Activision today has revealed their partnership with Autism Speaks in the form of the Power Blue Skylanders.
To support the millions of families affected by autism, Skylanders®, the beloved kids videogame franchise, and Autism Speaks, an organization dedicated to autism science and advocacy, invite fans to "Light it up Blue" with one-of-a-kind toys. Through this creative collaboration for April's Autism Awareness Month, Skylanders and Autism Speaks are raising awareness for an important cause -- and in true Skylanders fashion, are having fun while doing it.
"Autism affects one in every 42 boys and one in 68 children in the U.S. We're proud to work with Skylanders, an iconic franchise that's known for bringing joy and magic to kids and families," said Peter Morton, vice president of Corporate Development at Autism Speaks. "This year's Light it up Blue campaign for World Autism Awareness Day marks our first alliance with a videogame and toy, and we couldn't be more excited."
The new series of Skylanders SuperChargers toys are blue and white to reflect Autism Speaks' official colors. The "Power Blue" Skylanders SuperChargers feature Splat and Trigger Happy, as well as their SuperCharged vehicles Splatter Splasher and Gold Rusher -- all of which appear in-game as their special colors. The toys are on store shelves now at participating retailers in the U.S. and Europe and will be available starting April 1 in Canada.
"When my son was diagnosed with autism, I felt very alone. From my first Autism Speaks Walk, I felt the power of community, and this partnership with Skylanders will bring awareness and belonging to kids and families in a unique way," said Matt Asner, director of Corporate Development, Autism Speaks.
"Since the debut of the franchise, we've heard from parents that Skylanders plays a special role in the lives of their kids on the autism spectrum," says Josh Taub, senior vice president of Skylanders Product Management, Activision. "The entire Skylanders team was deeply committed and proud to bring these special toys to life. If they can put a smile on a child's face, then we know we've done our job right."
In addition to creating the Power Blue Skylanders SuperChargers and bringing them to life in game, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) is launching employee education and employee-donation matching programs in connection with Autism Awareness Month. Additionally, in recognition of World Autism Awareness Day, employees will have the opportunity to participate in the Autism Speaks Walk on April 2 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Activision is also making donations to non-profits that are making a difference in the autism community.
In addition to my support on autism awareness, I created a gamplay video on the Power Blue Skylanders and their respective vehicles.
I've been a Pokemon fan for years, since Pokemon Red/Blue. Playthrough every single new game on my Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, and 3DS, including few of the Stadium games on consoles. Happy 20th anniversary, Pokemon!
DarkSpyro.net. A big Skylanders/Spyro the Dragon website that is steadily growing by the day.
While the forum does have some neat information on Skylanders and old Spyro the Dragon games, what members don't know is that there is more than just fancy walkthrough pages and galleries. There is the communication and the enjoyment fans gain by talking with others about the Skylanders and Spyro games. Or it can be about topics related to silliness and standard real world discussions. There is also the forum moderation. It can help make your time on the forum fun, or it can make your time there difficult.
The current 2016 darkSpyro Main Page
Most of you may know me from the forums, and I have been around since 2008. Back then, the darkSpyro forums was just about Spyro games, solely operated by dark52.
Besides posting walkthroughs, managing and creating news posts on the Spyro games, dark52 was mostly on top of rule-breakers and trolls and would ban them from the forums as soon as they ignore their first few warnings. Sometimes though, trolls would come on when the admin was asleep, and it would take hours later until he would come online to clean up the mess. But other than that, darkSpyro was a pleasant place to talk and chat with other Spyro fans.
Until the time came when dark52 decided to follow Skylanders and made the site a part Spyro part Skylanders division. As time went on, more and more members joined due to the audience of Skylanders, and it became too much for the admin.
Some of us suggested to dark that he should appoint moderators so he wouldn't feel so overwhelmed. But dark refused to accept help and believed that he could handle the forum on his own like he always had.
Big mistake.
At one point, a troll posted inappropriate images on the forum that lasted for 6 hours until dark52 finally woke up and deleted them all. I can't even imagine how many kids late at night or in the morning were possibly scarred by those pictures all because of dark's stubbornness. Even after all of that, he was still convinced that he didn't need any moderators. Completely ignorant to the fact that he doesn't do anything when something obviously bad is happening. Can you believe it??
Sometime after the horrible incident, the admin allowed trolls to get away with harassing users. They broke the forum rules on multiple occassions, drove away older members, and the trolls even had the nerve to start speaking on the admin's behalf just to belittle others. In a nutshell, dark52 basically just sat back and watched the rule breaking scenario all happen. And this lasted about... a few years and it could've lasted a LOT longer.
I was one of the main victims of the trolling, and I can tell you, it was the worst experience I've ever endured on any forum. Imagine being harassed and trolled on for months, being the target of an upcoming war started by a troll who was in the process of tricking an entire forum section of children to be against you. And the admin knowing fully well what's going on but refused to do anything about it. All just to update forum news and making posts about Skylanders. Like the concerns of his userbase don't matter to him at all.
It can drive you extremely fustrated, crazy even. Honestly it drove me insane that I wondered WHY I was still on that forum.
After some time during all of the chaos, dark52 FINALLY gave in and went on to appoint moderators after 8 long years of solo moderation. At least he admitted that he neglected his duties. Although he never did apologize to the users, including myself, who were harassed constantly by the trolls thanks to him. But even with mods, dark didn't do much moderation himself sometime afterwards, besides removing the occasional spambot or inappropriate picture troll.
Nowadays, there is a 10% chance you will get a private message response from the admin, regardless of your question, request or in need of intervention. The other 90% is him updating the forum polls, getting news on Skylanders, and making the site look prettier. He rarely communicates with the forum members and his fellow moderators, keeping most rule changes and decisions to himself until he feels like revealing them at the last minute. You will very likely see him talk about Skylanders, than forum issues that aren't worth his time to talk about.
In addition, dark has shown some severe signs of neglecting his admin duties. Such as causing an harassment war to nearly happen, allowing a kid to post his private information more than three times (and we're talking about family names, home address, email that kind of private information that should be kept your self), and allowing scenarios to escalate out of porportion until he feels like dealing with it.
If you have a logical issue about dark52 and his way of moderation, he will simply disregard your topic subject at hand altogether and will respond to an-off topic comment on popup ads instead.
As a longtime member of the forum, I would not recommend darkSpyro.net unless you are used to a user who doesn't take his job as admin and site owner very seriously. You might become stressed or unwanted, a victim of trolling caused by returning rule-breakers and egomaniacs. All of this happening to you, with dark52 not doing anything about it. And normally he would leave the moderators to do most of the work for him.
An admin should learn from his or her mistakes. But dark52 is one admin who apparently never learn from his. And even if dark changes his ways now or after this video is made, chances are he will go right back to being a recluse and sit quietly while watching rule-breakers run amok until he FEELS like stepping in.
2007 Layout of darkSpyro.net
I've been on darkSpyro for ages, and it's hard to leave a place where I grew up going to after a day's work. But with the way things are on the forum, and the admin STILL showing no signs of improvement on his moderation, I may as well just move on.
So I ask you, viewers. Would you want to join a nice looking forum like darkSpyro.net, but with a reclusive and ignorant admin like dark52? I wouldn't. But in the end it's your choice. You may like the forum just because of how fancy it looks or it's the only popular place to see new Spyro or Skylanders info. But remember that in the end, it is run by a user, a user whose actions can either make your time on darkSpyro fun or outright miserable and unenjoyable.
Thanks for tuning in, everyone, see you next time.
