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!

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!

Today we are excited to launch our Warhammer Online signature generator.  Warhammer Online players now have the ability to create dynamic signatures that display live up to date character data based on the North American Warhammer Online RealmWAR character page.

Here are examples of our two signatures, one for Order and one for Destruction.

How you can get your own free Warhammer Online Signature:

1. Sign up for gamerDNA.com (if you do not already have an account)
2. Sign in to gamerDNA and go to the following link Warhammer Online Signature Generator
3. Put in your character name and server name for that character and click submit.
4. Now you have your signature with the provided HTML and BB Code so that you can instantly use it as a signature anywhere!

*Note* We currently do not support European Warhammer Online servers due to the fact that a European RealmWAR website has not be created by Electronic Arts/GOA.  If/When a website is created by the publisher that publishes this data we will support European players ASAP *Note*

Edit: We now support European Servers!

All our Warhammer Online signatures display your character name, your class, rank, reknown rank, server name and guild name (if applicable).  This is all done for free for all members of gamerDNA without the need to download any client that watches your gaming.  Just plug in your character name and server name and you’re ready to go!

Finally, don’t forget that you can win one of five 60-day free game time cards for Warhammer Online if you take part in our Warhammer Online contest that ends this Sunday.  All you have to do to win is add Warhammer Online to your profile or play WAR via Xfire, add a screenshot or experience to your profile.  For all the details check out our Warhammer Online contest announcement.

Check back in the near future for some more very exciting announcements for Warhammer Online players as well as more contests.  Make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed or our email notifcation so you can know as soon as anyone else does!

If you have any problems with the Warhammer Online signature generator please fill out our support form

Finally! We’ve got another gamerDNA group spotlight. Last time we had an interview with Elilane, leader of the Fyredraek guild in World of Warcraft. This week, we’ve got a spotlight on a Call of Duty 4 clan on the Xbox 360 – Elite Assassin’s Legion. We’ve got the leader, Danpipster, here to talk about his clan.

gamerDNA: So why don’t you introduce yourself and your group – who are you, what is your group, what game does your group play?

Danpipster: Right, well, my gaming name is Danpipster, co leader of the EAL, which stands for Elite Assassin’s Legion. We are a CoD4 Clan on the Xbox 360.

gamerDNA: What motivated you to create your clan?

Danpipster: Well, having played on my own in ordinary ranked matches (online), it frustrated me to see how unorganised teams were. I thought, if only teamwork was used and everyone worked together we could really win games! Especially if we had a talented squad of players,which is something I am trying to build up, as the name suggests (Elite).

Communication is another factor. I noticed how in games I found that if I found a useful piece of information, such as enemy locations or something similar, if we were a team, we could share this information and really gain the edge over the enemy.

More after the jump….

gamerDNA: So, what do you guys look for in new recruits? Skill or communication ability?

Danpipster: First and foremost, skill, but for me communication and teamwork are also key. We have made a trial system for our clan, in which every recruit is marked on their ability not just in certain aspects of gameplay ability, but also on how they respond in different situations, how they work together, etc. I find communication is so important, sharing information and working together rather than alone really does get the job done. It is not good having a really good player if they don’t communicate or work with others. Respect is also something I look for: again, it is not good having a top player if they disrespect others and don’t try to get along.

gamerDNA: So, if I were a new member, what would I typically be doing my first few weeks in the clan?

Danpipster: Ahh, now that would depend upon how good we thought you were! If you were a top player and we thought you were good enough, you would participate in our games together, particularly in our private matches.

We train a lot as a clan, in private games, working on tactics, ideal weapons to use in certain situations, and generally how to go about playing each game mode an each map. Preparation is vital to success in GameBattles [a matchmaking website for clans] matches and any game, so that’s what we try to do. If we thought you were good enough, you would take part in our training and eventually play in Gamebattles matches when you were up to speed with our tactics and strategies. If we thought you still needed a bit of work, you would be placed in our academy, trained up under the watchful eye of our top players, and then moved up into the main sector of the clan ready to represent the clan in Gamebattles matches.

gamerDNA: So you mentioned training, how often do you guys train a week?

Danpipster: Normally at least once a day but it depends upon who is online; and, obviously, people can’t come on all the time due to different circumstances outside of the game. We have two squadrons in our clan, one for Team Deathmatches [one team versus another in a battle for the most kills], and one for Search & Destroy [a game mode where one team has a bomb that they need to plant while killing and avoiding the other team]. Normally as long as a squadron leader is online, we will take whichever members are online at the time into training. This usually happens every day.

gamerDNA: How long is each training session?

Danpipster: Again, that will depend upon what we feel we need to train on. I will make mental notes during Gamebattles matches of what players do and don’t do well and I will try to then bring these issues up in training. We will then have a chat as a clan, every member has his say, and will from there try to come up with the best solution to do better in the next match. We then practice that in training. Depending upon what we are practicing, the time will vary. Anything from 15 minutes to an hour.

gamerDNA: So you mentioned that you have a squadron leader, can you go a bit deeper into the chain of command in your clan (what responsibilities each level has, etc.)?

Danpipster: As we are new, we are still assessing each players possibility for promotions to a higher rank, and at the moment have a limited rank structure. What we do have however, is two squadron leaders, myself and the other squadron leader. I lead the Team Deathmatch squad and my co leader takes the Search and Destroy team. Not only are we the leaders of the squads, we are also the overall clan leaders, so we have all the responsibilities of keeping the clan going, organising gamebattles matches, recruiting, training etc.

I am currently constructing a deeper rank system of 3-4 ranks to be added along with simply just us as leaders and normal members, named after the military ranks, so private, corporal, sergeant etc. Each will have slightly more responsibility and power. These ranks will be introduced once we feel that we can share our responsibilities, for now we are just making sure that everyone focuses on the game.

We don’t want to give people too much power too soon, before they have really established themselves in the game and in the clan. The most hard working, most loyal, most frequent players and those who contribute more on our forums will be rewarded with promotions.

gamerDNA: Do you guys ever see yourselves branching out to other games?

Danpipster: I’m not sure to be honest. I guess that, as Call of Duty 5 comes out, naturally we will make the transition from CoD4 to CoD5 as a clan, and will continue to work and play in the same way. As far as other games go, that would depend if we felt as a clan we had a strong enough team to compete at the highest level of other games too. For now we are concentrating on CoD 4 as we strive to be the best. I wouldn’t rule out the EAL branching out to other games in the future but only if we felt it didn’t take away our concentration on the CoD series. We’d rather be the best on cod than middle-of-the-road in several games.

gamerDNA: So, what type of character do you use in CoD (e.g. what perks/weapons are your favorite)?

Danpipster: Personally, I am an assault gunner. I don’t think I have quite enough patience to stay hidden as a sniper or a camper [someone who defends a certain area from the same position] for any length of time, so I enjoy moving around, running and gunning. Using the assault weapons is my best skill in CoD so it makes it all the better. I am fair with sniper rifles and other weapons but I consistently get high scores with the assault rifles. My favourites are the M4, M16 and AK47 (Golden!). my teammates would differ though, as in our squadrons we try to have mixed and balanced teams, so that we are equipped to face any opponent which plays any style.

As a team of 6, we have 3 assault gunners, 2 snipers and a stealth player for surprise and flanking if it is required. As a team we resent grenade launchers so do not use them

Perks [perks are player specific bonuses] wise, for normal games my setout would be: perk 1: frag [grenades] x3, perk 2: stopping power [more powerful bullets], perk 3: deep impact [bullets penetrate deeper]. and for hardcore [a game mode with no heads up display and more realistic damage] games I would play with p1: claymores, p2: uav jammer [makes you invisible on radar] and perk 3: dead silence [makes you quiet].

gamerDNA: What do you think about the clan hosting on gamerDNA, what do you like and what do you dislike?

Danpipster: Well, it is easy to set up a professional looking web site quickly and easily, which is great. Several people have said to me that it looks great, and it does, thanks to the ease of use of gamerDNA.

My only problem is that I don’t think the recruiting system is as clear as it could be; it may just be me, but it doesn’t seem particularly easy or straightforward to get into the recruiting bit of the web site. But like I said, it may just be me!

gamerDNA: One last question – do you have any parting words to offer everyone on gamerDNA?

Danpipster: I would say that if anyone is looking to join an elite clan of skilled players looking to win whilst having fun at the same time, and if they think they are skilled enough to join us, to contact Danpipster on Xbox Live for trials or more info.

Awesome! Thanks again to Danpipster for the interview, and if you think you have what it takes to join a great gamerDNA clan, visit their site and apply!

Do you have a guild, clan, or group that you’d like to have featured on the gamerDNA blog? Feel free to drop us a line and stay tuned for more spotlights!

First there was the FPS Experience Roundup, then there was the MMO Experience Roundup, this week’s roundup ditches the acronyms and puts us in the “thinking man’s (or woman’s)” genre – Strategy games! We’re talking about the games that you take a step back from the menial rigors of the battlefield and embrace a higher sense of control. So click through, because a bevy of strategy experiences await after the jump!

First up we have an experience from a2nt, a Command and Conquer player who writes about a touching family moment with his post, “Why bumping with bulldozers is a bad thing for a 5 year old”:

I set him up with a game with no enemies. He could build the base. He loved it. In fact to this day we still call it the ‘building game’. I then set him up with a game with several other armies on the same team to give it more of a community feel. He could explore their base, etc. Then boy-i-fest destiny kicked in [I see what he did there] . He learned he could attack neutral buildings. Then he began to capture his allies buildings. Then he learned to bump (i.e., squash) his allies soldiers with his bulldozer.

So, bumping with bulldozers is how my son was yanked from the comfy world of Reader Rabbit games into the harsh, C&C-flavored lessons of imperialism and world domination.

All of the Command and Conquer games had vehicles that could be used to crush infantry units, and you of course got that satisfying “squish” that a2nt was talking about.

The Command and Conquer line of games is a great set of strategy games for those with an itchy trigger finger and a short attention span. If you’re looking for a longer-paced game with a more chess-like approach to thinking (planning two or more moves ahead), look no further than Civilization IV, one of the most popular turn-based strategy games out there. GamerDNA member eidanch writes about a particularly long game in his post “Epic Civ game with my firends” [sic]:

So my friend comes up to me and he says, “Hi we are going to have a 2 month vacation (almost), lets play civ, we have a lot of time” I said: “Sure why not, lets tell omer (the third friend we had to tell him we will hit him if he wouldn’t install the game)” any way we got it and I played the game today with them. My friend setup the game in marathon and this game was so slow plus i got screwed so that I had limited access to resources and such things. so we played and after 2 and a half hours we stop cause my friend can’t beat Caesar. this was depressing and we are not even close to finishing the game. Now we gotta start over with some decent time settings.

Civilization IV is one of those games that takes awhile to finish. However, this time investment could lead to an awesome payoff at the end when you realize that you’ve conquered an entire continent! Unfortunately, there are times where you’ve sunk hours into a game only to realize that Gandhi has developed Stealth Bombers and all you have are archers with bronze armor.

Of course, the glory of victory isn’t restricted to just turn based games as member Hobo4President points out with his Company of Heroes experience aptly titled “Owned in Company of Heroes”:

Well I was playing CoH with a few friends, me and 3 friends were Nazis while 4 other friends were American. My friend/rival player took over a church and fortified the position, I then sent in a tiger tank to take him out but was met with 3 anti-tank weapons and a lot of men hiding in the church, he also had a machine gun set up. I needed help and just before I died my friend brought down 4 transport vehicles with flamethrowers on top, 2 panther tanks and about 30 grenadiers. He managed to kill all of the anti-tank weapons and destroy the machine gun and then set the whole church ablaze and killing all the enemies inside!

Looks like the Allies need to work on their battle plan a bit more, especially the part where they thought it was a good idea to stay in the church while a flamethrower convoy rolled up.

Another enduring Strategy franchise is the Age of Empires series, spanning three games, two ports, and a successful spinoff. Member Glean writes about a decisive victory through fortification in his post “Your army vs My Fort”:

When I played Age Of Empires, most of the players would just built big armies to clash against other big armies. I decided one game to built a 3 layer wall with no gates. And behind the wall I built 4 rows of the highest level towers and stocked them with archers. And in the middle of the fort I had 6 castles built and stocked with more archers. The archers were the highest level, The other player laugh at it and said their would destroy it, to make a long story short I beat them.

It sounds like Glean used the strategy commonly known as “turtling” where a player constructs base defenses and locks himself or herself in. While the enemies try to break in from the outside, the player either builds a massive army or holds out until his opponent quits out of frustration. Want to know how much of a turtler you are? Check out our RTS Quiz!

One of the key issues behind any Strategy game is balance, and no Strategy game’s balance has gone through quite as much scrutiny in both the professional and amateur gaming community as the world (especially South Korea) famous game Starcraft. Still, a lot of players find something to gripe about – especially if they’re coming out of a loss. Member Protieus takes things personally when he writes the rant “Guardians are Broken”:

You hear that Netris? Every ****** time. EVERY. *******. TIME. We’d play Starcraft and we’d say “Netris, no Guardians. They’re cheap.” And he’d reply with “Ok” and then take us out back and shoot us with about forty guardians.

….

Blech. And they’re ugly too.

Protieus takes good care in explaining why Guardians are Broken in the full experience, but I would just like to let it be known that if your name is Netris you better watch your back!

Well, that’s it for this roundup! Stay tuned to the blog, let us know about experiences you loved, and keep writing your own!

]]> http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/09/11/experience-roundup-strategy-edition/feed/ 1 http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/09/04/experience-roundup-mmo-edition/ http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/09/04/experience-roundup-mmo-edition/#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:39 +0000 Imran Malek http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/09/04/experience-roundup-mmo-edition/

It’s that time again for another gamerDNA Experience Roundup. This week we’re going to take a look at a genre that I personally know nothing about, but I’m sure a lot of gamerDNA’s members do! We’re talking about MMOGs, Massively Multiplayer Online Games. I’m diving head first into your experiences and I’ll be sure to embarrass myself when I try to comment on them. So without further ado, let’s dig in!

First up is a  a post from gamerDNA member Dj-Tesla, a Guild Wars player who emphasizes the importance of effective communication. The experience is titled: Journal 8-21-08.

During the last couple days I was talking to Barbie and them…I said "Hey throw propane on them" as we are in HA…everyone starts cracking up cause I said propane instead of profane. XD So from now on its "Hey throw propane on them! I want to BBQ!" xD. Then today while I heard someone get kicked [from a voice server]. I thought it was on one of the two vents I was on, but it was on ts. I was freaking out cause when the person got kicked it say: "He’s outta here!" I was like OMG! I should record that and use it right after throwing some one out a window.

Up next we have a game with a license that has endured Comic Books, Movies, Action Figures, Novels, Costumes, Cereals, and of course Video Games: Star Wars Galaxies. Member Nhasieth talks about his encounter with a smarmy GM (Game Master) in an experience titled So role-playing a Smuggler can get you banned?!?!

Be advised – there is a bit of profanity in this post!

So me and my cousin are playing SWG. We are both smugglers, you know, that dirty, underworld, thieving class. Well we made friends with some uber guys in-game and one of them gave my cousin admin access to all his shit. We were talking about how the guild was bullshit and how these guys were just a bunch of pve noobs, so we said hell, lets take this shit and go off. So for about 2 days we had all this guys shit, like 3,000,000 credits and loads of loot. One day my cousin calls me and says the GM froze him when he logged on. I logged on and was frozen as well. So I asked the gm what was the problem, and he said he was taking all the shit we had. i responded with, "Hey, I’m a fucking smuggler, i’m just role-playing my character." He then responded with, "Hey, I’m a GM, your banned, I’m just role-playing my job." So that was the end of that account

You see guys, this is why we can’t have nice things!

One thing that I remember reading about Star Wars Galaxies was that the game really lost its luster as time progressed, which appears to be a huge problem with MMOGs in general – how do you keep the game "fresh" for both new players as well as long-time subscribers. Judging by some of the experiences members have posted, one game that hasn’t really garnered a  good reputation with respect to persistent support of long-time subscribers is Age of Conan. AoC player Teutonic gives a detailed rundown of the games promises and failures with his post: The game that could have been.

AoC was billed as "game breaking" well in my opinion they got the breaking part right. The game started off nice in Tortuge and that part was really polished, however, once one got out into white-sands and beyond the bugs, lack of content from 50+ and complete class inbalances within PvP became completely visible.

A game being released with bugs is hardly cause for concern in this day and age, but to me it seems like AoC has taken it to extreme and turned it into quite and art form. Things from crafting not even being implemented when the game was released, to the trader not working at all, and even now two months past release both are still not right.
Large scale PvP was one of the main selling points. This too is laughable at this point. The incredible lag spikes that happen server wide causing mass drops is more than annoying at times.

Customer service that reminds me more of medevil "confessors" than actually a person to help you when you might actually need it.
In my opinion, this game reminds me of another game that had unlimited potential and is now mostly hated througout; Star Wars Galaxies.

Bonus points to Teutonic for his reference to Star Wars Galaxies!

Finally, what MMO experience posting would be complete without a mention from the undisputed reigning champion of MMOs – World of Warcraft. Now, there are plenty of words to be thrown around about this game and its merits (or shortcomings), but one consistent complaint from WoW detractors that I’ve been hearing is something about "Grinding". Catnips talks about this behavior in the post The Daily Grind:

Every weekend seems the same when I’m leveling a character…wake up, wander about the kitchen looking for food, sit at my desk with a can of mountain dew, log into WoW, level, pester my husband about getting lunch, eat, go back to leveling, pass out at my desk and wait til my husband drags me to bed, rinse and repeat the next day until its a workday. Don’t get my wrong I enjoy leveling and having new characters, but it seems like I’m doing the same thing every weekend. O_o

Well, that concludes another gamerDNA Experience Roundup. Keep watch for next week’s roundup, and if you have any experiences that you want to see highlighted, feel free to give us a shout!

Oh yeah! To all you MMO players out there, be sure to take the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology, so you can discover more about yourself and see how you stack up with other MMOG players. 

This week we’re starting a regular feature on the blog where we take a look at what our members are saying about the games they play and the experiences they had. This week, I decided to go right to the well to look at the genre that I love most – the First Person Shooter.

First up we have a posting from member ZombiemePK entitled "Random Road Rage" from one of my favorite games, Battlefield 2. I took the liberty of adding some parenthetical notes so that everyone knows what ZombiemePK is talking about:

The map was Sharqi Peninsula BF2. I was in a 6 man squad assaulting the last point we needed the TV station (hotly contested base) which was still under the MEC control. My squad leader ordered on voice chat to secure the Vodnik (jeep like scout car) vehicle in front of us so I ran and hopped in the drivers seat. Suddenly i hear him shout out "oh sh** enemies!" and they start firing on a squad right behind the Vodnik I hopped in. I shoved it forward and killed one MEC soldier by smashing him on the wall. Then i hit it in reverse to un-parallel park the Vodnik and slammed into 2 more of the MEC squad smearing them across the pillar behind me. I drive foward and run over another then swing it in reverse trying to steer to escape and smash the last 2 of the MEC squad attacking my squad with the side of the car. I was oblivious to what my squad was laughing their asses off to until I check the kill ticker and see I wiped out a entire squad on my own without even trying or noticing.

I’m just glad I take the train to work.

gamerDNA member icean decided to take a far more conservative approach in writing about a gameplay experience in the always-entertaining Call of Duty 4 with a post that he titled "Coward":

Once I met a coward camper and I owned him. I headshot’d him – BAM!

His name is maggge.

Short, sweet, and to the point. I like that.

Let’s go back to the quintessential PC FPS and take a look at an experience post for the smash hit Counter-Strike. mariemassacre takes a look at the dark side of server hosting as she elaborates on the idea that "It’s a clan… not communism!" (I added some numbers to the post to make it a little easier to follow).

Situation:

1. Player joins a server and plays there for a few months.
2. Player then thinks they should get their own server because of how awesome it is and now all of their friends can play together without all of those other annoying players… on a server that they can control and add mods/maps to and have fun with.
3. Player’s friends play in server 1 and in server 2 (the new kids server).

   Admin in server one freaks out on kid that created their own server practically threatening death and accusing them of stealing their players when the players still play in both servers (and OTHER servers) and these players are friends of kid who created their own server.

4. People get banned from server 1 for playing in server 2 but have never gotten banned for playing in other servers of their choice.
5. Counter-Strike WWIII breaks out and people freak.

Maybe that is the most drama I have seen on multiple occasions in games like CS (specifically CS for this example). This crap takes the fun out of games… no one OWNS a player when it comes to something like this. Players have free will and I do understand if the player was devoted and needed for scrims and this and that… but people… don’t buy servers just because you are power hungry and can’t control people IRL so you try to do it in game.

Sage advice, but it does delve into the dark side of player-controlled servers.

Of course, what type of FPS post would this be without at least one experience post from the undisputed champion of console FPS – Halo 3. Member SolierOfAzriel recounts a frenetic chase and presents a questionable soundtrack decision when he writes "Halo 3 Desert Chase Scene":

I was playing online as a guest to my cousin in Sandtrap. We took the Warthog around to do some scouting, and a Chopper started following us. I was the gunner, so I shot at it while my cousin drove us around. As we were in the chase, another two Warthogs came out of nowhere and started chasing us too. Man, was that exciting. It would have been a perfect time to turn on some chase music (I was thinking of Pump It, but that’s just me.)

While I completely disagree with the idea of using Black Eyed Peas for any video game soundtrack (other than Fergalicious: Hammer of Fate), I can always appreciate good chase sequence.

Well, that’s it for our first Experience Roundup! Got your own story to tell? Why not write one of you’re own! Just click on "Edit my gamerDNA" from the main menu and add experiences for any game using the Experiences tab. You can even import experiences from your blog, journal, or whatever feed!

Got a great experience that you want to see on this blog? Let us know!

Here it is… your moment of Zen… and build notes.

This week we focused a lot on getting ready for OpenID, so most of the work that is hitting the product is bug fix related.

Member Profile Enhancements/Changes

1. Kongregate added as an AKA to your profile.
2. The member challenge performance issues have been fixed and the gadget put back on the member home page.
3. RSS Import experiences will now run regularly. You can put in any RSS feed and it will automatically pull it into your Profile page. This allows you to pipe in content from other places where you contribute and aggregate it all together.
4. When auto-generated blog entries use member names, we are no longer assuming the case of the username. They go in as-is, and if that means that a sentence starts with a lowercase letter, that is how it is. This is based on user feedback to see their name correct.
5. New games added to your DNA will now respect the watchlist flag correctly.
6. Cleaned up the formatting of long game names in the panel so they wrap without breaking the layout.
7. AKAs are now set to Public by default instead of friend’s only to encourage sharing.

Guild Hosting Enhancements/Changes

1. New Warhammer guild theme, Spoils of War – Destruction!
2. An image transition switcher has been added to the guild hosting creation page.
3. Fixed the More smiley button on the guild WYSIWYG pages.
4. For guild sites, the nav will now highlight properly when you are on an active section.
5. Disabled the bartle pie chart/flash component until the new one is ready running off the new data.

General Site Enhancements/Changes

1. The homepage now displays information about the Bartle quiz with an action button to get started.
2. All PlayerVox articles have been republished to the company blog for their new home. PlayerVox was an old GuildCafe online publication. You can find most of them in the category: Gaming Industry
3. Added an icon for Braid. If you aren’t playing it, you should be!
4. Proper paging added to the Message of the Day in the header so that it helps with site performance.
5. The footer for the site has been rebuild to properly display in all cases.
6. Repaired a small bug in the nav that prevented game lists from loading in the DNA panel.
7. Fixed an issue where the footer was covering up the comment section for images.
8. Removed Tags from the blog feed on the homepage so the display is cleaner.
9. Turned some headers into links on the alliance homepage.
10. Cleaned up some formatting of the quiz results page.
11. Fixed some grammar in the XFire auto-blog entries.
12. Fixed some formatting issues on the image pages.
13. Fixed a missing icon in the activity feed.
14. Repaired the icon for Lila Dreams.
15. Corrected the CSS to repair spacing issues in the forum thread view.
16. Fixed a typo in the FPS quiz (Question 16)

That’s it for now! We will be doing a separate post later with more information on the changes surrounding OpenID.

Today marks the first day of gamerDNA’s regular “spotlight” feature, where we shine the light on a member or group in the community and see what makes up their gamerDNA. This week, we have an interview with the leader of Fyrdraek, a World of Warcraft raiding guild.  They’ve put a lot of time into creating the guild and using gamerDNA’s event system to keep track of their raids, so it is my pleasure to introduce their leader, Elilane.

gamerDNA: So why don’t you introduce yourself and your guild – who are you, what is your guild, what game does your guild play?

Elilane: My guild is called Fyrdraek. The name is derived from fire Drake (which means dragon) but we wanted it to sound unique so I renamed it Fyrdraek thereby giving the word Fire Drake a “Tolkienesque” twist.

We are a World of Warcraft Raiding guild (Alliance Side) that caters to busy people who can only raid twice a week and don’t want to make raiding seem like a second job, hence the schedule of just raiding twice a week 1-5 PM EST on weekends. The schedule allows people to do fun things during weekend mornings and evenings and helps them concentrate on real-life matters during the week.

Of course, since we only raid twice a week, raid progression is slow when we compare ourselves to normal raiding guilds that raid at least three times a week or more. However there is a niche for such a raiding guild (a guild that caters to people who can only raid twice a week) and ever since we started raiding we have never cancelled a raid.

Additionally, we started the guild late in the game when most guilds were into Black Temple and Mt Hyjal content and to illustrate how late the guild was formed, it was founded during the time when Wrath of The Lich King was announced and Sunwell was released. Despite this handicap, we were able to attract players and now were progressing in Tier 5 content (that is Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep). I guess the schedule also helps manage WoW burnout too!

gamerDNA: What motivated you to create this guild?

Elilane: Personally, I didn’t have the time to raid more than three times the week but World of Warcraft was the only computer game that interested me so I decided to make a guild that would cater to my limited time. Also as a challenge, I didn’t want to ride with an established guild to beat end game content and I wanted to experience beating end game content with my own set of people (In other words I wanted to beat endgame content by being an active leader as opposed to being a passive guild member). I used to be in more hardcore guilds that raided at least three times a week.

gamerDNA: What do you look for in a new recruit?

Elilane: I take a different approach to recruiting. Most guilds have high requirements, I accept people carte blanche without any prejudgment. This style has helped me form the guild faster too. Perhaps you can describe this as the “evolution” style of recruitment where if the species can’t adapt to the environment it becomes extinct, in our case if the recruit doesn’t fit us he either quits by himself or we kick him. i hate guild kicking people so more often than not they just quit.  But now since were a bit in the middle of tier 5 progression we try to accept players with at least Karazhan, tier 4, epic pvp, bage gear.

gamerDNA: So there isn’t really a “probationary” period where a new member isn’t fully inducted into the guild?

Elilane: In essence there should be but it isn’t practiced. New recruits can bid on boss loot drops but we use a system wherein the highest bid wins so veterans usually win loot because they have more points. However, since we now have an overflow of raiders, i am now instituting a policy where people with the consistent raid attendance and most number of token points get into the raid first.

gamerDNA: What do you see as the biggest advantages of being in a guild?

Elilane: Well the guild was made for raiding. Raiding is almost impossible without a guild. That’s the nature of raiding in World of Warcraft – It is a necessity if you want to see end-game content. Besides that, you at least get a higher chance of doing 5 mans and 10 mans because you already have a ready base of players to tap with when you want to do non-raid stuff (25 man stuff) but I seldom do 5 mans nowadays and 10 mans so i guess my members benefit from it!

gamerDNA: Do you see any disadvantages with being in a guild?

Elilane: In a way it takes away your privacy in the game. Especially if you’re a healer, healers get a lot of tells  (private messages) from guild members if they want to heal for them. That is why i am not surprised why some players have their own private account wherein their toon (character) isn’t affiliated with any guild. Another disadvantage is that you get spammed by guild chat, which isn’t good if you don’t like reading.

gamerDNA: Do you think that your guild will ever branch out to other games?

Elilane: Some guilds do branch out to other games but i don’t think my guild will because of our nature. We aren’t hardcore players so the likelihood that our players will like another similar game is slim and if we ever do branch out I would need to recruit new players that are into the new game like let’s say Warhammer Online or Starcraft 2.

gamerDNA: What do you think about the guild hosting system here on gamerDNA – what do you like, what do you dislike?

Elilane: gamerDNA is probably the most convenient site available to make a guild page. I’ve tried a lot of others but they paled in comparison with gamerDNA which provides the basic needs for a guild site with a touch of personal customization. What I think of as basic needs is the ability to post news and events on the main page and have a forum wherein members can discuss guild issues. The ability to customize the look and add our own pictures to the guild theme is what I think makes gamerDNA better than other guild sites that I’ve tried.

The improvement that I want from gamerDNA is the ability to show multiple events on the front page. A raiding guild has several events during the week and it would be handy if all the events for the week were listed on the front page, but right now we can only see one.

gamerDNA: Do you have any parting thoughts that you would want our members to know?

Elilane: Try to balance your gaming life! Spend time outside of computer gaming, exercise, hang out with family, hang out with friends, and don’t neglect your studies or work!

You can check out Elilane’s guild, Fyrdraek, by clicking here.

If you would like to create your own guild, give our group hosting system a try!

Thanks again to Elilane for taking the time out of his day to have a chat with us, you can check out his own gamerDNA profile by clicking here.

Do you think you have a group, member, or experience that you want to see on this blog? Drop us a line!

PlayerVox: When did the guild form up, and how did it happen? Was there a particular incident or thing that the founders bonded over?

Three Pounds: The guild officially formed up in early December after Awowa and I left Treacherous Empire [Te]. We decided to form a new guild that would be unlike all the others, one that would focus heavily on self criticism, improvement, persistence, and respect above all else. From day one we made a pact to never give up, even when everything looks dark and bleak, and it has brought us to where we stand today.

PlayerVox: Who were the founders? Are they all still around today?

Three Pounds: Awowa Classic and Three Pounds (myself) are the founders of RAWR: Rebel Rising. We are definitely still around, and plan to be as long as the game is active!

"Secretly, we all have a hidden passion for PvE that is dying to come out, but no one will admit it."

PlayerVox: Whats the thing you guys are most known for?

Three Pounds: In the early days when we jumped up ranks in the ladder, we were known as the guild that could only play hexes. Then as we emerged with our balanced build, we were known as the guild that only plays balanced. In other lands were known as Rawrians or Hey! Thats the guild who won gold capes! And even sometimes we’re known for our rebellious roar. I’d like to think we’re known for our positive attitudes, good sportsmanship, and player respect, but thats harder to see sometimes. =).

PlayerVox: Tell me about a typical play session for your guild — when do you play, how long do you play, what’s your goal for the session, how much time do you spend just hanging out, etc.

Three Pounds: We normally play five days a week, scheduling our GvGs around AT times and general times that most people can make. This ends up being around 8pm-midnight EST for weekdays and weekends. Each session normally lasts for about 3-4 hours that are spent frivolously trying to get in as many games as possible. If the ladder seems particularly empty on a given day, we sometimes break out some in-house scrimmages or end up hanging out in Vent talking about strategy and tactics. On the occasions when we need a break from GvG, our guild does a fun PvE run. Apart from our scheduled GvG times, our guild spends a lot of time guild bonding (as I like to put it) by doing HA, TA, AB, or more commonly, PvE.
(Editors note: No idea what these abbreviations are? Want to learn? Try Guild Wars!

PlayerVox: Do you ever hang out in the physical world as well as online?

Three Pounds: Unfortunately [in terms of the ability to socialize in real life], our guild is spread out around the world. We have players in Denmark, Australia, Canada, and all time zones of the USA. This makes it hard for any of us to hang out IRL. However, one of our standing goals is to make it to the next World Championship and have all our guild members flown off to an exotic country to hang out and meet up for the first time.

PlayerVox: What makes you different from all the other guilds out there?

Three Pounds: Our guild focuses a lot of self-criticism and improvement. We find that a common flaw in most other guilds is their arrogance that comes almost naturally when becoming a top competitor. Because of this, we constantly enforce taking a step back and realizing there is always something to learn, and nobody is perfect. One way we do this is by encouraging the guild to make a personal list of something they could have done better during the match, and posting it for the guild to see. This is easy if we’ve lost a game, but much, much, harder if we’ve won every game that night. Indirectly, this emphasizes that one should always respect ones fellow players and keep an open mind. We focus not on the mistakes people make, but the reasoning and decisions that lead up to it.

PlayerVox: What would you describe as the "typical" member?

Three Pounds: Most of our members are friendly, open minded, and mature. The average age of our members is in the early 20s. We’re all very competitive and dedicated to becoming the best at what we play. Secretly, we all have a hidden passion for PvE that is dying to come out, but no one will admit it. A typical member of RAWR is a true rebel. =)

A RAWR PVE Trip

PlayerVox: Got any funny stories that might sum up the guild personality in a nutshell?

Three Pounds: I’d say the one that stands out the most is when one of our members, Lego, didn’t have internet connection for a few days. But being the dedicated player he is, instead of taking those days off, he would drive around in his car looking for a wifi spot to connect to the internet on his laptop. He would be miles away from his home playing with his laptop scrunched between the wheel and driver seat, no bathroom or food in sight, and almost getting arrested by cops, he would come on every night to GvG at our regularly scheduled time. Now THAT is a true Rebel.

PlayerVox: If I wanted to join you guys, how would I go about that?

Three Pounds: Well, first you’d have to submit an application! Then whatever area you would like to focus on in your Guild Wars career (GvG, HB, HA, PvE, etc), be dedicated to it and work at it with determination. If you have a true heart of a Rebel, you will stand out.

PlayerVox: If I made you pick a guild motto, what would it be?

Three Pounds: rawr! That word alone encompasses the fierceness, power, and strength that this guild holds.

PlayerVox: If you had to pick an animal that represents your group, what would it be?

Three Pounds: A dragon, of course! It’s swift, strong, powerful, and resilient. It’s a creature to be respected and feared. Above all, it can breathe fire… which is way cool.

PlayerVox: Can I link to your guild page?

Three Pounds: Yes! www.rebelrising.net

PlayerVox: Who were the founders? Are they all still around today?

Three Pounds: Awowa Classic and Three Pounds (myself) are the founders of RAWR: Rebel Rising. We are definitely still around, and plan to be as long as the game is active!

PlayerVox: Who were the founders? Are they all still around today?

Three Pounds: Awowa Classic and Three Pounds (myself) are the founders of RAWR: Rebel Rising. We are definitely still around, and plan to be as long as the game is active!