Lively

@EchoEcho: Regardless of the length, I want to read well-written articles. 90% of the time, a well written article will be shorter than a poorly written one. That said, there are definitely times when a topic deserves a more in-depth discussion, and for those I don't mind taking the extra minute or two reading them.

As @Anwar said, there's nothing wrong with expecting excellence from Giant Bomb, as they're already on top of the heap in so many other ways.

@EchoEcho said:
We know it's opinionated -- he's not trying to fool anyone. Whiskey Media in general have been pretty straight forward about their content being more personal. But as @The_Patriarch said, there are a lot of sites out there that provide gaming news straight-up without this kind of flavor and color. If we want it, we know where to get it -- there's no reason for Giant Bomb to do the same thing.

I don't think the issue is that Alex or Patrick mix opinion with the news. The problem is that they do it in a long, sloppy fashion that takes forever to get to the point (and I think they're both guilty of this at times). There have been too many news articles that barely warranted a short paragraph go on for over 5 paragraphs, mostly filled with conversational, snarky, un-concise banter about the news at hand.

I think they should take a page from the AV Club news blurbs, which rarely weigh in at more than one or two paragraphs, but still have room for some smart quips about what's being reported. Here's a random example of their style:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/remember-janet-jacksons-wardrobe-malfunction-from,64507/

I think that longer, more conversational tone works great on podcasts, but less so in print. At the very least, they need to get the news out of the way in the first paragraph, and save the editorial for further down.

@Nodderly: As I suggested on the server earlier, I wonder if you would consider making brick a default resource that you can use the "/more" command on. Clay is a fairly rare resource, and collecting it in quantity involves tearing up the floor of entire swamps. Last I looked, swamps aren't even very common on our server.

Large brick structures can look awesome. I've seen very nice "universities" and modern-looking towns constructed using brick.

@jasondesante: You should cool off with a nice relaxing session of Demon's Souls.

While Jason is overreacting, I think some of you are piling on to him a bit much. He probably had a bad day :)

@jasondesante: If you'd post the reference images for your pixel art, I'm sure some of us would love to help repair it.

Another name idea; "Planetfall" sounds a little too sci-fi, how about "Starfall"?

FYI, I just logged on and saw that someone griefed the Ness and Kirby pixel-art.

How about "King's Landing", a la Game of Thrones? Maybe not that precisely, but something that will communicate this city is the shining jewel at the center of a great empire.

You know what this server doesn't have yet? A 30 x 30 quarry down to bedrock that opens up to the sky. I'm too busy / lazy to do it all myself, but it seems like something cool to have so everyone who wanted could put in a few minutes making the thing deeper. Somewhere close to the main spawn, but in a place where it wouldn't be too much of an eye-sore.

If there aren't any objections, I'd like to get it started in the area marked in the image.

(I pulled the 30 x 30 dimensions out of nowhere, maybe that's too big?)

How often the big map (linked in the original post) is updated? I'd love to be able to see how much the world has evolved since the last snapshot.