This recent news article spiked some old memories of the days of Westwood Studios! I have so many fond memories of the gamers and the games.

I've been known to share the days I started with online multiplayer gaming with people in person, because there are so many funny ones. Like the time was nearly gunning (with hand movement) some co-worker because I thought she was moving swiftly in to grab something about 20 feet away. I thought she was a nod bike at my HQ, so I freaked out on her and she did walk away looking at me like I was crazy - hey if anyone touches my base swiftly, it's a nod bike rush people!

Those were the days people at work also told me they thought I was on drugs from the dark circles under my eyes. Don't get me wrong, they were fond of me, but had known me for a while then to know I didnt look that bad. When I shared I played Command & Conquer until 3am and was there by 6am that morning they almost believed that it had to be lack of sleep. Plus, I constantly talked about a military game with them.

You all might recall that I've shared some experiences about my history with Quake, but the reality is, Quake came after my love for Command & Conquer. I kind of think about those days and get a little choked up writing today, because it was deeply rooted as what got me through the multiplayer portal of online gaming with people around the world.

My California Girl's photo album also started off because I wanted to keep track of who was who (based on skill level I didnt share online, but had notes about if they were good or not - LOL). So, I would keep track of their countries/states/cities that these gamers would share with me. Over time these players left the Mplayer C&C channel to play some game called Quake.

So, I'd like to share a couple of C&C memories with all of you and dabble in the moments I had visiting Westwood Studios. Yes, I even had the chance to meet the hated, Kane (a man so full of humor, you wouldn't know he had an evil vain in his body).

*poof back to the day*

In late 1996 I come home from a tough day dealing with irate customers since I was a courtesy clerk with special privileges to look up benefits at a grocery store. That evening after work just had to be about no chaos and all chill. When I finally get home the last thing I want is my brother pestering me about some game he thinks will be better than Sim Farm. I was still in my teens then so I told him, "yeah, right." He wouldn't stop though, and continued to pester me, "and you can plant these POWER PLANTS, and these TANKS, and NOD BIKES, JODY! YOU GOTTA PLAY. You can connect with other players through the world wide web". He loved saying that term, and well, it was neat to say back then, so I liked it too.

We did have a super slow internet connection back then too, so it was better connecting IP to IP than using Mplayer (we later found out - didnt take long before we had to upgrade). My brother went on to say "I can play these people we know in person blocks away if I want! But, what made it so much better is this place called MPLAYER! See this Mplayer disk here I installed on your computer."

That's right, he installed something on my computer - little brat I thought to myself. He continued, "there's this Shadow clan, the BEST on Mplayer."

So, that thing continued with his excitement and I wasn't having it, but my mother stepped in and told me to try it out. It could take me away from the tiring day at work.

So, it happens, I jump in this game and he's telling me a play by play about what to do: start with establishing your base, power plant, and barracks - you know the drill. I forgot about my AWFUL day at work, and he was right, this was so much more fun than Sim Farm.

I start using Mplayer, and well, as much as there are tons of fun moments, I think I should explain a not so fond moment. One person in particular happened to be a Wizard (volunteer moderator on the service). I didn't know he was a volunteer at the time - I thought Wizards were employees. He was the first harassment I had as a female gamer playing a game online. He told me not long after being on the service that that I wasn't good enough to be playng multiplayer and since I admitted that I only played the first 2 areas in the campaign he told me to play the entire game and not to come back until I did this.

I was hurt (didnt build up the internet thick skin that happened after about 6 months of harassment on the service, from anti-christs, devil babies, rape, and killing your family statements, you name it, people threatened me at the time).

I learned real quick to shift my awesome social interaction skills and focus more about being ruthless in the game. I went undercover on the service as roadrunner (not gender specific for an account name on purpose) to see how people treated me differently. I even challenged the Mplayer Wizard for a game to see if he treated me different than CaliforniaGirl. My results? He played me, and didn't comment on how i played the game at all. I shared my story with some the Shadow clan, and by then my brother was already good enough to be in this clan. They worked with my skills for 2 weeks, and pushed me to no end. I stayed up countless hours, having 2 hours of sleep heading into work for those 2 weeks, but I wouldn't stop. I had to beat this Wizard.He made it personal when my skills were the same as roadrunner's alt account's skills, and he didnt tell roadrunner to get off the service.

These C&C players with shadow clan also wanted me to beat this Mplayer Wizard because they thought it wasn't right that he treated me differently for being female. I get so good at the game I do kick his butt as CaliforniaGirl after the training was over, and he never talked that way to me ever again. He asked me if I had finished the campaign and I said that I didn't. He was owned, and yes, I smiled for weeks every time he wouldn't get in a game with me again.

Mplayer became my hangout for years. I do have more treasured memories more than I have bitter, because of those people. We played so many games on the service, knew everyone there, knew who would play pranks to register as new accounts because we could identify with the way they played in the game, and many fun times were had by all of us. Heck, I even played my own pranks by registering as other people to see if people played me differently because they all knew CaliforniaGirl quite well. I had two girls I had registered with but only used them for 2 pranks with voice chat I had accents like southern for one girl, and the other girl I had a valley girl accent on voice chat. ;)

I later became a beta tester for the multiplayer gaming service, which was almost a year prior to becoming an employee at Mplayer.

After becoming employed with Mplayer for a bit, I had established a Westwood Studios games fansite, which was often the highlight to update with news. I was later invited to a press event back in 1999. Now, you'll have to excuse me for grammar errors, but at least you can relive the Westwood Studios excitement I wrote about in a CaliGirl Journey so many years ago. :) I also made a remembrance page for Westwood Studios back when it was announced that the studio was closing. Nothing against EA at all, I was just a huge fan of Westwood Studios and it's games. They connected with their customers back in the day, and that was noticed way before I had a chance to meet Westwood Studios staff in person years after being a C&C fanatic.

*poof back to today*

If you have any Westwood Studios or C&C or Red Alert memories, feel free to share them!

Yep, I'm still cleaning up my desk! One of the news editors gave me this red box with an unopened D&D starter kit a while back. I figured that it was not something I could give to the video guys to put on the show because it's a board/card game. If you want a D&D Starter kit, answer this trivia!

There is a person that shows up quite often on Today on the Spot, and he happens to get the most overwhelmingly nice comments about what t-shirt he's wearing for the day. Who is this staff member's name and what is his GameSpot username?

Post your answer in the comments below. I'll gather names tomorrow for another drawing.

On a side note, the answer is actually the person who put this box on my desk.

Hey there! I haven't had one of these... "things on my desk I need to give away" blogs in a little while. I have 4 World of Keflings posters to get off my desk before they get destroyed! Two of the posters are Star Wars themed/poses and I think the other 2 posters remind of me Wizard of Oz poses. You tell me what this it is.

To participate in this random little actiivty, answer the following question (your answer to this question is also the person who donated the posters).

A couple of years ago we had a GameSpot staff member who had dreads. What is this person's real name and what is his/her username on GameSpot?

You can answer this question in the comments by next Tuesday (when we return from the President's holiday). Yes, I dont care if you copy/paste to enter, that's the fun part about being "members" of GameSpot (team work peeps!)

I'll gather your names in the comments and have Sophia or another editor draw your names!

Now, to make sure I give you the poster you'd likely want, be sure to share which one you'd like with your trivia answer. I'll have tww drawings (one for Star Wars fanatics and one for Fantasy (wizard of oz?) fanatics. If you dont care which one, I'll just put your name in both drawings.

As you might be able to notice based on what I wear or my profile banner (Red Sonja) I don't mind red - but red roses disgust me. I have tried to consider why there has been so much hate for red roses over the years, and the idea of being a florist for 3+ years might have done it. People make assumptions that red roses define love or romance, and the assumption is that every woman would love to have a red rose bouquet. Now, before I sound like I hate Valentine's Day or Mother's Day, which often includes this color of rose in abundance, let me share a little more about my history.

Valentine's Day and Mother's Day was the time of the year where I worked countless hours, and to no end. I had tons of cuts on my hands and arms from cleaning the thorns. The tools we used at the floral shop worked well, but if you weren't paying attention the thorns cut deep, and dripping blood in front of a customer wasn't too appealing. ;)

Now, customers often asked me and other florists I worked with about what they could do to make the occasion special. Some would just get the pre-packaged roses and not realize that it looks rushed. When we actually selected the roses by hand and they were long-stem, that was an extremely hefty bill on the customer, but that showed how special that person was. Often times when people would ask how to make the already pre-packaged roses special (lol, these were normally 9.99 on sale back then), we told them to remove it from the pre-packing and add some baby's breath to fill it out. We also added a nice bow to this, and all of this cost a little extra. Customers came back days later with feedback about what a difference there was with the person who received the roses.

Now that you understand my idea of what makes it special,. assuming that red roses is more romantic should not be the case. Every woman (and man) see beauty in flowers differently. I find that the white with red tipped rose or white with white tipped rose provide so much more brilliance on making an impression on someone. The blend of colors shows that you're interested in that person, but it also gives much more of a mystery. And, if you wanted to get more technical on believing what the meaning is behind the white and red tipped rose, google for the definition.

I also find that other types of flowers in a bouquet make it so much more thoughtful when there's a rose here and there, and not taking up the entire bouquet. And, a single rose means much more than a bouquet of roses, I am however different than other women, but that just goes to show that every guy and gal should get to know their special someone's preferences prior to buying flowers for them. And, buy that person flowers no matter what kind of holiday it is. Guys tend to think female gamers don't appreicate the little things like flowers, and get in a whole lot of trouble for it!

I hope you have a great Valentine's Day! If you're interested in getting some schwag, we're giving away some goodies today!

As promised here it the Pleasant Moments of 2010 video.

I hope you all had a great holiday break (or early winter if you don't celebrate any holidays). I figured it was time to share some of my crazy or favorite moments in 2010. In 2009 I honestly believed that 2010 was going to be an exciting year for me. Turns out it was in fact just that, and surprisingly so! I also liked how neat "2010" looked every time I wrote anything for the site, and the t-shirts schwag I collected this year just looked awesome with 2010 on it.

January

I started off the New Year wearing Twiggy make-up (aka ridiculous eyelashes), but not long after the break I had to jump back into college classes, which meant I had to be deprived of playing games until it was over. I was happy to finish Associated degree in Communication Arts, which took a little over 2 years to complete.

February

This is the month I fell in love with one of my favorite game of all time, Mass Effect 2 (you realize Quake 1 is still up there in the ranks, right?). I am still not quite sure how I ended up getting a crush on Garrus.

March

Finished Mass Effect 2 after two weeks of playing. Might I add I haven't completed a game in too many years (shamefully true). I tried out Borderlands this month, and was hooked for a couple of weeks there, but I never finished it. For some reason I also went on a re-living Quake 1 single player spree. I thought for sure I could record all of my experiences and share them on my Youtube page, so I recorded tons of gameplay footage. I couldn't get passed the monsters fast enough and kept running out of hard drive space so I gave up on that idea. However, it did give me some additional appreciation for the game because it was so difficult to play so many years later!

This was the month I attended GDC, and I kind of went all out this year. I created some journey notes about what was happening real time, but later on created a full fledge CaliGirl style journey article with bells and whistles (aka pictures and videos)! on one of my websites. I normally used to update Ladygamers.com with such blogs, but since the site needs a revamp CaliGirl.net was the best place to share my experiences.

April

Work had a variety of April Fool's day videos on the site, and there was a video of me acting silly in this Nintendo DS video. That was the first time I have done a voice over in Japanese thanks to the help of Takeshi (everyone knows him as the Friendly Import dude). Wondercon was also fun attending this year, and I uploaded a couple of videos (masquerade and me shamefully rocking out) along with some pictures.

This is the month I visited LucasArts / Lucas Films, which was a delightful experience because I'm a huge Star Wars fan. They had an amazing food court at this place along with some neat art, figures, and more all over the buidling! I also liked the store with even more stuff you can buy.

May

This was the month I just could not wait for Red Dead Redemption. All of that teasing Rockstar did for months was just too good to be true, and well, you know the rest! GameSpot had 2 game nights for the game, and they were all quite successful. One of the game nights happened to be a live webcast with Kevin, Marco, Justin, Ryan playing the game with everyone!

I attended a 2-day game design class this month and went to the House of LAN 2010 party with some old Quake friends.

This was the month I watched Twin Peaks television show for the first time. While the television show started off a bit slow, I was hooked in no time! It kind of changed my perspective when I see these actors in television shows or films, too, in a sense where I kind of understand how some actors might have become famous. I also was introduced to other films that were inspired by the show. Here's one of my favorite scenes from the television show.

I attended the midnight launch of Red Dead Redemption (there's video of it somewhere, I should get that uploaded at some point). Sadly, the guy thought I was there with a friend and I told him off for not thinking a lady would buy the game. ;)

June

This month marked my 5 year anniversary with GameSpot, so I decided to see if there were any questions I should answer and created a video with some answers.

This month was also quite crazy with E3 2010 happenings, and GameSpot also introduced a new kind of night show called Tonight on the Spot.

I also felt like singing and being silly so I made a Turtle Beach spoof song. Funny enough, I had no instruments, and I'm not so good at mixing music, but I hoped that just singing it, humming and tapping on the desk would provide the background music I needed. Thinking about it now I sounded like a bumble bee. teehee!

July

I started off the month traveling to see family during Independence weekend. From being so hooked on Twin Peaks I finally received the Twin Peaks film from Netflix in the mail. After watching it I was amazed how scary it was compared to the television show. Eek!

This month had lots of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm for me. At the last minute I was asked to host the Now Playing episode at the last minute due to some schedule conflicts with other staff. The Now Playing episode was quite fun to host because I love the franchise, so if there was any hate about me hosting my first show on the site, I honestly couldn't blame them, but I did my best!

Comic Con was amazing to attend because I haven't went since early 2000. I did some behind scenes videos with the editors, and shared my experiences of Comic Con in a couple of videos like the harassment of the Masquerade line with Shaun McInnis, Scott Pilgrim screening, and some general highlights. There was also a Flynn's Arcade video tour, which you'll see in the Pleasant Moments of 2010 video. On a lower note about this month, my computer starting acting up around here so I never had a moment to finish some videos or add all of my Comic Con 2010 photos online. That also meant no PC gaming for months.

August

Quakecon was entertainment in being able to change my volunteer duties to help with the BYOC this year. I posted a blog about my history with Quakecon weeks prior to the event, and you'll also find some BYOC footage in GameSpot Quakecon report.

September

I was super excited this month after finding out that I had a good selection of villains in my bracket for the All Time Greatest Villain feature compared to other GameSpot staff. Talk about being lucky!

After falling in love with a lot of Steampunk stuff during San Diego Comic Con I started doing tons of research about how to make my own jewelry again, and industrial jewelry ended up catching my eye.

Capcom had a zombie crawl activity that I attended. There were lots of us getting make-up done as zombies, and we drove around in a bus to each pub. Some of the obvious music blasting in the bus included Thriller by Michael Jackson and Zombie by Cranberries. I felt bad for people passing by seeing so many of us outside because they often would jump seeing our faces in the dark, especially me in a hoodie!

October

This was the month I fell in love with Dead Rising 2. I still need to finish this game, but time has been too limited as of late. The Halloween episode was awesome this year, and everyone involved made it the best I've ever seen. The Scary moments video that Chris did, Homer and Ryan's Boss video, Wernher as Alan Wake, and the camping scenes alone were lots of work, but well worth it! The camping scenes caused me to realize just how important running water is, from having to be in the boonies. The polar bear hoodies were hilarious too.

November

Not too much happened this month other than trying the Kinect and nearly getting snowed in while visiting Seattle during Thanksgiving week.

December

I played Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood for the first time, and enjoyed playing with the multiplayer mode. There was also a Blizzard event that I attended with Bethany (former community manager) for the launch of World of Warcraft Cataclysm.

I also hosted an ornament hunt across the site and during the holidays I visited about 60 family members. We had a Kinect and played that for HOURS on trading out with the youngsters, teenagers, and adults. I took footage but one of my cousins begged me not to share any footage that i had. I regretfully said okay. :(

That's most of what happened. Take care!

Today the community manager at Chowhound.com (GameSpot's sister site) reminded me about Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD). So, happy CMAD day to me and any others that deal with internet communities!

Today is the start of a troubling week for me because I'm concerned that tomorrow's Jury Duty won't allow me to be in for the Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament at our offices on Thursday. To put my mind at ease I figured I'd work a bit tonight to catch up on things I need to do tomorrow (but I'll be in Jury Duty). I would have loved if it was ANY other week this month, and sadly I already had them postpone this last September (aka that card was already used). :o

One of the things I finally posted tonight (after discussion with mods for a month now) is a new ongoing open moderation discussion in the Ask the Mods forum. We find so many abuse reports that are cleared from our moderation queue every day. I wanted to make sure people are grasping just how much effort we put into training our moderators about the rules we have on the site. Moderation isn't about punishment nor does it give any of us pleasure to penalize our members for breaking the rules. We do not prowl every single area on the site, we heavily rely on abuse reports you all make. To start off the open moderation discussion (OMD) I felt it would be good to start with the foundation of the rules in hope of shedding some light.

On a side note, I still haven't given hope on cutting that video! I will stay up one night just to complete it before my January 31 deadline!

A couple of GameSpot members returned the union awards this year! You'll want to drop by this nomination phase to vote for your favorite unions. I also posted some community news about it.

If anyone wants to share some tags or signatures they can design and upload in their GameSpot image gallories for this activity feel free to share a link to them in the comments. I'll update the community news blog about it. I am currently only aware of this signature tag image, which I have mirrored in my image gallery.

I was going through my blog comments and realized that eiji1 posted a neat poem about Red Dead Redemption. He figured I'd enjoy it because I was on TheHotSpot's Red Dead Redemption episode last week.

Promise \ Ran Harpaz (eiji1)
A plain of rock and dust before me,
The midday sun above,
A buzzard and his shadow,
Become a link thereof,

The sound of clopping hooves resounds,
Across this wretched field,
It marks the beat of failing hearts,
And wills that threat to yield,

The pack across my shoulder's heavy,
As is my bandolier,
A rattlesnake hisses beside me,
But I'm too worn out to fear,

The stitch in my left side is bleeding,
And all my booze is out,
My steed near-stumbles, shaking me,
And forcing me to shout,

Perhaps this day will be my last,
Perhaps my life is done,
Perhaps I'll never see the sunset,
With my wife and son,

But I must persevere, must march,
As long as I can bear,
'Cause to abandon either one,
Is something I won't dare,

So I hold on, with pallid hands,
To blood soaked, leather rein,
My mind is blanking in and out,
My body wracked with pain.

And I'll keep going, 'till I get,
To somewhere I can heal,
I won't let go, I won't forget,
This promise now I seal.

On a side note, I originally had plans to have my first blog of the year about pleasant moments of 2010, but I wanted to accompany the blog with a video that would visually display pieces of what I was saying. Might take me a little while longer than planned, but I am optimistic that I'll get that posted this month!

This blog is about the scavenger hunt we're having for the holidays. If you see any other staff blogs with something similar, it's because they are people you need to collect for the ornament hunt!

Share a couple of items on your Christmas wishlist this year.
I'm rarely the type that wants big things for Christmas, but it seems like this year I want the pricey stuff: bicycle, large monitor, PS3 slim, light portable PC good for LAN parties, and a mini HD video camera. So much for sharing a couple of items. ;)

What games will you play during the holidays?
I have a variety of games I need to catch up on like Mass Effect 2 DLC, Red Dead Redemption, Civiliation IV, and I also plan to recruit more friends to play World of Warcraft. I am a bad influence on gamers who have never had a massive multiplayer online experience before.

What are the kinds of food or drinks you must have during the holidays?
I've been hooked on this Soy Silk Pumpkin Spice milk, and now that less stores are selling it I've lost all hope on finding it for another 11 months. It doesn't taste like soymilkand it's quite smooth in flavor (not too spicey).

ORNAMENT HUNT ANSWER - CLUE 2

I've put together a Gamespot video and editorial staff ornament scavenger hunt this year, which a couple of you who used the site might recall being quite similar to the one I did at Quake3world.com back in 2000. The Quake3world ornament scavenger hunt briefly interviewed id Software staff, professional Quake 3 gamers, and Quake3world staff/mods. Mini ornaments were spread throughout the site that lead to each of these interviews. GameSpot's ornament scavenger hunt will be a bit different, but you get the idea! I have a festive activity for you to participate in this year!

GameSpot's ornament contest will be quite colorful because we'll share some of our holiday activities. The ornament template created back in 2000 was designed by an old Quake friend named Da5id (from Deathrow clan). The new 3d ornament template you'll see next Monday has been designed by Justin Porter from the video team. You might recognize his work for the intro animation for Today on the Spot, E3 and more! After getting the template design, Justin designed 8 ornaments to help with the scavenger hunt project and I designed the remainder 30 to make sure each ornament was a unique clue for each staff member.

You'll want to drop back on Monday for this scavenger hunt activity that will run for about 2 weeks. Please share your lists with people in your blogs once this activity begins because some of you don't track every GameSpot staff member, and you'll need to rely on each other during your hunt.

There will be a challenge for you to gather some of the video staff because you don't always see them in front of the camera. The good news? The ornaments will be a visual clue and I'll also have hints about videos that might have this person. I'll also add information in the comments for certain video pages if I believe it won't be easy to find the staff member's profile page. These minor tips will help guide you to the 38 GameSpot staff for some points and a festive emblem that will be granted on January 4 (after we get back from the holiday break). For some of you though, I think the ornaments you'll see next Monday will already give away the staff member.

Around Wednesday of next week I also planned on sharing a small version of the ornament template for any of you web designers who would like to edit Justin Porter's 3d ornament to give to friends or make for your profiles. Some of you could also make it smaller to have as an avatar.