I've been caught up on so many projects that I've been neglecting this space and perhaps to some, living under a rock.

Today is Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD). I wanted to thank all of you for making GameSpot such an awesome community. If you have any random questions you'd like to ask Synthia or myself, ask away! We'd like to answer some of them in a video this week.

I plan to share my journey with some screenshots soon! Are any of you playing? If so, what character, race, and server are you on?

I've checked the bloggers I follow and did some GameSpot Blog searches and here's the GameSpotters that have done some Holiday blogging to spread the cheer. A shoutout goes to: Hylian-Jedi, benleslie5, chicknfeet, Cthulad, Falcon084, ShadowofSonic, Gamer1985, and SonicHomeboy.

My plans this year includes photography once the weather clears up. Nightscape and timelapses is one of the areas I'm trying to get better at. Other than that, my gaming line-up is quite hefty. I put a list of about 50 games based on whether or not I've played them already, and how long it takes to finish the single player. If I'm not trying to finish the single player for a game I'll be playing League of Legends (Summoner Calithrae) and a maybe a little Black Ops 2. I'll defintiely tweet which games I'll be playing and I'm sureRaptr will also spill these details.

I did get asked if I'll be cooking this holiday and I've been trying to figure out how to make an apple cake that I had years ago. The place that sold this cake no longer is in business and this holiday I've been wanting this cake that competes against the famous old fashioned Apple Pie. You all know, cake isn;t a lie when it competes against an apple pie, right? If I had to compare the cake to something we all have tried, I'd say it's almost like a carrot cake with the cream cheese frosting. Some would consider it's like crumb cake but it's far from it. There might be lots of trial and error to be made so maybe I'll record a video if it, We'll see.

Lastly, a big shoutout to GameSpotters! Reading your comments, forum posts, and blogs is a true inspiration. Your passion and knowledge of gaming just goes to show that you make this site such a fun place to hang out.

As I read the news about a Wreck-it Ralph sequel I am reminded about what I did and didn't enjoy about the film. It's been almost a month since I've seen the film and all I vividly recall that it didn't meet my high expectations. When I left the theatre I almost felt like it should have been called "Sugar Rush". Now, that's not to say I didn't enjoy the film, there's so many reasons why everyone should watch it. I think I set my expectations based on the trailers leading up to the release in theatres, it just painted a different story, one that wasn't about a strawberry shortcake inspired setting.

To paint you a picture of a weight scale around the zones, this is how I saw it.

70% candy zone (Sugar Rush)
10% shooter zone (Hero's Duty)
10% neutral game zone (Game Central Station)
10% arcade (Fix-It Felix)

Overall I would give the film a 9.5 but I kind of wished most of the film wasn't in a candy setting. I was reminded of my childhood days when I enjoyed Strawberry Shortcake and gang, which isn't a bad thing if they labeled it that way. With how many games I enjoyed growing up, I guess a balance here would have looked like this.

30% candy zone
30% shooter zone
10% neutral game zone
30% arcade

Have you watched the film and if so would you give it a 10?

The bloggers wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving! @ShadowofSonic @shadow @psycho_chan13 @zyxe @Kravyn81 @BravoOneActual

I'd also like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it. If not, Happy Happy Thursday elsewhere! Check out this nifty Minecraft Thanksgiving Mod

Items planned aside from dealing with Minecon, Black Friday and adding more of you to the GameSpot Players Network, I also plan to do the following:

- Walking Dead Episode 5 (Finished last night! I'll post a video of my reactions later)
- Max Payne 3 (Instagram'd that I started playing it last night, it has a learning curve!)
- Call of Duty Black Ops 2. (I'm only level 14 and trying to get better at aiming with a game controller, my computer wont run BLOPS2 or I'd play it that way!). If you have XBL and plan to play, send me a friend invite or message to xpcaligirl.
- Halo 4 - Also playing the single player!
- I may play Borderlands 2, Dishonored and Skyrm if I get some time.
- Hiking on Saturday - hopefully I won't keep saying I'm Skyrim'ing like the last time I went hiking! :D

TIME magazine has the top 100 games they listed for the past 30+ years. I wanted to see if I played them all and I'm wondering how many you've played! The ones in bold are games I recall playing.

I didnt play 26 out of 100, which isn't too bad!

1970s

The Oregon Trail (Played on Apple computer)
Pong
Breakout
Space Invaders
Adventure (I recall the box cover because my uncle and brother played it but I dont recall playing it myself)
Asteroids

1980s

Battlezone
Defender
Pac-Man
Zork
Castle Wolfenstein
Centipede
Donkey Kong
Frogger
Galaga
Tempest
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
Joust
Pitfall!
Kings Quest
Lode Runner
M.U.L.E.
Paperboy
Tetris
Super Mario Bros.
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
Castlevania
The Legend of Zelda
Metroid (funny enough I never played the games from this generation)
OutRun
Contra
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Mega Man
NetHack
Punch-Out!!
Tecmo Bowl
Prince of Persia

1990s

Solitaire
Wing Commander
Civilization (beta tested the multiplayer version and hated waiting for players)
Sonic the Hedgehog
Street Fighter II
Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty
Mortal Kombat
Doom
Myst
NBA Jam
Madden NFL 95
Marathon
SimCity 2000
Chrono Trigger
Quake (YES! IT GOT THE RECOGNITION IT DESERVED!)
Resident Evil
Super Mario 64
Tomb Raider
Final Fantasy VII
Goldeneye 007
Myth: The Fallen Lords
Ultima Online
Final Fantasy Tactics
Grim Fandango
Metal Gear Solid
StarCraft
Thief: The Dark Project
EverQuest
Silent Hill

2000s

Deus Ex
Diablo II
The Sims
Animal Crossing
Grand Theft Auto III
Halo: Combat Evolved
Ico
Rez
Counter-Strike
Metroid Prime
Splinter Cell
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Cave Story
Half-Life 2
Katamari Damacy (yes, never played it but I recall Carrie Gouskas constantly telling people it was a MUST)
World of Warcraft
Guitar Hero
Shadow of the Colossus
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Gears of War
kami
Wii Sports
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Desktop Tower Defense
Portal
Rock Band
Braid
Angry Birds
Demons Souls
Flower

2010s

Batman: Arkham City
Mass Effect 3

Exciting news! We're trying to utilize what we have to get people connected in the games for the holidays. To do this, we've launched GameSpot Players Network, a place where we'll be sharing missions, similar to the way we used to share game nights or gameplay events that get you in the game with us, only difference, we're interviewing people and getting them on the GSPN Roster!

This feature is still under development so if you have suggestions or ideas, please send them our way! Now, on to another think I want to add to the feature, a type of gamer lingo page. I'm sure there's ways to find some of this data elsewhere, but it'd be fun to see what you all thing is the current lingo to today's standards. To jump start this, I'd like to humbly share some data from my old website. Granted, this was stuff written in the late 90s so some of these terms can be very outdated. But, hey, we can at least start with something!

UPDATE: GameSpot Players Network has an additional home on Steam. Join up the Steam Community!

AC:Asheron's Call

afaik:as far as I know

afk:Away from keyboard. Some people joke around saying it stands for 'away from komputer.'

AI:Artificial intelligence, which is normally computer controlled characters.

AO:Anarchy Online

AOE:1)Age of Empires game by Ensemble Studios

AOK:1)Age of Kings II game by Ensemble Studios2)Everything is A Okay

atm:At them moment. Most people would get confused and think you're talking about the bank teller.

B

b/f:boyfriend

b4:before

Baba:A special someone. Sweety or Honey term that originated from the South African gamers but its part of my online lingo now after 4 years of using it with my IRC friends.

Babyshoes:Usually only said to the female gender. Another word that originated from SA.

Barrel Jump:A Quake 2 move, where you stand on top of a barrel, shoot it and jump at the same time.

bbiab:be back in a bit

bbl:be back later

bbs:1)bulletin board2)be back soon

BFG:Big Freaken Gun (PG version)

Blast Radius:(SeeSplash Damage)

Bootlegger:A defensive move which involves turning a corner while being chased, hugging the inside, waiting until your hunter turns the corner, and scooting off the way you came. It is said to work well.

Bots:(also can be known as AI): Computer controlled opponents.

Boomstick:shotgun

Bounding Box:The area of each model that you can actually hit that is invisible. A good way to think of this is the area of damage.

brb:be right back

btw:By the way

C

C&C:Command and Conquer strategy game by Westwood Studios.

Cable:Cable modem. A fast enough net access, giving you pings of less than 100.

Camper:Many people call other gamers who are camping this name, which normally is a put down in general. It's a person who stays in one spot with a high damage weapon while waiting for people to come by.

Camping:To camp is to find a hiding place or to spot a particular item on the map that is important; such as armor, a weapon or some type of power-up. It's also called camping if you find a respawning zone and constantly shoot anyone that respawns from it. (See also Whore)

Cap:Normally used in Capture the flag games. This means as soon as you capture the flag, you must get to your base to cap the flag to earn your points.

Cesspool:A term used frequently with many Quake I old school gamers. This is a massive gib fest in a small quarter area. A way to describe it in a FFA game is crazy amounts of chaos, which was usually caused when everyone got in the same area with someone having Quad.

As for team matches, it starts being general chaos usually due to bad players in pick-up games. So if you ended up on a team server with 7 other people running around like maniacs, you'd be prone to say "this is cess or a cess pool".

cfg:(see config)

Cheap Kill:Much like camping, this is normally something you are where you aren't playing fair with. A cheap kill can be anything from killing your own team mate or simply doing what campers do.

Cherry Picking:(see Cheap kill or Camping)

Circle Strafe:Running a circle around your opponent while keeping your gun pointed at him.

Circle Jump:A quake 2 physics exploit which involves the gradual movement of your mouse while strafe jumping, to get some insane airtime.

config:A gamer's configuration file

CS:A modification of Half-Life that became one of the most popular mods out there. So much that they made it into a retail game.

CTF:Capture the Flag. This is a type of mode of a game much like Deathmatch. Only there are two teams where the object of the game is to capture the flag.

CCTF:Classic Capture the Flag mod.

Clan:A regular team of players who come together to play against opposing teams.

cul8r:see you later

cya:See ya or See you later

D

DAOC:Dark Age of Camelot

Deathmatch:Most games that are action normally will consist of deathmatch. This is another game mode normally done in multiplayer. In some cases you can play 1 vs. 1, player against one other player.

DM:Deathmatch

E

EQ:EverQuest game (MMORPG)

eye-candy:The graphics when they're on with all the bells and whistles... like lightmap lighting, dynamic lights, hi-res textures and so forth. All eye-candy is usually turned off when playing something like Quake 3 competitively. Again for maximum fps or so see things better.

F

ffs:for fudge sakes. (PG-rated)

FOV:Field Of Vision, in degrees. Some players make their FOV larger, so they can see more things that are going on around them.

FPS:1)Frames per second.2)First Person Shooter

Frag:A kill. One Frag normally equals to one kill. This can be another player through multiplayer mode or a bot/AI opponent. Frag was actually a military term before the 3D gaming world borrowed it.

ffa:free for all

Flick Rail:When a player performs a very fast "flick" of the mouse and accurately hits another player with the railgun.

G

g/f:girlfriend

g2g:1)got to go2)good to go (in game)

gg:good game

Gib:To shoot someone so much that they explode into something that looks like dog food.

gl:1)Good Luck.2)short term for OpenGL

gr8:great

gs:good shot!

H

h4x:hacks

hf:have fun

HPB:High Ping Bastard

I

ic:I see

Ice skating:If you are playing any game over the internet (multiplayer) and your connection ping keeps going up and over 300, you will be experiencing hand on ice skating. Also see lag. The typical feeling of this all is that you'll feel like your running forward in the game but you aren't moving at the same speed as everyone else, you're either frozen or just looking stupid to other gamers on the game server.

IMO:In my opinion.

IMHO:In my humble opinion

K

kak:An South African word meaning **** Often used on game servers to express disbelief at a shot or something when one is killed.

Keyboarder:Aplayer who doesn't use the mouse for any PC games.

L

l33t:

1)to say how someone/something is elite as in *really* good.

2)to describe l33t-speak which is the substitution of certain letters of the alphabet with numbers usually. As in h4x0r for hacker and so on.

Lag:This is when the server and your machine can't communicate as well as you'd like it to. It results in a higher ping. Also known as HPB.

LAN:Local Area Network. This is where you connect computers together for a VERY fast, very smooth PC game. Whereas on the net with a modem you get about 200-400 ping, on a LAN you get 0-40, depending on the game's netcode.

LG:Lighting Gun

Llama:Quake equivalent to idiot, stems from the terms "lame" "lemur" and "Llama", the latter two being curiously strange mammals.Normally this consists of a loser in general.

LMK:Let me know

lo:short for hello, another word stolen from South Africa gamers.

loe:low on endurance (EQ/DAOC terminology)

lol:laughing out loud

lom:low on mana (EQ/DAOC terminology)

lop:low on power (EQ/DAOC terminology)

LPB:Low Ping Bastard. Normally this person gets accused by HPB (high Pingers) that they are either cheating but in reality they just have a better/faster connection to the server.

ltns:long time no see

Lumberjack:One who uses a rocket launcher, BFG, or any other mass splash damage weapon to knock campers out of their places of hiding!

M

MA:This is a term is often used in Tribes 2 to describe a Mid-Air shot, which is usually difficult to achieve.

Mod:

1)A modification to quake, due to the available source code and open license agreement, many individuals and teams of individuals modify areas of the Quake code and graphics (Textures and Skins) to create a different feel to the game or even a completely new game type. Some people can get this confused with Models, listed below.

2)Sometimes used for the term as moderator of a forum (ie. xtremeprejudice clan forum orquake3world.com forum).

MMORPG:Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

N

n1:Nice one, in some cases meaning great shot.

n2b:not too bad

Newb:see Newbie

Newbie:Also known as rookie, this is someone who is new to a game.

nj:nice job

n00B:see Newbie

ns:nice shot!

n/m or nm:nevermind

O

o/c:overclock. As in your processor/video card and so forth to get maximum fps as Quake players like to do.

omg:oh my gawd

oom:out of mana (EQ/DAOC terminology)

oop:out of power (EQ/DAOC terminology)

ooe:out of endurance (EQ/DAOC terminology)

Owned:When you are beaten by so much that your opponent "owns" you

P

Ping:The time in milliseconds between when you do something in the game and it actually happens. The lower the ping you have, the better. When you fire a gun on a net server, you click the mouse and the gun fires a short time later. This is lag in action, baby!

Peeps:A term that spread wild fire from my buddyPookie. This means people, friends or simply crowd in general.

pineapples:grenades... usually fired by a pineapple launcher. ;-)

ppl:people

Q

Q3F:Quake 3 Fortress, a popular modification for Quake III Arena.

Q3W:Quake3world.com, id Software's official fansite for Quake III Arena.

qt:cutie

qw:(see Quakeworld)

Quad:Quad Damage. A power-up in every Quake game that normally multiplies your weapon's damage by four.

Quakeworld:This is a version of the original Quake game, with some tweaks to make the game run better through multiplayer.

R

RA:1) Red Armor 2) Rocket Arena, a popular modification for Quake III. 3) Red Alert (strategy game) by Westwood Studios.

Rail:RailGun

Rape:In the real world this sounds really bad. In the gaming world, this just means you got owned at a match or game.

rdy:ready

Respawn:This bring your player in the game back from the dead after you have been killed. FACT - The first time repining became a major part of the game was in Doom's nightmare mode, where the monsters respawned about a minute after they were killed, and came back at you.

RJ:rocket jump

RL:Rocket Launcher

RTS:Real-Time Strategy game

Rune:1)A power-up in some games2)There's also a game called Rune.

S

ss:screenshot

Shaft:Lightning Gun

Skins:A texture that is wrapped around a 3D model, commonly refers to the texture around the actual character model, hence the term "Skin".

Sniping:This normally is like the movies, you find a safe area to snipe other players while they are walking or running by. In some cases, you can be called a camper if you only stay in one place to not defend your headquarters but to camp weapons or other items on a map.

spam:

1)Normally stated when you receive lots of junk mail through email.

2)Gamers use this context when continuously firing a weapon (usually plasma gun or machine gun for finishing off) at an area an opponent might stick his head out of, in the hope of getting a few 'free' hits.

Spawn:(see respawn)

Splash Damage:In many different games, there's certain areas in a map that can cause a type of blast radius, where if you are standing near a wall, the ground or other type of areas, a rocket launcher or other types of blasting type of weapons, you'll be hit with damage.

Strafe Jump:A technical jump which involves Strafing while jumping and turning to attain greater heights. This can also be a type of jump to very hard places such as a ledge or other angled areas on a map.

Strogg:The enemy race in Quake II

Stroggos:Home planet of the Strogg

T

T2UL:talk to you later

T2YS:Talk to you soon

TA:

1)Team Arena, expansion for Quake III Arena

2) Thanks Alot

TC:Total Conversion (see Mod)

TDM:Team Death Match

tele:(see Teleporter) , an item in Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament games.

Telefrag:If more than one player dies at the same time they are sometimes re-spawned in the same area, this causing in some cases both players being killed again. This is also caused when somebody teleports into the space where you are, they will burst out of your body, killing you instantly. To counter this, don't stop to look around. As soon as you appear, hotfoot it out of there.

Teleporter:An item in Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament games.

tg:thank god

stfu:Shut the Funk Up (PG version)

W

w2g:way to go

wb:Welcome Back

Whore:Whore is used in a lot of id Software games. When you camp something like Quad or any other power-ups, most terms that are used are Quad-Whore, Mega-Whore and so forth.(see also camping)

w00t!:Excitement.Terms used by XP-Torak: "W00T HE DEFUSED!", or "w00t he killed them all!", or "w00t she's naked!"

Wtf:What the fudge (PG version)

Wth:What the hell (PG-13 version)

Here are my top ten things I've liked about Dishonored so far.