Hey guys,

As some of you know, I’m the founder, webmaster, graphic designer, and guest shoutcaster over at QuakeLive.tv. Quake Live TV runs very much like a business, but we’re all volunteers and our costs are paid for by donations (thanks to an awesome, supportive community).

So what is Quake Live TV? Well, it’s an organization that broadcasts live, competitive video game matches with some of the top professionals. While a lot of our coverage is of community-run events, a lot of our coverage is of the professionals competing in high-level tournaments. We’ve covered over 1,000 competitive matches in our one and half years of operation, with some of our more popular live broadcasts reaching thousands and thousands of live spectators simultaneously. In the past year, we’ve had over 400,000 visitors on our website.

To sum it up: we’re the #1 broadcasting organization in North America Quake Live coverage, and we’re slowly becoming one of the more reputable names in eSports.

While some people scoff at the idea of playing video games professionally, some do pretty well. For example, Anton "Cooller" Singov (who is coming to QuakeCon) has made more than $130,000 in his career. Sure, he’s not going to be able to retire on winnings from professional gaming, but it’s still a good chuck of cash. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Singov

For those of you that are curious as to what competitive gaming is all about, I wrote a four-page magazine article that details the ins-and-outs of the scene.

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Back to the big news:
Quake Live TV is going to be the exclusive broadcaster of QuakeCon 2010.

So, what is QuakeCon? What does this mean?

Here’s a snippet of the Press Release:

Quake Live TV, a community-run broadcasting organization, is set to provide exclusive video coverage of QuakeCon 2010. QuakeCon, the largest LAN party in North America, is hosted annually in Dallas, TX and is home to the Intel® QUAKE LIVE® Masters Championship. Known as one of the most prestigious gaming tournaments worldwide, this year boasts a prize pool of over $50,000. After three years of main-stage action QUAKE LIVE® remains a top choice for competitive gamers.

Check out the rest of the press release on GamesIndustry.biz. I actually wrote the majority of the press release.

Essentially, QuakeCon is a big deal. Biggest LAN in North America, biggest free LAN in the world, and it hosts thousands of gamers at the event with tens of thousands tuning into the coverage from around the world.

My company is going to be that coverage.

I’m really happy to go there and be working alongside my fellow founders Steve "GreasedScotsman" Huff and Ben "FishStix" Goldhaber. These guys are legit. Also along with our promotion to the official coverage team means we get comped rooms, VIP passes, interviews with Bethesda and id Software execs, and a lot more really cool things.

In fact, if anyone has any questions for id Software, Bethesda Game Studios, Splash Damage, Respawn Entertainment (the founders of Infinity Ward, the guys who made call of Duty), Arkane Studios, or any of the pro gamers… let me know!

Anyway, I’m super excited about this and just wanted to share it. Hopefully you guys tune and I have your support!

Matt "Mattc0m" Richards
www.quakelive.tv

View my Game of the Year selections for 2008. A bit late, yes, I know… but better late than never!

Watch as Fable 2, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Sins of a Solar Empire, Call of Duty: World at War, and many other top caliber games compete for one of the top 10 spots on this year’s list!

Please give me your comments and feedback on my selections.

Thanks!

I feel like I’ve gotten behind in my game reviews. I’m going to spend this week doing one review per day. These will be mini-reviews, mind you, with the length of 3-5 paragraphs, a few scattered screenshots, and such.

Here’s the schedule:

I fully except not to get all the reviews on time. However, I’ll do my best to keep within this time table.

I’m also playing through Crysis: Warhead, Need for Speed Undercover, Far Cry 2, the Penny Arcade game, and Burnout Paradise.

I also could write a review on Assassin’s Creed, World in Conflict, The Witcher, Frontlines: Fuels of War, and others.but I’ll put those off, for now. Maybe next week? Who knows!

At the end of the week, I also hope to post my 2008 Game of the Year picks.

I’m a pretty big fan of Oblivion. I loved Morrowind, and Oblivion seemed to be a pretty big improvement. The more I play Oblivion, though, the more I see areas in which I’d love to see improved. Graphics are nice, but what about the style? Sound is good, but is lacking in voice acting. Do you agree? Read this article on areas I think could use some improvement, and I’d love to see in other games as well as the next Elder Scrolls game.
Read the rest of this entry »

In Part 2, we look into Google’s organizational tools for any professional or personal projects you are working on. From their online spreadsheets and documents, to calendar, and more, we go over their uses and features that are of much benefit to you.

As always, the best way to learn about Google is to explore yourself. The second best way is to read this guide!

Personal & Professional Organizational Tools

Read the rest of this entry »