Last year, we hosted an XBL community playdate for Gears 2, that went pretty well. Everyone had a good time and we generated a lot of positive buzz for the site. The powers-that-be at MS are giving us another shot, this time with the Halo: Reach Beta. Pretty sweet, eh? Read on.

On Sunday, May 23rd from 8:00 - 11:00 pm (EST) 5-8 Pacific 2old2play will be hosting a Halo: Reach Beta Community Playdate on Xbox Live!

Once again, we're calling for volunteers to pull off the 2nd official 2old2play Xbox live Community Playdate. If you attended the first Community Playdate we hosted back in February 2009 you know it is going to be a great event, and that you’ll have a lot of fun. Didn’t get a chance to participate last time? Now is your chance to show your support for your online home, own some noobs (Doodi), and get to know some people outside of your clan.

As with last time, we have chosen a few lucky site members to keep the peace and act as ambassadors for the site. These folks will function as the middlemen for gamers inside and outside the site, hosting rooms, setting up game types (if such a thing is possible), and generally making sure everyone who wants to participate gets a chance.

So if you have ever wanted a chance to smack Dsmooth in the face (I know I have), t-bag Caesar, or headshot xYEMx from across the map, now is your chance because these three plus a few more have taken the charge and will be heading up rooms (here's the full list: Reach2old2play, Ceasar, ekattan, Jonny12gauge, xYEMx, Dsmooth, ghost92).

In addition to these volunteers, we are looking for a few more hardcore 2old2play junkies to pick up the slack when Dsmooth falls off the wagon (two games, max). 2old2play can only have so many official Ambassadors listed on Xbox.com, but they never said we couldn’t have “unofficial” Ambassadors. In order to help out the “unofficial” and “official” Ambassadors, we are setting up a friend of friend (FoF) tag, and looking to fill it up with 2old2play members in good standing who joined the site on or before April 1st, 2010. More details to follow shortly.

If our last Community Playdate was any indication, we will have a huge turnout from our community and the gaming community as a whole. Don’t miss your chance to take part in showcasing how 2old2play is one of the preemminent gaming communities on the web, and have some fun as well.

Sounds like a good time, right? If you are interested in participating as an active member of 2old2play, or an "unofficial" Ambassador, please send a PM to Caesar. We will compile a list and then select additional members to join us during the 2old2play XBL Community Playdate. The 2old2play Management Team will make the final determination on who will represent 2old2play.

2old2plaaaaaaaaayyyyyy, Come out and Play!

As we are rapidly approaching the launch of 2old2play V3, we are revamping not only the website, but 2old2play's community presence. If you think you have what it takes, and don't mind working for free, read on...

What is going on?

As many of you know, 2old2play just celebrated our 5th anniversary a few short weeks ago.  Over the past five years we have seen exponential growth here, and although some choices we made have scaled really well, others have not.  With over 30,000 members, it became obvious to us that we needed to make some aggressive changes in order to maintain the same "small site" feel, while still growing to encompass the droves of new members that join 2old2play each week.  We are, once again, focusing on what makes 2old2play great, and why people come here to begin with - our community - and are looking to grow and foster a bigger sense of community and inclusion.

Community focus

One of the biggest parts of 2old2play V3 that is coming is directly focused on community.  Further announcements regarding exactly what V3 entails will be coming in the future, but what we can tell you is that community is central to everything.  Anyone and everyone on 2old2play will have the opportunity to have their work spotlighted and shared for the community, and the larger gaming community as a whole, to see.  The homepage will be a perfect blend of news and other content, whether sourced from our own press folks, or from the individual works of the membership.  The forward facing parts of 2old2play will be driving the sense of community we have here at 2old2play up from where it tends to hide now, in all of the individual clan forums, and showcase it for all to see.  

But I thought you said something about jobs

Currently the 2old2play community interacts with the gaming community as a whole through several outlets. The ones obvious to most of you are our news stories, the wildly popular 2old2type Radio podcast, and the brand new community focused Community Pulse podcast.  What most people don't see is all the work that has gone on to ensure 2old2play representation in the industry, and that is where we are looking to do most of this growth.

Our 2old2play Community Manager, Dane "Waterborn" Tullock, has been instrumental over the past year or so driving our community back into the spotlight by continuing to make sure that 2old2play maintains a presence at key industry events, and allows our community as a whole to continue to grow from such representation.  It should also be obvious to anyone, that one person can't be everywhere and do everything.  As part of reaching out to our community for volunteers, we will be starting local street teams in various parts of the USA, Canada and overseas.  We are looking for community driven people who love 2old2play, and want to take that next step.  Street team leaders will be in charge of massing local 2old2play people at events in their areas and ensuring 2old2play is prominently seen and represented there.  Photos, videos and interviews done at these events will flow back to the 2old2play homepage.  Our street team leaders will be provided with everything they need for their teams to be successful, and will be rewarded in tangible ways for their support.  You will be working directly with Dane, Joel and me to ensure you have exactly what you need to represent and evangelize 2old2play at said events. In the future, valued leaders and members of the street teams will be some of the chosen folks to represent 2old2play at events like PAX, PAX East and E3.

 In addition to the community facing jobs, we will also be revamping the way we handle news and reviews on 2old2play from the ground up.  We will be looking to our community members that want to write content for 2old2play (and we have a lot of great writers now) to volunteer to do so.  One of the current frustrations of our writers is the amount of time and effort it takes for them to write a story and eventually end up on the homepage.  With V3 the process is so much easier, and people can see their hard work on the homepage in minutes, not days.

That sounds great, but can you sum it up?

OK.. We will be looking to fill the following positions over the next couple months.  

• Regional Street Team leaders
• Regional Street Team members
• Writing staff
• PR staff
• Biz Dev staff

At this time, all positions are purely volunteer and unpaid, but as time progresses there will be tangible rewards for your participation.  You will be provided everything you need from 2old2play to be successful in your position. If you have interest in any of these positions, please email us at jobs@2old2play.com.

Thanks again, and Joel and I look forward to working with you.

Derek "DSmooth" Nolan
Joel "doodirock" Albert

As we get closer to a new version of 2old2play i figured it would be time to do a bit of spring cleaning around the site. These means removing some of the unused accounts on2o2p.

Don't Freak Out

If you are a regular poster this really wont affect your standing here on 2old2play. We are keeping any account that has over 1 post in the forums in the past 3 months. We know there are plenty of members on the site that just like to log in, view some posts, read a blog, and move on. That's perfectly ok with us and your membership is safe.

The accounts that we are really targeting with this clean up are the ones that have never made a post on the forums and don't appear to have logged on in the past month or so. The main goal is to target any spammer accounts while also clearing out inactive users so that we have a fresh start come V3. I hope to have this taken care of in the next few weeks or when V3 becomes available for testing.

I Don't Post but Want to Stay!

Like I said before we don't want to delete accounts that members actually use. If you see this post (or the email we are sending out) and know your account is fairly inactive then you can simply make a post in the new in town area to signal that you want your account to stay active.

We will not delete any account that has 1 or more posts in the last 3 months! Here's looking forward to V3.

In an effort to make V3 even better we have decided to merge all relevant clans with each other in order to get members to meet new gamers and members!

What does this mean for my Clan?

The idea is actually quite simple. Let's say you have a clan that primarily plays Call of Duty. Come V3 any and all other Call of Duty clans will be merged with your current clan. This allows us to bring people together who may have not had the chance to meet one another while also lowering the amount of small groups and forums which currently cause a lot of clutter on the site. Clans who initially had 10-18 members now have access to upwards of 300+ members via the new merged clan.

What if we don't want to merge?

While personalities can some times cause issues in the realm of clan vs clan we feel that the best option moving forward is to ensure that members have the maximum amount of connections with other members of the site regardless of their likes or dislike of one another. In time our hope is that members will be able to enjoy the company of gamers with similar gaming interests without the need to have a personal connection. As such our plan moving forward is to make these merges mandatory in order to create a unified 2old2play.

Can we see an example of a merge?

Sure. As i said above clans with "like" gaming interests will be the ones going through the merge. In this instance lets take a CoD clan like Pork Chop Platoon. They share a similar gaming interest with clans like Article 15. These two clans would then be merged into 1 clan of Call of Duty players. From there this clan would be a single entity of all CoD clans on 2old2play.

What other plans do you have with the merges?

In the future our plan is to broaden merges even more in order to create a larger pool of gamers for members to play with. For instance the Call of Duty only clan could merge with the Halo 3 clan because they are both shooters. From there the Shooters (or FPS clan) could merge with the Xbox 360 clan, while that clan would merge with the PS2 clan. Finally all clans would merge into a single clan called the Off Topic clan with one single forum.

Question or comments

I'm sure you all are super excited to get these merges underway and plan for the future of your new mega clans, but please understand that my time is limited with the planning of V3. As such i will not be able to answer any questions via PM or chat. Thanks and I look forward to play games with you all!

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away the first of us on 2old2play started migrating to make this our home for all things video game...

What initially was just a small gathering of friends has become what you see here today. I don't think anyone ever imagined what 2old2play would grow to become in those early months. Doodi was just looking to build a hangout spot for his buddies to talk shit, run their potty mouths without fear of reprisal, and occasionally get a little gaming in. Our version of a "clubhouse" for all things Halo 2 if you will, since that was by far the dominant game in those early days...probably even the only game.

I remember so fondly that first LAN in Chicago, and meeting the people that I consider some of my closest friends today. To give you a little perspective, in that first year, the majority of the LAN attendees all sat down to dinner together...at one table...with one waitress. That is how few there were of us. Once the gaming started, I doubt there were more than 25 all told in that oh so small and oh so smelly conference room. While every LAN holds its memories, none will surpass this one for me. Ebola getting violated after becoming nearly blackout drunk, meeting Doodi (Lisa) in person for the first time and wondering who the "teenager" was, having Knaabi parade his wife and kids through the game room and watching all the "F" words getting immediately curbed, being threatened by hotel staff because of our volume and the liquor consumption, meeting the first three O.G. Wheezing Geezers and watching them become the second site clan, and the first official LAN Halo tourney which doodi and DSmooth actually participated in, and so much more. The feeling of walking into a room of people and calling each other by gamertags for the first time is a feeling that I remember to this day. I wondered then what it must sound like to outsiders to hear names being tossed around like Bubba, Sub-T, doodi, King Drewsky, DSmooth, etc. I suspect the hotel staff was expecting wizard robes and cardboard swords and guns to be brought out. That first LAN was important to many of us in different ways. Globally for the site and I think most importantly, we have seen so many LAN offshoots develop as clans get together with their members and the yearly annual site LAN has become a great yearly event which many members plan some part of their year around.

In the last five years, we have also seen the site undergo the various versions of metamorphosis that makes it what it is today. We've seen many new clans form, seen a few clans forget what this site is supposed to be about and leave. We've seen new faces come, seen many old faces go. The last I consider every now and then and wonder where some of my friends have gone. Many just quit visiting and never officially post any message about "leaving". We simply notice they are gone months or weeks after they have left when there are no more posts.

We've seen every years new version of "post-whore"...it must be difficult to maintain since no manages it for any extended period of time. We've seen the addition of blogs, the removal of the "thumbs" button, "blog-whoring", people up in arms about "blog-whoring", the short time period where blogs seemed to be more about porn than about what was going on in lives, and watched many personalities and lives develop through the blogs.

People develop and change, but we've seen whole clans do the same. Personally, I've seen the original clan undergo a number of changes as well. Unlike most clans here, we are no longer really a gaming clan so to speak. As we were comprised of the longest tenured members, we have maybe had the most atrophy. People's lives change and other areas of those lives become more important than gaming. We now sit around like a bunch of grumpy old men, wax nostalgic, post major accomplishments in life outside of gaming, and really just "keep in touch". Occasionally, a die hard trooper (looking in swooshdave's direction) tries to drum up support for a new Halo being launched. Most members now are in 2 or 3 other clans as well, so that they can actually have groups of people to play with, and some of us have found that we are too set in our ways at this point to be in another clan. We all still come back though and I suspect consider our original clan to be our home as well as our video gaming "family".

2old2play has been a gaming beacon for so many through the last 5 years. So often I read from people that they "would have given up video gaming online if it wasn't for 2old2play". I think many of us often lose touch with how important this community is or what it has become. It becomes easy to take for granted having older and mature members at our beck and call to play with on any new game released. I don't think many of us in those first fledgling months would ever have envisioned that 2old2play would develop like it has. I doubt that anyone would have suspected that 2old2play would affect so many lives and built so many friendships that exist outside of an online medium. As a community we've built relationships which at the core of it all is what is so important about what has been accomplished here. Many of the members of 2old2play have formed life long friendships, that will likely endure long after the website is a memory.

If you have an opportunity, remember to thank those people that have helped make this site what it is. Doodi and DSmooth for the site work (which happens even when you don't know about it), your Moderators for the work they do behind the scenes keeping the site clean and free of asswipes and timmies, anyone involved in the podcasts, your favorite bloggers, those writing front page articles, and those people who are consistently keeping you in touch with new gaming news. Lastly, remember that the site does not run on thanks, and there are no millionaires backing it. It does require fees, and your donations are what keep it afloat. If you have never donated, perhaps you can figure out a way to toss a couple of bucks in the kitty every now and then. If you have donated, but not recently (for whatever reason), try to do so once or twice again in the next few months. (I haven't in a while either with the tough economy, but I can skip some Starbucks for a week for what I get here). If you donate frequently, I am sure that your efforts ARE noticed and appreciated.

Here is to 5 more years and the new friendships to be made that we don't even know about yet!!

When you show up in Boston, make sure you leave your Friday afternoon open for an historic panel.

2old2play's own Derek "DSmooth" Nolan has hand-assembled a panel of community-minded folks for a panel on gaming communities and real life relationships. The panel will take place on Friday March 26th from 3:30 to 4:30 PM at the Manticore Theater in the Hynes Convention Center. From the upcoming brochure, the panel is as follows:

Online Gaming Communities and "Real Life" Relationships

Are you are a member of one or more online gaming website communities? Perhaps the friendships and relationships you formed online have made their way into your everyday "real life". You are certainly not alone. We will discuss the communities we have created and support, and how they impact real life relationships for gamers of all types.

Panelists include:

• Derek "DSmooth" Nolan (Co-Founder, 2old2play.com; Host, 2old2type Radio podcast)
• Derrick "Codemonkey" Schommer (Former editor, 2old2play.com; Co-host, 2old2type Radio Podcast)
• Stewart "Wombat" Nacht (Co-host, CAGCast)
• Julie “LadyJ” Furman (Founder, SFX360)
• Dane "Waterborn" Tullock (Community Manager, 2old2play.com)

Badges for PAX East will sell out quickly, so head on over to http://www.paxsite.com/ to get yours now.

Also, don't forget you are invited to our free after-party on Saturday, March 27th...

We look forward to seeing you all in March!

Looks like we're hosting the afterparty, and for once, your lame ass is invited.

It's official folks -- the party is on!

We have confirmed a venue right across the street from the Hynes Convention Center where PAX East will be held. You literally will only have to walk out the front door of PAX East, cross the street and enter the party. It could not be more convenient if we put the damn party right inside the PAX East madness.

So get your tickets for PAX East (Boston, Mass., March 26 - 28, 2010) and plan to join us for the biggest and best gaming event on the East Coast!Stay tuned for your chance to win invitations, VIP passes and an opportunity to meet Carlos Ferro, the voice of Gears of War's Dom Santiago.

WARNING! This party will contain explicit material not suitable for rookies. Timmies need not apply (and will be shunned at the door). 

2old2play.com & SFX 360 present Gamers Gone Wild!  An all access, 21+ party packed with some of the HOTTEST GAMERS from around the country attending PAX East!

•  Hit the stage in our 3-6-0 Rock Band Tournament: 3 Judges, 6 Rounds,  0 Talent!
•  Check out some of the wildest costumes in the 2old2cosplay Contest! Mens, Womens, and Best Overall Costumes to be decided!
•  Win PRIZES all night with SPECIAL CELEBRITY GUESTS Carlos Ferro and  WCG ProdigyX
• Win A Xbox 360 from our Community Raffle Courtesy Of Play N Trade Six Corners Chicago Store.
• There will be NO COVER CHARGE, and ALL THE ACTION will be STREAMING LIVE @ ufragtv.com! So join us March 27th at the Lir Irish Pub, 903 Boylston Street in Boston, Mass. at 8pm for the most unforgettable, unimaginable party for the gaming community during PAX East weekend!
• NO cover, NO inhibitions, NO excuse not to be there!
• If you’re over 21, you’re invited to the PAX Party everyone will be talking about! That’s Saturday, March 27th for the Gamers Gone Wild PAX Party at Lir Irish Pub in Boston during Pax East!

Current Sponsors

• xbox.com
• epicgames.com
• thinkgeek.com
• gunnaroptiks.com
• sega.com
• theeca.com
• harmonix.com
• empirearcadia.com
• playntrade.com
• ufragtv.com
• gamergrub.com
• astrogaming.com
• zune.net
• activision.com
• gamehelmet
• musicskins
• EA Sports
• Activision
• ECA (Entertainment Consumers Assoc.)
• Capcom
• SouthPeak Games
• Sony
• Gamer Graphics

Direct all questions to: waterborn@2old2play.com

A happy Thanksgiving goes out to all the members of 2old2play and their families. Thank you for another great year of good games and good friends. May the coming year be filled with even more frags, head shots, and older gamers taking down the timmys.

Thank you staff and writers for continuing to bring 2o2p to the industry of video games. For always trying to produce completely original content and for sticking to the voice of the older gamer. Thanks for looking for new ideas and new ways to bring out community together through games and events. Without you, we would all be sitting in our clan forums telling fart jokes.

Thank you clan leaders for creating places that members can belong inside 2old2play. We know how lost some new members can feel when they join 2old2play and the leaders that have stepped up to start their own clans have always allowed these people to find new homes for the games they love.

Thank you members for creating this community as we know it. Especially those that dwell outside the clan forums to create interesting dialogue with everyone around 2old2play. Without you guys, the forums would just be a boring place filled with spam and noise. Keep up the great posts!

Thank you mods for keeping that spam off the forum as much as possible. A mod is a thankless job and more then often must play the bad guy in forum troubles. You guys are the first to take a punch for 2o2p and the last to leave. Thanks again for keeping order around here when no one else would.

A special thank you to all those SCC member and donations that keep the lights on here at 2old2play. With your help and dedication our site will be able to take the next step into version 3 and allow others an even better 2old2play experience. So thank you again for the help and support. We hope to get some nice SCC perks out in the very near future.

Finally, thanks everyone for allowing me to do what I love. It has been a great honor to meet and game with many of you over the years and I hope we can continue to do so over many more. Thanks again for making 2old2play what it is today. Have a very happy Thanks Giving.

-doodi

Pork Chop Platoon has generously agreed to host a kick off event for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Up for grabs is bragging rights and a chance at a pair of Triton Headphones.

The Tourney will be a Free-For All and held on Friday November 13th at 10PM EST. The plan is to have four rooms, and the top players from each room advance to two second tier rooms. The winners from those rooms will converge in a final battle, where the victor takes home the spoils. Each round will be about 10 minutes, and if I know anything about PCP, expect fun gametypes, a few laughs, and a kick ass MW2 experience. All skills levels are welcome!

Sounds fun but I'm not into Tournaments

Not interested in the tournament, but you still want to play? The plan is that once the winners advance to the next room, the host can invite people in and the remaining players can have fun a la community playdate. So bring some friends along or meet some new one!

So what Free stuff do I win?

Ah yes, the free stuff. Winners of the FFA will be added into the SCC (Senior Citizen Card) members giveaway pool. In order to thank the people of the site for all their support with V3 and 2o2p, we will be randomly selecting members of the SCC to receive a pair of Triton Headphones and other Triton goodies. The winners of this tournament will also have their names thrown into the pool.

Sound interesting? We think so too. So if you are new to the Modern War series or a veteran we hope to see all of you Friday November 13th at 10PM EST. What better way to kick off Modern War 2 then a community tournament and playdate. See you all there!

If you are interested in the tournament or playdate: please in the forum thread here or contact a tournament manager. Specify your clan or group and you will be notified as to your room assignments.

Any questions? Contact an event manager. Either J-Cat, PowerMacAttack or MrSleestak

Our very own Caesar mocks up and models the M6D Pistol from Halo: CE in all its detail. The results are an almost graspable Halo weapon. Check out this sweet render.

About 3 weeks ago I started working on a futuristic bullet in CAD for the Halo 3 team I'm on called; Vulgarity from 2old2play.com. Ive been a Sr Designer for automotive & aerospace going on 10 years and I've been into graphic design for about 8 yrs, so I felt this project would just be something simple and fun to mix and meld my skills from my real job to my fun graphic design side. Once I started the bullet i figured i needed a case to house the futuristic bullets in. It didn't take very long before I started to add more and more detail. After about a week i had completed the futuristic bullet and case concept, and i thought it came out great, but was still missing something. So I got the bright idea that i needed a gun to tie it all together. My first thought was a 357 COP Derringer, but while it looked cool, it wasn't futuristic enough.

Eventually, I turned my attention to the Halo CE Pistol. I figured a model like this would fit better with an already Halo theme. As O began my work, i had tons of images for reference and thought this should be easy, but soon realized how wrong i was. I had no dimensions just images, so everything I modeled I had to do visually by looking at, and then trying to scale by guessing. I wanted to add a little flair to the gun in certain spots as i was modeling as well.

The gun itself was fun to do, but very time consuming. The program I use to render my 3D CAD is called Hypershot, and in order to apply colors and materials to things, they each need to be a separate part. So I basically had to build every single piece in a giant assembly in order to be able to apply the materials and colors correctly. This ended up taking a lot of time on the gun.

I had to model the trigger, the rubber grip, the gun stock, the magazine, the screws, lights, laser site, the slide on top that's connected to the laser site, and the bullet ejection cover plate. In the end it was a lot to do and in order to put detail into every little piece.

My final task this week was finishing up the gun stock, the main part of the gun. In my early renders my edges were very hard and Mrs Doublefire suggested i put a break edge to smooth it out (basically radii or fillet's). This actually worked to my benefit as i wanted to blend the front handle of the gun into the nose anyway, but would need it to be blended. The blending task took about 2 days, just a very time consuming task trying to get them to look right at the intersection.

So 3 weeks later I have finally finished my little project. What started out a simple futuristic bullet project turned into the massive renders you see below. The 3D CAD software I used to create my models is: Pro-E Wildfire 3 while the 3D Rendering Software is called: Hypershot.

Unrendered CAD Screen Shots

Final Renders