iDrama
Well, here we go again; a few days ago a staff member quit because blah blah blah freedom of speech blah blah blah I don’t play the game anymore blah blah blah so F--- the world blah blah blah f--- HG blah blah blah everythingsux okthxbye!
Are you serious?
Freedom of Speech is being able to express your ideas and opinions. Media professionalism, which staff requires, means you have to do that without dropping stuff like the f-bomb, checking your sources, and making sure you know both sides of the story, or at least did you best at trying to (nothing much else you can do when one side says “no comment.”). Yeah, it may be stereotypical for some to say, “but, dropping stuff like the f-bomb is part of popular gaming culture!” But it’s not the culture at HG, and we’re not about to start dropping f-bombs all over our site, so let’s just leave it at that.
Lastly, there’s no obligation for staff to stay staff. If a staffer have stopped playing games for good and want to shed his/her duties at HG, then be responsible and hand off those duties to someone who can take over, and then bid farewell. Don’t be immature and flame out in the forums in spectacular fashion.
HG Podcast #1: The Pilot Episode
About a week ago, HG staffers Elpea & Atzy, along with show guest Cheesewiz (HG Seraph from WICH), recorded the first HG podcast. This was intended to be a test of our capabilities and logistics (how to record from Skype, how to do it when your guests span two hemispheres, etc.), and was never intended to be released. However, after getting a lot of positive feedback and learning a lot of lessons, we were encouraged to release the very first episode.
We’re working on future episodes (in fact we finished recording the second one today, but there’s still a lot of editing to do), and we would like to hear from you on what you like and don’t like—as well as ideas and suggestions for upcoming podcasts. Comments welcome here :)
So, with no further ado, here’s HG Podcast #1: The Pilot Episode (MP3, 19MB):
Show Outline:- What is World in Conflict?
- What’s going on at World in Conflict Heaven right now
- Multiplayer in World in Conflict
- Age of Empires III Mobile – Impressions
- RTSs on Consoles
- Halo Wars
- Age of Empires’ 10th anniversary contest
- Age of Empires in our lives
Mea Culpa
Visitors to HGMain may have noticed for about a day HGMain’s font was all weired and screwed up. Some reported a font that was too small, some reported a font that was too big, etc.; in all cases it was BAD.
So what the hell happened?
I was doing a quick demo on-site at a conference to a couple of teachers about how easy it is to configure stuff on the web, and I used my test installation of the forums for the demo. After changing a few styles around we went to the control panel settings, and it was then I realized that the configuration was still set to update HG Main’s configuration, so I changed that live to the right location (the testing forums), but didn’t have a chance to fix it on HGMain until I had free time later that evening.
The reason why everything looked so bad? I put quotes into the font-name style box. The forums auto-quoted fonts with spaces in their names already, so when the change was done, it double-quoted everything, resulting in a parsing error that some browser couldn’t deal with—and subsequently caused them to revert to the default font, which is “Times New Roman” for many, and for it to ignore any size settings set by the forums in places where the size is specified along with the font name.
Oops … =S
General rudeness
So I’ve been briefed on a recent situation where a mod was flamed over e-mail, and the user’s ban term was increased as a result. So, first, attacks on anyone is frowned upon at HG. It doesn’t matter who’s doing the attacking and who’s at the end—it’s just flat out wrong. “Attack the idea, not the person,” the common saying goes.
If reading about the latest iDrama is your thing (yuck), then read on.
Our staff of volunteers are here because they like what they do, and they definitely aren’t being paid to be abused on the forums, over e-mail, or IM. They are, like you, humans and have feelings as well, a concept that is sometimes lost in heated debates/flames.
If you flame them, expect to be eventually warned or banned. If they flame you, they can expect some disciplinary action on HG. Both of which have to be proved to have taken place, with supporting evidence, of course. Everyone at HG is required to abide by the Code of Conduct . The relevant sections in this instance are quoted below:
Ad-Hominem:
Ad Hominem comments/personal attacks towards anyone – staff, forum member, or a visitor who is likely to view it on the forums – is subject to the message being deleted and action taken against the user, regardless of how pertinent or thoughtful the rest of the message might be.
Harassment:
You may not use terms or audio/visual materials referring to ethnic/national origin, ideological/religious beliefs, gender, or sexual preference in a demeaning context.
We have no tolerance for discrimination. You are in violation of this rule if the nature of your post discriminates, promotes hate, promotes violence or advocates hatred or discrimation against individuals, groups, races, cultures or organizations because of their ethnic/national origin, skin color or culture.
Derogatory Terms:
If you use any terms in an offensive context against a person, race, culture, group or organization, as determined by our moderators, you are in violation of this rule.
Please note that words carry different meanings in different cultures, and that while a word may be acceptable use in one part of the world, it may not be in another. In addition, any one can invent their own derogatory terms, unfortunately. Because of those factors, we will evaluate the context in which the term was used to determine whether a violation has occurred.
Help Wanted
Know what these icons are right away?
and several things below bothers you, typographically speaking?
Interested in joining HG staff? Please submit your answers and portfolio to zen(at)heavengames(dot)com. Prior participation in online gaming communities preferred, but not required.