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.

This post is for those of you with a Steam account, or a PC in general. Giant Enemy Blog now has its own Steam group that is open for anyone to join. Now, instead of wishing you could play Team Fortress 2 with the strangers you met on some blogging site, you can actually invite said strangers to a game for a jolly good time!

Steam is a digital distribution service created by Valve. Through Steam, numerous gamers may purchase and directly download a variety of games, mods, demos, and videos. Steam has its own in-game overlay that lets you surf the web and IM your friends without having to Alt+Tab your game!

P.S. If you don’t have steam, and you still haven’t gone to the site, you can download it here.

Welcome to our renamed site: Giant Enemy Blog. The old URL will remain active for a bit, just to redirect people to the new site. Once Google catches up, the old name should drop off the search results and be replaced by the new one. Special thanks to everybody who submitted name ideas.

I’ve been editing stuff all over the site to try to make things behave correctly, and I think I got just about everything. If you happen to see something I’ve missed, please let me know.

Speaking of editing, I lack the Photoshop skills to fix the logo, so I had to remove it. If anybody thinks they can hack out the old name, let me know and I’ll send you the .psd. If you can somehow fit the new name up there as well, I’ll remove that big ugly header up top.

Couple of housekeeping things:

• Regarding the contest – I appreciate everybody plugging the site in their sigs from the last contest, but those URLs won’t be valid for much longer. If you would, please edit them and let me know, and I’ll give you an entry into this month’s contest.
• Same thing goes for people have have tagged themselves in online games with our old name. I’m aware that the new name is considerably longer, so just go ahead and remove the old one (you’ll keep your entries into the contest).
• We’ll be having our first fund raiser/charity drive soon, so stick around or check the forums for details.

As always, keep up the good work and keep writing. This site isn’t going anywhere.

The site will be on hold for today due to an important announcement.

Short Version
I either need to rename the site or get sued. Suggest a new name.

Long Version
Back in 2005, a fellow over in Great Britain created a board game called Blag! This fellow also trademarked the term in the UK and the US, meaning that anybody who uses the word “Blag” in connotation with games or gaming is in violation of his trademark. I was unaware of said trademark, until he decided to inform me. After exchanging a few polite emails, he’s decided to give me six weeks to change the name of this site.
Although I will be consulting with a lawyer for any loopholes I can jump through, from my non-legal perspective this looks pretty straightforward. Therefore, instead of just coming up with a new name on my own, I’d like to hear what you guys have to say. By that, I mean suggest a new name, not suggest that I fight it out until the bitter end.

What are bead sprites? These are bead sprites (hanging on my fridge):

I got them from my friend Sage, who incidentally provides us with weekly Rock Band DLC updates. Sage happens to run BeadSprites.com, and he’s generously providing this month’s contest prize – Five sprites of your choice. Just go on his site and look around, he’s got plenty to choose from.

Now, how to enter? Well, if you listened to our first Podcast, we discussed how much this site needs more advertising and exposure. To that end, there are two ways you can enter into this month’s contest:

• Just like in the last contest, you can stick a link to the site in your forum signatures.
• If you actively play any games online like TF2 or Left 4 Dead, add [Giant Enemy Blog] to the beginning of your nickname. You’re only required to leave it there for a month. Be sure to send me a screenshot too.

So yeah. Do either (or both) of those, and you’ll get entries into the contest. On top of that, you’ll help Giant Enemy Blog grow. Everybody wins.

Congratulations to Arcadia for winning our first contributor contest. I’ll be sure to stick your prizes in the mail on Monday.

As for everybody else, stay tuned, because I’m going to announce another contest soon. Hint – The prizes are coming from here.

So, ladies and gentlebros, it’s what you’ve all been waiting for. We got together and spoke about just about everything relevant to the site, including Alex and his doings, several articles written by you users, the users themselves, various vidya of all variety, and–of course–we spoke in earnest of /v/. Everything you could ever what to hear is in this hefty podcast.

Blagcast!, that is.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Keep writing!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and received many vidya related items. I didn’t get a single game, but I’m more than ready to turn this Wal-Mart gift card into a copy of Chrono Tigger DS (or maybe Wrath of the Lich King? I dunno if I want to go back down that path).

Just a little reminder that there’s still a chance for you to receive a few belated presents, namely Final Fantasy 4, 5, and 6 for the Super Famicom. I’ve still got 24 more articles to publish between now and the contest end date, and you can always receive entries by plugging Gamer Blag in your forum signatures.

As always, you can contact me with any questions.

Just a quick update on the contest:

If you don’t have any entries yet, there’s still two weeks left. Also, remember: Even if you don’t get any articles published this month, you can still receive entries if you post a link to this site in your signature on a gaming forum. See this post for more details.

Best of luck to everyone.

Hey guys, it’s me.

You know, I’m really happy with how this site is coming along. What started as a random idea in my head in the middle of the night has turned into a fantastic blag with dozens of articles, over a hundred contributors, and a slowly growing forum that I’m sure will take off at some point. I’m convinced that this site has the potential to really grow into something amazing, and it’s all thanks to you.

So, to show my appreciation, I’ve decided to have a little contest. For the entire month of December, any time a writer gets an article published, he will receive one entry into the contest. At the end of the month, I’ll pick one of those entries (using a random number generator of course) and declare a winner.

Addendum: If you’d like to enter this contest, but can’t seem to get an article published, you can get entries in one other way. If you’re an active member of a gaming-related forum, all you have to do is stick this in your signature:

Gamer Blag! – For Gamers, by Gamers

Once you’ve done that, contact me with a link to one of your posts. After I confirm, you’ll get an entry into the contest.

Here’s the prize:

Those are boxed copies of Final Fantasy 4, 5, and 6 for the Super Famicom. Dunno if we have any collectors out there, but hopefully someone will think this is cool.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I’ll declare a winner on January 1st.