Need More Input

I'm not getting enough feedback about the website from people. One of the main purposes of these journal posts is to tell you what's going on at GDNet, hear back from you on the matter, and maybe spark some new thoughts on things we could be doing to help you. GDNet isn't about us, the staff, it's about you, the community. We are here to serve you and by serving you we get more traffic and are served in turn.

I think one of the main things behind lack of input in any situation is lack of tangible results. I know a lot of you in the past have offered up suggestions only to see them seemingly passed by or accepted but not apparently acted upon. Unfortunately the majority of suggestions are technical in nature with regard to the site, and superpig is really the only person we have doing that stuff, and he's shouldering a lot of things already thanks to schoolwork.

Are you all really so happy with the site that there's nothing you'd like to see changed or added or removed? I think not. I'm sorry if you feel like you're just repeating yourself (again, possibly) but get in touch with me somehow if not here and let me know what you're thinking in regards to GDNet. Persistence is key. I promise not to yell at you to shut up for telling me the umpteenth time that your request has seemingly gone unnoticed.

Anyways, spread the message to others you talk to from the community who you know don't come around here to my journal often, if at all. Otherwise GDNet will slowly evolve into what 5 people (the ops team) happen to think is best. I'm not about to believe that I know what's best for all of you.

Event Coverage Delays

It's hard managing the site and still keeping up with my original job as Staff Writer. Attending conferences is still as fun as it was 6 years ago, but writing up summaries after the fact has gotten harder and harder. I'm too busy networking and hanging out with people I only see at these events to write while I'm at the conference, and then upon returning home I'm barraged by emails and tasks I couldn't complete while I was away. My ION coverage was completely scrapped this year, and I'd hate to see that happen to MIGS and VGXPO.

Anyways another bump in the road has come about as I'm flying out today to attend my grandmother's funeral in Wisconsin and won't be back until this weekend. I'm bringing material with me though so hopefully I'll be able to do some writing... after I review/copy-edit 5 articles that need to be scheduled for publishing *sigh* But I can't really complain about that. The articles streaming in have mainly been of wonderful quality.

New Resources

• Designing a Flexible Vertex Element System for XNA Using Attributes - This article outlines a safer and more flexible system for defining and creating vertex declarations in XNA, using several high-level C# features such as attributes and reflection to make the resulting solution elegant and concise.


• Dead Space Soundtrack Postmortem - The Music of Dead Space: Artistic Design and Technical Implementation by Don Veca, Audio Director, EA Redwood Shores Studio

New Events

The events calendar needs an overhaul. Next week I'll have a slew of new events posted as I go through all our past posted events and look for updated information on them for the coming year.