Its in the bag - In an effort to be more like my favorite writer Bill Simmons, I'm going to steal (or as I like to call it "permanently borrow") his idea of a mailbag.
I'll collect questions emailed every month to my Gazette email address at terry.terrones@gazette.com. The best questions will be put on the blog. The person with the best question will win a $20 gift certificate to GameCrazy.
Ask any question you want, preferrably about gaming but if you feel like asking something else (or even a comment about something else) have at it. Funny, of course, is always good. In fact a funny question or statement about a non-gaming topic will score higher than a serious question or statement about a gaming topic. Email as many comments or questions as you like, multiple entries are encouraged. Keep in mind, however, my method for determining the questions for the blog and top question of the month are completely unscientific - so don't get bent out of shape if you don't win or get on the site.
Since we're nearing the end of July, I'll accept emails now through August 25th for the August mailbag. I'll put up the Mailbag questions/comments and answers/responses sometime during the last week of August. Lather, rinse and repeat for every month thereafter. Of course, if this flops, this might be the only month the Mailbag is up. Hopefully, the response will be strong and this can be a cool new feature that allows for more interaction with gamers. So tell all your gaming buddies and friends about it, even if they live out of state. Let's have some fun with this.
Etc. - I'm trying to figure out a way to best get connected to local gamers. I've added a bunch of readers to my friends list but just haven't had an opportunity to play with too many people. I was thinking of putting together a Halo clan, which I think would be pretty cool, but I know some gamers are pretty attached to their clan so I'm not sure that'll work. I also thought about having a set time twice a month to host a game. If you have any ideas, let me know...In order to leave comments on the blog, you now have to go through a couple of extra steps. Its a pain but I was getting way too much spam...I'm also tinkering with the idea of a Random Thoughts feature for the blog. It's something I used to do with my old newsletter/website Colorado Joe (hence my gamertag). I just discussed completely random things, some had to do with gaming but most really didn't. Usually it was about movies, current events and pop culture, etc. This being a gaming blog, I'll have to run this by my editor.
3 comments:
I don't know how good you are at Halo 2. I enjoy it but I rarely win games. Starting a Halo Clan for say, only Colorado players might be difficult. One idea is to start a guild of colorado players that play several games. One good example of this is the NFBS clan. http://www.needforbetterspeed.net It started years ago as a racing clan but it's grown and people play several games anywhere from FPS games to online golf. http://www.shot-online.com is a great online community based MMORPGG. Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Golf Game. I made that up myself because I'm so clever...or maybe not. For mostly PC gaming, I'm a member of Academy Gamers at http://www.academygamers.com which is mostly people from Colorado Springs. NFBS and Academy gamers both have forms on their sites. Might be something to think about. Great that people can add comments here, though your CSS for this blog is just the simple every day blog. Cheap yeah...feature rich no. Just so you know, I did get your friends request. I just haven't been on XBOX live since you sent it. Before anyone asks (then how did you see it?), I saw it on XBOX.com.
Another thought. The XBOX community being as it is, if you happen to log on there may be friends logged on. Hoorah. However, the chances of your friends all knowing each other is not that great when you span across games that everyone doesn't have. It's simply the nature of XBOX live gaming. Your Battlefield friends are all going to know each other. Your Ping Pong friends may not know each other. PC Gaming is so different because alot of clans have chat facilities like Teamspeak servers where you can just drop in and talk to members and organize what game you all want to play and all that jazz. Networking and communication is very important to a successful gaming community organization of any size.
Another way of saying all this is : Organizing a PC gaming community is alot easier than organizing an XBOX community. Especially a "local only" clan.
I agree that trying to organize an online game on a console is much more difficult than on the PC. I do like, however, how on Xbox Live you are notified what friends are on and what they are doing. This allows gamers to stop and join friends if their in the mood. I did this Friday night when I saw someone from my friends list was on that I kept missing. I do actually know (and by know I mean actually have met) a few of the people on my friends list but I think that with any online community - how well do you really know anyone?
I don't think a local Halo 2 clan would be difficult at all. The clan invite process is pretty simple. The tough part of it would be finding a time when everyone could do a clan match. I think it would be fun, in fact the more I think about it the more I want to do it. One of the best things about Halo is that just about everyone with an Xbox or a 360 owns it.
You had some good ideas for connecting PC gamers, I'll be sure to check those out.
I know this blog isn't sexy but it is functional. While I would love to add some features to it, my editors really love the word 'free' more so this is probably as nice as it will ever get.
I would join a local Halo 2 clan. I've never joined a clan because I thought most of them were ghey. But hey if I'm in it, my manliness should offset any potential gheyness that might come about. I'll watch for your post about when you want to try to get things together.
Post a Comment