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There Are Now 30 Million Steam Accounts

Sam Naylor — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 23:02:03 +0000

Valve have reported not only a new account growth of 178% and a sales growth of over 200%, but the fact that there are now 30 Million Steam accounts.

During the past 12 months the platform had year-over-year new user growth of 178%, pushing the total number of active accounts to over 30 million, with over 1,200 games now offered. Peak simultaneous player numbers were also up to over three million, with over six million unique gamers accessing Steam each day.

In addition to new user growth, Steam sales during the trailing 12 months increased by more than 200%, putting it on track for a sixth straight year of realizing over 100% year-over-year growth in unit sales. To meet this demand, the Steam infrastructure has been increased and now has ability to run at 400Gps, enough bandwidth to ship a digitized version of the Oxford English Dictionary 92.6 times per second.

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I was just a wee nipper, I’d have loved to have the Oxford English Dictionary 92.6 times a second. Actually, I’m a little disappointed. I was hoping for 100 times a second if I’m brutally honest.

That’s about 0.4% of the world population, to put it in perspective. Valve had better keep up the push if they want that big market share.

Here, have every word that’s in Scribblenauts

Sam Naylor — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:49:05 +0000

This text file is, put simply, a list of every word that is in the fantastic DS game Scribblenauts. It’s potentially the biggest spoiler you can read for the game, although those with no creativity can get something out of seeing the results of some of the words. The greatest joy of this game is typing in a word you think could never be in there and finding that, actually, it is.

To get this list, the game file was broken apart after a leak of the ROM on the webs. Although I’m not going to deny that it’s out there, please buy the game. It’s out now in the US, but it’s not ready for EU release until the 9th of October. Support 5th Cell for having one of the best ideas for a game, let alone a DS game, for a long time. Right, preaching over. You may go about your daily business now.

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary Adds ‘Fanboy’

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:51:39 +0000

The term “fanboy” takes a nation by storm. The year, 1919.

Last year, Merriam-Webster recognized “w00t” as their 2007 word of the year. This year the Massachusetts based company has added “fanboy” to the mix along with over one hundred other new entries.

The word fanboy itself is far from new, as Merriam-Webster cites its first use dating back as far as 1919. I wonder what all the fanboys fought about back then?

Fanboy (1919): boy who is an enthusiastic devotee, such as of comics or movies.

While gamers aren’t specifically mentioned in the definition, I have a feeling it won’t be long before 360/PS3/Wii fanboys find themselves arguing which fanboy allegiance was shafted the most by the oversight. Make us proud.

Source: Yahoo

Merriam-Webster Name w00t 2007 Word of the Year – English Teachers Weep

Wade Larson — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:55:51 +0000

“I’m so happy I couldn’t contain myself!”

Congratulations World of WarCraft addicts. Give yourselves a pat on the back, Halo’ers. You and all the other gamers and internet fans out there have collectively legitimized 1337 speak.

Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. recently announced that their word of the year for 2007 is the internet slang expression of joy or excitement, w00t. On Webster’s website they announced the winner, along with a number of runner-up words.

The site defines w00t (yes, spelled with two zeros) as: expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word “yay”

Ex: w00t! I won the contest!

W00t beat out 2nd place term and internet phenomenon “facebook” to take top honors, and joins Stephen Colbert’s word of last year – truthiness – among the great words of our generation. So stand tall, my fellows. We have reached the pinnacle of wordiness.

What does this mean for the average gamer? Well, if you haven’t noticed gaming is rapidly becoming more mainstream, and getting a traditionally gamer word inducted as the word of the year is another step in this direction.

While some gamers may lament n00bs stealing their word, it does mean that all things gaming are gaining greater acceptance. If we all pull together, maybe we can pwn the rest of the words next year and get pwn instated in the dictionary next year.

1337 speak FTW