Weekly Report: Hardware staff invasion
Community News - The hardware staff invaded.....
In my recent blog I mentioned how I moved my desk over to the editorial area. There is also a bonus video skit I made with Brian, Lark, Justin and Sophia. This week's community report is packed with announcements, communight highlights and links to a variety of staff profiles on the site. Check it out!
Announcements
Event Coverage: Last week some of the crew attended the ComicCon in New York. Check out the Work in Progress previews blog for further information.
Site Blogs Index: In other news, we recently launched a Site Blog index page dedicated to our new blogs on the site. You can access the site blogs from the homepage subnav or the features page, as well as the 'see all' links found in multiple blogs. We also plan to roll out another new blog dedicated to downloads later this week!
Wysiwyg editor upgrade: We recently released a beta of the upgrade worth trying out. There are no enhancements, it just looks pretty and has a few functions that were fixed. Stop by the Technical Support board for further information.
Review Emblem returns with a purpose change: As mentioned a few weeks ago, any inactive users who had the top 100 or 500 reviewers emblem were given 2 weeks to update their profiles with a user review to keep the emblem. The inactive writers have had these emblem removed and replaced with a return of the Top 1,000 reviewers emblem. We changed the purpose of the retired top 1,000 reviewers emblem and brought it back with a new meaning. This emblem has been renamed to Grandfathered critic, but emblem design will remain the same. Although these users are no longer active review writers, we wanted to continue to recognize them for their previous efforts on the site..
Community Highlights
GameSpotterof the Week: Sandpiper121PP shares a wealth of information for those of you who want tips for surviving the depression. She goes into details about saving money on entertainment like movies and video games. Honorable blog mentions include Thorpe89 who celebrated 5 yeas on GameSpot and fat_otter who shares some of his hopes for video games in the next decade.
User Reviews: This week's user reviews came from recent activity written by users who have the top 100 or 500 reviewers emblem. You'll notice there is a variety of platforms and a variety of older to recently released games.
- BioShock (PC) by FernandoDANTE
- Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (PC) by -Twilight-
- Devil May Cry 4 (PS3) by Blace_07
- Far Cry 2 (360) by Soulreavercross
- Gears of War 2 (360) by JaMeS4418
- Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir (DS) by Azghouls
- Prince of Persia (PS3) by ian_fisher.
- Prince of Persia (PC) by nutcrackr
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2) by argianas
- Silent Hill: Homecoming (360) by Misfit1119
- Tales of Vesperia (360) by celtic1962
Featured User Videos:
- GTA IV-Critical Dreaming by dD4679
- MotoGP 2 Fail by -DaNuTz-
Honorable mentions
- CoD4 - Me Owning And Getting Owned by cjgangsta
- Mirror's Edge Speed Run: Part 1 by persianlink
- RockBand2 - Blinded by Fear Performance Mode by doom3kjc
Randomness teh awesome:
- Emblem Granted! The HotSpot homework was handed out to OptimusPrime, trker91, Donniey21, GamerPhD.
- Off-Topic Thread! Your favorite Martial art topic reminds us all that Street Fighter IV is coming! Friendly warning about some grammar and spelling errors; be nice!
Union Activities:
- League of Reviewers currently has a vote thread of user reviews for the month of January.
- The Legend of Zelda Union consists of nearly 5500 and plans to work towards making the Union even better with the recent leadership change.
- The Mario Kart Club Union recently started plans for a Mario Kart Character voting event.
Tip of the Week: This week is dedicated to those of you who have pestered me over the years! Frequent asked questions include: "who is that new guy, Andre?" / "Please tell Sophia I want to marry her one day; she writes awesome previews." / "What is the username for this editor so I can track him?" / "I would love to see other reviews from my favorite review writer" Below is a list of GameSpot staff from almost every corner of the building. The list only consists of staff members who have updated their blogs at one time or another.
- Editorial: Ricardo Torres (check his feed) / JusticeCovert (check his feed) / Brian Ekberg / Andrew Park / Kevin VanOrd / Guy Cocker / Shaun McInnis / Sophia Tong / Chris Watters / Luke Anderson / Tom Mc shea / Laura Jenner / Randolph Ramsay (check his feed) / Dan Chiappini (check his feed) / Andre Segers (game guide writer)
- News: Tor Thorsen / Brendan Sinclair/ Tom Magrino
- GS Live/Video Content: Ryan Mac Donald/ Takeshi Hiraoka/ Tyler Winegarner/ Jim Maybury (no recent updates) / Justin Porter (no recent updates) / Aaron Sampson / Dan Mihoerck (no recent updates) / Homer Rabara (no recent updates)
- Hardware: James Yu (check feed) / Sarju Shah (check feed)
- Data/Files: Marco Martinez / Kim Cuartero/ Lee Alessi
- Community Staff: Jody Robinson / Alex Sassoon Coby / James Kozza
- Technical/Dev/QA/Other Behind Scene Staff: David Good /Stanley Lin / LarkAnderson / Philip Larson / Steven Ng / Sam Parker / Michael Tougeron / Vincent Lam
Your assignment this week is to start tracking your favorite staff! On a related note, if you check any editorial staff myfeed, it will display their recent site blog posts and reviews. You can also read their reviews on the site by clicking on the review link in their profile.
Customer Support Notice: We have had some Support staff changes so please be patient with them as they learn the ropes.
Until next week!
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