The biggest consumer game show in North America known as Penny Arcade Expo is this weekend, and we’re very excited about it! Seattle PAX this year looks like it will be a lot of fun, and we’ll be there at the show!

GamerDNA’s Community Manager, Sam Houston (that’s me!) will be at PAX all weekend and he will even have some gamerDNA swag to give away.  Sam will be at the show wearing a gamerDNA shirt, so he should be fairly easy to spot.  Here’s a picture to help you out:

Sam is on a panel on Saturday at 1:30pm at the Unicorn Theatre, and we would love to see you there.  A special bonus for attending will be receiving a gamerDNA Sticker, which Sam is handing out after the panel.  Here is the description of the panel:

Saturday, 1:30pm – 2:30pm, Unicorn Theatre

Twitter and Beyond – New Game Communities Online

Online game communities are changing rapidly as social media is being used more and more by gamers. No longer are people primarily congregating on official game forums. They’re talking with each other on Twitter, Facebook, and in other types of online communities about games. For this reason, Community Managers are actively leveraging social media tools to keep online communities informed and engaged with their games. This panel will discuss the exciting transition of game companies using social media to build, communicate with, and engage with players as well as highlight the macro-trends that impact all online communities. Panelists include executives from both the game development and social media side of the fence.

Panelists Include: Michelle Broderick [Moderator] – (Marketing Director and Community Manager, Yelp.com), Morgan Romine (Fragdoll Team Captain, Ubisoft), Jaap Tuinman (Director of Social, Community, & Online Marketing, EA), Sam Houston (Online Marketing Manager, GamerDNA), Meghan Rodberg (Senior Manager of Online Community Relations, Turbine)

If you see Sam outside of the panel make sure you “hey” when you see him.  He will be giving out gamerDNA stickers all weekend to community members, and it would be great to meet members of the community!  Here are the new gamerDNA stickers:

I hope to see you at the show, it should be a lot of fun!

-Sam “QforQ”  Houston

gamerDNA Community Manager

Editor’s Note: This blog post is written by Adam Krebs, gamerDNA’s Summer Intern who helped out with all of our data input goodness.  We salute Adam as he sails off to college and we wish him luck!

As GamerDNA’s summer data intern, I had the all-important job of keeping the game data up-to-date and the traits on topic while the guys on the product team built the cool new features of the site. I had a lot of fun and learned a great deal, and got to help out with this website we all know and love. My first day happened to coincide with the opening day of E3 and the launch of TweetMyGaming. In fact, one of my first assignments was to live-add the games to GamerDNA and TMG as they were announced. It was especially cool to watch the tweets fly by showing how excited people were about Metroid: Other M just moments after it was demoed on stage.

The guys here have been absolutely relentless about improving the product, and I was consistently impressed at the extent of their knowledge of website design and user experience. I always looked forward to the opportunity to sit in on the design meetings, where each team member provided input into the progress of the latest features. What does that x in the corner do? Why are there two arrows highlighted? How do we communicate enough information without being overwhelming? These conversations gave me a real insight, as a GamerDNA user and aspiring web designer, into how much effort it takes to make a great product that people find useful.

It wasn’t all seriousness, and working at a video game website definitely does have its perks. Whether playing Battlefield 1943 at lunch, or a particularly memorable debate about the Monty Hall problem, the guys approached it with the same level of fun and intensity that I saw them put into the production of the GamerDNA website. Almost every desk has video games or action figures of some sort, and even I managed to amass a collection of Star Wars and Starcraft-related paraphernalia (and an awesome Zombie Hulk, which I got for my birthday). One of my favorite days was going out with the guys to IHOP for lunch, and immediately raiding the comic book store afterwards.

This has been an amazing learning experience and an incredibly fun summer and I thank everyone at GamerDNA for the experience. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to go back to civilian life after working at one of the coolest summer jobs ever. But hey, there’s always next year!

-Adam Krebs

Thanks for doing a great job Adam!

-GamerDNA

In our continuing quest to make sure that gamers are well prepared for long hours with the Lich King, gamerDNA and Swag Dog have teamed up to offer gamerDNA guild leaders a chance to grab a customizable guild t-shirt from Swag Dog. Of course, the apparel is fully licensed from Blizzard. Keep reading for more details

You can customize your race, class, realm name, and even create a Tabard that matches your guild’s unique style.

Thanks to the fine folks over at Swag Dog, gamerDNA is offering three custom guild apparel codes worth $50.00 each, so that you can create a look for yourself that matches your persona in Azeroth.

The big question is, how do I enter?

Well, gamerDNA and Swag Dog want to make things easy, so all you have to do is be part of an active World of Warcraft guild on gamerDNA! What defines an active guild? Well, if you post in your guild forums, add a guild image, or create an event, your guild is considered active and you could win!

Don’t have a guild on gamerDNA yet? No problem! You can create one for free in just minutes – try out the new Frostborn theme, based off of the newly released Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

The contest starts today and will run until December 1st, so you’ve got plenty of time! We’ll announce the winners on Wednesday, December 3rd. Once we select the winners randomly from the pool of entries, we’ll announce them right here on the blog and notify them via private message.

Finally, don’t forget to check out the brand new gamerDNA Offers tab (once you’ve logged in), where gamerDNA will show you some interesting things that might interest you. The apparel builder is already there! 

Finally, don’t forget about our other World of Warcraft contest here on gamerDNA, where you could win a brand new Razer desktop set! 

Hey guys, I’m sure every World of Warcraft fan is waiting with bated breath for the release of the hotly anticipated World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack, which is why we here at gamerDNA are getting together with Razer™ to offer some gear that’s sure to ensure that you’re ready to take on the ruler of Northrend.

Here’s what we’re offering to you:

One Grand Prize Pack, featuring a complete Razer desktop set that includes:

1. A Razer DeathAdder™ mouse, with an 1800dpi sensor for precise control
2. A Razer Lycosa™ keyboard, with fully programmable keys for macro creation
3. A Razer Destructor™ mousepad, optimized for gaming grade mice
4. A Razer Piranha™, with pristine sound quality and comfort for the long hours in voice chat

In addition to the grand prize, we’re also offering five Razer DeathAdder™ mice to winners who didn’t get a chance to nab the grand prize!

Now, onto the big question – How do I enter?

Well, most likely, you already have! Here’s the deal -

First, you have to make sure you’ve got an account on gamerDNA.

Next, between now and the end of the contest -Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - you can enter by performing one of the following tasks:

• Adding your World of Warcraft character to your gamerDNA – your character on gamerDNA will automatically update as you climb to level 80!
• Adding an image and associating it with World of Warcraft – show off your new gear or just prove to the world that your guild just accomplished the impossible – anything goes as long as it’s World of Warcraft! (Note that only one image entered during the duration of the contest will count as an entry).
• Adding a World of Warcraft experience – tell the world about your favorite World of Warcraft memories.
• Playing the Game! As long as you have your Xfire ID listed as an AKA – you can enter the contest by simply playing WoW!

You can have a maximum of three entries, so get to it! 

We’ll announce the winners on Monday, December 1st – make sure you keep an eye on your private messages, we’ll be contacting you through there.

Just to clarify – you don’t need the expansion to enter, but if you’re a serious WoW player, you’re probably going to get it anyway!

Also, please note that the contest is limited to North America.

This week brings the long awaited launch of Fallout 3 and gamerDNA would like to celebrate this fantastic game with a contest for some game swag.  The Grand Prize winner will win:

1- Large Fallout 3 T-Shirt
1- Fallout 3 Survival Guide  (only available at PAX!)
3- Vault Boy Stickers  

To participate in this contest, all you need to do is add Fallout 3 to your profile, upload Fallout 3 screenshots, enter a Fallout 3 experience entry,or play Fallout 3 via Xfire, Steam or Xbox Live. 

To participate in this contest, all you need to do is:

1. Register for a gamerDNA account
2. Play Fallout 3 while signed in to Xbox Live, Steam or Xfire between October 31st 12:00am PST and November 7th 11:59pm PST. It doesn’t matter how long you play, just play at least one time to be entered.
3. Anyone who is already a gamerDNA member who plays Fallout 3 during that time period is automatically entered.
4. Upload Fallout 3 screenshots, add Fallout 3 to your profile, or enter a Fallout 3 experience entry
5. You must be at least 18 years old and live in the United States.
6. Contest winner will be chosen at random and notified via gamerDNA private message.

Do all this between October 31st 12:00am PST and November 7th 11:59pm PST and you could be a winner! 

Good Luck!

As you guys may know, every Monday the intrepid team here at gamerDNA puts on their coding hats and sprints to close out bugs, tweak functionality, and add new features to the site in the form of our weekly builds.  Well, this week we’ll be switching things up a bit and hosting our first  Build Night so that while the development team reaches the finish line and puts the site down, the gamerDNA community is invited to join Team gamerDNA in a frag festival that only long hours of coding can fuel!

We’ll be using the gamerDNA IRC channel as a staging area, and the party officially starts at 4:00 PM EDT and runs until whenever the build goes up!

While you’re at it, why not check out the gamerDNA Steam Community?

The server information is in the graphic below – we’ll see you there!

Everyone knows that the backbone of any good group, clan, or guild is the recruitment process. Without a steady flow of new applicants, your group may be missing out!

One of the most inventive ways to invite recruitment is to create a video! Like the great propoganda videos of yester-year today’s modern artists use moving pictures to motivate, inspire, and recruit.

Up first we have a video from gamerDNA clan Blackwater ArmA, a clan that plays the highly realistic military shooter, ArmA (Armed Assault):

Sometimes, people want to use a show of their skills a simple, but effective recruitment strategy – just as the Call of Duty 4 clan, TCAA, has done with this video (it really is just 9 minutes of gameplay):

Got something that you think should spotlighted? Let us know!

Did you think we would forget about you? Nope! The results are in and the winners of gamerDNA’s week of Warhammer has been chosen. Five randomly selected Warhammer Online players were selected based off of the entry criteria that we outlined in our earlier blog post. So, without further ado, here are our winners:

1. Affliktion
2. angelala30
3. greyheart
4. SGTalon
5. snowkissed

Congratulations, guys! The winners have already been contacted, but if you have any questions feel free to PM me! If you didn’t make the cut, you can still feel like a winner by giving yourself a Warhammer Online Signature or trying your hand at our Warhammer Character API!

Thanks again to everyone who participated and keep an eye on the gamerDNA blog for more contests coming soon!

]]> http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/10/06/the-winners-of-gamerdnas-week-of-warhammer/feed/ 3 http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/09/30/tf2-community-night-the-second-coming/ http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/09/30/tf2-community-night-the-second-coming/#comments Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:25:03 +0000 Imran Malek http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/09/30/tf2-community-night-the-second-coming/

This Saturday, October 4th at 7:00 PM EDT, gamerDNA invites to our second Team Fortress 2 community night! All are welcome, and gamerDNA admins will be on staff to make things a bit more … interesting (those who remember the last community night will know what I’m talking about!).

So come on down! We’re hosting it once again on gamerDNA’s TF2 server.

We’ll see you there!

Female gaming isn’t some kind of nebulous concept somewhere out there in the ether of Barbie Horse Adventures and The Sims, it’s everywhere, and this time we’re highlighting some of the coolest experiences on gamerDNA for this edition of the gamerDNA Experience Roundup.

Up first is gamerDNA member BlackkatEcholsle, a World of Warcraft player who talks about a certain class we all know and love in her post entitled Healers.

Please, if you are a healer in any group setting, whether it be pvp, dungeons, or raids please do not waste mana on attacks. You either heal or dps. Nothing makes a group happier then a healer who focuses on heals…

Check out the whole post and drop some comments!

Coming up next is another WoW player, Dhazy, who ruminates on matters involving rocketry and one of the cool in-game item she earned from playing the World of Warcraft trading card game. Here’s an excerpt:

They spew blue fire and smoke out of the back and it has a little evil face painted on both sides of it. Crazy goblins. It makes a FSSSSH noise every time you move if you were idle. It’s noisier on the ground than it is in the air. I personally think it’s cooler than Roflcopters, but only because it’s much harder to get. Every 70 Engineer has a Roflcopter.

To be honest, I personally believe that nothing can beat a Roflcopter, especially when you have awesome images like these:

Anyway, next up we have a snippet from a story from arislyn, who talks about one of Trapper’s favorite games, Tabula Rasa.

Yes, yes. I know that many people do not like Tabula Rasa because of a lack of endgame content. Know what? I don’t care. For starters, I just began playing so I’m not worried about endgame, yet. Secondly, it has lots and lots of aliens that I can shoot. I like that.

I like aliens to shoot. In fact, shooting anything in general is pretty darn awesome. Just check out this crazy looking area, it’s probably got plenty of things to kill!

Now that I’ve got killing on the brain, there isn’t much stopping me from posting this experience from akiraluckystar, who writes about a fun experience in the chainsaw killfest that is Gears of War.

Hiding behind a wall when suddenly an enemy player runs up and hides next to me, disbelief ensued and I even turned to a friend to confirm it was an enemy and I wasn’t seeing things, I didn’t believe someone could be that stupid…

Hey now! That isn’t so nice… Oh well!

Last, but certainly not least, we have have a STELLAR experience post from Pocketwolf entitled Games & Girls. I’m going to warn you, the post is relatively long (especially with respect to modern internet attention spans) but you would be doing yourself a huge injustice if you didn’t read the entire post. Here’s a snippet:

I like to win.  I am very competitive.  This always applies, whether I’m playing a game or taking an exam.  I like to beat people – whether they’re male or female – because I was brought up to achieve highly.  I like to progress, to feel that I’m gaining new skills and learning how best to use them.  I feel rewarded when all of that results in me landing at the top of the scoreboard in a game of TF2, even if it then earns me the inevitable accusations of hacking and aimbotting.

Alright, alright! We’re done this week. Check out next week’s post when we highlight some stories from some of the gamers who happen to have a Y chromosome.

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Got an experience that you want to show the world? Send us a note!