Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Sleuth Talk

Jun-28-2008 08:39

There have been some recent events on this game that warrant some concern. It’s no secret that there has been a lack of interest. Much of this may be attributed to the release of Shades of Mystery. If that is what people want to play, far be it from me to tell them not to play it.

That being said. I am still a paying customer of Sleuth Noir. As a paying customer there are some things that I expect. Ben has done a decent job at keeping the server up and running. We had a slight issue earlier in the week with not being able to travel and Ben did a great job of addressing the issue and getting it corrected. He always has done a great job of taking care of things. He has not however kept the game fresh and interesting. We recently had the expansion of the USS Sleuthetania. There was a buzz before the initial launch of it and we couldn’t wait to see what was in store for us.

Well what did we get? The opportunity to pay $20,000 to get on board of a ship and do nothing more than play cases. Sure there are some new characters and new items along with 2 new “coming soon” links. That’s it! I can’t help but to feel disappointed in the way this has played out. Two weeks later, the links are still coming soon and the interest of the boat has already gone away. I know I have no plans or reason to get on the boat and be cut off from my agency completely. I don’t know this for a fact, but I think a lot of people are disappointed with the boat as well and some may even be irritated and feel cheated by the whole development.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh and we are missing some secret that still needs to be unlocked on the boat, but if people aren’t playing, the secret will not be unlocked. I know that Ben is just one person and can only do so much. He has a lot on his plate right now with running both SOM and Noir. I’m sorry, but SOM means absolutely nothing to me as I don’t play over there.

Jul-3-2008 05:16

Thanks Ben! And thanks to all for the creative ideas

I am not a programmer, but would gladly offer my services in any other area(s) where I may be of assistance.

Jul-3-2008 05:52

Most of the work needed from a "development team" are probably not programming related.
I think there is much to be done that really mean something for the community on areas the involve "writing the stories", "coming up with the ideas", "finding pictures"...
- may be we could make one group whose only goal are to find more items that can be won in some ways. They will need pictures, descriptions ++, and it would be quite fun to get some new items in say doing a favor. At least I think so.
- may be we could make some kind of "group created scripted mystery"?
- if we are some programmers that need easy things to do as a start, perhaps implementing a scripted mystery would be a suitable task?
- but who's going to write the stories? It's the stories that makes most of the content!

Jul-3-2008 07:29

Looking things up again, shows just HOW newbie I am... ;-)
Spyce are the web server, Python are the language ;-)
Ups...
So, what I think would be the first "project" for developers to do are to get an environement up and running on their computer, and get a "hello world" - program to be working, and then being able to expand it to a "hello world, look at me, I am running :-)" - program.
I guess that those of us that are to create content or do programming, in some ways will have to agree on a "not-share-secrets"-thing, because part of the fun with Noir will be to explore and find... - and that's not equally fun when you know where things are ;-)

Oh, and we will for sure need a "technical group" that are able to search the net for solutions on technical issues. I was presented with one recently, and that is how to make secure subscription payments from Asia?

Jul-3-2008 07:50

Seems like I may be just are to throw in an application for becoming a leader of a development team?
I see it that way, that a person having that role are in a service position, where the main goal are to make it possible for others to be growing fruit, and create an environement where people can do so, and get the full honor of their work. My work will then be to help clear the path so that others may walk on it. If people would involve and have fun, be encouraged and inspired, and I would become almost invisible I would have succeeded.
I know I will need all of you to help me, and I hope that one day, things might just run by itself, and I might withdraw from the position with the same kind of smile that a parent has when her child have grown up and become a good person.

Jul-3-2008 11:40

Oh, hey, if anyone else would apply for the leader job, I will be more than happy to step aside, and be just a member, or may be even an outsider?
If someone that are good at talking to people, and including them would want the job, that would be even better than what I can offer.
I may have a servant's heart, but I am not too social skilled. Only that we need someone willing to do the job, if Ben allows us to create the development team.

I'd say that the first we would want/need are a new "message board of message boards", just like the one we have, called "Development Team", where the link will be from the City Hall page. Then we will inside of that create different message boards to help us follow up on the different topics. I would also suggest that we might want different people to lead the different boards or groups.
Within each message board or group we have threads to discuss different ideas, different story ideas, different picture ideas, different "technical issues" and so on, different programming tasks... - and may be even one board for "user guides"? - not to mention a board for ideas on how to attract more people to subscribe, like creating contests or anything?

If we want this board to be availiable to only subscribed people, to protect newbies from being scared from subscribing, we may ask Ben if that board be protected from the eyes of the unsubscribed?

Jul-3-2008 11:57

Count me in for helping with anything as well.

Jul-3-2008 12:29

Well, might I suggest we start with figuring out how many we want for this development team. Then once we get the members together, a separate board for them so that not everyone can see what we're doing with developments as we will need to communicate with each other.

I don't mind learning another program and language, but it will take some time. I can learn it, just have to balance that with sleuthing and housework.

Jul-3-2008 13:16

Woah, before we jump ahead, we need to find out from Ben how many he's looking at for a development team, whether he wants there to be a total of 5, 10, etc.

I'll shoot him a message and ask him to respond! :)

Jul-3-2008 13:21

Good point Lilangel!
I would want as many as possible to be involved and participating, but we might have some boards/groups that are open, and some that are restricted to specified groups?
If someone is working on a special "quest project", it would not be fun if everyone could be spying, on the other hand, it would be great if everyone would be able to come with ideas, help to sort out problems, opinions about prioritations...

Jul-3-2008 13:31

When I say development team, I don't think only programming.
I think that may be the core programming team might best be done with perhaps 5 people, may be 10, but not more I think.
On the other hand there are so much more than the programming that makes up Sleuth. When I say development, I think about every piece that needs to be put together to form the "Sleuth experience".