There are so many happenings this week. We have a marathon, return of user video categories, user contributions galore and more.

Announcements

- HaloWars Marathon is our first live marathon for the year. The marathon will be held on February 27th at 4:00pm PT until whenever. The marathon will show the gameplay and two GameSpotters will receive a copy of the game early to participate with staff members on the show. Mark your calendars to see the game in action days prior to the release.

- GameSpot is also a part of Youtube and Twitter. If you want to stay connected outside the gamespot.com website, the youtube channel features the recent interviews, features and video reviews. Stop by our GameSpot channel to subscribe, rate and add your favorite videos to watch at a later time. Twitter works a tad differently in the sense that only a couple of the most recent content for the day is mentioned on the GameSpot Twitter. If you're a fan of GameSpot UK you can also follow them as well! I have yet to pester GS AU about getting a twitter going for you Aussies.

- User Video categories have returned. Make sure your user videos have the right category to be filtered properly in the user video listings.

Member Spotlight

arcticcop

arcticcop reminds us of the retro days. He may class himself as a middle school gamer, but we think he's still old school if he played some ofthe older generation platforms. Stop by to read his blog entitled, An old school gamers journey....or an older new school? Middle school gamer?

Honorable mention: wonderboy_46 is a very brave soul because he had the courage to admit that he is a Street Fighter series newb.

User Reviews

- Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror (PC) by SuperMooseman
- Bully: Scholarship Edition (360) by bacchus2
- Chrono Trigger (DS) by PAJ89
- Clive Barker's Jericho (360) by celtic1962
- Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS) by Platyphyllum
- Resistance 2 (PS3) by wonderboy_46

Featured Videos

- Civ: Revolution Nuke by white_sox
- Brief Street Fighter IV Video Review by M3RC3tHeShOoTeR

Honorable mention: Video Blog Feb 2009 by DouglasBuffone

Randomness teh Awesome

- US vs Canadian Kit Kats blog post by johnsteed7
- Game collection pictures by smbius
- DSaholic images by soulreavercross

Union Activity

- The Resident Evil Union has been excited about the upcoming release of Resident Evil 5. Stop by their forum to dive into discussion about the game series across many platforms.

Tip of the Week

Unions that do not update their front pages with news are subject to be dismissed by potential members. When a newcomer comes across a Union through GameSpot featured listing on the Community page, Forums directory page or another website referral they will notice that the front page not being updated. This will cause a lurker to not even check into the Union any further. I often come across Unions that have no bulletin activity only to find that they are constantly discussing some interesting topics in the Union board.

Consider the following if you are a leader or officer of a Union.

1) You don't understand how the bulletin system works? That is quite alright. You do not have to have daily news. Consider making a weekly, monthly or quarterly update to your front Union page with a bulletin about the cool topics the members have made or the union's topic. For instance, if your Union is about the Halo series, why not post a quarterly what's up with the Halo community post of relevant news? Some Unions like to also post the top threads worth reading.

2) Some leaders become very concerned with how many people are officers and they limit their pool of users willing to keep the Union updated with fresh content. Consider going through your member list to find individuals that are trustworthy veteran members of your Union. If they are active enough they may want to take on keeping your front Union page up to date. Why not promote them from recruit to officer?

3) The Union level bug is a constant problem for you all, we know this. However, that doesn't mean you can't keep your Union up to date and recruit for new members in the Union recruitment forum.

4) If you come across a union that was featured on the community page and has not been updated in a while, drop me a PM with the subject titled 'inactive featured union'. I'll have the union removed from being featured. We want to make sure the active Unions are being displayed so you can definitely help out by reporting the inactive ones.I would say if the front page of the Union has not been updated in a year, it shouldn't be featured.

5) Be sure to post your Union activity for the chance of being mentioned in the weekly report.

Until next week!

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