A Series of Unrelated Events
I'd like to introduce Xtreme Force Gamer, better known as XFG. Even before Unions were created, the administrator, "Crusher", had wanted to offer people hosting and a forum to discuss their favorite games. When Unions came out, he took note of what was going on. After realizing that I couldn't have my Union expand due to Unions being limited, I contacted him. We had a lot of discussions, and I later joined the XF team. We set something up called Divisions, which are pretty much an improved version of Unions. We set them up the way Unions should have been like from the beginning.
Every division gets its own site and forum, free of charge. The division's forum will be on the main XFG forums until it proves its worthy of a separate forum. Forum registrations cost money, so unless the division leader pays for it themselves, the division has to prove itself. Unlike unions, if there is already a division about a certain game series, another division on the same thing can't be created. To learn more about divisions and to learn how you could get one, go to this page.
The XF team has also set up a designing part to the network. On XFD, you can get tips with designing and request sig tags. We are establishing teams in designing and coding. They will be doing paid jobs, and will be getting commission. The designers on XFD will be there to help division leaders design their site and design other things that their division will need. Go here to see what positions are available.
That's what I've been up to sine I left GameSpot. If anyone has any questions or concerns, they can reach me at: sam [at] keepersoftheages.com
A few weeks ago I posted about leaving GameSpot. Here is the original message I had been working on. I changed it a lot. If you guys have any questions for me, I'll answer them, and maybe even do a 3rd version.
I'm leaving GameSpot. I've had a good time while I was here, but the past year or so, I've spent way too much time on GameSpot. I'd spend countless hours each day posting, reading news, and helping people. I enjoyed doing this, but it was becoming too time consuming.
I've gotten to know some administrators well, but there are a few things about how GameSpot was run that were disappointing. (This doesn't resemble GameSpot necessarily, but CNET's priorities) I noticed that there were community announcements for each live show, and not enough about the community. The developers made a lot of cool features, but they were soon forgot about and never improved. There have also been a lot of changes to the site that a lot of users didn't like, but they were never removed. It seemed to me like the administrators didn't consider our input that much.
Unions v2 never came, and won't be here for a long time. The only reason there was some progress was because of Sentinelrv. He was going to move the HCU off of GameSpot a while ago, and then he was immediately approached by administration asking him to stay, and to help them improve the union system. After he spent countless hours designing a system for them, for free for that matter, there still hasn't been much progress. Unions are leaving GameSpot, and they are trying to stop us from leaving by censoring us! (the last few posts deal with Sentinelrv's blog entry about an option for union leaders to move their union off of gs, being deleted as "spam".
I'll still visit GameSpot once in a while to read the latest gaming news, but most of my free time is now going to be spent on my site. I'll try to check out your blogs once in a while. The last month doesn't resemble my time at GameSpot at all, and it's unfortunate that the community became restless for some time. I hope some of you stop by my new site and forum, even if you don't play Age of Empires. If anyone ever wants to contact me, here is my new contact information (I'm trying to dump my many old accounts/addresses. I'll be slowly transitioning to these accounts, so please modify your friends' lists if I'm on there. And if I'm not, feel free to add me)
Website: www.keepersoftheages.com/forum
AIM: KOTAges
MSN: keepersoftheages [at] live.com
E-mail: sam [at] keepersoftheages.com
| Age of Empires Union Telegram wrote: |
| Members of the Age of Empires Union, Our long-awaited Age of Empires site has finally launched! The fan site - which we are calling "Keepers of the Ages" after it was voted on by our older members – has plenty of content based on Age of Empires 3 which I and the rest of the AOEU team has been working on for quite some time now. We will continue to update the site over the coming weeks and months with more content, including content for the older Age games and the newest expansion pack, The Asian Dynasties. But if more people help out, we can make the site even better! Please check out our jobs page if you're interested in helping, and don't forget to look at the content we have so far. Much more will be added soon. www.keepersoftheages.com This also comes with news that may surprise some of you. When I originally planned the site, I was going to still keep the union on GameSpot as our forum. But as the time went by, I could see that there was no way we could expand on GameSpot's board system. When GameSpot announced that they were redesigning unions I decided to wait on my decision, but it has been almost a year now and I can still see no progress. So I made the decision to move entirely off the union board, with the help of the team at Xtreme Force Gamer to design and code our new forum. With the new board we will be able to have so much more flexibility, and discussions will no longer need to be constricted to single threads for each game. I encourage all of you to create an account there! www.keepersoftheages.com/forum In light of recent events, I am glad that I made the decision to move off-site entirely. If the rumors are true about how Jeff Gerstmann was fired, CNET can no longer be trusted as long as they maintain ownership of GameSpot. They have already tried to censor GameSpot users by removing blogs, taking down the user Soapbox feature, and not allowing anymore user reviews to be made for the game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. This is unacceptable and I fully support those of you who have already cancelled your Total Access subscriptions because of this. I hope that those of you who are leaving GameSpot will still join us at our new forum. Those of you who are responsible union leaders and wish to move off-site just as I have, please contact me. ~Sam~ Keepers of the Ages Admin www.keepersoftheages.com |
They are trying to get the money that they deserve. Right now you can see most shows online. The networks put them on their website. They make money from the ads on it, and the writers, and the other people who work on the show don't get a penny of that money. They are also asking for another 4 cents per DVD sale. Right now they only get 4 cents out of the $20 you spend on a DVD.
Most of the writers in the WGA aren't working. And writers don't get paid a lot either. The average income is around 30,000 dollars. Writers rely on residuals to support their families, and to be able to still make a living.
The writers want to go back to writing the shows, but it's up to the executives when this happens. The WGA isn't going to give up. If it's necessary they will wait until June, when the SAG and DGA (the actors and directors guild) are scheduled to go on strike too. Nobody wants the strike to last this long. Support the cause. Go to where they are picketing and show your support. Call the studios and say that you want your shows back.
Why We Fight -- understand why the writers are on strike
Other Cool Videos -- See people from your favorite show on strike
Sign the petition -- help get your favorite shows back on. Send a message to the studio executives
UnitedHollywood.com -- get the latest news on the strike
I was able to exchange my broken Xbox 360 to the store because, last year, when I bought it, it came with a free 1 year store warranty 
There was someone new at the store, so they offered that I get the Limited Halo 3 version and pay the difference, not knowing that he wasn't allowed to do that. So now I have a Halo 3 Xbox 360!
I didn't pay for the store warranty, since it's overpriced, but do I have to pay for a microsoft warranty? How long does the 3 red lights warranty (which was announced around July) last? Do I qualify? Also, is there a way to transfer everything from my old hard drive to my new one?
Why do you like to watch GameSpot's live events? Is it the possibility of emblems awarded? Do you like to talk to other gamers during the broadcasts? Is it that you have nothing else to do?
People have been waiting almost 30 minutes for "Player's Ball" to start, and haven't left. There are still hundreds of people posting on the comment system.
