360voice Dev Blog

Thanks for participating in the Nokia content creation challenge!

The Xbox Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia came to a close last month... and while they are still tabulating to "official" winners, it is safe to call the winner of the 360voice community:

360 Freedom

Compilation of US troop images in High resolution.
By morton819 with 3852 votes!

For getting the most votes out of all the themes submitted by 360voice users, morton819 receives a Nokia N81 8GB Phone! Good times. When we receive the ten (10) 400 MS point cards we will also conduct a random drawing form the other 28 users and announce the winner.

Morton819 if you are out there, email us, because that isn't your gamertag so I don't know how to contact you!!

There were 28 Xbox Dashboard themes submitted by 360voice. A special thanks to everyone who participated in the challenge... and who knows... if you created something really compelling, you might get a call from Disruptive Publishing even though you didn't win! At least that is what they have stated!

How many did YOU unlock?

Well the Unlock the Achievement Contest / Charity Event has come to an end, so how many achievements did you find?  Where did you rank on the leaderboard?  Just in case you didn't find them here on 360voice with the hints we gave, I will let you know all the secret locations!

1. Who the hell are we (360voice.com)?
   - read more about us
   - found by 971 of you
   
   
2. Where it stops nobody knows...
   probably the most hidden of them - there is this rabbit that likes to cause chaos and hop from blog to blog, at the time of this posting it was spotted on sabreson360's blog, there might be a way for you to track him down though...how else would you find it?
   - found by 220 of you
   
   
3. And the master of achievements is...
   - who else but Mr Achievement's blog
   - found by 386 of you
   
   
4. Does this work on my phone?
   - check out the mobile site
   - found by 358 of you
   
   
5. 4 friends plus beer plus....
   - rock band of course!
   - found by 261 of you

I see alot of 360voice gamertags on the leaderboard, so looks like you guys are just as good at getting achievements on websites as you are on your xbox 360s, hope you had fun on the hunt, and thanks to Daking240 for organizing the whole thing!

Contest update!

There are two contests going on at 360voice right now! Here are the updates:

Submissions are over for the Xbox Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia, but voting for your favorite Xbox Dashboard Themes goes until Monday (April 28th)! Remember, the highest voted 360voice themes are going to win some prizes! So get over there are pick a 360voice winner!

Are you hunting for achievements on our site? You should be! We gave a few hints... But things are growing as we speak! Check out the latest news on this event:

Tallahassee, Florida – April 24, 2008 – Just when people thought that Unlock The Achievement was only a scavenger hunt – a new aspect of the event is added to further benefit the St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital! With the support of the gaming community, UTA plans to match any donation up to a total of $1000.00.

Unlock The Achievement has already attracted over 14,000 unique visitors in just 3 days! Users have spent over 4,200 hours participating in the scavenger hunt, unlocking 51,000 achievements.

Players – the name referring to visitors involved in the Scavenger Hunt, which will give the illusion that they are playing a game of some sort – will start by visiting their favorite Xbox 360 themed website. From there, they’ll be asked to look for clues on how to find hidden “Achievements,” located on each of website involved. Each website will be given 5 of these achievements, ranging in difficulty from Paris Hilton Easy to Expert Guitar Hero III Hard. As players “unlock” more of these Achievements, their progress will be tracked on leaderboards featuring Real-Time Position Changes™, in turn becoming eligible to win prizes.

Among the participating websites and magazines, Official Xbox Magazine (OXM), Xbox360Fanboy.com and Evil Avatar headline the amazing list of websites that will be featured in the contest.

The hunt began on Monday, April 21, 2008 at 12PM EST. At the same time, a charity package arrived in Tennessee to support the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. With the help of Gaming4Others, and the participating sites and sponsors, a donation of 100+ games were wrapped up and to be given away to children during a party at the hospital.

Unlock The Achievement has partnered with a number of corporate sponsors, including Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Activision, Popcap, Sierra Online, Capcom, Freeverse, Chair Entertainment, TOR Books, and Hollywood Collectibles. There are over 100 prize packages waiting to be given away, as well as a grand prize that includes an Xbox 360 120GB HDD, Project Gotham Racing 4, Soldier Of Fortune: Payback, Devil May Cry 4, Call of Duty schwag, a Live is 5ive limited edition T Shirt, the complete Halo soundtrack, Uno, and 200 Microsoft Points.

“This event gives many Xbox 360 websites and blogs a wonderful chance to hold a contest for its visitors that otherwise might not have the opportunity to give things away,” said Ziff Davis Media’s Chris Pereira, better known by his alias ‘TheSmokingManX.’

For more information, please contact the contest manager, Devin Kofsky, by email at DKofsky@UnlockTheAchievement.com

Go Register and play!

With all this stuff going on, you all better not say you are bored! :)

*Blip* Achievement Unlocked!

Do you have your eyes peeled?  How many have you unlocked?

Just to help out you loyal 360voice members we have a few hints to get you started on getting our 5 hidden achievements.

If you think Tips, Hints, etc ruin the fun of the game STOP....READING....NOW - you have been warned - let the semi-spoilage begin!  Here are some questions you might be asking, and might lead you to the pot of gold you so desire:

1. Who the hell are we (360voice.com)?
2. Where it stops nobody knows...
3. And the master of achievements is...
4. Does this work on my phone?
5. 4 friends plus beer plus....

Good Luck everyone!

360Sync presents, Unlock the Achievement, April 21st

360voice is proud to be participating with a TON of other Xbox and gaming communities in the 360Sync Scavenger Hunt called Unlock the Achievement which begins April 21st. How will it work?

Players will start by visiting their favorite Xbox 360 themed website. From there, they’ll be asked to look for clues on how to find hidden “Achievements,” located on each of website involved. Each website will be given 5 of these achievements, ranging in difficulty from Paris Hilton Easy to Expert Guitar Hero III Hard. As players “unlock” more of these Achievements, their progress will be tracked on leaderboards featuring Real-Time Position Changes™, in turn becoming eligible to win prizes.

Among the participating websites and magazines, Official Xbox Magazine (OXM), Xbox360Fanboy.com and Evil Avatar [AND 360voice w00t!] headline the amazing list of websites that will be featured in the contest.

Check out the site for more details

The contest starts April 21st. We are in the process of hiding our goodies... I wonder if you will find them... which you probably will... I wonder how fast!

Submissions are over, vote now or never!

Submissions to the Xbox 360 Content Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia is now closed! Now all you can do is vote, VOTE, VOTE! Get in there and make the community proud! We also have a little surprise announcement... some prizes to the lucky people who put forth the effort to get involved!

Nokia has provided us with a few little gifts to distribute. Here is how it is going to go down.

1. At the end of the contest (April 28th, 2008), which ever 360voice theme is the highest, will win a Nokia N81 8GB Phone! So if you have a theme up there for 360voice, mobilize your friends and family to put you on top! You have to supply your own mobile plan... we are just giving away the hardware.
2. Out of everyone else who has submitted themes, we will do ten (10) random drawings for 400 Microsoft Points.

Good times eh? So head over... check out the 360voice themes... vote for your favorite...

Old Spice prize claim reminder!

If you won any Old Spice Gamerscore Challenges at 360voice, your last day to submit a prize claim is fast approaching. From the official rules:

HERE’S HOW TO CLAIM A REWARD:  If you are the winner of a challenge, you will receive an email notification containing your reward claim code within approximately 12 hours of completion of the challenge.  To claim your reward, click on the link contained in the email and follow the onscreen instructions to input your reward claim code and complete the online claim form.  All reward claims must be  received by 2:00:00 PM PST on 3/28/08.   Certain rewards may be fulfilled via email.  Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery of your reward.

So please, if you have not received a claim code, email support and we can resend it! Get your prizes claimed!

Xbox 360 Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia.

360voice is proud to be be a partner with Disruptive Publishers in the Xbox 360 Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia!

If you have been saying, "Wow... I can create a better dashboard theme than that!" well, here is your chance! Create your theme... the community will vote on the best one. The winner gets all sorts of great stuff! (prizes, fame, fortune, etc.)

The official press release (PDF)

Here is how it will work. Read this!

1. Visit www.my360theme.com to participate in the Xbox 360 Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia.
2. Register to submit themes as well as to vote (registration is free). Make sure you affiliate your self with 360voice!!
3. Upon registration, you will find detailed instructions and a content template.
4. Once material has been created to the proper specs, upload it!
5. After review, the content will appear in the community gallery.
6. The community votes to determine top content.
7. At the end of the contest period, the winning entries will be published to Xbox LIVE Marketplace, with the top overall theme (based on # of votes) receiving a grand prize package (HDTV home theater, games) plus a publishing contract with DP!
8. In addition, the community (360voice!) with the highest score will receive additional prizes that we can give away to you all!

So head over there... sign up... create themes... start voting! Not only are you all individually competing to have your theme posted to Xbox Live, but we are up against some other great communities to see who can bring home the trophy of most active community! Here are the other partners:

1. 360style.net
2. 360sync
3. Evil Avatar
4. Hawty McBloggy
5. Platform Nation
6. The10k.com
7. Unscripted 360
8. Xbox Addict

This should be a lot of fun. Make sure you check out the Community Showcase forum. I have stickied a thread for people to post about the themes they have created. So go make some themes!

More More More Winners!

Three down, one to go. That's right, the third week of Challenge Month flew by, and we have more lucky winners to announce!

Lets run down the daily point winners,

2/15: Casarella
2/16: k0mm1ssar
2/17: JohnnyDrama814
2/18: prot0typeNXT
2/19: dieselv2
2/20: Denity
2/21: dancinns

Each of those folks will be netting a cool 1000 Microsoft points for just being in challenges!  Next up is our personal pick, this week we were looking for good sportsmanship.   I decided to actually pick two winners this week:

shredder46 - In Challenge Auto Challenge - #254
FieldersChoice - In Challenge Auto Challenge - #255

They were both in an auto challenge together, and it was a pretty close neck and neck battle.  shredder46 won graciously, but he also made it a point to stop by the Fielders next auto challenge and wish him luck.  Both members showed great sportsmanship.  This is how we always envisioned challenges to be, a great way to possibly make friends, or cheer each other on in the gamerscore race that we do everyday, congrats to both.

Finally the big winner of the week... we randomly picked one name out of everyone that participated in a challenge this week to take home a customized Zune 80!  And that person is...

TonySama!
(YAAAAAY!  CONGRATS!!!)

If you didn't win this week, we are still doing daily point drawings, and there is 1 more Zune 80 to give away.  So either start, join or sign up for Auto challenges to be eligible!  If you did win, we will be sending all prizes at the end of the month!

Thanks for participating everyone!

The second week of February winners!

The second week of Challenge Month is officially spent, and we have more lucky winners to announce!

And first we have the daily point drawing winners:

2/8: Cataleet
2/9: CaptainNintendo
2/10: CodeSe7en
2/11: One Crazy Idiot
2/12: TxTehAdz
2/13: guitarfreak1982
2/14: Bojangles91W2P

Each of those folks will be netting a cool 1000 Microsoft points for just being in challenges!  Next up is our personal pick, this week we went purely on numbers and picked the person who had the most points in one challenge and did not win.  Out of the challenges ending that week it was:

dzstarr6668 - In Challenge Couch Battle

He managed to net over 16,000 points, but just couldn't move into 1st. For this he at least takes home a 360voice.com T-shirt.

Finally the big winner of the week... we randomly picked one name out of everyone that participated in a challenge this week to take home a customized Zune 80!  And that person is...

Samphis!
(I hope you like friggin rad gadgets!)

If you didn't win this week, we are still doing daily point drawings, and there are 2 more Zune 80 to give away.  So either start, join or sign up for Autochallenges to be eligible!

Thanks for participating everyone, it continues to be rockin!

First Week of February Winners!

All right we have burned through the first week of Challenge Month, and have lots of winners to announce!

First off, the daily point drawing winners are:

2/1: culin23
2/2: LIBERT4D
2/3: misere
2/4: Rigadaby
2/5: TheLastDon
2/6: H2O Zax
2/7: JACK O BLADES

Each of those folks will be netting a cool 1000 Microsoft points for just being in challenges!  Next up is our personal pick for good sportsmanship of the week:

jedi8955 - In Challenge Gamerscore Ballas

We blogged about it before this week, but he gained over 11,000 points in a 30 day challenge, and ending up losing by 2 points!  For his efforts and good sportsmanship he nets a 360voice.com T-shirt.

Finally the big winner of the week... we randomly picked one name out of everyone that participated in a challenge this week to take home a customized Zune 80!  And that person is...

Tha MasterCheif!
(OOOOOOOOOO! AHHHHHHHHHH!)

If you didn't win this week, we are still doing daily point drawings, and there are 3 more Zune 80 to give away.  So either start, join or sign up for Autochallenges to be eligible!

Thanks for participating everyone, it's been a lot of fun.

February is challenge month!

We are officially declaring February at 360voice, Old Spice Experience Challenge Month! We will be giving away special prizes every day for the ENTIRE month of February!

You have to be a FULL Member to participate, so register/upgrade today!

These prizes are available to both US and International 360voice gamers! Check it out:

Daily Microsoft Point Giveaways
Each day in February we will give away 1,000 points to a random person in an active challenge. This is available to both reward challenges AND bragging rights challenges. So if you are international and can't compete for prizes, just BE IN A CHALLENGE and you get a shot at 1,000 points every single day in Feb. That is a total of 29,000 points! (you can win only once)

Weekly Customized Zune (80 Gig) giveaways
Each Friday in February (starting Feb 8 2008), we will give way a Zune (80 Gig) customized with the winner's gamertag.  This is available to both reward challenges AND bragging rights challenges. If you are international (and the Zune is not available in your country), you will receive an equal value gift card. (you can win only once)

T-Shirt Giveaways
In Addition to our random drawings each week we will feature a gamer in a challenge to spotlight, and in turn they will win a customized 360voice.com T-shirt. Winners will be hand picked by 360voice.com admins, and qualifications will vary week to week.  Good sportsmanship and friendly banter always help!

So there go! February is the month of challenges! Tell your friends! Let's kick it up a notch!

ZeroDesolation grabs Ace Combat Gear!

Congrats to ZeroDesolation who wins the Ace Combat T-Shirt and Hat for leaving a comment on a blog this week. We had over 1100 comments during the short window, pretty impressive! Sorry we couldn't award all of you. Keep the comments coming for more chances to win, the new contest will be posted shortly.

Leave Comments Win AC6 SWAG

Okay this week's contest is ready, and now you can win some Ace Combat 6 swag!  The winner will net a Ace Combat T-shirt and hat from the fine folks at Namco.

If you haven't played Ace Combat 6 yet, I suggest you check it out. If you are a fan of the series, I think this is one of the best I have played. If you are new to the series, this is a great introduction. I just finished single player, and I had a blast. I really liked the ability to pick what objectives to choose in the missions, and the game was action packed. There are some pretty epic battles (I can't share without spoilers), but the difficulty and length felt just right. It's good to see the Xbox getting some new series, and some different types of games, so lets support it!  (Sorry for the ugly pic, I am having camera issues)

The Rules

1. All you have to do to be eligible is post a comment to ANY Xbox blog on this site. It doesn't have to be mine. To leave a comment, find any xbox blog with comments enabled and use the comment form under any blog entry. You can always find some blogs with comments by looking in the Top 20 Most Popular List on the 360voice homepage. Anyone with a star (*) next to their name has comments on.

2. When posting a comment on an xbox blog, you have to use your GAMERTAG in the name field... otherwise, I won't know how to track you down. If you use someone elses gamertag, they will win! So don't do that unless you want them to. :)

3. You DO NOT need to be a member of 360voice to leave a comment. Anyone can leave a comment on an Xbox blog so anyone is eligible.

4. I will private messageg you via Xbox live to let you know you won and you can provide your mailing info. If you have a 360voice account, you will also get the Contest Winner badge!!

5. It DOES NOT matter how many comments you leave. Each tag is counted only once... so don't spam the comments.

6.  Only comments posted between 12:01AM (PST) 11/20/2007 and 11:59PM (PST) 11/25/2007 will be eligible.

That's it! Easy enough right? And you get to participate on the site at the same time! Everybody wins yay!  For more information on the AceCombat 6 check out the official site.

More Contest Winners!

Congrats to IrishPauly and TX Eegras who will both be receiving SpeedFreek controller accessories!  They were selected out of the approximately 200 folks who left over 500 comments this weekend.  This week's contest will be posted tomorrow.