New features have been added, activity has been up (especially with the new experience system), and forums previously dominated by tumbleweeds have been seeing some action.
All in all, it looks like the holiday halt has finally passed us by.
And now, onto the spotlight.
The Forums
First off, I'd like to point out dorgeismydog, who made two sister threads, Our Azmodan, and Our Belial. Basically, these two threads are dedicated to the two evils we've yet to eviscerate. In them, dorge asks what we think we'll be getting for them, and posts up various pictures of how people have interpreted them. Thus far, Azmodan has seen much more discussion that Belia, but I'm sure you can change that. Go discuss!
Next up, is a discussion on Torchlight builds, a game that has recently fallen out of interest. Umpa65 posted this thread up, hoping to get people to post up some of their most interesting builds. He started off with a build he calls the "Fire Overlord", but sadly, no other builds have been posted. So, if you play torchlight and want to share your build, get in there and post.
Finally, is a thread about damage types by Lt. Venom. Basically, he asks what your favorite damage type is. Seems a lot of people are shooting for cold, since it definitely had the most useful effect tied in with it (slowing enemies). Personally, I'm all about lightning. Anywho, if you want to talk about which damage type was your favorite, or which you used most, check that thread out.
Forum Changes
What a great month, seriously, what a great month for changes.
New version of Vbulliten early in the year, and now we've got two more changes.
First off, was the Experience System. This system is pretty nifty, it takes nearly everything you can do on the forums, from adding pictures to albums, to rating threads, and calculates them together to give you a level.
Next, was the Diablo Tools section. This allows you to map out builds you want to try out, or to maximize damage potential. I've already blown away several hours tinkering with it, and suggest you do the same. It's definitely my favorite feature on this forum. This tool was brought to us by Superceb.
Fan Creations
As I mentioned at the beginning of this, the fan art and fan fiction forums have seen a lot more action than usual lately, hopefully this trend continues.
Seth continues work on The Veiling, and also gave us an interesting piece by the name of Walter.
Nektu has written out a story called The Visitor, while Guasti is still churning out sections for his story, Jonathan.
For fan art, we've got a piece by Metal', a piece by Archie, and a piece by Tepes.
The Wiki
Right now, it seems that most effort is being put into the Eastern Sun section of the wiki. A new infobox is in the works, and any feedback on it would be greatly appreciated by the wiki team.
Also concerning the infobox, is the info that goes into said infobox. Namely, the skills. If you've got some spare time, and knowledge of ES, do the wiki a favor and chip away at the massive amount of skills that need to be completed.
Blues Not In The News
The first blue post I wanted to draw attention to was this one, in which Bashiok explained why guns would be out of place in the Diablo universe.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Guns are decidedly scientific, and the Diablo world is decidedly magic (with a lot of impaling people on pikes). Not that guns and magic can't mix, but when they do it becomes something entirely different. So I don't think it's an issue of guns not being fun or just not working, it's nothing like that. It's simply a setting and tone issue, and guns would very certainly change it.
The second, is a quick update on how many people are working on Diablo III, the current number is somewhere near 70, and still growing.
Also, on a sidenote, I'm sticking with the dark red for the spotlights, it seems to cause less retinal hemorrhaging than that ungodly green.
If anyone has suggestions for a colour next month, throw em' down and I might choose yours.
But anywho, there's this month in a nutshell. Hope everyone had a good one.
He's just kidding people. He means the wiki is his favorite feature
PhrozenDragon is my favorite feature of the forum, ^_^.
Shh... We're in public
I agree with most that Orange would probably be the best color for the Spotlight.
On a side note, I finally made it into the Spotlight! Wooot!!
I know, right?
Damn admins, tricking us into activity...
Thank yeh, it's even more impressive because I often leave writing these till' hours before posting them. I pick out articles n' such before, but the writing is all procrastinated till' the last minute.
<3 my work ethic.
... Hurm, might try that.
Or that.
I haven't read your story yet, but I did read the one that Seth wrote (Walter). It's actually like... really good. Left me wondering what happened next (it ends abruptly, and is really open ended, it was a fantastic way to end it, in my opinion), and actually left an emotional impact on me. Was very impressed overall with it.
Seconded.
And your welcome Archie and Umpa, hopefully your builds thread will go over better now :D.
Also, Archie, you're making the next spotlight. Got a thread of yours picked out already.
That makes me sad.
This is starting to sound creepy. What am I, some kind of tool?