News - ModBlog

18 comments by stenchy on Jul 8th, 2008 digg this super bookmark

We've managed to work through all the technical kinks to ensure we have a (mostly) hassle-free first show. The date has been set and our first live show will air Sunday, July 13th at 12 pm PST (GMT -7). If all you want to do is listen then you don't need to do a thing - it's all streamed through your browser. If, however, you want to participate then you'll have to do a couple of things:

• sign up for a www.ustream.tv account to participate in chat
• download Skype and have a mic to be able to call in

Of course, these aren't mandatory. If you want to be able to participate in the show and interact with the people in chat its a good idea to have a ustream account at least. This will be a good opportunity to connect with like-minded people within the community to talk all about mods and modding. See you there!

Want to know when to tune in? Here's a handy conversion for you:

• Sunday July 13th, 19.00 GMT (UTC)
• Sunday July 13th, 12:00 PDT (UTC-0700)
• Sunday July 13th, 14.00 CDT (UTC-0500)
• Sunday July 13th, 15.00 EDT (UTC-0400)
• Sunday July 13th, 20.00 BST (UTC+0100)
• Sunday July 13th, 21.00 CET (UTC+0200)
• Sunday July 13th, 22.00 EET (UTC+0300)
• Monday July 14th, 03.00 WST (UTC+0800)
• Monday July 14th, 04.00 CST (UTC+0900)
• Monday July 14th, 05.00 EST (UTC+1000)

16 comments by stenchy on Jun 23rd, 2008 digg this super bookmark

First off, I just want to say I screwed up. We lost audio for the part of Modcast 7 and it was mostly down to me. I blame the rest on Matt's constant ranting putting me to sleep. Instead of re-recording, we are going to re-purpose the developer interviews into some of the new, improved features we have planned.

While the Modcasts were great, they lack any sort of community interaction and while we tried doing  community questions, they still didn't offer enough audience interaction. After putting down a healthy handful of recorded episodes, both Dave and I think the Modcast would benefit from going live. It will offer more audience interaction (listener calls, real-time chat) and would be a great gathering for the site's who's who of community members every couple of weeks. The downside is developer interviews will not happen every episode, as time zones and scheduling conflicts may make many of them impossible. Instead we will be re-purposing the interviews into another feature. The Modcast will still be the best place for mod talk of all kinds. People will be able to call in with Skype and talk about their project if they want or ask some of their questions directly to any guests we have.

The other thing we want to put out is more video content. We know you guys are appreciating the recent Noesis video features and we're working with them to put out even more stuff. We've got a few more ideas for even more in-depth video content and we're still ironing some kinks out on the best way to put it all together but when it comes, I'm sure you guys will love it.

We'd also like to get more written features out there, and while I'd love to compose more reviews and previews, organizing a lot of this stuff monopolizes my time. If there's any writers out there who would love to come onto the staff and write some reviews or preview mods before anyone else. Send some writing samples my way.

That's all for now, stay tuned.

19 comments by INtense! on Jun 21st, 2008 digg this super bookmark

The latest update to to ModDB removes the ID numbers in all the urls, resulting in somewhat cleaner and less lengthy links. "But what happens to all my old links I've posted across all the forums I troll to promote my mod?", you may ask. Don't fret, a script has been put in place to redirect any old links to the new standard. Providing everything goes as planned there should be no hiccups, cross your fingers people.

That is all, please resume your normally scheduled programming and let us know if you encounter any bugs.

37 comments by INtense! on Jun 10th, 2008 digg this super bookmark

Web videos rock, they really do - who wants to download a clip and then watch it, I don't - I'm about as patient as a monkey with a banana in its mouth. But the quickness of web videos (generally) comes at a price... quality. One only has to spend a few minutes watching pixels the size of a small city on YouTube and other sites to realize we still have a long way to go before web video is as refreshing as a cold beer (warm for the crazy poms) on a Friday night and as satisfying as pwning your friends.

Mod DB video quality just jumped up a notch (still a long way off perfect and NOT HD) - because we now use the H.264 codec (used to encode HD video) instead of the dated H.263 codec (used by Youtube and others). Check out the comparision below if you don't believe me (if you cannot see the second video, make sure you have upgraded to the latest Flash Player):

OLD H.263 Quality

New H.264 Quality

Same Videos Side-by-Side (H.263 & H.264)

Over the coming weeks all videos will be encoded into H.264 format and we will continue to push the quality up as bandwidth becomes more plentiful.

The next change is the removal of the karma system (because it simply didn't work) and its replacement with a new levelling system. The leveling system discussed here works much like it does in WoW and other games. Grind er stay active on the site, contribute tutorials, reviews, videos, news etc and you will gain activity points. Post crap and you will LOSE activity points. As you gain activity points your level goes up. Simple! Each level has a custom random title which has something to do with the site, mods and game development. You can view your level in your profile which you can access by clicking your username in the top left corner (see my profile). A demo image is provided below:

7 comments by Henley on Jun 4th, 2008 digg this super bookmark

So if you have ever had the misfortune opportunity to play me online - you'll know I love mods and pretty much play every new title I can get my mitts on. That's why I established ModDB TV... I want you and others to see mods in their full in-game action packed glory and hopefully boost the number of gamers playing mods in the process. It's a fun job and that's why I've decided to come up with new video features showcasing indie game titles and the teams behind them. Read on for the details - subscribe to ModDB TV and expect more videos to be coming down your intertubes over the coming months.

Spotlight

The spotlight has been around for 2 months now (check out the latest clip below) and its aim is to show off raw un-edited in-game footage from all mods and indie games released in the past month. It includes little snippets of info like release dates and whatnot, chucked in for good measure and a link to the released titles so you can pick what looks good to you and get playing. We also pick our fav mod of the month for the "staff selection" award (something to fight for!)

Mod teams - just remember getting onto the spotlight doesn't happen automatically, we require you to post polished news about your mods release on the site as well as the files so we can find and get playing your creation (contact us re: previews).

Classic Mods (coming soon)

So the spotlight is all about mods at the moment, what about mods of yesteryear? The Classic Mods section is going to go for a stroll down memory lane and dig up titles on classic games like Wolf 3D, Doom, Quake, Half Life, UT etc that helped modding become what it is today. Every episode will feature a small review and a small selection of footage from the best mods on one game engine. So for example one episode will feature Wolf 3D and show only the best mods available through ModDB. Voiced by our Executive Editor, Stenchy (the guy with the smooth Canadian accent ED) you can bet the videos will be informative yet witty to capture your attention and to maybe give you enough incentive to play something older for once!

Sneak Peak (coming soon)

One of the great things about being a staff member here at ModDB is that we get to play the mods before they are released and sometimes even help out in creating the mods you guys play today! Which brings another great episodic video to light the Sneak Peak.

This video feature aims to mix in footage of the mod, with footage from one of the developers whom we interview via a webcam setup. We want to answer the nagging questions you have about the upcoming mod before its release and also introduce you to the talented devs behind the title. This will normally be out before the teams release the mod or the major updates to give you all a taste of what is going to come!

Behind the Scenes (coming soon)

This will be all about documenting mod experiences and trials during the process of creation. Sitting down to an interview with Stenchy and myself we will go through your documents to help the audience of ModDB get behind the scenes of there favorite mods and understand just how they came to be from concept art and ideas on paper to an actual game.

There will always be more on the way this is just a beginning, so stay tuned!