Desbreko

[color=#4B0082]Okay, just to clear up any confusion, I'll spell it out straight. This is the process for hiring new moderators: [list=1] [*]The staff determine that a new moderator is needed in a forum. [*]We look for high quality members who know and follow the rules and who are at least somewhat active in the forum in question. [*]When we find someone suited to being a moderator of that forum, we PM them to offer them the position. [*]They either accept, in which case they're made a moderator, or they decline, in which case we go back to step 2. [/list] Post count has little to nothing to do with who gets picked. There have been times when we've hired staff when they had less than 100 posts, and they've worked out wonderfully. There's also been staff with thousands of posts who've ended up being fired. So whether you're a "Member" or a "New Member" has little to do with it.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Yes, on the anniversary of a character's creation, a birthday present appears in their inventory. Opening it (with a double click) will give you a random mini-pet. For more information, take a look at the [url=http://www.guildwars.com/events/ingame/birthdaypresents.php][u]Birthday Presents[/u][/url] page on GuildWars.com. I'll be getting one in about a month, and another a couple weeks after that, on Arik and Amelia. I'm hoping for a mini Burning Titan for Amelia, and maybe a Fungal Wallow for Arik. The rest don't interest me overly much, however, so I'll be willing to trade if I don't get a titan.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]You know the first thing I thought when I saw Twilight Princess being played with the Wii controller? "I'm going to rock this game." Shooting the bow with the pointer, especially, I just can't wait to do. In all the previous 3D Zeldas the bow has been one of my favorite items, and I've always been a good shot with it, and now it's going to be even better. Point, shoot, kill, repeat. The melee combat moves controlled with the motion sensors also looks great. The special moves like the shield bash, spin attack, and down strike all looked wonderfully intuitive. No more fumbling with rotating the control stick, having to make sure you get [i]all[/i] the way around; just a quick flick of the wrist, a tap of the button, and you're kicking *** in all 360 degrees.[/color]

[quote name='Shinmaru']Don't worry, post quality will start ascending again soon, and will keep on ascending until people start complaining about overly harsh moderating, after which post quality will take another dip, and so on and so forth. It's the Circle of Life.[/quote][color=#4B0082]This is true. If you look, you'll see both, "quality is lacking," and, "omg grammar nazi!" threads going back a good ways in this forum. But as Sara pointed out, members have a very useful tool for helping keep quality high: the Report Post function. I check out every report I get, and moderators should as well. (So remember to check your e-mail regularly, staff!) If something is wrong and members aren't liking it, it will be dealt with. Beyond getting more aggressive at deleting spammy posts and sending warnings, however, I'm not sure there's much more we can do in Otaku Lounge. An updated site rules page would be nice, but we already have a great sticky thread posted in there by Stuart, plus three moderators watching over the forum.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I'm not sure what exactly you're suggesting here. . . . Some sort of awards event in the Manga Workshop? Not sure what you mean by categories though. At any rate, see my post in this recent [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=53390][u]thread[/u][/url]. We already hold annual, site-wide awards events. And while smaller, more specific awards events can be fun, someone has to take the time and effort to organize them. So it's doubtful that we'll see staff-run awards events outside of the Otaku Awards/Nifty Fifty. But again, members are welcome to organize their own little events like this. So long as they don't breach the rules (you can PM a moderator of the forum you'd be posting in if you want to make sure the thread is set up appropriately), member-run awards threads are fine.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]The game won't kick you for playing too long. It gives little notices for each hour you've been playing, but some people in my guild have gotten that up to 12+ hours without getting kicked from the game. (Some of that was AFK time, but still.) And I've gotten up to 5 hours myself, with little to no AFK time. I think you just got connection errors. But yes, Factions has also sucked me in just like Prophecies did. I've already logged around 80 hours on Chloe, my assassin, plus a good while spent exploring on my monk to get the 100% exploration title. (I got it yesterday, by the way. ^_^) Chloe is close to the end of the game now and I'm currently working on getting enough amber for a set of 15k Kurzick armor for her.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I read signatures if they catch my eye and look interesting. As far as I'm concerned, short and to the point is good, so concise signatures usually get more attention from me. Longer ones will get skimmed over most of the time unless they look particularly good. Myself, I just keep a banner and some links to stuff of mine in my signature. For quite a while now I've been using my banner, avatar, and custom title to provide a certain theme to my posts. Currently, for example, I've got a Scrapped Princess theme going. The themes change pretty much whenever I feel like making a new banner.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Well, if you ask me, Final Fantasy IV Advance and Chrono Trigger are better than everything I've played on newer consoles. Admittedly, that's not a ton, but I find very few newer games that can match my favorites among the SNES classics. From what I've seen/read about it, Dragon Quest VIII might manage it, but I still need to play that one. . . . Anyway, my favorite PS1 RPG would probably be Chrono Cross. The battle/magic system was really fun and creative, and it kept me interested throughout the entire game. That, combined with a lack of random battles--being able to sneak past enemies was great--made the game fun to play all the way through. I didn't think the storyline lived up to Chrono Trigger's, but as a sequel, it was interesting to learn more about the Chrono universe. Wanting to learn more about how the game tied in with Chrono Trigger was also something that kept me playing and eagerly awaiting each new revelation of the plot. As well, the multitude of playable characters and branching paths provides a lot of variety and replay value to the game. Each time you play the game, you can use different characters, look for different story branches, and try to get a different ending. And with New Game + you can keep your characters' progress too.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Besides me and Meggido here, I see Boo online a fair bit, though he's on the European servers now. He has Factions and has made a ritualist. Alex (aka Brasil) is also still active. He followed me over to Fifteen Over Fifty about a week ago, and his collector's edition of Factions should be arriving in a couple days. Unfortunately, I don't really see any of the other OB people online anymore. I thought that maybe Factions would rekindle some interest, but nothing as of yet. :animesigh[/color]

[color=#4B0082]We had some similar categories in the old Otaku Awards events, and as well, you can nominate anything at all in the annual Nifty Fifty that's held in its place now. So those sorts of events would be the "official" ones that cover this sort of thing. If members want to create their own little event specifically for RPGs, however, it would fit right into the Arena Underground forum. It even says in the forum description, "...vote for your favorites," so anyone is welcome to start an awards thread.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]If you're looking for an overview of the storyline, the game's [url=http://www.guildwars.com/][u]website[/u][/url] has most of the lore and whatnot that comes in the game's intruction manual. There's also a lot of info on what the gameplay is like. So, if you're interested, I'd say to poke around there and see if you like what you see. Though as of yet the site seems to be somewhat lacking in lore/information about Guild Wars Factions compared to the wealth of information on Prophecies. They do have a [url=http://www.guildwars.com/support/faq/guildwarsfactions-faq.php][u]Factions FAQ[/u][/url] with some information, but mostly in relation to people who already have Prophecies buying Factions. If you're still wondering about anything not covered on the site, I can probably give you more information on whatever it is.[/color]

[quote name='Boo][size=1]Or you select [color=gray][i]Add [u]B[/u]orders...[/i][/color] from the [color=gray][i][u]I[/u]mage[/i][/color'] menu.

[color=#4B0082]Yet another reason why I like Paint Shop Pro; simple things like adding borders are actually simple. I just create a new layer and draw the border in with the line tool. :p And I've actually used that same style of border--a solid black line with a faded black line inside that--on some of my avatars, so those are fine. I usually prefer the single crisp line, but for some the faded line makes it look better.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]We already have a thread about [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=47932][u]Metal Gear Solid 4[/u][/url], as well as one about the [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=42023][u]Metal Gear Series[/u][/url] in general. Please post in one of those if you'd like to talk about the games. Also, grammar is your friend. Please make use of it. Thread Closed[/color]

[quote name='Meggido']I have a friend who started a assassin. My first reaction was to laugh when he commented that he died way too easily. have you tried a ritualist yet Desi?[/quote][color=#4B0082]Heh, I wonder if he was trying to play it like a warrior. That's one surefire way to get slaughtered as an assassin. So far I've played for about 10 hours, I think, and have died 28 times. Compared to others in my guild, I'm doing pretty good. And I played a ritualist during the preview event. It was fun, but it was odd. Definitely unlike any of the other casters. After I get a ways with my assassin, I might start a rit in my other slot. Or if not then, I'll probably buy an extra character slot once that option is available and start one.[/color] [quote name='Ayokano']Which chapter should I get? I know I can play both independently, but if I buy Fractions, will I be able to transfer my character to Prophecies?[/quote][color=#4B0082]If you get Factions you'll have access to Cantha and all eight professions, but you won't be able to access Tyria at all. In order to start new characters in Tyria or travel there with Canthan characters you'd have to buy Prophecies as well and add its access key to your account. It doesn't matter what order you buy the chapters in, so you can just choose whichever looks more interesting to you. Though you should be aware that you can't start assassins or ritualists in Tyria, so if you want to play one of those, you'll need to get Factions.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Okay, so I pre-ordered GW Factions, meaning I was able to take part in the Head Start thing a day early (Yay, Tengu masks!), and then I went and picked the game up yesterday. I started a female assassin by the name of Chloe Namir, and wow, I'm loving the assassin class. I can run in, fire off my five-attack skill chain which seems to be able to take down pretty much anything I've encountered so far short of bosses (it even kills the 100 armor targets in the PvP training area), and then dodge around for a few seconds to shake aggro while my skills recharge. Then I do it again. It's a very hit-and-run style of play, as opposed to the "get in their face and tank them" style of the warrior, which I really like. I'm usually not doing constant damage, but I can easily slip past the front lines to take out an important caster enemy like a healer or ritualist, then slip back before the enemies can switch targets to kill me. The new areas I've explored so far are awesome too. Part of the continent is one huge, overgrown city where you get to wander through urban areas populated by random NPCs--both friendly and hostile--as well as roaming baddies. The dark streets of the city, with buildings stretching up to the sky on either side, makes for a great atmosphere, especially when you get into the ruinous undercity. Unfortunately, however, a bug was found in the alliance system during the Head Start event, so we haven't been able to ally with any other guilds yet. A fix is apparently coming soon, so I'm looking forward to that. I can't wait to see what the rest of Factions has to offer. Oh, and a pic of Chloe in the new pre-searing-like area of Shing Jea Island: [URL=http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gwchloenamir1te.jpg][IMG]http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6791/gwchloenamir1te.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL] She's since gotten new armor, which looks really sweet, so I'll try to remember and get another shot of her soon.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I've visited OB nearly every day for over four years now. Of course, there's times when I only visit to take care of any mod/admin stuff that needs doing. Things like to pile up if I skip out on this place for too long. Like yesterday, when I was playing Guild Wars Factions all day. New game releases tend to cut into the time I spend here, heh. :toothy:[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Heheh, I've also got some great memories of playing Mario Party 2. One time me, two of my friends, and my brother got together and ended up staying up to about 5:30 AM playing a 50 turn game on the Space Land board. I don't even remember who ended up winning now, but it seemed like our first priority was not to get the most stars directly, but to sabotage the others so they'd get less. Alliances were made and broken within only a few turns. Stars were stolen. 2 vs. 2 minigames were thrown. Much plotting and scheming was no doubt taking place in their twisted little minds, the same as in my own. And tears were nearly shed when three of us had 100+ coins and got hit with Bowser's big beam thing that takes all your coins. It was the Mario Party to end all Mario Parties. No, really, I've just never been able to have as much fun with the Mario Party games since then. Maybe it's because the concept has gotten stale for us (MP2 was the first one any of us had played), but not too long ago the same four of us were sitting around playing games and one of them dragged out Mario Party 6, I think it was. I just couldn't bring myself to care about what was happening, which made it really boring. Oh, but no blisters from playing. Mario Party 2 did away with the "rotate the control stick" mini-games. In their stead, we got the "mash the A button" ones. Which I owned at. :toothy:[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I think some people are taking this thread way too seriously. I mean, really, the "elements" listed are not even real elements in anything but the classic fantasy world sense. So arguing that, "Such and such can't do that!" is really silly. As such, I pick Light because I've always enjoyed role playing healer/cleric type characters. Calling on the holy powers that be in whatever world I'm playing in, I heal wounded allies while smiting evil in the name of divine judgement.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Google only updates their search database every so often, so changing the information on the page won't affect search results immediately. So unless this is really urgent, I'd wait a few days to see if the search results change before doing anything drastic. Though I'm a bit confused here; are you talking about deleting your myOtaku account or your OB account? If you mean your myOtaku account, you could just turn your page off rather than deleting it. Just go into the Edit Profile page, and the very first option is a drop-down menu to turn your page on and off. I think if you turn it off, everything will still be saved for if/when you turn it back on, but I'm not positive about that so you may want to ask around and see if anyone else knows for sure. If you're talking about your OtakuBoards account, however, you could just have your screen name changed. Either I or Dagger can do that easily enough. Just send one of us a PM.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]There's also been numerous threads in this forum asking about the same stuff. Use the search function and you'll find what you're looking for.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]If I remember correctly . . . somewhere around 100 hours I think. I got the airship at about 30 hours (I was kind of disappointed, as I expected the main story to last for at least another 10), then scoured the world for the crests/sigils. Somewhere along the way I got Anima and worked my way through the Omega Ruins, then I went through Sin and beat the game. After that I didn't really feel like playing anymore.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]You might be surprised; I keep some odd hours sometimes. Like today, I got up at 7:00 PM, so I'll probably be playing for a while some time in the middle of the night. But yeah, if you see me online, give me a holler and I can home help out in some missions or whatnot.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]OB history lesson! These are the old v3-v6 titles that people managed to get: 0-249 - Newbie 250-499 - Junior Member 500-999 - Member 1000-1999 - Otaku 2000-2999 - Extreme Otaku 3000-4999 - No Life 5000-????? - I Live Here At the time, Raiha was the only one who managed to get the I Live Here title. We never saw what was past that since the v7 upgrade did away with the old titles. And I really doubt that they'll ever be coming back. As for myself, Member was as high as I got. But that's only 'cause I was hired as a mod in v4 and have been one ever since. :toothy: Oh, and if you really want to measure your e-penor against others', you can still go to the Members List page and have it sort by post count. James is currently at the top, and you'll find a bunch of other oldies populating the first page.[/color]

[QUOTE=Baron Samedi][size=1]According to my various informants, a 100% effective method of [i]ensuring[/i] that you become a Moderator is to send pictures of yourself in spiky plastic underwear to all the administrators, who then convene to examine said pictures, and nominate you for Moderatorship. It's that easy.[/size][/QUOTE] :stfu: [color=#4B0082]I prefer spiky leather kthxbai.[/color]