BXB Monthly Community Contribution Awards

Enjoy being part of the BXB Community? Well, now you could win prizes just for being one of those lovely, helpful forum types that grace the pages of the UK's most vibrant and exciting Xbox community everyday.

We're announcing the BXB Monthly Community Contribution Awards which will see members of the BXB Community chosen by their peers and rewarded by BXB for being a great forum visitor.

The competition will be sponsored by a different publisher each month and we'll be giving away goodies like free games and merchandise to those that top the bill.

The way this works is simple. From today you'll be able to nominate one of your fellow forum browsers to be up for winning this award. Perhaps this person really helped you out when you were stuck with something technical? Maybe they posted a thread that made you laugh until you cried? Or perhaps they just did something fantastic for the whole community like organise an game night or clan?

Nominations will last for two weeks and end on Tuesday 13th of March when the top three nominations will go for the public vote. After two weeks of voting, the winner is announced and it all starts over again. This month's competition is sponsored by Capcom who'll be providing the winner or winners with free games and t-shirts.

Michael Rossell, Editor and Events Manager commented: "BXB's greatest strength is the Community upon which it is built. It is the hand that feeds us and we want to reward those people that keep on coming back to this site and contributing towards it in a positive way.

"This latest idea also allows people to get recognition not only from BXB but from the people that read the forum. We'll be working with major publishers like Capcom, Vivendi Universal and many others to reward those that make this community great.

"If you're not involved in our great community then you were missing out long before we started this new initiative. We can't wait to see who wins the prize for the first month and when the year is up we'll put a final vote together to see who was the greatest forum visitor of the year!"

Sam Brace, spokesperson for Capcom commented: "The xbox community is a hugely important and positive part of gamers lives, Capcom recognise this and wish to support its growth in any way possible. Personally, I feel it brings us all closer together like virtual Xbox brothers and sisters. Man, it's a beautiful thing."

To enter this competition all you have to do is click here and check out the thread in our forum.

My Frakkin Eyes!

I about wet myself when I found out about the Battlestar Galactica game coming to the Xbox Live Arcade and then actually did when I found out there was a theme and gamer pictures available!

So, I grabbed them as quickly as I could as I'm a massive Battlestar Galactica fan.

Why is it that whenever you get these cool themes they always have the worst ever backgrounds on the Guide? The one for BSG looks like blue and white paint splattered together and is painful to look at.

So, I swapped it for the "shield grenade" Guide Background that you got with the Halo 3 theme! Nice.

Transparency

I've just sent out our first monthly traffic update to publishers, PR people and community types so they know just what they're getting for dealing with BXB.

Here's the Press Release (aka Media Alert):

Monday 12th February 2007, Leicester - Britxbox.co.uk, the UK's leading Xbox Community site, have today announced their first traffic figures of 2007 with over 60,000 people visiting the site since January 10th.

The last thirty days have seen Britxbox.co.uk receive a total of 520,083 page views from 64,136 unique visitors which is an average of 2,137 unique visits per day.

Ashley Allen, Director of Britxbox.co.uk commented: "In the past we've used our own traffic tracking program to measure our visitors but we recently decided to use Google Analytics because they are independently recorded meaning that publishers can trust the figures we release.

"We've not been tracking our traffic for some time now, so this is really a clean sheet for us and we've seen some very encouraging figures. Historically, our unique traffic has dropped from previous peak times where we were getting around 80,000 uniques each month.

"Since January 10th 2007, 25 per cent of visitors to BXB have been new while 75 per cent have been returning visitors. Traffic to the site in mainly from the UK but we also get visitors from America and mainland Europe. Britxbox has a large amount of loyal visitors and since we started tracking our traffic again 18,602 people have visited the site more than 51 times with 1,506 visiting the site over 201 times in the last month.

"We're happy with the current figures but recognise we have the opportunity to build upon the current strong base of users and have plans in place going forward into 2007."

If you'd like anymore information on Britxbox.co.uk the please contact Editor and Events Manager Michael Rossell at mike@britxbox.co.uk.

I decided a long time ago that BXB was going to be totally transparent about its traffic figures as I believe a lot of our competitors aren't doing the same. We also started using an independent stats tracking system so publishers can trust the figures we're sending out.

I've got to admit to being a little disappointed that we dropped just over 15,000 uniques since we last tracked our traffic but that was over a year ago and things are certainly a little different these days in terms of the amount of sites available for Xbox gamers in the UK which are offering similar or better services than BXB are.

Obviously, we're not just sitting around doing nothing about this...

Root Beer Tapper vs. Worms Media Alert

Media Alert? The new buzword for Press Release then! I've was reading the Toot Beer Tapper Media Alert today that landed in my mail box. Here it is:

"'Root Beer Tapper' will be available worldwide (excluding Korea and Japan) for 400 Microsoft Points.

Game Features

Authentic to the original game, 'Root Beer Tapper' on Xbox Live Arcade brings you a classic favorite.
Take on a bar full of thirsty folks in 'Root Beer Tapper' and see if you can keep their mugs full.
Grab the empty mugs before they slide off the bar.
Earn extra points by collecting tips.
Locate and open the one can that has not been shaken up and serve it up to waiting patrons in the bonus rounds.
Enjoy high-definition support for detailed graphics.
Play either locally or over Xbox Live* in co-op or versus modes.
Have your scores posted on the Xbox Live Leaderboard. High scores are tracked for the current week and also for all-time arcade, co-op and versus game modes.
Earn up to 12 Achievements and 200 gamerscore points.

'Root Beer Tapper' is rated E for Everyone."

Here's the one they're releasing for Worms...

"'Worms' will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points.

Game Features

2D Worms.

'Worms' if Rated E for Everyone."

I know which I'll be spending my Microsoft points on...

Dispatches

Typical, you go for days without thinking up a decent blog entry and then suddenly three come along at once. Well, I'm going to keep two in reserve and publish them over the next couple of days to keep the content extra fresh.

So, nearly two months ago now, BXB hosted an awesome Viva Pinata Party Competition. We announced the winners on January 10th but I've only just managed to send the prizes off. Not very organised, admittedly, but I have good reason.

Without trying to sound too apologetic (I did say that winners should expect 28 days for delivery to cover my ass a little) but I've been well busy and a bit absent minded.

So, I got paid last week meaning I could afford to send the prizes off and I also finally remembered to pick up some great big massive boxes to put the prizes in. Sitting in my bedroom they blocked out what little sun was creeping in through my window!

I managed to stuff them into the back of the car and I got some funny looks from Coalville yokels walking into the Post Office with three massive boxes that used to contain Walkers Crisps!

After some careful box manoeuvring and risking getting a big ass parking ticket I managed to get the boxes all sent off Special Delivery for just seven English pounds sterling! I hope the winners (McTim, Ice Cold Covis and Porsche) all enjoy their prizes!!

Sometimes I get to do slightly glamorous things like jet off to Barcelona and hang out with journalists from Stuff Magazine but most of the time I'm stuffing screwed up Page 3's into big boxes full of goodies and sending them off to places with funny post codes!

Oh, and as an apology for the delayed sending, each one of the winners got an extra game for free!

GRAW2 Promo Events!

Maybe you all remember BXB and Ubisoft's awesome Join the Ghosts event that happened around a year ago? Well, now Ubisoft is giving you the chance to take part in another event except this time with Warfighters!

While BXB isn't directly involved this time, we're supporting the event because, frankly, we like Ubisoft and we think Warfighters is awesome!!

There will be a series of tournaments held on GRAW over the next few nights and the winners of these will have a day at Warfighters on febuary 17th!

Click Here to Find Out More!