http://forums.gamespot.com/gamespot/show_messages.php?board=314159273&topic=19120102&page=0

Should be helpful

Courtesy of DrEvil1:

---Okay, I'm getting tired of seeing all these threads floating around of people who want to know how to gain levels in their GameSpot profile. So here's a guide to all things levelish. If I see one of these threads again, then I'll.........do something extremely bad, but I have yet to figure what it is! Pathooiey!

P.S. - Results may vary. This guide is not accurate, this is just what I've heard all around GameSpot over the past year I've been here.

Here's a general guide of gaining levels/how to use the GameSpot Forums.

Using your profile features (Collection, Wish List, Tracked Games, and Now Playing)

This may help alot if you want to gain levels. Just generally use this stuff to gain levels, and also a nice way to keep track of the things you want to keep in there.

Rating and reviewing games

This helps a lot with the level, but is only optional. You can rate games right from the start, but you have to get to level 6 to review games (another alternative is going GameSpot Complete) You can also review or rate any game.

Minutes Online

Spending a lot of Minutes Online is the key to successs here at Gamespot. Spending lots of Minutes Online will help with your level, as well as get you well known inside boards.

Friends Page

This is where you can see your friends. These are the people who have asked to be your friend, or are the people you want to be your friend. Have fun growing friends!

P.S. - Do not go out just sending random friend requests to people you don't know. I think I speak for everyone when I say it is just plain ANNOYING.

Posting

Ah, yes, posting. This does not help with your level too much, but it helps you gain friends and get popular around all kinds of exciting boards and people.

Read GameSpot's daily news

This can mark some succesful points, and it also keeps you up to date. (If you are a news fanatic you can also earn a badge in your meber profile.)

Watching and downloading videos

This earns lots of points, and it's great to just watch the videos over and over again.

Marking succesful moderations

If you think someone is doing something wrong, just moderate it by clicking the scroll down menu on your right and click "report abuse to moderator". If a mod agrees that it is an abusive message, it can earn you a couple of points.

---Side notes

Your level only updates once every 24 hour rotation, so be patient. Most of the time it is in the middle of the night, or right when you log on.

Spamming to get your level up is not the way to go. This will probably result in a ban.

---Other help threads

Guide to Signatures and Avatars

OTF FAQ

Links to Important Threads of OT

---Also, if you are still confused about all this, please visit Noob nation to ask all your questions.

Got to meet with one of my teachers today. It sucks. I'm the only black person in his class so he has a tendency to notice when I'm not there. By the way, I went down to Miami for the weekend and had a blast! Food & fun, breasts & butts. Good times had by all. Anyway, I hate having to wait on my teacher to get to his office. I'm usually out of class by 3:15 but he doesn't get to his office until 5. "What to do?" you ask . . . not much, really. I could go get something to eat, but that would be a waste of money, especially if I were to do that every time I got caught in this situation. I could go hang out with one of my friends, but nine times out of ten, I would forget I had the meeting and probably get in trouble. The only logical option is to hang out at the school library and play on the computer (hey, that's what I'm doing now!). I really just want to go home. I'm not necessarily having trouble in the class. OK, I'm not necessarily passing either, but I really am understanding the material. I mean, I can do the homework with no problem, but I get screwed over on the midterm and apparently the world has to come to a halt. So, sucks to be me. I'm stuck up here until probably 6. Truthfully, though, I rented Tales of Symphonia and it is a pretty good game so far. I want to go home and work on it some more. I'll wait until I take the game back to the video store before I review it. But I need to get off campus. Darn these stupid responsibilities!

Man I missed a few weeks. Classes are getting tough now. I actually have to meet with my teachers! It's fine, though. They both seem really helpful. The people I talked to say that they really don't like to fail students as long as they see they're trying. That's great for me because I'm depending on the pity grade right about now. I need a break. Thankfully I'm heading down south for the weekend. Going to be visiting Miami for a few days. I can't wait. I get to go to the county fair, eat at a few hot spots, do Easter dinner, go to church, maybe hit up a strip club or two. Man, I'm starting to drool. I will be leaving the game systems behind this time. Every time I go somewhere, I have a tendency to take one of my systems with me. Not this time. This is going to be strictly an out of the house experience. It's just as well. I really haven't been playing anything. I picked up Mario Sunshine and Dynasty Warriors 4 and had been grossly immersed in both at one point, but recently school has just been jamming me in the 'a'. I can't wait for the semester to be over. What am I talking about, I'm already half way shut down. Oh well...

Man I am so flippin pissed off. My car is still in the shop. I put it in on Tuesday and it was supposed to be ready that afternoon. Well they gave me this excuse that one of their paint guys had been gone and it was just the one guy left working on the cars. So I've been screwed out of my car again for an extra 2 days. I've been taking the bus to and from campus and depending on my friends to take me out after the bus stops running. It sucks. On top of that, my rent is due today and I left my check book in my car by accident. So I guess screw me. Oh, and the fact that it's cold and raining outside is not helping the situation. Plus I'm hungry. So nuts to me all around. I swear it sucks! And it would be a different story if I got a rent-a-car (or at least knew I would have to get a rent-a-car). But stupid flippin me thinking that the body shop would finish with my car in a reasonable amount of time. Kryst I am hungry! Then I have to worry about spring break next week. Me and my friends were going to go up to Panama City Beach this year and hang out (not literally). But one by one they seem to be pussing out. If I'm the only one that ends up doing something for spring break, I'm going to go down to South Beach, screw PCB. OK, I'm for real hungry now...

Well I've had my car for about a week now. I'm loving it. Sad to say though, I have to take it back to the body shop. They did a good job getting my door back on my car, but the paint job they did was not exactly up to par. So my baby will be going back in on Tuesday. And my cable got cut off. Man, talk about a low blow. Honestly though, I can't really say anything because I had been getting free cable up until this point. They actually were auditing their system when they saw I was getting "services I had not requested". It kind of sucks but at least this forces me to upgrade my house. I had said I would get a cable modem eventually because dial up is horrible (duh!). So I figured while I'm out requesting my services be reconnected, I'll go ahead and get that darn modem. It should be good. I eventually want to get a new computer too. I've been dying to play City of Heroes and I figured now that I'll be getting the modem, I need a new computer to complete the package. But I have to take it one step at a time. Anyways, it's been kind of dull not having television at home. I've been playing a lot more playstation and gamecube and I've been doing a little more homework. Strange right? I need t.v. No seriously, I NEED t.v. It really is rough not having it when it's been there for the majority of my life. I've been playing Mario Sunshine & Dynasty Warriors 4 in the mean time. I mean they are both fun games, but nothing can take the place of t.v. I gotta get it back, if not today, tomorrow. Lord give me strength!

Classes are going well. That is, as well as can be expected. We have our midterms this week and next week. I'm definitely not looking forward to that. It's just intimidating when you have all this work you do in the homework with aids and books, then to have to do some of the same stuff without the extra materials is just tough. It would be one thing if getting a C in the class counted as passing, but the fact that they raise the bar to a B or higher makes it tough. And I still don't have my car back. I was supposed to get it on Friday. Well, that was the initial plan. But the body shop has been giving me these excuses that the paint guy hasn't been in, and it's been raining outside, and some parts had to be ordered. I swear, I appreciated my car before, but now I really appreciate my car. I don't know how some people depend on the bus to do anything. It's just so inconvenient. And then I hate having to ask my friends for a ride. Most times I have to travel to the other side of town to take care of my business, and i hate having to ask them to adjust their schedules to me. Hopefully today is the day I get my wheels back. Oh, and I've been playing the new Champions game. I have to say, I'm somewhat disappointed. I sort of had these expectations of what it should have been like and Snowblind just blind sided me with something else. Don't get me wrong, stand alone, it's a good game, but when compared to the last Champions, it's a bit of a turn around. The hack and slash is still there, and the side quests are kind of nice. I think my biggest issue comes to play when I start a new game and one of my friends wants to join in. Well crap! We have to start over from the beginning because you can't import a character in the middle of a story anymore. Think about it, if you and your friends are playing one night and decide to call it quits, what do you do if you want to continue leveling up your character and use him or her in the one you're playing with your friends? Plus the fact that you can progress and level up in the arena but you can't transfer your stats to the mission mode is disappointing as well. I think this is one of those games that will be sitting on the shelf until the $20 mark pops up. Oh well, I guess they all can't be gold.

Well my car got hit Monday night. Needless to say I was pissed off. The thing that bothered me the most wasn't the fact that I got hit, but the fact that the person that hit me didn't leave a note on my car with any info, much less an apology. I think I've more or less cooled off after a few days. My friends and family keep telling me to look at it as a blessing. I could have been in the car at the time and gotten seriously injured. Thankfully that wasn't the case. The su-cky part is that I have to get it fixed since I can't even open up my driver's side door. But I'm going to have to come out of pocket this time because I already had an accident within the past 12 months and the insurance company might cancel me if I have to put in another claim so soon. Nuts to me I guess. I had rented Resident Evil 4 to take my mind off of the whole thing. So far it's doing a pretty good job of keeping me in good spirits. I'm sure I'll buy it eventually but only after Champions: Return to Arms has been completed. In the mean time, I'll be without a car for a few days so when Resident Evil goes back, Champions will be there to ease the pain. Gotta try and stay positive...

Well, I actually went to church today. Man, I hate to admit it, but sometimes I need a good laugh. Don't misunderstand, it wasn't the actual message I was laughing at, but the goings on during church. The thing about it is I come from a fairly sophisticated church, and this Sunday I visited a church with some of my friends. Ethnic is the only way to describe this place. Everything was so traditional and old fashioned. It seemed like every now and then they tried to appeal to the younger crowd, but man they just seemed so set in their ways. It was a good message though, so I at least got something good out of the service. Then I came home and played Sonic Adventure 2. I swear those damn chaos are a mug to raise! My friend told me if I want to have them grow up without the hassle, just leave the game on overnight but I wouldn't be able to see the evolutions or anything and stuff would be happening without my intervening. Needless to say, that won't be happening. Other than that, I've been hanging out with my friends watching the fooseball and playing Halo 2. This journal thing is pretty cool. I'm going to read my web comics now so we'll try this again later.