Submissions for April Newsletter

So long as I'm blogging, I may as well contribute my articles to our monthly newsletter!  I'd like to try to submit two each month for as long as I'm keeping AWBuilder up and running -- one commentary and one tutorial.  Right now, I'm leaning towards "From an era gone by..." as the commentary and "Tutorial - Navigating the ActiveWiki" as the tutorial.  I think those are both pretty solid articles and would be good for the context of the newsletter.

If you guys have any suggestions or other articles you'd like to see go up, let me know!  Otherwise, it'll probably be these two. :)

From my Teleports List: AirSpeed

Alphaworld - SW City - AirSpeed

Builder: SW Chris

Teleport: AW 2417.74S 3444.94E 22.70a 263

Jump Point: ^jump AirSpeed

How to Play: http://www.swcity.net/users/chris/airspeed/index.html

AirSpeed debuted during AWReunion 2010 last year to tremendous reception and has since... well, what exactly happened to it, anyway? Nobody talks about it anymore.  The same goes for the GameFest games... even the hit Weir City from the GameFest doesn't garner much traffic, and it won a Cy Award!

I'm not sure what it is about games in Activeworlds that causes them to meet relative obscurity, but I'd like to do my part here to at least tell you all about AirSpeed!  AirSpeed is a wonderful presentation that uses v4 objects to maximum effect, lifting the player off their feet and into a high-flying obstacle course!  Players sail through the sky dodging objects and collecting bonuses that can remove obstacles further ahead.  The game has been masterfully divided into three 'stages' that become increasingly more difficult. Because of the game's design, the backdrop can provide as much of a challenge to deal with as the obstacles directly in front of you -- I want to catch all of the action!! :)

Anyway, upon completing AirSpeed SW City Interactive players can receive a small reward for their troubles.  The game is a fun distraction and certainly worth sharing with others.  Give it a try!

Saturday Night Project

I did a bit of idle building tonight, and I'm working on a project now that I'd like to share my progress on.  I don't think that I can actually say too much about it yet, but I can show you what I've built. :)

For this project, I wanted to set up two buildings that oppose each other across a street.  My conceptual goal is to use the structural frame of the building to imply that the buildings are actually two halves of a whole, and that they've been pulled apart.

"The Right Building"

"The Left Building"

I don't think you can see the beginnings of that concept so well in this picture, but it's there.  There's also some work I'd like to do with the ground, but this is where I'm at for tonight.

The whole shebang

This is the overview shot from above.  I think the far walls do a better job conceptually than the forward walls, but I wanted to get a draft done for the project tonight because I'm not sure that I'd have time to continue working on it with everything else that I'm doing these days.

Anyway, I just wanted to share. :)  Catch you all later!

'Facebook Questions' Released

Facebook Questions was released today as a new update option on Facebook profiles.  Similar to status updates or link sharing, users with 'Questions' enabled can quickly select the option and begin creating a poll that other users can respond or even contribute to.  Questions hasn't been enabled for all-users yet, and as of this writing is an opt-in program that you can join by visiting facebook.com/questions.

A couple of our Activeworlds related Facebook Pages have wasted no time in getting set up for this new feature.  Check them out!



Official Activeworlds Page

How did you find out about events in Activeworlds?

SW City Page

Who would win in a fight?

I'm sure there's a lot more to come, but so far it seems like a good start.  The questions themselves aren't any more intrusive to your wall than other updates that people make, so hopefully it won't cause too much of a stir.  The @tagging that you can make in status updates can also be made in poll options, which is a really cool feature and I can see some uses for getting the word out that way.  Feel free to visit the links above and give it a try!