Perpetr8r the Perpetu8r's BYOND website

Mitadake High Review

Tue, 05 May 2009 01:37:40 GMT

Mitadake High is one of those games that sounds great on paper, but fails utterly in execution. Not only does the RP mix with the game's execution like oil mixes with water, but the players themselves are often not willing to contribute, causing the game to suffer from what I call "Space Station 13 Syndrome" and break down into a mess of random killing and insult fights.

So why does this happen? Well simply put, MH carries within it the seeds of its own downfall. The game's creator spent a lot of time making a game where there were many opportunities to RP, and many different scenarios could be formed that would provide enjoyable gameplay to all. He also, unfortunately, undid all of his hard work by creating a bunch of pointless, game-breaking weapons and hiding them in specific locations that you could only find if you knew where they were OOC-ly. This in itself is an open invitation to all would-be griefers (see SS13), and more or less provides the groundwork for a disappointing RP experience to come.

"Space Station 13" syndrome (named after the game where this type of behavior runs rampant), is what usually happens very quickly after the game starts. Instead of bothering to play properly, experienced players with a chip on their shoulder (read: noobs) will go off, seek out all the best items on the map, arm themselves to the teeth with said weapons, and then roam the hallways in gangs or alone, bashing everyone they meet to death. It's affectionately termed "Random Killing" in the world of MH, and understandably, upsets most of the good RPers. What's worse is that due to the miraculous inability of most hosts to actually do their job and ban these people, it creates an artifical power hierarchy, where the killers become idolized for their power and others will flock to their side so as to prevent being killed over and over again. Without a stong system of authority, these players will rule with an iron fist, killing and sparing whoever they please with nobody to stop them. In an ironic twist, it's exactly how MH was meant to be played, minus the complete lack of roleplay.

Now, I could go on for pages about the hosts not doing their jobs, but this is a review about the game, not about the morons who play it. Game-breaking weapon exploitation aside, there are other areas where MH lets itself down into an even greater spiral of incompetence.

First and foremost of these is that the game essentially sets itself up to be a random brawler rather than an RP. Yes, it's a survival game, but when half the students in the school apparently keep knives in their desks and it's a common occurrence to find meat cleavers and syringes in the bins, you know that death and stabbing is just around the corner. It's also important to note that there are only a few items NOT related to combat, and these items are largely useless (such as the flashlight or the ketchup bottle).

Secondly, the game doesn't clearly define the limits of people's knowledge with regards to the RP, and some take this as an excuse to more or less know "everything". Players in "Death Note" mode will demand to search everyone in sight with no valid reason (and of course will freak if they find a death note), or start stabbing or be suspicious of anyone who they catch writing, regardless of the fact that they don't have any reason to worry RP-wise. The truth of the matter is that in DN mode, Kira should have pretty much no trouble killing everyone, since there's no valid RP reason why students would withhold their names from each other. I illustrated that in a comic for this game, as seen below:

Of course, the reality of this is much different. Nobody wants to be a victim, especially when dying means you float around as a ghost for up to an hour, watching the living people have fun while all you can do is chat. It's boring, after all, so people essentially cheat and make up excuses to make Kira's job almost impossible. What this means is that the death note is utterly useless in anyone's hands except for the "shinigami eyes" player, who can see everyone's names. However, that player and Kira rarely meet, because there's no easy way of distinguishing who's who without making everyone suspicious. So in the end, it's only a matter of time before the RP ends and the RK starts.

Thirdly, the entire RP element suffers from enormous plot holes. Let me demonstrate by pointing out the premise here: This is supposedly a normal high school, yet only one teacher exists on campus. One. This teacher is apparently a superhero, because she must somehow teach in like 8 different classrooms simultaneously. When she dies (kryptonite?), the super advanced computerized system of Mitadake High locks the school down and presumably cuts the phone lines too, since checking the phones in the game will always result in the same message ("It's dead."). Clearly, its more imporant to prevent the killer from ordering pizza than it is to prevent him from killing off the rest of the students.

Apparently not satisfied with this level of plot devastation, the plot then goes on to point out that students all carry around high-tech PDAs which have a range of useful functions, but nobody bothered to bring a cellphone to school with which they can call the police. That's ok, at least everyone brought glow sticks, smoke bombs, syringes and knives! Wait, what?

Not only this, but the school's total lockdown can be overridden with a security card (found randomly inside student's desks for no apparent reason), but it won't let you leave unless you take the card with you, meaning only two students in the entire school can leave (until 24 hours have passed, in which case the system changes its mind and lets everyone out, thereby completely ruining the point of locking the school down in the first place). The cards are apparently issued on an honor system basis, where the killer's own guilt will prevent him from using one of those cards to leave the screaming, angsty bloodbath behind him long before "help" can arrive. Oh yeah, and nobody is allowed to use the vending machines after 4PM. So take that, killer!

The only way ANY of that makes sense is if all of the students are secretly part of some top secret scientific experiment and the sophisticated Mitadake High AI is actually the real killer. Since it's highly implausible (despite video 'evidence') that a student would kill the only teacher, get rid of the murder weapon and then teleport back to class before anyone actually notices he was gone, it can only be explained that all of the "students" (test subjects) are brainwashed by neurotoxins fed to them via the vending machines (before 4PM obviously). The only thing missing from this theory is (aside from a portal gun) is a creepy, mechanical female voice that announces random things while students wander the halls. OH WAIT, THERE IS ONE.

As a final slap to the face, the big security doors that lead to "freedom" probably just lead to a firing squad to pick of any survivors who make it out alive so that nobody can ever live to tell of the bloodbath that was Mitadake High.

Of course, Death Note mode totally ruins that theory, so we'll just assume that Kira is in on it and he's given the note to a "student" just for laughs while he secretly watches them all from the AI's master control room.

I could go on, but I think you get the point about the plot by now. Long story short, the plot makes no sense, and the players' unwillingess to get slaughtered for the sake of RP often leads to random dashes for the bat room or people slinking off to find an alondite so they can go wave their phallic symbol around and pretend that slaughtering other players' characters can fill the void in their life where social skills should be.

Getting back the the review here, the last feature that fails the game is the custom map maker. While in the right hands this could be an excellent tool for extending the RP, more often than not it simply leads to arena-based maps where the RP is totally stripped away and all that's left is the killing-each-other part. Either that or maps where people think it's cool to put like 40 alondites and 8 death notes around the place and see how long it takes everyone to kill each other.

So in the end, this game starts up with a great premise but then trips over its own oversized shoes and falls on its face. With proper rules, better maps, and no freaking super weapons, the game CAN provide decent RP grounds, but the list of requirements for this to happen is very strict and the people who can pull that off are few and far between. In the end, Mitadake High is a lukewarm RP experience at best, and a random free-for-all brawl at worst. If you're looking for a good RP, keep looking, 'cause this isn't it. However, if you're looking for a game that undulates wildly between RP and slaughter, then you might just have some fun.

Edit: Cavern has pointed out to me that I didn't really touch on the good points of the game (which there clearly must be since I didn't give everything a 0). It's a valid point, so let me quickly paraphrase what I DID enjoy about Mitadake High.

Firstly, the graphics are very nice and the interface is quite well-designed. This makes picking up the game quite easy, even for newer players, though mastery of those controls is a separate matter. Attacking is a simple matter of equipping an item and clicking on someone next to you, and most of the controls are again a simple click interface. My main complaint is that there's about 3 different tabs which the controls are separated into, making it hard to do more than one specific thing at a time (ie you can't keep an eye on your energy while reading your PDA messages. That sort of thing).

Secondly, RP, while rare, does happen, and it happens more often than on say... SS13. When you get in a good RP, a game can be almost total junk and it's an enjoyable experience simply because of the interaction with other literate players. However, since the game's many imbalances reduce RP opportunity a lot, I didn't want to stress the RP factor very much.

Thirdly, and probably the reason I keep coming back, is the immersion. The custom-made maps often lack the realism of the default one, but the default map itself has a pretty much fully-furnished school, even if most of it is kind of pointless. The upside to this of course is that it provides a rich environment for RP fans to flesh out their own little stories.

And lastly, though broken, sticky, and often frustrating, the combat in the game can occasionally improve the RP experience too, particularly if the good guys win. When you manage to just barely defeat the killer in an axe fight to the death, or narrowly escape the maniacal knife-wielding bozo, you get the added bonus of an adrenaline rush and the ability to limp into the room covered in blood and have fun RPing your injuries.

So yeah. Though not nearly enough to redeem the game from it's frustrating spiral of annoyance, Mitadake High certainly has good points, and if EVERYONE RPed correctly then it would be a fantastic experience. Of course, getting everyone to play along is the tough part...

Arcane happenings within the home!

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:01:03 GMT

So, today I discovered that my microwave had a sinister alternate purpose.

It all started innocently enough. First there was the hunger. Innocent hunger. The kind that requires a bag of microwave popcorn to eat. So naturally, being the kind of human being that is capable of feeding himself in times of need, I retrieved the last bag of popcorn and placed it in the microwave.

Right on top of the arcane summoning circle!
Now see, I didn't know that a cult had broken into my house to paint arcane symbols in my microwave late at night, and if I had, it would only have served to confuse the hell out of me. However, that's apparently what heppened, because I have no other explanation for the phenomena which followed.

Still blissfully unaware of my impending doom, I keyed in the microwave time needed: 1:30. Everything started off just fine - the microwave buzzed to life, the little turntable started turning, and I began digging through some drawers to find something to put the popcorn in. Then suddenly, disaster struck!

The soft buzz of the microwave loudened to just short of a deafening roar, and the room was filled with an unearthly light. I spun around and to my surprise it appeared that a gate had opened up to the lower planes INSIDE MY MICROWAVE! Fire spewed forth from the wall as though the plane beyond were bathed in perpetual fire. I could have sworn I heard screams and pained moans faintly in the distance as the flames burst through the seemingly corporal metal.

Near-frozen by fear, it was all I could to do shield my reproductive organs from the microwave's surely-unchecked radiation, using the metal bowl that was originally going to have been for popcorn. Briefly the idea of shutting the thing off at the power source came to mind, but the plug was right next to the microwave, and there was no way I was going to walk any closer to THAT eldritch device! To my horror, a head began to materialize in the flames, speaking tongues that had not been heard in many millenia. It's one baleful eye glared at me with cyclopean malice, as its red skin crackled but did not burn in the searing flames of the microwave.

Eventually one dialect reached my ears that sounded vaguely human, and this seemed to be what it said: "At last, I am freed from my prison in the underworld! Soon, I shall emerge from this portal and destroy everything! All hail Glythnyllygyzzzyxxxthstn!" (Don't look at me, I can't pronounce it either...) Fortunately for me, the demon had only managed to manifest its head, and so there was still time. Desperately, I glanced at the power point, hoping to sever its connection to this plane before it could pull any more of its body through, but thoughts of microwave-based sterilization came to mind and I stayed put.

Yet, I had forgotten one crucial thing, which the demon also was not aware of (Not surprisingly, since he'd probably been trapped down there centuries). The microwave was on a timer, and that timer had barely 5 seconds left. Suddenly, it shut off and his one eye widened in horror as he realized what was about to happen. Sure enough, the dastardly red flame vanished, as did the portal, severing his head from his body. His mouth opened in a soundless scream as it blackened and bubbled, hissing and spitting away until all that remained of it was a shapeless black lump stuck to the microwave's inner frame.

Needless to say, I threw the thing out and silently cursed whatever cultists did this to it. Ironically, the popcorn bag was still unpopped, though I'm pretty sure it would have measured pretty highly on a geiger counter, so I threw that out too.

Maybe I'll stick to cup-o-soups or something...

(P.S. This is based on a true story... my microwave really did go up in flames for some reason, but no demon heads came out, thankfully!)

BYOND staff are lazy?

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:33:10 GMT

Warning, this blog post contains the occasional use of profanity.

Ok so recently I had a friend of mine comment on the lack of response to his issues over here. It seems apparently that someone basically created an account to spam up Nova's (and possibly other's) blog, and when it was reported, the BYOND staff responded with a resounding "Meh.". Nova feels that maybe the BYOND staff are lazy, and I thought "Well hey, this is a good target for another of my posts."

Now, I see this from both perspectives here, being the owner and very busy GM of an already quite popular game, and at the same time, an end user of BYOND. From the viewpoint of someone who already has a lot to look after, a simple help post could easily be overlooked in the constant onslaught of morons who feel the desperate need to demand a staff member's attention over trivial matters like "I GAVE OUT MY SRC CODE TO X AND HE STOLE IT AND MADE HIS OWN GAME.", where the casual response of "No shit, sherlock." would pretty much sum up the help they are going to get.

It's annoying, and most staff members of anything are going to overlook badly-worded help posts when they come in the hundreds like these do, and when a real issue, such as Nova's comes up, it may not be treated as seriously due to the actions of all the morons who use BYOND. However, there is always the chance that some staff member looked at it, went "Well go delete his posts (and it's always a guy!) then." and went off to watch TV and eat popcorn balls. In that case, we may have an issue.

As Nova brought up semi-privately to the PRPR community, he's a BYOND member. He pays $15 a year, and one of the benefits of that is that he gets his own blog space where he can speak his mind and pretty much put anything he wants there (bar the usual stuff that people aren't allowed to post anywhere), and this service is provided by BYOND. Do they not have a responsibility to ensure that their paying members aren't being harassed by noobs who
A) Don't pay for anything and
B) Are quite obviously solely there to make everyone's life hard?

I mean, as a GM on my game, I come down hard on players who log in to spam up the game or to insult or be hateful towards other players. I provide that service FREE of charge too, because I feel that it's my responsibility as the moderator of the game to ensure that the good players aren't driven away by a hate-storm. And besides, it's a senseless act of hate, just like racism or sexism or homophobia. What moderator in their right mind would be supportive of that?

Ignorance is one thing. Purposefully choosing inaction in a situation that clearly is unjust - especially when you are one of the few who could actually make a difference - is just wrong.

There are so many reasons why one would step in and support Nova here. Firstly, he's a PAYING member. Thanks to people like him, this place is still running. Why WOULDN'T you help someone who clearly is doing the right thing and is a contributive part of the BYOND community - a key part in YOUR machine? Secondly, it's obviously a case of wrong vs right here. We have someone who was minding their own business and some jerk came in and just spammed Nova's personal space with all manner of profanity and irrelevance. Lastly, if BYOND wants to have any pride as a community, things like this should be a big deal. If you choose to let members (or even worse - NON-members) go around doing stupid shit like that, then you are indeed going to bring the entire community down, because then it sets a precedent of negligence and abuse which will eventually spread.

Mark my words - I was right about the whoring out for rank business and I am right about this. While an isolated incident isn't much of an issue, BYOND can't keep turning a blind eye to this kind of thing. I would like to see the issue resolved in an appropriate way by a responsible staff member who respects their position. Surely there are some left?

I would hope that I've been putting my time and money into a community that will support me just as I support them. Anyway, that's my two cents. What's yours?

Harry Potter

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:15:33 GMT

XD Whatever you do, don't take this blog post too seriously. It's a synopsis for the first Harry Potter book. (Naturally, I'm bored enough to think this stuff up)

"Harry Potter is a book about a young teenage boy who discovers he can create a magical feeling by playing with his wand. He is joined by friends Ron and Hermione who also have wands to play with (this explains much about Hermione's personality) and together they go on an adventure to a fantastic school to learn how to play with their wands safely without putting someone's eye out.

Harry's first encounter with wands is thanks to a big hairy man named Hagrid, who shows Harry that a short, pink and flabby wand can work just as well as a long, black one. After some misadventures in an old shack with Harry's foster family, Hagrid takes our young hero to a pub and then out the back where Hagrid uses his want to introduce Harry to the land of magic for the first time.

During this encounter, Harry learns that people who play with their wands have formed a secret society and call themselves "wizards" and "witches". In this society, safe from the accusatory glances of the wandless, (or "muggles" as they are known in magic land) witches and wizards can play with their wands in public, and even study and develop the arts of wand use further!

Harry is sent to study at the prestigious Hogwarts Academy, where the headmaster Dumbledore shows Harry that even old wands still work if used right. In fact, Dumbledore is SO good at wand usage that he is widely known as the best "wizard" around. Harry secretly hopes to someday claim that title as his own, but he has a long way to go before his magical feelings mature enough for that.

There is a dark side to the land of "witches" and "wizards" however. The evil "wizard" Voldemort has wand envy of Harry and has been trying to take away Harry's magical feelings ever since Harry was just a defenseless baby! Fortunately for Harry, his mom was an even better "witch" than Voldemort and she turned his own wand against him, causing Voldemort to spray himself with his own terrible essence. Voldemort was weakened for a long time after that, unable to even do so much as lift his wand at Harry, and thus Harry was safe to live his life. UNTIL NOW.

Voldemort has returned, and this time he intends to make sure that Harry can never play with his wand ever again. History repeats itself and Voldemort's wand will once again rise to try and puncture Harry's innocence, and only Harry himself can possibly stop this new menace from bursting the fragile membrane of joy that he holds so dear.

Will he succeed? Only time will tell..."

An update on PRPR's progress

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:00:17 GMT

I promised I'd do one, so here it is: basically just an updated version of my hosted file which details a little of the things I programmed for PRPR. It's not much, but I like to keep a bit of the mystery rather than tell you EVERYTHING that's going to be released when the update is done. Either way, things are looking really good.

If I keep up this pace, good things are possible in the near future. Don't wanna say too much yet ;)

1 AM blog post of awesome?

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:58:14 GMT

So... I never really post much on here these days. I HAVE been recently active, (see my review for Space Station 13) just not on here. The reason being of course is that I have more than enough going on in my life as is, without needing to pander to the strange creatures that lurk about my blog like bloated flies on a fresh carcass.

Nevertheless, I have decided to update this briefly just so that said flies could have some fresh meat to spit digestive juices onto before sucking them back up again. Yum. God, see this is what happens when I write a blog at 1 AM. I hope you're all happy. I'm going to bed now before it gets worse.

Maybe soon I'll outline some more of my plans for the ever-elusive PRPR update :P

The World R:2

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:24:57 GMT

Well lately I've been playing The World R:2, and I decided it was high time to let the gaming community know what I think of it (since my opinion is SOOOOO important ;P).

I have separated my review into two sections: Congrats and Whinges (C&W for short). I'll start with the congrats, firstly because there are less of them and secondly because I still like the game and I want people to look at the good before the bad.

-CONGRATS-
RP. The game is an RPers heaven, because it's overrun by PKs and secrets. The game is expansive, and offers little info on how to play, so there is always something to be discovered or a person to aim to beat. The chaos gate allows you to train in many different locations, and it spreads the player base out a bit, which means you don't always level up in the same places as other people (good for avoiding PKs).

Now being a big secret fan, this game really appeals to me. Anyone who has read the manga or watched the anime will know that The World is supposed to have a lot of secrets. This game emulates that fairly well. I've seen the Twilight Key (in use by a GM), epitaph users and secret weapons floating in the middle of nowhere. And I'm told I haven't discovered everything yet, which keeps my eyes open and my senses keen.

Levelling system is surprisingly easy, provided you aren't PKed or killed whilst levelling up. Some monsters give excellent exp, and are easy to kill, which means if you camp them you're sure to level up nice and fast. Once you get past level 20 you get another levelling spurt, which normally takes you up past level 30 easily. Then you REALLY kick other player's asses when they mess with you.

As for the game interface, HP and SP are easily visible, and once you macro the attack command its as simple as pressing a button to kick butt. The skills are all available through a stat menu (for some reason), but at least it makes them easy to access. Shops appear in a similar tab, and the chaos gates are operated through clicking, which is easy enough. All in all, it doesn't take long to settle into the controls and move on.

Finally, items don't play such a big part in the game, so you don't have to worry about collecting a heap of money to get the awesome weapons or whatever. This is a good thing, since the PKing system pretty much screws you over on the money front. More on that in the whinges section, which is next.

-WHINGES-
Ugh, where do I start? Actually that IS a good start (the beginning). You begin the game in town, and you have no idea about anything. There's no help menu so of course you have to blunder your way through the controls until you work it out. It took me 3 levels to realize I had to equip my weapon (by single clicking it), and a further 20 levels before someone told me the shop appears in the stats bar. Really, how do they expect people to guess that, when there's already like FIVE stat menus?

Ok the first thing that I found, and also my greatest discontent with the game, is the whole PK system. I was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed newbie, and gaining levels fast because I get the hang of things quick when lo and behold, a level like... 20 logs on. And what do they do? Why they procede to spam kill everyone in the vicinity, and anyone who comes back to the only spot that newbies CAN level up. Well great. I wasn't pleased already but I can handle a little PK. After all, player versus player never takes exp or anything since you can't always control it, right?

WRONG! By some pitiful programming mishandling, being PKed not only causes you to lose HALF OF YOUR CURRENT EXP, it also give the PKer HALF OF YOUR GOLD! And of course, newbies are given $1500 to start with and nothing to spend it on, so what do you think happens? Yep, the veteran players log in, "harvest" all the newbies, then buy super power-ups with their ill-gotten gains, making them even more untouchable! This is of course, from ANY decent programmer's point of view, unbalanced and easily exploited and should be fixed, right?

Wrong again... and I bet you saw THAT one coming. No, in fact they hide behind the excuse that it's based on .hack and is supposed to be like that. Well ok, I'll go out on a programming limb and say it's ok for high-level players to TOTALLY CUT OFF ALL LEVELLING FOR NEWBIES, but even on that extreme, adding an exp and gold penalty is just beyond stupid. I mean really, you might as well just give everyone ELSE money when a newbie logs in for all the good the gold does them!

And are there places to store your gold or items so they are safe from PKs? Nope. You have to keep ALL of your items with you, and oh did I forget to mention that when you die the PK ALSO gets to take one of your unequipped items? Bye bye armor you just saved up for and bought. PK gets shiny new breastplate because he just happens to be a higher level. It's beyond retarded and just makes the game creator look like a total noob. His refusal to fix it makes him look even MORE noobish, and it's just... gah!

In order to simply survive in that game I've had to use all of my skills and wit to AVOID the PKers I can do nothing about, while still trying to get strong enough to surpass them and turn the tables. Now that may sound fun but it's really not. It's like playing a game of chasey with your legs tied together. Oh sure, it's a great CHALLENGE, but falling on your face aint fun, especially when it happens OVER and OVER and all you're trying to to is just play the damn game! Out of everything, I suspect this whole PK mishap is most of what's keeping the game from being really popular.

What else? Um... the levelling system, though very easy, can be disrupted big-time, say, by someone camping out the area where the good exp monsters are. Or even better, a PK yoinking HALF of your hard-earned exp and money to use to further their own personal cause -_-. Yeah I'm going to whine about PKs every chance I get from now on, and I've totally earned it, since I've FOUGHT TOOTH AND NAIL to be their level and be able to PK back. Anyway, a PK infested map or just simply overpopulation (like 4 people in one area is very easily too much, yet another shortcoming of the map) can stretch the time it takes to level up from 5 mins to 2 and a half hours. Ouch.

Saving. There's no auto save, so if for some reason the game blows up then you're thoroughly screwed unless you saved recently... and the only place to save is in town for some reason. Or say you get the login bug and suddenly you find yourself staring at a black screen and know that you've just lost that rare item you collected because of a bug. Hooray. Oh the upside is that it saves whenever you are PKed and your item is taken! Isn't that great? Oh wait... NO IT ISN'T.

Training areas are too small. PKs are REWARDED for doing shit-all! SP attacks do pathetic damage much of the time. Some classes are just awesome and others are pitiful. PKs are REWARDED for doing shit-all! Monsters vary wildly, from things that can be killed easily for enormous exp, to things that are damn near invulnerable and kick ass... and give shite exp. Oh, did I mention THAT PKs ARE REWARDED FOR DOING SHIT-ALL?!

"Still", you must be saying, "after all this you continue to play regardless so you must like it." Yeah, I do. The PK thing is just really fucked-up and the game owner refuses to listen to reason, even if it is backed by a successful game and a skilled coder. He also gives all his GMs the epitaphs, so one really cool part of the game is lost to a bunch of people who already have too much power anyway.

There's just so many things NOT to like, and yet I continue to play and enjoy playing The World R:2. I think it's the secrets and ease of gaining levels to be honest... I spend more time mucking around in search of rare items than I do grinding, and I enjoy that immensely. Provided we don't have things like this morning where PKs totally ruled the server and nobody could do anything because they had all the power and blocked off all the training areas, the game can be fun and challenging and causes you to think things out more.

There are no safety restraints, and mistakes hurt bad. You really sharpen up fast on there... that or ragequit like so many players I've seen XD

Also, I refuse to add it to my favourites until Max changes the goddamn PK system! Save the newbs!

Ok... um...

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:24:19 GMT

Well this is too entertaining NOT to say. BYOND's current ranking system has always been open to what's happened, but nobody was ever game to waste hundreds of dollars on buying memberships to bribe noobs to rank their game before. What we have now is essentially a Paris Hilton situation on BYOND, and it's quite hillarious. I've decided not to name names, though I'm sure it's pretty obvious who I am talking about anyway.

In any case, there's a certain game that's only been up a few weeks and already it's on the front page of the BYOND ranking system. Wow it's a good game, huh? NO! XD What's awesome is this one guy has just bought out like 15 memberships and ranked his own game (not all the memberships were for him of course, but rather for people who he could count on as loyal). And when I make a rant about it he's all "Ooh publicity! *pose*" LMFAO! Ok, at first I was pissed about some guy stealing rank but now it's actually working in my favor. Just like Paris Hilton got famous by doing something stupid and stirring up a frenzy that's exactly what he's doing and what makes it even better is that if he keeps it up, eventually he's going to hit rank 1.

When that happens I'm going to laugh so hard I cry, because it'll make BYOND look like noobland. That alone is pretty funny, but what happens next is the best part. The hard-working members/staff of BYOND aren't going to stand for that crap. Suddenly, we're going to find ourselves in DIRE NEED of a proper review system and SUDDENLY games will be ranked depending on number of hits, time spent playing, votes from players AS WELL AS votes from members. Keys, MAC addresses and IPs will be checked, logged and noted by the system which will, for the most part, make sure that no duplicate votes are being accepted. The games that people honestly enjoy and play will find themselves at the top of the list and all the little noob games will be back down at the bottom where they belong.

Here I was thinking you had to fight the system to get what you want, but Mr Noob has shown me that I don't have to lift a finger against BYOND... all you have to do is abuse the system legally and watch everyone go "Oh shit... we gotta fix this." This is no longer MY problem, it's EVERYONE's problem, and I'm going to sit back and watch the fun.

To all you other game developers out there who made a quality game only to watch it get surpassed byt a rank-whore: I hope you're listening, cause this is headed in your direction... right up your own colon. Kick up a fuss, by all means. After all YOU are the true contributors to BYOND, and YOU matter.

Happy rant

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:53:27 GMT

Well since I've been busy yelling at BYOND a lot lately, I thought I'd take the time and make a sort of counter-rant... cause there ARE good things happening on BYOND too. For one thing, my game has made it to rank 30, and also the front page of the BYOND's top-ranked games. That makes me happy XD.

Secondly, the response from BYOND staff and members in response to my previous rant has given me more faith that BYOND is not going to hell... at least not as much :P The odd thing about good stuff is it tends to be less... emphasized than bad stuff, so we don't appreciate it as much I guess. Although I have to say, hitting that top page of BYOND games was goooood (I only wish the rankings were more fair... I can't tell if I really deserve it or not). Still, it's given me more drive to hurry up and finish this update already, so I'm working hard on it.

In fact, I'm taking time off programming to write this rant so I should really get back to it. If my game doesn't deserve its position now, then it certainly will in the update. 'till then!

We're all safe

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:07:56 GMT

Well I contacted BYOND the other day with regards to what I believed to be a dangerous file and abuse thereof. Their response was little more than a "brush off" without even taking the time to check the validity of my claim. That pissed me off. I even got a copy of the program to offer to them so that they could further protect themselves from any security loopholes they might have, and they told me: "It's impossible to 'hack' the DM file of a game. Period. More than likely, you've been sent a trojan or virus... We would advise that you scan the file and promptly delete it. Next time, be more skeptical of such claims"

Well ok, I've scanned the file and it's NOT a virus. And since BYOND is telling me to be skeptical of the claim that it is actually capable of exploiting games I'm going to go ahead and host the file on my little member space. After all, BYOND and my virus scanner just verified that it is completely harmless, and so it's perfectly allowed for me to host this file on my site. Btw BYOND, I'm keeping your little email, just in case for some IMPOSSIBLE reason the file IS an illegal file and you DO have users on BYOND abusing it. But since you have assured me that it's safe or at least not capable of harming any BYOND programs, I'm going to go ahead and put it up, and if anyone wants to test it they can just go ahead and do so.

Let's hope you're right, hey?

Oh and airport security was perfectly safe a few years back too. The Titanic was never going to sink. Bill Clinton did NOT have sexual affairs with that woman. Sheesh.

EDIT: Well there you have it... seems it's a hex editor which is capable of spoofing keys and IP addresses (amongst other things) within a game... though apparently mainly only works on host side. Since I now know this I'm taking the file down... on a side note I passworded the rar file so nobody could get in anyway (this was mainly to prove my point, I'm not spreading an exploit all over BYOND). Still, Nova recognised it and well, now we know. Thanks BYOND, I feel so much safer now that you're here. As an added note this only confirms that there WAS an abuse which led to a defamation of a player, though we caught it out and righted things before it got away.

I hope I've at least made a statement here... I was right and I got ignored, had I been of malicious intent I could have screwed BYOND over good. Listen to me next time.