James

[color=indigo]You may have seen this image before, as I had it as my avatar just before we updated to OtakuBoards v3.0. But here it is again, the Japanese GameCube box. I'm sure that the American, Euro and Aussie boxes will look different from this one, but I'd like to know what you guys think of it.[/color] [IMG]http://www.geocities.com/final_fantasy_garden/GCNbox.jpg[/IMG]

[color=indigo]I'm glad you like the logos :) Here is a closer view of our shiny new Otaku Media logo... [/color] [IMG]http://jamesotaku.tripod.com/images/OtakuMedia_Animate.gif[/IMG]

Yeah, Shinji is the Grinch of the Internet... ...hmm...[color=red]i-Grinch?[/color]. Ugh, I must have too much time on my hands. lol

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Final_Flash [/i] [B]Ok, In celebration of this glorious day, Tell me- What was your favourite moment in Final Fantasy? What just made ya all happy inside? [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]The most memorable moment for me would have to be the death of Aeris in Final Fantasy VII. It wasn't exactly a happy moment...but it was extremely memorable nonetheless.[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by firemac [/i] [B] YEah, you see john, that's why I am not afraid of gendou, like you told me last night that he's ready yo attack ne time:mad: shows him, otaku will kick any hackers ass, oh if it does happen again, can't you guys call the authorities, you basically have all the proof you need to put him away in jail [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]Well basically, Otaku Media behaves as a business does. All our sites are designed to make a profit, that profit is used to pay for new sites and new content for visitors, as Adam and myself don't actually keep any of the money. Tampering with our sites basically means that you're tampering with a business enterprise, which is illegal. So pursuing legal charges is always a possible option for us and one that we are continually looking at. Shinji was the ringleader, Gendo isn't intelligent enough to "hack". It wasn't even "hacking", it was merely an exploitation of a weakness in our software. So basically Gendo is following Shinji around like a puppy...and in my opinion, he should find something more productive to do with his time than spam on message boards. Also, not only is hacking simply annoying, but it's a serious drain on Otaku Media. You see, for the last few months, Adam and I have been working on a third site for Otaku Media. One which we will announce before the end of the year. However, when we were forced to completely relaunch OtakuBoards.com, it cost a great deal of time and money. That time and money [i]should[/i] have gone into our new website, but hasn't. So basically, that has probably forced us to delay our new site slightly. This is what happens when you have a few idiots who decide to fool around; it ruins the fun for everyone else. However, I wouldn't worry about Shinji and Gendo now. I really don't think that they are intelligent enough to do anything to these boards, as our security is much tighter. And if anything [i]were[/i] to happen, we would have to consider legal action.[/color]

[color=indigo]Okay... Avatars: In order to change your avatar, simply click on [i]Profile[/i] and then click [i]Edit Options[/i]. Once you've arrived there, scroll down to the bottom and click [i]Change Avatar[/i] and that's all there is to it. As for ranks, Adam told me yesterday but I forgot them lol. Basically, this time, we have 10 ranks....much more than before. You'll have to wait 'till your posts increase to see what they are. But of course, don't spam to get there :) [/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Tec-9 [/i] [B]when do you guys think the next attack will arrive??? i'll give it a month... then the fun begins... hehe [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]Don't even joke about that, after last time, we take this kind of thing very seriously. Besides, the last "attack" was based on a weakness in our old software, however, with this new board, we've significantly inreased security levels. The new board also means that we have a better ability to track IPs and to ban people for [i]good[/i], without fear of them returning. :)[/color]

[color=indigo]Some more screenshots of Xbox games have recently been released, included among them is [i]The Thing[/i], a new game based on the original movie. I thought I'd post a shot of it here for discussion. [IMG]http://xboxmedia.ign.com/media/previews/image/thing/thing5.jpg[/IMG] I think it looks amazing. What do you guys think?[/color]

[color=indigo]In an effort to keep interest going here, I thought that every now and then it'd be good for me to post some of the latest news relating to GameCube, so that you guys don't have to scour the 'net looking for it. To start us off, I've included some shots of the final GameCube controller being compared to the Nintendo 64 controller. As you can see, the GCN controller is actually a lot smaller than the pictures make it look! :) [IMG]http://cubemedia.ign.com/media/hardware/image/controller/finalgcncontroller5x.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://cubemedia.ign.com/media/hardware/image/controller/finalgcncontroller12x.jpg[/IMG] [url=http://viewer.ign.com/media_page.jsp?width=800&height=600&media=http://cubemedia.ign.com/media/hardware/image/controller/finalgcncontroller14.jpg&media_type=N&object_id=37368&adtag=network%3Dign%26site%3Dcube%26adchannel%3Dcube%26pagetype%3Darticle&ign_section=33&media_name=From+the+back]Here's a link to a bigger picture of a top view of the controller.[/url] Enjoy. :)[/color]

[color=indigo]You can't actually play PC games on Xbox, nope. I think that the rumor stems from the fact that the Xbox will be receiving a lot of PC ports.[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by RicoTranzrig [/i] [B]Yup...the one I'm mainly looking for is *drum roll* the Final Fantasy series back on Nintendo. If they pull that off, there's no doubt I'll be waiting in line in the middle of the night for a GC. [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]Yeah, I think that there is a pretty good chance of seeing Final Fantasy XI on GameCube, and possibly Xbox for that matter. Whereas XII is not online as far as I know, so I think that if Square has a good experience with the GCN version of FFXI, then they'll certainly continue the series on that platform.[/color]

[color=indigo]Thanks, I'm glad that everyone likes the logos. And yes, Transtic told me how to do Japanese text, so a big thanks goes out to him for the help there. I'm particularly proud of the Otaku Media logo. We've been through quite a few concepts before we arrived at that one. You'll be seeing that logo on all of our sites - it's our new media label.[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by RicoTranzrig [/i] [B]With the GC's ability to be developer friendly, it'll probably gain lots of support from past companies that worked on the SNES. [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]I agree. I think we'll see a lot of older developers returning. In particular, Capcom. They did support N64 a little, but not much. However, they said early this year that [i]all[/i] their major franchises would hit GameCube in the future. So hopefully that means Resident Evil (as we already know), Mega Man, Street Fighter, Onimusha, Dino Crisis, Power Stone...the list goes on. [/color]

[color=indigo]I primarily use Paint Shop Pro 7.2 and Animation Shop. I created the OtakuBoards.com logo and the Otaku Media logo, what do you guys think? :) I personally want to do a slightly fancier OtakuBoards.com logo soon though. So I'll see how it goes. [/color]

[color=indigo]Yeah, I thought it was interesting what Nintendo said recently about GameCube. They were asked a question where the reporter said something like "Are you concerned about the apparent lack of third party software right now?" And the reponse was actually very reasonable when you think of it. It was like "This is like a battle. We launch the machine with mostly our software in order to establish the console and boost initial sales and then we call in allies for backup as the war progresses". I think that it's a good strategy, one which a lot of people miss. Initially, Nintendo will want a LOT of its own games, in order to get as many consoles out there as possible. When enough consoles are out there, you'll see greater and greater third party support. In any event, it's certainly interesting. Although we're seeing similar third party support to GameCube as we're seeing for Xbox right now. So I personally don't see a big problem.[/color]

[color=blue]I'd personally love to see a new NiGHTS game. The original Saturn version was really nice...and even now it's still a fun game. I also recently bought Sonic Adventure 2 for Dreamcast, and I love it! :) I can't even imagine how great Sonic Adventure 3 could look on GameCube...[/color]

Just incase you do'nt hear anything for a few days, that's because we're still dealing with a lot of issues and inquiries. If nothing happens, just remind us with a private message or something. Mods will be able to get their modship back :)

[color=indigo]Well said. Until this most recent incident, I didn't know how close everyone really was... ...but when this happened, I had so many people talking to me and asking what was going on. I think that we have something really special here...and we have to do our best to protect it at all costs. I was actually surprised at how dedicated our members are...and how the boards has become a big part of their day. After this incident, I definitely feel humbled...and I think Adam and other staff do too. We have received so much support that it really made us determined to win the battle. And here we are now :) So thanks again to everyone and remember, these are [i]your[/i] boards. I hope that our community can continue to grow and become better than ever before.[/color]

[color=blue]We will be including Custom Avatars very soon, we'll tell you when they're up. We're working on a few ideas, such as having different sized avatars available depending on post counts. So stay tuned: we'll be announcing new avatar features soon. :)[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by firemac [/i] [B] so who did really ssav otkau from the hackers, I heard kamikaze, then veggetto, so who really did it?:rolleyes: [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]Well, I think that Vegetto gave some help by way of information Kamakazi, but I'm not sure. Basically, Kuja, Kamakazi and myself were here to try and restore the boards. They were tampered and opened up by the hackers, so we cleaned them up and re-closed them. But really, once they were closed, Adam got to work on these new boards right away. If you look carefully around the boards, you may even notice a small hint regarding theOtaku's future ;)[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Final_Flash [/i] [B]So why did the boards go down? Was it really hackers? Or did Adam REALLY have a pirated board? Personally, I don't care. The boards are back - That's all that matters. But I am siding with Adam on this one; I reckon the Hackers were making that Mofo up. I'd like to hear your thoughts. [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]To answer your question, we did have security problems with hackers. Primarily Shinji and Gendo were to blame. I think that they were angry about losing their positions and rather than being mature and accepting it, they decided to try and bring down our whole community. But as you can see, in many ways, their actions have only strengthened us. Now we have a powerful new board with high level security features. So in some ways, their actions only prompted us to improve ourselves. :)[/color]

[color=blue]For those of you who haven't been reading the news lately, I thought I'd post some interesting info up here. Firstly, Sonic Team has delayed Phantasty Star Online for GAMECUBE until March of 2002 for Japan. However, it is expected that Nintendo will launch its online network in time for the release. In order to further satisfy fans, Sonic Team will be including [i]two[/i] new character classes in the game. :) In addition, Sonic Team has revealed that it will announce an as yet secret GAMECUBE title at Space World... [IMG]http://cubemedia.ign.com/media/news/image/cube/secretsega.jpg[/IMG] The above is a blurred shot of the new title. The aspect ratio doesn't fit the wider GBA screen, so it's expected that the game is for GameCube. What could it be? NiGHTS 2? Sonic Adventure 3? What do you guys hope it is? :)[/color]

[color=indigo]There are rumors of Dragon Warrior VIII or some kind of spin off making it to GameCube. It'll be interesting to see what happens there.[/color]

[color=indigo]Yeah, I think that the lesson here is that [i]nobody[/i] can take down a community which was as close as ours. I also want to give a thanks to Kuja and Kamakazi for helping me out when OtakuBoards.com Ver 2.0 was being hacked. You guys should all know that if it weren't for their help, we could have had worse problems. I'm glad that everyone likes the new forums :)[/color]

[color=blue]I think that the PS2 will probably have the highest sales of any console, and the unit itself will be home to many awesome games no doubt. I think that the original PlayStation helped to open up the industry. And I think that the introduction of three major game machines could give the industry as a whole another big boost. Either that, or a major collapse lol. So let's hope for the former. :)[/color]