Moussiffer's site

Odd website pager issue?

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:28:57 +0000

Well, I haven't been around here much lately. I can't even remember the last time I signed into my pager. But every-time I come onto the website I seem to have messages from people who I am not talking to. I am assuming that they are getting messages from me, or something is getting mixed up, because I keep getting messages like "What?", or "Um?" or "I know a few things, what do you need?" Or "Why the hell are you asking me?" and other things that would seem to indicate some kind of conversation going on, that I am not part of. Is this some kind of error with the pager or website or should I be worried? Lol. It is kind of annoying. And these messages aren't from forum post, they don't have a location, so I am assuming that they are coming from the pager.

Membership is coming to an end. =[

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 16:32:13 +0000

Well guys, my membership is coming to an end in 15 days and 4 hours. The impending doom and weighing heavily on my heart. =[ Are these the final days of The Phoenix Den? Is there possible a kind soul out there willing to rekindle our fire so we may rise new from the ashes of this dying membership? Only time will tell.

Seeking Experienced programmer for paid job!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:04:25 +0000

The name says it all really. I am looking for a programmer for this new and top secret game I would like to create. :P Which I am hoping to find soon. This is a copy of the classified add, in case anyone didn't see it in the classified section. :P

Project Name:
The project doesn't currently have a title so for now we will just call it "Code Name: Anthology" and see where that leads.

Description:
I would like to create a game. I have planned out the details of the game already, however, I do not wish to try and explain it all in this post, needless to say this will be a game of an original concept, and will not be related to anime. This will also be a RPG that I am hoping will be rather extensive and of course fun. For more information about the game and what will be included in the game, please feel free to contact me (my information is below) and I will be happy to fill you in on the details.

Project Goal:
The goal of this project will be to make a large RPG of original concept, as well as offer subscriptions.

Skills Needed:
Essentially what I am looking for is a programmer.
I need someone who has experience, intermediate experience would be preferred, and professional.
I am looking for someone who has been working with DM for a decent amount of time. If you have only been working with DM for a few months or a year, then you are probably not what I am looking for or experienced enough to handle this project, 3 or more years would be best, The more the better.
I am also looking for a programmer who is present. I don't require every second of your life to be devoted to programming for this game, but I would like you to be active and to be able to produce results in a timely manner. This does not mean that you have to rush through the project, I am looking for quality over quantity, however, I do not want to wait 5 years for this project to be completed.
I am also looking for someone who is dedicated to the job. I will be paying you and I will be paying a decent amount, so I do not want someone who will start to do the project and then within a few weeks decide they no longer want to work on it. If you respond to this post then be ready to be in this from start to finish.
I am looking for someone who is opinionated and can/will speak up when need be. This is rather important. If you have an idea, or you dislike something, then I would rather you voice your concerns or suggestion than to push on through the work and then there arise problems later on. I can't promise that I will always agree with you, but I will always take your opinion into consideration.
I am also looking for someone who will think outside the box. Someone who is willing to learn new things if required or is willing to ask for help if need be.
Optional:
I would love to work with someone who has knowledge of other programming languages. This is not required but is of course nice.

Compensation:
I was inspired by Eternia, and so I have decided to create a budget for this game and set out to find a programmer willing to work with me to create it. I am offering $300 to the programmer who agrees to take on this job. We can work out a payment method when we speak about the game. I will also consider raising the price (as long as it does not go over my budgeted limit) for a more experienced and devoted programmer. And If the game gets done faster than expected, I will be more than happy to offer a bonus for a job well done.

Team Members (Optional):
Currently I am the only member of this team. I am creating the maps, gathering the icons, designing the interface, and I do a little programming (But not at a level of experience to make this game by myself).

Contact Information:
You may E-Mail me at the following places, you may also instant message me from them as well. You will have a higher success rate if you IM me.

AIM - Moussiffer8
MSN/WLM - Moussiffer@MSN.com
Yahoo! IM - Moussiffer@yahoo.com

P.S. I didn't really check over this before posting it so if there are any errors in it, it is all my secretaries fault. :P

Birthday and some short updates.

Sat, 07 May 2011 19:33:26 +0000

Well BYOND, today is my birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! =]

Besides that a few small updates.

1. College is coming to an end with finals this week so in the coming weeks I will have an extreme amount of time to continue working on my game. =]

2. Charmed the Requiem has been put on the back burning as I have begun to work on a new original game called The Requiem! What a shock! The Requiem is going to be a re-imagining of the Charmed version except using original concepts and continuing a different story line and plot. The game will be a RPG based on Mythology, folklore, modern witch craft, etc, and I feel will have a more interesting appeal to more players than a fan game.

3. Unlike the other game, I am making a design document to help map out the game for interested parties to help as well as give a fell of what the game will be like and allowing others who have read it to make suggestions and additions that could benefit the game and its creation in this early stage.

4. Later on this week I will be posting a classified ad for those willing to help and see where that goes, if not I will try to find help else where as I can note do a one man team anymore.

5. The majority of the mapping and iconning has been completed, Perhaps in a few days I will put up a mock up of the game as well.

6. To all those who where interested the Charmed game, I feel that fan games are kind of being pushed out from BYOND recently and might do better with a original game. You will still enjoy the same concepts as the Charmed game (as Charmed was based on mythology, modern witch craft, and folklore as this game will be.

Finally, I hope to get a lot of opinions and input on this game so I will be adding it to the forum on my members page so that fans who have ideas or suggestions of what they would like to see in the game or just things they are interested in general that might help.

Anyway I am going to get back to working on my school stuff and birthday stuff and will update more soon. =]

Have a great weekend.

MineCraft and you!

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:55:44 +0000

Just wanted to make another blog about something. I have some extra time before I go home (I am at college) and I got bored with BYOND (what else is new. XD), so I decided to check out Minecraft which my roommate so kindly installed on my laptop. Y_Y

MineCraft if you didn't already know is a sandbox building indie video game written in Java originally by creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. The game is focused on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. The game is divided into two main modes â free Classic and paid Beta â where Classic is focused entirely on construction with unlimited material supply, while Beta requires players to acquire resources themselves, and contains mobs, player health, and additional features and items. The gameplay is inspired by Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and Infiniminer.

The game is currently in development and Beta is the only continuously updated version of the game. Minecraft was developed for about a week before its public release on May 17, 2009 on the TIGSource forums, where it gained a considerable level of popularity. It has been continually updated and patched since then, and while it was still in alpha release, it garnered several hundred thousand sales and received critical notice and acclaim from many reviewers. It passed a million units sold on January 12, 2011, less than a month after reaching Beta. (I totally stole all that from Wiki XD)

MineCraft is set up in a similar way to what you would see in BYOND's Isometric systems... Only better obviously.

I think this game has a lot of potential as a make your own adventure game. You are given a character who is stuck in a world that is full of monsters that come out at night and try to kill you (these monsters are like zombies and blob monsters that explode) Your task is really to explore the islands, build shelters and weapons and defend yourself at night from these creatures.

Something interesting about this game is that the owner of this game unlike most others actually WANTS you to screw around with it. It is open for you to mod however you want and there are many many many mods out there pre-made just waiting for you to add to the game and enjoy. It is single and multi-player so you can enjoy with your friends. AND!!! Another perk top this game, the owner actually doesn't mind or track those who download the game for free. That's right! You heard me. The owner is for piracy!

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=34553

Not saying you should pirate the software, obviously it is a really cheap price for a cool game that is getting updated constantly and when it leaves beta you don't have to re-buy it. but that being said, it is nice to see someone in the "biz" who also has the same thoughts on piracy as myself and others I know. There is a guy who is looking at his glass half full!

So over all I would give MineCraft 4.5 out of 5 stars! It isn't finished but it is still pretty awesome and it is definitely worth checking out.

Game owners removing comments from game hubs

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:26:57 +0000

I think this is a stupid feature and should be removed. Players of the game have the right to explain how they feel about a certain game because that is the whole point of the comments section. Similar to the feedback section of the hub, if owners just delete the bad comments and leave the good ones, new players to the game will not know whether games have abusive staff members, or whether people prefer to play a different server because the other ones are run by bad host or admins, or even just stating the the owner doesn't update the game frequently or that aspects of the game are ripped from other games. I think all players should have the right to review and critic games and the owners should not have the right to pick and choose what is shown, other wise there is no reason for comments to be added in the first place.

Now granted, there are some people out there who will post offensive rude messages, but just like with the feedback tab on the hub, if a post is not helpful or is bad in general the owner of the hub could always report it to a BYOND admin and have it removed. or have a report feature that report certain post with a reason why it should be removed.

As a BYOND member, I would rather see honest comments about what a game is like from the actual players then the abridged good version of what a game is like by the owner of the game who only wants to show the good side of the game. Or wants to suppress truthful but negative aspects of the game.

Feature tracker issue?

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 06:00:42 +0000

I was looking at the feature tracker and it shows that pretty much all of the items on the list besides a few are listed as open now. Is this some kind of issue with the feature tracker or is there some reason that this was changed from what it was previously?

BEYOND BYOND!!!

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 01:26:35 +0000

Well, I haven't made a blog post in a while and I haven't made a post that doesn't involve polls in a REALLY long time, so I figured I would give it a shot. Although this doesn't have to do with BYOND, this is still my blog and the information might be valuable to someone. I would love it if you would leave comments and/or even become a fan of this blog (I currently have 3 but would love more! XD)

Anyway to the Blog!

As some of you who know me might already know, I am addicted to movies. Personally I am a huge horror movie buff but besides that I just love to watch them in general (I have no life... Y_Y). Recently I have come across a few good movies from different genre's that are (In my opinion) AMAZING! And should be viewed by others.

Now me personally, I use Netflix. I think it is an amazingly wonderful server and for such a cheap price it can be beat. Luckily for me I have a huge 65" HDTV that is internet capable and has a Netflix app that allows me to stream it directly to my TV (So I can watch a ton of movies). IF your TV has this ability then I would suggest looking into getting a Netflix subscription. Even if it doesn't you can still get a basic subscription which you can stream movies to your computer through the Netflix website.

Now that I am done selling you on Netflix here are a few good movies that I have checked out on Netflix over the last few weeks that I really liked and thought you (The reader might enjoy as well)

To me this movie is an edge of your seat Psychological thriller that keeps you guessing all throughout the movie.

IMDb: The tale of a serial killer in West Hollywood has two converging plot lines. The first involves an uneasy relationship between a psychologically unstable landlady and her enigmatic lodger; the second is about a troubled detective engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with the elusive killer, who is imitating the crimes of Jack the Ripper

I don't want to give to much away but I do suggest that everyone watch this movie 5 out of 5 stars!

Another movie I felt strongly about was....

Personally I am a huge fan of Liam Neeson's movies. I think he is an awesome actor. This movie is probably one of the best movies I think I have ever seen. I actually had to go online and check out what others had to say about this movie because This movie just makes you think and wonder and doubt yourself and all your thoughts on what exactly is happening.

IMDb: After a horrific car accident, Anna (Ricci) wakes up to find the local funeral director Eliot Deacon (Neeson) preparing her body for her funeral. Confused, terrified and feeling still very much alive, Anna doesn't believe she's dead, despite the funeral director's reassurances that she is merely in transition to the afterlife. Eliot convinces her he has the ability to communicate with the dead and is the only one who can help her. Trapped inside the funeral home, with nobody to turn to except Eliot, Anna is forced to face her deepest fears and accept her own death. But Anna's grief-stricken boyfriend Paul (Long) still can't shake the nagging suspicion that Eliot isn't what he appears to be. As the funeral nears, Paul gets closer to unlocking the disturbing truth, but it could be too late; Anna may have already begun to cross over the other side.

I give this movie a 8 out of 5 stars! XD

Another movie that I thought was pretty good, however is a little older is ....

A wonderful and intellectual movie featuring Samuel L Jackson. A little odd at first, you have to keep watching to really get into it, but once the more interesting parts start to happen you are drawn into this world of fantasy and wonder, asking yourself, "Will I ever find my way out of the rabbit hole?"

IMDb: Romulus is mentally ill, a troglodyte in a New York City park. He's also a gifted composer and the father of a city cop. On Valentine's Day, a young man freezes in a tree near his cave. The police determine it's the accidental death of someone behaving bizarrely, but Romulus believes a friend of the dead youth who says that noted avant-garde photographer, David Leppenraub, murdered him. Romulus, urged on by hallucinations of his wife as a young woman, resolves to catch the killer and manages to be invited to Leppenraub's farm to play a new composition. Can Romulus hold it together long enough to get to the bottom of the death and also to make a breakthrough with his daughter?

I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars because it has a slow beginning but really does draw you in after a while to deliver a wonderful performance.

Well that is three movies right there that you can look up or ignore or what have you. If you have already seen them then I would love to get your opinion on them as well. If you haven't, I definitely suggest that you do and let me know what you think. All of these movies can be found on Netflix or downloaded through various torrents or found at your local movie store.

Since this was kind of a spur of the moment thing, next issue I will expand into other aspects of BEYOND BYOND-ness such as video games, books, new movies, ETC. In fact, if there are things you are interested in and would like to see featured in this blog, just let me know and I will work out new things to add next week or next blog session.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you. Don't forget to fan this blog and leave comments!

This blog was dictated not read. XD

Issue with BYOND's direction, for Tom.

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:57:49 +0000

I was looking over the Developers forum as I normally do and upon checking out the Developers How-To part I noticed This Post and the answers that followed.

This is rather upsetting. Especially coming from a community of people who constantly bitch and complain that there are not enough original games on BYOND or that there are not enough dedicated developers to bring up the quality of BYOND so that more developers will want to join and potentially help bring in business in order to help Tom when it comes to paying the bills, to push out faster and better updates.

Now don't get me wrong I do think that a fair bit of learning to program is doing your own research and asking questions. But not everyone is good at learning like that. They need hands on help or someone to show them how and what to do. And to be told that no one will help you without paying them and chances are if you were offering to pay them they wouldn't help anyway, really just stunts BYOND's growth potential.

I mean honestly, this isn't even the first time I have noticed post like this. quite often do I see developers telling people that no one will help them unless they pay and then often enough I see people offer to pay and still get no help. Everyone wants to complain about the issues but no one actually steps forward and tries to solve them? And I know someone is going to comment saying "Oh well that's what the Developers How-To, Code Problems, and Classified ads are for", but how often do we see people asking for help and getting rude of unhelpful comments while using those forums? You know for a lot of experienced developers who have worked with DM for years and had previous knowledge when coming to DM they are at an advantage. But others who have no previous knowledge and are actually trying to become something here, are shooed away and then people wonder why there are so many rips? It is easier to make a rip then get good quality help for cheap or at all really.

I understand wanting to be paid for your time and effort, but at some point there has to be some give and take with the more experienced developers and the new ones who are willing to put in the time and energy to learn and do so correctly, but need a little extra help them being linked to the reference, or being told to submit problems on the forums.

I think perhaps some of the more experienced developers should get together and form some sort of class where they can teach those willing to learn. Hell it could even be something where a few players pay on a weekly basis to be taught. Or it could be a member feature in the future where those willing to teach and those willing to learn and/or pay to learn can get together and work with each other to make better more stable developers for the future of BYOND. The same concept could be applied to pixel art as well. This way experienced Developers would make some money on the side for teaching, and inexperienced developers could become better.

On one hand, if no one likes this feature and takes advantage of it then it doesn't hurt anyone. On the other hand if there are a decent amount of people who would like to use this service, those teaching can stand to make a decent amount of money and may just have a issue fitting in teaching so many people into there daily schedule. Which of course could be worked around and if enough developers are interested in might not be a problem. Of course making classes that need to be paid for would drastically limit the amount of people who actually join to those who are serious enough to pay to learn.

I decided to put this on the BYOND discussion section because I did want to get the opinion of others as well as Tom directly. I would like if those who respond to this keep a positive attitude when responding and stay on topic.

Fun poll about eating out. XD

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 17:20:09 +0000

Recently I had some extra money laying around and decided to take my friend out to dinner. We had such a hard time figuring out where to go because honestly... There are so many places to choose from. At first we were going to get Sushi but it is a little pricey. Then we wanted to get seafood, but good seafood is hard to come by and red lobster is REALLY expensive (Not that the money was an issue but we wanted to get good food for a decent price). Lol. So we ended up picking going through a bunch of options from eating at home and just buying the food, to ordering out, to going really cheap like fast food or expensive like gourmet places. In the end we ended up going to the Outback which if you don't know what that is, it is an Australian style steak house. The food was pretty good, and it was decently cheap. About $60 for the both of us with tip. But anyway, I just wanted to get others opinion on what they do in these situations. XD