Sunday, August 21, 2011

Perusing Pixeldom

Seeing as how I am a broke nerd, I have to try to figure out ways that I would still be able to do the things I like to do.  Most of the extra money that we have currently go to our impeding Disney World vacation, so what am I to do?

Well, there are a few things that I've been doing that I'm sure many other broke nerds are doing, like only going to the movies on discounted nights, or entering sweepstakes (I hope to write more about sweeps blogs like Embracing Beauty ); however, I've been looking near and far for a way for me to get discounted or free Microsoft Points.

I have won a few different sweepstakes in which I have won these points, which are purchased in exchange for games, movies, and downloadable content (DLC).  Specifically, I need these points due to my crippling addiction to Rock Band.

Enter Pixeldom.

Pixeldom, whose motto is, "Share Something, Get Something", allows you to review movies, videogames, or even the weekly video podcast-type show they produce and in return, you get "pixels".  After you earn enough of this digital currency, they allow you to exchange them for iTunes, Microsoft, Sony, AMC, or even McDonald's giftcards.

After hearing about this site, I immediately went into my archive of reviews that I've written all the way back from ten years ago and whittled them down to the required length of less than 1000 words.  This was rather advantageous, as with each new movie or game entry, you receive even more pixels than if you were just reviewing something someone had already posted.

The down parts of this whole thing was, in fact, the 1000 word limit.  If you've read any of my reviews...and I'm assuming you have considering you are, in fact, currently reading one of them, then you know I tend to write a lot more than that.  After reading other reviews on the site, there are also a lot of reviews that seem to just be a sentence or two and do not give any real criticism of the subjects.  While I understand that this is inherent to a system like this, it makes me wish that the pixels would be based on quality.

Pixeldom seems to feel the way I do about quality as well, as a way to encourage good writing, they hand out extra pixels for comments and having people signify that they like your review by clicking "Pixel It".

The customer service via Twitter @pxldm is fast and friendly as my own mistake was quickly explained and they gave me points for the confusion.  They were a complete class act very similar to how the acclaimed @XboxSupport group work.

After getting enough points for my Microsoft Points, there were a few hiccups as I had to log out and back in for it to allow me to purchase them despite having just received the points, but they are in beta and I was surprised that it was as smooth as it was.

After two weeks, the points have made it here in a handwritten envelope....I couldn't be happier.

All said, this is a great website for those who like to review movies and games and always wanted to get something for the work.

You know?  Like me.

See my Pixeldom page by clicking these words and don't forget to comment and Pixel my reviews!
www.pixeldom.com

Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points [Online Game Code]Xbox 360 Live 4000 Points