise that I’m down for the concept of the website Moola currently in private invite-only beta status. I signed up for Moola when I first heard about it and received an invite earlier today.

Once you get an email invite and clickthru you’ll see a page that looks like the one above.

Next you can watch a Flash video about how Moola works.

The goal of Moola is to play and win games, doubling what is wagered each time. You can also earn from a 4-tier commision of what your friends earn as shown above:

Level 1: 4% of what your friends cashout, which does not come out of your friend’s winnings, but from Moola
Level 2: 3%,
Level 3: 2%
Level 4: 1%

The opening screen after watching the introduction video and registering declaring Moola as an “Advertournament.”

You are given a penny to start out with and can play against other human players and whatever level you can afford or lower. Win the game and double whatever was wagered or lose. You do not always have to play double or nothing, which means it might take someone much more wins to generate a significant amount of real money.

There are also surprise bonuses like the one I received above called a “Moola Booster” awarding an extra nickel before ever playing the first game. I assume this is random, but maybe all new players get this boost before playing? Let me know others who play if you receieved this before playing your first game.

A graphical bar on the right of the page clearly illustrates what level you are playing at and what amount will be won — or lost. I saw only two games to play. One is rock, paper and scissors and the other is a game where you try and have the heaviest weight of gold on a see-saw. First, I played rock, paper and scissors.

Before you play each game, you must watch a video advertisement and answer a multiple choice trivia question about the ad. Speakers needed.

Now you enter the screen where you must wait to match up with another human player. Is it possible you are playing against a machine and not a computer? Moola has addressed this trust concern on their official blog.

It took less than a minute to find a challenger at Level 3 for my very first game.

I got spanked the first time at rock, paper, scissors. I suck at this game obviously.

A summary screen explains the result of the game.

I tried playing the gold game and won. I’m 1-1, baby!

How to get an invite to Moola
I received three invites to share. Already gave one to a friend who likes games too and he has 7 days left to accept the invite.

Before shaking your head in disgust — I know, I know, I don’t care much for the invite-only stuff either — my plan here is to give one Hmm reader who leaves a comment in this thread one of my two remaining invites.

Here is how to win a Moola invite
Read the following six items very carefully. If you don’t, you’ll have zero chance of winning a Moola invite from this site (me).

IMPORTANT UPDATE (5:17pm PST): You must be from the United States or Canada. Moola is not available internationally, unfortunately at this time. My apologies for not adding this to the original post

1) Write a thoughtful, relevant comment below about Moola. Length of comment doesn’t matter, but it should be relevant to this post. Do you like the idea/concept of Moola? Think it sounds like a scam? You can also post a comment on your own blog and trackback to this blog, but if the trackback doesn’t appear here and comply with the other requirements below, it will not be elligible. Which means you would still have to make a comment here so I know what your email address is, privately or be somebody who I recognize and know (this means regular readers like you, Sterling). So in the case of writing a post on your blog you’d need to make two comments (a trackback from your blog, and a comment here with a matching URL in the signature).
2) indicate somewhere in your comment that you actually want this invite. The text: “I’d like a Moola invite” or some variation will be fine.
3) please do NOT put your email address in the public comment area, encoded or not. Any comments including your email address in the comment body will be edited or removed. We don’t want your email box to become harvester food and blame this website or me personally, so please don’t do it.

However, it is required to have an email address in the signature section which remains private to make a comment here. If your comment is chosen, then this will be the email address I’ll send the invite to so make sure it’s a valid email address. I would suggest making it something that you can filter in case Moola decides to turn into a spammer. They promise not to do that and appear reputable to me, but I still wouldn’t use a primary email just in case. I don’t know these people that well. I didn’t use an important email address.
4) Once the winner has been chosen by us and has been announced here, sent, received and accepted the invite, we will close all comments on this thread. Please do NOT ask for Moola invites in other Hmm threads. They will be removed and disaqualified.
5) Do not spam the comments with other places to get Moola invites. They will be removed and disqualified.
6) Deadline Midnight Pacific Time Wednesday May 31, 2006 — if no valid, chosen winner is awarded the invite per #1-5 above then we reserve the right to move the date forward or give the invite to somebody else. If you have the only valid comment between now and next Wednesday, you’ll get the invite. Except if you are my friend who I already gave one to (you know who you are, mon). And any employee or family member of KMR Enterprises (that’s us) is inelligible.

Before anybody flames me for what seems like being anal on the details of this invitation contest, please understand that I’ve been through this stuff with Gmail invites before and the criteria above is based on past comment experience.

I want to give one of these invites to a Hmm reader and not have this post spammed. That is easier said than done based on experience so hopefully this time will be different.

These type of posts can quickly become open season for everybody to jump in and say they have invites to give. Do that elsewhere on another website, please. I’m not trying to be a jerk to those wanting to share — I support and like sharing — but since we have no idea what might happen to email addresses being shared in public — yes, even encoded ones — this can lead to your email being compromised by somebody with nefarious purposes. I don’t want that to happen to any reader here so please follow the rules above.

More invites
I understand more invites might be available at other locations but you can simply do what I did and ask for one at the official Moola site. If I’m given more than the initial three invites and there is interest in this thread, I’ll probably give away more here. Will play that one by ear and eye.

Ok, enough of the fine contest print, which was almost as long as the review. Whether you’d like a Moola invite or not, I’m curious to read what you think about this site. Even if you aren’t interested in the invite. In the immortal words of Joshua: Would you like to play a game, Professor Falkin?

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