I am the leader of the 24 fans union and as a die hard 24 fan i would like to post some videos from youtube on the union video section, the only problem is that i don't know how to do this. I am guessing that it is most likely very simple but when it comes to things like this i'm how you shall say.... a complete noob. Computers are not my strong suit and i know that most gs users can do this stuff in their sleep. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also a step by step would help me the most. I know that some of you will think this is funny and it is and i would find the humor in this if it was not so embarrassing. I can handle all comments but please be nice or i may have to go Jack Bauer on you. :lol: Seriously all help would be most appreciated, I was not sure which forum to post this in so i played it safe and put it in as a profile blog. Thanks again

I have been looking around at all the really awesome designs that people have on gamespot and I'm so amazed at how cool the banners and other designs are. When i see this amazing work by people i start to feel sad because the things i have made are absolutely horribly bad and can be considered embarrasing next to all the talent here on gamespot. :cry: I think that i'm going down the correct road with some things but omg do i need help in other areas. My problem is that i do not have and art background nor do i know how to use my software the way most people do. Designing looks like alot of fun and the options for creations are limitless but I don't know the best way to learn the basics. I have photoshop elements version 5.0 and most of my friends are using other software. I thought that the design aspect was a little easier than what it really is. The people who have this stuff down are absolutely amazing. I wanted a banner that i had made looked at by the great people of the gamespot's gamespace banners union. I suddenly began to realize that i had no buisness attempting this because compared to every one elses work, I am not even close to being on any level that these people are. I began to feel like i was wasting every one's time to look at my art or more appropriate my train wreck. :shock: I really want to learn how to do this, but I'm not sure the best way to go about learning the basics of design. I have had some people put the software and eagerness to learn down and i realize that these people need to go into the whatever category and get the old :roll: Most people have been very nice and supportive. I guess the only question to be answered is what is the best way to go about learning the basics of design? I look to my fellow gamespot members to help me answer this question. To those who are amazing artists I must thank you for showing me the endless possibilities for designing. It is because of all the talented people here that has inspired me to want to do this and my sincere hope is that some day i will be able to hold my head high and proud and be able to call myself a designer.:D 8)

I finnally got to see spiderman 3 last night and man was this movie good like the first 2 movies, this one was action packed and just really fun to watch. I felt that this movie was more a character study of all the main characters and the story tied up all loose ends and resolved the conflicts from the first 2 movies. I would love to here people's thoughts about this and see what you thought of the movie. The next movie to be taken in is Pirates 3 i think i will wait to go see it because i really hate crowds in movies because it always seems to be that i sit close to some one who either talks their way through the movie or some one who has seen it already and spoils it because they know what happens next.

As I sit here pondering how I am going to score myself the Mac daddy of gaming consoles the ps3, I find my mind drifting back to a simpler way of gaming, before there were things like skill points, achievement points and unlockables. A time when there was only one console to rule the mountain top, and a time in which there was no such things as console wars. In order to understand where we are in the gaming world, we need to understand our gaming roots. Let us take a look back to where it all started.

            The year was 1977 in the month of October when the seeds of gaming were planted with the Atari 2600. This console was named after the part#cx2600 and was also referred to as the video computer system. There was nothing like this ever seen before, the cpu speed was a mere 1.19 MHz with game cartridges that held 4 kb of information with a variety of 128 colors that the console could handle. I was the talk of my neighborhood because I was considered very lucky to have one of the very first Atari 2600 ever sold. My friends and I would play games such as Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Space invaders and combat the game that was supplied with the console.

            The only thing that was similar to the achievement  points of today was nothing more than the satisfaction and pride of "turning over the game" which is another way of saying we had beaten the game. Twelve years had past and there was a new console to hit the market and compared to the 2600 it looked very impressive. The Sega Genesis had been born. The console debuted in January 9th in the year 1989. This was the 16 bit console that had a cpu speed of 7.61MHz with 512colors. This all but killed the Atari 2600 because this console was so amazing and the console offered games like Altered Beast and Phantasy star.

This console was quickly over powered by the new console which began to redefine what video games were like and what direction video games were going. The year was June 23, 1996 the dawn of a new era was about to take people by storm and it was the storm of the gaming console known as the Nintendo 64. This console turned the world on its head with the graphics, memory, and the quality of games. Games like Super Mario 64 and James Bond golden eye gave gamers a glimpse into the future. The things that made this console so unique were things like a 64 bit processor and a cpu speed of 93.75mHz. These things made games come to life in ways that the previous systems could not.

The world was so amazed by the quality of game play and realism that they did not think it could get any better than this. Little did they know what was about to happen and people were not ready to handle what was coming next.

            The year is September 9, 1995 when the rules and the gaming industry were about to go where no one has ever been. This is the day of the ps one. Little did any one know how this new contender of the video gaming industry was going to redefine what we thought we knew about games and gives all a sneak peak into the future. When the ps one came out people who loved video games stopped going to the corner arcade because they invested in this little console and some bragged that the games were even better than the old arcade games. This 32 bit system revolutionized the gaming industry in terms of power, speed, graphics, and they added a new dimension to the console and the memory card was born. Games like grand theft auto 2, final fantasy 7, and metal gear solid simply blew people away and gave rise to what we now refer to as the console wars. Because the bar was set so high that game developers needed to at least match or surpass the ps one's capabilities, if this was not achieved then it was a mute point.

The concept for video games has gone through many changes of designs and concepts but if we did not have these a gaming ancestors we would not and could not enjoy the consoles of today.

           

You know you have spent too much time on gamespot when:

1. When you ask to get a ride to gamespot and not gamestop

2. When you say "be careful what you say, you don't want to get modderated"

3. When you go to check the terms of servise before responding to someone.

4. When you go to check your e-mail and you type you user name as your password

5. When you are learning a new skill and say " Man I'm such a noob"

6. When you see an attractive girl and say I wonder how she would look on a banner

7. When you need to find an answer to a question and you immediately look for ask the mods thread

8. When you say "will they have an emblem for that?"

9. When you are asked to take directions and goto your computer to make a thread about it

10. When you are sending an e-mail and you put an :P before sending it

11. When you see something that looks amazing and you goto make it a banner

12. When you get spam in your e-mail and you goto lock it.

13. When you see emblems in your dreams.

14. When you post a spoiler warning on a letter you send to a friend

15. When you relay a funny story to someone and you spell lmao

16. When someone says something you don't understand and you see in your mind :?

17. When someone tries to convince you that you are wrong and you think of this :roll: and not do it.

18. When someone tries to pick a fight with you and say " stop flaming me."

I loved my old banner and avitar but i wanted to make a change. I made these myself and it is giving me some practice with my photoshop elements version 5.0. My photoshop skills are nothing like some of the people here at gamespot but i know i have to start somewhere. I think that this is a pretty decent place to start. It is nice to change things up every once and a while. This does not mean of course that i don't still love being a splinter cell because i do, it just means that even splinter cells need a change every now and then. I know the more i work with photoshop the better i will get at it and the bottom line is that i like and it is not bad for a begginer. I welcome comments from all i just ask that you be nice because I may have to put my splinter cell hat on and come and find you. I'm just kidding of course but all comments are welcomed and one thing being a gamespot member has taught me that wether you welcome comments or not you are going to get them anyways, with that said i say fire at will.:P

Things are starting to look up my banner is back to stay and i finally got my tagger emblem and my unions are doing well. The one thing that still eludes me is that my friend is still un able to enjoy the banner i made for him because it won't let him up load it for some reason. I tried both of the banners on my profile and they worked perefectly so i am a little disappointed about this. I am keeping my eye and ears open for a possible fix to this dilema. i guess the answer will come in time. I'll take my good fortune as a sign that my friend will be able to enjoy his banner soon:D

I'm feeling a little frustrated with Gamespot right at this moment because i made a cool banner for a really good friend and he got this message that it was too big but when i tried it out on my profile it worked fine and he still has not been able to enjoy his new banner. My banner in the mean time has come and gone this last week it just came back today and i'm trying to figure out how long before it disappears again. I went back and scaled my friends banner that i made for him down just a little bit as well as some minor changes and i hope that he will be able to enjoy one of the banners i made for him. The Bottom line here is what the heck is going on gamespot i knew that glitches occured every now and again but this is getting a little too much at this point. Do the union changes have something to do with these issues or is the system in complete failure. I also would like to add that i still have not recieved any tagger emblem for my tags. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE gamespot get these gremlins out of the system.:evil::evil:

P.S. all i want is my friend to be able to enjoy his new banner and for me to keep mine. I really wanted to do something nice for him because he is a great friend and at this point it is equilivent to giving someone a new ferrari and say oh by the way it is not insured yet..

Why is it every single time things get going well for me at gamespot something comes along and blows all momentum right out of the water. My profile banner is among the missing and i can not get it back no matter what the heck i do. I have over 200 tags in my profile and i have yet to recieve any tagger emblem. My question is what the heck is going on here?!!!!! I'm making progress with my unions and this is great and i'm making alot of new friends and things are just going smoothly until now. I have no idea why this is happening It is like gremlins of gamespot are out to sabotage every thing. My only question is Why Does It Have To Be This Way?????:cry::roll::?:evil:

Music in video games can make or break the gaming experience. Some games seem to get it right while others go horribly wrong. Are the game makers concentrating on game content so much that they choosing lousy soundtracks, do they not have a good selection of music to choose from or is it that they are paying unknowns to create something for their game just to give them exposure. As an avid music lover there are so many great songs that could be used in the games to make mediocre games great if they could just pick some better music. Games such as Call of duty and Metal of Honor have done it right by having a full orchaster to supply the music. The music adds so much to the game that there are times when the game is like that you are actually there. It goes through the lows of trench warfare to rising melodies when you the player have become victorious in achieving the mission's goals. Grand Theft Auto has made an attempt to choose some good music in their games. Vice city for example chose Crockett's theme for one of the radio stations and this song is a great choice because the game felt like an interactive Miami Vice episode rather than a video game. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas also got it right by having welcome to the jungle by guns and roses so the player can choose the radio station for being in the cities and then when out in the country the player can choose to listen to the country station. These are examples of appropriate music enhancing the game. Then you have games like the Burnout  series or the Atv off road fury series that has absolute junk for music and it leaves the player shutting off the music and turning up the sound effects to enjoy the game. Then there are games such as project go them racing where the player can put there own style of music on while playing the game. This is a great feature of games such as this because the player can simply create their own play list and have this as the soundtrack and the end result is that they will play the game longer because it is more enjoyable to play. I would challenge game makers to pick more appropriate music choices for games they are making because having the right music for a given situation will make the difference whether their game is a hit or a flop. Also for people who want to make the point that music has little or no effect on whether a game is good or not I would ask people to think about this. Next time you go to a movie take a moment to hear the music playing if it is appropriate for the scene then you most likely enjoy the movie better than if it was not the right piece of music. Also music definitely enhance the gaming experience and or movie experience or the academy awards are wasting time on the best musical score and if they are wasting their time then so is gamespot, by having the best musical score in the best and the worst voting categories. Music is a huge part of the gaming experience whether or not people are willing to admit to this fact or not.8)