We've always wanted to collaborate on a project together and produce something we can all call our own. After discussing with some Origin members, I discovered that the consensus is a turn-based strategy game.

Why a turn based strategy game?

First of all, developing a game that involves little real-time player-to-player interaction is definitely within the capacities of the people here. It's definitely something we can all do together successfully.

Second of all, strategy suits Origin. We debate, discuss, philosophize; we like games that require us to think. We love forming strategies. It'll definitely allow us to be more focused and enthusiastic about the project.

Third of all, a turn-based strategy game is easy to modularize—A can make maps 1-5, B can make maps 6-8, and so on. It's not something that will grind to a halt when my schedule peaks. It's something we can work on progressively and measure progress continually on.

Origin's full of very capable individuals, and I'm confident we can achieve our goals. I can personally identify at least 5 members who are able and willing to take part in the project. How better to celebrate our 7th year of existence than by making a game?

If you're interested, I will post the details in a separate forum we will be using for all further details and discussions regarding the project: http://originxt.com/cat/187

Within four weeks will be the completion of our seventh year of existence! What shall we do to celebrate?

This is the first step of my plan to renovate Origin. The main concern has been that Origin has no unifying theme. It started off as an Anime site—good. Then it turned into an RP site—good. But soon, that died and Origin just became a place where people relaxed and discussed random topics with each other.

Origin still does not have a theme as concrete as Pokemon or Futuristic RPing, but we don't need to—it's okay for every one of us to have distinct, unique interests as long as we can find ways of having fun together. Today you see the first result of that realization: Origin is now split into five distinct zones that best identify the five distinct fields of interest of our members. The latter four of them will revolve around the first in a planetary fashion (as if they were satellites/moons of the planet in the middle), and each will feature a town theme.

The first is the obvious: Official stuff, including our news category, our project factory, and the submission forums.

The second is the general discussion location, from the more intellectual stuff (The Academy) to the more playful stuff (Amusement Park).

The third contains a slightly reorganized version of our RP/Creative Writing section, with the town theme in mind.

The fourth contains all of the categories we'd normally associate with entertainment: Gaming, movies, TV shows, Anime/Manga, and music.

The last (fifth) is the technology center, for discussions about the latest processor, website design, domain services, programming, and other technology-related topics.

As you can see, we've worked hard to get the town theme in every one of our "zones" (or satellites). We're still working on the unifying theme that ties each satellite to our main planet (besides gravity of course), so expect that some time!

As you might have noticed, the motivation behind these changes is to allow Origin to appeal to a broader audience. Instead of interfering with the experience of another member, the member with his unique interests should enrich the community (culturally and socially) for everyone, even those who don't share the same interests. By organizing into zones, we allow people with opposite interests to get out of each other's way—for example, if you don't care about programming, you won't see programming-related stuff (unless you tried to); yet they can still share their days, rant about stuff, play some games with each other in the Origin Town.

This concludes the changes you see today.

The next change will further solidify the theme we're going for—the planetary, spatial, even geocentric theme. You'll just have to keep your heads up and be ready for what's coming in the days/weeks ahead!

I'd like comments/criticisms/praises! regarding this change and perhaps suggestions for what you'd like to see in later changes. Thanks everyone!

Hey all,

The Z Saga II, sequel to the phenomonally successful Z Saga RP of 2005, is now officially open.

Even if you have never RPed before, I encourage you to check out The Discussion Topic to see what it's all about.

Please, even if it is your first RP, come and join in here!! The last one was great fun, but it all depends on large audience participation. Feel free to simply read the topic by all means, but even if you consider yourself an amateur, have no fear to just jump in and join in the fun!!

Also, advertise us anywhere you think there may be fellow RPers/Storytellers lurking - the more the merrier, even n00bs are welcome!!

So please - check it out. Thank you

Nobody commented on the awesome logos with cute Leprechaun footprints!

Sorry guys, I'm swamped! I have midterms, projects, work, interviews, and of course other stuff to prepare for, complete, finish, etc, and as such I will be less active here (I will still lurk and sometimes post, although more about administrative matters)

In my stead I've temporarily made Garlic an administrator. He's been on Origin for a while and he knows us well. When I can resume normal activity , unless everyone impresses me not to, I will shift Garlic to a more "staff" role (moderator/representative) (just so you know I'm not giving anyone special favors)

Good luck everyone!

We in the staff (or rather Jinghao) have decided to allow double posting in threads that seem to address multiple topics. It's very easy for one topic to divide into many others, and as a moderator, it's difficult to split a topic which addresses multiple points. If each topic is kept in separate posts, that would make it a lot easier to split, and keep on topic.

So, if responding to a thread that has diverged to more than one topic, make two posts which address each topic separately. Please don't abuse this though, only use it when appropriate.

And "Singles Awareness" day for the rest of you

*points up at the Origin logo*

Origin would like to wish you all a happy new year! Hope all of you got home safely from the festivities! Yes, all (Icey, Shadow, Kiro, Sing, Jinghao, Engler, Garlic) 7 of you.

Cheers.

If anyone is wonder what I've been working on since Christmas morning, wonder no more: For those of you with a Facebook account, head over to http://apps.facebook.com/originbrowser/ to check out the first milestone of my OriginBrowser project.

To get started, login using your Origin account details, and it'll set you right up.

So far it can browse the forums you have the permission to access (minus passworded ones—that'll be taken care of later), browse topics people have posted in, and display them as you would normally see Facebook posts. (The integration and permission system took forever!) I also implemented pagination so you don't have to suffer through 500-post topics in one load.

As of now, only three people have linked their accounts. The app will be more useful when more people link their accounts, so, everyone with a FB account, please do so.

Keep in mind the application isn't meant to replace Origin, but to supplement it. The next features I have in mind are notifications/topic subscriptions, topic posting/replying, member-referral page, etc.

Thanks, and post questions here If something doesn't work, it would be helpful if you post your platform info (browser, OS, and their versions) and a detailed description of what's wrong.