Why?

Because they said they didn't like the pressure of having to think carefully about what they were going to write before they typed it and hit enter.

That's not what we want from Star commenters. That's what we want from all commenters. If you come here expecting a free-for-all of memes, trolling and insults, go somewhere else. There are plenty of places on the Internet that will welcome you with open arms.

On Kotaku we expect much more. Here commenting is a privilege, one we will yank away in a heartbeat for breaking our fairly easy to follow rules.

In a nutshell we want you to think before you type. We want you to behave and comment as if you were talking to a living being, face-to-face, not typing into the Internet Ether hidden behind layers of anonymity.

So in the spirit of holiday house-cleaning, it's time for a crash course in comments etiquette. What can you do? What should you definitely never do? What, in effect, do we want from you, our commenters?

Gawker Media blogs are known for their savvy commentary. Kotaku is, last I checked, the highest commented site in the group. We strive to let in a smart and plugged-in community, and we want comments that serve as first-rate contributions to the post at hand. We love new insight and inside information. We value informed response and welcome
spirited debate. Above all, comments should always further the discussion. "Lifehacker's Guide To Weblog Comments" is a great jumping-off point for the uninitiated.

We like to see good spelling and grammar, because we're nerdy like that. Capitalization and punctuation are important, too. These basic requirements go a long way towards making us all look better. Staying on-topic in a thread is essential — but now you can also take a topic to your own generated #hashtag page, then direct others there. Editors may sometimes caution that a thread has gone off-topic and should be moved to another forum.

Many readers have already discovered how to make their voices stand out via our #speakout page. Here you can share breaking news, leaked info, links of interest and timely video. Give us some substantive lines on why we should follow up, and your post may be promoted or featured on the blog. The #speakout page is also an excellent space to audition as a first-time commenter with a
juicy tidbit or to show off your investigative instincts. I may even start perusing that hashtag page for potential future writers. Strike that, I will be on the hunt their for good, original articles. Advertising and spammers will be summarily banned, but quality contributors have the spotlight.

In addition, there is now an informal commenter forum, #TAY, where the conversation is yours to guide. This is the place to add comments, liveblogs, pictures, video, and links that are relevant to your community. It's also easy to jump over here if you find yourself veering off-topic and want to take others with
you.

So: thumbs up to attention to detail, thoughtful typing and prodigious use of the 'Shift' key. Personal attacks, inappropriate behavior, off-topic rants in comments and idiotic memes are subject to bans and disemvowelling. Starred commenters should be aware that their privileges are not guaranteed, and should be careful in the comments they approve and promote. Commenters can be demoted for unruly or obscene posting. Baiting trolls helps no one, and we want the level of dialogue maintained to be high. But editors and moderators are equally on the lookout for our best contributors, too, to promote and star for brilliant efforts of the commenting kind, so let's see what you've
got.

A Guide to Proper Commenting

While commenters have always had a huge amount of influence on the shape of Kotaku, starting today that's even more true.

In the past we've always insisted that tips and letters to the editor are sent in by email and mediated by our editors; that discussions stay on topics that we determine; and that our writers are the only ones who can initiate stories on the site. No longer.

With the launch of Kotaku Open Forums, we're allowing readers to post tips, screens, game cheats, amateur reviews and walkthroughs directly from a front page form. Readers can also initiate discussions on any topic they choose simply by including a Twitter-style hashtag in their post. And commenters can expand on a story, or rebut a post, just as now.

While our daily Talk Amongst Yourselves will continue to run each morning, now you can create your own discussion groups and forums to talk about just about anything.

And of course you can still respond directly to a post or another comment. Now, though, keeping track of those discussions has become easier with alerts you can receive from the site. And have no worries, we will still keep a close eye on the comment threads connected to stories. So read our FAQ.

We have no idea what uses people will make of these open forums. But we suspect that many of them will be fantastic.

The Tokyo Kotaku Party will be held at Shibuya's Trump House. There is no cover, and our event starts at 8pm and ends at 11pm — we've got bedtimes, you bastards!

We've already posted the location's Japanese website. Great if you can read Japanese, but not so great if you can't. Look at this, here are directions we've found on the internet for Trump House in English. Thanks internet!

It's a 5 minute walk from Shibuya Station. From Shibuy Station's Hachiko exit, cross the street to the Mark City/Inokashira Station building. Turn left, walk past the UFJ BANK, and then turn right on the next corner across from the bus area. Walk 2 streets up and it is on the right side on the second floor.

Here is a Japanese map with ZOOMING.

Know: If you are going, we would like you to send us an email at tipsATkotakuDOTcom. This is not an RSVP. I repeat, this is NOT an RSVP. There is no list, and we are not doing the RSVP thingy. Instead, we are trying to get an idea of how many people will be occupying this golden room with us. Got it? Good. So if you are going, shoot us an email with "Party" as the subject line.

Smooooooches.

Map info from Vanity.

Send us the commenter page to tipsATkotakuDOTcom for anyone who should get the axe, err, hammer. You can put in your request at tipsATkotakuDOTcom. Be sure to include the URL for your own commenter page.

No ban gloating. Gloating leads to Ban Hammer backfire, which could cause you to get the boot. And that would be very embarrassing.

For those who need a primer on who commenting works here, read our handy guide as well as how to get the most from your commenting account and more about starred commenting.

We'll be back to normal on Tuesday, lighter, faster and better. Hope to see you on the other side.

Surprise! Welcome to Kotaku Japan.

About two years ago in Australia we launched Kotaku Australia. Today Kotaku Japan is a go!

Don't worry, Brian Ashcraft is still the master of Japan and all things Asia, but now we have the same tasty Kotaku writing translated into Japanese. Better still Kotaku Japan also has its own crew of top-shelf writers hard at work ferreting out the details of all things Japanese and gaming.

If you happen to be lucky enough to live in Japan and still want to surf the undiluted pages of Kotaku Original then just type in us.kotaku.com otherwise you're going to be automatically redirected to the Japanese site. Of course there's also a link down on the left side of the site well, but what fun is that.

These starred commenters will also have some interesting new powers. Sadly, few are using them. So cheeky.

To review:

The new commenting system now has levels, four of them. Here's a run down of what they are and what they can do.

Stars
* A gold star next to the commenter's name.
* Comments given priority and published immediately after post
* A star commenter can see comments even before a moderator has approved them
* By replying to any comment, a star commenter can give it priority
* Promotion of another's comments to the featured section

Guest Stars
* Commenters whose thread is given priority by star commenter
* Automatically post their replies to the featured section within their thread

Commenters
* Can reply to threads.
* Become Guest Stars if a star promotes their thread

Pending Users
* Can reply in threads, though they won't be visible to others until approved
* Can have threads and replies approved by stars

Here's the part that makes me cry and shout and then cry some more and then shout until my throat is raw and hoarse: Few starred commenters are promoting comments from other commenters. And the ones that are, are only doing that for comments they are replying to. Kind of defeats the point of giving humans this ability if they don't use it, don't cha think?

Soooooooooooooooooo... Starred commenters, if you read the site (which we hope you do) and if you see a good comment (which we hope you do), why not promote it? Think of it as like Hyper Multi-Tap, but every damn day of the week. Yay.

How can I become a starred commenter?
Starred commenters are designated by the Editors and Moderators. In the past, Stars were designated by virtue of their popularity among other commenters. That tended to favor the sociable rather than commenters who contributed information to a discussion. Now that Stars' comments are featured so heavily, we need to handpick them. And because we're also featuring the comments to which Stars respond, they must also show judgment in choosing discussions to engage in. Translation: don't respond to trolls.

I'm a Star but I can't see my comment
Even a Star can be off-topic sometimes. Moderators — rather than applying the rather extreme sanction of banning — can now demote an individual comment. So that's why you can't see it among featured comments. Try clicking on "Show all comments."

This is, we at Kotaku hope, the start of a brand new day in commenting. A step toward finally giving some much deserved readers and commenters the spotlight they so richly deserve — but one that needs participation in order to fully come to fruition.

You are Kotaku's lifeblood, the thing that drives us to inform and entertain. Your input is often invaluable. The ever-growing sense of community is really what makes Kotaku what it is today and continues to move it onward and upward.

That's why today we are launching a revised and much more robust commenting system. It is one that takes into account many of the solid requests and suggestions you have made of us. That means that now, yes, you can edit your comments.

More interesting, more importantly, we have also tiered commenting, meaning that if you are one of our star commenters your comments will now get much deserved top billing. These star commenters will also have some interesting new powers. Yes, POWERS!!!

Here's a quick guide to the new commenting system. I'll also be updating our official commenting FAQ.

The Key Changes
* Privileges for star commenters
* Image and video embedding in comments
* Comment threads will appear newest first. Comments in a thread, though, will remain in chronological order.
* Related stories show to the right of each post
* Comments can now be edited for 15 minutes after publishing

The new commenting system now has levels, four of them. Here's a run down of what they are and what they can do.

Stars
* A gold star next to the commenter's name.
* Comments given priority and published immediately after post
* A star commenter can see comments even before a moderator has approved them
* By replying to any comment, a star commenter can give it priority
* Promotion of another's comments to the featured section

Guest Stars
* Commenters whose thread is given priority by star commenter
* Automatically post their replies to the featured section within their thread

Commenters
*Can reply to threads.
* Become Guest Stars if a star promotes their thread

Pending Users
* Can reply in threads, though they won't be visible to others until approved
* Can have threads and replies approved by stars

How do I edit my comments?
You will have 15 minutes after a comment has been published to edit the text, though they will not be able to add an image or video. Once the edit is made, a message will appear below the comment indicating that it's been edited.

Can commenters upload images and/or post a video?
Yes, image upload, inserting an image URL and inserting a YouTube URL will be available in comments. Images and video will be displayed at 340-pixels wide.

Why don't I see all replies?
Comments are filtered such that only those comments made by starred commenters ("Stars") or selected to be featured by our Editors or starred commenters appear by default. You can view the unfiltered comments on any post by clicking the "Show all comments" link at the bottom of the page.

How can I become a starred commenter?
Starred commenters are designated by the Editors and Moderators. In the past, Stars were designated by virtue of their popularity among other commenters. That tended to favor the sociable rather than commenters who contributed information to a discussion. Now that Stars' comments are featured so heavily, we need to handpick them. And because we're also featuring the comments to which Stars respond, they must also show judgment in choosing discussions to engage in. Translation: don't respond to trolls.

I'm a Star but I can't see my comment
Even a Star can be off-topic sometimes. Moderators — rather than applying the rather extreme sanction of banning — can now demote an individual comment. So that's why you can't see it among featured comments. Try clicking on "Show all comments."

Designed with a mind toward more readership participation, this new system will allow us to do some pretty cool things like hosting liveblogs and live chats with developers directly in our comments. You will also, moving forward, have many more chances to participate not just in the conversation, but the substance of Kotaku's articles. Think reader-generated lists and photoshop and video contests.

This is, we at Kotaku hope, the start of a brand new day in commenting. A step toward finally giving some much deserved readers and commenters the spotlight they so richly deserve.

A word of warning: This is a substantial tech change for Kotaku and Gawker and it's bound to have its hiccups and bugs. Please email us when you see them so we can get to smoothing out the rough edges. And please, as we strive to work out the kinks and go over our list of starred users and those who deserve to be starred users, be patient.

Thanks!

This will be going live over multiple servers so it may take a few before you see it on Kotaku.

Here are the Pix'N Love fellas checking out the book! Below, boozing it in celebration. Congrats, Pix'N Love! I'll definitely toss up some pics when I get my copy.

Working with Pix'N Love has been a pleasure — everyone on the Pix'N Love team is a class act.

Those interested in acquiring a copy of the French version, click here or check out more details in the embedded link.

Une journee avec Pix [Pix'N Love Editions]

Not sure — we just wanted to post a photo of Tim Curry. But we can tell you what Ban Monday is!

While we don't have any problem banning on regular days, we turn up the Ban Hammer sensitivity to MAXIMUM on Ban Monday. Needed with the post-E3 influx. Here's how it's works:

Send us the commenter page to tipsATkotakuDOTcom for anyone who should get the axe, err, hammer. You can put in your request at tipsATkotakuDOTcom. Be sure to include the URL for your own commenter page.

No ban gloating. Gloating leads to Ban Hammer backfire, which could cause you to get the boot. And that would be very embarrassing.

For those who need a primer on how commenting works here, read our handy guide as well as how to get the most from your Kotaku Kommenter Account.

And after that, read ten reasons why Tim Curry is awesome.

"Kotaku was a little-known, little-read blog in Gawker Media's online publishing empire until Brian Crecente transformed it into the PR-terrorizing powerhouse it is today," writes GamePro senior editor Sid Shuman. "Crecente brought investigative grit and a healthy disregard for the rules to the blog's blitzkrieg coverage of video games and gaming culture." There's an interview with Crecente as well in which he discusses his career, game writing and the year 2015 among other topics. Check it out and congrats to The Provocateur.

20 Most Influential People in Gaming: #20 - Brian Crecente [GamePro] [Pic]

We're all about options here at Kotaku, so we've made it possible for you to totally bypass certain types of content altogether. Don't like posts tagged "Maximum Risky"? Really would rather skip non-game-news posts completely? Oh ho ho.

Filter that stuff right out of your viewing experience. Here's how:

www.kotaku.com/tag/not:

Just copy this into your browser, and after the "not:", enter whatever you don't want to read. For example:

www.kotaku.com/tag/not:maximum-risky
www.kotaku.com/tag/not:note
www.kotaku.com/tag/not:night-note
www.kotaku.com/tag/not:culture
www.kotaku.com/tag/not:nsfw

And so on and so forth. Now you know how to filter out stuff you don't like — just like we can filter out commenters we don't like. See, it's totally fair!

Though, our favorite way of filtering is still, you know, skipping or scrolling or simply not reading. Call us old fashioned.

Patrick Shearer: "See, this is why I like board games. When I am kicking your ass in one of these, you don't mysteriously disconnect with 'internet problems'."

Congrats to Patrick! Shoot us an email at kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom to claim your prizes. That, and clear a space in your living room for you BRAND NEW SOFA.

I mean, mean it enough to provide video evidence of said love? Down with it and live in New York? Video king Richard Blakeley is putting together a video of unabashed Kotaku lovin.. the platonic kind, so if you're interested you should email him straight away.

Send us the commenter page to tipsATkotakuDOTcom for anyone who should get the axe, err, hammer. You can put in your request at tipsATkotakuDOTcom. Be sure to include the URL for your own commenter page.

No ban gloating. Gloating leads to Ban Hammer backfire, which could cause you to get the boot. And that would be very embarrassing.

For those who need a primer on who commenting works here, read our handy guide as well as how to get the most from your Kotaku Kommenter Account.

We'll be back to normal on Tuesday, lighter, faster and better. Hope to see you on the other side.

Let's take a look at them. First, you're going to want to access your profile. You can do that by logging in, then clicking the profile button (pictured above). Easy.

That will bring you to your profile screen, pictured above. From here, you can do all kinds of stuff.

1. Manage and edit your profile. This will let you upload/change your profile avatar, edit your personal information (like Gamertag, Steam ID, etc), display a website of your choosing and filter the kind of things that appear on...

2. The main "feed" page. You can edit what's displayed here by clicking on the comments, posts, favourites, friends and followers buttons on #1, and basically, it's there to highlight your comments, the comments of friends, posts from particular Kotaku authors, that kind of thing. Three of the four pictured there are red because they're my posts, but the third one down is what the comments look like when they're fed into the page.

3. Your "friends". When you're reading a post on Kotaku, and pop down to the comments section, you'll see that underneath other commenter's profile names is a little icon. Shaped like a love heart. If you like what you're reading, click that and you'll be "following" them, which means that whenever somebody you like posts a comment, you can edit your "feed" page (ie #2) to display their comments, so you can track them down and read/reply to them.

A "friend", then, is somebody you're following that's following you as well. Awww, isn't that sweet!

4. Your "followers". We pretty much just covered #4.

So, that's how you make friends on Kotaku and keep track of them. Now let's find out how you can keep in touch with them.

From #1 (the taskbar at the top of your profile page), click on "messages". That will take you to the screen above. It's basically the same as a personal messaging system on a forum, except it collects them all in a single thread. From this thread, you can view your messages, reply to messages sent to you, delete old messages, and select whether you want your message/reply to be private (so only the two people communicating can see it), or whether you don't care if the world knows about it.

So next time you need to clear something up with somebody, or just say HELLO, the messages system is probably a better way to go about it than clogging up the comments section.

And...that's about it! There are a few fancier tricks for more advanced users, like subscribing to RSS feeds (hint: the feed button is at the top right of the profile screen), but for the most part, that's all you need to know.

Oh, apart from this. You must read this. We'd recommend you read it on a daily basis. No. Hourly basis.

For those who aren't Kotaku commenters, but would like to be...create an account and start commenting. The world won't see your comments, but we will. If you're sticking to the rules (and actually contributing something to the conversation), it shouldn't be long before somebody gets around to activating your account.

French game book publisher Pix n'Love Editions will be bringing the book to wider audience. Pix n'Love is best known for its books on the PC Engine and the history of Nintendo (Pix n'Love's Florent Gorges has a monthly column in Japanese mag Nintendo Dream.)

Pix n'Love was planning to do an arcade book, but fell in love with Arcade Mania and wanted to bring it to the French speaking public. The book will be translated into French by one of the founders of Shmup.com, a great database about shooting games.

The French edition is slated for release this June. Can't wait.

Until then, sit tight and drink hot chocolate.

Update: And we're baaaack! Still, we recommend hot chocolate. Cute robots go well with hot chocolate. It's a proven fact. Look it up.

Whether today is your first day reading the site or you've been reading it since the day I stepped foot in Kotaku tower, you don't have the right to troll, to name call, to get off topic or, the worst offense, to bore.

We take commenting very seriously on Kotaku because we believe strongly that what we write is only half the story, the other half, often the more important half, is how you react and the discussion that ensues.

That is why we ban, without warning, people whose comments are pointless like: "First" or "Not news" or "Slow news day."

It's not because we think you're being petty or insulting (both are true), but because of the larger offense, you're off topic. When you comment on Kotaku we expect you to be commenting about the story at hand. Agree, disagree, we don't really care, just do so intelligently and civilly.

And when the topic is something sensitive or heated don't use that as an excuse to incite or stop thinking. I would rather ban the entire community than steer away from topics that may make someone angry. Believe me.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, here's a quick break down of how to comment, with thanks from Lifehacker:

Move the discussion forward: It's fine if you want to agree with what is already being said, but you don't really need to. You won't get banned for it, but if you're hoping to become a star commenter, try to contribute new information to the discussion.

You don't have to comment: Again, it's not necessary. Feel free to, but don't feel obligated to.

Keep private private: If you want to say something to someone on a personal level, or what to discuss something off topic try using our private messaging function. You can access it by clicking on a person's name.

Think before you type: Remember that's quite a soap box you're standing on when you prepare to comment. We have millions of readers, many of which will read what you have to say. That's fantastic, but make sure you make it worth their time. Stop and reread what you're going to say before you click on comment. Maybe give yourself a bit of time to cool down before responding.

Be courteous: No one respects a loud mouth or a name caller. No matter how right you are, if you deliver your intelligent discourse punctuated with name calling and four-letter words no one is going to take you seriously.

Don't tease the trolls: They exist, we will try to stay on top of the issue and ban them when we find them, but don't make the problem worse by responding or even acknowledging their existence, that just empowers them.

Heed the Disemvowel: I take banning people very seriously. I know how important comment access is and I hate to remove it, but sometimes it's necessary for the health of the commenting community. When someone has stepped over the line or maybe uncharacteristically broken a commenting rule we disemvowel them. But remember, that's a warning shot, the second time is a ban.

Promote Smart Comments: Every week we post a round-up of the most intelligent comments on the site. We also are always on the look out for people who should be promoted to Star Commenters. That's a worthy goal to reach for.

Believe it or not, we don't like banning people. And we certainly don't ban people because they disagree with us. What fun would that be. I love to hear intelligent discussions about how wrong I am. But break the rules, get off topic, start calling names, and you're going to get banned.

Now have fun.

Some reading on topic:
Geek to Live: Lifehacker's guide to weblog comments
A Call to Ban

We ban. A lot. Every second of everyday. And that's not all! We disemvowel, too. (Bcs n vwls s fnny!)

We also reward stellar commenters with stars, and commenters can reward each other with Hyper Multi-Tap nominations. Swell.

Why do we do this? Well... Have you visited other sites? Not everyone who reads Kotaku comments, and some of those individuals perhaps, just perhaps, would like to read intelligent, insightful remarks from smart people, not dribble from dummies!

Here's a helpful guideline for commenting from sister site Lifehacker. Read it, learn it, live it, love it.