Attention all ye peoples.

With the Scout update right around the corner, I think it’s time to formally announce my plans for what I’ve been working on for about a month now:

Bonkathon

The rules are simple: For three hours, I will personally bonk for charity. I’m going to pick my favorite Team Fortress 2 2Fort server, play as Scout, and only use the bat. For three hours I will bonk, boink, and possibly cap the intel. I’m also going to stream it live.

After three hours, I’m going to add up all of my points, and that will determine how much money this little idea raises. Here’s how it’s going to work: Whoever wants to contribute will donate a certain amount per point. They’re free to set the rate, so if you only want to donate $0.01 per point, that’s fine. I’ll have a page setup where you can set the amount you want to donate, sign up to receive a ‘bill’ when the event is over, and keep track of the total cumulative amount donated per point. For this one (and I’m hoping to do more in the future), I’m setting a goal of a total of $2 per point and 300 points (I’m pretty good at bonking). 70% of the total amount donated will go to Child’s Play, and the rest goes towards paying you guys.

I’m going to try to drum up some interest with the various clans that I play with, and if you guys want to help spread the word, that’d be awesome. For those of you who are math-impaired, we can reach our goal if:

• 40 people donate $0.05 per point (that comes to $15 per person)
• 20 people donate $0.10 per point ($30 per person)
• 200 people donate $0.01 per point ($3 per person)

I’d say that sounds pretty doable. Exact date and dedicated page coming soon, I’m still working on getting the donation process automated. For now, let’s say this’ll happen on Friday, March 27th at 7 PM EST.

Things are getting pretty stale around here, and I hate to admit it but daily traffic has kinda leveled out. In short, we’re not really growing anymore. I need some help.

Specifically, I need some help from you guys. Here’s my idea: If any of you have accounts on any big gaming forums, it would be incredibly awesome of you to make a post about this site on Wednesday of this week. I know it’s shameless for me to ask, but I really think it’ll give us the boost we need. Yes, even from these guys:

Since payments are still on hold, it obviously won’t work too well to promote the site based solely on getting people to write. Therefore, if you decide to do this, I’d like you to just pick your favorite article, post it, and ask what others think about it. That, or just post a link to the main site and say something along the lines of “lol, a community-driven blog. This will never work.” Something like that.

Anyway, if anybody decides to do this, I’ll be eternally grateful.

I knew this day would come sooner or later. That day has finally arrived – I forgot to schedule articles. I have only myself to blame. Perhaps it was the 10 episodes of ‘Outlaw Star’ I watched last night, perhaps it was because I played through all of Left 4 Dead, or perhaps it was the fact that my roommate discovered you can dissolve skittles in Vodka. Whatever the reason, I have failed you GEB, and it won’t happen again.

Keep on writing. We’ll pick up again tomorrow.

Some of you may remember me mentioning something about Left 4 Dead in the first podcast episode. Specifically, I believe I said something along the lines of “I’m not paying $50 for a mod when I got the entire Orange Box for $40.” If you’re one of the very few people who agreed with me, pop open your Steam store and jump for joy, because Left 4 Dead is 50% off this weekend.

brb, grabbin pills.

I know everybody is all happy about how stylized this game is, but I’m not one of them. Seriously, I have no idea what the hell is going on in this trailer. Everything just seems to melt into everything else.

You may have read that Mount & Blade, the coolest medieval sim ever, is getting multiplayer support sometime this year. I really, really hope this game gets some kind of ladder system. Right now, I see M&B as a kind of cross between Pokemon and Warhammer 40,000 – That is, I’ve trained my character to be incredibly awesome, and I’ve collected a vast army that has yet to lose a battle. Fun stuff.

Now, Lord Alex of the Nords, as I stated, has yet to lose a battle, and since I sincerely hope to kick every single one of your asses in online multiplayer, I’ve decided to be generous and share a few tips with you that may lead to some of you actually standing a chance:
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Ok, not really.

As I mentioned in the podcast, this site is experiencing some difficulties, mainly of the financial kind. Changing domain names set us back at least two months in terms of getting advertiser dollars, and unfortunately due to a number of reasons, my other online ventures aren’t doing so hot either.

I’ve dumped more than a grand into this site and that money has gone straight to you guys. I appreciate all of the effort you’ve put in and all of the great content you’ve developed, but I just can’t keep this up anymore. Until this site starts to generate income, I have two choices:

• Put payments on hold
• Sell the site to someone else

It’s an unpleasant decision, and I’d like your input. Personally, I enjoy running this site, reading the articles, and participating in the podcasts. Realistically though, I need to pay my bills and eat occasionally, so as I said earlier, I can’t keep this going out of pocket.

If you guys want to keep the dollars flowing, I’ll try to find a buyer for the site. If, on the other hand, you just want to keep writing for the hell of it for a bit (in hopes of future monies), I’d be embarassed but willing to keep paying the server bills. If it comes down to #2, and you don’t personally agree, go ahead and delete any articles and drafts you have pending, and let me know if you’re owed anything. I’m not trying to cheat anybody out of their hard work.

Your comments, I wants them.

Ok, why didn’t anybody tell me that there’s a Goldeneye mod for Half Life 2 in production? Not just in production either, it’s in Beta 3. Check out this trailer:

If you played as much Goldeneye for the N64 as I did when you were younger, you’ll probably need to clean the drool off your keyboard now. All I can say is this: DO WANT.

Check out the official website here.

Way back in 1983, the video game market was flooded with extremely low-quality games, rushed to the market in order to capitalize on the new video gaming fad. That, combined with a series of very poor business decisions resulted in what is commonly known as the North American Video Game crash.

Fast-forward to 2009. I’m afraid that we may be facing the same situation. Take a look at the most popular console on the market now:

Don’t just assume that I’m some Wii-hating Microsoft/Sony fanboy. In fact, the Wii was the first current-gen console that I bought. I was eagerly anticipating games like Smash Bros Brawl (whose online gameplay is beyond horrible), Project H.A.M.M.E.R. (which never materialized), No More Heroes (which was good, yet repetitive), and…uh, well that’s about it. Overall, since the Wii came out, I can honestly say that I’ve only enjoyed six of the available titles (that would be Brawl, Trauma Center 1&2, No More Heroes, Geometry Wars: Galaxies, and Resident Evil 4). See anything odd about that list? All but two are ports.
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Hey guys, I made a twitter account and stuck it over in the sidebar. I’ll use it to post announcements and whatnot.

That is all.