Xfire
Xfire was a proprietary freeware instant messaging service for gamers that also served as a game server browser with various other features. It was available for Microsoft Windows. Xfire was originally developed by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California. Xfire's partnership with Livestream allowed users to broadcast live video streams of their current game to an audience. The Xfire website also maintained a "Top Ten" games list, ranking games by the number of hours Xfire users spend playing each game every day. ''World of Warcraft'' had been the most played game for many years, but was surpassed by ''League of Legends'' on June 20, 2011. Social.xfire.com was a community site for Xfire users, allowing them to upload screenshots, photos and videos and to make contacts. Xfire hosted events every month, which included debates, game tournaments, machinima contests, and chat sessions with Xfire or game developers. As of January 3, 2014, it had over 24 million registered ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mike Cassidy (entrepreneur)
Mike Cassidy is an American entrepreneur. He was CEO and co-founder of five Internet start-ups, including Stylus Innovation, Direct Hit Technologies, Direct Hit, Xfire, Ruba.com, 'Start-up King' Mike Cassidy and Apollo Fusion. In January 2012, he became director of product management and, subsequently, a Vice President at Google. Cassidy also led Project Loon with X Development, Google[x]. Education Cassidy was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS '85, MS '86 in Aerospace Engineering), Harvard Business School (1991), and studied jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music.Notable BiographiesMike Ca ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dennis Fong
Dennis Fong (), better known by his online alias Thresh, is an American businessman and retired professional player of the first-person shooter video games '' Quake'' and ''Doom''. He is a co-founder of Xfire, an instant messenger and social networking site for gamers, which was acquired by Viacom for 102 million in April 2006. He also co-founded Lithium Technologies, a social customer relationship management (CRM) company. In his playing career his highest profile victory came in 1997 at the Red Annihilation ''Quake'' tournament, where he placed first and won id Software CEO John Carmack's Ferrari 328. Fong is recognized by the ''Guinness World Records'' as the first professional gamer. Playing career Fong began playing ''Doom'' at the age of 16 in 1993. He first chose the pseudonym "Threshold of Pain", which referred to the ability to withstand enemy fire and suffering. However, as many games had an eight-character ID limit, he went with " Thresh" and liked the word's m ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Machinima
Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, machinima is the art of making Animation, animated narrative films from computer graphics, most commonly using the same Game engine, engines used by Video game, video games. Machinima-based artists, sometimes called Machinimists or Machinimators, are often fan laborers, by virtue of their re-use of copyrighted materials (see below). Machinima offers to provide an archive of gaming performance and access to the look and feel of software and hardware that may already have become obsolete or even unavailable. For game studies, "Machinima's gestures grant access to gaming's historical conditions of possibility and how machinima offers links to a comparative horizon that informs, changes, and fully participates in videogame culture." The practic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Instant Messaging
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involving simple text message exchanges, modern IM applications and services (also called "social messengers", "messaging apps", "chat apps" or "chat clients") tend to also feature the exchange of multimedia, emojis, file transfer, VoIP (voice calling), and video chat capabilities. Instant messaging systems facilitate connections between specified known users (often using a contact list also known as a "buddy list" or "friend list") or in chat rooms, and can be standalone apps or integrated into a wider social media platform, or in a website where it can, for instance, be used for conversational commerce. Originally the term "instant messaging" was distinguished from " text messaging" by being run on a computer network instead of a cellula ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Viacom (2005–2019)
The second incarnation of Viacom Inc. ( or ; a portmanteau of Video & Audio Communications) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate with interests primarily in film and television. It was split from the original Viacom on December 31, 2005 alongside the second incarnation of CBS Corporation. The controlling shareholder of both companies was National Amusements, a theater company headed by businessman Sumner Redstone. The split was structured so that the original Viacom changed its name to CBS Corporation and spun out its cable and film interests as a new Viacom. The second Viacom operated Viacom Media Networks, through which it controlled approximately 170 networks and reached approximately 700 million subscribers in approximately 160 countries. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Instant Messaging
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involving simple text message exchanges, modern IM applications and services (also called "social messengers", "messaging apps", "chat apps" or "chat clients") tend to also feature the exchange of multimedia, emojis, file transfer, VoIP (voice calling), and video chat capabilities. Instant messaging systems facilitate connections between specified known users (often using a contact list also known as a "buddy list" or "friend list") or in chat rooms, and can be standalone apps or integrated into a wider social media platform, or in a website where it can, for instance, be used for conversational commerce. Originally the term "instant messaging" was distinguished from " text messaging" by being run on a computer network instead of a cellula ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Screenshot
A screenshot (also known as screen capture or screen grab) is an analog or digital image that shows the contents of a computer display. A screenshot is created by a (film) camera shooting the screen or the operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ... or software running on the device powering the display. Screenshot techniques Digital techniques The first screenshots were created with the first interactive computers around 1960. Through the 1980s, computer operating systems did not universally have built-in functionality for capturing screenshots. Sometimes text-only screens could be dumped to a text file, but the result would only capture the content of the screen, not the appearance, nor were graphics screens preservable this way. Some systems had a BS ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tencent
Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the world's largest company in the video game industry based on its equity investments. Founded in 1998, its subsidiaries globally market various Internet-related services and products, including in entertainment, Artificial intelligence industry in China, artificial intelligence, and other technology. Its twin-skyscraper headquarters, Tencent Binhai Mansion, Tencent Seafront Towers (also known as Tencent Binhai Mansion) are based in the Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Nanshan District of Shenzhen. In December 2023, architect Büro Ole Scheeren unveiled the latest helix-inspired design of Tencent's new global headquarters in Shenzhen. Known as Tencent Helix, it will accommodate more than 2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joint Venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to access a new market, particularly emerging market; to gain scale efficiencies by combining assets and operations; to share risk for major investments or projects; or to access skills and capabilities.' Most joint ventures are incorporated, although some, as in the oil and gas industry, are "unincorporated" joint ventures that mimic a corporate entity. With individuals, when two or more persons come together to form a temporary partnership for the purpose of carrying out a particular project, such partnership can also be called a joint venture where the parties are "''co-venturers''". A joint venture can take the form of a business. It can also take the form of a project or asset JV, created for the purpose of pursuing one specific project, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Social Media
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and Network virtualization, networks. Common features include: * Online platforms enable users to create and share content and participate in social networking. * User-generated content—such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos, and data generated through online interactions. * Service-specific profiles that are designed and maintained by the List of social networking services, social media organization. * Social media helps the development of online social networks by connecting a User profile, user's profile with those of other individuals or groups. The term ''social'' in regard to media suggests platforms enable communal activity. Social media enhances and extends human networks. Users access so ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Benchmark Capital
Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. The firm is known for its equal partnership structure and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the first institutional round of funding while taking a board seat with each company it invests in. Founding, partner structure Benchmark was founded in 1995 by five partners: Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. The firm is noted for creating the first equal ownership and compensation structure for its partners, where there are no "junior partners" or "senior partners," and there are also no CEO-like position held, differing from other VC firms which are named for their founders and are structured hierarchically. The firm has stated the reason for maintaining this approach is to "force discipline and accountability to focus on what matters" for its founders and limited partners, as their profits are driven b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dark Kingdom
The is a group of fictional characters in the ''Sailor Moon'' manga series by Naoko Takeuchi. They are the chief villains of the first story arc in every version of the series, and were first introduced in the first chapter of the manga, "Usagi – Sailor Moon", originally published in Japan's ''Nakayoshi'' on 28 December 1991. In the DIC English adaptation, the Dark Kingdom's title was changed to "Negaverse". In each variation of the series, the characters—led by Queen Beryl—attempt to steal life energy from humans and the Silver Crystal so they can release the evil Queen Metaria, who was imprisoned by Queen Serenity during the destruction of the Moon Kingdom during the Silver Millennium period. Creation and conception The Dark Kingdom is first referenced in Naoko Takeuchi's '' Codename: Sailor V'', which features Sailor Venus as the main character, who confronts a group of villains called the Dark Agency. In the final volume of ''Codename: Sailor V'', the Dark Agency i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |