Gaming News 2010

Blizzard has recanted their position on using RealID in their forums. For those who don't know or didn't read the first post about it, it would've meant anyone who posts on their new fora would be revealing their real name to the world. See this post for the official announcement.

It looks like Blizzard is now planning to relieve those who post on their forums of their privacy. Read more about how they're using their "optional" RealID for their Forums.

Happy Independence Day to the United States of America!

I've added a new review on Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Enjoy!

The Valar Guild Games Site v5.0 is now up! The first thing you might notice is that I just said "Site" and not "Page." Yeah, not a big deal, but given how much is actually on this "Page" I thought it was time to start calling it a "Site" :} So, what makes this version 5.0? The same thing that makes any piece of software jump to the next full version: I made some major changes :} One of the biggest results you will probably notice because of this is that the Games Site has a background image again. I got rid of the iframe, so nothing is in the way anymore :}

Before continuing I would note that the Games Site is now best viewable in IE8 or equivalent/higher browsers with CSS3 and javascript enabled.

Other features (likely not comprehensive):

• All pages now have headers, with subheaders when appropriate.
• The Valar Guild shield, once used as a link to the front page (valarguild.org) has been replaced by a series of links in the upper right-hand corner of the page: Home, Community, Tolkien, and Gaming. The first of course leads to the front page. Community and Tolkien lead to the primary pages for those parts of the page: the framed Guild News page and the Tolkien Site front page, respectively. "Gaming" is not actually a link, but up there for completeness, and highlighted to show that's where you are :}
• The menu now starts open instead of closed (if people prefer it the other way, I can be convinced to change it back).
• A new menu section titled "Other Gaming" has been added for gaming pages for which we don't have an official guild branch, or which are old, such as the Diablo pages. As you can see, there are sections for all three Diablo games and both Starcraft games right now. Expansions and any mods, i.e. the Middle-Earth mod, are grouped with the original game.
• The links pages "Diablo and His Kin," Files of the Xel'Naga," "Sites Through the Palantir," and "Azeroth and Surrounding Realms" have been officially retired. They served their purpose well at the time, but without them, I have the option of adding better or different ways to group links in the future. The Diablo and Starcraft links specifically can be seen under their respective menus in Other Gaming. A master list of all links can be seen under "Misc Gaming" in Other Gaming.
• Much work has gone into making the entire Games Site more uniform visually while providing for easier expandibility and adaptibility (and hopefuly a moderate amount of awesomeness :})
• Many old pages' layout changed greatly. The following pages were adapted to the layout of the Games Site: Murezor's Starcraft/Broodwar page was merged/turned into a Starcraft Tips Page; the D1 ME mod uniques page and the D2 ME mod Uniques and Sets pages were adapted to the layout and given internal navigation links for easier viewing; The D2 Sets and Uniques were also updated; Sirian's "What Game Are You Playing" paper; Diablo 2 Experiences was pulled out of the Reviews page and merged back into Diablo 2; Diablo Tips and Diablo Shrines pages.
• Attempts were made to render the old news pages readable while imposing the new Games Site layout on them. General rule is: the older the news file, the more likely you are to need to highlight portions to read it. I converted the old txt files from version 3 of the Games Page into html for easier forward compatibility (the php script I used to display them turned them into html for display anyway), but I didn't touch the older html files from the earlier Games Page versions. What can I say, I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to news files :}
• Member names listed on the Member Games table now link to their information on the Members Page. Same with member names on the Player tables for WoW and LotRO. Character names on those tables link to their profile in the WoW Armory/MyLotRO.
• The Member Games page has internal navigation to sort players by game as well as the menu. Also, all player gaming tables will now tell you the number of members playing and how many games, how many characters, or which game, as appropriate. Mousing over table rows highlights that row and increases font size for easier viewing.
• More functionality added for the news page, more likely coming soon. Reviews Page has the ability to show images now. Blame or thank Arathorn for that, as is your wont, as I had to provide the ability in order to convert his review to the new Games Site format :}
• The LotRO Crit Items are back up, and fully updated. Thanks to Varda, Pippin, and Nimrodel for that (as well as anyone else who helped). Thanks to Melkor for making the original attempt with the old crit items :}
• Some pages are preserved outside the layout of the Games Site due to historical value. The original Valar Guild Tourney Page remains one of these. This and a few others can be found in "Archives" under Misc.
• For those particularly interested in any type of history, or particularly bored, I've made available a rough chronology of the Games Page under my care. This can also be found under "Archives."

All the kinks should be ironed out, but if you catch something that doesn't look quite right, just let me know.

I hope you all enjoy the new Games Site :}

Real soon (by the weekend if all goes as planned), I'll be updating the Games Page. When I do that, the index will redirect to the guild front page (valarguild.org) until I'm done. The Games Page will be back as soon as the updates are complete, and hopefully the Games Page will be a little bit more awesome :}

Information updates made to LotRO and WoW player tables as well as Member Games table.

Happy Easter!

I've made adjustments to the News Page, as you will hopefully notice. Links will now work in the Gaming News, there will now be actual links instead of URLs as text. All 2010 Gaming News has been retroactively updated, but 2009 will not be. Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some slight adjustments to the News display. Text shouldn't hang off the bottom of the text square anymore.

After a bit of work and tidying, the Reviews page is back. Enjoy reading them :}

Fixed a couple of links I noticed weren't quite working right :}

Happy New Year!

If you're reading this, it is now 2010 Valar Standard Time, which is equal to the current US East Coast time. It means that the automatic transition occured automatically, and I'll never have to change the link manually again :}