Phil
Community Member
Owner & Founder
Community Leader
DNA+ Member
BADGES
22
Badges Unlocked
XBOX
802
Achievements
STEAM
705
Achievements
POSTS
453
Community Posts
Welcome to The Community Address — a new weekly feature from GamingDNA where we open the doors and give you a look at what's happening behind the scenes.
GamingDNA is constantly evolving, and there's always something being worked on. Sometimes it's a brand-new feature, sometimes it's an improvement to something that already exists, and sometimes it's an idea we're experimenting with that could become part of the site in the future.
The Community Address is where we'll talk about all of it.
So here we are — kicking off October and just 31 days away from Halloween!
Speaking of Halloween, as long as all the coding goes exactly to plan, there's something special waiting for you.
If you visit the My Badges page on 31st October, you'll unlock an exclusive Halloween badge.
And don't worry about forgetting. We'll be talking about the Halloween challenge throughout October and counting you down towards the big day.
Before we get into everything new this week, let's kick things off with a shoutout to the members who earned last month's 50+ Posts Community Challenge badge.
Congratulations to:
Thank you for getting involved!
We've now launched three new Xbox scanners, taking our total number of scanners to six.
The aim is simple: improve the reliability and speed of achievement scanning.
Our original three scanners couldn't always get everyone scanned, so adding three more gives us significantly more capacity and should help alleviate some of the issues we've experienced.
We're also looking at ways of pushing the Xbox API further to give us greater flexibility with what GamingDNA can offer.
One of the biggest additions is now live:
My Xbox.
My Xbox gives you your own dedicated Xbox hub where you can access all of your Xbox gaming information in one place.
From the My Xbox homepage you can:
We've introduced five Xbox-related leaderboards, giving you another way to compete with other GamingDNA members and build up your Xbox profile.
There's plenty more we can do with My Xbox in the future, but this gives us a strong foundation to build from.
As we move into October, we'll be updated our challenges later today.
And this month there are three badges up for grabs.
Create 10 new topics during October.
Complete the target and you'll earn yourself a shiny new badge.
This month's Gaming Challenge couldn't be much easier.
Simply earn 10 Gamerscore on Xbox.
That's it.
10GS.
Easiest challenge we've had so far? Probably.
And finally, there's the secret Halloween challenge.
Visit GamingDNA on 31st October and, assuming everything goes according to plan, you'll unlock a special Halloween badge.
Don't worry about remembering all three challenges. We'll be covering them throughout the month and counting down to Halloween.
Since our last weekly update, we officially launched GamingDNA 2.0.
And with it came our brand-new homepage.
The aim of the new homepage is to give the community a much better overview of what's happening across GamingDNA and make it easier to discover the things we've been building.
We've already seen some positive signs.
One of our secret badges was advertised on the front page and, before long, we saw someone unlock it.
That's exactly the sort of interaction we're hoping to encourage.
We want GamingDNA to feel like something that's constantly moving rather than simply being a website that sits there waiting for people to visit.
You may have noticed that GamingDNA is now officially a three-person team.
If you missed the announcements, Oblivion Knight and Gizmo have joined the team as our Community Moderators.
They'll be looking after the forums, helping the community and making sure GamingDNA remains a great place to hang out as we continue to grow.
So please give them both a warm welcome.
There's plenty more happening behind the scenes.
Work will begin over the next few weeks on the Steam Hub.
Steam has historically been a little neglected compared with Xbox on GamingDNA, so the goal is to change that.
We want Steam to become just as rich and useful as the Xbox experience.
That means looking at things such as:
Xbox and Steam should feel like equal parts of GamingDNA.
If you haven't already, check out the Wishlist forum.
I've already posted quite a few suggestions for things I'd like to see implemented across GamingDNA.
If there's something you'd like to see, vote for it.
And don't just stop there.
Feel free to create your own suggestions too.
GamingDNA is a community, so ideas that could improve the site will always be taken seriously — and fellow members can have their say by voting.
We're also currently rebuilding the original Help & Support pages, which have since disappeared.
The new Help Centre will become a much more useful source of information for members who need help understanding GamingDNA, its features and how everything works.
One important thing to remember:
Not everything above is a "tomorrow" job.
GamingDNA is being developed around a full-time job and a family, so some things inevitably take time.
There's a lot happening behind the scenes, but we're building this properly rather than rushing everything out at once.
And with lots of new features inevitably comes the possibility of bugs.
So if you find something that doesn't look right, please report it in the Bug Reports forum.
The more you report, the more I can squash.
Now it's time to turn our attention to the community forums.
We've picked out 10 posts worth checking out this week — and, of course, there's nothing stopping you from leaving a cheeky reply while you're there!
Read the discussion →
Join the discussion →
Read the discussion →
Join the discussion →
Read the discussion →
Join the discussion →
Read the discussion →
Join the discussion →
Read the discussion →
Join the discussion →
That's everything for the first Community Address of October.
There's plenty happening across GamingDNA, and there's even more being worked on behind the scenes.
New features. New challenges. New badges. New hubs. New ideas.
And, most importantly, a community that we're continuing to build together.
Thanks for being part of GamingDNA.
Play. Track. Connect.
See you next week.
GamingDNA is constantly evolving, and there's always something being worked on. Sometimes it's a brand-new feature, sometimes it's an improvement to something that already exists, and sometimes it's an idea we're experimenting with that could become part of the site in the future.
The Community Address is where we'll talk about all of it.
Welcome to October
So here we are — kicking off October and just 31 days away from Halloween!Speaking of Halloween, as long as all the coding goes exactly to plan, there's something special waiting for you.
If you visit the My Badges page on 31st October, you'll unlock an exclusive Halloween badge.
And don't worry about forgetting. We'll be talking about the Halloween challenge throughout October and counting you down towards the big day.
A Shoutout to Our Badge Earners
Before we get into everything new this week, let's kick things off with a shoutout to the members who earned last month's 50+ Posts Community Challenge badge.Congratulations to:
- Phil
- Gizmo
- FreddyFox22
Thank you for getting involved!
What's New This Week?
Three New Xbox Scanners
We've now launched three new Xbox scanners, taking our total number of scanners to six.The aim is simple: improve the reliability and speed of achievement scanning.
Our original three scanners couldn't always get everyone scanned, so adding three more gives us significantly more capacity and should help alleviate some of the issues we've experienced.
We're also looking at ways of pushing the Xbox API further to give us greater flexibility with what GamingDNA can offer.
My Xbox Is Now Live
One of the biggest additions is now live:My Xbox.
My Xbox gives you your own dedicated Xbox hub where you can access all of your Xbox gaming information in one place.
From the My Xbox homepage you can:
- View your Xbox overview
View your game library- View all of your unlocked achievements
View locked and unlocked achievements for games you've played
Write achievement guides
Track your Xbox achievement performance
Compete on Xbox leaderboards
Five Xbox Leaderboards
We've introduced five Xbox-related leaderboards, giving you another way to compete with other GamingDNA members and build up your Xbox profile.There's plenty more we can do with My Xbox in the future, but this gives us a strong foundation to build from.
October Challenges Are Here
As we move into October, we'll be updated our challenges later today.And this month there are three badges up for grabs.
Community Challenge
Create 10 new topics during October.Complete the target and you'll earn yourself a shiny new badge.
Gaming Challenge
This month's Gaming Challenge couldn't be much easier.Simply earn 10 Gamerscore on Xbox.
That's it.
10GS.
Easiest challenge we've had so far? Probably.
Halloween Challenge
And finally, there's the secret Halloween challenge.Visit GamingDNA on 31st October and, assuming everything goes according to plan, you'll unlock a special Halloween badge.
Don't worry about remembering all three challenges. We'll be covering them throughout the month and counting down to Halloween.
GamingDNA 2.0
Since our last weekly update, we officially launched GamingDNA 2.0.And with it came our brand-new homepage.
The aim of the new homepage is to give the community a much better overview of what's happening across GamingDNA and make it easier to discover the things we've been building.
We've already seen some positive signs.
One of our secret badges was advertised on the front page and, before long, we saw someone unlock it.
That's exactly the sort of interaction we're hoping to encourage.
We want GamingDNA to feel like something that's constantly moving rather than simply being a website that sits there waiting for people to visit.
The GamingDNA Team Is Growing
You may have noticed that GamingDNA is now officially a three-person team.If you missed the announcements, Oblivion Knight and Gizmo have joined the team as our Community Moderators.
They'll be looking after the forums, helping the community and making sure GamingDNA remains a great place to hang out as we continue to grow.
So please give them both a warm welcome.
Future Plans
There's plenty more happening behind the scenes. Steam Hub
Work will begin over the next few weeks on the Steam Hub.Steam has historically been a little neglected compared with Xbox on GamingDNA, so the goal is to change that.
We want Steam to become just as rich and useful as the Xbox experience.
That means looking at things such as:
- Steam game libraries
- Achievement tracking
- Steam statistics
- Leaderboards
- Game information
- And potentially Steam achievement scanners
Xbox and Steam should feel like equal parts of GamingDNA.
The Wishlist
If you haven't already, check out the Wishlist forum.I've already posted quite a few suggestions for things I'd like to see implemented across GamingDNA.
If there's something you'd like to see, vote for it.
And don't just stop there.
Feel free to create your own suggestions too.
GamingDNA is a community, so ideas that could improve the site will always be taken seriously — and fellow members can have their say by voting.
Help & Support
We're also currently rebuilding the original Help & Support pages, which have since disappeared.The new Help Centre will become a much more useful source of information for members who need help understanding GamingDNA, its features and how everything works.
A Little Reality Check
One important thing to remember:Not everything above is a "tomorrow" job.
GamingDNA is being developed around a full-time job and a family, so some things inevitably take time.
There's a lot happening behind the scenes, but we're building this properly rather than rushing everything out at once.
And with lots of new features inevitably comes the possibility of bugs.
So if you find something that doesn't look right, please report it in the Bug Reports forum.
The more you report, the more I can squash.
10 Community Posts Worth Checking Out
Now it's time to turn our attention to the community forums.We've picked out 10 posts worth checking out this week — and, of course, there's nothing stopping you from leaving a cheeky reply while you're there!
1. Do Reviews Still Matter Before Buying a Game?
Read the discussion → 2. GamingDNA Game of the Year
Join the discussion →
3. Board Games as Video Games
Read the discussion → 4. What's the Greatest Xbox Exclusive of All Time?
Join the discussion → 5. Are PlayStation Trophies Still Important to You?
Read the discussion →
6. What's Your Nintendo Hidden Gem?
Join the discussion →
7. Which Nintendo Game Deserves a Remake or Remaster?
Read the discussion →
8. Which Is Better — Game Marketplace?
Join the discussion →
9. What's the Hardest Retro Game You've Ever Beaten?
Read the discussion → 10. What's the First Game You Remember Playing?
Join the discussion →
Until Next Week...
That's everything for the first Community Address of October.There's plenty happening across GamingDNA, and there's even more being worked on behind the scenes.
New features. New challenges. New badges. New hubs. New ideas.
And, most importantly, a community that we're continuing to build together.
Thanks for being part of GamingDNA.
Play. Track. Connect.
See you next week.
