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Have you played the Hidden Agenda Beta on Facebook lately? If you have, thanks! Now get back there and keep playing.

If you haven’t, wha-huh? Green County needs you! Get on the case to solve the murder of local official Albus Puckerwhip. New mysteries and new characters continue to be revealed.

Meet Zotkin the grumpy goat and help him figure out who is destroying his garden. Is someone trying to send him a message?

Get to know Constance Verity, local character, yoga instructor and unicorn. Is she as “zen” as she wants you to believe?

There’s arson, smuggling, thievery and, for my money, the most terrifying video game character in the history of video games, Sister Eloise!

Play Hidden Agenda today! Have fun, help Green County and save me from my unquiet dreams.

Mark B. – Studio Artist, Plants vs. Zombies

I had a total blast but oh my gosh did it wipe me out. Between what seemed like hundreds of boxes of swag to get out, running the “Test Your Strength” machine, keeping the booth tidy, and trying to contain Wall-nut hat mania, it was hard to find time just to get a bite to eat. Saturday afternoon, in the chaos, my lunch order didn’t come through. It was 2 or 2:30, and I was STARVING! Jeff saw the situation and came over, “Hey man, you can have half my sandwich.” Then, Philip came in and shared his lunch as well. I had a lot of fun being on panels, seeing all the amazing cos-players, and mingling with people who love PopCap games. But a small act of kindness when you need it the most, it stays with you. Thanks for having my back guys. It was awesome to have the opportunity to be at PAX East with ya.

Dana S. – Customer Service Content Manager

First of all, I sustained some major hits on this trip. I came back with a touch of con crud, and I got so dehydrated throughout the weekend that my hands cracked and bled, and then my nose started bleeding as well. On the way back to Seattle, I broke a tooth on airport food, and when I picked up my suitcase at baggage claim, it looked like this:

American Airlines customer support is awesome though, so I got a new bag. However, my Batman belt was lost along the way. Circle of life.

So, all that said, it really says something that I am so completely happy with my PAX East experience! I loved every minute of it (in retrospect, I guess — I mean, in the moment, I do remember never wanting to hear that hammer strike/bell ding sound combination again). I made some awesome new friends, saw a couple of cool panels, brought home a pile of card games to start playing, and best of all, hung out with the coolest group of friends I could have hoped for.

I also especially dug getting to talk to Peggle fans, as ever. Between the Peggle Master plushies we were giving out and the free Peggle download offer, that game was on everyone’s mind, and I love that. Extreme Fever forever!

Tara T. – Community Manager, Core Franchise

Couldn’t agree more with Mark. You were all so fun, amazing, and wonderful to work with. Even in the frustrating, starving, tired moments.

My favorite memories of the booth were the kiddos for sure. Each lil’ smile just from a simple plushy was worth every effort! The magic show was a highlight for me too. He brought a nice crowd and was super engaging. The strong man never-ending line was the biggest surprise for me. The popularity of that activity was crazy cool! The worst part of the whole event were the greedy folks who took 10 of everything without thinking twice. Seeing the inflation on ebay today is just slightly annoying. I’m still exhausted and sore, but all in all I can’t wait for the next event and can only hope we have a group as great as this one was! Thanks so much, everyone!

The gang's mostly all here!

Philip S. (hey, that’s me!) – Copywriter

Quick impressions: super noisy and I can’t believe how popular our decidedly analog High Striker hammer game was. Beyond that, I didn’t get out of our own booth too much (except to escort our zombie to and from his Kissing Booth) so I missed most of what I’m sure was a lot of great stuff on the floor. But what I took away from the whole event was that there are tons of great people in this business. From the groovy cats on my own team who worked hard and stayed loose the whole weekend, to the thousands of fans who stopped by to grab some swag or just to say ‘hey’ and ‘thanks,’ plus the two indie developers I ran into repeatedly in the break room (what up Ackk Studios and ClutchPlay Games?), and the dynamite crew of Enforcers including our most-awesome “XA” (Exhibitor Assistant) Laura, who was traffic cop, civil engineer, valet and den mother, and who we all agreed should come home with us. I spend a lot of time online where some days it seems like endless negativity. It was great to be face-to-face with so many fans and colleagues and to see how much passion and enthusiasm still exists in our industry. Oh, and the back-room swag deals with other developers was fun and sort of hilarious.

We killed it good.

Stephanie B. – Community Manager, Plants vs. Zombies

This was sent to me via the PvZ page yesterday:

Dear PopCap,

I just wanted to thank you for being the coolest booth at PAX East. I visited your booth often over the weekend but I had the best experience on Friday. I noticed people lining up to ring a bell with a mallet; I’m not sure if that game has an actual name. I’ve personally never tried those types of games before due to not having a lot of upper body strength. I normally wouldn’t attempt hitting anything with a mallet but I saw you were giving out Disco Zombie Figures and I knew I had to have one. I saw many girls fail to push their upper body strength to hit the bell and they were walking away with an energy drink. I really didn’t want an energy drink so I knew I had to give it my all for the figure! After waiting in line I got up to the green mat… and failed miserably. After three attempts I handed in my mallet. It was sad; I was sad. The guy said “Nice try” and I sighed. I was almost angry because I felt this game was really unfair for the average girl unless she had the extra muscle or had a hulky boyfriend. I didn’t have either of those things. However, after I walked away one of the the PopCap guys ran after me to give me a figure. I thanked him and I was really happy, even though I was still sad on the outside. So please thank whoever was giving out the prizes that Friday afternoon for running after the girl who was incredibly unhappy she failed at ringing the bell.     –Jennifer

Everyone did such a fantastic job. Seriously. Awesome. I heart all of you for the hard work at the event and PAX always reminds me of why I love my job and our fans. You all should feel super proud you pulled off a fantastic show! Everyone loved our booth and my favorite part was all of us working together and becoming better friends because of it.

Jeff G. – Nobody Really Knows What He Does Around Here

Other than our own booth, which we are contractually obliged to say was the best thing ever, I had a few other favorite moments at PAX East, including: Learning how to play Cards Against Humanity, being relieved that my daughter wasn’t with me while playing, attending the always hilarious Giant Bomb panel, and not breathing one molecule of clean air for three days. No, wait. That last one was awful. But overall the show was awesome, as it always is! By far my favorite gaming show, every time. And hanging out with PopCap friends outside of the office? Priceless.

So it was a dee-diddly-ightful surprise when our new favorite Girl Scout, Grace (daughter of Senior Art Director and Cat Wrangler, Jesse) stopped by last week with a crate of cookies to deliver. Not only did she bring some much-needed sugary sustenance but she also delivered hand-made cards in the Plants vs. Zombies style to the fine folks who ordered cookies from her.

As for us deadbeats who didn’t order any  cookies, well we are still eating more than our share. Thanks, Grace! If there is a badge for awesome, you’ve earned it.

Seek and find hundreds of clues, complete side missions to uncover more evidence, interact with the locals and team up with your Facebook friends for higher scores and to find even more clues!

Hidden Agenda is in Beta on Facebook now. That means that we are still putting the finishing touches on the game so you might still notice an odd thing or two as you play. But play you must! With great characters, awesome new art and a deep story, it’s a whole new kind of hidden object game altogether.

Visit Facebook.com/HiddenAgenda to learn more!

Anyway, Jeff Green started this off a couple weeks ago with his top 5 video game characters, and now it’s my turn. So, leaving aside in-house favorites such as Zombie, Bjorn, and/or that guy from Pizza Frenzy, let us begin.

In no particular order:

LEGO Chewbacca
Being a man of a certain age, I love me some Star Wars. I also love LEGO. Then somebody put them together and, for a moment, I believed in an ordered universe. There is a lot to love about the LEGO video game franchises but I have a special fondness for LEGO Chewbacca from LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (best not to try parsing that ridiculous name). It’s a little bit because when he puts on a Stormtrooper disguise, the helmets don’t fit so he wears them at a rakish angle and still fools Death Star security, but it’s mostly because when enemies get too close for him to use his bowcaster (a needlessly stylish weapon), good ol’ Chewie just rips their arms out of their sockets. Just like Han Solo warned C-3PO about when R2-D2 beat Chewie at Dejarik. And before I slide any further down the nerd hole, let’s move on.

The Ship from “Asteroids”
Asteroids is the second video game I ever played (after “Puppy Pong” – a pong game installed in a dog house in the waiting room of my dentist’s office). It remains one of the most frightening video game experiences ever. Who is piloting that ship? Why is it out there? Does it know it’s doomed? All it has are some finicky thrusters and a “hyperspace” button that it must know will eventually teleport it into the middle of an asteroid, but it’s out there. Fighting. Never resting. Just trying to live for a few more seconds. Why? WHY? Even as a young lad I was full of existential angst. Fight on little triangle… fight on.

Yoshi
Sometimes he’s a pack animal. Sometimes he rides a motorcycle. He has a tiny shell on his back and wears hiking boots. He’s just dang cute. And for my money, there can’t be too much of that in video games. I am less interested in “realistic” games (I get plenty of reality in reality) and would rather spend my time playing a game that gives an adorable middle finger to physics and just goes bananas for the sake of fun. Yoshi has a power set that is as fungible as it is mighty. You’d probably drive yourself mad trying to explain how any of it works. So just enjoy the cute and always ask yourself, WWYD? Yoshi! Yay!

Q*bert
Wikipedia says that “Q*bert is an isometric platform game with puzzle elements where the player controls the titular protagonist from a third-person perspective.” And that is why I never use Wikipedia for anything.

Anyway, not unlike Asteroids, Q*bert was an early video game treatise on the meaninglessness of existence. You find yourself in a strange place where nobody understands you. You have a job to do but are never told why. There are a lot of people out to get you – they hate you – but you never find out why. You just keep repeating and repeating and repeating the same task, while avoiding those who would do you harm and trying not to slip over the edge into the void. And what do you get for surviving long enough to complete your duties? You get to do the exact same thing all over again, but the next time it’s harder.

Dale Sveum
I wish I could remember exactly which iteration of Major League Baseball video game I first noticed him in. I played it a ton on my Nintendo 64 and poor ol’ Dale was always ALWAYS on the “available free agents” list. He was mixed in there early on with a bunch of other bench warmers but by mid-August he was all alone on the list. And I would almost always sign him because he seemed so lonely. And he was always terrible and I wondered why I signed him. And then Dale stopped showing up in video games and I started to see him in real life (meaning “on TV”) as a coach for the Red Sox and then the Brewers and then he became the manager of the Brewers and now he’s the manager for the Chicago Cubs. It’s actually a similar arc to Q*bert (‘keep working hard and the work will keep getting harder!’). Despite my early impressions of him, I think he’s done all right. And as he travels the country, managing one of the greatest baseball franchises in history, and I look out of my darkened cubicle into the bank parking lot across the street, I hope he knows he’ll always have a place in my heart.