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Quarterly Review: 1Q 2013


Creech
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Hello x360a members!

 

This has been an extremely busy year so far! It is hard to fit everything we have done this quarter in one post, but I am going to give it a shot.

 

New Awards!

 

Wow, yeah, lots of new awards have been made available for members. We started with adding new awards for post counts, three new levels for guides, road maps, and submit awards. Then we added six new awards for micro guides. Along with all the new awards, we created a Site Awards forum to talk about them, discuss new awards, and sign up for ones you are missing. You can also see every award earned throughout each month in the Award Winners and Achievement Unlocked forum.

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/postcount-2500-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/postcount-15k-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/postcount-25k-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/postcount-35k-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/postcount-50k-64.png

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/ach-guide-platinum-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/ach-guide-emerald-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/ach-guide-diamond-64.png

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/ach-roadmap-platinum-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/ach-roadmap-emerald-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/ach-roadmap-diamond-64.png

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/tile-submission-platinum-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/tile-submission-emerald-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/tile-submission-diamond-64.png

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/micro-guide-bronze-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/micro-guide-silver-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/micro-guide-gold-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/micro-guide-platinum-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/micro-guide-emerald-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/micro-guide-diamond-64.png

 

We updated the Bright Idea award to a somewhat less suggestive picture, and created the Helping Hand award to highlight a select group of members who consistently go above and beyond to help other members of the site, and then we created an award to help celebrate the contribution the site made towards GRID 2.

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/bright2-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/helping-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/game-grid2-64.png

 

As a thank you to those members who bring in other new members, we created three referral awards.

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/ref-bronze-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/ref-silver-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/ref-gold-64.png

 

 

Over Achiever and Arcade Crazy

 

The Over Achiever and Arcade Crazy concepts actually originated with our sister site, ps3trophies.org. They have something similar, but of course we wanted to put our own spin on things. With more than 50 contributors chipping in ideas and providing feedback, the staff, subscribers and ambassadors came up with two lists of "must have" achievements. Let's face it, we all know the 360 is coming to the end of its life cycle. Before it goes silently into the night, have you really played the best it has to offer?

 

The Over Achiever and Arcade Crazy lists offer up some of the most unique achievements from 200 games that you absolutely should have on your gamertag before moving to the NextBox 720. Now the chances are that you won't earn all 200 of the achievements involved, but if you don't at least try then all of your friends are going to laugh at you and call you a loser. You don't want that, do you? Of course you don't.

 

The lists can be found here in a checklist format, and we even have awards to go along with them. If you want to give feedback or talk about the lists, click here.

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/over-ach-bronze-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/over-ach-silver-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/over-ach-gold-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/over-ach-platinum-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/over-ach-emerald-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/over-ach-diamond-64.png

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/arcade-crazy-bronze-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/arcade-crazy-silver-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/arcade-crazy-gold-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/arcade-crazy-platinum-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/arcade-crazy-emerald-64.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/arcade-crazy-diamond-64.png

 

 

New Guide and Road Map Process

 

One of the most used feature of the site - and the one that draws in the most new members - is the fantastic guides written by YOU, our members. We have been publishing guides for seven years, helping our fellow achievement hunters find the best and fastest ways to unlock those achievements on every game available on every platform with achievements. The Guide Team rolled out a new process with more transparency, more feedback, more ability to collaborate, and even more awards!

 

There is a whole public forum dedicated to the guide writing process, and of course it also incorporates road maps and the brand new micro guides. You can see what guides need some help and contribute, see the author of every guide on the site, and even find out which guides your favorite author has written. The micro guide concept is specifically designed to encourage writing comprehensive guides for DLC and smaller games such as are often found on Windows phones and Kinect Labs.

 

 

Staff Changes

 

I am sure you are all aware of the vast amount of time that all of us staff members volunteer to help keep this place the awesome forum that it has become over the years. As people move on or as new work is found, we get to welcome new members to the staff. Most recently we have added ten new members to the team, promoted three, and did some reorganization along the way.

 

Jackanape and Hayden were both promoted to super moderators to help out The Pants Party and I.

 

Troy0891 was promoted to Moderator and head of the Guide Team, replacing * Clueless *. We then added five more folks to the Guide Team: The Deadly Dog, DEG23, Kairi, TemporalWizard, and Yunder. We expanded the role of the Guide Team to incorporate awards as well. While this is largely behind the scenes work involving tracking who has earned what, I guarantee you that the Super Moderators are HUGELY grateful for the work they do with this as it frees up our time to actually add the awards to your profiles. Basically, the guide team rocks!

 

We created a Collectibles Guide Team, headed up by Tyger7, adding Ceris, Never Final and Shiftie to help develop a process for systematizing Collectible Guides to the point where we can add them to the front page in an organized manner. While YOU haven't yet seen their work, I can see what they are doing and I am liking it. Down the road, you will too, I promise. Well, unless you hate collectibles. In that case, please skip to the next paragraph.

 

We brought DeekBoy back from hiatus to rejoin the Maximum Clubs. His prior experience has helped him to slide right into full productivity from the start . Then we asked Jappe x360a to take charge of the Representer program, and he got so busy with it that we had to ask Yunder to help him out.

 

Oh noes, ran out of room! On to the next post!

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Speaking of the Representer program...

 

We asked Jappe x360a to run the x360a Representer program and breathe some new life into it. Practically the first thing he did was rename it to the x360a Ambassador program, with multiple tiers (Promoter and Representer). Now they are doing game nights, there is a tournament scheduled for April, and they are so busy we asked Yunder to jump in and help as well. We also came up with two new awards for it. Currently we are at 119 members.

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/x360a-promoter-64.png http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/x360a-representer-64.png

Staff Clubs and Leaderboard

 

The Maximum Clubs have always been a labor of love, and now there is some love to be given back when you join certain clubs. The staff have each chosen some of their favorite, memorable, or most unique games and created clubs specifically for completing those games. With a selection of games ranging from Hannah Montana to Ninja Gaiden II, from Minecraft to Rumble Roses XX, from Gears of War to Halo 4, you will be sure to find at least a few games you have played in the list. However, will you have enough of them completed to actually earn a spot on the leaderboard and get one of the awesome awards associated with it? Currently only 79 of the awards have been handed out, and 17 of those are held by the four Super Moderators of the site. Minty's Manly Men Club is the most popular at the moment, followed by Clueless's Chief, Clueless, Cortana & the Covenant Club.

 

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-aospuck.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-bplayak.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-ceris.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-clueless.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-covertdog.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-creech.png

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-dakisbac.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-deadlydog.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-deekboy.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-deg23.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-gackt.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-hayden.png

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-jackanape.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-jappe.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-kairi.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-madhatters.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-mightymango.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-minty.png

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-neverfinal.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-nozza.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-pants.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-shiftie.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-shinobi.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-skillet.png

 

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-temporalwizard.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-troy.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-tyger7.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-xerofox.pnghttp://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/images/awards/club-yunder.png

 

 

2012 Achievement Awards

 

Every year the site comes together and votes for the best and worst achievements. The competition was fierce this year even for the easiest achievement with no less than three titles giving an achievement simply for starting the game. When does someone start discussing the competition for glitchiest game? Well, let's just say there were so many nominations for that one we couldn't even list them all. If you missed the winners (or losers, depending upon the award, click on the banner below.

 

 

 

Subscriber Activity

 

The subscribers have really stepped up their involvement this quarter. First, they had a completion tournament in January where they completed a whopping 484 titles, 211 of them split amongst the top 3 players. That was an amazing feat, and all within a 31 day period. Plus, the first and second place winners spent a COMBINED total of $1214 on the competition. With the second place winner, Jappe, spending $829 and the first place winner, Jamie1000013, spending $385. Talk about commitment!

 

While that was going on, they also helped audit a lot of the information on the site, such as ensuring all the forums were properly alphabetized, checking the release dates on upcoming titles, and just generally helping out with keeping the forum going. If you haven't checked them out, you can see a brief bio of three of the subscribers in our spotlights for January, February, and March.

 

Finally, we introduced two new perks for the subscribers: Larger avatars (150px by 150px) and the ability to periodically re-arrange the order in which their awards appear in their showcase.

 

 

Community Gaming Sessions

 

http://gfxuploader.com/images/nqcwq9vupdhmhvtacy7.png

 

We all like to earn achievements and there are plenty of boosting sessions going on to help out with that. But do you ever want to lean back the recliner, grab a glass of bourbon/beer/soda/milk and just relax with some friends? Well, so do we! We are trying out different games each week. So far we have played Burnout Paradise and Red Dead Redemption. Next up is Gears of War: Judgment and then Minecraft. After that? Who knows...perhaps you could tell us what YOU want to play by chiming in here.

 

Some Miscellaneous Bits and Bytes...

 

We came up with new tiles for the game lists on the main page, including a tile leading to the new Windows 8 games section.

 

We reviewed the genre classification of every game on the site, adding the ability to categorize them into two genres for our upcoming leaderboard revisions. To follow up on that, we have been slowly working on getting the forums to match the new classifications, although that is only about 50% done as of this post.

 

We added a variety of new forums to the Off Topic area, including Anime and Manga, The Diner, Car Talk, and Forum Games section.

 

Finally, we celebrated our seventh birthday and had a party, gave away presents, ate cake, drank some bourbon, and...oh, wait. I guess you guys didn't show up to that part. But we DID turn seven, and we definitely gave away a lot of awesome presents!

 

 

 

And on that note, I hope you are looking forward to 2Q 2013 as much as we are. There is a lot more in store for the site!

 

Cheers!

 

Your x360a Staff

Edited by Creech
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Loving it guys! Keep up the awesome work! I wonder if Q2 review will be this large? I hope so! :p

 

I really love the Staff clubs awards. I still am trying to get into Shinobi's club, then next up will be Nozza's. :)

 

It is good to have goals... Of course, if you really want to impress me, you have to tackle Ninja Gaiden II and R.U.S.E.

 

:woop:

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It is good to have goals... Of course, if you really want to impress me, you have to tackle Ninja Gaiden II and R.U.S.E.

 

:woop:

 

I have thought about it...We will see. I am a terrible completionist, so I probably would start them, get irritated, and then never play the again.

 

I really like Skillets club picture, so I might try to get that one as well. Geometry Wars and me dont get along though.

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Good review, Mr. Creech.

 

Those Staff Club awards all look great. I wish I was the ultimate gamer and completed every game so I could have all of them in my showcase :p

 

I bow down with respect to anyone who has more than I do. Of course, that is nobody at the moment...

 

:woop:

 

 

Really? I noticed before the staff clubs were talked about:p

With us being award crazy, that means eventually we are getting those "community co-op participant awards" right?;)

 

Oh, and go team!

 

The community co-op stuff would be good, I just need to come up with a reasonable manner in which to determine who is eligible that is different from "Spam Creech with invites".

Edited by Creech
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I bow down with respect to anyone who has more than I do. Of course, that is nobody at the moment...

 

:woop:

 

 

 

 

The community co-op stuff would be good, I just need to come up with a reasonable manner in which to determine who is eligible that is different from "Spam Creech with invites".

 

My idea was getting vouched by three other members of the site to earn the award or 1 staff member that happens to be hosting/playing (staff means to include all of us in the GT, CGT, etc)

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Guest Scotty
My idea was getting vouched by three other members of the site to earn the award or 1 staff member that happens to be hosting/playing (staff means to include all of us in the GT, CGT, etc)

 

plus you should need a minimum on-site requirement, like 500 posts, 1 year active, etc.

 

OT. all the awards look great. i think Nozza's club award is by far the sexiest, i bought far cry 3 and enslaved so i'm gonna be attempting it at some point.:)

 

also, great job to everyone who has made all these changes over the last few months, especially Creech;) (that's how you ass-lick while maintaining dignity)

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plus you should need a minimum on-site requirement, like 500 posts, 1 year active, etc.

 

OT. all the awards look great. i think Nozza's club award is by far the sexiest, i bought far cry 3 and enslaved so i'm gonna be attempting it at some point.:)

 

also, great job to everyone who has made all these changes over the last few months, especially Creech;) (that's how you ass-lick while maintaining dignity)

 

If gaming session-related awards are introduced they shouldn't be limited to certain members only. The idea is to get more people to play, not less.

 

Also, I think ass kissing is probably as far as you want to go... ass licking is a little much.

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My idea was getting vouched by three other members of the site to earn the award or 1 staff member that happens to be hosting/playing (staff means to include all of us in the GT, CGT, etc)

 

That seems pretty reasonable, actually. You want to write up a small proposal in the Awards section to see what other people think?

 

If gaming session-related awards are introduced they shouldn't be limited to certain members only. The idea is to get more people to play, not less.

 

Agreed 100%.

 

And Scotty, I see what you did there!

Edited by Creech
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Guest Scotty
If gaming session-related awards are introduced they shouldn't be limited to certain members only. The idea is to get more people to play, not less.

 

Also, I think ass kissing is probably as far as you want to go... ass licking is a little much.

 

No, i meant licking;)

 

and i was just thinking about the handing out of this award, if everyone and anyone can get it without being a somewhat active forum member, then it will be another heavy burden for someone to take care of. also, the 500 posts/active for a year, was just an example, probably is a bit excessive.

 

and why would someone without any forum activity care about the award anyway. it should just be for people who care about getting it. i.e active members.

 

^^all just an opinion and off-topic so i'll shut up now.

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The community co-op stuff would be good, I just need to come up with a reasonable manner in which to determine who is eligible that is different from "Spam Creech with invites".

 

I must be special then. I always get invited despite not having the damn games! Soon I will be able to join one. Soon. :)

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