Issue #16: February 14th 2012You never grow out of something you truly love. No matter how many years you spend away from it.
In Gaming News... This week Valve has launched
steam workshop on steam. Hell, i didn't even notice it until just a few minutes ago. Was it released today? earlier in the week? They were pretty stealthy with it. Anyhow, there are two slices to this which are worth talking about, because right out of the gate we can see two sides to this whole new workshop thing.
First off, lets talk about TF2. It seems valve has taken a very unique method of incorporating TF2 into the steam workshop. Anyone is free to upload new item models/skins and the community as a whole votes on it. Now, there is a little oddity here because the steam workshop was advertised more of a "mod -> player" service, but with valve monetizing items in TF2, you can't really do that. At least to be able to get new items viewable to all people playing, they need to be officially added. The voting system in the workshop seems to cover this. Although it is still to early to see exactly how it will roll out, it appears that the artists will be compensated from store sales the same as before. And we can assume that in the fine style Gabe has, no artist will go uncompensated (referring to one incident where gabe purchased 8,000 of a specific item from the mann co store because it wasn't selling and the artist wasn't getting any compensation. gabe is a cool guy).
Skyrim is where the workshop seems to be working as advertised. if you have skyrim, its probably a good idea to remove any existing mods you have from skyrim nexus and nab the workshop versions. At least, i believe this is a good idea. Maybe it doesn't matter? Anyhow, there are no
adult mods in the workshop, so you'll need to get your furry kkajiit porn from somewhere else. However, for everything else, the workshop works where you simply add mods you like and steam will install them for you. Uninstalling works the same way (I believe) and you can manage your mods in the workshop. Everything is ranked from new to old and by popularity. Make sure to read the notes on the downloads however as it is always possible two mods may conflict. I'm not sure if the workshop has something built in for this. Either way, its pretty goddamn cool.
And lastly in gaming news........dota2 is offline for valentines day. Well played valve, well played.
In Team Related News...Team news this week is limited, but we have one very big thing we voted on. We've officially added DOTA 2 to our supported games list. The big thing with this is that we should now be starting events in DOTA 2 as well as recruiting out of it. That last part is the big thing. Although our League of Legends players are fairly knee deep in non-halcyon players....no one wants to nominate anyone to join. Kinda lame but the worst thing is that we can't grow if no one nominates anyone. Since i've (personally) started playing DOTA2 I've added about a dozen new friends to my friends list who i play with. There are two to three folks who are prime for membership right now which i would be interested in recruiting and that's good for us as a team.
We need to grow, it is important! The main reason why is that the natural progression in gaming groups is that real life will cause even the most devout members to drop off the face of the planet (which is both expected and normal) but if you aren't adding some new blood you're losing the numbers game. Although halcyon is fairly exclusive with our membership and getting is should be seen as an extreme privilege, we do want to keep new faces joining us! Probably the big thing to remember here is we aren't aiming to be a gigantic group, but we do want to grow some.
If you're interested in joining, there is no application process and the best way you can join is imply by getting to know us on our forums and in-game. The whole idea with recruitment is we try to add people we interact with regularly. So get involved!
this is
Blue signing off...
A word from our Marshal: MisseGood evening all my batty eyed bushy tailed people in love! I hope you all are having a wonderful day of love!!!!!! Not too many updates from the Marshal's office... every time I try to hang out in vent and get some updates.. people slowly drop like flies out of the channel. What is wrong with me? I am some sort of repellent.. do I smell weird? Is my voice scary? Are my jokes not funny? COMMUNICATE SO I CAN CHANGE!! Welp, we welcomed a brand new member.. Mr. Lighthammer.. OH and .. Blue came up with this crazy idea that having 1000 posts is a GOOD thing. I have never seen the forums so busy! When I come and check them, there are actually several unread posts. FLOUR IS BACK UP AND RUNNING.. that is very good news on this day of love.
So.. in other news.. I went around asking our gentlemen.. "what are you doing for your significant other.. on this wonderful day of love?", I think you guys would be interested to see what is going on, jot some things down, use them for next year!!!
Blue: "This year I wanted to surprise red with something EXTRA special... so.. tonight we are going to pizza hut with my parents and her parents! Triple date awwww yyeeahhhhhh... Best part about it, there is a jukebox there, so I am going to throw my stash of coins in and play some love songs"
Skai "I have three words for you... mechanical bull... starcraft 2... feather boa... wait.. I think that is five words.. five words, three phrases yes."
Csislander: "My girlfriend has been slyly hinting to me that she has wanted to see a broadway show, or a ballet... BUT.. I one upped that.. tonight.. at 8:30.. Its the monster truck show at the arena, YES!!! I HOPE THE CAMERA POINTS TO US FOR THE KISS CAM, so romantic"
Cribster: "What is more romantic than cooking for your lady? Usually I do the spaghetti O's... but THIS time.. I grabbed like.. 34 cans of the alphabet soup and poured it into a bowl, and used tweezers to pick out the letters L, O, V, and E!"
Dante "I got my girlfriend a really cute fuzzy pink computer chair, she is going to plant that fine ass in it and watch me play league!"
3diot "I don't really want to talk about it, Misse. See.. I was pulling her on her rollerblades to the store on my bike .. Napolean Dynamite style..I was so excited because I was going to let her pick out her favorite candy bar.. welllll she started waving at the neighbors horse and that resulted in her falling... now she is miserable and has road rash."
Awww sounds like you guys will be having a great time!!!! Until next week.. remember... LOVE LOVE AND LOVE SOME MORE. oh and don't forget to watch tonight's Valentines episode of Glee
