Red's Ramblings v.2 » Xbox 360

ugvx.com – It just won’t die

Redsmartie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:25:23 +0000

Many of you know that I’ve been involved with ugvx.com for many years. You’ll be excused for thinking from the title of this post that its been a millstone around my neck. Far from it and I’d describe it as more of a labour of love. There is no denying though that it was in terminal decline but since I was happy to pay the hosting, I was happy for it to just ‘exist’ and be there.

I often considered what to do with the domain/site but always more pressing matters came up and again I left it to ‘exist’ but on one such occasion over a particularly large mug of coffee I pondered on why people had stopped using it and at which points along the timeline. Undoubtedly there were events such as the loss of XSN, the advent of the 360 and with it the integration of other services that tracked gamercards, achievements, Facebook, good old Usenet (particularly ugvm) and Twitter. So on comparing elements to the site to other communication mediums I was striking out elements of the site as unnecessary or done better elsewhere. It then occurred to me that the only remaining popular part of the site was the shoutbox. Being a big Twitter user I saw an opening. What is Twitter but a shoutbox on a big scale. But while there were obviously a lot of Xbox users with Twitter accounts (proven by the popularity of XboxTweet, etc) I wanted a way that I could see if anyone on my Friends List had an account. So this is where the idea of a searchable directory came from. But I still needed a way of grouping Tweets. The answer was to have a hashtag but for it to be effective I had to make it popular. That’s when I finally decided to call on @SDChown and pitch the idea. Maybe it was a bit selfish to wipe the site and create what could be considered a sandbox project but it was worth a risk. A few days of coding later and ugvx.com was launched.

Its still finding its feet. We’ve had unforeseen things such as flooding the stream with ‘AutoTweets’ of achievements and since its prompted a number of gamers to turn to Twitter they are still getting to grips with it so we are writing the rule book as we go. I quite like it like that.

Truth be known. I don’t visit the site much. I don’t need to as its doing its job. I have my Twitter clients tracking the #ugvx hashtag that the site has popularised. Either way, its nice to see something fresh rather than an old PHP Nuke site in its death throws.

Bacon sarnies

Redsmartie — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:53:16 +0000

There’s no other reason for that title other than I’ve just had one. With an egg for good measure. The egg in fact was only an hour or so old as I’d just been down to the stables and while I was there I stuck my head in on the chickens. The fresh air was welcome as I’m feeling a bit tired this morning after attempting to stay up for a bit of RSV2 on the 360 with the new DLC. I’m finding it harder to stay up late these days and where as my old Friday night patterns were on after Jonathan Ross till the early hours I now barely remember the opening titles. Its a small conciliation that I’ve just popped the TV on and found the Sky box tuned to the Magic channel, the music channel for thirty something females, which means even if I had stayed away so would have Jayne and I’d have had a OK corral style showdown as to who was having TV control. A battle which last night, at least, I conceded. I shall renew my efforts tonight with fresh determination as I’m off for a break early next Friday. No doubt when I return after two weekends away everyone will have forgotten about RSV2 and its DLC.

Grand Theft Auto: DUI

Redsmartie — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:16:15 +0000

Grand Theft Auto: DUI

I got a heads up on this from Dogwood Tales.

Welcome to my world on a Friday night. Those who over the years, despite my protests, have made me play PGR, Forza, TOCA, etc on Xbox Live will know from experience.

Blizzard and Microsoft April Fools

Redsmartie — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:04:42 +0000

World of Warcraft Europe: The Molten Core

10 out of 10 for effort

Xbox 360 Spring First Look

1 out of 10 for effort

Charlie likes this Rez HD game

Redsmartie — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:12:45 +0000

He especially likes the vibration

Aperture Science Corrado

Redsmartie — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:30:51 +0000

In preparation for the latest UGVX Forza race I needed a Corrado and once that was acquired I needed to give it a paint job. What better idea than to do an Aperture Science GLaDOS design. I just need to fit neural toxin emitters to the rear bumpers and get a few cakes to keep me going during the race

Edit: I’ve changed it again.. and yes, I know that the Aperture logo is wrong. I did it quick from memory and I’ll re-do it if I get the chance.

Another Edit: I’m done. No more edits after this one hopefully. At least I won’t keep adding to the post