Hey readers, it’s not often we get a chance to address you directly, but this is a special occasion.  The TVGB team would like to invite you to participate in the newest feature of our fine site; Community Discussions.

You’ll notice at the top of the page, a new tab that will lead you to our Community Discussions pages. You can think of the Community Discussions area like a forum (just don’t ever actually CALL it a forum or Rain will probably start huffing and puffing). Upon clicking the tab you’ll be brought to a list of current hot topics surrounding news, editorials, our upcoming on-site E3 coverage and general gaming banter. In order to post your thoughts on these topics, you’ll need to sign up for a Community Discussions account which takes a whole of 20 seconds. We’ve done our best to allow you to personalize your account to your specific tastes, including custom avatars, account pictures, signatures, as well as a personalized profile page that will give other users the ability to learn as much about you as you’d like to allow. You can even announce your shoe size to the world if you so wish.

As a registered Community Discussions member, you’ll be able to create your own discussions about anything you find relevant. In addition to that, each comment you make will grant you the opportunity to gain praise from the community at large. Particularly insightful or interesting comments will be highlighted by gaining “Thank You’s” from other community members. This will not only give the more dedicated members of the community the chance to shine, but should also help us to weed out any “bad apples” from the crowd. For example, if a user has 1,000 comments and 0 “Thank You’s”, there’s a pretty good chance that they cause more trouble than their worth.

And instead of going through categories and sub-categories to find if that discussion you were interested in has new messages, you can simply bookmark the discussions you want to keep an eye on and immediately see when there’s a new message, and be there to check it out in one swift click.

When you start making friends, Private Discussions are sure to become handy as well — instead of hiding a personal messages-type feature in some dark corner, Private Discussions are right there among all the other discussions, just only visible to you and the person you’re having the discussion with.

There are also other cool features that are perhaps more fun to discover on your own, so I won’t ruin it all and let you do some exploring.

Needless to say, we here at the blog are extremely excited about this new opportunity for the community to develop and grow along with That VideoGame Blog itself.  Currently, the “General” category is the only active topic list, but that’s sure to expand and grow as the number of members does the same.  It’s truly a pleasure to announce that this feature is ready to go, and the number of (Rain’s) hours that have gone into creating an enjoyable experience look to have paid off nicely.  This is your chance to get in on the ground floor of what is sure to become a vibrant online oasis.  Now go sign up, and enjoy!

Oh, and stay tuned for what we like to call a marathon of giveaways and competitions. The first one starts later today!