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Wikia launches do-it-yourself online game mag
How many times have you read a video game magazine or web site and thought, "I could write better than that." Oh yeah, tough guy? You think it's easy writing this stuff? Well, now is your chance to prove it.Launched Tuesday, Gaming.wikia is part of a group of "open-source magazines" that "allow people to blog, rate content and freely contribute news and information on topics they are passionate about," according to the press release. In other words, it's the collaborative power of Wikipedia mixed with the democratic organization of Digg.Or maybe not. When we loaded up the site, the top story of the moment was "Motorstorm is Awesome," which included the cogent commentary "I love racing games, but this is just FREAKING AWESOME!" Is this supposed to be an online magazine or a glorified message board?The problem with letting everyone contribute is that you have to let everyone contribute. Without a large, well-organized community to moderate out the crap, an open-source project like this can go from controlled chaos to just plain chaos rather quickly. If Gaming.wikia can attract this sort of self-policing community, more power to them. If not, there are plenty of satisfactory sources for game news out there already. Like the fine, closed-source site you're reading right now, for instance.[Via Game|Life]
On TextMate extras
Like me, there are probably a lot of fresh new TextMate users out there in the audience thanks at least in part to MacHeist, so I thought it would be pertinent to point out a few helpful resources Allan Odgaard (TM's developer) maintains at macromates.com. Of course the searchable mailing list and IRC channel are handy for getting your discussion on, over which TM user Brett Terpstra just shared a WordPress templating bundle he's created - quite possibly a good addition to that theming workflow we just blogged. Another powerful resource is the TextMate wiki, which houses a plethora of learning tools and resources such as a bundle repository if you're looking for some features or a language not included by default, as well as an RSS feed for bundle changes. Of course, what text app would be complete without user submitted themes? Last on my resource roundup (but by no means the end of what's available) are a few TextMate plugins, including a WebMate plugin that turns TM's Web Preview into a full-fledged WYSIWYG HTML editor based on WebKit. There's a lot more from where all this came from, so dive in or simply get your feet wet with this swiss army knife of text editors.
Twitter widgets, plugins and scripts - oh my!
I seem to be going gaga over web services lately. After dropping my .Mac personal blog for Vox, Twitter is another new-ish service that has also weaseled its way into my daily activities (they launched this past summer). While there are a few explanations for what Twitter really is and does, I like to think of it as a 'status message for your life.' At Twitter's site you can enter a few words or a sentence or two about what you're up to (much like the status message in your chat app), and receive updates when your friends change their status. But it doesn't have to stay at the site. You can embed your Twitter updates in your blog and use them as your Adium status. Twitter lets you receive updates on your phone or even over IM, and you can use both of those to send your own updates back to Twitter. It might sound silly before you actually try it out, but it can easily become addicting if you let yourself surrender to the fun and sign up. If you're getting hooked like me, some users have started a Twitter Fan Wiki to round up all the fun tools that are coming out of Twitter's quickly growing community. While there is stuff here for everything from Windows Smartphones to WordPress widgets and even Ruby scripts, there are some great Mac-centric tools that I really like. The first is the Adium plugin I already mentioned, which lets you embed your Twitter message as your available/away status in Adium. If you want to be able to use Twitter for both an away and an available message, be sure to give them different names, like 'Twitter Away / Twitter Available.' The next two are Dashboard widgets, of course. Twitgit allows you to see a list of your friends' status and enter your own, while Twidget is a straight-up box that simply lets you enter a status. Finally, there's Celly, which seems to do nothing more than pull down random Twitter status messages from across the public channel.With these tools in your belt, you should be able to spend a lot less time when letting people know what you're spending your time on. Isn't redundant technology grand?
WikiPod brings (some of) Wikipedia to your iPod
Being the highly edumicated folks we are, we prefer to lug a complete set of the Encyclopedia Britannica in a cart wherever we go, but we suppose the proletariat might prefer something a bit more convenient. For them there's this new "WikiPod" script from Matt Swann that pulls down a wiki page, along with all of the pages it links to -- and all the pages they link to and so forth -- until it hits the maximum megabytes you specify, or bumps up against Apple's 1000 note limit for the iPod. Of course, if you've got an older iPod, you could always run Encyclopedia on iPod Linux, or you could just bust out your phone and utilize one of the numerous mobile Wiki solutions, but whatevs. We figure the perfect solution to all this would be a Linux-based Apple iPod phone, but we suppose that might be asking a lot.
Wii ranks high on Wiki listing
Over at the WikiCharts Top 100 for the month of August, Nintendo's Wii is ranked number 13. Not too bad for the console, managing to be beaten out by only two sexual phrases (this is the internet, after all). With a 27,750 views-a-day average, the Wikipedia entry for the Wii could stand to do better. Maybe we should seek the aid of one Stephen Colbert? [Thanks Andrew Yoon!]
OLPC now called the 2B1, still The Children's Machine
There's great news afoot in the world of Nicholas Negroponte, and his favorite little toy-green (or yellow, or orange, etc.) laptop: it's now apparently called the 2B1. This comes after the named CM1, which was preceded by the One Laptop Per Child (now the name of the organization), which was preceded by the $100(ish) Laptop. Of course, given that news of this comes from the ultra-reliable technology known as a wiki, it's totally possible that this is just a prank, or yet another baby step on the road to production. Either way, Engadget is going to be drawing up some fake Ministry of Education stationary any day now so that we can get our hands on a million of these things.[Via OLPC News]
More maps and modes for your Sin Episodes
Ritual Entertainment is about to release four extra maps and a new gameplay mode for Sin Episodes, at no extra charge for auto-download via Steam (the "no charge" bit will no doubt make many console owners jealous). The four new maps will be dedicated to the new mode called "Arena"--which is a single player experience akin to many games' survival modes--and will be designed around typically generic first person shooter situations like an office, a turbine room and a processing plant. Shawn, the lead game designer of Sin lays it down on his blog; "It's an infinitely repayable single player mode where you continually try and beat your high score". Our translation: "shoot loads of people and then obsess over the number of enemies you shot in the groin".Other bits mentioned on Shawn's blog include a comprehensive stat tracking system, enabling yourself and other players to compare their groinshot score, the mention of the impending release of a Software Development Kit (SDK) and a Sin development Wiki, and absolutely no news about when Episode 2 is going to hit Steam; Shawn got a little excited and forgot to give us any information beyond saying that he'd "be on the look out for some Episode 2 media in the near future" if he was you. We want dates dammit![Via EuroGamer]
First MMORPG to hit the DS
Have you guys ever heard of this game called Maplestory? Apparently, clever as they are, developers Wizet have you in NO WAY acquiring syrup to generously cover shortstacks of buttermilk pancakes so that you may fill your body and soul with their warm, fluffy substance. As much of a crime as that is, their focus, which is a 2D side-scrolling MMORPG, isn't too disappointing in contrast according to some. Actually, if the grapevine is to be believed, it's a downright enjoyable experience more so than consuming pancakes (crazy, I know). If you're curious, you could just download it and find out for yourself or have a gander at the rather robust Wiki for some more information. [Thanks Zack McClelland and Joey!]
Timeline of Macintosh computers
This is officially cool, mostly because I say so. Wikipedia has a graphic that charts the timeline of Macintosh computers which shows the time length that particular models were (currently are) in production. The coolest part is that you can click on a model name, and it takes you to that Mac's Wikipedia entry.
Wikipedia gaming collaborations: spread your knowledge
Ever worry that all your knowledge of gaming history and minutiae is going to waste in the dusty recesses of your brain? Itching to flex your research, copywriting or editorial skills? If so, there's a Wikipedia project which might tickle your fancy.The "Gaming Collaboration of the Week" is an endeavour to "improve the quality of Wikipedia's computer and video game articles through widespread cooperative editing"--there are plenty of articles that need some attention, so the project should continue for some time. This week's subject is Bioforge; can you help?[Via AFK Gamer]
Warcraft lore
In my daily search for WoW material for all of you, I stumbled across one of the ultimate stores of lore material! It appears that dedicated warcraft lore fans have gone to extreme lengths to give us this great reference. You can find everything in there, from the Dalaran mages to the Draenei. I would highly recommend taking a gander through it all, I have learned a ton just clicking on a few links. The wiki even houses material about the upcoming expansion, including the rumors, so comb through and see what you can find - I have started to firm up my opinion based on info in the wiki! If I were a bettin man, I would look for the race to be Draenei for sure...
Wikitosh!
Readers who have been paying attention might notice that there are certain topics that I gravitate to; one of them being wikis. They speak to me.Wikitosh! is the newest wiki on the Mac scene, and I think it has the best name of any I have heard of. At the moment it doesn't have that much content, but as we know wikis grow as their audiences expand, so I hope this post can help Wikitosh on its way.
