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As the great writer and artist L.L. Cool J once said, “Don’t call it a comeback, we been here for years”. We’ve spent the first year of Xbox LIVE Indie Games training and refining ourselves into a lean, mean, Indie Games machine….we’re the Independent Developer Network (IDN) Team! We’re solely focused on YOU, our independent developer community, and look forward to giving you better insight into what the team is up to, more consistent and concise communication and doing all we can to keep our incredible community of Indie devs on the path to awesome.

What to Expect

• We’re not Miss Cleo with a psychic hotline, but we are opening the lines of communication through various surveys. This is another route in order to give us direct feedback, and rest assured the feedback will be read and action will be taken! These will be optional, but they’ll help us to understand your wants and needs even more clearly, at least until we have a team member who’s clairvoyant.
• Like Dorthy, we’re unveiling the curtain and giving you the opportunity to get to know us better. (Meet the Team)
• Weekly updates, news items, forum posts, etc. to bring you all the latest and greatest news from not only us, but throughout the Indie Developer community.
• We are actively looking for new ways to showcase the amazing talent that exists within the community. We’ve ruled out a rip off of “So You Think You Can Dance”, so if you have a suggestion, feel free to send it to us: creators@microsoft.com!
• Get your edumacation on with the soon-to-launch Academic page, where we can call out all the goodness that is coming from our student community.
• Ever wanted to ask the XNA Game Studio guys: [insert random and reasonable question]? Starting in January 2010, we’re giving you a new avenue to do just that. Find out more about our Developer Talk Series below.

Developer Talk Series
With the holidays now upon us, there won’t be too many updates from us, but that doesn’t mean we’re not hard at work! Coming this new-year, we’ll start our Developer Talk Series. This is an opportunity for our Creators to attend virtual presentations/demos with product team members from the XNA team, and ask all your burning questions. It’s a great opportunity to meet some of the key players that bring XNA Game Studio to life. Questions? Stay tuned for more details in late December!

Meet the Team
Get to know us! Who are we? What the heck do we do all day? We’re the team that creates and updates content on the XNA Creators Club Online, manages the forums along with the magnificent MVP’s, conducts Dream.Build.Play, attend events, and more! Check us out below and learn more about what makes us tick.

	Stephanie Reimann, Group Manager I am the strong but mostly silent type. If you are hearing from me it is either really GOOD or very BAD! I am the mean one on the team that crushes dreams, cracks whips but I wear cute shoes while doing it. My job is to make sure that Indie Games stay's successful as we venture on the road less traveled.
	Kathleen Sanders, Community Manager Kathleen claims to be a time traveler, but refuses to say from when, or even why she has come to our present. Scientists theorize it's because this is the golden age of indie development and she’s been sent here to help save the world from destruction through loss of awesome Indie Games. She commands a fleet of incredible MVPs and unicorns to aid her in this mission. She can't be bargained with. She can't be reasoned with. She doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And she absolutely will not stop, ever...
	Tracy Hackney, Program Manager I’m like Oz behind the curtain, only with a lot less mystery or power. I spend my days pounding away at the keyboard writing new content and updating sites in need of a bit of love. When I’m on my mandatory union break during the day, I enjoy catching up on all the celebrity gossip; if all the celebrities are in hiding that day, I then resort to regular old news.
	Eric Hsia, Graphic Designer Abandoned in the woods of central Michigan by a Mennonite clan at the tender age of 2, Eric was raised by a motley crew of badgers, wolverines, groundhogs and wolves. As a result, he is lacking in all manner of social graces and good hygiene and unable to comprehend the consequences of his actions, but is in possession of a heart made of pure 24k gold. Seriously, if you opened him up and took a look, you'd see a lump of yellow metal roughly the size of a human fist in his chest cavity. Eric also plies his trade as a graphic designer for the IDN team.

With Special Appearances By:

	Sean Jenkin (aka “Jenkmeister”) is the man behind the site…or maybe HE’S the great and powerful OZ!
	Phil Smail (aka “Pheel”) is the man behind the taxes and money….

If you’ve read this far, thanks! We look forward to getting to know you better! If you have any questions or have additional feedback, we encourage you to visit our forums, or email us at creators@microsoft.com.

Thank you!
IDN Team