StrategyWiki:Announcements

Any major announcements and news about the site will be posted here. Minor announcements can be found on the noticeboard.

Recent News
If you were having trouble creating an account, give it a try again. Our favorite captcha service disappeared, so we had to find another service to replace it. We're back up and running, and we look forward to welcoming all of our new editors!

Older News
We sincerely apologize to all of our users for the recent downtime that we had. Despite what some may think, it actually was not the new skin that caused the site to have problems. Rather, our database was unfortunately corrupted due to a physical malfunction. Sadly, we lost a small amount of edits, but fortunately, our backup was recent enough that the loss wasn't tremendous. Now that we're confident that the site is fully restored, we are reopening edits and file uploads.

If you see any problems, please report them to Prod or Procyon. Additionally, we are still seeking your feedback, positive or otherwise, on the new skin! Thanks very much for hanging in there with us while we got the site back up and running!

Stay tuned as we prepare to unveil StrategyWiki 3.0 later this week! We've taken a look at what works well on the site, and what could stand to be improved. We realized that navigating around each guide could use some improvement, so we spent a lot of time building a system that will help you get to any section of a guide much faster than ever before. And you'll get to try it out real soon!

On history or diff pages for any page there's now a link to send a Thanks to the person who made the change.

We've upgraded MediaWiki to the latest version, 1.21.2! We've also enabled a few new extensions. We've turned on Special:UploadWizard to replace the older MultiUpload extension. We've also enabled notifications, which you'll see pop up beside your user ID at the top of the screen on various events.

We've activated the SyntaxHighlight GeSHi extension. This allows language specific highlighting of any code used on pages, as well of our built in javascript and css.

We've updated MediaWiki to the latest version and cleaned up lots of the js. You should notice the site has gotten faster. We've also enabled the Gadgets extension, which you can access by visiting your preferences page. Let us know if you have any comments or issues with these new changes!

Our Internet Explorer and Chrome users may have noticed some issues with the cat captchas making editing more difficult. The problems are now fixed!

As you may have noticed, there's a new feature on our game Infoboxes. At the bottom, you may see a link to related guides at NeoSeeker.com. While we attempt to contain every ounce of information about a game in each of our guides, sometimes it's nice to get a different perspective, or find a community of gamers playing the same games as you. If that's what you happen to be looking for, then click on the link to NeoSeeker's guides and check out what they have in store. Likewise, you will see links back to StrategyWiki, which means more communities of gamers will see our editors' contributions, and add to our guides!

StrategyWiki's application to join the Square-Enix Independent Wiki Alliance has been accepted. We are now a member of SEIWA! Thanks to everyone who voiced their opinions and support. SEIWA includes an outstanding collection of wikis about the Chrono Tigger, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts series. StrategyWiki is very proud to be a member of not one, but two independent wiki alliances, including NIWA with whom we continue to foster a productive partnership.

Similar to NIWA which we joined a little over a year ago, a community of Square-Enix fans has assembled, calling themselves SEIWA. We are considering joining their ranks and would like your opinions on joining. Please leave your opinions on the Staff lounge discussion.

Metroid Wiki is now being managed and owned by the same team behind StrategyWiki! They can be found at http://www.metroidwiki.org/ and already have a great community! To help spread the word, we're also running a Contest! If we get enough interest, we'll start running these more often.

Only three months after our last visual improvement, we've gone ahead and updated the site once again! We listened to your feedback, and did a thorough study of how our users liked to use the site, and we rearranged some links to get most of them out of your way, but still easily accessible. Check out our new toolbox design on the right. And the best is still yet to come! We'd like to know your thoughts about the new design, so please share them with us on Twitter, Facebook, over at the forums, or even right here on the site.

MediaWiki has released two software updates (one just a few hours ago) since our last site update. Those have now both been deployed! They were mostly security updates making everyone's browsing experience just a bit safer. MultipleUpload also updated their extension to fix the bugs so we have re-enabled it and it appears to be working again! If you have permissions to use it, you can now find it in the toolbox.

As you can see, we've kicked off a new look for the site! What you see before you is the product of a lot of research and experimentation. Our goal was the make the StrategyWiki experience easier and nicer to look at for both our readers and our contributors. But the new look is only the beginning. Soon we will unveil a feature that will make navigating through each guide a breeze. Share your thoughts about the new skin with us on Facebook or the forums, and keep your eyes open for continued improvements and new features in the near future. Thanks for being an important part of our growth!

StrategyWiki has become the tenth wiki to join the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, a growing alliance of wikis dedicated to helping independent wikis retain their independence, and grow in the face of competition from wiki farms such as Wikia. This means that StrategyWiki now has a host of new partner wikis, such as Super Mario Wiki and Wars Wiki, along with many more to come! The NIWA Network site comes complete with its own forums, where you can discuss anything Nintendo- and wiki-related. This may also mean that we will see many new editors joining here, who may be able to help you with that game you've been stuck on.

It took a bit longer than we hoped, but the ABXY Forums are back up now. Chat has also been available for a few days. We've updated everything to the latest versions available. Please contact any of the Administrators or post on the forums if you see any problems

We made it! We are now running on a blazing new server with upgraded hardware, and we look forward to serving your video game wiki needs! Thank you so much to all of you for your patience through our downtime. We look forward to all the contributions that you provide that make this site great, and make this a fun community to be a part of. Other parts of the site will slowly be coming back, including chat and the forums. If you notice any problems, please don't hesitate to contact one of the Administrators and let one of them know.

The time has come to move StrategyWiki to a new home! We will be upgrading to a new server, and as a result, there will be some scheduled downtime. We will, of course, keep this downtime to an absolute minimum. The site move will most likely begin Friday evening, and proceed all through the weekend. During this time, you will be unable to view or contribute to the site. Please bare with us and forgive us during this time. Rest assured that when the site returns, we will resume our efforts to expand and improve the site. StrategyWiki 2.0 is nearing the testing phase, and we think you will genuinely be impressed with the results!

Our partner, GamerDNA has teamed up with EA to bring you 20,000 exclusive Medal of Honor beta codes without the need to pre-purchase the game! Medal of Honor is brought to you by the makers of Battlefield and with the guidance of the U.S. Military Tier 1 Operators, this Medal of Honor game will be the most realistic and intense shooter out there.

The Beta Key grants you access to two multiplayer maps, Helmand Valley and Kabul City Ruins. Click on the logo to the left, or simply click this link to head on over to GamerDNA, where you can watch a video and collect the code that will grant you the ability to try out the beta before the game is released! But hurry, the codes are only available until August 8th!

This is it. This is your chance to earn prizes by contributing to StrategyWiki. Each month we will select three games from the list of games that you want to see most on StrategyWiki, and we will offer prizes to one lucky random contributor as long as they meet our eligibility requirements. To find out how to enter, please read the bounty rules page, and then get cracking. The first three games that we have selected for the month of July, 2010 are Mount&Blade: Warband, Torchlight, and Final Fantasy XIII. Help us get these guides closer to completion, and you may win a prize in return. This is just the first month so it is a trial run. If it works out well, expect to see the Bounties program expanded with more prizes each month! Good luck!

Also, please don't forget that you can still contribute your thoughts to what you'd like to see in our forthcoming StrategyWiki 2.0 design. Please share your idea with us on this forum thread!

2010 will be the year which we begin development on a new enhanced version of the StrategyWiki you know and love. While we're still in the early design phases, we'd like to get your input on what you would like to see from the new site. You can do so at the forum thread that we've created here. Specifically, we want to know: We really want to hear your honest and thoughtful critiques of the site. We can't promise that we'll be able to address all of the issues you raise, or implement all of the features you suggest, but we can promise that we'll try our hardest. Again, please visit this forum thread to share your thoughts. Thanks!
 * What can we do to make the site better?
 * What can we do to make editing easier?
 * What kinds of features would interest you?
 * What do you like most about SW and what do you like least?

You may have noticed two new additions to the ever expanding navigation bar to the left. We're working on publicly sharing our progress and growth with our community and our fans. We've made it easier for you to find us on facebook and to follow us on twitter. We invite all of you to join us.

However, we also know that our users are concerned with their privacy. We at StrategyWiki have always taken privacy matters seriously, and we have finally drafted a formal privacy policy. In addition to finding it here in this announcement, you will see a link to it in the bottom right corner of every page. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns about it, we invite you to discuss the matter on the policy's talk page.

Have you ever found a page on StrategyWiki that was so cool, you wish you had an easy way to share it with your friends? Well, now you can! Check out the new share toolbar that we added to the bottom of the Toolbox. Find a page you love, and hover over the share bar to choose your favorite social networking site, or click on the bar to chose even more sharing options.

We have now added the ability to search within any game guide. Check the toolbox for a "Search this guide" link to search for terms only within the guide you are browsing.

We have now disabled hot-linking to external images. This means that all images must be uploaded locally to be displayed. Any external images that were linked before will now show up simply as links to the image.

StrategyWiki has transitioned from the GFDL to the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. There have been many reasons to make the switch, which was initiated by the WikiMedia Foundation (WMF) with help from the Free Software Foundation. Our reasons for the change mirror the reasons the WMF gave on their blog post.

Following intense discussion and much debate, the main page has been upgraded with more links to useful parts of the site. We have also updated to the latest version of MediaWiki, version 1.14.0, with all the extensions that come with it. Leave your comments on the forums and let us know what you think.

The team at DoubleJump Books have done it again! They have published yet another top notch quality guide for Nippon Ichi's Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?. Any self-respecting fan of the Disgaea series will recognize this humble penguin, and now he's off on an adventure of his own: to find the ingredients for the legendary "super dessert" that his mistress demon Etna has commanded him to make! With unbelievably beautiful artwork and in-game images gracing every page, even those of you without a PSP may want to pick this guide up just for the images. Head on over to the DoubleJump message boards for a peek at the sample preview that they have made available, and then pick up the guide for yourself to see what makes DoubleJump stand out from the crowd.

The fine folks at DoubleJump Books have just published their latest and greatest masterpiece, a strategy guide for none other than Persona 4! DoubleJump continues their legacy of quality and quantity by providing you with a guide that's so packed with information, it makes the other publishers' strategy guides look like pamphlets. Information about every item, skill, persona and enemy has been mined from the game and presented to you for easy reference. Whether you need a helping hand, or just a small nugget of information to help you play, you'll find exactly what you need. Even if you're the type of player who doesn't like to use guides when you play, the presentation and the artwork that grace the pages make this a guide for all fans of the Persona series to own. So look for it on the shelf of your local book store today, or better yet, grab a copy from DoubleJump's online store!

It's official, StrategyWiki and abxy have a new home, courtesy of GamerDNA. We are now hosted by their powerful servers. The site should be noticeably faster, but this is only the beginning. Keep an eye out for new features that we will introduce to the site over time, which we will announce right here. In the mean time, thank you for being a part of our growth and enjoy the new blazing fast StrategyWiki!

It's a deal that's been in the works for quite some time, but it's finally official: StrategyWiki, along with sister site abxy.org, are now members of the GamerDNA Alliance! What does that mean for you? For one thing, it means access to an even larger community of gamers across the world. After we switch servers, a massive hardware upgrade means a tremendous improvement in site performance. Most importantly, it means the same great wiki community experience that you've always enjoyed here at StrategyWiki, brought to you by the same dedicated staff. The changes won't take place over night, but we'll be sure to highlight them as they take place. In the mean time, be sure to visit GamerDNA to see what they're all about, and stay tuned for more information.

The long awaited upgrade to the latest version of MediaWiki (1.13) is complete. It comes with new features and bug fixes. Do look around and try out some of the new functionality. Full details can be found on the official MediaWiki site!

We at StrategyWiki are very proud to announce our new partnership with DoubleJump Books. You may notice their shiny new logo at the top of the page alongside our own. Click on it to be taken to the DoubleJump website and see the amazing strategy guides that they have to offer. No partnership could be more perfect. Just as you can find the best strategy guides on the web right here at StrategyWiki, DoubleJump publishes the most impressive strategy guides in print that you'll ever find, hands down. Don't worry, nothing about your StrategyWiki experience is going to change. In fact, it should only get better, as DoubleJump's next strategy guide for the PS2 RPG Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis will contain a full page promotion for StrategyWiki. It should hit the shelves on March 31st, so be on the look out for it!

You may have noticed that the left sidebar has gone on a bit of a diet. Where did your favorite links go? Community Issues has been folded up into the forums. So please visit the forums if you have any site matters that you wish to bring up. Staff Lounge isn't gone. Along with information about our IRC channel, you will find it in the guide. Finally, check out our very own Calendar to track important dates for the site such as meetings.

As StrategyWiki has become more popular, you may begin to notice that we are implementing some counter-vandalism methods on the site. To prevent spambots, we are adding security measures to our registration page and to anonymous edits. While we would like to continue to allow anonymous edits, we encourage everyone to register and enjoy a superior member experience.

As the first announcement in over 6 months, StrategyWiki is immensely proud to report that its continual work into increasing the response time of the server has been largely successful. The load average has decreased, believe it or not, well beyond 1,000%. With this amazing new power within our reach, let there be no further ado, and let's kick ass!

After finishing 100 guides just over 4 months ago, we've has reached a new milestone of 200 completed game walkthroughs! Thank you all for your contributions, it could not have been done without you. Do look at some of the fairly thorough guides which still need a bit of work as they have plenty of useful information as well.

It seems that Google is starting to send us huge waves of traffic at once, so much that at one point MySQL would no longer accept any more connections from clients and refused to serve any more data. StrategyWiki is now demanding more server resources than initially anticipated, and because of that reserve server resources have been allocated for StrategyWiki's use and disposal. Hopefully this should reduce the server load until we can buy a new server to distribute the traffic.

Pardon the pun, but regular users may have noticed the ads that have appeared on the right. While we know some of you may be disdainful of advertising on a wiki site, this is a necessary step for the continued survival of this great project. Thank you for all of your continued support!

As of December 28th, 2006, StrategyWiki is one year old! Thank you for your support!

After our scheduled downtime, StrategyWiki is now back up, and should be working fine. If you spot any bugs or problems, please either leave a message on one of the staff members' talk pages, or e-mail echelon@gmail.com. Happy holidays, and happy editing!

StrategyWiki will be down December 20th - 22nd so that we may reinstall the server operating system. In the best case scenario, we should be back again on the 21st, but this depends on our hosting technicians being quick.

We will be providing backups of the data soon.

If you'd like to contact us about this, feel free to email echelon@gmail.com.

Thank you for being patient! Happy holidays, everyone!

MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat is the 500th guide to be created here at StrategyWiki. Founded in December 2005, StrategyWiki now has 1854 "good" pages and 12673 total pages. There's also over 5533 images used. Even the 500 total is conservative; StrategyWiki has a "one game, one guide" policy: in-depth guides are subpages of a unified guide rather than separate entries. digg it!

Come join us in IRC chat at irc.abxy.org! Don't have an IRC client? You can use the Java chatroom instead.

As this year comes to a close, we intend to unveil a completed version of abxy.org; it is during this period we want to take StrategyWiki mainstream and get a host of new contributors. We believe that both sites together can better serve gamers everywhere.

We may undergo several new changes soon, many of which concern accounts. Any updates will be discussed in full in the community issues section.

If you have a blog or website, link to us! It's very important! You can also [http://del.icio.us/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstrategywiki.net%2Fwiki%2FMain_Page;title=StrategyWiki%20-%20Videogame%20Strategy%20Guides;notes=StrategyWiki%20enables%20gamers%20to%20collaboratively%20create%20strategy%20guides. post us to del.icio.us] (suggested tags: games videogames gaming wiki tools) digg us, too!

Finally, we ask that you help to spread word about StrategyWiki by posting fliers at your high school or college campus or asking your local games store to do the same. As always, invite all of your gamer friends!