Happy New Year! More presents! Your first label no longer expires, or to be more exact, has been set to expire 50 years from now. And I am pretty sure when it does come up for expiration that I can talk Clyde into extending the expiration another 50 years after that. Now that's what I call a prize! And you didn't even have to pick up a single pub coin to earn it. Your first new label is now as free as the day you were born. Whoa.

If you have never tried this game before there is really no excuse. With this promotion you can literally play the game for free for fifty years and you will have access to almost all of the content that is available to paying players. There are no level restrictions for new players and it is quite possible to grow your online brewery to one of the biggest and best without spending a dime of real money. Give us a try!

Now before you existing TBG fans say "There goes Robc giving away too much stuff again." There is a catch. I mentioned in a recent news article our need to bring more paying players into the fold and grow our overall player base. Nothing has changed and this is part of the plan. With the extension of the free label for life I will be discontinuing two other promotions. Players who reach their 1 year anniversary were always granted two free label credits on their anniversary. This promotion has now ended. I may still choose to send an email on each player's anniversary with a small gift such as additional brew bucks but the free credits will no longer be provided. Also, the popular Facebook and Twitter "Labels on Parade" promotion are being modified. Instead of a label extension players will instead receive $200 brew bucks for finding their labels on these pages and shouting out about them.

If you are an existing player you need do nothing to get your label extension, the first label you created has already been extended. If you recently extended that label using a paid or prize credit (not an anniversary credit) then that label credit has been refunded to you. New TBG players will receive one "super" label credit that when used will grant one 50 year label. Please be aware that our Terms of Service prohibit players from using multiple accounts to obtain more than one extended label and violations could result in account suspension or termination and a permanent ban from the game.

TBG's label credit prices will remain the same in 2014 at $9 per credit or 3 for $18. Credits will continue to expire 3 years from the date of purchase and each credit will extend your label expiration for 1 year as before.

One other item of business to start 2014. The TBG database is plenty full of registered players who didn't stay long including hundreds of accounts where the player stayed less than a minute or two after registration. I used to try and reach out to these players to determine if they experienced technical difficulties but the response rate to my inquiries was almost zero. I have no way of knowing for certain whether real people or bots are responsible for the accounts and unfortunately I don't have the time to investigate each one. My policy will now be to periodically delete these accounts to improve the database performance for everyone.

Once again I want to thank all of you who support TBG and are helping to make the game better. I am hopeful that these changes will help keep the game accessible to new players while at the same time setting a fair price for players who want a deeper and better experience. We are getting so close to the 1 million virtual beers sold mark... can you feel it!? A massive party will ensue... stay tuned.

Brew beer... Drink beer... Play! What else do you need to know?

-Robc